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1. |
Nice Guy
03:39
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We climb up to the ridge and stop and stare
The water splits the rock and soaks the air
When nature is as wild as this
The distant peaks, the precipice
I've not a hope and not a care
I'm living, living, living
But in the wild we spread the human stain
And I've no god but in a place like this it seems profane
A member of the master race
Wiped the smile clean off my face
So thanks, you sneering bigot, Patsy won't be seen again
Bye bye Nice Guy
And don't come back
No more last warning
You've got the sack
Got no use for a nice guy
You're not fit to survive
One sign of weakness
And they eat you alive
So after all these years this worm has turned
It's not an easy lesson but I've learned
You're oh so cute and credible
But I'm not buying now and you'll
Get nothing out of me until it's earned
I dreamt of being free and now I am
Don't want to be the butcher but I will not be the lamb
So take your stupid trusting mind
The best of luck with humankind
Don't call me Mr Nice Guy, I no longer give a damn
Yeah bye bye Nice Guy
And don't come back
No more last warning
You've got the sack
Got no use for a nice guy
Or your bleeding heart
As soon as they scent it
They tear you apart
Let's just go home, darling, come along
Don't let it get to you girl, don't you cry
Oh no don't you cry, girl, it's time to be strong
It's time we were saying goodbye
Yeah bye bye Nice Guy
And don't come back
No more last warning
You've got the sack
Got no use for a nice guy
Or your bleeding heart
As soon as they scent it
They'll tear you apart
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2. |
East End Boy
04:28
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Married life was tense and stale
Long before the grand betrayal
You were distant, gloomy, self-obsessed
Who else could that be? I think you've guessed
But when she died, each night in bed
You howled as if to wake the dead
I wish I'd been as deaf as you
You poisoned her - I guess you knew
And you and I were just as bad
I'd wasted all you'd never had
Broke and drunk and in a band –
Now I kind of understand
Besides, I was as harsh a judge
You hypocrite, you conformist drudge
But still the East-End boy you'd been
When forced from school at just 14
So I'm sorry old man
I wheeled you out as the sun went down
Just skin and bones in baggy brown
You sat there till your hands were numb
With cold – you knew your time had come
But you'd cried 'wolf' too many years
So keep on shouting, no one hears
At least you got a chance to say:
I told you I was ill that day
And at least we made a kind of truce
No explanation or excuse
And no more judgement, no more strife
But no more time left, no more life
The nurse said: when I get a chance
For now just let him wet his pants
Well I hope she dies in a place like this
Terrified and soaked in piss
I'm sorry old man
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3. |
Evolution
03:02
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So you call me sentimental
You talk of nature and of our dominion
Higher moral status: that's your opinion
Oh my oh my
And here comes the revolution
Here comes the machine, here comes cost reduction
Factory farms and units of production
Oh my oh my
So this is evolution
We make tools and tools make us strong
We're self-conscious and we talk, and on two legs we walk
What could possibly go wrong?
And this is civilisation
Fine discernment and nice distinction
Casual slaughter and mass extinction
Oh my oh my
And now the world is warming
The seas are rising and the fires igniting
But that's OK we've got low-energy lighting
Oh my oh my
Maybe it's evolution
We made tools and tools made us strong
We're self-conscious and we talk, we no longer need to walk
Now what could possibly go wrong?
Four billion years, and here we come, lord and master
Just two hundred thousand years, but it's so fast, and it's getting getting faster
So on and on and more and more, I want what you have, it's only fair
Darwin gives way to Murphy's law, so take a bow and say a prayer
Oh me oh my
Yes this is evolution
We make tools and tools make us strong
We're self-conscious and we talk, and on two legs we walk
Now what could possibly go wrong?
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4. |
Tooth and Claw
04:09
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Do you like to get out of town more and more
To walk in the forest, or down by the shore?
Do you tire of living your civilised life
The noise and the fever, the trouble and strife?
And in the wild places do you seek peace of mind
Away from the greed and deceit of our kind?
I was watching the sun going down on the Tweed
Four or five drakes determined to breed
They tore at her head as she struggled for air
Near dead with exhaustion, but drakes cannot care
She made one last effort to haul out on ground
But they pushed her back under, and slowly she drowned
Out here don't look for pity
Nature is nature and this is her law
She's gorgeous, but she's not pretty
Dripping with red from tooth and from claw
Have you seen the lion run down the fawn?
Have you seen the siblings kill the newborn?
Have you seen hyenas eat a zebra alive?
They target the young and the weak to survive
In whole populations crash follows swell
Is this some kind of haven, or some kind of hell?
Out here don't look for pity
Nature is nature and this is her law
She's gorgeous, but she's not pretty
Dripping with red from tooth and from claw
And sometimes I just can't bear it
Let's hope it's physics that laid down this law
But sometimes I just despair
It is written in red with tooth and with claw
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5. |
The Black Dog
04:38
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We’re all looking out for number one
Or we run and hunt in packs and call it love
Don’t look for compassion, here there’s none
And endless cold dark emptiness above
When the black dog has you by the throat
Don’t try to break loose, don’t kick and scream and curse
The chance of prompt release remains remote
And struggling only makes it worse
So take it easy
Don’t take it hard
Take it easy
Don’t make it hard
We know from George Harrison that all things must pass
And one day some sainted publican may refill your empty glass
You might even take a break from sitting on your arse
Drowning in self-pity, smoking too much grass
But when the black dog has you by the throat
Don’t try to break loose, don’t kick and scream and curse
The chance of prompt release remains remote
So stop your struggling: it only makes it worse
Just take it easy
Don’t take it hard
Take it easy
Don’t make it hard
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6. |
Analgesia
04:02
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Nervous exhaustion
Loss of self-esteem
Quiet desperation
Your life's just a scream
But we don't do Seroxat
And we don't wish to share
Keep your lame psychobabble
Your cant and hot air
And give me sweet Analgesia
Hold me gently, take away my pain
Sweet Analgesia
Don't leave me now my darling, don't ever leave again
It hurts when you're moving
It hurts when you sit still
But that doctor won't give you
One narcotic pill
So don't shake your head
At all that we've imbibed
We're self-medicating
And it's all been prescribed
Oh sweet Analgesia
Hold me gently, take away my pain
Oh my sweet Analgesia
Don't leave me now my darling, don't ever leave again
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7. |
My World
03:14
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I think I may have found the answer - all you have to do
Is simply see your problem from my point of view
All your hopes and all your dreams, your troubles and your cares
If only you could see how small it all seems
In my world
But there you are, stuck inside your head
With all you vain illusions, selfishness inbred
The centre of your universe, all else remains unknown
Looking for the main chance, looking after your own
My hopes and my plans and my problems: it's my life; it's
my world
And oh how I wish I could somehow be free
Of you and your ego, my ego and me
My mind, my heart, my soul, my religion
My eyes, my ears, my body, my pain
My pride, my want, my need, my desire
My home, my possessions, my man, my woman,
My child, my people, my way, my life, my death: my world
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8. |
Those Who Work Together
04:23
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Did you hear her story? They made her hang her child
She had to stay alive, you see, for the one they’d just defiled
They were Those Who Work Together, themselves no more than boys
But in the Interahanwe they give them guns for toys
I know god will forgive them, those who kill and rape and maim
'Cause in the Lord’s Resistance Army they do things just the same
And thank god we Caucasians can look on with some pride
We could teach those boys a thing or two about force and genocide
So who are all these people who do the things they do?
You look at your neighbour, and your neighbour looks at you
My kind of people don't belong, don’t follow, don’t subscribe
‘My kind’ is always unkind: species, race and tribe
The stories that we tell
We’re us, and they are them – and I’ll see you all in hell
So you’d better hope you’re not at home when our boys come to call
I’ve heard they don’t give you much option – kill or die is all
And when the fires are burning in shards of crystal light
Do you risk your life, or wring your hands and kept your door shut tight?
So who are all these people who do the things they do?
You bet on your neighbour, and your neighbour bets his life on you
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9. |
Dancing With Andromeda
04:12
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I look up at the stars
On this moonless night
Vega and Antares
A band of silver light
Dancing with Andromeda
In endless pirouette
Our arms reach out to hold her
And we may hold her yet
But her heart is cold
Its secrets still untold
Mass, charge and momentum: that’s all you get
Yes there’s a hole in the middle of everything
Of all the light that glistens in the sky – they can verify
There’s a hole in the middle of everything
But there's a loss of information, so don’t ask why
Give me your hand old friend, how do you do?
Or is that too polite?
Louis said it means ‘I love you’
And that much he got right
And maybe love can provide
For this emptiness inside
But let’s not take any chances – let’s get good and drunk tonight
'Cause there’s a hole in the middle of everything
But I don’t want to fill it with a lie – oh no not I
There’s a hole in the middle of everything
They say you can’t fill it with liquor, but let’s try
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10. |
Can't Touch Me Now
03:04
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Twilight in London town
But I’m so down
I can’t get lower than I am
D’you want a diagram?
I was helpless and how
But you can’t touch me now
'Cause I no longer give a damn
So you can break my hands and leave me in the gutter
You can damn my songs and steal my old guitar, close my favourite bar
In the dim light of disaffection
I’ve lost all sense of direction
And I no longer give a damn
The twilight and the twittering
A distant shout and laughter
Blown on the wind that sweeps
The gloomy hills of London
Time before and after
So you can break my heart and leave me in the gutter
You can take the last few grains of self-esteem
And half an empty dream
In the dim light of disaffection
I've no fear of rejection
I no longer give a damn
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11. |
Spittal Beach
05:58
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The sky is getting dark; the wind is strong now
But the sound of breaking waves is calming me
We stand here like two orphans in a wreck – how
I wish that we belonged beside this northern sea
Hold my hand till the tide comes in
As darkness falls we’ll keep each other warm
Two lost and timid children who no longer fit their skin,
No longer want to run before the storm
But the place that we've been searching is still just out of reach
As we stand and watch the breakers through the spray
The flotsam and the jetsam washes up on Spittal Beach
But soon the tide will clear it all away
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Max Eider UK
Songwriter, guitar player, founder member of the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy
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