1. |
Town Where I Live
03:15
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Nothing happens in the town where I live
Everything’s under control
Feel the music in the town where I live
Sounds of mowers ease your soul
As they’re steadily losing the fight
To remain so insanely polite
Aren’t they scared that the terrible strain
Could well drive them politely politely insane
Going jogging in the town where I live
Keep that body mass in check
Dolphin-friendly in the town where I live
Shoot flesh-eaters in the neck
With a nose for a sexist text
You have given each author a blot
I wonder what you’re planning next
You’ll say each of my songs is a chauvinist plot
Join the rally in the town where I live
Throw the books into the fire
Nothing happens in the town where I live
Seems a nice place to retire
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2. |
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I would not worship sport
They threw their chains around me
Made me take rugby vows
And swear an oath on tennis court
I would not worship sport
They would hear no good of me
I had condemned my soul
Because I could not bat or bowl
With the legend of laziness dogging his days
He was every school’s dream of a kid to haze
Made him swim in the mud and they pissed on his books
Just something ‘bout the way he looks
But I’ve seen cricketers
And they were thwarted in their prime
Their passion came to naught
Led to believe that sport was crime
By wives who did not worship sport
And only worshipped money
And now they’ve all lost out
I will not watch the news report
Cause the newsreader beat up my friends after class
And the local MP used to kick my ass
In the midst of the scrum at the school of hard knocks
They learnt to think outside the box
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3. |
Pedro the Great
03:03
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When there’s chili oil on your contact lens
And the toothpaste stings your throat
The computer says you lost half your friends
And there’s gum stuck to your coat
O don’t despair that life’s not fair
This could be a job for Pedro the Great
You waste half your time at the scenes of crimes
While detectives are making you wait
And you’re out of gas or you’re out of rhymes
All you want is a new clean slate
Don’t complain he can feel your pain
This could be a job for Pedro the Great
You’re wasting and waiting
You’re trying his patience
He’s dying to find you
He’s sending his agents
They're blaming the season
They're calling it treason
And this is the reason
We’re making a call
Making us a call to Pedro the Great
When the village buys you a round of drinks
With the cash from the beards that you tax
And the boat you built at the weekend sinks
Don’t forget to keep sharpening your axe
Cause it’s quite fine not to stay in line
This could be a job for Pedro the Great
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4. |
The Manager
03:36
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He said he’d manage
Said he’d hold it all together
Now he’s hanging
From the end of his tether
He’s off sulking
Barely coping
Cause he can’t manage this
And he can’t manage that
But they’ve put him in charge
And they’ve passed him the hat
O the devil’s a charmer
A suave dapper gent
And his watchword watchword
Is management
The highly successful
Don’t share their habits with the masses
They vent their hot air
But they conserve their noble gases
Now he’s learning
The lessons that he didn’t
Get from the lectures for his MBA
For they didn’t prepare him to work here today
O the devil’s a charmer
A suave dapper gent
And his watchword watchword
Is management
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5. |
Pegasus Licence
01:57
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He was cursed with the stroke of good luck
Meant he never learnt from a single mistake
Didn’t matter how insane he behaved himself
Next morning he’d always awake
The future held no fear
And living in the now was not built to last
He was more concerned for the night before
And his unpredictable past
But in his favour
He had a Pegasus licence
When he called his friends to pick him up
They inquired are you still alive
And isn’t it time you got a car
He said poets do not drive
There was a poet called Vincent Voiture
But he was born before the revolution
I’m revving up my flying horse
I’ve found a quick solution
It’s my saviour
Got my Pegasus licence
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6. |
Anniversary
02:50
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Anniversary I’m always dreading
Cause they’ll all know the year I was born in
Anniversary is it a wedding
Go without me for I won’t be drawn in
Is it calico or bone?
Will I spend the entire year alone?
Fit for an emperor king or a pharaoh
I would change all this gold to return to year zero
Anniversary I’m always waiting
For the bells to grow tired of their chiming
Every year brings a new style of hating
And the dates are so cruel with their timing
Is it paper pearl or lace?
Do the numbers fill an empty space?
Blows out the candles if he spits far
And 83 means a second bar mitzvah
Anniversary darkness is spreading
But I’m wheeled out to prove life’s eternal
Anniversary I’m always dreading
As the gateway to suffering infernal
As a tear appeared in every eye
Tributes poured in from the men who watched my brother die
But next birthday they’ll say I’ve pulled a fast one
By outliving them all and I fear it will not be the last one
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7. |
I Love the Law
03:14
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I Love the Law
I love the law
And if you ask me yes but why what for
When you’ve been working this hard you don’t need a reason
I’m simply sure
It made me sore to think of working there forever poor
Time to buy out the people who I used to slave for
In the hardware store
I never understood how this great nation
Was built on countless tomes of loopy legislation
But now I’ve finally found my true vocation
I’m learning them by heart
I love the law
I love the law
And if you ask me yes but why what for
When you’ve been working this hard you don’t need a reason
I’m simply sure
Before the game my father swore
Better win this one or there’ll be war
And I adopt his sporting spirit every time I throw those robes on
And take the floor
No I don’t need the kind of education
That breeds that unemployed and erudite frustration
Strange how the most strident social critic
Will usually be society’s most parasitic
Ought to be a law against them all
I love the law
And if you ask me yes but why what for
When you’ve been working this hard you don’t need a reason
I’m simply sure
I love the law
I’ll fight this case for you with tooth and claw
But if we lose then you can rot in prison
Cause that’s the law
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8. |
Before the Swine
03:31
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Meet the lord of sneer
He lets no one near
And he snorts at caring lovers
Manners get short shrift
Doesn’t practice thrift
Though he praises it in others
Before the swine had taken over
Before the hogs had seized the day
We knew the dangers we were facing
We knew the options in our way
Now the sausage king
Has us trembling
With his confident dismissal
Of all grace and charm
Says it does to harm
To eat daily pounds of gristle
Chorus
Writing on the wall
Should have told us all
About the way that things were going
1389
1488
The graffiti of a war zone
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9. |
Cement
03:40
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That man who always on our TV
Likes to talk about stability
Wish that I knew what he meant
Thought your words were written in cement
I wandered through this sweaty town to find you
The tar was wet the cars were all on fire
The shoulder of the woman at the bus stop
Emblazoned with the Chinese for desire
It will not last for flesh is not cement
We’ll swear to give up the booze
If statesman kick the habit of the ooze
That spurts out of the ground
But we should learn from our government
They built a city all out of cement
Where grass cannot be found
We kissed beside the stacks of bricks and concrete
This building site’s a home to cats and ghosts
The black stuff doesn’t buy you what it used to
We’re sick and tired of presidential boasts
He’d look good with cement up to his neck
Thought we had something happening here
Thought the words you said to me my dear
Were written in cement
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10. |
Do You Have the Nerve?
03:40
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Do you have the nerve
To fight for your advertising agency
Enlist in the copywriters’ infantry
Go out hunting heads
Do you have the nerve
To write down the good news for governments
When they put nails in the butter vats
And glass in the eggs
Do you have the nerve
Do you have the guts
To always nod your head
Forgetting ifs and buts
If you have the nerve
And if you have the urge
To trample all the rest
You might survive the purge
Do you have the nerve
To battle your fellow employees
But if the management calls for it
To die for the cause
Do you have the nerve
To be so goddamn impossible
To crown yourself corporate cannibal
The lord of the bores
Do you have the nerve
Do you have the drive
To always be the first
You might come out alive
If you have the nerve
And if you have the urge
To trample all the rest
You might survive the purge
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11. |
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They like
Nothing
And they come round to your house
To make sure you like nothing too
They despise
Slacking
And they’re always making sure
That you’ve got lots of chores to do
In the golden age
Of mind control
When they clip your wings
And they slash your soul
They proscribe
Thinking
If they catch you sitting still
You’ll get a number in their book
Those cold eyes
Watching
They can take the measure of your spirit
With a single look
In the golden age
Of mind control
When they clip your wings
And they slash your soul
First verse
Chorus
In the golden age
Of mind control
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12. |
Kupchino
04:30
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Kupchino
I spent the last year and a half
Behaving politely
Practising my corporate laugh
I learnt to suffer fools lightly
This suit - it cannot tie me down
Take it off, they won’t shoot me
You’re fired doesn’t mean go and die
And this tie doesn’t suit me
Now it is time to get out
Throw that suit in the furnace
Get on the next train down
To Kupchino
The buildings grow high
They tore out the trees
We can’t see the sky
In Kupchino
The rats fled this place
They chewed through the walls
Abandoned the race
They’ve found a new town
And planted a crop
It’s growing there growing there growing there
I cannot bring myself
To kneel to my betters
But am I strong enough
To gnaw through these fetters?
Cognac, cigars at the club
Or beer by the bus stop
I’m sick of life at the top
But it’s so hard to give up
Mud is a balm for the soul
But my shoes are so shiny
They might get dirty
In Kupchino
The concrete and mud
You need a good dose
Not to hate your own blood
In Kupchino
The cigarette air
It cleanses your lungs
And rinses your hair
As soon as I’m fired
I swear to you all
I’m going there going there going there
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13. |
Hidden Track
02:55
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14. |
You Can Go Now
02:51
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Simon Patterson and the Bichan Orchestra Auckland, New Zealand
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