1. |
On The Tropic
03:50
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Will anybody question or recognise?
My shadow puppet skull
Bleeding in my hands
And our skin it is wrinkled
Hanging off its bones
All these signs are deliverance
For my eyes need the lies
That come from great pity
That come in the night
When the city sleeps coldly
And the rain finally arrives
Here I stand on the tropic
Waist deep in the mud of our foul love
Now if the truth is sacrosanct
I believe it can't harm
To avoid its white light a while
And breathe the stale air
Of a place called memory
Another named regret
But I guess we've said all this before
And my eyes have found the lies
That come from great pity
That come in the night
When the city sleeps coldly
And the rain finally arrives
Here I stand on the tropic
Waist deep in the mud of our foul love
Yeah here I stand on the tropic
My hand raised and I'm rolling toward the sun
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2. |
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There are fires burning
Yet no sign of rain
And the birds in the sky
Are no longer the same ...
BIRDS!!
A girl needs to know
What a girl needs to know
And going to seed
What more could we need?
And if life has taught me one thing
It's that life has no meaning
Oh, to give up and not go on
it's an option I know
But its not a very
Good one
There are no fires burning
And no sign of rain
And the birds in the sky
Are just the same ...
BIRDS !!
That man's got to go
He just makes me feel strange
As the birds in the sky
Sing me songs of my pain
And if life has taught me one thing
It's that life has no meaning
Oh, to give up and not go on
it's an option I know
But its not a very good one
So we go on and on and on,
On with our shit
Even though, you know,
We don't really like ...
IT
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3. |
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Above your wetlands
beyond your foul hands
Over rocks and broken bones
In the shadow of the sun
Novacaine came
And washed my pain away
Like you'll never know
You'll never, ever know
Above your soup kitchen soul
Across your sodden ground
In the light of the lung
And raised beyond the pale
Codiene came
And washed my pain away
Like you'll never know
You'll never, ever know
I built a causeway above
All those naked and those dead
And the mothers and the fathers
Well the weak we carry on
Where the love that is housed
Beneath these borrowed clothes
Well its a fountainhead of madness
In a woe-begotten tale
Above the down below
Under a burning eye
A road away from the right
Morphine came
And washed my pain away
Like you'll never know
You'll never, ever know
I built a causeway above
All those naked and those dead
And the mothers and the fathers
Well the weak we carry on
Where the love that is housed
Beneath these borrowed clothes
Well its a fountainhead of madness
In a woe-begotten tale ...
A woe-begotten tale etc
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4. |
I Embrace The Negative
03:15
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I am broken
I'm beaten
Weighed down, defeated
Still I know
Yeah I know
I'm borrowed
I'm breaking
Sanguine in my waiting
Still I know
Yeah I know
That the sun comes tomorrow
The winter is near
And I'll be strong
Yeah I'll be strong
I'll catch the king
Slaughter his dogs
Eat from their bowls
Sleep in the know that ...
Like mountains upon the ocean floor
I'll see the sun once more
Come out from behind my hands
And stand ...
In the lie of the light
In the long of the night
On my own
Yeah, on my own
See the lie of the light
Is the last
In a long line of lies
Understand?
I'll catch the king
Slaughter his dogs
Eat from their bowls
Sleep in the know that ...
Like mountains upon the ocean floor
I'll see the sun once more
Come out from behind my hands
And stand ...
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5. |
Vapidly
04:17
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Looking into pools
looking in through glass eyes
So much is blurred
So much is sweetened by time
Those little things in fading winter light
Slow tables, sweet lips
And the cold sea spray
A low hum
In the distance
Vapidly
Inconsequential ... now
And now what have I done
For all the people I know?
Nothing but nothing
Except to teach them to loathe (themselves)
I sit and I hear the morning
As it comes
And the darkness retreating
Along with my soul
Its dark, hard secrets
For the soon to let go
A low hum
In the distance
Vapidly
Inconsequential ... now
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6. |
Passed Lives
03:24
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Stolen fragments of happier times
I never know when not to lie
Sad in stupidity
And poor shit diplomacy
Little movements and little smiles
Youthful laughs and youthful trials
A tired body in a small room
If not today, if not at all
On fire!!
Like the moonlight
Too obvious to see
And one million miles from
The man now
The little man now
The man now
The fucking man now
Stroke
Thank God for the future
For I forget all my past
And can only hope
That collected in some foul sump
Are the better words and better deeds
Waiting to be retrieved
At a later date
Just like the song says, yeah ...
On fire!!
Like the moonlight
Too obvious to see
And one million miles from
The man now
The little man now
The man now
The fucking man now
Stroke
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7. |
Deadened E
02:40
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Down from the mountain
At journey's end
I saw a sign, clearly for me
And it said 'appreciate all nonsense and trash ...
and never, ever, get out of its way'
Blow through the reeds
Make husks bend
Cracked open suitcase
As the reeds sing
And I know of nothing, nothing at all
And I hear from no-one, no-one at all*
And is that a gift for?
I'll hide it from the world
And I will sing this song
Never again, no not anymore
(* this line is not sung on this version because someone couldn't count the number of bars when programming the drum machine)
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8. |
Honestly, I Stole This
04:21
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In the rented words we've butchered
The borrowed shoes that we've scuffed
In the broken hues of tomorrow
The touch of that blackened sky
We can feel the pain of each other
As we burden ourselves with our lives
And the time we waste on each other
Our eyes can't disguise the demise
On the train home, yeah
In the checkout queue, oh fucking yeah
In the quiet of the evening's roarings
The glacial calm of my sleep
Whistle stop, the grey beards gather
Eyeing off the platform edge
The great noise of tiny resentments
Echoes on down the line
All hail the kings of indifference
High priests of pointlessness
Not for us the grand gestures
Not for us the final stand
On the train home, yeah
Dead drunk on the lounge, oh fucking yeah
In the quiet of the evening's roarings
The glacial calm of my sleep
On the journey to the end of the night, yeah
Death on the instalment plan
How do we find the strenth tomorrow
To do again what we endured today?
On the train home, yeah
In the checkout queue, oh fucking yeah
Staring blankly at the TV screen, yeah
Dead drunk on the lounge, oh fucking yeah
On the train to work again ...
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9. |
I've Changed My Name
03:48
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I feel like deliverying myself
Setting my soldiers free
To lie in the long summer grass
Just let them be
But I feel like I'm deluding myself
Sitting here on fire
While the storm breaks outside
And my eyes look down
From burning black sun
Cooling in its fire
A long wait over
Fully able to lie
Down with the enemy
Sleep 'til its dawn
Lie awake and say
Lie awake and say
I'm in love with the world
And it's in love with me
I'm in love with the world
And I sleep so easily
I decided to change my name
And read uncomfortable words
Where I am right and I am wrong
And call my friend
A blazing black sun
Cooling in its fire
His long wait over
So able to lie
Down with me as enemy
Sleeping through dawn
Awaking to say
He awakes to say
I'm in love with the world
And it's in love with me
I'm in love with the world
And she's in ove with me
I'm in love with the world
And it's in love with me
I'm in love with your world
And I sleep so easily
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10. |
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When you were naked
In front of me
At long last
I felt nothing
Oh strangely I felt nothing
And dug in your thigh
In the dark, anon
And almost cried
I closed my eyes
Then headed anywhere
But there with you
Uncomfortably dissolved
Like sugar
In weak tea
The tuba filled with salmon
Shivers in its sleep and dreams
Of dismemberment
And schemes of
Gifts to the undeserving
Gifts to the undeserving like
The harm bracelet
Silver lung
Iron tongue
Cheque, sword and the
Cut snake madness of us all
Cut snake madness of us all
Here
And now
When I was gone
You rolled over and kicked the light
Then lay a long time not breathing at all
Lit up a cigarette and walked outside
Looked to the stars
Shook your head
Then stared at the ground
The tuba filled with salmon
Shivers in its sleep and dreams
Of dismemberment
And schemes of
Gifts to the undeserving
Gifts to the undeserving like
The harm bracelet
Silver lung
Iron tongue
Cheque, sword and the
Cut snake madness of us all
Cut snake madness of us all
Here
And now
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11. |
The New Dreary
02:07
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Alone
The windows and blinds now closed
A house in darkness and I
I in repose
Naked on a mattress on a floor
Trying to recall what it was to be young
Oh God, to be someone
Not of this place nor this time
Unfettered and totally unafraid
Not closed, closed away
And afraid of what has gone and what will come for this man
This man closed away
So I try
I open the windows and blinds
Watch now as the shadows they fall
Across my dust ladened floor
To wherever it is they fall
And I wonder
What becomes of me?
This man alone
Alone in his
New dreary
The same
As the old
Dreary
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He Dark Age Brisbane, Australia
He Dark Age is a collaboration between Paul Newsome (Pork, The Sump etc) and Tony Milner (Swell Guys, No-V-Bleet etc). We were mostly active from around 1986 to 1990 or so in Brisbane, but have started working together again with new releases from 2013. ... more
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