Strangers
Can we be strangers
Can we be strangers
Know you
Do I know the real you?
It’s hard know if you really know anyone that you think that you know
Secret
Don’t tell me your secrets
The purpose of a secret is that it is meant to remain a secret
Strangers
Can we be strangers
Can we be strangers
If there’s a tie, don’t trace it back to me
The veneer
I’m in love with idea of you
An exaggerated truth has all the makings of a beautiful lie
We could get married
Throw a wedding party
Invite everybody and anybody
Can we be strangers
Can we be strangers
Can we be strangers
If there’s a tie, don’t trace it back to me
Here we go again yet another account
Whatever’s inside me I’m gonna twist around and spit it out
Fights with lovers so you can relate
Or astronaut dreams intended for your escape
I could play the pseudo-green warrior card
Or detail all the pieces of my poor broken heart
Ah baby how’d it come to this
I've been retracing my steps and I think I got the gist
So let me put on the level
I only do this so the devil in me covers
All he needs to be your lover
All he needs to be your lover
All he needs to be your lover
Here it comes again it’s the same old routine
This thing’s that’s inside me I’m gonna torture first then set free
Thoughts on whether love and hate can coexist
Or social commentary what has the cosmos got to do with it
Altering minds one lyric at a time
Or listen intently as I romanticise my sex life
Ah honey what’s it all about,
I've been losing sleep but I think I worked it out
Cos I'ma put on the level
I’m only in this so the devil in me covers
All he needs to be your lover
All he needs to be your lover
All he needs to be your lover
Bad, bad lover
I had another dream we were together
I woke up feeling like a loser again
Sporadic drunk loveless sex is great don’t get me wrong
But the joy it brings comes too quick before it’s gone
And the hole that I dig myself when I’m alone is cold
And full of Kathleens
Just because you’re handsome doesn’t make you happy
Oh just because you’re handsome doesn’t make you happy
Love and hate, pain and lust
Just throw ‘em in and mix ‘em together
Too easily confused is the state
Of two hearts that are bound forever
In leather clad daydreams what do you even mean
By this word reality
And just because you’re handsome doesn’t make you happy
I feel the weight of my conscience’s gaze bearing down at me
Oh poor me, oh poor me
Pour me another drink
Just any kind of spirit that can limit
My ability to think
At all but mostly when faced with the mirror as it triggers
These beautifully twisted memories
No just because you’re handsome doesn’t make you happy
And I’m hiding from the daggers my woman’s intent on throwing at me
Oh I’ma take pictures of myself and put ‘em on the internet see if that helps
I’ma take pictures of myself put ‘em on the internet i’ve heard that helps woo
Gaia
How does it feel to have a heart of burning fire
Does it help at all when we suck the life out from ya
You’ve always been so temperate
But one day you’re gonna lose your shit
And tear up our residence permit
I feel it looming, you’re quietly fuming, so now the atmosphere is stuffy and toxic
Gaia
And though all your so-called friends will try to deny it
You let them in to your home and now all the bill’s are immeasurably higher
Hidden savings dug up and spent
So now no-one can afford the rent
So we can wave goodbye to this nice apartment
See it floating, floating, ah floating down the noxious ocean
"Oh I am a goddess and you are a fool
Dare to mistreat me mere mortal you do not know what you do"
She goes "oh I am a goddess and you are a fool
You act you own me but I’ll still be here long after time’s through with you"
Gaia
D’you ever wish that cosmic rock had just slipped by ya
Guess it’s a risk of being the world’s most frequent flyer
But imagine the alternative
The giant lizards you’d still live with
And this plague may never have transpired
Boring, you’re never boring
Oh Gaia you are alright
Soon i will be leaving you too
And Gaia you will be ok
Oh float on towards wherever it is you’re going
I'ma let you in on another one of my dreams
I can hear the collective inner groans
I tend to switch off too when anybody else starts to talk about theirs
But I love to sing about my own
I recall drifting, not thinking but sinking
I was hoping to be floating out to space again
But the unknown motion, mystery potion
Would find me sitting in the kitchen
As the walls collapse, contort and twist by body back
A box appeared upon my lap
An incubator for a dictator
Now a metal crate for Satan’s paraphernalia
The do not open clue
I must’ve misconstrued
What else was I to do
This box had screws and they were loose
And it was like ooh dark noises
Terrible voices
I don’t wanna go in there no
But these things are everywhere so
What things, are they creatures?
They got orange features
My mind’s on a wild ride
Through somebody’s insides
Oh Pandora is that you
Somebody turn the light on
I was not expecting you to
Look like the devil from the side on
My face begins to change
It's like an acid flashback
But the feeling of being deranged
Is kept intact
Oh Pandora is that you
Come on turn the light on
I was not expecting you to
Look like the devil from the side on
My skin begins to crawl
Through some biblical ruin
And in the centre of it all
Is a baby human
Within reality’s paradox I awoke
I recalled the story of Pandora’s Box as I rose
It’s often overlooked, that after hell had broken loose
The only thing left inside was hope
And they say it’s the hope that kills you
Ah the Pink Mirror’s a real friend to everybody
On reflection only shows you what you wanna see
What its audience craves it will obey so fix the halo right on top of ma face
And shine that light a little kinder upon me
Oh yeah the Pink Mirror has an excellent sense of perspective
It won’t shy away from global atrocity
It is not afraid to highlight all that’s very wrong in everyone
And how none of this could ever apply to little old me
But tune into your dark side honey tell me what you see
You sitting there with a steely gaze but guilty face
Looking up weird shit on the internet
Like how to murder your ex-lover and get away with it
Well if all you say is true it’s a wonder how you ever get to sleep
But your conscience will beg to differ
Stare into that Pink Mirror
And everything seems rosy
Ah the Pink Mirror’s a real friend to everybody
But on reflection only shows what you wanna see
You can do a hit and run on your neighbour's car, and when you see 'em come across all la dee dah
If you can lie to yourself you can do it to everybody
Ah but welcome to the dark side sonny, wonder what you’ll see
You standing cold with a shaking hand, evil plan
In a pool of blood and your little thumb
Over the don’t touch button with a hard on
Ah come on man I think you should hand yourself into the police
But something might just stop you there
As you walk past that Pink Mirror
And everything, everything seems rosy
Here I am it’s midnight, I’ve had a few to drink
I’m wandering through the streets alone, battery’s on the blink
Barcelona, November 2017
I thought it’d be the future by now but it’s gone and been
I look at all the girls, why don’t they look at me
I’m an Elvis baby as I stumble through a scene
Four white guys explaining white privilege
To their one black friend with no hint of irony
I think of saying something but someone else jumps in
Three of them go silent but one of them’s got the hump come on
What am I doing in this life, what am I doing in this city
The show I played tonight had six attendees
What’s happening in the world, what is that pigeon doing
It’s in moments like these I start to judge human beings come on come on
Ah come on
Then I think of everything I do, think, feel or see
It barely contributes to the economy
But the joke is on all of us though I make it drunkenly
Better make yourself useless, lest you get replaced by the machine
The irrepressible machine
Oh machine
Do you have to do it so coldly
I wake up in a chair with another person’s legs
Things aren’t hard to normalise when you still feel the effects
Involuntarily scowl at infernal howling dogs
But I wonder if they suffer these same internal dialogues
I take up the kind offer to get coffee shop lean
And I’m crouched behind a tractor at the age of sixteen
Pondering ergonomics, pondering anything
Thinking even dealers won’t escape being replaced by the machine
But then anything I think, do, feel or see
It doesn’t mean a thing to market driven policy
I’m an animal honey, I’ve got flaws and I've got feelings
I’ve got very human issues on the cusp of the rise of the machine
The irrepressible machine
Ah machine
Do you have to do it so coldly
There goes my baby out the door again
She’s carrying my heart in a handbag made of my own skin
All this torture I’m broken and torn
She said she's off to see Jenny
Does she think that I have just been born
I bet that she’s with that fuckin' waiter
Why else would she have said when we left ‘I’ll see ya later’
I put a bug on your telephone line
I manipulate you baby
And I’m fully aware that the crime here is crazed jealousy
And I’m doing my time up in love’s penitentiary
Well practical studies into polygamy
Don’t seem to go down well in society
Don’t demonise a man in his prime
An irrational beast
Is able to love many people at a time
No need to fake feeling horrified
You know that you never fake it when you’re with me-
I painted you various pictures of my dick
You call me an animal
I call it being romantic
You know that you’ll grow old eventually
Why don’t you come and visit me in love’s penitentiary
Now I’m a dirty old man and I’ve got these scars
I’m done with wasting my life locked behind bars
The only bars I’m in now sell alcohol and women
One of them has really got my head spinning
I can count on her to accept my money every single time I want her
I guess it’s good to have somebody you can depend on - really
Living it up down in love’s penitentiary
Ah ha ha ha ha
Ah ha ha ha
Frank
You sure got some malice in the tank
What kind of person keeps a list of things they hate
You’re like the internet personified but kept under wraps
Concealing the monsters you create
I’ve only seen them once or twice and it’s beyond my stock advice ‘to meditate’
Get back Frank, get back Frank, get back Frank
Frank
You are an excellent liar
One can’t fail to be impressed with your masquerade
Both at once Dr Jekyl, Mr Hyde and with a James Bond fixation for getting laid
What else d’you keep inside aside from jealousy and vengefulness in spades
Get back Frank, get back Frank, get back Frank
Hell forbid it’s all a hall of mirrors
A smoke-filled room of worn out platitudes
A matrix built on promises and shows of goodwill
Behind the wall we're all in our birthday suits
Get back Frank, get back Frank, get back Frank
Ah ha ha ha ha
Ah ha ha ha
Though we may share the same fate, I still think it’s my place to remonstrate
This is it we’ve reached the final threshold
Robotic people with smart telephones
Did you think that your life was gonna end
Being lived out through a camera with a filtered lens
A tear face for this global horror show
All forgotten with a cute cat video
Automated devices to regulate how you feel
Capped at quite nice
Ah babe I wanna break up
I don’t know why it’s just something in me needs a shake up
Part of me’s immersed in this reality
The other half can sense the irony, in its new affinity with exit strategy sympathies
Oh hey good looking I’ll meet you at the station
I’m an android with a human application
If I can get a stranger to satisfy me instantly
Then I’ll be on my way
We can share the good times with everyone
Or at least we need to be seen to be having fun
Can you tell me you like this to justify why I exist
Ah it’s all in jest
Ah babe I wanna break up
I don’t know why it’s just something in me needs a shake up
Part of me’s immersed in this reality
The other half can sense the irony, in its new affinity with exit strategy sympathies
Ah babe I'm gonna break up
I've got an inkling that that human in me needs a wake up
Part of me’s immersed in this reality
The other half can sense the irony, in its new affinity with exit strategy sympathies
So if you need me I’ll be in this cave, half a mile out of town in case I wanna come back
Or in outer space, detached from the world but trying to claw my way back
I’ll just be in this cave, cut off from the world but dreaming of my comeback
Or in outer space, making light of the world but don’t worry girl, I’ve been dreaming, busy scheming
For my dramatic, no doubt glorious comeback
Humans, I love you
Despite my seemingly best intentions not to
At the centre of my nightmares is a light with a semblance ofa dream
And the hand that summons the demons and intends to ruin all that is divine
Is the same hand that is my saviour and it has all of the same features as mine
Humans, I love you
Despite my seemingly, despite my seemingly…
Peter Crouch, Paul Dano, Xi Jinpin, Marylin Monroe,
Usain Bolt, Tilda Swinton, my neighbour Sara, Hillary Clinton
Danny Devito, Frida Kahlo, Michelangelo, Fidel Castro
Saoirse Ronan, John Travolta, Oprah Winfrey, Jon Hess’ daughter
Margaret Attwood, Catherine Howard, Ronaldinho, Fatima Siad
Leonard Cohen, Mary Magdalene, Kim Jong-un, Janna Levin
Anthony Weiner, George Bush, Kate Bush, Geoffrey Rush
Buddha, Blondie, Dostoevsky, Malala Yousafzai, Eazy E
Come on give it up
Come on I need your love
Your sweet love
Just give it up
Come on give it all up
I need your love
Like I need drugs
Your sweet love
Straight up human love
Come on give it all up
Like a giant group hug
Your hot love
No not hot love
Just regular human love
Come on give it all up
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Greg Sestero, Virginia Wolfe, Bjorke, Binki Shapiro
Barack Obama, Billie Jean King, Bonnie Prince Billy, David Lynch
Pam Ayres, Mo Salah, Lyudmila Putina, Melinda Messenger
Sally Ride, Claude Monet, Bonnie, Clyde, Daphne du Maurier
Chinua Achebe - come on give it all up, sweet love
Humans, I love you
Despite my seemingly best intentions not to
At the centre of my nightmares is a light with a semblance of a dream
And the hand that summons the demons and intends to ruin all that is divine
Is the same hand that is my saviour and it has all of the same features as mine
I’m getting out of the city, I’m going home alone
I’ve been lying to myself, living through a telephone
For once I’m gonna listen to my mother and wear that warm coat she bought me
Gonna wake up naturally and go out walking or something
Go easy on the drink, and just get drunk on country air
I’ll tread in shit in a field and I won’t care
Cos I’m putting the beast to bed, let it sleep in my head
The rage in its belly dies down, dissipates in these surroundings
And as it falls into a trance my inner child is dancing
And set free
I read recently that if you walk barefoot on the earth it transmits
All these electrons into your body and has health benefits
So naturally I’ve been doing this all the time
In between any other hippy crap I find online
But occasionally a flicker of clarity approaches
And I’m all seeing eye above an ocean
Cos I’m putting the beast to bed, let it sleep in my head
The rage in its belly dies down, dissipates in these surroundings
And as it falls into a trance my inner child is dancing
And set free
