Read (Discography): 1985–1990: The A List

Ahead

Lips growing for service, eyes steady for peeling
Bring on the special guest, a monkey caught stealing

Standard reward in corners, it's full-board in new quarters
Kneeling for pleasure ensures a good time

I remember, I remember making the body search
That it was nothing but enough for ahead

Someone is taking you, someone has taken me
T. V. doesn't understand a word that matters

Scattering desire to smouldering fires
Someone has taken you, someone is taking me

Kidney Bingos

Natural splits sunburn jets pride marks smart bets
Strikers luck pitch backs heap tips pit slacks
Dressed pints demon shrinks bread drunk dead drinks
Stretch clubs models box draw skin black shocks

Money spines paper lung kidney bingos organ fun

Flag stunt rock stone dole axe crash dive
Breath thrift take speed double take weekends
Skull row drugs hall colour bars sex calls
Sparkle finds rented rings pretty things clipped wings

Gold street spy fleet scandal food poor treat
Fire run club gun rule mob burn some
Bomb time pop crime stock frame steady climb
Fresh name donor game fair meat all the same

A Serious Of Snakes

It looks serious, is that a paper I see in your hand?
Then a pause for a German phrase: "Nie wieder nie wieder, nie wieder nie wieder"
Never again, none of your lip, y'tulip
Y'tulip, y'pea-brained earwig, y'punk, y'silver-tongued shnake
I'd rather make furniture than go to midnight mass

Y'tulip, y'pea-brained earwig
Y'punk, y'silver-tongued shnake

He's a genius in research, I simply fell in love, I've got your ZIP code?
Overthere USA, green-turbaned angels annex the right bank
Baby, in a shambolic sideshow they abandoned the baby
The baby trained, baby returns, baby kills Mary and Joseph

Talk about laughing, I might have defeated cancer, or so they say
Electrocuted, I was transformed into a foot soldier of the good general
Passionate for knights in the heart of ancient Persia, fearless to go forth
Fearless to adapt, then blow to pieces

Please send your God my very best wishes. Does He still sing?
Does He still fish? Does He still help you on your days off?
Don't stopping that dripping, I prefer the old tortures
It's only when you stop that I feel it

When you lose the ship, it's like losing a part of you
I have a sense of my exposure, it's all on the neg.
I try to use 2 instead of 3, ah, but I have secrets
And there's a story in me, it starts

Dot dot dot dot dot dot

Eardrum Buzz

No switch in this dark, but you search anyway
This is the night, here in the day
One thing remains perfectly clear
It's the buzz buzz buzz in the drum of the ear

Zee zee zee, zum zum
Buzz buzz, buzz buzz in the eardrum

Now you live in the world of the wave
And you scratch your name on the walls of the cave
Instincts never leave you perfectly clear
There's always a buzz buzz buzz in the drum of the ear

Marco Polo has lost his way
The Louisville Lip has nothing to say
One thing remains perfectly clear
The buzz buzz buzz in the drum of the ear

Custard Jack has lost his Mac
Captain Flash won't give it back
It seemed to them both perfectly clear
The buzz buzz buzz in the drum of the ear

Buffalo Bill, deprived of will
Chasing a hamburger down the hill
It seemed to him perfectly clear
The buzz buzz buzz in the drum of the ear

Adolf turned out very nice
Hannibal is afraid of mice
One thing remains perfectly clear
It's the buzz buzz buzz in the drum of the ear

Drill

Are you level? How's your trim?
Do you rotate, eddy, or spin?
Are you game? What's your trick?
Do you vibrate, bounce, or tick?
What's your cut? Are you correct?
Do you detour, bend, or stretch?

We're milling through the grinder, grinding through the mill
If this is not an exercise, could it be a drill?

How's it with you? What's your form?
Your outline, shape, or form
How's your price? What do you cost?
Your value, profit, or loss
How's your skull? Does it fit?
Is your mind free, empty, or split?

Drill drill drill
Dugga dugga dugga

Ambitious

Chain-link route ways
Digital time base
New hours for these days
New files engaged
Strangeness detectors
Collage charmers
Magnetic behaviour
Quarks and order

When it's cold, I feel cold
When it's hot, I feel ambitious
Fit for a princess
Hot on the heels of an angel
Are you hot? Are you hot?
Are you hot? Are you hot?
Are you hot? Are you hot?
I feel ambitious

The ideal copy is the same
The ideal copy has your name
When you can't, it makes you can
When you aren't, it makes you am

The ideal copy is what you want
When you won't, it makes you will
The ideal copy makes you happy
The ideal copy

CIA KGB PLO IRA IMF PPK SAS RUC ICI ITT H2O 12XU DDR NYC F1-11 007 VOU JFK S&M ECG

In Vivo

With colour in your life there's a reason to explode
To set the world on fire
To skid and leave the road
In a black and white life there's a column of smoke
You don't burst into flame, you stop
When you're broke

In vitrio in vivo
The revolution's begun
In vitrio in vivo

In a star-filled world, the full moon crosses the sun
Four minutes up
Two million's gone
And bang: he invades
The son of a gun, the son
Of a gun

The chemical defeater saved the elephant's life
A wild type junk genie
With a car-bra heaven wide
And bang, he invades
The son of a gun, the son
Of a gun

The Finest Drops

The island monkeys love the dark
No one is home, they're thin-skinned sharks
Hue exchanging gives sea-leg walks
No one is home, the chemicals talk

Load up the spoiled goods
Hook up the spoiled gods
Fill up the kindness cups
Drink up the finest drops

Feeding frenzy, sleepless attacks
No one is home, power attracts
Death on a raft, life in a whale
No one is home to finish the tale

Paint it red, light it in blue
No one is home over at zoo
Lashing together, a timbre design
No one is home, no one is blind

The last boat launched, cling to the rail
No one is home, they're in full sail
Forging chains, caught on the tracks
No one is home and they're not coming back

The island monkeys love the dark
No one is home, they've gone for a walk
The island monkeys love the dark
No one is home, the chemicals talk

Madman's Honey

A grand mute proof at Nemrt Dag
That man's as mad as a hatter

How does it feel when it's revealed?
You've reached the living end

Master cut the stone out
My name is Lubert Das
Abandoned now as the grass grows out
Of the head and groin of the dome

How does it feel with one turn of the wheel?
You reach the living end

Master cut the stone out
My name is Lubert DAs
A far-u ranch at Ufra Charin
Fish ponds and a madman's honey

How does it feel, is it hard to conceal?
When you reach the living end

Over Theirs

Something snapped, over and over
Something snapped, over the horizon
Something burst, over and over
Something burst, just out of sight

Like a rope on the border, over and over
Like a damn on the boundary, just out of sight
Over and over, just below the skyline
Over and over, just out of sight

Something broke, over and over
Something broke, over the way
Something dropped, over and over
Something dropped, just out of sight

Over and over, just below the skyline
Over and over, just out of sight
Over and under, under the sideline
Over and under, just out of sight

Silk Skin Paws

You have nothing to fear
I'm just making enquiries
Dog bone hunting
Gives you back to yourself
Standing before me
The gargoyle turns
Jutting jaws and
The stubble burns

I shift the blame
To the worm in the bottle
I shift the blame
To anyone standing before me

I check-up the once-over
Give yourself an opening
Keep your mouth shut
In the event of an accident
Contact the following
A certain air
An invading smile
Inbreeding seals the flaw

Silk skin paws
Hang by both feet
Embracing the world
Hang the expense
Breugels cut corners
Wring out the senses
I have nothing like it
I've seen nothing like it

The Queen Of Ur And The King Of Um

Painted statues in underground streams
With invitations to the Pharaoh's dream

They stare at themselves, there's a need to be seen
Walking mirrors in the Pharaoh's harem

And here they come
The queen of Ur
And the king of Um

Tainted Matthews in car-key relations
Gilt invitations to the blue queen's ball
They stare at themselves, there's a need to be seen
Talking pillars in the blue queen's hall

Fading tattoos of empty stations
Great expectations at Vince's loyal mince
They stare at each other, there's a need to be seen
Crack-head mirrors, licking the soiled mint

Olympic statues from terminal stations
Sifting invitations to the market floor
Steering into the future, it pays to be seen
Polishing mirrors, keeping the score

A babbling gaggle, a scrabbling rabble
Fighting invitations to the emperor's shilling
They stare through themselves, there's nothing to see
Hand-picked recruits for ghostly pursuit

Torch It!

His father's smile
And the sparkle in his eye

In the house not home, behind closed doors
They hide their fakes, between the floors
In the house not home, under the bed
Stories are told, and lies are spread
The house not home is full of love
It's the hate which seeps in from above

I'm going to torch it
I'm going to torch it
With you on the top

In the house not home, they gild their flaws
Preen their feathers, and sheath their claws
In the house not home, eyes are closed
Blood runs hot, whilst hell hath froze
In the house not home, me-me prayers
The wailing wall of cheap despair

In the house not home, the long house turns
Shit to gold, the tall house burns
In the house not home, dreams are trained
Innocence, hope, lost mysteries explained

In the house not home
There are four blanks
Your ignorance was unusable
Your thoughtlessness was not

We sing our cheap despair as our secrets are sold
The spirit is broken, I'm gonna torch you down
The spirit is not broken, I'm gonna raise it up from the ground

Advantage In Height

A brief Bombay, Colossus encounter
A holy rolling, rhino blessing

Two men in white, an advantage in height
In appearance unique, in action delivers

The light fades, the sun never never sets
A: a double blow, B: an immortal being

A creator lover, a bee-driver
A therez wipe-out, a therez wipeout

Feed Me

What's the point
It's your table
I alter my altar
For every mouthful
I hunger

Feed me

Don't give me that
It's your table
I grow by in inches
For every mouthful, you're living
For every mouthful, I'm running

How fast do you run?
How fast can you run?