Shriekback: Lyrics to "Care"

Care:
Lined Up / Cleartrails / Hapax Legomena / Petulant / Lines From The Library / Brink Of Collapse / Sway / Into Method / Evaporation / In:Amongst.

All songs published by EMI Music Publishing Ltd.

All songs written by Dave Allen, Barry Andrews and Carl Marsh except 'Hapax Legomena' co-written with Carlos Ascuitti, and 'Into Method' co-written with Ian Caple.

Note that 'Hapax Legomena' is indecipherable (with vocals - as opposed to lyrics! - by Carlo Ascuitti), and 'In:Amongst' is an instrumental. Also, US copies of this album included 'Accretions' (for which, see the album 'Tench'), and 'My Spine (Is The Bassline)' (which will be included in a page of miscellaneous lyrics, to follow).

Lyrics reproduced with permission from members of Shriekback.
Transcribed by Phil Hetherington, with thanks to Barry Andrews and Carl Marsh for answering queries etc.

I am also indebted to Ron Sylvester and John Hilgart (and anyone else I've forgotten) for their contributions towards transcribing 'Cleartrails'. It all helped! Eventually Carl found his lyric sheet (with some prompting from Barry) - thanks guys.

• Lined Up
  
  Tired of all this crawling around
  Realising the joke was on us
  Reaching out to the obvious
  Starting with an answer not a question
  Our most acceptable businesses
  All aligned in just one direction
  Organised on the same lines
  With one face - one side
  
  We got all lined up
  We got all lined up
  We got all lined up
  All lined up
  All lined up
  
  Back at the all night party
  We're getting clearer all the time
  Refined to one shape - frozen like crystal
  It has the symmetry of perfect design
  One line leads to another
  They cross at the corners run straight at the sides
  It reads the same way in any direction
  Two red circles and a thick black spine
  
  We got all lined up
  We got all lined up
  We got all lined up
  All lined up
  All lined up
  
  Let it fall into place we could tie it to a tree
  We could point it at you we could make it a habit
  We could leave it outside or we could give it our food
  Understand it or we could ignore it
  
  Holding all our past in the one hand
  We showed those people in a way they understand
  Shiny little eyes on a big red bus
  The ones we point at work for us
  One sharp point between distinction
  Going this way for X amount of time
  Frame - line - and convergence
  From the first to the final
  This intention is mine
  
  We got all lined up
  We got all lined up
  We got all lined up
  All lined up
  All lined up
  
  (repeat chorus etc.)
  
  
• Cleartrails
  
  Desire turns on
  Too late to turn around
  This graph we plot
  Each point higher
  
  The diagram of what we've got
  The hysteresis curve we plot
  The healthy future, perfect past
  We're catching up, we're gaining fast
  
  Legend or war wound
  He's bought drinks, it slows him down
  Red lines, sharp nails
  There's no pain but cleartrails
  
  Gather wood, prepare for burning
  Leaving fast but soon returning
  Bored as Christ with endless crosses
  Close the vote and count the losses
  
  This is the face that we show the world
  This is the face that we show the world
  This is the face that we show the world
  This is the face that we show the world
  This is the face that we show the world
  This is the face that we show the world
  
  Hawser, tendons
  Hot skin, the bones bend
  Ready all over
  Here comes the moment
  
  Fighting debts and obligations
  Hands on deck, all crew to stations
  Paradigm and observations
  History is in the making
  
  This is the face that we show the world
  This is the face that we show the world
  This is the face that we show the world
  This is the face that we show the world
  This is the face that we show the world
  This is the face that we show the world
  
  Looking up and running round
  We're twitching at the slightest sound
  Things that spent some time within
  Are crawling now upon the skin
  
  The light will in, the truth will out
  This is no time for fear and doubt
  A healthy future, perfect past
  We're catching up, we're gaining fast
  
  
• Hapax Legomena
  
  (indecipherable)
  
  
• Petulant
  
  They smile like nothing happened
  They look out on the sea
  The waves go splash & they don't care
  These hard facts indicate to me that:
  We're all built the same way -
  Subject to the same laws
  We all got our influences, I say: why shouldn't I?
  
  We are not lovable in the usual way
  The sun shines down on us this day & everyday
  We are the pretty boys - self critical - self employed
  I feel dangerous & I say: why shouldn't I?
  
  They love this kind of detail
  They ape the things they see
  This all links up with what I knew -
  It all seems sinister to me
  My sacred mess my saving graces?
  Insufficient alibi - I reason: why shouldn't I?
  
  Some going out some coming round
  Some moving up - some slowing down
  We learned something back there
  Something that licks it's way in - religiously
  And I say: why shouldn't I?
  
  WIR REKT UR LAB YIN OO SALOP
  
  (repeats and fades)
  
  
• Lines From The Library
  
  Write about heat and then tell Icarus
  He got too close
  Sucked in the engine of holy ignorance
  How could he know?
  No such excuse for those who come after him
  - Carbon alloy
  
  I've heard say:
  "The printed word and the paper it's printed on
  - Not worth anythin'. In the time that it takes
  To write about doing it, it could be done."
  I say 'no' in the oldest formula:
  "Fuck this, and fuck you"
  If it's good enough for Geoffrey Chaucer
  It's OK by me too.
  
  Latent energy in lines of lettering
  - One dot a full stop
  Swing on a phrase for fresh mobility:
  "Mud chokes no eels"
  The past and the present, the cheque and the counterfoil
  Fill in/tear off
  Prop up a point with some lines from the library...
  This week's maxim:
  "In for a penny, in for a pound" - Information
  
  
• Brink Of Collapse
  
  I say this, because of that sign
  I can't say that word, because of Indian money
  There's a light in their eyes, that I mistrust
  And I can't leave you alone there are so many reasons
  
  Tight hard shapes, meaning only one thing
  You know it all mounts up, nothing left to inhabit
  We stay quiet missing nothing at all
  This is the real life story about to realise something
  
  And I'm almost there, I'm almost ready
  See the light shape in the sky
  Feel the door's shape in a dark room
  
  And I'm almost there, I'm almost ready
  See the light shape in the sky
  Feel the door's shape in a dark room
  
  Quiet fears, for some of the time
  Apparent resistance, push ahead with the worry
  And I've said this before
  A bad case of understanding
  If I said this once I would have made excuses
  
  And I'm almost there, I'm almost ready
  See the light shape in the sky
  Feel the door's shape in a dark room
  
  And I'm almost there, I'm almost ready
  See the light shape in the sky
  Feel the door's shape in a dark room
  
  And I'm almost there, I'm almost ready
  See the light shape in the sky
  Feel the door's shape in a dark room
  
  And I'm almost there, I'm almost ready
  See the light shape in the sky
  Feel the door's shape in a dark room
  
  
• Sway
  
  Sodium pentathol talking
  Sit in the chair with the lights on
  The tide of the talk and the evening
  Tickles the ear like a cat's tongue
  See in from the outside the window
  Frames them in yellow and they go
  In and out of a grey zone
  They lean on the law and it bites back
  
  No sway
  This way
  No sway
  This way
  
  Plessey business is no messy business
  Just takes 'em over and sub-divides
  Clean as a q-tip as quiet as nylon
  One more hand then you got eyes on
  
  Sway
  Their way
  Hold sway
  This way
  
  Boldly embracing the TV
  Talking a mile to the minute
  Charge 'em with trading the car keys
  Just watch 'em try and deny it
  We're at the centre of all this
  Enjoying the sight and the salt taste
  Pulling the party to pieces
  Culling the last of the species
  
  Sway this way and it makes sense
  Not super-analytical and hyper-tense
  You never get to celebrate undergoing therapy
  Try and make the chemistry somethin' that it ain't
  
  Go sway
  This way
  Sway
  This way
  
  Sway
  This way
  Sway
  This Way
  
  (repeats)
  
  
• Into Method
  
  Hey everybody is on one drug or another
  They are laughing in the street and they are running out of cover
  In the short term where we live we say that really everybody
  Falls from one day to another no insurance playing mother saying
  Hoochie koochie koochie koochie hoochie koochie koo
  Hoochie koochie koochie koochie hoochie koochie koo
  Never mind there are structures of protection of investment plain pretence
  Compressing time now every good girl loves a soldier common sense
  Where there's bright labels there's elections they are symptoms of defense
  They say Levi Yves St Laurent Fiorucci Gucci shoes they say
  Hoochie koochie koochie koochie hoochie koochie koo we go
  Camden Richmond Bond Street Brixton Angel Maida Vale we say
  Hoochie koochie koochie koochie hoochie koochie koo never mind
  
  Hey everybody swings from madness into method
  They are counting all the beats all of the ups and downs and overs
  In this short time we have learnt this that really everybody
  Pays from one day to another finds the rent and plays at lovers saying
  Hoochie koochie koochie koochie hoochie koochie koo
  Hoochie koochie koochie koochie hoochie koochie koo
  Never mind there are structures for precision liberation common sense
  Compressing time to gain momentum just like breathing effortless
  So these bright labels these elections become useless as defence goodbye
  Levi Yves St Laurent Fiorucci Gucci shoes they say
  Hoochie koochie koochie koochie hoochie koochie koo we go
  Camden Richmond Bond Street Brixton Angel Maida Vale we say
  Hoochie koochie koochie koochie hoochie koochie koo
  
  
• Evaporation
  
  Direct light - nothing we can see by
  In turn we live by touch
  Blind as our first moments
  All white and flame
  Become the darkness see too much
  
  And what glows warm behind us
  Casts a shadow limp as sleep
  It goes on forever
  Or it seems that way
  The words unspoken the line uncrossed
  
  Those dark eyes conceal their life within them
  Buried secrets - the flesh won't keep
  Only motion makes him
  And he grows more still
  A stronger impulse sinks more deep
  
  And the sky grows white above us
  Our love a fact
  Like any other
  Like a muscle pulsing in a seabird's wing
  These welcoming doors close above us
  
  
• In:Amongst
  
  (instrumental)

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