Lyrics:
 

1.  Just Twisted
2.  Absorb You
3.  Begging Bowl
4.  Lost In London
5.  Stalks Of Last Year's Fruit
6.  Chainbrake
7.  Image
8.  Guenevere And The Fire
9.  Bougainville
10.  Sidmouth Song
11.  Hundred Thousand
12.  Corners
13. Underbelly
14.  Respect Baby
15.  Justifying Your Longings To The Doctor
 
 

Just Twisted

© Penelope Swales
 

Well I---------------------
Wasn't born yesterday
I learned my lessons the hard way
then I got cocky, and I forgot,
And had to learn it all again.

On the way I lost my resilience
I'm brittle, but I'm experienced
People see my tough exterior
And think that I don't care

But you, my friend seem to look at me with x-ray eyes
I know I shouldn't count on that, but it does feel kinda nice

Honesty sounds simple
But it's not, my dearest chum
Most people wouldn't know their own mind
If it bit them on the bum

The run around in circles
emitting bitter wails
Well, that's the way it always is
When you're chasing your fairy tail

But for all the reasons that I may have to complain
I've had good love before, and I believe I'll have it once again

So roll over, my darling
Bless me with your eyes
This sort of good fortune doesn't often happen twice

Ah-----------

A bed can be a battle ground
Where blood runs and hoarse cries sound
I've watched you writhing in your sleep
I've called you from there many times

Now does it sound peculiar
To say I love you more for your compromised past?
Well, maybe that's because
at least you're not talkin through your arse about suffering
Yes, I know you know what it means

But for all the crazy visions that have clawed across your brain
I don't believe I've known someone so lucid or so sane

So roll over, my darling
Bless me with your eyes
This sort of good fortune doesn't often happen twice

'Cos discretion is the better part of valour
And suppression is the greater half of love, my love
Won't you listen to all those sweet nothings out there
Sound just like enterprise bargaining
More concerned with what they get than what they share
oh, yeah

We all love to scream and gibber
About how much we love each other
But close the door and run for cover
The minute someone shows their true colours
Now I'm not bitter, I'm just twisted
But people look at love like it's a shopping list
I wanna house, a spouse, a picket fence
Someone who always talks in the present tense
So it's never just me - no, always "us"
With no-one ever raising the slightest fuss
No, never a word 'bout the scratchin' clawing
Things going on behind closed doors an'
I tell you it fills my soul with claustrophobia
I tell you it fills my soul with claustrophobia

It's painful to love lucidly
In full knowledge of your vulnerability
Without the little lies we tell ourselves
To make it bearable

My confidence is shaken
My faith nearly annihilated
But for some strange reason
It feels like treason
To apply these doubts to you

So if you think you could throw your lot in
And not ask me to be what I'm not, then
I guess I could dare to hope again
I guess I could dare to hope again
Well, what else is there to do, my friend?

For you see, my darling
I've been blessed before
And that love was the price I paid
For the wisdom needed to retain it

Roll over, my darling
Bless me with your eyes
This sort of good fortune doesn't often happen

Roll over, my darling
Bless me with your eyes
This sort of good fortune doesn't often happen twice

Oh------------------
La dat da dat da-------------------etc

Absorb You

I lay in the arms of a man so thin
You could see his kidneys under his skin
Count every sinew, twang every nerve
See every heartbeat, feel the blood rushing
I am the cushion for those razor-blade hips
Beside you I can feel
My softness, abundance, my strengths, my reserves
No matter how hard you may be, I will always be
Soft enough to absorb you
Soft enough to absorb you

We are strange creatures
We need sleep, we need rest
Our eyes that interpret the world that surrounds us
Redden and fail us, yes
The bones of our bodies, the ropes of our wrists
Ache wearily, weary, release me from this
The sea of subconscious
You'll drift, you will dream
No matter how hard you may fight sleep will always come
Soft enough to absorb you
Soft enough to absorb you

Life is a tunnel that descends into night
When you don't have the crutch of religion
Love's a placebo, I'm holding you tight
But we're bound for the same nether region
Ahh................

And this, your dear body - so sweet, so divine
Shall one day be cold and lifeless
And this, my warm body - so soft and so fine
Shall one day be dust and ashes
The bones of our bodies, the ropes of our wrists
Shall slacken and stiffen, release us from this
The Belly of Oa will be opened wide*
No matter how cold or hard you be
The earth will be
Soft enough to absorb you
Soft enough to absorb you
Soft enough to absorb you
Soft enough to absorb you
Soft enough
Soft enough

* See "The Inheritors" by William Golding
 

Begging Bowl

Your voice right in my ear
Those luscious lips, so sweet, so salt
Whispering to me from another hemisphere.
You say "Hey, babe - tonight my feet are cold"
I'm lookin' out on the sunshine here
Every detail of your life
So near, so dear, so clear
And so irrelevant to me now
The distance, the time and the longing
So irrevocable
Have I come so far
Just to feel so faint-hearted
Wanna run back to where I come from?

Oh, freedom is an empty cup
A lot of people don't realise
It's up to you to fill it up
You can hold it out to strangers like a begging bowl
You can mix up in it your own strange brew
Of mingled joy and sorrow
I can see you now - that table!
The mess and the mice and the bongs
I can feel you now,
My senses aroused courtesy of British Telecom

Your stormy soul reaches me even here
Ya Might say I got cold feet
But babe, you've no idea
Of the ice blocks that I'm walkin' on now
Now that you're so far away from me
Oh, god, oh, god now tell me how did I get here?
But what's relevant to me now?
The phone and the road and the songs
I can feel your lush longing
It's following me around
Courtesy of British Telecom

And now you say your life is an empty cup
Well, you don't need me to tell you
It's up to you to fill it up
You can hold it out to me like a begging bowl
You can mull up in it your own strange brew
Of mingled joy and sorrow
But what's relevant to you now?
But what's relevant to you now?
But what's relevant to you now?
The distance, the time and the longing?
Or is it the mess and the mice and the bongs?
Or is it the phone and the road and the songs?
Or is it the movement, and those mountains?
Your movement in those mountains?
Hey, babe
I know you could move mountains
Oh, ho da-hey-da hey hey etc
 
 

Lost in London
 

I was sitting in Soho square
Listen to the mobile telephones ringin'
Havin' just descended out of the air
I was tryin' to get a grip on everything
The out-of-tune agony of ice cream vans
Beggars and people with outstretched hands
Private book readers, public school kids
Lovers and stony-faced matrons
Aeroplanes and car alarms and the unending cacophony
Abounding this wee droplet here of relative tranquillity
Ahh

I didn't expect it to be so full-on
I expected empty benches like in Kirsty's song
But it's summer now, but it's winter where you are
But it's summer here, now, but it's winter in my heart
But it's summer now, and what's more, it's peak hour
Ahh

And my poor feet were pinched and smarting
Walking the streets in m' new Doc Martens
My old heart was sick and sore
Pounding the squares of the Monopoly Board
People say "Ooh you're from far away!
Now can you sing us the theme from Neighbours
A Country Practice, perhaps Rolf Harris
Or the tune from Home and Away

Here the cyclists wear gas masks
And the beggars spit brimstone in the politely ignoring parks
And people of all shapes and shades speak the same London drawl
To look at an Elm tree and see it belong here
Is something I wasn't prepared for at all
Harlequin couples warm my cockles
Smacked-out madman hassles and hustles
A man who looks like Bowie
Comes sloping by in platform shoes
Other solitary women wear the same hunchback of caution that I do
Ahh

And my poor feet were pinched and smarting
Walking the streets in m' new Doc Martens
My old heart was sick and sore
Pounding the squares of the Monopoly Board
People say "Ooh you're from far away!
Now can you sing us the theme from Neighbours
A Country Practice, perhaps Rolf Harris
Or the tune from Prisoner Cell Block H

And I was thinkin' of his shyness and his slender hips between my thighs As 
my fingers sought the handgrips on the back of his motorbike
Dipping and weaving in the traffic and noise
And my bare Knees got paranoid
There's no margin for error in New Cross
Not an opportunity in sight
Ahh

When I'm lost in London
I try to stay close to couples in love
I warm my cold soul in their radiance
Tell myself - one day I'll be back in the sweet fold again
I observe the city from the cocoon of a train

And I'm amazed at the persistence of life
Weeds growing out of window-sills
Flowers blooming on asbestos roofing
And pigeons nesting in factory grills
And how do children still skip and glow
With that strange, pure luminosity
While they drink this hard water and breathe this foul air?
Ahhh

repeat 1st chorus

And the pissed old farts in the back of the pub sang
"Skippy the Bush Kangaroo"
All through the chorus of "Already Begun"
In some smoky dive where I played with a band called The Wayward Sons
Ahh

Hornpipe: "Weepy Jamie"

With a smile on my lips and a song in my heart
I'll be steppin' along in my old Doc Martens
Sweet, familiar streets of North Carlton
Stepping up to your door
 

Stalks Of Last Year's Fruit

I sit in the sun
Listen to the bees hum in the wisteria
Can't help but imagine
The sort of honey you would have called forth from this area
I miss your happiness, my friend

Hey, you should be careful
Misery is habit forming (Take it from me)
You can get to thinking
That you're not really living properly if you're not suffering
I miss that smile you used to wear
That gift for joy you have
Must still be in there somewhere

Yes, I know you stuffed it up
You tell me all about it every day
It's gone on long enough
And you know that, and still you act
As if the blues were here to stay
It's 'coz you're so damn stubborn
You don't wanna let go of anything
Not the things you might have had
Not the things you haven't got
And not what used to be

I hate to be harsh, dear
But there's no excuse for a girl of your class, dear
Someone with your background
To go moonin' about as if you're not worth anything
Without a man around
The world is at your feet

Oh darlin', I know you miss your garden
But we don't stand and grieve among the stalks of last year's fruit
We turn them in, we start again
And we call forth something fresh and new
All these dead things you have been clinging to
Will kill you
Get a move on, life is waiting
And you have friends who love you
Everywhere you go, they open up their homes
And they shower the best of love on you
All these dead dreams you have been clinging to
Will twist you

Come sit in the sun
Listen to the bees hum in the wisteria
Can't help but imagine
The sort of wisdom you'll be callin' forth from this experience
I miss your happiness, my friend
Oh, I miss your happiness, my friend
That gift for joy you have
Must still be in there somewhere
The world is at your feet
Ah- la la etc

Chainbrake

© Penelope Swales

I was stompin' 'round thinkin' I had problems
When I get this letter in the mail
And here it is again, the same human love and courage
The will to fight the spirit to prevail

And when I think of you
I start cryin' in the supermarket
That blonde checkout chick
Thinks I'm a nutcase
And when I think of you
I check I got my seatbelt on
I change the battery in the smoke alarm
I test the chainbrake

It's the joy of life that makes us reckless
When life tastes so good, it just couldn't go bad
When you're laughin' and the moon's sailing high
When the morning sunlight splashes on the bed

And when I think of you
I start cryin' in the supermarket
That blonde checkout chick
Thinks I'm a nutcase
And when I think of you
I check I got my seatbelt on
I'm not thinkin of me so much
I'm thinkin' about my Mum

Oh------------------

My dearest love was nearly blown to pieces
He held a dying man in his arms
Even now, he looks down,
He still sees the bloodstains
He still thanks the dawn for every day

And when he heard 'bout you
He got all teary in the express lane
Oh, that young girl Elaine'
Thinks we're hippie weirdos
And when I think of you
I check I got my seatbelt on
I'm not thinkin of me so much
I'm thinkin' about my loved ones

Oh------------------

And when I think of you
I start cryin' in the supermarket
Oh------------
And when I think of you
I'm not thinkin of bodily harm
I'm thinkin' of wit, and warmth
I'm thinkin' about your heart
I'm thinkin' about your heart
Your heart
Your heart
Oh----------------------------

Image

Talk to me
My awkwardness is beyond belief
I ring you up, I don't know what to say.
Listen to me
You could bring me such relief
When I hang up, I curse my foolish ways.

Desire is born when romance dies
In my dissatisfaction, I cast about my eyes.
Is it a genuine attraction, or does my own heart lie?
I hunger for you
And your image does not fade
Your image does not fade
Your image does not fade
Your image does not fade

To your mind
I am as one taken
But to mine, I'm oh, so available.
How do I convey this information
When your behaviour's so goddam respectable?

I never signed away my life
As far as I'm concerned, I belong very much to myself
This restlessness cannot be denied
Don't you go thinkin'
That I'm up on that shelf
Don't you dare go think it,
No don't you dare go think it,
No don't you dare go think it.

Come,
My body's ripe and reckless
My mind barely more sensible
Let your mouth devour my senses
Lay with me
Don't talk to me of abstinence
But I am caught within your chains
Conventional conceptions of conventional ways
Now, how are you to know
I was never properly trained?
I tell you darlin'
I don't live beneath those reins
How are you to know I don't
How are you to know I don't
How are you to know I don't

Love needs nourishment
But lust can feed on itself
For sure, it feeds on me.
I try and I strive
But something has gone missing
My hunger turns inwards, that's where you'll find me

Desire is born when romance dies
In my dissatisfaction, I cast about my eyes.
Is it a genuine attraction, or does my own heart lie?
I hunger for you
And your image does not fade
Your image does not fade
Your image does not fade
Your image does not fade
 
 
 

Guenevere and the Fire
© Fred Small
 

My grandmother was born in 1900
On a farm in New South Wales
She wed a dairyman who liked to raise a pint of ale
The first child came when she as twenty
Five more babes in seven years
That first daughter was my mother
They called her Guenevere

Little Gwen would play beneath the willow
"Yes the Queen would love some tea"
Helped with chores that never ended
Tried to mind, tried to please
Sometimes she heard the music,
Wild and strange in the summer night
"They're dirty people," warned her mother
"Never go near their campfire light"

"Stay away from the camp of the blackfellas
Little white girls have disappeared!
They drink and dance when the moon is red
Never, never let them see your golden hair!"

Came the winter of '27
So cold the milk froze in the pail
Her mother hung the nappies by the hearth
Her dad in town for a round of ale
A spark leapt from the fire that night
And wrapped her mother in a gown of flame
Flailing, dancing in a frenzy
Falling down in voiceless pain

Stillness, and the stench of burning
Then so soft, 'twas like a ghost
"Fetch the Cunninghams" she whispered
"Bring me aid, or I am lost!"
The Cunninghams were not two miles away
And they the nearest whites
Past the camp of the Aborigines
Past the demons of the night

Stay away from the camp of the blackfellas
Little white girls have disappeared!
They drink and dance when the moon is red
Never, never let them see your golden hair!

"I must run to save my mother
I must go now, I must fly!"
But still she heard her mother's tales
Of the devil drums and the evil eye
Her mother's breathing ever fainter
Gwen frozen in her fright
Seven hours 'til dawn she waited
For the safety of the light
Now she runs 'til her feet are bleeding
To the house upon the hill
Now comes the doctor's wagon speeding t
To her mother cold and still

They laid her down in the Nowra graveyard
>From the bible read a verse
Children sent to aunts and uncles
Some to Melbourne, some to Perth
Gwen packed her canvas satchel,
Could not hold the salt tears back
Turned to leave her home forever
Faced a woman gnarled and black

"Child, our hearts are heavy
With grieving for your loss
We live so close by you
Why did you not come to us?
We have herbs to heal the burning
We have salves to ease the pain
We could have helped, had we but known
And made your mother whole again"

Stay away from the camp of the blackfellas
Little white girls have disappeared!
They drink and dance when the moon is red
Never, never let them see your golden hair!
Stay away from the camp of the blackfellas
White girls have disappeared!
They drink and dance when the moon is red
Never, never let them see your golden hair!
 
 

Bougainville
 

Much of the material in this song, including the quotes, comes from a series 
of interviews conducted by three independent journalists who, at 
considerable risk to their own lives, ran the military blockade and visited 
Bougainville Island in 1994, with the intention of finding out what was 
really happening. They found that - contrary to the official reports - 
grass-roots support for the BRA was very high, and that the movement was 
showing no sign of faltering. They also found that most weaponry and 
ammunition being used against the BRA was of Australian manufacture. They 
were pursued by PNG military police but escaped to the Solomon Islands, and 
from there made their way back to Australia. No mainstream Australian media 
would touch anything they wrote on the subject.

'69 was the year that I was born
It was also the year that a company called Rio Tinto Zinc
Opened up a copper mine
On a little tropical island paradise, yeah
Not far from Australian shores
By the time I was twenty years of age
A billion tons of waste
Had poured into the Jaba River
All thirty-five kilometres of its length
>From spring to delta poisoned dead.

The islanders tried
For many years they complained
They lobbied and they campaigned
But their words fell on deaf ears
Many of them died working in the mine
The risk to find that they still couldn't earn enough
To feed their families
The labourer's wives with hungry mouths to feed
Had to sell their bodies on the streets
To workers from overseas
Who were paid twice what the local men received
And all food, clothing, medicine, everything
All owned by the company

And they cried
"Land is our life, it is our only life
It is food, it is sustenance
Land is our life, it is our social life
It is marriage it is status
It is security, it is politics
In fact, it is our only world
Land is our life, and if you take our land
You're cutting out the very heart of our existence"

Bruno said "I worked for the mine
The company denied they were the cause of any of the damage
But our fruit trees no longer bore fruit
Their leaves were killed by acid rain
There are no fish in the river
The damage they did will be here forever
We workers went on strike,
But still our words weren't heeded
So something more was needed
So in the end, a few of us
In the middle of the night
With the company's own explosives
Yes, forced the mine to close
and when the riot squads arrived we were singing

Land is our life..............etc"

Marcelline said
"The PNG, they can never win our hearts
They killed my brother
We cannot accept it, we cannot forget our loved ones
They have killed us in cold murder
We never had anything like this before
The only place I saw anything similar
Was on that Television of yours.......Ahhh---"

The troops poured in
Armed and funded by the Australian government
Yeah, they reigned fire on unarmed villagers
Raped and pillaged, yes
Long before Spicer, long before Sandline
Sticks and stones, and arrows and bows
Were all the islanders had when they started
But ten years later on, with home-made guns
And vehicles run on coconut oil, yeah
They're still there singin'

"Land is our life..........."etc

So you see, we must agree
'Cause we have so much in common
More than humanity, more than regional ah----

Because land is our life, it is our only life
It is food, it is sustenance
Land is our life, it is our social life
It part of marriage and it's certainly part of status
It is security, it is politics
In fact, this is our only world
Land is our life, and if we destroy that land
We're cutting out the very heart of our existence"

Ah-ha...........

Sidmouth Song

Today loneliness gnaws at my insides
A small spiky creature claws at my guts
No placebos at my disposal will do
Not alcohol, not other drugs
And your company's no comfort
Another long walk in the sun
The Southern rocks of a Northern land
The jagged coast of my ancestral home
I'd have thought it would mean more to me
Perhaps after all, I am antipodean

I know you're concerned 'bout my state of mind
I say "No I'm fine!" but I think - yes, well you might.
A Little inconsistency goes a long way to undermine my image
You define, define, define
My strengths, my weaknesses and how I can be expected to react
The Garden of Eden is riddled with land mines
The green and pleasant land inside a heart
But this is what humans do with paradise
Or the wide, brown one that's really in my soul
Well it's as good as any other place to start

Lately I've felt a touch dislocated
The things I do, I say not quite appropriate
The things by which I have navigated are irrelevant and far away
Without your life
You come to realise your true size
I defy, defy, defy the lines
I've never known such claustrophobia
More space is required for a chafing heart
I who had been so affectionate
Now feel I want to make my home on Mars
 

Hundred Thousand

I've got a wind chime that plays the blues
As it jams in the nighttime
I lie in bed and I think of you
Well it hasn't been too bad lately
But tonight I'm feeling old
The workings of this world
They make my blood run cold

Any one of a hundred
Any one of a hundred thousand
Any one of a hundred
Any one of a hundred thousand things
Could have led him there

She said "Grief
Is like a chill, dark room
I sit in the corner
I can't seem to make myself move
Over to the window
To let that sunlight in
But I need to feel it
I need to feel it on my skin"
She said "Guilt
Is my constant companion
It sits in the corner
When I'm not watchin' it's always waiting
It walks in my shadow
Hummin' it's cruel refrain
Just as I'm droppin' off to sleep
I hear it singin' once again
'If only we hadn't been fighting
Maybe he'd still be alive today
If only we'd done things differently
Maybe he wouldn't have gone that way, that way' "
 

Any one of a hundred
Any one of a hundred thousand
Any one of a hundred
Any one of a hundred thousand things
Could have led him there
Could have led him elsewhere

"I'm wrapped in a blanket
Embroidered with my story
I look at the colours
Its senselessness and its glory
Can't seem to believe it
I can't believe it's mine
I don't talk about it much
'Coz it just seems too unkind

Now tell me
Why does a man climb a mountain?
They say he climbs it because it's there
And if I was the peak he could not scale
Well he decided to try his luck elsewhere, elsewhere

And now that he's lying
Dead under a hundred thousand
Tons of rock and ice
On Aoraki, South Island
Well, I can't plant no vine
Up there on that ice
But I'll seed it with my presence, yeah
And hope somehow he knows I'm there"

Any one of a hundred
Any one of a hundred
I'm wrapped in a blanket
Embroidered with her story
She told me the outline
I can sense its senselessness and its glory
Oh. I can imagine
Because I'm too familiar
Too familiar with that clashin'
Between dear love and passion
But any one of a hundred
Every one of a hundred
If a bird had eaten the butterfly
That flapped its wings and changed the weather
If somebody else had booked that flight
Made him travel one day later
If only he hadn't got drunk that night
Or maybe chosen another site
Every step we've ever taken
Is leading us to where we'll end
Now tell me
Why does a man climb a mountain?
They say he climbs it because it's there
And if you were the peak he could not scale
Well he's bound to try his luck elsewhere, elsewhere

And now with the springtime
Grief loses it's grip
She says "I can smile sometimes
And even love a little bit
It's a conscious decision
Made with every day
To walk in the sunshine
And say my farewells my way
and if now I live with these high, dark walls
Well, I'll climb them because they're there
Because life in its callousness does go on
I'll have to try my love elsewhere
And remember

Any one of a hundred
Any one of a hundred thousand
Every one of a hundred
Every one of a hundred things
Every one of a hundred
Every one of a hundred thousand things
That have led me here
Well, they can lead me elsewhere"
 
 
 

CORNERS
        ©Penelope Swales
 
 

Oh sister, dear sister
Sitting in the corner of the room
Oh sister, dear sister
Listening to you talk about your life
The mischief in the corners of your smile makes me wonder
Ooh----

You make me smile
You make me laugh out loud
Make me watch the corners of your smile
You make me laugh
You make me talk all night
Make me watch the corners of your smile

Oh sister, dear sister
Lurkin' in the corners of your mind
Oh sister, dear sister
are such sore times have they left behind their watermark?
The mischief in the corners of your smile makes me wonder
About the mischief done to you
You seem too rich to have been plundered young
To have been plundered early

And you know, for all that's ever been
Taken by force from me,
Ah, but it was never more than I could handle
I may have been young, but you know, women are strong
But girls should never have to live in that sort of fear,
Oh, no
No matter what they're made of
Sugar and spice and all things nice
And the ground up tails of rats and mice
Ah, such stern stuff is my sister made of

You make me smile
You make me talk all night
Make me watch the corners of your smile
You make me laugh
You make me cry all night
Make me watch the corners of your smile

Oh sister, dear sister
Watchin' from the corner of my eye
Oh sister, dear sister
Just the way her hair fell down, 'round from her neck
As she bent over her guitar
All I could see of her face
Was the corners of her smile

You make me laugh
You make me talk all night
Make me watch the corners of your smile
Makes me wonder
You make me laugh
You make me cry all night
Make me watch the corners of your smile
Makes me wonder
Make me toss and turn and
Dream all night 'bout just
Touchin' the corners of your smile
 

Underbelly
 

I'm concerned
I scare myself
With what I've learned
Beneath my innocent skin
A monster lurks within
And every now and then it rears up and devours all my loving

My focus is swamped with images
I just can't seem to keep my mind at home
I tell myself - Be good!
I promised that I would
But underneath some part of me has never understood

He's golden, he's so good
He's healthy and he's rude
And nine times out of ten
He holds my attention
But I get lost in these nasty little fancies now and then

Tell me, why should it be
That corruption is always so much more tasty than purity?
In the name of exploration
I unleash my imagination
And then I'm sickened by the way I can relate to abberation

I try to concentrate
But I'm seduced by the darkness and the weight
And always at the time
I find a way to justify
And afterwards I'm nauseated by my bottom line

But beneath my lidded eyes
Poison runs disguised
When I feel it welling up, I'm almost always hypnotised

He's golden, he's so good
He's healthy, he's so rude
And nine times out of ten
He keeps me right there with him
But I get lost in these nasty little fancies now and then

And he's so goddamned understanding
He tells me that It's normal, that I'm nice
Ahhhh----
But beneath my innocent skin
A monster lurks within
That can scratch my underbelly where nobody reaches in

Oh----------------
Ah----------rrahh-dat-dah-dat-da------
Beneath my innocent skin
A monster lurks within
That can scratch my underbelly - hey-----------------
 

Respect Baby

Why listen to me, why try anything new
When you can sit there looking at your own point of view?
Why talk to me, why try to work it through?
You've already got someone who perfectly understands you!

And every thing I say to you
You stand it on its head
Every point I make, you bend it 'round
And send it back my way instead

And respect, baby, is a two-way street
You scream for respect do you think you deserve it?
In a tantrum you complain I treat you like a child
And when I try to point it out, you just get all riled

But people will judge you on what you do
Not on what you intend to do
The road to my personal hell
Will be paved with your intentions, I can tell

You're awful fussy 'bout the way I talk to you
But when you talk to me, monosyllables will do
I'm only tryin' to get you to see my side
Still, you say you're so considerate, but you won't say why

And respect, baby, is a two-way street
You scream for respect do you think that you've earned it?
In a tantrum you complain I treat you like a child
And when I try to point it out, you just get all riled

You don't wanna be treated like a babe
But you require encouragement every step of the way
A gold star here, a brownie point there
But I get no thanks for my wear and tear

Vocal ad lib.......................

Respect, baby, ah da-ha...................

And if I get angry, that's my fault
for not having enough self-control
And if you get angry, that's my fault
for getting you on a roll

Why even bother trying to make some sense
when you can sit there rushing to your own defence?
One day I'll turn around and say goodbye
And I bet you never even know why

And respect, baby, is a two-way street
When you scream for respect do you think you command it?
In a tantrum you complain I treat you like a child
And when I try to point it out, you just get all riled

You just get all riled
You just get all riled -----------
Get all riled ------------------
Get all riled -------------------
 

Justifying Your Longings To The Doctor

If some alchemist
Was to take a scraping from my womb
What a potent residue that man might find
I am not clean
I have been stamped and stained
Cherished and discarded time and again
I am not pure
But I am not ashamed
These indelible marks tell a story
Not for the faint hearted

If some bright young shrink
Was to pull a thread from my mind
What a tangled, coloured skein that boy might find
I am not neat
My thoughts lie in piles
Memories lie heaped in corners, jumbled files
I am not clear
But I might be wise
These dog-eared diaries tell a story
Not fit for such innocent eyes

If some strange surgeon was to poke his curiouscope into my heart
What four-chambered horrors might he find?
If he was to steal my blood and place it writhing on the slide
He'd find it to full of plankton to sustain a human life

My courage has been watered down by the oceans that divide us
They've diluted all my own humble tide
If some long-fingered specialist was to wrap his knuckles 'round my wrist
He might wonder why the hell I'm still alive
In fact, the only reason I can find
For why I haven't pined and died
Is because it is so goddam out of style

If that Oriental sage was to read my pulse
What story would those jungle rhythms sing?
They'd sing a song of longing and betrayal
Of hope too stubborn to need faith
And a loyalty too deep to be assailed

It's hopeless, Doc
It's terminal
I can tell just by the look upon your face
How did I become impaled
In a way that other loves have failed
To nail me to a given time or place?
Can you tell me how it came to pass
That I should become so soaked in sadness
That everything I touch, I leave a stain?
Blood-red footprints in the sand
Smudges where I lay my hands
Iridescent in the moonlight's trail