1. Intro

2. Another Fine Mess

A girl read my runes in the warm dressing room,
It was then that I started to think
There has to be something really worth hunting –
I reach for another strong drink.
For ten lonely years – that's my reward.

My ego and I we have faced many dangers.
Fear and self loathing have never been strangers.
Nobody knows of the depths we have been to –
Or all the fine messes we've got ourselves into.
For ten lonely years – that's my reward.

In my world far removed from the actual –
Safe in my small amorality capsule.
I cruise far aloof from the other world's laws-
Hiding behind tinted windows and doors.

I'm so tired of living –
Too weary to cry,
Too stubborn to give in –
Curl up and die.
This whole situation has I must confess,
All the tell-tale signs of another fine mess.

I've been run aground – a ship in a bottle,
Caught in the eye of the storm.
Deep in my strife found the meaning of life –
You're dying the moment you're born.

My heart bears the scars even time can't disguise,
If you only knew what I've seen through these eyes.
Oftimes overwhelmed by the feelings of doubt,
I have crawled in a bottle to shut them all out.

Will I drown in the sweat of this chemical dream,
With far too much blood in my alcohol stream?
When Mr. Jack Daniels has read my last rights –
His friend 'Billy Whizz' comes to turn on the lights.

First we were plastered in Paris,
Then we were frying in Greece.
Caught between heaven and hellfire,
Send for an ambulance – fetch me a priest.

I've been run aground – a ship in a bottle,
Caught in the eye of a storm.
Deep in my strife found the meaning of life –
You're dying the moment you're born.

"A band on ship" the captain cried,
We bought damnation duty-free.
Now we're floating with the tide –
"The silent whales of lunar sea."

I've been run aground – a ship in a bottle,
Caught in the eye of the storm.
Deep in my strife found the meaning of life –
You're dying the moment you're born.

3. Cardboard City

Hands locked in darkness – a nocturnal greeting
We flutter like moths round the brazier's flame
Shrouded in shadow – our clandestine meeting
Here where past and present are one and the same.

No-one dies in Cardboard City
Faces only fade away
Eat your pride and take their pity
Fight to live another day.

And did those feet in ancient times
Walk bare upon these lonely streets like mine?
Does God watch us from that penthouse high above
His children down below who live on air and love?
Wrapped in old headlines beneath this shop awning
I shiver in silence and wait for the morning.

No-one cries in Cardboard City
That would be a waste of tears
Eat your pride and take their pity
Like you have so many years.

Youth of our nation – A lost generation
Like lepers we march to the chimes of Big Ben.
Exiled and rejected by powers elected
Our cries from the gutter don't reach number ten.
Give us this day our daily bread
Before the headlines read "bring out your dead."
Chip-wrapper flowers are blown onto this cardboard grave
My spray paint epitaph upon the wall it says...
"Here lies the bones of some poor homeless vagrant
He died as he lived, in the shit on the pavement."

No-one dies in Cardboard City
Faces only fade away
Eat your pride and take their pity
Fight to live another day.

No-one cries in Cardboard City
That would be a waste of tears
Eat your pride and take their pity
Like you have so many years.

4. Art-Nazi

Twist the truth – then twist your arm,
It's the Emperor Caligula School of Charm,
Don't take his word 'cause it's not worth having it
(he's an Art-Nazi)
He's a tinpot Hitler gone berserk,
A self-made man from another man's work,
More tonque in cheek than a french kiss from Judas Iscariot.

I've been to a prison – one of my own making,
I sent myself there when I signed on the line.
A pact with the Devil so legally binding –
Now he owns my soul 'til the end of time.

He owns all we eat – all we breathe,
All we take and all we leave,
All we are and all we ever will be.

Think of all the time and the energy we've wasted.
Learning how the sole of a Jack-boot tasted,
Anyone would think that he was doing us a favour –
(he's an Art-Nazi)
His name goes hand in hand with notoriety –
Bigot of the highly illegitimate variety.
I'm sick of eating shit – can I try another flavour.

What you give with one hand you take with the other,
We are your puppets and you pull the strings.
Don't make the fatal mistake of forgetting –
It's never really over 'til the fat lady sings.

He knows all we think – all we do,
Head he wins – and tails we lose.
He's our Fuhrer – he's our Lord and Master.

Twist the truth – then twist your arm,
It's the Emperor Caligula School of Charm,
Don't take his word 'cause it's not worth having it –
(He's an Art-Nazi)
He's a tinpot Hitler gone berserk,
A self-made man from another man's work,
More tonque in cheek than a french kiss from Judas Iscariot.
His name goes hand in hand with notoriety –
Bigot of the highly illegitimate variety.
I'm sick of eating shit – can I try another flavour.

5. The Wickedest Man in the World

I stand here before you
The way life has made me
Ill mannered, foul mouthed
Bad tempered and lazy
I stare at your world
Down the neck of a bottle
Every day is a death ride
When I hold the throttle.

To the drowning I am water
For your calm I am the storm
I'm the fiend who's with your daughter
In bed well before the dawn.

Was I the cat that got the bird?
They'll put the blame on me
Everything was grand in wonderland
Till Charles Manson came to tea.

Each moment's a game
And I must play it to win
And if you cannot bear it
Then you'll just have to grin
All the world is a stage
So I aim to upstage you
("By the pricking of my thumbs")
Kill me off – but like Banquo
I'll come back to plague you
("Something wicked this way comes")

All martyrs seek their cross and nails
The rebels grail his cause
So I'll just sign away my soul
And forget the buy-out clause.

The few who see me through my disguise
Abhore, deplore, hate and despise me
I care not what you perceive
Fall unto your knees
Jack the Ripper went to Sunday school
With his best friends Mack the Knife
And the blue eyed boy
Who lives next door
He's a junkie Jesus Christ.

Do you think I'll be sad
'cus you don't like me
Well I consider it highly unlikely
Spill the milk but I won't cry
My eyes are watertight
Like my alibi.

Yes I'll love you then leave you
For no apparent reason
My names are many
My friends call me "Legion"
The light that casts the shadows
Darker shades of black
That hide the drugged up mugger
Who will stab you in the back.

I'm not the type of angel
Who fell from divine grace
I'm the one who was so bad
He never got there in the first place
The vulture in the wings
As the battle flags unfurl
"Pleased to meet you,
I'm the wickedest man in the world."

6. The One Piece Puzzle

Pick up the fragments and piece them together
Tell me do you like what you've found?
Are your thoughts like the earth spinning round?
Existence is pure pantomime
Why is life such a puzzle sometimes?

Trapped in a world I no longer feel part of
Each day is a thorn in my side
Though I've carried my cross – worn my heart on my sleeve
Still deep inside something has died.
If men have a sell-by-date I've just reached mine
Now we've come to the end of the line.
Why is life such a puzzle sometimes?

Well I just can't believe that it's happened again
Always knew that it would – just a matter of when
A lie was the last straw on this camels back
And just like Lot's wife I could never look back.
So maybe the reason I act so estranged
Is you still dream of him, it's you that has changed.

No method to madness – no reason to rhyme
Now we've come to the end of the line.
Why is life such a puzzle sometimes?

Well I just can't believe that it's happened again
Always knew that it would – just a matter of when
A lie was the last straw on this camels back
And just like Lot's wife I could never look back.
So maybe the reason I act so estranged
Is you still dream of him, it's you that has changed.

If men have a sell-by-date I've just reached mine
Now we've come to the end of the line.
Why is life such a puzzle sometimes?

7. Still Spinning Shrapnel

All I hear are peace talks and battle cries.

Everyone's losing – nobody's winning,
So run for your lives when the shrapnel's spinning.

Pictures of the crippled – wounded on the frontline
Someone else's problem – you're sitting on a landmine.
When will we see reason? Sometimes I think we'll never
Learn that children have the right to laugh – and dying is forever

All I hear are peace talks and battle cries.

No time for laughter – we're too busy dying,
In this 'Devil's Playground' – bullets are flying.

There's another star in heaven – and footprints on the moon
So ignore the reign of terror – the bloody red monsoon.
Neighbour fighting neighbour – oh see how quick they run
To tear down the white flag and pick up the gun.

Peace talks and battle cries – apathy can kill
Put a price on human life – pay 'the butcher's bill'.
Everybody's losing – nobody's winning,
Run for your lives when the shrapnel's spinning.

Hear my prayer from the Valley of the Shadow –
For a child in an unmarked grave.
Take my hand in the hour of darkness –
While there's someone left to save.

But you can't hear me – all you can hear are...

Peace talks and battle cries – apathy can kill,
Put a price on human life – pay 'the butcher's bill'.
No time for laughter – we're too busy dying,
In this 'Devil's Playground' where bullets are flying.

I think about the children who have no hopes or homes,
Born into a battlfield – war's all they've ever known.
Neighbour loving neighbour – will that day ever come
When we shake hands in friendship and survey the damage done.

All I hear are peace talks and battle cries.

Everyone's losing – nobody's winning,
So run for your lives when the shrapnel's spinning.

Hear my prayer from the Valley of the Shadow –
For a child in an unmarked grave.
Take my hand in the hour of darkness –
While there's someone left to save.

Why won't you help me?
Why can't you hear me?

8. Just What Nobody Wanted

Just what nobody wanted, I'm just what nobody wanted.

I think that life has got it in for me,
Can you please tell me who's to blame?
For all the bills upon my mat –
They breed and grow then eat the cat.
Where they come from I don't know,
I stare at them but they won't go!

It seems that life's a big frustration,
Why is everybody out to bring me down?
There has to be a simple explanation,
Why failure is the fashion every time I come to town.

If life is sweet – then I'm diabetic
The future looks rosy – I just went colourblind.

This all seems to be some mass conspiracy,
So I demand the right to know,
If there's a God up there, how come he seems to care
For every little bird and bee, but couldn't give a damn for me.

It seems that life's a big frustration,
Why is everybody out to bring me down?
There has to be a simple explanation,
Why failure is the fashion every time I come to town.

If high hopes were bank notes,
I'd own all of England
And teardrops were diamonds,
Then I'd be a millionaire.

Just what nobody wanted,
I'm just what nobody wanted.

You say I'm purely being paranoid,
I beg to differ – it's not true.
Shit just seems to hit the fan,
Every time I make a plan.
Grand design to small detail,
All I do is doomed to fail.

It seems that life's a big frustration,
Why is everybody out to bring me down?
There has to be a simple explanation,
Why failure is the fashion every time I come to town.

If life is sweet – then I'm diabetic,
The future looks rosy – I just went colourblind.

I'm just what nobody wanted at all.

9. Sins of Emission

There's a beast in the cellar
There since this building was made.
He's lurked in the shadows
From when its' foundations were laid.

From my "double-helix" he taunts me
His primal voice roars
It mocks my humanity
Turning the key in locked doors.

Sins of emission – an animal trapped in a civilised mind
Sins of emission – my formal facade for the deaf, dumb and blind.
Sins of emission – spilling my seed now the harvest is sown
Sins of emission – come feast on a banquet of blood, flesh and bone.

Though we try to deny
This primordial drive in us all
We will cease to exist
When we no longer heed nature's call.

I'm a puppet of lust and my instincts are pulling the strings
No, love's not an angel – it's merely a monkey with wings.

Sins of emission – enticing and thrilling
Sins of emission – the flesh is so willing
Sins of emission – down under my skin
Sins of emission – we're all "in like Flynn."

Temptation's the one thing we'll never resist
It flirts like a maiden that yearns to be kissed
Is throwing the cradle to hells raging fires
More sinful than nursing unacted desires?

Hold tightly the reins
Of your bestial instinct to breed
He's an unwelcome guest
In the "house-trained" existence you lead

How long can you muzzle this wild brute creation of yours?
You can't quarantine the primeval with walls, bars and doors.

Sins of emission – an animal trapped in a civilised mind
Sins of emission – my formal facade for the deaf, dumb and blind.
Sins of emission – spilling my seed now the harvest is sown
Sins of emission – come feast on a banquet of blood, flesh and bone.

10. Land of the Rising Slum

Show me a politician who's a man we can trust
And if I ever meet him then I think I'll have him stuffed
Look out of the window – see not one happy face
The only splash of colour's the graffiti 'round the place.

It's hard to even crawl
With your back up against the wall.
I find it hard to sleep at night
I feel that the worst is yet to come
Social helter-skelter
Ride the downward spiral has begun.
Are some people just born bad
Or is it how we all become?
Human termites driven mad
In the concrete mound of the rising slum.

The people who are dark fear the people who are fair
And hippies live in terror of the guys who have no hair
The saddest thing of all – what I really find grim
Is we haven't yet noticed what a mess we're all in.

It's hard to even crawl
Now your back's up against the wall.
I find it hard to sleep at night
I feel that the worst is yet to come
Social helter-skelter
Ride the downward spiral has begun.
Are some people just born bad
Or is it how we all become?
Human termites driven mad
In the concrete mound of the rising slum.

The "whether man" says that the outlook's not great
A few outbreaks of murder with some isolated rape
I ask my doctor his advice, this is what he says,
"Get yourself some cancer boy, before you die of aids."

It's hard to even crawl
With your back up against the wall.
I find it hard to sleep at night
I feel that the worst is yet to come
Social helter-skelter
Ride the downward spiral has begun.
Are some people just born bad
Or is it how we all become?
Human termites driven mad
In the concrete mound of the rising slum.

11. Alone in Death's Shadow

Carnal gladiators lie restless awaiting the dawn
Slaves to their passion – so eager its will to perform
They wrestle the "Double Backed Beast" face their foe hand to hand
The arena was life but alone in deaths shadow they stand.

You brand the social leper – then spare no second thought
Too scared to give this kiss of life – "Come rise my son and walk."

On these streets of damnation the destitute huddle once more
Can we pass them by just like all who have been there before?
Are you so cold and heartless you can feel no shame
That we allow a human life to become a death in vein.

A fear that's bred of ignorance perpetuates the lie
Well there but for the mercy and the grace of God go I.

Prisoners in a sterile vacuum – hearts that feel but dare not touch
The freak show in this callous circus – on parade so all may look
Those who gaze upon the outcasts to taste how bitter life can be
Can't comprehend the pain you feel – their blinkered eyes will never see.

12. Spinning Jenny

She came down from the Western Hills when we were not prepared
I turned deaf ears to words of warning now I'm running scared.
Casting caution to the wind now that the cat's away
I say my grace – fill my face (then for forgiveness pray).
Gon knows I was an honest man – the same as any other
Who loved his wife – worked all his life to keep his family
Until the 'beast' that never sleeps beneath my silken covers
Reared its head and bit its thumb at my morality.

Her passion for passion – it will devour
Cruel are the thorns of this delicate flower
Her lust for lust – it will consume
A siren song summons all men to their doom.

She whispered of her innocence – (a plea I must contest)
While baptising helpless sinners with a missionary zest
She will exorcise your demons – then exercise your thighs
Await your 'second-coming' with a hunger in her eyes.

Her sweetmeats are the souls of men – she'll gorge herself to bursting
And for yours her heart is thirsting – as a spider craves a fly
No mortal man could ever hope to suit her as a suitor
Sh'll rewrite the Kama Sutra if you'd care to watch her try.

I reach for heaven – desire drags me down
When fools choose their king I'll be heir to that crown
A strange kind of madness I cannot condone
If you are without sin come cast the first stone.