Brian Eno [Synthesizer, Producer]

Oh I was moved by your screen dream
Celluloid pictures of living
Your death could not kill our love for you
Take two people - romantic
Smoky nightclub situation
Your cigarette traces a ladder
Here's looking at you kid
Celebrate years
Here's looking at you kid
Wipe away tears
Long time, since we're together
Now I hope it's forever
Ideal love flies away now
White jacket, mmmn, black tie wings too
You gave her away to the hero
Words don't express my meaning
Notes could not spell out the score
But finding not keeping's the lesson
Here's looking at you kid
Hard to forget
Here's looking at you kid
At least not yet
Your memory stays
It lingers ever
Will fade away never

Jolly roger in a pickup
Has a packet on the horses
He's a docker with a bucket -
Just the ticket in a thicket.

Silly sally isn't pally
With the crackers in the alley:
She's a smacker and a whacker -
Wouldn't dally with a slacker.



Sally keeping in her locker
Little packets for the docker jolly roger
(looking pretty, just the sucker for a shocker)

Jolly roger in a pickup
Has a packet on the horses
He's a docker with a bucket -
Just the ticket in a thicket.

Jolly roger in a pickup
Has a packet on the horses
He's a docker with a bucket -
Just the ticket in a thicket.

Silly sally isn't pally
With the crackers in the alley:
She's a smacker and a whacker -
Wouldn't dally with a slacker.



Sally keeping in her locker
Little packets for the docker jolly roger
(looking pretty, just the sucker for a shocker)

Jolly roger in a pickup
Has a packet on the horses
He's a docker with a bucket -
Just the ticket in a thicket.

And then so clear to wonder
To wake with open eyes
As the snow across the tundra
And the rain across the skies
And the rain across the skies

So much again and weightless
In the motherworld of space
We fail to form to come to
And the razor mountains fade
And the day is cursed in shame

In these the world we open
So much to lose to save
To light the highest beacons
And the rose of love will bleed
And the rose of love will bleed

In these the world we open
So much to lose and save
To light the brightest beacon
And the rose of love will bleed
And the razor mountains fade
And the day is cursed in shame

Baby's On Fire
Better throw her in the water
Look at her laughing
Like a heifer to the slaughter

Baby's On Fire
And all the laughing boys are bitching
Waiting for photos
Oh the plot is so bewitching
Rescuers row, row
Do your best to change the subject
Blow the wind blow, blow
Lend some assistance to the object

Photographers snip-snap
Take your time she's only burning
This kind of experience
Is necessary for her learning
If you'd be my flotsam
I could be half the man I used to
They said you were hot stuff
And that's what baby's been reduced to

Juanita and Juan
Very clever with maracas
Making their fortune
Selling second-hand tobaccos
Juan dances at Chico's
And when the clients are addicted
He empties their ashtrays
And pockets all that he's collected

But baby's on fire
And all the instruments agree that
Her temperature's rising
But any idiot would know that

Bitter-Sweet
Andy Mackay And Brian Ferry

Well this is such
A sad affair
I've opened up my heart
So many times
But now it's closed

Oh my dear
Every salted tear
It wrings
Bitter-sweet applause

But when the show's in full swing
Every once in a while
High stepping chorus lines
Mean I'm forgetting
Mein lullaby - liebchen

How rich in contrast
Love can be
Sometimes I'm quite amused
To see it twist and turn
To taste - both sweet and dry

These vintage years!
Lovers you consume, my friend
As others their wine

Nein, dass ist nicht
Das Ende der Welt
Gestrandet an Leben und Kunst
Und das Spiel geht weiter
Wie man weiss
Noch viele Schoenste ... Wiedersehn

And now, as you turn to leave
You try to force a smile -
As if to compensate -
Then you break down and cry

Baby's on fire
Better throw her in the water
Look at her laughing
Like a heifer to the slaughter

Baby's on fire
And all the laughing boys are bitching
Waiting for photos
Oh the plot is so bewitching

Rescuers row row
Do your best to change the subject
Blow the wind blow blow
Lend some assistance to the object

Photographers snip snap
Take your time she's only burning
This kind of experience
Is necessary for her learning

If you'll be my flotsam
I could be half the man I used to
They said you were hot stuff
And that's what Baby's been reduced to...

Juanita and Juan
Very clever with maraccas
Making their fortunes
Selling second-hand tobaccoes

Juan dances at Chico's
And when the clients are evicted
He empties the ashtrays
And pockets all that he's collected

But Baby's on fire!
And all the instruments agree that
Her temperature's rising
But any idiot would know that.

These are your orders, seems like it's do it or die
So please read them closely
When you've learnt them be sure that you eat them up
They're specially flavoured with burgundy, Tizer and rye
Twelve sheets of foolscap, don't ask me why.

We hit the jungle just as it starts to monsoon
Our maps showed no rainfall
All the boys were depressed by this circumstance
Trust in the weather to bless agricultural man
Who gives birth to more farmhands, don't ask me why.

Fifteen was chosen because he was dumb
Seven because he was blind
I got the job because I was so mean
While somehow appearing so kind
Drifting about through the cauliflower trees
With a cauliflower ear for the birds
The Squadron assembled what senses they had
And this is the sound that they heard

Back at headquarters khaki decisions are made
File under 'Futile', that should give you its main point of reference
It's all so confusing, what with pythons and then deadly flies
But to them it's a picnic, don't ask me why.

Thirteen was chosen because of his luck
Eleven because of his feet
One got signed up for exceptional pluck
Another because he was mute
Roaming about through the gelatin swamps
With a gelatin eye on the stripes
The Squadron assembled what senses they had
And this is the sound that they heard

Back in Blighty there was you
There were milkmen every morning
But/Fuck these endless shiny trees
Never used to be that way.

These are your orders, seems like it's do it or die
So please read them closely
When you've learnt them be sure that you eat them up
They're specially flavoured with burgundy, Tizer and rye
Twelve sheets of foolscap, don't ask me why.

We hit the jungle just as it starts to monsoon
Our maps showed no rainfall
All the boys were depressed by this circumstance
Trust in the weather to bless agricultural man
Who gives birth to more farmhands, don't ask me why.

Fifteen was chosen because he was dumb
Seven because he was blind
I got the job because I was so mean
While somehow appearing so kind
Drifting about through the cauliflower trees
With a cauliflower ear for the birds
The Squadron assembled what senses they had
And this is the sound that they heard

Back at headquarters khaki decisions are made
File under 'Futile', that should give you its main point of reference
It's all so confusing, what with pythons and then deadly flies
But to them it's a picnic, don't ask me why.

Thirteen was chosen because of his luck
Eleven because of his feet
One got signed up for exceptional pluck
Another because he was mute
Roaming about through the gelatin swamps
With a gelatin eye on the stripes
The Squadron assembled what senses they had
And this is the sound that they heard

Back in Blighty there was you
There were milkmen every morning
But/Fuck these endless shiny trees
Never used to be that way.

These are your orders, seems like it's do it or die
So please read them closely
When you've learnt them be sure that you eat them up
They're specially flavoured with burgundy, Tizer and rye
Twelve sheets of foolscap, don't ask me why.

We hit the jungle just as it starts to monsoon
Our maps showed no rainfall
All the boys were depressed by this circumstance
Trust in the weather to bless agricultural man
Who gives birth to more farmhands, don't ask me why.

Fifteen was chosen because he was dumb
Seven because he was blind
I got the job because I was so mean
While somehow appearing so kind
Drifting about through the cauliflower trees
With a cauliflower ear for the birds
The Squadron assembled what senses they had
And this is the sound that they heard

Back at headquarters khaki decisions are made
File under 'Futile', that should give you its main point of reference
It's all so confusing, what with pythons and then deadly flies
But to them it's a picnic, don't ask me why.

Thirteen was chosen because of his luck
Eleven because of his feet
One got signed up for exceptional pluck
Another because he was mute
Roaming about through the gelatin swamps
With a gelatin eye on the stripes
The Squadron assembled what senses they had
And this is the sound that they heard

Back in Blighty there was you
There were milkmen every morning
But/Fuck these endless shiny trees
Never used to be that way.

These are your orders, seems like it's do it or die
So please read them closely
When you've learnt them be sure that you eat them up
They're specially flavoured with burgundy, Tizer and rye
Twelve sheets of foolscap, don't ask me why.

We hit the jungle just as it starts to monsoon
Our maps showed no rainfall
All the boys were depressed by this circumstance
Trust in the weather to bless agricultural man
Who gives birth to more farmhands, don't ask me why.

Fifteen was chosen because he was dumb
Seven because he was blind
I got the job because I was so mean
While somehow appearing so kind
Drifting about through the cauliflower trees
With a cauliflower ear for the birds
The Squadron assembled what senses they had
And this is the sound that they heard

Back at headquarters khaki decisions are made
File under 'Futile', that should give you its main point of reference
It's all so confusing, what with pythons and then deadly flies
But to them it's a picnic, don't ask me why.

Thirteen was chosen because of his luck
Eleven because of his feet
One got signed up for exceptional pluck
Another because he was mute
Roaming about through the gelatin swamps
With a gelatin eye on the stripes
The Squadron assembled what senses they had
And this is the sound that they heard

Back in Blighty there was you
There were milkmen every morning
But/Fuck these endless shiny trees
Never used to be that way.

Backwater
We're sailing at the edges of time
Backwater
We're drifting at the waterline
Oh, we're floating in the coastal waters
You and me and the porter's daughters
Ooh what to do, not a sausage to do
And the shorter of the porter's daughters
Dips her hand in the deadly waters
Ooh what to do, in a tiny canoe

Black water
There were six of us but now we are five
We're all talking
To keep the conversation alive
There was a senator from Ecuador
Who talked about a meteor
That crashed on a hill in the south of Peru
And was found by a conquistador
Who took it to the Emperor
And he passed it on to a Turkish guru

His daughter
Was slated for becoming divine
He taught her
He taught her how to split and define
But if you study the logistics
And heuristics of the mystics
You will find that their minds rarely move in a line
So it's much more realistic
To abandon such ballistics
And resign to be trapped on a leaf in the vine

Backwater
We're sailing at the edges of time
Backwater
We're drifting at the waterline
Oh, we're floating in the coastal waters
You and me and the porter's daughters
Ooh what to do, not a sausage to do
And the shorter of the porter's daughters
Dips her hand in the deadly waters
Ooh what to do, in a tiny canoe

Black water
There were six of us but now we are five
We're all talking
To keep the conversation alive
There was a senator from Ecuador
Who talked about a meteor
That crashed on a hill in the south of Peru
And was found by a conquistador
Who took it to the Emperor
And he passed it on to a Turkish guru

His daughter
Was slated for becoming divine
He taught her
He taught her how to split and define
But if you study the logistics
And heuristics of the mystics
You will find that their minds rarely move in a line
So it's much more realistic
To abandon such ballistics
And resign to be trapped on a leaf in the vine

Rain, rain’s floating down again
Surround your mind
Soft cloud, take me around again
On your rain
My dreams tell me everything
Surprise around
Call out your name
I need help again
For all love brigade
What you was, said is sure
Running on the seventh floor
Do it all, let it slide
Breathe yourself goodbye
See it all through the wall
Living outside again
Need a long way to go
Said you our escape
I died, when you fall again
Say out
I lied
I love feeling small again
All around, satisfied

Valerie please believe it never could work out
The time to make plans has passed faded away
Oooh the way you look makes my starry eyes shiver
Then I look away too much for one day

One thing we share is an ideal of beauty
Treasure so rare that even devils might care
Your swimming pool eyes in sea breezes they flutter
The coconut tears heavy lidded they shed
Swaying palms at your feet
you're the pride of your street

While you worship the sun summer lover of fun
Gold number with neighbours
who said that you'll go far
Maybe someday be a star a fast mover like you
And your dreams will all come true
...

All of my hope and my inspiration
I drew from you our life's patterns drawn in sand
But the winds could not erase
the memory of your face

Deep in the night plying very strange cargo
Our soul ships pass by solo trips to the stars
in the sky
Gliding so far that the eye cannot follow
Where do they go? We'll never know

At last the crimson chord cascade
To shower dry cordials within
Too late to leap the chocolate gate
Pale fountains fizzing forth pink gin
While destiny begins to fly
The farmyard chorus sings its wake
Upstanding anthem to the sky
Too soon to realise their fate
You were the raven of October
I knew the sign you flew around
Up in the air so high above me
Never needed to look down
I never thought I'd be a rover
I didn't even look around
But now I know you've found another
So will someone please find me
Give now the host his claret cup
And watch Madeira's farewell drink
Note his reaction acid sharp
Should make the cognoscenti think

Blank Frank is the messenger of your doom and your destruction
Yes, he is the one who will set you up as nothing
And he is one who will look at you sideways
His particular skill is leaving bombs in people's driveways.


Blank Frank has a memory that's as cold as an iceberg
The only time he speaks is in incomprehensible proverbs
Blank Frank is the siren, he's the air-raid, he's the crater
He's on the menu, on the table, he's the knife and he's the waiter

Blank Frank is the messenger of your doom and your destruction
Yes, he is the one who will set you up as nothing
And he is one who will look at you sideways
His particular skill is leaving bombs in people's driveways.


Blank Frank has a memory that's as cold as an iceberg
The only time he speaks is in incomprehensible proverbs
Blank Frank is the siren, he's the air-raid, he's the crater
He's on the menu, on the table, he's the knife and he's the waiter

My body
So thin
So tired
Beaten for years
Ploughshare to bomb
So hard

Bonebomb
Bonebomb
Bonebomb

My town
So dusty
So dry
Buildings pushed over
Lives heat together
Young girls dreaming of beautiful deaths
Pop star pictures above their beds
Above their heads
Troops

Everything stolen
Except my bones
Now I am only bone
I waited for peace
And here is my peace
Here in this still last minute of my life

Do you really wanna go on like this
Do you really wanna go on like this
Do you really wanna go on like this
Get to the bottom of the well
Do you really wanna go on like this
Do you really wanna go on like this
Do you really wanna go on like this
Get to the bottom of the well

Great lines of numbers
All bright and shiny
All through the ether
Some huge, some tiny
All though the ether
From France to China
Unite the people
All bottomliners

Some brass, some paper,
Some gold, some silver,
Some full of promise,
Some full of anger,
In ranks of thousands
They fall and stumble
All bottomliners
We make the number

And in the future,
New forms of romance:
Grenade and landmine
In twilit silence
With hands that tremble
And lives that flounder
All bottomliners
All undergrounders
All undergrounders
All undergrounders
All undergrounders

I'm building a fire
A flame for always
I'm living on fire
A flame for always
I'm living like fire
A flame for always
I'm building a fire
A flame for always
I'm living like fire
A flame for always

How long to go
Before this flame dies
How long to burn
Before I blaze away
I blaze away

So long to all my friends
And those who taunted me
To those who lead me on
To those who...

When I got back home I found a message on the door
Sweet Regina's gone to China crosslegged on the floor
Of a burning jet that's smoothly flying
Burning airlines give you so much more

How does she intend to live when she's in far Cathay
I somehow can't imagine her just planting rice all day
Maybe she will do a bit of spying
With microcameras hidden in her hair

I guess Regina's on a plane a Newsweek on her knees
While miles below the curlews call from strangely stunted trees
The painted sage sits just as though he's flying
Regina's jet disturbs his wispy beard.

When you reach Kyoto send a postcard if you can
And please convey my fond regards to Chih-Hao's girl Yu-Lan
I heard a rumour they were getting married
But someone left the papers in Japan.

Left them in Japan.

When I got back home I found a message on the door
Sweet Regina's gone to China crosslegged on the floor
Of a burning jet that's smoothly flying
Burning airlines give you so much more

How does she intend to live when she's in far Cathay
I somehow can't imagine her just planting rice all day
Maybe she will do a bit of spying
With microcameras hidden in her hair

I guess Regina's on a plane a Newsweek on her knees
While miles below the curlews call from strangely stunted trees
The painted sage sits just as though he's flying
Regina's jet disturbs his wispy beard.

When you reach Kyoto send a postcard if you can
And please convey my fond regards to Chih-Hao's girl Yu-Lan
I heard a rumour they were getting married
But someone left the papers in Japan.

Left them in Japan.

Here we are
Stuck by this river,
You and I
Underneath a sky that's ever falling down, down,
down
Ever falling down.

Through the day
As if on an ocean
Waiting here,
Always failing to remember why we came, came,
came:
I wonder why we came.

You talk to me
as if from a distance
And I reply
With impressions chosen from another time, time,
time,
From another time.

Here we are
Stuck by this river,
You and I
Underneath a sky that's ever falling down, down,
down
Ever falling down.

Through the day
As if on an ocean
Waiting here,
Always failing to remember why we came, came,
came:
I wonder why we came.

You talk to me
as if from a distance
And I reply
With impressions chosen from another time, time,
time,
From another time.

Here we are
Stuck by this river,
You and I
Underneath a sky that's ever falling down, down,
down
Ever falling down.

Through the day
As if on an ocean
Waiting here,
Always failing to remember why we came, came,
came:
I wonder why we came.

You talk to me
as if from a distance
And I reply
With impressions chosen from another time, time,
time,
From another time.

Caught between
The Earth and the sky
What too long
And what too high
Fallen free and holding on
Nothing there at all

Dropped and lifted
Gotta breathe
Bottom drifting
On the way
Holding just a few poor words
And nothing at all

Reaching out
To still the sand
No light connects
The breaking moments
Drifting to another shore
There's nothing here
That I could change at all
Nothing at all

Forced to be
A broken line
Let to hold
What we could find
Then to learn
And go again
Nothing sorted out

High above
A single bird
It drifts about
The dead volcano
Who's to lose
And who's to find
There's nothing here
That I could choose at all
Choose at all..

I never thought I'd seen you again
Where have you been until now'
Well how are you' how have you been'
It's a long time since we last met
It seems like yesterday when I
First saw you in your red dress smile
How could I forget that day
I know that time spent well is so rare

In the haze of the morning, China sits on Eternity
And the opium farmers sell dreams to obscure fraternities
On the horizon the curtains are closing

Down in the orchard the aunties and uncles play their games
(like it seems they always have done)
In the blue distance the vertical offices bear their names
(like it seems they always have done)
Clocks ticking slowly, dividing the day up

These poor girls are such fun they know what God gave them fingers for
(to make percussion over solos)

China my China, I've wandered around and you're still here
(which I guess you should be proud of)
Your walls have enclosed you, have kept you at home for thousands of years
(but there's something I should tell you)
All the young boys are dressing like sailors

I remember a man who jumped out from a window over the bay
(there was hardly a raised eyebrow)
The coroner told me 'This kind of thing happens every day'
You see, from a pagoda, the world is so tidy.

In the haze of the morning, China sits on Eternity
And the opium farmers sell dreams to obscure fraternities
On the horizon the curtains are closing

Down in the orchard the aunties and uncles play their games
(like it seems they always have done)
In the blue distance the vertical offices bear their names
(like it seems they always have done)
Clocks ticking slowly, dividing the day up

These poor girls are such fun they know what God gave them fingers for
(to make percussion over solos)

China my China, I've wandered around and you're still here
(which I guess you should be proud of)
Your walls have enclosed you, have kept you at home for thousands of years
(but there's something I should tell you)
All the young boys are dressing like sailors

I remember a man who jumped out from a window over the bay
(there was hardly a raised eyebrow)
The coroner told me 'This kind of thing happens every day'
You see, from a pagoda, the world is so tidy.

Cindy tells me, the rich girls are weeping
Cindy tells me, they've given up sleeping alone
And now they're so confused by their new freedoms
And she tells me they're selling up their maisonettes
Left the Hotpoints to rust in the kitchenettes
And they're saving their labour for insane reading.


Some of them lose - and some of them lose
But that's what they want - and that's what they choose
It's a burden - such a burden
Oh what a burden to be so relied on.


Cindy tell me, what will they do with their lives
Living quietly like labourer's wives
Perhaps they'll re-acquire those things they've all disposed of.

Cindy tells me, the rich girls are weeping
Cindy tells me, they've given up sleeping alone
And now they're so confused by their new freedoms
And she tells me they're selling up their maisonettes
Left the Hotpoints to rust in the kitchenettes
And they're saving their labour for insane reading.


Some of them lose - and some of them lose
But that's what they want - and that's what they choose
It's a burden - such a burden
Oh what a burden to be so relied on.


Cindy tell me, what will they do with their lives
Living quietly like labourer's wives
Perhaps they'll re-acquire those things they've all disposed of.

I know you're so sad
So sad you can't cry
But I know you let go
Although you can't remember why

Your lipstick don't fit
Your strap's coming loose
You're out in the hall
Waltzing the blues

Now you hurt somewhere
They won't find a bruise
You've been learning to walk
In those dancin' shoes

I had a mama
She told me 'bout you
She said true love don't lie
You touch that woman
And the smoke won't leave your eyes

You're talking, you walk
'Cause you can't refuse
Learning to walk
In those dancin' shoes

Now you hurt somewhere
They won't find a bruise
Learning to walk
In those dancin' shoes

Oh cheeky cheeky
Oh naughty sneeky
You're so perceptive and I wonder how you knew.


But these finks don't walk too well
A bad sense of direction
And so they stumble round in threes
Such a strange collection.


Oh you headless chicken
Can those poor teeth take so much kicking?
You're always so charming
As you peck your way up there.


And these finks don't dress too well
No discrimination
To be a zombie all the time
Requires such dedication.


Oh please, sir will you let it go by
'Cos I failed both tests with my legs both tied
In my place the stuff is all there
I've been ever so sad for a very long time
My my they wanted the works can you this and that
I never got a letter back
More for me bless my soul
More for me bless my soul.


Oh perfect masters
They thrive on disasters
They all look so harmless
Till they find there way up there.


But dead finks don't talk too well
They've got a shaky sense of diction
It's not so much a living hell
It's just a dying fiction.

Oh cheeky cheeky
Oh naughty sneeky
You're so perceptive and I wonder how you knew.


But these finks don't walk too well
A bad sense of direction
And so they stumble round in threes
Such a strange collection.


Oh you headless chicken
Can those poor teeth take so much kicking?
You're always so charming
As you peck your way up there.


And these finks don't dress too well
No discrimination
To be a zombie all the time
Requires such dedication.


Oh please, sir will you let it go by
'Cos I failed both tests with my legs both tied
In my place the stuff is all there
I've been ever so sad for a very long time
My my they wanted the works can you this and that
I never got a letter back
More fool me bless my soul
More fool me bless my soul.


Oh perfect masters
They thrive on disasters
They all look so harmless
Till they find there way up there.


But dead finks don't talk too well
They've got a shaky sense of diction
It's not so much a living hell
It's just a dying fiction.