Kettle of Fish 88-98

I found a new religion yesterday

I'd just cleared immigration JFK

A priest got in a cadillac

The shoe shine boy sang gospel

As God and his accountants drove away

You'll see him coast to coast on live TV

In a stadium rocked by Satan just the night before

The collection from the faithful it is tax free

It'll pay for his presidential campaign and his yacht



And we all bow down, we bow down to the big wedge

And we'll buy ourselves some heaven on earth

We sell our souls, sell our souls for big wedge

Are we selling out tomorrow for today?



A surgeon checks your plastic on the phone

A Casio concerto entertains you while you hold

Your credit rating's good for a Madonna or a Bardot

A Dali or a Picasso for his wall.



You're looking good, you're looking good with big wedge

Are you holding back tomorrow for today?

They're driving in, driving in the big wedge

Are we selling out tomorrow for today?



You'll sell the ground beneath your feet

You'll sell your oil, you'll sell your trees

Your ideals and integrity, your culture and your history

Your children into slavery to labour in their factories

Your mother and your family

You'll sell the world eventually

The IMF and CIA; there's just no difference they're all the same

It all depends on what's your point of view



America, America the big wedge

And they're buying your tomorrow up today

With promises the promises of big wedge

And they'll break them like your hearts another day

When you find out that you've left it just too late

And you find that you're the only one to blame

That you sold out your tomorrow yesterday for Big Wedge

There's something I want to ask you

Before it's too late

It's been on my mind since the first time we met

It scares me now more, now there's more at stake

It seems we're so close yet so far away



Could you turn me down gently

Would I be out of order

If I declared my true feelings

Or do I act out the part

Of the father confessor of the shoulder to cry on

We're always so close yet so far away



What would you do if I got down on my knees to you?

Would you hold it against me?

Would you stand in line?

What would you do if I opened my heart to you?

Would I just be another who's wasting his time?

Darling are we just good friends?



Do I really need to ask you

I'm sure that you know by now

Do we just play a game where we try to pretend

That all that's between us is all that's between us

And all we can rely on is being just good friends



What would you do if I got down on my knees to you?

Would you hold it against me?

Would you stand in line?

What would you do if I opened my heart to you?

Would I just be another who's wasting his time?

Darling are we just good friends?



So are we left to chance meetings?

Is that all we can depend on?

Resigned to raise glasses in anonymous cafes

Reciting our failures as if we needed that proof or regret

Over what might have and what should have been

Darling, are we just good friends?



What would you do if I got down on my knees to you?

Would you hold it against me?

Would you stand me in line?

What would you do if I opened up my heart to you?

Would I just be another who's wasting his time?

Are we just good friends,

Tell me, darling are we just good friends?

Doc: "Tattoo Shop"

Fish: "Hi Doc"

Doc: "Hey Fish, what are you doin'?"

Fish: "If you don't mind, we're gonna record this. Is that cool?"

Doc: "Oh that's cooler 'n hell. Hell yeah, 52's biggest dream man. 

You know his biggest dream was, me and him go party with you."



On the trail of torn-out twisters, two angels on a mission came

Dust devils danced before them in the path of the hurricane.

On the road to Oklahoma, through the flatlands from L.A.

From the shadows in the valley, from a country where the lizards play.

While they drove they kept the radio on, why don't you singalong, singalong, singalong.



Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo Brother 52

Tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo, tattoo Brother 52

I don't think so.



A man stands behind his shadow, a man stands behind his words.

These men are together with family to defend their rights in another man's world.

Most people stood against them, most people disagreed

With the need for all those weapons in our safe, secure society.

Paint the words and the pictures on another man's skin

We are lover, warrior, magician kings.





Doc:"Fuckin' brilliant, man. OK, here's what happened.

52 barred the door shut from the inside. A gunfight started on the front porch.

52 shot back.

You know...they come into his home with it, so he's protecting himself.

The guy inside the house blew his brains out. Yeah, they made it look like he killed himself.

But, no one believes he would, 'cause he's not that kind of man.

That's all, I think, he wasn't afraid of death. You know, he believed in something to die for, that's what he did." 



Some say he had it coming, others say he was sole to blame

But who says they've got the rights if any at all to blow the brothers away.

A man got a right to wonder, a man got a right to dream,

Without looking over his shoulder to choose the manner of the life he leads.

One man's thoughts on another man's skin

We are lover, warrior, magician kings.



Doc: "What they have done, was they've come in and murdered him, for his bombs and his ammunition.

Just like that Waco Texas or any of these other things, over here in the United States.

Anybody that's stockpiling firearms and ammunitions is a threat to the government, so the government wages war against us.

They tortured him, he went out but I'm sure he stood up like he was supposed to, you know?

They smashed all the rings shut on his fingers with a hammer.

It was all an orchestrated plan, man.

The more.. the closer I was getting to it.. to the truth, the more they got everybody looking at me as being the guy that pulled the trigger.

And what they did when they killed 52, is they broke the whole family up. 

That's exactly what they wanted to do.

They wanted to break all of us up."

First of all I caught her reflection in the window of the pharmacy store,

There I was locked up in my pick-up in the rush hour on the Delaware road

It must have been the scent of her perfume or the glimpse of that French loungerie

a product of my imagination, I blame it all on a hot Summers day

blame it all on a hot Summers day, Chasing Miss Pretty 



Chasing Miss Pretty 



I turned up the air-conditioning, nothing's gonna cool me down,

I stared through the steamed up window and watched her glide away cross town,

I couldn't let this vision escape me, couldn't let her get too far out my reach,

I was throwing my life in the gutter along with the pick-up keys,

Along with the pick-up keys, Chasing Miss Pretty 



Chasing Miss Pretty 



I tell myself that this can't be happening, I promised myself never again,

But when the chips are down and the lights go out I'm back here again,



Chasing Miss Pretty 



I'll promise her undying affection, promise everlasting love

I'll buy her a ring for her finger , for this angel sent from Heaven above,

The problem is I can't seem to find her, it looks as if my true love is lost,

I'm standing alone with my heartache as my Lady went and boarded the bus,

My Lady's gone and boarded the bus, Chasing Miss Pretty, Chasing Miss Pretty,



Chasing Miss Pretty 



I've got to get me a Doctor, I gotta get me some pills, I need a real cold shower,

I got to get my eyes off these girls, Got to get my eyes of these girls,

I got to get my eyes off these girls, these girls, these girls, these girls,



Chasing Miss Pretty

I watch the TV every night

I stay awake by satellite

I hope and pray the nightmares

Stay away today



An oily shroud on a coral reef

A black cloud's hanging over me

When I hit on the remote

The programmes stay the same

Credo, Credo, Credo, Credo



An assegai slick with sweat and blood

A shotgun barks at a rabid dog

A shallow grave hugs a highway

Beneath a bleaching sun



Credo, Credo, Credo, Credo

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin'

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin' to me



When cancer sucks a young girl's breast

When a company chains a young man's soul

When the coal dust stole

My grandad's breath away one day



Credo, Credo, Credo, Credo

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin'

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin' to me



A tattered tramp tacks a windy wynd

To close a crowded circle round a brazier's light

A man becomes a mountain in the falling snow

A mother screams and a baby cries

The memory gone before the blood has dried

A needle pricks the conscience

To help it fade away



Credo, Credo, Credo, Credo

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin'

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin' to me



The more you scream, the less you hear

Or that's how it used to be

But I just can't tell the difference

Anymore these days

The open lips of an alter boy

A planet spins in a silent void

The options are ever fewer

On the ground these days



Credo, Credo, Credo, Credo

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin'

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin' to me

Do you still keep paper flowers in the bottom drawer with your Belgian lace

Taking them out every year to watch the colors fade away?

Do you still believe in fairy tales, in battlements of shining castles

Safe from the dragons that lie beneath the hill?

Are you still a Russian princess rescued by a gypsy dancer

To anyone who'll listen is that a story you still tell?

You live a life of fantasy, your diary romantic fiction

Can't you see it's hard for me, can you see what I am trying to say?



It's a gentleman's excuse me so I'll take one step to the side

Can you get it inside your head I'm tired of dancing?

For every one step forward we're taking two steps back

Can you get it inside your head I'm tired of dancing?



I know you still like old fashioned waltzes

Your reflection in the mirror that you flirt with as you glide across the floor

But if I told you the music's over would you want to hear

That your dance card is empty that there's no-one really there?

Do you still believe in Santa Claus, that there's a millionaire

Looking for your front door with a key to a life that you'd never understand?

All I have to offer is the love that I have, it's freely given

You'll see its value when you see what I've tried to say



It's a gentleman's excuse me so I'll take one step to the side

Can you get it inside your head I'm tired of dancing?

For every one step forward I'm taking two steps back

Can you get it inside your head that from this one step forward

There's no turning back?

Can you get it inside your head I'm tired of dancing?

We're finished dancing

There are vampires in the park Mawgojzeta 

But I only hear the sound of dancing bears 

They're shooting stars in Warsaw Mawgojzeta 

Mawgojzeta do you care?



Do you believe that anything that I could say would sort your life out?

What's the difference?

Could you trust anybody with your heart except yourself?

What's the difference?



Between sunsets and dawn, kings, queens and pawns, goldfish and clowns.

Between what's right and wrong can a love still grow strong 

What's the difference?



There are werewolves in these streets Mawgojzeta 

But you only hear me howling at the moon

There's betrayals in the Tarot Mawgojzeta is it me, or is it you?



Do you believe that everything I say is really true?

Well, what's the difference?

Don't you think everything's against us, that there's much too much to lose

Well, what's the difference?



Could you see everything I should have been and everything I could be 

What's the difference, between sunsets and dawn, kings, queens and pawns, gold fish and clowns?

Between what's right and wrong can a love still grow strong 

What's the difference?

What is the difference?



There are vampires in the park Mawgojzeta 

But I only hear the sound of dancing bears

They're shooting stars in Warsaw Mawgojzeta, Mawgojzeta do you care?

I know you believe that everything will work out alright, what's the difference?

But is it a love or this a life I need?

That's the difference 



Between sunsets and dawn, kings, queens and pawns 

What's the difference?

Between goldfish and clowns can a love still be found

Well, what's the difference? What is the difference?

Between playing away and playing at home

Well, what's the difference? What is the difference?

What is the difference?

That's the difference, that's the difference that is between sunsets and dawns 

Kings, queens and pawns, goldfish and clowns

u should have listened to what your mother said

You should have listened to what your father told you to do

But you always did just what you always wanted to do

Now you end up here singing in a gilded cage

And for half your life you were wishing you were half your age

Lady let it lie



It's hard putting down family roots when you're living in

A mobile home, but there's always blood even in a rolling stone

And you squeezed me hard for the white collar dream

But you woke up to a tie dye lifestyle and its choking me

Lady let it lie



All the boys want to be all the girls want to be all the boys

I don't want to be me no more

All the boys want to be all the girls in this turnaround world

I don't want to be me no more



They once said I was a rising star declaring me a bright contender

When it all worked out I was just a pretender

I could never disagree if you said you were dissatisfied

But why you got to take it out on a guy that tried



All the boys want to be all the girls want to be all the boys

I don't want to be me no more

All the boys want to be all the girls in this turnaround world

I don't want to be me no more



But surely there's something left, something worth fighting for

Something out of all this mess that's worth building on

Maybe we can start again, maybe give it one more try

Or do we just walk away, and maybe fade and die



All the boys want to be all the girls want to be all the boys

I don't want to be me no more

All the boys want to be all the girls in this turnaround world

I don't want to be me no more

I don't want to be me no more

Me no more

All the boys want to be all the girls want to be all the boys

I don't want to be me no more

All the boys want to be all the girls in this turnaround world

I don't want to be me no more

I don't want to be me no more

Me no more

He met the world as a Dalkeith boy

Raised from a shaft at Monktonhall

In a well-oiled cage

That locked away his dreams

An '85 veteran face from the gallery

A ghost from the civil war in the family

He stood his ground on the picket line

'Til all that he was left with

Were his father's cough

And his mother's eyes

That would hold a tear

For the very first time

When the government they took his job away.

Now fist in hand he'll stand in line

Declare his name and mark his time

To some the only proof that they're alive.



He could have been you

He could have been me

He could have been anybody

But he was born lucky



He made his first down payment

On a sharp Italian suit

He sewed razor blades into the lapels.

See him sweating on the dance floor

Coal dust oozing out of every pore

A hard man with a hard life

And that's a story that he'll tell you

Down at Easter Road till his throat is raw

On a Saturday, he knows the score

Till the whistle blows and

The tempers with their colours fade away.



He could have been you

He could have been me

He could have been anybody

But he was born lucky



On the helipads at Aberdeen

Bound for platforms drilling oil-rich seas

Where the trawlers are getting fewer every year

By the furnaces at Ravenscraig

By the padlocks holding John Brown's gates

In the desert, in the fields of South Armagh

Where the poppies grow

Behind the Hampden roar

Behind the drums in Genoa

On the deck that rides a South Atlantic swell

Born to fight out of the tightest corner

You can bet on him with the odds against you

They'll not put him down

No matter how they try



He could have been you

He could have been me

He could have been anybody

But he was born lucky

I don't trust the government, I don't trust alternatives

It's not that I'm paranoid, it's just thats the way it is

Every day I hear a little scream inside

Every day I find it's getting louder

I just want to reach out and touch someone

'Cause I find I need a friend in this dark hour



We the people are gettin' tired of your lies

We the people now believe that it's time

We're demanding our rights to the answers

We elect a precedent to a state of mind



I trust in conspiracies, in the power of the military

In this wilderness of mirrors here, not even my speech is free

Every day I hear a little scream inside

Everyday I find it's gettin' louder

I just want to reach out and touch someone

'Cause I find I need a friend in this dark hour



We the people want it straight for a change

'Cause we the people are getting tired of your games

If you insult us with cheap propaganda

We'll elect a precedent to a state of mind



Every day I hear a little scream inside

Every day I find it's getting louder

I just want to reach out and touch someone

'Cause I find I need a friend in this dark hour



When we the people have our backs to the wall

Do we the people then assume control?

When it's too late to stop our own execution

When we're faced with the final solution

You can't elect a dream revolution

When you've a bullet in the back of your mind



It's just a state of mind

He works shifts, days in the factory, prints chips for foreign PC's 

At night deep in his hideaway, steals out of the monitor screen 

Looking good Mr Buttons, so you should Mr Buttons



He don't have respect for authority, makes shadows in a rich man's world 

back doors are always available, no one ever gets hurt or killed 

just a game Mr Buttons, feel no shame Mr Buttons



Simple break and entry, he never hangs about too long, in and out the money's gone 

Always masks his exit, the systems always fail, he never leaves a trail 

A surfing highwayman making out the best he can 



Watch your back Mr Buttons, on your tracks Mr Buttons 

Watch your tail Mr Buttons, on your trail Mr Buttons.



He went down state penitentiary, locked him up threw away the key 

In time they gave him the library, access to the new PC 

Back on line Mr Buttons, doing fine Mr Buttons 



Simple break and entry, he never hangs about too long, in and out the money's gone 

Always masks his exit, the systems always fail, he never leaves a trail 

Holding up the Planet, a surfing Highwayman, making out the best he can 

That's Mr Buttons, Mr Buttons, Mr Buttons 



Holding up the planet, a surfing highwayman, moving money just for fun 

Oh Mr Buttons, Mr Buttons, Mr Buttons

Rosebuds scattered across the lawn like the squares at Waterloo

With bayonets of thorns repelling small children in search of lost tennis balls

Imaginary cannonballs that were fired at the legs of galloping cavalry

Resting their dreams in the shade of the apple trees

Toy soldiers drunk on warm lemonade



And the children dream of glory and fortunes of war

Safe in bed with stories of fortunes of war, fortunes of war



As the sun sets low on these playing fields

An army returns bearing swords and shields  

Dustbin lids and raspberry canes.

They'll live to fight another day

For warrior's medals - milk bottle tops

Battle flags fashioned from mother's old table cloths

Bright colours run in the summer rain



Sometimes when they fall they will pretend

That their hankie is a bandage to stop the bleeding

And imagine city streets and desert storms and foreign fields

There's bullets flying, these are the fortunes of war



I heard a wheelchair whisper across a stale, stagnant gymnasium

Trailing an ivy league jacket like a matador

Through the jitterbug steps of the night before,

I followed him down to the church parade 

Where he makes his peace every armistice day 

I watched him fade away, melt in the autumn rain 



For sometimes when they fall they can't pretend

That the hankie is a bandage they can't stop the bleeding

They're out in city streets and desert storms or foreign fields

With bullets flying, these are the fortunes of war 

While their children dream of glory and fortunes of war 

Safe in bed with stories and fortunes of war 

Of uniforms and glory, fortunes of war, fortunes of war

I saw a blue umbrella in Princes Street Gardens

Heading out west for the Lothian Road

An Evening News stuffed deep in his pocket

Wrapped up in his problems to keep away the cold

Grierson's spirit haunts the dockyards

Where the only men working are on

Documentary crews

Shooting film as the lines get longer

As the seams run out, as the oil runs dry



Hey there laddie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?

Hey there lassie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?



Starlings wheeling round Georgian spires

And the fires of Grangemouth burn the skies

A lion sleeps in a tenement close

In a country that's tired and deaf to his roar



Hey there laddie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?

Hey there lassie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?



They bury a wasteland deep in the wilderness

Poison the soil and reap the harvest

Of blind indifference, greed and apathy

Sowed way back in our history

The fish are few the harbours empty

The keels now rot on our oil-slicked shores

The sheep are gone, the farms deserted

We're out of sight and we're out of mind



Hey there laddie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?

Hey there lassie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?



Like our fathers before us

We've eyes for America

Dream of a new life on foreign shores

But wherever we go, we'll always know

That the land we stand on, is never our own



Hey there laddie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?

Hey there lassie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?