Shriekback: Lyrics to "Having A Moment"

Having A Moment

All songs published by Copyright Control.

All songs written by Barry Andrews, except 'Sinus Aestuum' and 'Baby Lions' by Barry Andrews and Martyn Barker, and 'More Heat Than Light' by Barry Andrews, Finn Andrews and Carl Marsh.

Lyrics reproduced with permission from members of Shriekback.

• More Heat Than Light
  [Finn Andrews' version of this song contains the first, second and last verses only and has quite a few lyrical differences; see the liner notes to The Veils' album 'The Runaway Found' for details.]
  
  The Imperial disaster in it's furious decline
  They been burning down the ghettoes, burning down the ghettos
  Crossing all of the lines
  And everyone gets so excited as it all starts to bite
  Giving out, giving out, radiating
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  
  He been drooling on the mirror in the back of the van
  If he can do it, if he can do it, if he can do it
  I think anybody can
  He been polishing the dolphin, you never seen a beast so bright
  Radiating, radiating, giving out
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  
  I'm gonna use the best machines
  I'm gonna use the best machines
  I'm gonna use the best machines
  I'm gonna use the best machines
  
  They started shooting at the shadows
  I think the shadow's shooting back
  Rattling the cages, rattling the cages, got the devil in the sack
  A convincing meditation
  On the splendour of the night
  Giving out, giving out, radiating
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  
  Dodgy little man
  With a fever in his eyes
  You say 'put them with the others, put them with the others -
  You should never analyse'
  He fucked the watermelon women like a thief in the night
  All the time, all the time, radiating
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  More heat than light
  
  
• God's Gardenias
  [For the record, the Barry Andrews solo version of this song has two tiny variations in the lyrics, i.e. 'walls like a tissue' and 'smiles on me and mine'. Just in case you were wondering whether I'd noticed...]
  
  Leela puts the flowers in her organised hair
  Celia keeps her money in the sea
  The mist is on the river
  The drinks are on the bar
  Pleasure's not a dirty word to me.
  I say: 'chat me no more yoga. Show me no more signs
  Read me no more catalogues of all my crimes
  The thort is flowing and the beast feels fine:
  God's gardenias rain on me...'
  
  Sarah throws potatoes at the lean yellow moon
  Getting even for that summer night:
  The sun was on the city
  The crab was in the sky
  (Sarah had a thing about the lights)
  She said: 'quote me no more Horace
  Swat me no more flies
  Don't rely on what we try to symbolise
  The walls like tissue -
  It's a mean design
  God's gardenias rain on me...'
  
  Rosy sees the dawn in through her calm lion's eyes -
  Cuts a dashing figure in the gloom.
  The Tigris and Euphrates
  The Jordan and the Nile
  Gush out from the corners of her room.
  So I say: 'blow me no more kisses,
  Scrape me no more bones
  Talk to me of ecstasies of flesh and stone
  Let's ask for absolution one more time:
  God's gardenias rain on me...'
  
  The Black Narcissus smiles for me and mine...
  God's gardenias rain on me...
  
  
• Going Equipped
  
  We got the poisons, we got the towels
  We got the headsets, we got the flowers and the owls
  We got the shovels, we got the gloves
  We had the visions, we got approval from above
  We licked the mirror, we fed the swine
  No use pretending that it wasn't a good time
  It was a riot of cheese and string
  (Was always gonna be a messy kind of thing)
  
  We got the moisture, we got the cup
  There is no question - we got the pressure pushing up
  We got the laquer, we got the beer
  We have the makings of a phenomenon right here
  We had the lecture, we did the tour
  We saw the slack mechanic with his terrible allure
  We got the sugar, we got the tongs
  We know the verse and chorus to a thousand happy songs
  
  We got the sirens, we got the chimes
  We have the motives for such enthusiastic crimes
  We had the Ice Age and now the feast
  We're spooning fondue with the surgeon and the priest
  We got the plasma, we got the chrome
  Slo-mo explosions in an exstasy of foam
  We got the litmus, we got the trowels
  Anticipation percolating through the bowels
  
  
• Sinus Aestuum
  [This song was formerly known as 'Seething', for obvious reasons.]
  
  All the crazies, all the losers, all the boilers and the bruisers
  All the chancers, all the fakers, all the users and the takers
  All the vampires, all the lushes, all those young girls with their crushes
  All the normal and the sub
  (The full mix and the dub)
  
  They're all seething, seething, seething, they're all seething
  Seething, they're all seething, all the rats on my ship are leaving
  
  All the movers, all the shakers, all the right-on agitators
  All the creepers, all the crawlers, all the screamers and the bawlers
  All the slaves of stimulation, all the shifting population
  All the matchwood on the bonfire:
  The last remnants of Empire
  
  It's all seething, all seething, seething, it's all seething
  Seething, it's all seething, all the rats on my ship...
  
  All the smart kids with the lingo, all the rock stars reading the bingo
  All the benders, all the breeders, all the vicious little bleeders
  All the half-breeds and the new bloods, all the old reptiles with the young studs
  All the lowlife in the high-rise
  All the 'got the world by the balls' guys
  
  They're all seething, seething, seething, they're all seething
  Seething, they're all seething, all the rats on my ship are leaving
  Seething, seething, seething, they're all seething
  Seething, they're all seething, all the rats on my ship...
  
  
• Feverish Hands
  
  Girls together serenading monsters
  Quietly seething
  Who will soothe these feverish hands...
  These feverish hands?
  Slow and strong like the weather underwater
  Solidly impacted
  Can you trust these feverish hands...
  These feverish hands?
  
  All white with motion
  Hold tight the guru cannot stand
  This blind devotion
  (The whores and little horses
  Make a ludicrous design)
  These feverish hands
  These feverish hands
  
  Hearts and mustard thick as anaglypta
  All Cro-Magnon - bloody waste of skin
  These feverish hands... such feverish hands
  Nightboys stumbling
  Never out of work
  With no imagination
  All their use is
  Feverish hands... such feverish hands
  Girls together serenading monsters
  Quietly seething
  Who will soothe these feverish hands...
  These feverish hands?
  
  All white with motion
  Hold tight the guru cannot stand
  This blind devotion
  (The whores and little horses
  Make a ludicrous design)
  These feverish hands
  These feverish hands
  
  Hearts and mustard thick as anaglypta
  All Cro-Magnon - bloody waste of skin
  These feverish hands... such feverish hands
  Nightboys stumbling
  Never out of work
  With no imagination
  All their use is
  Feverish hands... such feverish hands
  
  I'm making it worse by helping:
  Shaking out her knickers
  Trying to get around
  these feverish hands... these feverish hands
  Slow and strong like the weather underwater
  Solidly impacted
  Can you trust these feverish hands...
  These feverish hands?
  
  All white with motion
  Hold tight the guru cannot stand
  This blind devotion
  (The whores and little horses
  Make a ludicrous design)
  These feverish hands
  These feverish hands
  These feverish hands, feverish hands, feverish hands
  
  
• Baby Lions
  
  I like the glue-share widow (hose him down)
  And Ah! that Shakespeare rhythm (10 beats wide)
  Great how they bite the pillow (clean and brown)
  All you mad old ladies (come inside)
  Those gutta percha babies (rob you blind)
  The sight of Tranquil Vermin (strong and wise)
  Run with the bumcrack rebels (perfect crime)
  Those analeptic heroes (canonise)
  
  Those baby lions gonna rip you up - they can see right through you
  Those baby lions jump 6 feet up - they wanna see what you do
  Those baby lions
  
  What about the douche-bag killings? (still unsolved)
  All you disturbed young women (have no fear)
  He do the goose-step waddle (so involved)
  It was the lies you told him (brought him here)
  And Oh! the good Red Herring (fish or fowl?)
  Great how it holds it's value (bright and clean)
  Support your local watchman (wreck that owl)
  All of you leather priests (know what I mean)
  
  Those baby lions gonna rip you up - they can see right through you
  Those baby lions jump 6 feet up - they wanna see what you do
  Those baby lions gonna rip you up - they can see right through you
  Those baby lions jump 6 feet up - they wanna see what you do
  Those baby lions
  
  I like the glue-share widow (hose him down)
  And ah the shakespeare rhythm (ten beats wide)
  All of you mad old ladies (clean and brown)
  Great how they hold their value (come inside)
  Those Gutta percha babies (rob you blind)
  And Ah! The douche-bag killers (strong and wise)
  The sight of tranquil vermin (perfect crime)
  Great how they sip Martinis (canonise)
  
  Those baby lions gonna rip you up - they can see right through you
  Those baby lions jump 6 feet up - they wanna see what you do
  Those baby lions gonna rip you up - they can see right through you
  Those baby lions jump 6 feet up - they wanna see what you do
  Those baby lions
  Baby Lions
  Baby Lions
  
  Baby lions, baby lions, baby lions, baby lions, baby lions
  
  

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