“Rank”
Live - 5 settembre 1988 - Debaser id 21607

(Oh! Take me back to dear old Blighty,
Put me on the train for London Town,
Take me anywhere,
Drop me anywhere,
Liverpool, Leeds or Birmingham
'Cause I don't care,
I should like to see my...
I don't bless them)

(Farewell...)
to this land's cheerless marshes
Hemmed in like a boar between arches
Her very Lowness with her head in a sling
I'm truely sorry but it sounds like a wonderful thing
I say: "Charles, don't you ever crave
To appear on the front of the Daily Mail
Dressed in your Mother's bridal veil?"
And so I checked all the registered historical facts
And I was shocked into shame to discover
How I'm the 18th pale descendent
Of some old queen or other
Oh has the world changed or have I changed?
Oh has the world changed or have I changed?
As some 9-year old tough who peddles drugs
(I swear to God, I swear)
I never even knew what drugs were
And so I broke into the Palace
With a sponge and a rusty spanner
She said: "Eh, I know and you cannot sing!"
I said: "That's nothing, you should hear me play piano!"

We can go for a walk where it's quiet and dry
And talk about precious things
But when you're tied to your Mother's apron
No one talks about castration
We can go for a walk where it's quiet and dry
And talk about precious things
Like love and law and poverty
There are the things that kill me
We can go for a walk where it's quiet and dry
And talk about precious things
But the rain that flattens my hair
These are the things that kill me

(All their life, they make love, and pierce through me)

Passed the Pub that saps your body
And the church who'll snatch your money
The Queen is dead, boys
And it's so lonely on a limb
Passed the Pub that wrecks your body
And the church - all they want is your money
The Queen is dead, boys
And it's so lonely on a limb

(Life is very long when you're lonely)

PANIC on the streets of London
PANIC on the streets of Birmingham
I wonder to myself
Could life ever be sane again
On the Leeds side-streets that you slip down
I wonder to myself
Hopes may rise on the Grasmeres
But Honey-Pie you're not safe here
So you run down
To the safety of the town
But there's PANIC on the streets of Carlisle
Dublin, Dundee, Humberside
I wonder to myself

Burn down the Disco
Hang the blessed D.J.
Because the music that they constantly play
IT SAYS NOTHING TO ME ABOUT MY LIFE
Hang the blessed D.J.
Because the music they constantly play

On the Leeds side-streets that you slip down
On the provincial towns you jog 'round
HANG THE D.J. HANG THE D.J. HANG THE D.J.
HANG THE D.J. HANG THE D.J. HANG THE D.J.
HANG THE D.J. HANG THE D.J. HANG THE D.J.

I was minding my business
Lifting some lead off
The roof of the Holy Name church
It was worthwhile living a laughable life
To set my eyes on the blistering sight
Of a vicar in a tutu
He's not strange
He just wants to live his life this way

A scanty bit of a thing
Covered with a decorative ring
Wouldn't cover the head of a goose
As Rose collects the money in the cannister
Who comes sliding down the bannister?
Vicar in a tutu
He's not strange
He just wants to live his life this way

The monkish monsignor
With a head full of plaster
Said: "My man, get your vile soul dry-cleaned!"
As Rose counts the money in the cannister
As natural as Rain
And he dances again, my God
Vicar in a tutu..

The next day in the pulpit
With Freedom and Ease
Combatting ignorance, dust with disease
As Rose counts the money in the cannister
As natural as Rain
And he dances again and again..
With a fabric of a tutu
Any man could get used to
And I am the living sign

And I'm a living sign
I'm a living sign..

Shyness is nice and
Shyness can stop you
From doing all the things in life you'd like to

So, if there's something you'd like to try
If there's something you'd like to try
ASK me - I won't say no - How could I?

Coyness is nice and
Coyness can stop you
From saying all the things in life you'd like to

So, if there's something you'd like to try
If there's something you'd like to try
ASK me - I won't say no - How could I?

Spending warm Summer days indoors
Writing frightening verse
To a buck-toothed girl in Luxembourg
ASK me, ASK me, ASK me
ASK me, ASK me, ASK me
Because if it's not Love
Then it's the Bomb, the Bomb..
That will bring us together

Nature is a language - can't you read?
Nature is a language - can't you read?

So ASK me, ASK me, ASK me
ASK me, ASK me, ASK me
Because if it's not Love
Then it's the Bomb, the Bomb..
That will bring us together

If it's not Love
Than it's the Bomb, than it's the Bomb
That will bring us together

So ASK me, ASK me, ASK me
ASK me, ASK me, ASK me

The last night of the fair
By the big wheel generator
A boy is stabbed
And his money is grabbed
And the air hangs heavy like a dulling wine
She is famous
She is funny
An engagement ring
Doesn't mean a thing
To a mind consumed by brass (money)
And though I walk home alone
(I might walk home alone)
But my faith in love is still devout
The last night of the fair
From a seat on a whirling waltzer
Her skirt ascends for a watching eye
It's a hideous trait (on her mother's side)
From a seat on a whirling waltzer
Her skirt ascends for a watching eye
It's a hideous trait (on her mother's side)
And though I walk home alone
(I might walk home alone)
But my faith in love is still devout
Then someone falls in love
And someone's beaten up
Someone's beaten up
And the senses being dulled are mine
And someone falls in love
Then someone's beaten up
Someone's beaten up
And the senses being dulled are mine
And though I walk home alone
(I might walk home alone)
But my faith in love is still devout
This is the last night of the fair
And the grease in the hair
Of a speedway operator
Is all a tremulous heart requires
A schoolgirl is denied
She said: "How quickly would I die
If I jumped from the top of the parachute?"
This is the last night of the fair
And the grease in the hair
Of a speedway operator
Is all a tremulous heart requires
A schoolgirl is denied
She said: "How quickly would I die
If I jumped from the top of the parachute?"
So scratch my name on your arm with a fountain pen
This means you really love me
Scratch my name on your arm with a fountain pen
This means you really love me
And though I walk home alone
(I just might walk home alone)
But my faith in love is still devout
I might walk home alone
But my faith in love is still devout

The boy with the thorn in his side
Behind the Hatred there lies
A murderous desire for love
How can they look into my eyes
And still they don't believe me?
How can they hear me say those words
And still they don't believe me?
And if they don't believe me now
Will they ever believe me?
And if they don't believe me now
Will they, will they ever believe me?

The boy with the thorn in his side
Behind the Hatred there lies
A plundering desire for love
How can they see the Love in our eyes
And still they don't believe us?
And after all this time
They don't want to believe us
And if they don't believe us now
Will they ever believe us?
And when you want to Live
How do you start?
Where do you go?
Who do you need to know?

What she said:
"How come someone hasn't noticed that I'm dead
And decided to bury me?
God knows I'm ready.."
What she said was sad
But then all the rejections she's had
To pretend to be happy
Could only be idiocy
What she said was not for the job or lover
That she never had

What she read
All heady books
She'd sit and prophesise
(It took a tattooed boy from Birkenhead
to really really open her eyes)
What she read
All heady books
She'd sit and prophesise
(It took a tattooed boy from Birkenhead
to really really open her eyes)

What she said:
"I smoke 'cause I'm hoping for an early death
And I need to cling to something!"
What she said:
"I smoke 'cause I'm hoping for an early death
And I need to cling to something!"

A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
While Wilde is on mine
So we go inside and we gravely read the stones
All those people, all those lives
Where are they now?
With loves and hates
And passions just like mine
They were born
And then they lived
And then they died
Seems so unfair
I want to cry
You say: "Ere thrice the sun hath done
salutation to the dawn"
And you claim these words as your own
But I've read well and I've heard them said
A hundred times (maybe less, maybe more)
If you must write prose or poems
The words you use should be your own
Don't plagiarise or take 'on loan'
There's always someone, somewhere
With a big nose who knows
And who trips you up and laughs
When you fall
Who'll trip you up and laugh
When you fall
You say: "Ere long done do does did"
Words which could only be your own
And then produce the text
From whence was ripped
'Some dizzy whore', 1804
A dreaded sunny day
So let's go where we're happy
And I meet you at the cemetry gates
Oh Keats and Yeats are on your side
A dreaded sunny day
So let's go where we're wanted
And I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
But you lose
'Cause weird lover Wilde is on mine
(Sure!)

Smoke
Lingers 'round your fingers
Train
Heave on - to Euston
Do you think you've made
The right decision this time?

You left
Your tired family grieving
And you think they're sad
Because you're leaving
But didn't you see the Jealousy in the eyes
Of the ones who had to stay behind?
And do you think you've made
The right decision this time?

You left
Your girlfriend on the platform
With this really ragged notion
That you'll return
But she knows
That when he goes
He really goes
And do you think you've made
The right decision this time?

Instrumental

I decree today that life
Is simply taking and not giving
England is mine and it owes me a living
Ask me why and I'll spit in your eye
Ask me why and I'll spit in your eye
But we cannot cling to the old dreams anymore
No, we cannot cling to those dreams

Does the body rule the mind
Or does the mind rule the body?
I don't know..

Under the iron bridge we kissed
And although I ended up with sore lips
It just wasn't like the old dreams anymore
No, it wasn't like those days
Am I still ill?
Am I still ill?

Does the body rule the mind
Or does the mind rule the body?
I don't know..

Ask me why and I'll die
Ask me why and I'll die
And if you must go to work tomorrow
Well, if I were you I wouldn't bother
For there are brighter sides to life
And I should know because I've seen them
But not often

Under the iron bridge we kissed
And although I ended up with sore lips
It just wasn't like the old dreams anymore
No, it wasn't like those days
Am I still ill?

Oh am I still ill?

Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking
When I said I'd like to smash every tooth
In your head
Sweetness, sweetness I was only joking
When I said by rights you should be
Bludgeoned in your bed

And now I know how Joan of Arc felt
Now I know how Joan of Arc felt
As the flames rose to her roman nose
And her walkman started to melt

Bigmouth.. bigmouth..
Bigmouth strikes again
And I've got no right to take my place
To the Human race

And now I know how Joan of Arc felt
Now I know how Joan of Arc felt
As the flames rose to her roman nose
And her hearing-aid started to melt