THE GO-BETWEENS: BEFORE HOLLYWOOD
THE GO-BETWEENS Before Hollywood
A BAD DEBT FOLLOWS YOU
Stand off, a stand off
We're off to the send-off
You sit on the stairs
Lost in your hair.
What's that you're wearing?
It looks like a necklace
Oh, how the stars shine on your face.
I won't stand
I won't wait
I won't stand for that
I won't wait now I say
Another time in another room
Skin turned and held sweat
Lost all it's feeling
I fell in your eyes
I fell for your eyes.
Pull back the curtains
Let in the dark
I'll lie and watch
While your hair sparks.
I won't stand
I won't wait
I won't stand for that
I won't wait now I say
Another time in another room
Another time in another room
You told me stars would fall
You told me ice would melt
You told me everything!
Now and again
A bad debt won't wait
I won't wait.
TWO STEPS STEP OUT
I haven't heard a voice that I can trust
And all this sweetness turns a throat to rust
I'm standing on a quay wrapped up in mist
The steamer's left with someone that I miss.
I'd walk a hundred miles.
Sold my horse, got fired by the Consul
A testament to flags I was hostile
Tried faith and drugs and gold
it didn't work, I couldn't fill the hole.
I'd walk a hundred miles,
A thousand miles, a million miles.
Two steps steps out
Towards your door
I'll be calling round
Two steps step out
I'm on my way
Here I am now
I started cutting marble in a quarry
I worked my hands, I wasn't in a hurry
The time I did to pass the time
The time I did to pass the time.
I'd walk a hundred miles.
So now I'm loading wool down at the wharf
The ships unload and then they head back north
And every time the mist comes in
I sit and watch the mist come in.
I'd walk a hundred miles,
A thousand miles, a million miles.
Two steps steps out
Towards your door
I'll be calling round
Two steps step out
I'm on my way
Here I am now
BEFORE HOLLYWOOD
Make me last
Make me last
Through our love
Make me last
New masquerade
To be absorbed
I had to act before
Now I talk
And make me last
Make me last
Through our love
Make me last
Bring on the microphones
Hidden under stones
Record my sobs
In baritones
And make me last
Make me last
Through our love
Make me last
In the New West
The orange groves
Grow like a plague
Wherever you go
I told the Heads
We'll show the World
We'll film ourselves in history and chrome
And I said that
Just not sure
Make me last
Through our love
Box Office law
Simple and grand
An endless stream
One can draw
The flicker of light
Piano keys
A silent screen, A silent star
Make me last
Make me last
Through our love
Make me last
In the New West
The orange groves
Grow like a plague
Wherever you go
I told the Heads
We'll show the World
We'll film ourselves in history and chrome
And I said that
Just not sure,
What's to be done
It's thunder town they'll do
What they can to hold you down (x4)
DUSTY IN HERE
Like a ghost
A ghost of something old
It's cold and dusty in here.
Just twenty years
And six feet down I'm told
I know your face
I share your name.
In the dark
When shadows have their way
A finger's a chimney
And the moon's on fire.
Then sleep arrives
He's got his bags and wares
The dragon sleeps
And St. George stares.
You won't write, no you won't write
That's all I ask, that you just write
And you say no, that you can't speak
You've lost your voice, you let it go
You let it go.
Like a ghost
A ghost of something old
It's cold and dusty in here.
It's in your hand
It sits just like a glove
The finger traces the lines of love.
It's cold and dusty in here.
Someone you knew
Is watching you
I'm someone you knew.
ASK
Ask he said, and ask is what I did
A ton of plea for everything you get
And I feel too much has been made
Of my fault, I don't call a spade
Ask he said, Ask for what you need
Don't be shy, shyness is a little girl
And I feel if you're scolded like a child
All your elders, were once scolded too.
We're just
No eyes, just ends
we're just friends
Shut it, shut it...
Shut it, shut it...
Don't shut it Don't shut it Don't shut it
Don't shut it Don't shut it Don't shut it
Don't you care- Just pull in.
Ask he said it's how you get advice
And more than that it's talking to them
There is magic but really there's no magic
In what appears;
I get quiet, I feel it all the while
No one's touched me for such a long time
And I get wounds she bathes them in salt
Never to open lightning with a bolt
And ask he said, and don't ever suppose
If you don't ask then nobody knows.
We're just
Some eyes it's not
We're just old friends
Shut it, shut it...
Shut it, shut it...
Don't shut it Don't shut it Don't shut it
Don't shut it Don't shut it Don't shut it
Don't you care
CATTLE AND CANE
I recall a schoolboy coming home
Through fields of cane
To a house of tin and timber
And in the sky a rain of falling cinders.
From time to time
The waste memory-wastes
I recall a boy in bigger pants
Like everyone
Just waiting for a chance
His father's watch
He left it in the showers
From time to time
The waste memory-wastes
I recall a bigger brighter world
A world of books
And silent times in thought
And then the railroad
The railroad takes him home
Through fields of cattle
Through fields of cane
From time to time
The waste memory-wastes
The waste memory-wastes
Further, longer, higher, older.
BY CHANCE
My head fits
Into my hands
I roll it around
And nothing comes out
By chance, we fight
By chance, struck a chord
We'll stand tonight
Who broke who
Who screamed who
There's no two things
Lovers can do
By chance, we fight
By chance, struck a chord
We'll stand tonight
Who's your tall friend?
He's built like a song
The Valley of Tin Pan
Is where he belongs
By chance, we fight
By chance, struck a chord
We'll stand tonight
Bye-bye-bye-bye-bye
AS LONG AS THAT
Were you born or just conceived?
Whatever comes, crosses me
There's no routine, I've never liked this.
What can I say?
There's lightnng on the hill tonight
Over in the West
The colour changes shape and slides.
I'm not stuck to be inspired by her or by me
Get this, and how, I'm lifted way way down
Too tired to say too weak to speak
I've got a feeling, sounds like a fact
It's been around As Long As That
There is a notion you've got it too
It's been around As Long As That
Where can you go?
The thunder settles in and waits
Trams on the rattle
Windows banging shut like gates.
Slap my face use your lungs
She brought me more to life,
You think I'm young I'm not half those things.
Why did it rain?
The days ran away from us
Heaven never knew
The chances that it left for us.
Fast and slow, Breeze to wind
Wrapped beneath her
You take charge
I'll put you at ease
Too tired to say too weak to speak
I've got a feeling, sounds like a fact
It's been around As Long As That
There is a notion you've got it too
It's been around As Long As That
What can I say?
There's lightnng on the hill tonight
Over in the West
The colour changes shape and slides.
Think of someone and double it
That's what I did
Get this and how, I'm lifted way way down
Too tired to say too weak to speak
I've got a feeling, sounds like a fact
It's been around As Long As That
There is a notion you've got it too
It's been around As Long As That
As Long, As Long, As Long,
As Long As That
What's wrong, What's wrong, What's wrong,
What's wrong with that
ON MY BLOCK
Allright... Come on... No-w-w-w-w
The main gate to the mansion is locked
It's on my street- on my block
I went in but I got chased off.
The store-keeper said "Why don't the cars stop?"
But the mansion is not the attraction it once was
And it's on my, it's on my, on my ... On My Block
On My Block
Girl I've been called names times before
It happens cause it happpens here
And nobody said they'd ever hear
The garden is unkept and in bloom
There is wilderness and flowers in my room
The caretakers kept to be fired soon.
On My Block
Girl I've been called names times before
It happens cause it happpens here
And nobody said they'd ever hear
The maingate- the mansion- is locked.
I'm standing on the spot,
And it's on my, oh my My... On My Block
On My Block (fade)
THAT WAY
In search of a new voice
you burnt all your lyrics
And flew to a new town.
"One of the Has Beens"
That was your phrase
But what about Show-Biz?
That way That way That way
In my apartment
Six white horses
Wood turns electric.
Inspired by shadows
Driven by tears
You won't rest, till you're back on the boards.
That way That way That way
Or nothing at all
I hear it's cold now
The worst one on record
Hope that you keep warm.
I guess I'll be leaving
Now is the best time
On the Atlantic we'll all climb.
That way That way That way
Or nothing at all
It's only time away.
Produced by John Brand
1982 Rough Trade