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Flinch

by Citizen Fish

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1.
TV Dinner 02:12
TV DINNER Acclimatized slowly to image distortion Selling the wares and wearing so thin Which is worse? To be in or out of proportion? Documentality always stays in Squarely screened and sat to face the facts The content lost the meaning cos they didn't show the cracks Credits roll and take their toll on the roads that shape the fields Where the factory tractor ploughs the truth and buries what is real Overlaid the essence with the smell of leisure time Culture waste as public taste gets dulled and undefined Belief in the disposable is just like being blind So brighten up the packaging, put up a few more signs Eat this fast food - Read this, buy now Main course soundtrack - Discover just how We win, you lose - Who? What? Where? When? Only joking sit back - Then forget and start again I've been told I've got a mind of my own And they say you can't believe anything you're told And I read how easy it is to make decisions And I saw someone like you on the television
2.
Naked 02:43
NAKED Blind people must fall in love with a sense of mind, a sense of touch But when you insist on finding shadows in which to kiss And down the lights to cover the sights of your nakedness It feels so restrained Are we really ashamed Of what we possess? It's just nakedness Feeling too fat, feeling too thin Needing some clothing to cover the skin Thinking in terms of original sin Not knowing where the other one's been Afraid to discuss the difference between Falling in love and physical need A thousand distant painted looks Staring from adverts and top-shelf books Makes us afraid of what we reveal How it's portrayed is not how it feels It feels so individual It feels so other-personal Dresses up creates fiction Under restriction Fear of not being what the other one sees Image contradicting what lies underneath All the protection comes off in the end Nothing left to judge you by, nothing to defend Covered up the truth so long it seemed it wasn't there Here it is so laugh aloud or tell me why you're scared
3.
Small Talk 02:27
SMALL TALK Vacancy - Room to let any dumb ideas in to this empty head "Gospel, man!" - Don't quote me please It was the first thing I thought but now it's been said And you'll lead the conversations that lie ahead Whit the empty phrases by which you're led Do you know what I heard the other night? Guess what so-and-so said to me The majority of ears were only being polite Couldn't be bothered to disagree A social distance set By a liking of something hard to forget A need to remember and recognise An inspiration that over-rides Any hesitation or compromise Not relying on dubious facts in disguise What you eagerly collect And subsequently resurrect From acquaintances and T.V. set Falls on distant ears But when you tell it like it is From your own ideas and what they give We're all involved in the way you live And the distance disappears
4.
Time Control 02:28
TIME CONTROL Well I don't know who invented the clock But it began a process that will never stop At the age of six or seven or so It was a decoration that went tick-tock Then by ten they invented the watch Portable guidance til the hands fell off And a few years later it was luminous hands Then digital figures to help you understand Conditioned by punctuality Knew when to be there, but not where to be We thought we could control the time By always knowing what it was Now every action has a certain speed As we let time control us Every technological step Is faster than the one before Watching the neighbours and the fashion shows To see if we need to know more Desperate to be one step ahead Loving to be followed, but still needing to be led So keep up the pace and keep in line You're either in the race or you're left behind You may feel part of society but the truth is more sublime I said "Stop! Take a look around you" But you never had the time
5.
DIVIDING LINES So busy picking holes in our skin That stretches tight to keep us all in When what we thought were eternal friends Have disappeared from the scene Or changed their habits to suit themselves We begin to see what it means To be choosing something outside the rules That no one sets but we follow Demanding leaders and food for thought And it's getting harder to swallow Meanwhile the police and the tax demands Are coming in harder than ever We're raising our fists but we're not joining hands For fear of being seen together With people in the same mentality But differently aligned We got straight-edge, hardcore, this core, that core Too many dividing lines Individual personal choices Set examples but don't create laws We are not all the same as each other But the difference it ain't much at all So do what you like but let me do the same And maybe we'll do it together one day!
6.
Media Men 03:27
MEDIA MEN With detailed precision Nothing omitted Made the incision Cut to what fitted None of the trends None of the friends of the packaging crew Who sells us the image of who buys who None of it fits On the shelf it sits What the rest of us have Is being sold with a laugh By the media men In some hope for a trend And when their ends meet The next pose on a street Will be the new complete set of rules Sold by liars and bought by fools When the cloth gets thin And your shoes begin To show your feet How far can you walk? To the billboard talk At the side of the street? When the radio times Set the rate of decline To a bastardised beat Does your sun still shine On the neon signs At the side of the street? Make the incision It's an easy decision Rejecting the gods of consumer religion Fashion and popstars Setting the trends Pulling the strings are the media men
7.
Bag Lady 02:31
BAG LADY I just ate and I heard the change rattle in your tin I point my eyes on distant blurred horizon me for charity Or coffee make the day go faster Forty days, forty nights, forty currency exchanges This is my corner, said the Bag Lady This is my bed, said the Bag Lady This is my wardrobe This is my larder This is my blood donor card And you can keep all your opinions As long as you let me keep mine Some of us want some justice Some of us want some dignity Me I want to be left alone From people pretending they want to be me This is my can said the Bag Lady This is my hand said the Bag Lady This is my living So what are you giving?
8.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS Closed off he took her by the hand and coughed To cover an understanding loss Perhaps this state could be put across Without saying whether it was good or not Decided? Hardly! Couldn't give a toss Played up to a crowd like Jonathan Ross Or some such personality deceit But left the situation with something more complete That scared the hell for its obvious showing Of a well inside full of deeper knowing That said "That was all wrong" Reversed the role from weak to strong Decided to whom he really belonged And later felt the pain it caused Like a victory without the war Incomplete and nothing more Than selfish - what did he do it for? Taking time out to stay aloof Had made the problem twice as bad With a hatred of the actual truth He cut the little bond they had Don't take anyone for granted Every first impression slanted Next one came as a surprise And opened up some guilty eyes Take a sip from each other's cup Then find a common one to fill And if it tastes good fill it up And if it doesn't let it spill
9.
Wet Cement 02:43
WET CEMENT We went up to the building site Saw the bricks and the concrete piles And watched them all working Building muscles and no-one smiled We stood there and watched them Staring back in complete contempt I'm building a building Signed his name in the wet cement We walked through the cemetery Social tombstones in black and grey Someone had a bunch of flowers Talking sentiments felt O.K. We stood in the shadows Feeling it was that time of day When everything gloomy Hits the light as it fades away We came to conclusions Knew that life was a paradox So many illusions Kept alive till the old ones dropped Demolishing lifestyles Building up all the tower blocks If life is so sacred Why spend it all in a man-made box? We stared at the empty shells Passed a smile and then cried a lot While all this was passing by No one stopped to see what they've got They took it for granted Used the space for a parking lot We'll kill off the real world Allocating the beauty spots Industrial death camps Man made something and then forgot Knew what it should look like Trod on nature and said "Why not?" But you cannot replace it Just take a photo and watch it rot And bury the feeling Till no-one knows what it really meant Got caught in a landslide And left a name in the wet cement
10.
CIRCULAR VISION Please don't let me see So many problems and disharmony Without knowing the reason Without knowing the facts And knowing that knowing can be hard to desire When the opposite says "relax" Please don't let me see So much peace and harmony That I forget to use my eyes Be aware of any shadows behind the light Circular vision and the need to know One says lets go everywhere, the other sets the sights Please don't let me view Through so many windows I can't see through Every depth has a surface tension Spreading the ripples in all directions Making waves can be saying goodbye But it's also saying here's the reason why Please don't let me see what I've seen before Without noticing the range of change Please don't let me see without looking Or nothing will ever be strange Please don't let me see the viewpoint Without knowing what the background is Please don't let me see the framework Till I've seen if the picture fits We woke up, didn't feel like sleeping We spoke up, didn't feel like keeping The silence that hold us apart so much As we struggle to find the human touch And a natural urge of discovery Checking out what we weren't allowed to see Looking around the reality factory
11.
SOCIAL INSECURITY Growling as I smile at stares from the other side of the street Is it the speed I'm walking at or the shoes upon my feet? I couldn't afford the baseball boots, that's not the game I play And if you'd rather hang about I won't get in your way If the words you backhand to your friend were meant for me to hear I'll show you a better way to spend your time over a beer Or a coffee- come on mutant head! Let's drop the social games Call it a bluff, call it enough, quit calling each other names There's hardly any difference in the nature of the threat Some like to be remembered by the reaction they can get Others need security in a certain social set Both are too aware of what they still yet have to get Is no-one ever satisfied with being what they are? If you show me all your barbed wire, I'll only show you scars But tell me where you got it from and what it costs in friends And I'll start to get a picture of a person not a trend Ignorance and affinity to outside influence Rejects the inner feeling at anyone's expense What provoked attack was the nature of defence The weak are strong in knowing that such strength is all pretence So while you're staring at me I'll be grinning back at you At various intensities, we'll both know that it's true That what each other represents is an image we've been fed If I'm a fucking waste of space than you're a mutant head So let's discuss these attitudes and find some common ground Just doing that is ground enough to exorcise the sound Of insults, sights of malice, inbred scorn and ignorance Once beyond the posing we can find the relevance
12.
INVISIBLE PEOPLE Invisible people with invisible hands Holding very obvious collection cans Anonymous people with anonymous jobs Hurry past for fear of being late for the boss Both will say it's not the way I intended to be Knowing that the other guy has all that they could need The homeless have got all the time and all of it to share The workers have got all the cash and none of it to spare Invisible people with invisible feet Taxi cab potential knowing every street Anonymous people with anonymous cars Rolling up the windows as they drive on past If these were all your relatives then which one would you feed? Would the power you get from money disappear if it was free? Isn't it therefore obvious that in this society There's poverty and hunger due to other people's greed Invisible people from invisible homes Lost the job their rent went up out on their own Anonymous people with anonymous lives Reliant on superiors to keep them alive Cos when it comes right down to it the structure is the same Control requires acceptance that you have to play the game The power of money trickles down decreasing as it goes And out there in the rain it would be used on food and clothes But social guilt the barrier to giving what is gained To those who have less of it, cuts the last link in the chain Invisibility comes from being constantly in view Ignorance is the passive stance of saying it can't be true Reality shapes itself around perceptions of the self Until we really need it we refuse to offer help The state that creates homelessness thrives on this attitude Until we smash these limitations and take a wider view
13.
Flinch 01:48
FLINCH It's a fine line with drops on either side Instant reactions: being undecided Would lose a balance unrecognised Don't leave me alone! Don't touch me! Could just as love those he despised Or vice-versa - a social supply Of any extreme you could need to arrive Of points unchartered part through fear Don't touch me! Part through reliance on getting this near Don't leave me alone! Having regular good times - usually late Passing through the uncertain state Through the flinch reactive zone Where no-one stands completely alone Where togetherness tenses Just like talking over fences Ignoring the barrier but keeping it there In case the candle starts to flare Too brightly for the eye to see So much at once - O.K. hold it there Don't leave me alone! Don't touch me!

credits

released December 1, 1993

Voice/words - Dick
Guitar/keyboard - Phil
Bass/voice - Jasper
Drums - Trotsky
Trumpets - Alex+Jim

Recorded and mixed at St. Marks, London
2-13 August 93

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Citizen Fish Bath, UK

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