1.Nail It Down
Nail it down, nail it down
Come back home and nail it down
You can't never get nothing up off the ground
If someone don't come along and nail it down
He says he knows, he says he knows
He's never ever been where his mouth goes
Well it's all the same that vicious zeal
But how does what's false apply to what is real？
And why's it got to be a mystery？
You got to lay it out
Like thunderheads creeping down the hill
And pretty soon everyone gets ill
But i slip the net, being tall and thin
And pretty soon the dark turns to dim
I can see a little clearer now
You got to nail it down
Listen here, listen here
Tomorrow is the first day of the year
So cut the work that can't be done
You're either cutting all that work or you won't finish none
You got to lay your tools out
Pick up one
All storms still stir
Behind a big sea wall
What's the point of something that you can't recall？
Give it time, give it time
It'll go to rack and ruin
And you'll lose your mind
You'll either learn to swim then
Or you'll be left behind
I'll try anything
Anything i think is good
And i'll do anything
Anything i think i should
I'll try anything
If it seems clearer at first light
I'll do anything
Before it's vanished from my sight
Her hair was wet
Her shoes were damp
And as she travelled on the weather licked her like a stamp
She said 'i don't grasp the way you think sometimes
You're like a star that's died but hasn't lost its shine'
My head is hollow as she turns to go
Nail it down
Nail it down, nail it down
Come back home and nail it down
Can't never get nothing up off the ground
If someone don't come along and nail it down
You break one law you break all laws
Nail it down
I'll try anything
Anything within a breath
I'll do anything
You know you would not want to pine to death
I'll try anything
Anything that's bought or sold
I'll try anything
Even something that you cannot hold
I'll do anything
Said the old man of the sea
I'd try anything
If you would only get along with me
And i've been everywhere
And i've done everything to do
But i'd try anything
If i could only get along with you
2.Minotaur
They come, they go
They never do not go
They come, they see
They conquer then they leave
With man-eating beliefs
Superior of death
With lineage and myth
And a half-heartedness at birth
I have the same old dream
About a tunnel by my bed
From where the stench of shit of minotaurs
Yawns like lewd and evil breath
But instinct and a map
Has set to work inside my head
Instead of shedding tears
I've learned to drink and piss instead
They come, they go
They never do not go
They come, they see
They conquer then they leave
I am in Rome
And i am going to the games
I see the gulf
And it's going to
Bore my name into the
Green green grass
The catwalks of the past
My head is like an oven
As i rest it in my palms
We were just standing on the beach
When a bull rose from the surf
I said 'show him the back door my dear
He'll only paw the turf'
Three seasons came and went
Tracksuits found the dispossessed
My wife had other plans
And now a bastard surfs the web
There's nothing she can do
He does not talk, he does not move
He spends all day looking at porn
Or playing fucking Halo 2
They come, they go
They never do not go
They come, they see
They conquer then they leave
I am in Rome
And i am going to the games
I am the last to find my seat
I'm standing at the gate
Intermission comes
Nerves are touched, and smokes are screened
It's on a pack of cigarettes
Along with all our faults and memes and it says
Veni Vidi Vici
3.Drifting Housewife
I was more worried about taxes
When my lovely red-eyed bride
Became a hairsplitting believer
That i should be vilified
She'd see the rudder fail me
Move to Egypt or to Spain
The hammer fell, my fate's altered
Like sparks thrown from a flame
You know the Law
Know the Law
My hopes were razed like three day growth
Then raked by nervous ticks
Was i the bulls-eye or the launch-pad？
I could never find the switch
Her eye received heaven from earth
Like an atoll petrified
Except where Saturn's life-belt
Shields a half life from your eyes
You know the Law
Know the Law
So don't go getting married
You can only change her name
You know the Law
Know the Law
I'm out here on lighthouse duty
Where the foghorns groan through space
Echo into red ant country
Through the doldrums and the wastes
I'd right the wrongs if i could
But some things can't be exchanged
So don't go getting married
You can only change her name
Don't go getting married
You can only change her name
You know the Law
Know the Law
4.I Am The Supercargo
Well once I was a supercargo, my own V.O.C.,
The great white god of great whitegoods,
With shoes upon my feet.
And for that they racked their minds,
＊ thinking I'll return,
But I'm not an American, I've never worked alone.
Yeah, it's like we're never there, it's like where never there.
And they say our John Frum's coming, he's bringing cargo and the
rest,
At least they don't expect to be surviving their own deaths.
Well it's probably not a good thing to believe in all that shit,
When one way or the other, you get thrown into a pit.
Yeah, it's like we're never there, it's like where never there.
Yeah, it's like we're never there, it's like where never there.
And I am ruin borne by sea, stone age smoked by dysentry,
Patient zero to the lust of Papuans,
Trade one want for another want,
Sail off the isle of Pentecost,
Round up all my friends,
And if they want to see me one more time,
Then typhoid's seen to them,
And they are just like all the white folks,
The whites are just like them,
They take pain and superstition,
And then they call it something else,
And they build airfields in the jungle,
That no plane can land on,
They fill me with penicillin,
Man, that shit don't do nothing at all,
Yeah but everybody's got their price
Most just go on and look cheap,
They get the best the rest are hoping for,
Is to be dying in their sleep.
You want to make good with a cannibal？
You've got to show him how to freeze a priest.
Yeah, it's like we're never there, it's like where never there.
5.Careful As You Go
Stay low, careful as you go
If everybody's harmless then there ain't no way to know
Sleep tight, i'm sure you'll be alright
You might feel a little better come tomorrow
But morning's like a walk
Into a blunt narcotic fog
Until you're brought back to your senses by
Eight wheels nearing a dog that's dead or
Sleeping pills
I hear hunters in the hills
They'll only catch a chill
Before the sun goes down
Stage fright
Is proof that nothing's right
Like bird calls on the morning
Of a hopeless sleepless night
Infirm, the outside is a worm
That just slithers on in blindness
If you convert or you learn
Stay low, careful as you go
You won't know yourself tomorrow morning
And who would ever dream
That a laptop and caffeine
Could leave you colder than the voice
Inside an answering machine
Oh no, you don't ever leave the fold
You think your work is done
But then you still have to get old
Twenty-three
Do you remember me？
We went to school together
But that's ancient history
Stay low, careful as you go
I have never been so frightened
I did not count on getting close
Keep cheer, the end is drawing near
And i will be with you before you know it
I'll be knee deep in long grass
And there's a snake in there who turns and then
I cut off all his heads
But he don't ever seem to learn, man i am
Dead beat, i really need to eat
The old man walked ok
But then we tied him round his feet
She reads my emails
Back home in New South Wales
I have a feeling somewhat disbelieving
Stay low, careful as you go
If there's something worse than street fighting
I'd really like to know
Stay put, shelter here a bit
I will be with you
Before you know it
6.Oh My
People are a waste of food
You'll never hear the end
They're only ever happy
When they're burying their friends
And they take take take
But they never take a hint
The ice caps getting skinny
Still they're not concerned
They're very near extinct
People are a waste of food
The end is nearly nigh
They've always said the sky would fall
Now it is you have to wonder why
You want to shrink your stinky footprint？
Get your tubes tied
Or even better yet
Go commit suicide
They can't say you didn't try
And oh my,
Well i hear the sound of horses' hooves
Come the middle of the night
And oh my,
Its time to get your gun license
I see four horsemen riding through
A cold and endless night
If money is the root of evil
Fear of death is worse
This mortal coil is not a test
And you can't hide in a purse
So don't go casting no dispersions in the street
'Cause the half the world that starves
Will know the half you're in
Does not deserve to eat
And oh my,
Well i hear the sound of horses' hooves
Come the middle of the night
And oh my,
It's time to get your gun license
I see four horsemen riding through
A cold and endless night
People are a waste of food
Don't bother learning Chinese
Thou shalt find oneself perturbed
By less verbose calamities
Just get some Heinz baked beans,
A 12 gauge, bandolier and tinned dog food
We'll eat your dog, bury our dead
Or eat them instead
That's entirely up to you
And oh my,
I hear the sound of unshod hooves come the middle of the night
And oh why
Well, from now on 'til your grandkids finally get what you
deserve
I'm going to be stuck here with you wookies
Eating fortune cookies
Until my guts churn
7.Cold And Sober
It's a cold and sober
Night time over me, my roof and blanket
I'm looking at you
Another cold and sober
Night time over me, my roof and blanket
Looking at you
You're laid up here on my bed
I'm looking out the window at the moon
I say 'what you thinking？
Are you swimming or you sinking？
I see it in your eyes, something's aim is true'
She says it ain't sink or swim
It ain't her in the drink
It's the other way 'round
'...and the lack of it all right now
on account of you'
Those are the reasons, that is the reason why
She never tells me nothing
I don't mind, that's alright
Ain't nothing just half the truth
The first time i met you i knew
One taste meant i was through
It's a cold and sober night time over you
Another cold and sober night time over you
And the night time slides
And the morning light comes shining
Through all the bottles laying drained and empty
In resignation 'round you
At you asleep on my bed and i remember you said
'just this time will be alright but ain't nothing gonna
be the same again, friend'
The first time i met you i knew
One taste meant i was through
It's a cold and sober night time over you
Another cold and sober night time over you
It's a cold and sober night time over you
And in lieu of your coldness
Or something someone stole
Someone told me, being sober might have this kind of
Effect on you
8.Luck In Odd Numbers
And each chance i get to get close to you
The shadows come and the late afternoon makes
The warmth withdraw like a dive bell sinks
The air turns to octopus ink
I met her at the county fair
My first impressions cleaved in pairs
Hair that tumbled, eyes of steam
All nature seemed in harmony
The times you only feel one way
Are times that you remember most
But then you're wrong 'cause most those times
You really have been feeling both
I met her at the chestnut tree
And all despair abandoned me
Down by the armory we walked
And music was the words she talked
Where does all the good luck lie？
Go one, three, five, seven and nine
Show me where those bright lodes glow
Go deeper in the mountain side
Which way if my luck deserts？
Dig deeper in that rock and dirt
Which way when the good luck dies？
Go over under, side by side
And i
I hear a knock on my door
Someone's waiting outside
Waiting outside, what for？
My ride
And beneath moonless hills Chinese nocturnes
Breathe Cantonese through young Joe Byrne
Horsefly, shanghaied, stay home
And you won't ever be alone they lie
The engineer fortuity
Her tool box full with mercury
Lobs heart attacks from chandeliers
Sends rescuers with frozen beards
And other empty monologues
About mineshafts trimmed like synagogues
Man, she don't hate the ones she kills
But she don't love the mouths she fills
And if it's all supposed to mean something
It's nothing he's interested in
One thing Joe Byrne won't never know
Is you only get what you let go
He pitched his tent down Havilah
So he would never have to travel far
It don't matter Chinese or Afghan
All that he wants grows on dry land
Which way when my good luck dies？
Go one, three, five, seven and nine
Show me where the doomed roam free
With poppy seeds and armored hides
Which way if my luck deserts？
Dig deeper in that frozen dirt
Which way when my good luck dies？
Go over under, side by side
And i hear an engine running
And i see a headlamp shine
And i feel my heart is sinking
And lord
Lord my ride
Lord my ride
Is waiting outside what for？
To be nailed to a door
To be nailed to a door
To be nailed to a door
9.Penumbra
Edwin backs into the void
He's not in training now
And the pilot standing 19 feet
From Edwin on the surface
Bleached bone white
Was once a pilot who flew
Sorties in a war
But that don't matter any more
Edwin's three feet from the floor
As the pilot without warning
Takes a piss inside his pants
Hoping his pressure suit don't boil
And Edwin does the same
Charles Darwin's royals
The Eagle too, man's greatest feat
Miraculously intact
All acute angles, knees and elbows
Squats in golden underpants
Much later in the day
Edwin locks the cargo bay
And turns to see the cyclops
Neil Armstrong through the hatch
He's drifting further out of wednesday
Eye clamped between the ice caps
Then Edwin does the same
They're like two orphans at the window of an aeroplane
It's 200 below zero
The sun's shrieking like an owl
Their footprints crush the bones of fairies
As their grasps are disemboweled
10.Your Acting's Like The End Of The World
I feel like a mime losing his job
But i'm just not sure, i'm just not sure
It's like i'm facing down the wrath of God
But i know i aint, i know i'm not
I've made all kinds of weird plans
That can't succeed, won't ever be
And i spend half my time feeling odd
But what do i know
I feel like a canary who's living underground
Singing through the gas
Still worried about my first big night
As the curtains fall, the roof collapses
Your acting's like the end of the world
And i see rows and rows of fresh ditches
What are they for？ it don't make no sense
I need a palindrome to keep witches
And get rolling stoned and drop my defences
All this doom and gloom has got to me
It's taken me to lunch
I'm trying hard not to forget you
I can't take another punch
I get nostalgic thinking about you
Made me laugh until i cried
You were useful in a crisis
But it's harder now to lie
Your acting's like the end of the world
I ain't here to say i'm sorry
It wouldn't help you if i did
Your pain was just too great to bear
And i was just a kid
Well it would seem you're on your own now man
You're sitting at the breakfast table in a shirt
You've joined the chorus line of all those useless things
And wandering all the long while if you'll stay inert
If you'll stay alert
You should move out to the country man
And look after your health
These cities show you to your seat
And then they make you eat yourself
Your acting's like the end of the world
When she left she took much less of me than you
But what am i meant to do？
I try most nights to get you out of my mind
But you're still there silent by my side most the time
I can't help that i let you down
It's too long and too late
And i can't help if i broke your heart
It's too long and too late
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