SPACE
You said you wanted some space
well is this enough for you?
This is what you've waited for
no dust collecting in the corners
no cups of tea that got cold before you drank them
Tonight
travelling at the speed of thought
we're going to escape into the stars
It doesn't matter if the lifts are out of order
or the car won't start
We're rising up
above the city
over forests
over fields
rivers and lakes
into the clouds
and up above us
the whole universe is shining a welcome
Did you ever really think this day would happen
after days trying to sell washing-machines on your own?
It looked like we never left the ground
but we're weightless
floating free
We can go wherever we want
solar systems
constellations
galaxies
I'll race you to the nearest planet
How many times have you wished upon a star?
Now you can touch it
you can touch the stars
go on
don't be afraid
"I only wanted some space"
Well is this enough for you?
Is it?
Well the stars are bright
but they don't give out any heat
The planets
are lumps of rock
floating in a vacuum
Yeah, space is cold
when you're on your own
I think it's time to go home
pulling my strings
like a kite that flew too high
and now it's time to come down
Look out below
Wait 'til I get back
You can see something
You can see space
but now I know
it's O. K.
space is O. K.
but I'd rather
I'd rather get my
I'd rather get my kicks down below
oh yeah
come on
O. U. (GONE, GONE)
The night was ending
He needed her undressed
He said he loved her
She tried to look impressed
After the break-up
it's just something you do
to stop the night-time
from falling down on you
The world is ending
the sky is falling down
She's at the station
because she's leaving town
Oh you could stop her
if you get out of bed
She wants to see you
at least that's what she said
You've got a minute
at the very most
and she's gone gone gone gone gone yes she's going away
oh yes she's going away
oh yes she's going away
oh yes she's going away
And now it's over
cos I just saw the end
I saw the credits
I turned around and then
I saw her running
coming back to me
The sky exploded
but I couldn't see
The world is ending
the sky is falling down
She's at the station
because she's leaving town
Oh you could stop her
if you get out of bed
She wants to see you
at least that's what she said
You've got a minute
at the very most
and she's gone and she's gone and she's gone
oh yes she's going away
BABIES
Well it happened years ago
when you lived on Stanhope Road
We listened to your sister
when she came home from school
'cos she was two years older
and she had boys in her room
We listened outside and heard her
Alright
Well that was alright for a while
but soon I wanted more
I wanted to see as well as hear
and so I hid inside her wardrobe
And she came home round four
and she was with some kid called David
from the garage up the road
I listened outside, I heard her
Alright
Oh I want to take you home
I want to give you children
You might be my girlfriend, Yeah
When I saw you the next day
I really couldn't tell you
'cos you might go and tell your mother
And so you went with Neve
oh yeah and Neve was coming on
and I thought I heard you laughing
when his Mum and Dad were gone
I listened outside, I heard you
Alright
Oh I want to take you home…
Well I guess it couldn't last too long
I came home one day
and all her things were gone
I fell asleep inside
I never heard her come
Oh and she opened up the wardrobe
and I had to get it on
Yeah oh listen we were on the bed
when you came home,
I heard you stop outside the door
I know you won't
believe it's true
I only went with her
'cos she looks like you, my God
STYLOROC (NITES OF
SUBURBIA)
After many weeks in the wilderness we came upon a strange,
exotic land.
A land of happy hours,
where the sky is always grey and the food exceptionally
greasy.
We drank strange brown liquids,
and our stomachs swelled up like balloons.
A thousand fake orgasms every night
behind thick dralon curtains.
They go on and on and on and on.
We sank back into mauve P. V. C. sofas.
Outside dogs roamed the streets
and the rooftops glistened in the rain
but now we've grown so fat we can no longer pass through
the door.
So stay we must,
sprouting black hair beneath bri-nylon underwear.
Yes, here we will stay
these nights of suburbia go on and on and on and on and
on.
RAZZMATAZZ
The trouble with your brother,
he's always sleeping with your mother.
And I know that your sister missed her time again this month.
Am I talking too fast or are you just playing dumb?
If you want I can write it down.
It should matter to you,
cos aren't you the one,
with your razzmatazz and the nights on the town?
Oh you knew it, and you blew it didn't you
babe?
I was lying when I asked you to stay.
Now no-one's gonna care,
if you don't call them when you said.
And he's not coming round tonight to try and talk you into
bed.
And all those stupid little things,
they ain't working,
no they ain't working any more.
You started getting fatter,
three weeks after I left you.
And now you're going with some kid who looks like some bad
comedian.
Are you gonna go out?
Or are you sitting at home eating boxes of Milk Tray?
Watch TV on your own, aren't you the one,
with your razzmatazz and your nights on the town?
And your father wants to help you doesn't
he babe?
But your mother wants to put you away.
Now no-one's gonna care,
if you don't call them when you said.
And he's not coming round tonight to try and talk you into
bed.
And all those stupid little things,
they ain't working,
no they ain't working any more.
Oh well I saw you at the doctor's,
waiting for a test.
You tried to look like some kind of heiress,
but your face is such a mess.
And now you're going to a party,
and you're leaving on your own.
Well, I'm sorry, but didn't you say,
that things go better with a little bit of razzmatazz?
And now no-one's gonna care,
if you don't call them when you said.
And he's not coming round tonight to try and talk you into
bed.
Now it's half past ten in the evening,
and you wish that you were dead,
cos all those stupid little things,
they ain't working,
no they ain't working any more.
SHEFFIELD: SEX CITY
The mark of the devil is upon you
Your look is no happier than mine
Damnation is waiting in the mirror
but you shouldn't mind
Their legs start a feeling in your stomach
Their eyes knock you backwards with a glance
Your pride sinks unnoticed in the river
given half a chance
And your past is just a bedroom full of implements
of cruelty
and a list will bind your eyes as you grow old
but you want to join the laughter sharing simple shreds
of
feeling
but you fidget and your heart is growing cold
Smiles left unfollowed start to haunt you
Chances that perished long ago
The devil is waiting in the bathroom
with your worthless soul
The years pull their weight down on your cheekbones
the nights out are hanging from your waist
The years float like dust held in the sunlight
with an aftertaste
And your past is just a bedroom full of implements
of cruelty
and a list will bind your eyes as you grow old
but you want to join the laughter sharing simple shreds
of
feeling
but you fidget and your heart is growing cold
La la lala lala la la…
And your past is just a bedroom full of implements of cruelty
and a list will bind your eyes as you grow old
and you want to join the laughter sharing simple shreds
of
feeling
but you fidget and your heart is growing cold
And your past is just a bedroom full of implements of cruelty
and a list will bind your eyes as you grow old
and you want to join the laughter sharing simple shreds
of
feeling
but you fidget and your heart is growing cold
La la lala…
Oh…
STACKS
I saw you standing at the stop
in your crochet halter top
and your sky-blue training bra
I know you're gonna go too far
You're driving all the boys insane
down by the sports hall in the rain
chewing-gum, a navy dress
a purple shirt and all the rest
Oh there's stacks to do
and there's stacks to see
and there's stacks to touch
and there's stacks to be
so many ways for you to spend your time
such a lot
but I know
that you've got stacks
I heard you let him touch too much
on the back seat of the bus
Did you stay over at his place?
And did you do it?
Was he ace?
The world is bigger every day
and you've always got something to say
and you've always got somewhere to go
It's getting faster don't you know?
And there's stacks to do
and there's stacks to see
and there's stacks to touch
and there's stacks to be
so many ways for you to spend your time
such a lot
but I know
that you've got stacks
Oh there's stacks to do
and there's stacks to see
oh yes stacks to touch
and there's stacks to be
so many ways for you to spend your time
such a lot
but I know
that you've got
Places to go
and faces to kiss
boys to confuse and appointments to miss
So many ways for you to spend your time
such a lot
but I know that you've got
yeah I know that you've got stacks.
INSIDE SUSAN
Susan catches the bus into town at ten-thirty a. m.
She sits on the back seat.
She looks at the man in front's head
and thinks how his fat wrinkled neck is like a large carrot
sticking out from the collar of his shirt.
She adds up the numbers on her bus ticket to see if they
make
twenty-one,
but they don't.
Maybe she shouldn't bother going to school at all, then.
Her friends will be in the yard with their arms folded on
their
chests,
pushing up their breasts to try and make them look bigger,
whilst the boys will be too busy playing football to notice.
The bus is waiting on the High Street when suddenly it begins
to
rain torrentially
and it sounds like someone has emptied
about a million packets of dried peas on top of the roof
of the
bus.
"What if it just keeps raining, " she thinks to
herself,
"and it was just like being in an aquarium except
it was all the shoppers and office-workers that were
floating past the window instead of fish? "
She's still thinking about this when the bus goes passed
Caroline Lee's house
where there was a party last week.
There were some German exchange students there who were
very
immature;
they all ended up jumping out of the bedroom window.
One of them tried to get her to kiss him on the stairs,
so she kicked him.
Later she was sick because she drunk too much cider.
Caroline was drunk as well
she was pretending she was married to a tall boy in glasses,
and she had to wear a polo-neck for three days afterwards
to cover up the love-bite on her neck.
By now the bus is going past the market.
Outside is a man who spends all day
forcing felt-tip pens into people's hands and then
trying to make them pay for them.
She used to work in a pet shop there.
She got the sack for talking to boys when she was supposed
to be
working.
She wasn't too bothered though,
she hated the smell of the rabbits anyway.
"Maybe this bus won't stop, " she thinks,
"and I'll stay on it until I'm old enough to go into
pubs
on my own.
and it'll drive me to a town where people with black hair
are
treated specially
and I can make lots of money by charging fat old men five
pounds a time to look up my skirt.
And they'll be queuing up to take me out to dinner. "
I suppose you think she's just a silly girl with stupid
ideas,
but I remember her in those days.
They talk about people with a fire within and all that stuff,
well,
she had that alright.
It's just that no-one dared to jump into her fire
and risk being consumed.
Instead, they put her in a corner and let her heat up the
room,
warming their hands and backsides in front of her,
and then slagging her off around town.
No-one ever really got inside Susan,
and,
and,
she always ended up getting off the bus at the terminus
and then walking home.
59, LYNDHURST GROVE
There's a picture by his first wife on the wall
stripped floor-boards in the kitchen and the hall
a stain from last week's party on the stairs
no-one knows who made it
or how it ever got there
They were dancing with children round their necks
Talking business, books and records, art and sex
All things being considered
you'd call it a success
you wore your black dress
He's an architect and such a lovely
guy
and he'll stay with you until the day you die
and he'll give you everything you could desire
oh well almost everything
everything that he can buy
So you sometimes go out in the afternoon
Spend an hour with your lover in his bedroom
hear old women rolling trolleys down the road
back to Lyndhurst Grove
Lyndhurst Grove, Oh
