Robert Wyatt

There's a mushroom on my eyelid
There's a carrot down my back
I can see in the distance
A vast quantity of beans
To you I'm just a flavour
To make your soup taste nice
Oh my god here come the onions
And, I don't believe it, at least a pound of rice

There was a time when bacon sandwiches
Were everyone's favourite snack
I'm delicious when I'm crunchy
Even when I'm almost black
So why you make a soup with me
I just can't understand
It seems so bloody tasteless
Not to mention underhand

Now there's no hope of getting out of here
I can feel I'm going soft
Dirty waters soak my fibres
The whole saucepan's getting hot
So I may as well resign myself
Make friends with a few peas
But I just, I can't help hoping
a tummy ache will bring you to your knees

Bring you to your knees...

Kick me Hardy.
Without one sweet push from your shine covered boot,
I don't think, I just know I'll be grounded forever
More over turn me. You can hardly miss me,
I'm the one face down in the mud on the ground.
I'll be stuck here forever, unless you come over and
Kick me Hardy.

I'm the best football you have got.
I'll beat the lot. I'll take the cake.
Be masterful, be my hero and be
-lieve me Hardy.
If it's tough you want, then it's tough you've got.
I mean if this is only a question of toughness,
Survive me Hardy, or deflate me straight away.
Beating shit out of me takes the hell out of you.
If I'm nothing without you, then why stick it out?
You can pass me over.
But I'm the only chance you've got.
If you asked me, here's my advice
Use me to go hell for leather and back

Kick me Hardy.
Without one sweet push from your shine covered boot,
I don't think, I just know I'll be grounded forever
More over turn me. You should just be thankful,
When it comes to the crunch, I'm the best of the bunch.
At the end of the day, you could easily say
That I come in handy.

I'm the best football you have got.
I beat the lot. I take the cake.
Be masterful, be my hero and be
Greatful Hardy.
If it's tough you want, then it's tough you've got.
I mean if this is only a question of toughness
Survive me Handy, or deflate me pronto.
Beating shit out of me takes the hell out of you.
If I'm nothing without you, then why stick it out?
You can pass me over.
If you asked me, here's my advice.
Use me to go hell for leather and back.

There is a kind of compromise you are master of
Your endless gentle nudging left us polarised
You're proud of being middle class (meaning upper class)
You say you're self sufficient (but you don't dig your own coal)
I think that what you're frightened of more than anything
is knowing you need workers more than they need you
"A herd of independent minds" Chomsky got it right
Joggling into battle waving old school ties

It's so easy to decide on a name
it's a name caller's game
It's so easy to look down from above
Helicopter vision
Get the picture when you're outside the frame
Retrospective my eye
Call it art and you can say what you like
it's a name caller's game
Your perspective describes where I stand
Out of line, out of mind
Calling myopia 'focus', of course,
makes it easier still
Gharbzadegi means nothing to me
Westernitis to you
...We get so out of touch Words
take the place of meaning

A white house with a folly
A tower attached.
On the side
A hand painted saint
(Lovingly painted)
Peeps over a high wall
Which surrounds the white house.
His loving gaze
Is interrupted
By a line of broken glass
Cemented
On top of the high wall.
The saint
Lovingly dares
The outsider,
Or the stray cat,
To intrude
And recieve his loving blessing
In loving lacerated
Hands.

Picture the scene.

"Hello, how are you?"
"Well I'm green and yellow,
Pinky blue."

Dead alternative.

"Oh then, please step right in
To our nursery.
Just pick a group
That you can relate to,
Now the grownups have gone."

After the party is
Over, my friend,
There will be nothing you can
Put your finger on.
Just a parasol.

Palestine's a country
Or at least
Used to be.

Felahin, refugee
(Kurdistan similarly)
Need something to
Build on
Rather like
The rest of us.

Palestine's a country
Or at least
Used to be.

Felahin, refugee
(Deportees similarly)
Need something to build on
Rather like the rest of us
Got.

What we call
Freedom in the north
Means our freedom to
Use you

And if you don't co-operate
We'll cut off your supply lines

But You'll be free
To re-connect
If you beg our forgiveness

You say I
Over simplify
Well yes, so did
Albert Einstein

There simply
Is no middle ground
Pentagon uber alles

There never
Was a middle ground
That's the point I was making

There's no such
Place as middle ground
(That's the point we were making)
Left or Right of the equator

Trouble isn't my middle name,
Left in peace would make my day.
You started the fire not me,
Camouflaged in mystery.

Plundering, murdering,
Raiding coast to coast
Good old days of gore,
And now you tell me
I should learn to deal with you all
Bow to you and praise the Lords for
Everything, everything
You won for us.
After all that was before,
There weren't no amnesty
International,
Nobody to check you.
Don't give me that
'polis'
That 'rule of law'.

It takes a weekly packet
To keep the shrink in pocket
It costs a pretty penny
Just to stay afloat

It takes a lot of lolly
Trying to be jolly
When the interest keeps mounting
In the bank and in my person
It takes a bit of doing
Just feeling up to scratch

It's work work work
From dawn to dusk
My id is raw
My ego breaking
From months of toil
To separate my real self
From its husk

Everybody loves me
Everyone but me
It's costing cash to melt the ice
I've sweated blood to hear I'm nice

Two nuns
On the sea shore
Stand
Apart from one another
Black wood posts
Mesmerised
By the sea god

One nun
With human failings
And weary legs
Sinks to the sand
And sits
like a child

A golden stripe appears
On the western horizon
A signal from the sea god
That he understands
Tiredness

One staunch sister
stays standing
And the sun
Sets

Cast off the crutch that kills the pain,
The red flag wavin' never meant the same,
The kids of tomorrow don't need today,
When they live in the Sins of Yesterday.(x2)

Well I've never seen us act like this,
Our only hope is in minds of kids,
And they'll show us a thing or two.

Our only weapons are the guns of youth,
It's only time before they tighten the noose,
And then the hunt will be on for you.

The red flag wavin never meant the same(no~)
The red flag wavin never meant the same

Cast off the crutch that kills the pain,
The red flag wavin never meant the same,
The kids of tomorrow don't need today,
When they live in the Sins of Yesterday.(x2)

Like the smallest bee packs a sting,
Like the pawn checkmates a king,
We'll attack at the crack of dawn.

Build a ladder if there's a wall,
Don't be afraid to slip and fall,
Speak for yourself or they'll speak for you.

The red flag wavin never meant the same(no~)
The red flag wavin never meant the same


Cast off the crutch that kills the pain,
The red flag wavin never meant the same,
The kids of tomorrow don't need today,
When they live in the Sins of Yesterday.(x2)


Like a fire,
Don't need water,
Like a jury,
Needs a liar,
Like a riot,
Don't need order,
Like a madman,
Needs a martyr.

We don't need them.(x8)

(Chorus x2)
Cast off the crutch that kills the pain,
The red flag wavin never meant the same,
The kids of tomorrow don't need today,
When they live in the Sins of Yesterday.

(Chorus x1) with 'We don't need them.'(x9)

Stalin wasn't stallin'
When he told the beast of Berlin
That they'd never rest contented
Till they had driven him from the land

So he called the yanks and English
And proceeded to extinguish
The fuhrer and its vermin
This is how it all began

Now the devil, he was readin'
In the good book one day
How that lord created Adam
To walk the righteous way

And it made the devil jealous
He turned green onto his [?]
And he swore by things unholy
And he made one of his own

So he packed two suitcases
Full of greed and misery
And he caught the midnight special
Going down to Germany

Then he mixed his lies and hatred
With fire and grim stones
Then the devil sat upon it
That's how Adolf was born

Now Adolf got the notion
That he was the master race
And he swore he'd bring new order
And put mankind in its place

So he set his scheme in motion
And was winnin' everywhere
Until he [?] and got the notion
For to kick that Russian bear

Stalin wasn't stallin'
When he told the beast of Berlin
That they'd never rest contented
Till they had driven him from the land

So he called the yanks and English
And proceeded to extinguish
The fuhrer and its vermin
This is how it all began

Yes, he kicked that noble Russian
But it wasn't very long
Before Adolf got suspicious
That he had done somethin' wrong

Cause that bear grabbed the fuhrer
And gave him an awful fight
Seventeen months he grabbed the fuhrer
Tooth and claws, day and night

Then that bear smacked the fuhrer
With a mighty armored core
And Adolf broke all records
Runnin' backwards to Krakow

Then Goebbels sent a message
To the people everywhere
That if they couldn't hit the fuhrer
God, then hit that Russian bear

Stalin wasn't stallin'
When he told the beast of Berlin
That they'd never rest contented
Till they had driven him from the land

So he called the yanks and English
And proceeded to extinguish
The fuhrer and its vermin
This is how it all began

Then this bear called on his buddy
The noble fighting yank
And they sent the fuhrer runnin'
With their ships and planes and tanks

Now the fuhrer's havin' nightmares
Cause the fuhrer knows damn well
That the devil's done roast welcome
On his residence in hell

Stalin wasn't stallin'
When he told the beast of Berlin
That they'd never rest contented
Till they had driven him from the land

So he called the yanks and English
And proceeded to extinguish
The fuhrer and its vermin
This is how it all began