Steven Wilson

A body is washed up on a Norfolk beach
He was a friend that I could not reach
He thought I was cold but I understand
But for the grace of god goes another man

And I may just waste away from doing nothing
But I'm a martyr to even less

A choirboy is buried on the moors
Where we used to go dreaming when we were bored
So some kids are best left to fend for themselves
And others were born to stack shelves

And I may just waste away from doing nothing
But I'm a martyr to even less

I remember piano lessons
The hours in freezing rooms
Cruel ears and tiny hands
Destroying timeless tunes

She said there's too much out there
Too much already said
You'd better give up hoping
You're better off in bed

You don't need much to speak of
No class, no wit, no soul
Forget you own agenda
Get ready to be sold

I feel now like Christine Keeler
Sleepwaking in the rain
I didn't mean to lose direction
I didn't want that kind of fame

(Take your hands off my land)

Credit me with some intelligence
(if not just credit me)
I come in value packs of ten
(in five varieties)

And even though I got it all now
My only stupid dream
I see you and me together
And how it should have been

I remember piano lessons
Now everything seems clear
You waiting under streetlights
For dreams to disappear

You keep me waiting
You keep me alone in a room full of friends
You keep me hating
You keep me listening to the Bends

No amount of pointless days
Can make this go away

You have me on my knees
You have me listless and deranged
You have me in your pocket
You have me distant and estranged

No narcotics in my brain
Can make this go away

I'm sorry that, I'm sorry that I'm not like you
I worry that I don't act the way you'd like me to

You find me wanting
You find me bloodless but inspired
You find me out
You find me hallucinating fire

No narcotics in my brain
Can make this go away

Have we ever been here before?
Running headlong at the floor
Leave me dreaming on a railway track
Wrap me up and send me back

I need you more than you can know
And if I hurt myself it's just for show
I found a better way to curb the pain
You put a trigger here inside my brain

Mother I need her
I'm falling apart
Mother I need her
And it's only the start

I may be nothing now but I will rise
I'll have more followers than jesus christ

Through all the smashing and crashing cars
I love the ground you walk with all my heart

A light snow is falling on London
All sign of the living has gone
The train pulls into the stations
And no-one gets off and no-one gets on

Don't hate me
I'm not special like you
I'm tired and I'm so alone
Don't fight me
I know you'll never care
Can I call you on the telephone, now and then?

One light burns in a window
It guides all the shadows below
Inside the ghost of a parting
And no-one is left, just the cigarette smoke

How many children did I bring into this world?
How many did I lose in the shopping arcade?

This is no rehearsal - play it back
and throw things at the screen
This is no rehearsal - somebody
interpret this for me

And still I remember how I dressed him this morning
And then he was gone - stolen, my only one

I am - in my pram
Look you - I'm so new I am - sleeping there
Underneath the stairs

If you - wanted to
You'd find - inside my mind
Things so surreal
My lips are sealed

In the rain in cellphane
Pale dogs and demigods
They won't bring me down
The clocks go round, they never stop

I've been - in limousines
I've nseen - inside your dreams
It's raining there
Try not to stare

Ghosts in the park
Appear just after dark
Killers, children ...
But no-one has a harp
They look like tourists
It makes me want to laugh

Under floorboards
It's hard to fly a kite
Underwater
My cigarette won't light
Standing in the shade
I'm getting frostbite

Strange as I seem
I'm getting stranger by the minute
Look in my dreams
They're getting stranger by the minute

When I'm drowning
You drag me up to you
Rings in the water
My only residue
But you're just fiction
And I'm a twisted boy

Stranded here on planet earth
It's not much but it could be worse
Everything's free here, there's no crowds

Winter lasted five long years
No sun will come again I fear
Chemical harvest was sown

And I will wait for you
Until the sky is blue
And I will wait for you
What else can I do?

A spaceship from another star
They ask me where all the people are
What can I tell them?

I tell them I'm the only one
There was a war but I must have won
Please take me with you.

This song leaks out onto the pavement
It could be a joke, it could be a statement
The more that I fake it and pretend I don't care
The more you can read in to what isn't there

Maybe it's time to stop swimming
Maybe it's time to find out where I'm at
What I should do and where I should be
But no-one will give me a map

I'll leave now this can't continue
But I forget which door I came through
And I know what the lift can be painfully slow
So I'm happy to leave by the window

The quickest album we ever made (in 3 months flat and within only a few months of the release of the previous one) and we all feel our best work to date. Although superficially it seems to be a continuation of "Stupid Dream" it is a much more intense work - possibly less immediate, but ultimately more rewarding. Lyrically I arrived at a point where I was no longer interested in writing about abstract concepts like war, religion, space...etc... These are very personal and emotionally raw songs. It took me a long time to have the confidence and experience to be able to write them and some of them are dripping with negative emotions (Hatesong and Feel So Low particularly). Feel So Low pleased me a lot as I resisted the temptation to refine the original stream of consciousness words and left the nerve ends dangling.

Musically we wanted to bring back some of the experimental aspects that had been to some degree lost on "Stupid Dream". Richard and I worked on creating some unique keyboard sounds for the album - e.g. the "fairground" on "How is Your Life Today ?" and the "insects" at the end of "Russia On Ice". There was also an influence from industrial and metal music coming through (we'd all been listening to Nine Inch Nails "The Fragile") - for example part of the beauty of the guitar solo on Where We Would Be (my favourite solo of mine to date) comes from the fact that it was played relatively straight but then fed through so many distortion and lo-fi processes that it began to fizz and disintegrate. The riffing guitars on Russia On Ice are pure metal and one of the solos of Hatesong I call my "Korn solo" on account of the fact that the bottom strings on the guitar are tuned down so low that the notes can be bent several tones.

On the other hand there is a whole set of songs where the pastoral sound of long-gone English summers exerts it's influence on me (not for the first time). In a song like "Winding Shot" there are shades of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and Nick Drake, although the end result is hopefully pure Porcupine Tree. This effect is accentuated by the fact that many of the instruments and vocals on the album are much more up front and given less of a sheen than on "Stupid Dream" (where the "stadium" production is I think the weakest aspect). Organic is the word I like to use.

As we had on "Stupid Dream" we expanded our musical colours to include things like banjo, hammered dulcimer, the string arrangements of Dave Gregory and several African and Morrocan instruments that Colin brought back from his travels.

To date it's the only album we've made that I still rated highly by the time we'd finished it - even the B-sides and leftovers seemed too good not to be on an album, but we were determined to keep the album below the one hour mark. The only point of contention was the inclusion of the song "The Rest Will Flow". Some of the band didn't really want it on the record, but it sounded so much like possible single that it seemed perverse not to include it.

Favourite tracks - "How is Your Life Today ?", "Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth..." and "Feel So Low" (plus most of the others to be honest).

Steven Wilson


Although it appears to be a continuation of sorts from "Stupid Dream" there are quite obvious differences as well. Certainly on the production side there is a more intense and upfront sound apparent. Also parts of the arrangements are stripped down to the bare essentials. Steven's lyrics became more personal and less ambiguous and so the arrangements by definition became more stripped down and more direct. Much of my keyboard experimenting took place on tracks like "Russia On Ice", "Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth...", "Feel so Low" and "4 Chords That Made a Million"", while other tracks didn't seem to need a great deal of keyboards. I'm not one for playing all over a track if I can't see a genuine need for it.

For me this album has an honesty and emotion that places it above all the other Porcupine Tree albums, although I would also say that not every track is as strong as some individual tracks on past albums. My favourites are "Russia On Ice" and "Feel So Low".

Richard Barbieri

The letters pile up in the hallway
Junk mail and bills from the catalogues
And the neighbours have guessed
'Cos I've cancelled the milk
And they don't hear your voice
Through the walls anymore

How is your life today?
How is your life today?

I was kissed on the cheek by a cold mouth
While the taxi was waiting like a getaway car
Each second seems like a lifetime
And the cat it's been staring at me all this time

La la la la la la, la la la la la la...

How is your life today?
How is your life today?

Six of one a half a dozen
Black guitars and plastic blues
Hide behind a wall of nothing
Nothing said and nothing new

4 Chords that made a million

You belong there on the cover
You are the emperor in new clothes
A man who thinks he owns the future
Will sell your vacuum with his prose

4 Chords that made a million

And then a moron with a cheque book
Will take you out to lunch who knows ?
He will tell you you're a saviour
And then he'll drop you like a stone

4 Chords that made a million

And I have tried and I have died
Trying to get through
But in the end I can't defend you.

4 Chords that made a million

You move in waves
You never retrace
Your newest craze
Straight out of the Face by the bed unread

I'm left behind
Like all the others
Some fall for you
It doesn't make much difference if they do

She changes every time you look
By summer it was all gone - now she's moved on
She called you every other day
So savour it it's all gone - now she's moved on

So for a while
Everything seemed new
Did we connect ?
Or was it all just biding time for you ?

If you fall asleep with me
You can dream and drowse
The miuntes turn to hours

We could climb a tree or two
And watch the sun go down
Upon our sleepy town

After all the time I spent with you
Summer went away
And we just weren't the same

It's just you and me alone
Not grown ups but not kids
You kissed me on the lips

[instrumental]

I was pretending to be floating strong
But I was sinking
In to still water

Eyes closed
All of the rest will flow

Then out of darkness I found I could still feel
Something good
Out of the woods

Eyes closed
All of the rest will flow

One simple thing that I never could see
But now I know
All of the rest will flow

Stay with me my angel I found you
Now I don't feel low
All of the rest will flow

Eyes closed
All of the rest will flow

This is a hate song just meant for you
I thought that I'd write it down while I still could
I hope when you hear this you'll want to sue

Oh it's a lonely life in my empty bed
And it's a quiet life that leaks from my head
These are the last rites
The line is dead

Yes, I'm hearing voices too
And I'm more cut up than you

Tied - tied to a time
When we knew that the sun would shine
And you were all smiles
And we could just talk for a while...

Of where we would be when the future comes
And how you would paint while I wrote my songs

If I could find you
And tell you about my life
Or maybe just write
And remind you of when we would dream...

Of where we would be when the future comes
And how you would paint while I wrote my songs

Strange how you never become
The person you see when you're young

You think I deserve this
You said I was stupid
All my thoughts are like coal
But Russia on ice is burning a hole

Can't stop myself drinking
Can't stop being me
If I call will you come and will you save me ?

I see the whole thing come down
I blow it to the ground
Well what the hell did you say ?
You said you hate me this way
It's just a matter of time

A drop in the ocean
A significant motion
Nothing melts in this cold
But Russia on ice is burning a hole

So see how long I can last
You can pretend that I don't exist for you
And I can laugh about it now
But I hated every minute
I was waiting for your email
And each day that you forgot to call
Just made me feel so low
So low

Christmas 1998
I tried to call
I just couldn't wait
And your message was out of date
So I left my voice on your machine
But you did not respond
OK OK OK you've won
You make me feel so low
So low

And something warm and soft just passed through here
It took the precious things that I hold dearer
It rifled through the grey and disappeared
The creeping darkness makes the small hours clearer

Like a cancer scare In the dentist's chair
Sucking in the air
Wire across the stair
Kicking down the door
At your local store
With the world at war
Voices through the floor
Unexpected news
Wearing high heeled shoes
Blowing out the fuse
Paying all your dues
Deadwing lullaby
Like a fracture tied
It's a worthless lie
To the public eye

I don't take waifs and strays back home with me
My bleeding heart does not extend to charity

Yes I'd have to say
I like my privacy
And did you know you're on closed circuit TV?
So smile at me

And a dream you had
Of your mum and dad
On a beach somewhere
And the poison air
With the cancer threat
In a cigarette
Deadwing lullaby
Find a place to hide

And from the yellow windows of the last train
A spectre from the next life breathes his fog on the pane
I look with you into the speeding black rain
Afraid to touch someone, afraid to ask her for her name

And in the morning when I find I have lost you
I throw a window open wide and step through

I don't remember
Did something in my past, create a hole.
Don't use your gender.
To drive a stake right through my soul.

I live to function,
On my own is all I know.
No friends to mention,
No destruction, nowhere to go

Shallow, shallow,
Give it to me, give into me
Scissors cutting out your anger
Shallow, shallow,
No good to me, not if you bleed
Bite your tongue ignore the splinter

This city drains me,
Maybe it's the smell of gasoline.
The millions pain me,
It's easier to talk to my PC.

I live to function,
On my own is all I know.
No friends to mention,
No destruction, nowhere to go

Shallow, shallow,
Give into me, give into me
Seasons caught in a triangle,
Shallow, shallow,
No good to me, not if you bleed,
Bite your tongue end on a splinter

Shallow, shallow,
Give into me, give into me
Seasons caught in a triangle
Shallow, shallow,
No good to me, not if you bleed
Bite your tongue end on a splinter

As the cheerless towns pass my window
I can see a washed out moon through the fog
And then a voice inside my head breaks the analogue
And says

"Follow me down to the valley below
You know
Moonlight is bleeding from out of your soul"

I survived against the will of my twisted folk
But in the deafness of my world the silence broke
And said

"Follow me down to the valley below
You know Moonlight is bleeding from out of your soul"

"My David don't you worry
This cold world is not for you
So rest your head upon me
I have strength to carry you"

(Ghosts of the twenties rising Golden summers just holding you)

"Follow me down to the valley below
You know
Moonlight is bleeding from out of your soul
Come to us Lazarus
It's time for you to go"

God is in my fingers
God is in my head
God is in the trigger
God is in the lead

God is freedom, God is truth
God is power and God is proof
God is fashion, God is fame
God gives meaning, God gives pain

You can be right like me
With God in the hole you're a righteous soul
I got a halo 'round me, I got a halo 'round me

I'm not the same as you
'Cause I've seen the light and I'm gaining in height now
I got a halo 'round me, I got a halo 'round me
I got a halo 'round my head

God is on the cellphone
God is on the net
God is in the warning
God is in the threat

God is freedom, God is truth
For God is power, God is proof
God is fashion, God is fame
God gives meaning, God gives pain

You can be right like me
With God in the hole you're a righteous soul
I got a halo 'round me, I got a halo 'round me

I'm not the same as you
'Cause I've seen the light and I'm gaining in height now
I got a halo 'round me, I got a halo 'round me
('Cause I've got a halo 'round my head)
I got a halo 'round my head

You can be like me
With God in the hole you're a righteous soul
I got a halo 'round me, I got a halo 'round me

I'm not the same as you
'Cause I've seen the light and I'm gaining in height now
I got a halo 'round me, I got a halo 'round me
I got a halo 'round my head

'Cause I've got a halo 'round my head

Never stop the car on a drive in the dark
Never look for the truth in your mother's eyes
Never trust the sound of rain upon a river rushing
Through your ears

Arriving somewhere but not here

Could you imagine the final sound as a gun
Or the smashing windscreen of a car?
Did you ever imagine the last thing you'd hear as you're fading out
Was a song?

Arriving somewhere but not here

[Chorus:]

All my designs, simplified
And all of my plans, compromised
And all of my dreams, sacrificed

Ever had the feeling you've been here before?
Drinking down the poison the way you were taught
Ever thought from here on in your life begins
And all you knew was wrong?

Arriving somewhere but not here

All my designs, simplified
And all of my plans, compromised
And all of my dreams...

Did you see the redness block your part?
Did the scissors cut a way to your heart?
Did you feel the end before the suns of mothers
Tearing you apart?

Arriving somewhere but not here

A tiny flame inside my head
A compromise I never planned
Unravel out the finest trends

And I'm looking at a blank page now
Should have filled it up with words somehow

I whispered something in her ear
I'd bear my soul but she don't hear
The scratching of a mellotron
It always seemed to make her cry
Well maybe she remembers us collecting space up in the sky
The scratching of a mellotron
It always seemed to make her cry
(Nothing rises from ? fingertips, heart it slips)

I lay her gently on my clove
She will leave me, yes I know

And I'm looking at a blank page now
Should have filled it up with words somehow

The scratching of a mellotron
It always seemed to make her cry
Well maybe she remembers us collecting space up in the sky

The scratching of a mellotron
It always seemed to make her cry
(Nothing rises from ? fingertips, heart it slips)
Well maybe she remembers us collecting space up in the sky
(Nothing rises from ? fingertips, heart it slips)

Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down
Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down
Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down
Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down
Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down
Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down
Don't look back into
Don't let the memory or the sound drag you down

Nothing like this
Felt in her kiss
Cannot resist her
Fell for her charm
? her arms
I keep a photograph
Give me a glimpse
Let me come in
Be there inside her
Here it begins
Here is the sin
Something to lie about

You think you're smart
I think you art
We agree on this
It doesn't work
Feeling like dirt
Feeling like you don't care
We get a room
And in her gloom
She lights a cigarette
Clothes on the bed
"Love me," she said
I loose myself to her

I'm getting feelings I'm hiding too well
Bury the heart-shaped shell
Something broke inside my stomach
I let the pieces lie just where they fell
Being with you is hell

Hair blown in an open car
Summer dress slips down her arm
Hair blown in an open car

Okay what's next?
After the sex
What do we do now?
Finding the time
Drawing the line
And never crossing it
Gave her the hours
Gave her the power
Cannont erase her
Gave her the truth
Gave her the proof
I gave her everything

I'm getting feelings I'm hiding too well
Bury the heart-shaped shell
(I had the feelings [inaudible])
Something broke inside my stomach
I let the pieces lie just where they fell
(I left the pieces where they fell)
Being with you is hell

Hair blown in an open car
Summer dress slips down her arm
Hair blown in an open car
On a drive out to the mall
Hair blown in an open car

Hair blown in an open car
Summer dress slips down your arm
Hair blown in an open car

Feeling are you touching?
Feeling are you blind?
Feeling are you touching?
Feeling all your love

Seen it though a windscreen
Seen it through the clouds
Seen it in a pantry
Seen it in your heart

Feeling are you touching?
Feeling all your love

Feeling are you touching?
Feeling all your love

You move in waves
You never retrace
Your newest craze
Straight out of the Face by the bed unread

I'm left behind
Like all the others
Some fall for you
It doesn't make much difference if they do

She changes every time you look
By summer it was all gone - now she's moved on
She called you every other day
So savour it it's all gone - now she's moved on

So for a while
Everything seemed new
Did we connect ?
Or was it all just biding time for you ?

A mother sings a lullaby to a child
Sometime in the future the boy goes wild
And all his nerves are feeling some kind of energy
A walk in the woods and I will try
Something under the trees that made you cry
It's so erotic when your make-up runs

I got wiring loose inside my head
I got books that I never ever read
I got secrets in my garden shed
I got a scar where all my urges bled
I got people underneath my bed
I got a place where all my dreams are dead
Swim with me into your blackest eyes

A few minutes with me inside my van
Should be so beautiful if we can
I'm feeling something taking over me

Train set and match spied under the blind
Shiny and contoured the railway winds
And I've heard the sound from my cousin's bed
The hiss of the train at the railway head

Always the summers are slipping away

A 60 ton angel falls to the earth
A pile of old metal a radiant blur
Scars in the country the summer and her

Always the summers are slipping away
Find me a way for making it stay

When I hear the engine pass
I'm kissing you wide
The hissing subsides
I'm in luck

When the evening reaches here
You're tying me up
I'm dying of love
It's ok

Paralysed
Lips of ashes
Synchronised
Blue vein crashes

Touching you inside

Idolised
Black eyes fading
You and I
Connection failing

I drill down inside

Hear the sound of music
Drifting in the aisles
Elevator prozac
Stretching on for miles

The music of the future
Will not entertain
It's only meant to repress
And neutralise your brain

Soul gets squeezed out
Edges get blunt
Demographic
Gives what you want

Now the sound of music
Comes in silver pills
Engineered to suit you
Building cheaper thrills

The music of rebellion
Makes you wanna rage
But it's made by millionaires
Who are nearly twice your age

One of the wonders of the world is going down
It's going down I know
It's one of the blunders of the world that no-one cares
No-one cares enough

Open your eyes now
Hear me out before I lose my mind
I've been waiting for hours
Let the salt flow, feel my coil unwind

Give me a smile please
Count the calm and watch
my breathing slow
Winding me up tease
Get inside my head and make it show

Gravity eyelids come down

Touching your oil skin
Slipping hands down
past your waist to find
I've been waiting for hours
Let the salt flow, feel my coil unwind
Go to the edge swim
Brown the eyes that
sleep has rendered blind

1. Gravity eyelids come down
2. Come love so young with
your gold arms so I wake her
3. Here's a will that will glow in the dark -

I don't know whose side I'm on
I don't think that I belong 'round here
If I left the stage would that be wrong?

I tried to find myself a better way
I got religion but I went astray
They took my money and I lost my faith

Rain keeps crawling down the glass
The good times never seem to last
Close your eyes and let the thought pass

I tried the capsule and I tried the smoke
I tried to aid escape like normal folk
But I never seemed to get the joke

These are my old clothes
This is a new low
This is my blood flow
This is my headstone

I spend my days with all my friends
They're the ones on whom my life depends
I'm gonna miss them when the series ends

Rain keeps crawling down the glass
(Pull yourself together)
The good times never seem to last
(You know it's not so bad)
Close your eyes and let the thought pass
(Close your eyes and let it pass)

Black the sky, weapons fly
Lay them waste for your race

He captured and collected things
And he put them in a shed
He raised a proper family
So he could tie them to a bed

The creator had a mastertape
But he left it in a cab
I stared into the void tonight
The best dream I ever had

He worked himself into the ground
And drove a spike into his head
A voice said "Are you happy now ?
Your sordid home is running red"

Pills and chloroform
All the pages torn

I pull off the road
East of Baldock and Ashford
Feeling for my cell
In the light from the dashboard

Hissing from the road
The smell of rain in the air con
Maybe check the news
Or just put a tape on

Lighting up a smoke
I've got this feeling inside me
Don't feel too good

If I close my eyes
And fell asleep in this layby
Would it all subside
The fever pushing the day by

Motor window wind
I could do with some fresh air
Can't breathe too well

(She waits for me. Home waits for me.)

I guess I should go now
She's waiting to make up
To tell me she's sorry
And how much she missed me
I guess I'm just burnt out
I really should slow down
I'm perfectly fine but
I just need to lie down

We'll grow old together
We'll grow old together
We'll grow old together....

This is my home, this is my own, we don't like no strangers
Raise the kids good, beat the kids good and tie them up
Spread it wide, my wife, my life, push the camera deeper
I can use, I abuse, my muse, I made them all

This machine
Is there to please
Strip the soul
Fill the hole
A fire to feed
A belt to bleed
Strip the soul
Kill them all

They are not gone, they are not gone, they are only sleeping
In graves, in ways, in clay, underneath the floor
Building walls, overalls, getting bored, I got faulty wiring
Brick it up now, brick it up now, but keep the bones

(Do you want a western home in the rubble?)

I won't shiver in the cold
I won't let the shadows take their toll
I won't cover my head in the dark
And I won't forget you when we part

Collapse the Light Into Earth

I won't heal given time
I won't try to change your mind
I won't feel better in the cold light of day
But I wouldn't stop you if you wanted to stay

Collapse the Light Into Earth

Sunlight coming through the haze
No gaps in the blind
To let it inside
The bed is unmade
Some music still plays

TV, yeah it's always on
The flicker of the screen
A movie actress screams
I'm basking in the shit flowing out of it

I'm stoned in the mall again
Terminally bored
Shuffling round the stores
And shoplifting is getting so last year's thing

X-box is a god to me
A finger on the switch
My mother is a bitch
My father gave up ever trying to talk to me

Don't try engaging me
The vaguest of shrugs
The prescription drugs
You'll never find
A person inside

My face is mogadon
Curiosity
Has given up on me
I'm tuning out desires
The pills are on the rise

How can I be sure I'm here?
The pills that I've been taking confuse me
I need to know that someone sees that
There's nothing left I simply am not here

I'm through with pornography
The acting is lame
The action is tame
Explicitly dull
arousal annulled

Your mouth should be boarded up
Talking all day
With nothing to say
Your shallow proclamations
All misinformation

My friend says he wants to die
He's in a band
They sound like Pearl Jam
The clothes are all black
The music is crap

In school I don't concentrate
And sex is kinda fun
But just another one
Of all the empty ways
Of using up a day

How can I be sure I'm here?
The pills that I've been taking confuse me
I need to know that someone sees that
There's nothing left I simply am not here

Bipolar disorder
Can't deal with the boredom

You don't try to be liked
You don't mind
You feel no sun
You steal a gun
To kill time

You're somewhere, you're nowhere
You don't care
You catch the breeze
You still the leaves
So now where?

All the things that I needed
I wasted my chances
I have found myself wanting

When a mother and father
Gave me their problems
I accepted them all

Nothing ever expected
I was rejected
But I came back for more

And my ashes drift beneath the silver sky
Where a boy rides on a bike and never smiles

And my ashes fall over all the things we've said
On a box of photographs under the bed

I will stay in my own world


Under the covers
I will feel safe inside

The kiss that will burn me
Cure me of dreaming
I was always returning

And my ashes find a way beyond the fog
And return to save the child that I forgot

And my ashes fade among the things unseen
And a dream plays in reverse on piano keys

And my ashes drop upon a park in Wales
Never-ending clouds of rain, and distant sails... distant sails

A good impression
Of myself
Not much to conceal
I'm saying nothing
But I'm saying
Nothing with feel

I simply am not here
No way I...
Shut up, be happy
Stop whining, please

And because of who we are
We react in mock surprise
The curse of "There must be more"
So don't breathe here
Don't leave your bags

I simply am not here
No way I...
Shut up, be happy
Stop whining, please

The dust in my soul makes me feel the weight in my legs
My head in the clouds, and I'm zoning out
I'm watching TV, but I find it hard to stay conscious
I'm totally bored, but I can't switch off

Only apathy from the pills in me
It's all in me, all in you
Electricity from the pills in me
It's all in me, all in you
Only MTV and cod philosophy

We're lost in the mall, shuffling through the stores like zombies
Well, what is the point? What can money buy?
My hands on a gun, and I find the range, God, tempt me
Well, what did you say? Think I'm passing out

Only apathy from the pills in me
It's all in me, all in you
Electricity from the pills in me
It's all in me, all in you
Only MTV and cod philosophy

Water so warm that day
I counted out the waves
As they broke into shore
I smiled into the Sun

The water so warm that day
I was counting out the waves
And I followed their short life
As they broke on the shoreline
I could see you
But I couldn't hear you

You were holding your hat in the breeze
Turning away from me
In this moment, you were stolen
There's black across the Sun

Water so warm that day
I counted out the waves
As they broke into shore
I smiled into the Sun

Never want to be old
And I don't want dependence
It's no fun to be told
That you can't blame your parents anymore
I'm finding it hard
To hang from a star
Don't want to be
Never want to be old
Sullen and bored the kids stay
And in this way they wish away each day…
Stoned in the mall the kids play
And in this way wish away each day…
I don't really know
If I care what is normal
And I' m not really sure
If the pills I've been taking are helping
I'm wasting my life
Hurting inside
I don't really know
And I'm not really sure
Sullen and bored the kids stay
And in this way they wish away each day…
Stoned in the mall the kids play
And in this way wish away each day…
Sullen and bored the kids stay
And in this way they wish away each day…
Stoned in the mall the kids play
And in this way wish away each day…

Out at the train tracks
I dream of escape
But a song comes onto my iPod
And I realize it's getting late

And I can't take the staring
And the sympathy
And I don't like the questions "How do you feel?"
"How's it going in school?"
and "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Way out
Way out of here
Fade out
Fade out, vanish

And I'm trying to forget you
And I know that I will


In a thousand years, or maybe a week
Burn all your pictures, and cut out your face

The shutters are down and the curtains are closed
And I've covered my tracks
Disposed of the car
Trying to forget even your name and the way that you look
When you're sleeping
Dreaming of this

Way out
Way out of here
Fade out
Fade out, vanish

This means out
This is your way out
Do or drown
Do or drown in torpor

Leave no trace
All my files erased
Burn my clothes
Burn my Prada trainers

Let's sleep together right now
Relieve the pressure somehow
Switch off the future right now
Let's leave forever

This is fate
This is your escape
Leave here now
Leave here now it's over

Let's sleep together right now
Relieve the pressure somehow
Switch off the future right now
Let's leave forever

Jupiter Island is full of pleasures
Glowing gardens holding hidden treasures
Luminous flowers of yellows and greens
Glittering petals that have to be seen
Here's your chance don't let it pass you by
Take my hand and we'll fly

Jupiter Island is surrounded by oceans
Majestic ballerinas with graceful motions
Magenta forests on a crimson sea
The electric clouds ar as vivid as can be
Scarlet moons in a domino sky
Take my hand and we'll fly

Come on let's fly to Jupiter Island
Just take my hand and we'll fly

Jupiter Island is full of mountains
Ruby rivers and sapphire fountains
Chessboard lawns bible black and white
The pink and blue trees are incredibly bright
An orange sunset painted on the sky
Take my hand and we'll fly

Jupiter Island is full of people
But you can't see them unless you want to
Lying in the hay on a hot sunny day
Everyone's happy so no-one's gay
Laughter from the children dances way on high Take my hand and we'll fly

Jupiter Island is full of meadows
Fertile pastures for growing rainbows
Illuminated portraits from strange orchestrations
Lost in a collage of its own creations
Never a chance to wave goodbye
Take my hand and we'll fly

A Caterpillar crawled to me one day and said
"Oh what the hell goes on inside your swollen head?
I don't believe that you can see as much as I
Now close your eyes and tell me what do you say?"

"I watched nine cats dance on the moon
A flamingo stalked into my room
It bowed its head to me and knelt
To reveal the cards it had dealt
An ace, three jacks, two queens, four kings
Then turned them into burning rings
The flames jumped out and chased four mice
Caught by their tails they turned to ice

A cloud appeared outside my door
And through the window saw four more
And on the back of each cloud sat
Two rainbow smiles in wizard's hats
They threw five clocks down on my bed
The chimes danced out on golden threads
And turned to footprints on my wall
Sequined tears began to fall"

The caterpillar gasped at me and said
"My god if that's what's going on inside your head
You can see so much more than I
I think it's time to turn into a butterfly."

You must listen very carefully to what I have to say
There isn't much time, because You Know Who has consumed all the instruments

For many eons now I have been trapped on this planet
He is keeping me here against my will
And sometimes when I press my ear up very close to the concrete
I can hear his daughters sobbing with laughter
Either I am blind, or I have been in darkness ever since the sun exploded four centuries ago

A few hours ago, He Who Keeps Me Here visited me saying,
"God, why do the millions worship you instead of I?
Am I not more powerful, more forgiving and truly compassionate?"
A black liquid was seeping uncontrollably from my mouth
And all I could do was babble incomprehensibly
About a dream I had many moons ago
In it, a clock ticked constantly, maddening my senses
That was all, but it lasted for many days
Until each tick seemed like fragments of glass piercing my scales

He Who Keeps Me Here tells me that one day I will return to earth
And then I will seek my revenge

"This announcement will self-destruct in five seconds
One... two... three... four... five"

Run through forests on a hot Summer day
Trying to break down walls of numbing pain

Give me the freedom to destroy
Give me radioactive toy

Taste the water from a stream of running death
Eat the apple and cough a dying breath

Feel the sun burning through your black skin
Pour me into a hole, inform my next of kin

Run through graveyards on a dusty Winter day
Spit the dirt out and try to say...

The butterfly sailed on the breeze
Past a field of barbed wire trees
Where golden dragons chased around
Pampered poppies on the ground
Two silver trout sat way on high
And watched a royal samurai
Plant two black orchids in a box
And strap it to a laughing fox
A minstrel bought a crooked spoon
He gave it to a blue baboon
Who filled it full of virgin snow
And watched it in the afterglow

Fat toad stood in his ballet shoes
Teaching sixteen kangaroos
How to skip across a lake
They found it hard to stay awake
A pharaoh played a merry tune
And watched nine cats dance on the moon
I didn't know what all this meant
I didn't know why I'd been sent.

The Insignificance version of Nine Cats has the following additional verse at the end:

I threw 5 clocks down on my bed
The chimes danced out on golden threads
And turned to footprints on my wall
Sequined tears began to fall

I saw her footprints on the sea
I knew her eyes were watching me
So I ventured further in my mind
In the hope that I would find:

"Tangerine Trees and Marmalade Skies and
Plasticine Porters with Looking Glass Ties"

My mind had formed a mental prison
I cried aloud no-one would listen
Then floating through the heavy mist
My vision took a sudden twist

Empty people stood in grey
Children laughing far away
An empty courtyard wept alone
Rain lashed down on darkened stone

A crystal glove points to the door
A threshold I had crossed before
On turning back all I could see
Were her footprints on the sea.

Linton Samuel Dawson
Lives in inner space
He hangs around with a circus troupe
Outside the human race

Linton Samuel Dawson
Has just reached 25
Artists travel from outside time
Just to see his rainbow jive

He's bored, He's bored.

Linton Samuel Dawson
Yields his knowledge in a phial
A vivid play on an emerald day
I s experienced in his smile

Linton Samuel Dawson
Visits many open minds
He aids escape to tranquility
From the boredom of mankind

Boredom. From the boredom.
From the boredom of mankind.

I'm sitting in the concrete
I'm listening for a heartbeat
I'm sitting in the painting
I promised I'd be waiting
I'm sitting in the window
I'm listening to the wind blow
I'm sitting in an hour glass
I'm waiting for the march past

I'm sitting in the doorway
I'm wishing for a new day
I'm choking in the landscape
I'm cutting through the red tape
I'm sitting in the concrete
I'm listening for a heartbeat

And the joke has crossed the line
And the final word is mine
And the mist has touched the wood
And the words are understood
And the sand has drifted high
And the blind man gave a cry
And the swallows dance above the sun
And the swallows dance above the sun
Yeah

I'm sitting on the ceiling
I had to know the feeling
I'm sitting in the shelter
I'm going down helter skelter
I'm sitting in the concrete
I'm listening for a heartbeat

Every time I turn around
There's another face watching me
Every time I turn around
There's another voice calling me
Every time I turn around
There's another fool reading me
Every time I turn around
There's another silence drowning me

A systematic killer
Returning from Madrid
Murdered Mozart in his garden
Mussolini ran and hid
He was chosen by his elders
Sitting on the shelf
They passed his heart to Satan
Who showered them with wealth

A Purple Haze crawled on the lawn
Where lonely angels played
And Shakespeare wrote of Vietnam
While a president decayed
Hollow laughter from below
Cracked the sky in two
As Manson dance inside the flames
And the yellow changed to blue

Swinging from a length of rope
Ruth Ellis blew a kiss
Merlin spoke to Norma Jean
And granted her a wish
Mark Chapman stared at fantasy
Bare wires burned his brain
As Sergeant Pepper led the band
Playing through the rain

The third eye on the surface
Opens up my mind
Twin visions in production
This long silence you will find

I locked myself inside the capsule
And watched the planet slowly turning blue
The lights before me flashed and sparkled
Holding keys to lives I've wandered through

Circuits buzzing, visions passing
Mysterious and cold upon the screen
Glowing, flowing with the currents
Yet never knowing where I've really been

The floating seeds of timeless travel
Come to rest in planes that don't exist
Worlds of crystal beauty
Dreams so very hard to resist

I've seen the past, I've seen the future
Beyond dimension, into empty space
Finding questions, never answers
Living time behind another face

A dislocated day
Peers in to the ether
Counts the stars inside the sky
And flies in to the never

Looped around my eyelids
A thousand shining flecks
Pale against the canvas
Which hangs around my neck

Dislocated day
I will find a way
To make you say
The name of your forgiver

Stood beside an inlet
A starfish leads a dance
It dreams it is a human
And falls into a trance

A hole inside my body
Is wired up to a charge
Chemical imbalance
Tells me who you are

Insects hide the silence
November brings deep rain
Between the flow to freezing
And yesterday's sustain

We invite you, wherever you are ? whether you are at home or whatever ? to kick your shoes off and put your feet up and lean back and get yourself a cup of coffee or something, and just relax and join us in enjoying some very quietened, romantic and relaxed music for a couple of hours.

Born...
Live...
Die...
Signify. (hangs up phone)

Instrumental

At the age of sixteen
I grew out of hope
I regarded the cosmos
Through a circle of rope
So I threw out my plans
Ran on to the wheel
And emptied my head
Of all childish ideals
The sleep of no feeling
The sleep of no being
The sleep of no dreaming
I married the first girl
Who wasn't a man
And smiled as the spiders
Ran all over my hands
Made a good living
By dying it's true
As the world in my TV
Leaked on to my shoes

Waiting... to be born again

Wanting... the saddest kind of pain
Waiting for the day when I will crawl away

Nothing is what I feel
Waiting... for the drugs to make it real
Waiting... for the day when I will crawl away

Waiting... to be disciplined
Aching... for your nails across my skin
Waiting... for the day when I will crawl away

Telepath Carbon trapped under stone
Brother mother pale body is thrown
Only way I know to have fun
Fill up my blood, my veins, my lungs

ESP city - rainy and blue
Burn down this town, I give it to you
Aero shallow, photograph blind
Stage fright, black light, coma divine

No sense of time
Sever tomorrow
Exitless mind - ESP Sever tomorrow

School out invective, losing my voice
Film shredding on in multiple choice
America calls, I must go
Oprah saviour, I feel that low

Modem load and failsafe
Electric teenage dust
Hit the solvent keypad
Start the neural rust

Power on the highway
Data in my head
Surfing on the network
Part of me is dead

Every Home is Wired

Swimming in the circuit
Somebody has expired
This world will be the future

Every home is wired

(Written by Wilson, Barbieri, Edwin and Maitland)

Instrumental