XTC Album

Do you know what noise awakes you
Every morning from your bed
A-coming from the farthest hillside
A-coming from inside your head

You have heard
You have heard the loudest sound
In this and every world you can think of

Louder than tanks on the highway
Louder than bombers in flight
Louder than noises of hatred
Dancing us from darkest night is the rhythm of love
Powered on the the beating of hearts

And did you know you had this power?
Drumming on it always stays
Never try to use it badly
Tunes of good are all it plays

You have heard
You have heard the loudest sound
In this and every world you can visit

Louder than tanks on the highway
Louder than bombers in flight
Louder than noises of hatred
Dancing us from darkest night is the rhythm of love
Powered on the the beating of hearts

For a heart without love is a song with no words
And a tune to which no-one is listening
So your heart must give love and you'll find that
You shine like rain on the leaves you'll be glistening

You have heard
You have heard the loudest sound
In this and every world you can think of

Louder than thoughts of dictators
Louder than rattling swords
Louder than loading of rifles
Louder than screaming warlords

Louder than tanks on the highway
Louder than bombers in flight
Louder than noises of hatred
Dancing us from darkest night is the rhythm of love
Powered on the the beating of hearts

Can't you see
Love and affection
When it's put
In your direction
Wrapped in your mysterious wonderland
No fast car
Can make you grow up
Gentlemen
You think you've sewn up
Locked in your wonderful wonderland
No dark horse like me can cramp all of your style
Too plain and simple I am for your file

One day you will break out of your spell
And some day you will want me for your own
And I'll say welcome to reality

All this talk
Of late-night parties
Flirting with the lower gentry
Lost in your magical wonderland
Out of depth
Out of class
Phase of your life
Will come to pass
Caught in this tragical wonderland
All of the riches that shine will turn sour
Each moment you slip you will bring near the hour

One day you will break out of your spell
And some day you will want me for your own
And I'll say welcome to reality

Wrapped in your mysterious wonderland

Caught in your superficial
Nonexistant
Fairy-story
Wonderland

High climbs the summer sun
High stands the corn
And tonight when my work is done
We will borrow your father's carriage
We will drink and prepare for marriage
Soon, my darling, soon, my darling

Shilling for the fellow who brings the sheep in
Shilling for the fellow who milks the herd
Shilling for the fellow with a wife for keeping
How can we feed love on a farmboy's wages?

Deep under winter snow
Deep lay the lambs
And tonight by the full moon's glow
Flask of wine on my feather bedding
We will drink and prepare for wedding
Soon, my darling, soon, my darling

Shilling for the fellow who brings the sheep in
Shilling for the fellow who milks the herd
Shilling for the fellow with a wife for keeping
How can we feed love on a farmboy's wages?

People think that I'm no good
At painting pictures or carving wood
Be a rich man if I could
But the only job I do well is here on the farm
On the farm
And it's breaking my back

We will borrow your father's carriage
We will drink and prepare for marriage
Soon, my darling, soon, my darling

Shilling for the fellow who brings the sheep in
Shilling for the fellow who milks the herd
Shilling for the fellow with a wife for keeping
How can we feed

Shilling for the fellow who brings the sheep in
Shilling for the fellow who milks the herd
Shilling for the fellow with a wife for keeping
How can we feed love on a farmboy's, love on a farmboy's, love on a farmboy's wages?

Great fire burning
You supplied the spark
Fores burning spreading through the ark
Animals are panicking
I'm animal and panicking

Your glance a match on the tinderwood
You never spoke but I understood
Bring water
Eyes bring water

Great fire burning through
Great fire burning through my house
Great fire burning through my house and heart

Great fire burning
All because of you
Fires burning spreading through the zoo
Animals are panicking
I'm animal and panicking

No round of drinks can extinguish this
Feeling of love and engulfing bliss
Bring water
Eyes bring water

Great fire burning through
Great fire burning through my house
Great fire burning through my house and heart

I've been in love before
But it's never been as hot as this
Smoke curling round the door
Memories of old loves crack and blister
Mister fireman bet you couldn't put me out if you tried

Your glance a match on the tinderwood
You never spoke but I understood
Bring water
Eyes bring water

Great fire burning through
Great fire burning through my house
Great fire burning through my house and heart

We can plant a seed
And watch it grow
Food enough to fill a table
Running water down an overflow
Eat as much as we are able
But would the fruit turn ripe
If the rains had never been?

Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We at your mercy and your reverence
Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We've no defense we are impotent

You can travel far to distant lands
Some so hot no man could bear
You can conquer peaks with winds of sand
Where Mother Nature didn't care
Would not our world turn cold
If the sun refused to shine

Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We at your mercy and your reverence
Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We've no defense we are impotent

And when the world grows old
And we know more than our brains can hold
Nature will be law
Well we're as helpless now as we've ever been before
Would not our world turn cold
If the sun refused to shine

Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We at your mercy and your reverence
Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We've no defense we are impotent

An alchemy, human alchemy
We stole them from their freedom to be sold
To turn their skins of black into the skins
Of brightest gold
An alchemy , human alchemy

We stoked the fires of trade with human coals
And made our purses from the flailed skins of
Purest souls
An alchemy , human alchemy

Other lands became a larder full of all the good things
All we had to do was go and take
Blood the colour rain that grew our wicked harvest
Black the colour icing on our cake
An alchemy , human alchemy

We stole their babes and mothers, chiefs and braves
Although we held the whip, you knew we were
The real slaves
To alchemy , human alchemy

alchemy , human alchemy

O ladybird
I have heard you wish to walk me through your garden
I crave your pardon if I woke you with my thinking
Ladybird

O ladybird
I have heard you wish to walk me through your meadow
You'll spread no wings to fly in fright if I'm beside you
Ladybird

All through the winter time
When wood was warm and splintered
Time seemed longer than a goods train
Now that spring is back again I'll ask your name
Your name

O ladybird
I have heard you wish to walk across my pillow
No weeping willow was ever as beautiful, sad as you are
Ladybird

And as you're walking past
I'm laying on the grass and making chains of thought
To snare you with my wit
But bit by bit you fade to gone
Gone

All through the iron season
Love was hanged and treason became
Something of a parlour game
Now sun is back in power I'll ask your name
Your name

O ladybird
I have heard you have to run to tend your children
No flood can drown nor fire blacken purest longing
For ladybird
Ladybird

Boom goes my heart
Dancing around your daisies
Church bells will start
Sat on you reading your ages
I drift away
In loving memory of a name

Covered in moss
You may have died for your country
Forgotten not lost
You're laid to rest where you're wanted
I stare awhile
In loving memory of a name

England can never repay you
You gave your life to be buried alongside
The place you loved
The sermons attended when you were young
Still echo round these churchyard walls

Heroes and rogues
Together surrounded by nature
Lump in my throat
Sat in the land of your maker
I drift away
In loving memory of a name

Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Me and the wind are pulling kites and pushing tress
Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Me and the wind are feeling freer than air should ever be
Should ever be should ever be should ever

And when you lured me into your syrup
All I could think of was what a lovely way for me to go
I never really realised that

Just like the struggling summer flies that
I was drowning no matter how sweet or how slow

Have I been such a fool
Have I been sitting on your stool
While you cracked the whip
While you cracked the whip

I danced imprisoned in your drumbeat
Your tune of spring had me whirling like a mad march
Merry hare
It never really came to mind that

The strings of your instrument were strangling me
Inside their snare

Have I been such a fool
Have I been sitting on your stool
While you held the hoop
While you held the hoop

Now that I'm out and I'm shouting in doorways
Freed from a love more like murder
I should be singing but in liberation
Feel like a ship with no rudder

Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Have I been such a fool

Funk pop a roll beats up my soul
Oozing like napalm from the speakers and grill
Of your radio
Into the mouths of babes
And across the backs of its willing slaves

Funk pop a roll consumes you whole
Gulping in your opium so copiously from a disco
Everything you eat is waste
But swallowing is easy when it has no taste

They can fix you rabbits up
With your musical feed
They can fix you rabbits up
Big money selling you stuff that you do not need

Funk pop a roll for fish in shoals
Music by the yard for the children they keep
Like poseable dolls
The young to them are mistakes
Who only want bread but they're force-fed cake

Funk pop a roll the only goal
The music business is a hammer to keep
You pegs in your holes
But please don't listen to me
I've already been poisoned by this industry!

Funk pop a roll beats up my soul