Plastic Seoul
Got my Gentle Monsters on
Got my Olive Young
Speaking in Korean now
A planetary tongue
Dragged my haul to Hongdae
Of Noryangjin fish
Anthracite's got skyline
Seongsu feels so fresh
Andeath is the Dumpster girl
Marshall is the brains
Caricakes is wholesome
But she's a little strange
Through Dongdaemon plaza
Always August there
If you're not in Seoul
You're where? Nowhere!
Tamburins make perfumes
And makgeolli makes me dream
Herons out on fish patrol
At Cheonggyecheon Stream
Lattes at Upstanding
Pastries at Nudake
New York's really fading
Past its sell-by date
Down at Post-Poetics
Up at Local Stitch
All the books in Your Mind
Make you feel so rich
Togs at Kwangjang market
They're so nice to wear
If you're not in Seoul
You're where? Nowhere!
Life4Cut photo shoot
Down at Sinsadong
Heading up to Sonje
Where they're showing Park Chan-kyong
Sunset on the river
Sunset through the fumes
Sun is setting on the West
If you can read the runes
Andeath is the Dumpster girl
Marshall is the brains
Caricakes is wholesome
But she's a little strange
Dongdaemon plaza
It's Always August there
If you're not in Seoul
You're where? Nowhere!
Now you've seen the West decay
Come and meet the East
Nothing we can do or say
It's time to slay the beast
Used to love America
But it's gotten worse
Used to drive a racing car
Now they drive a hearse
Nowhere
Got my Gentle Monsters on
Got my Olive Young
Speaking in Korean now
A planetary tongue
Tamburins make perfumes
Makgeolli makes me dream
Herons out on fish patrol
At Cheonggyecheon
Shopping trip to Mapo-gu
Third in line for the Object queue
In Seoul Forest blossom falls
Be here if you're anywhere at all
Asylum
Something squats in me
And it's driving me hard
Away from here
Need some place to be
And it needs to be far
Away from here
A litter of morning stars
The glitter of German bars
Asylum
Asylum
Didn't know what to do
So I got in my car
And drove like hell
And now the Kings of Norway
Are hot on my trail
I've got their grail
Asylum
Asylum
Something squats in me
And it's driving me hard
Away from here
Need a place to be
A place to be bad
Away from here
A litter of morning stars
The glitter of German bars
Asylum
Asylum
This Abuse
Mom and dad they fall apart
And I'm feeling like a child again
Used to be their whipping boy
Now I'm the wedge she's using against him
Grandma taught me how to pray for people
Specially people I don't like
Is anybody up there listening?
I need to move on with my life
I thought I'd had enough of this abuse
I'm passing up, on the street,
On offers I can only just refuse
All this abuse
Offers I can only just
Offers I can only just refuse
Think I'll stay away from your holiday
The way you live makes me take drugs
But I want to see my nephews and my nieces play
Watch how they grow up
And as the frailty returns to dawn
And all the sailors come to town
Hold on cowboy, hold on tight
Something here is very wrong
Thought I'd had enough of this abuse
I'm passing up, on the street,
On offers I may one day revisit
And re-use
Oooo
So I hide my anger just for now
Linger on the margins of the scrum
So hold on cowboy, hold on tight
Something here is very wrong
All this abuse
Offers I can only just refuse
Offers I may one day revisit
And re-use
Ooo
All this abuse
Offers I can only just refuse
Offers I can only just refuse
Kleptoglade
Wir bauen eine neue Stadt
But first let's kill the cat in the hat
Arctic hysteria, what's up with that?
Piblocqtoq makes me mad
Illegal encampments out on the veldt
What the hell happened to this world?
Where's the wall to keep them all out?
Can't have a rabble wriggling about!
In the kleptoglade thou shalt not
Steal or feel, think sexy thought
Eat processed foods that make thee ill
But it's still okay to kill
In the kleptoglade thou shalt not
Disrupt the motorway, for yay
Thou shalt five years serve in jail
But it's still okay to kill
Our enemies suddenly died
Must've committed suicide
Our commandments multiplied
Now we've got one million
We kill civilians with a drone
How wouldst thou feel
Let's be real
With a zillion zombies around thy home?
We sell ice to the eskimos
Now they owe a fuckton of snow
Indentured servitude
Just another colour on the Rubik's cube
Guns and bibles, but mostly guns
Bibles tend to spoil the fun
Three pink sacks in the art school yard
Tokyo cassettes with Scottish sound
Japanese flats in a gallery window
An amateur painting left by the door
Taste the sucker punch of the gods
The rubber gazump of the bouncing brick
Blood is always the new black
To the randy dandies of the abbatoirs
Here comes the cavalry
Breaking our lines
Pushed by the swell of the hateful ones
To slaughter the indigenous tribes again
What did number ten say again?
But may I just respond?
Wars and walls will end
When Jesus fucking Bond
Waves his magic fucking wand
Singapore
Hey, remember the day we spent in Singapore?
The day up on the 50th floor
In a garden in the sky
You were telling me why
You couldn't keep doing this any more
I asked what, and you said life, babe
I said not suicide, babe
You said no, I just need to change
Everything needs to be rearranged
If you can't get over you
I can't get on with you
Leave this victimhood
Spread out here on a Singapore roof
Love me, love my problems
How we really hate to change
At the end of a love
That wasn't really love
In Singapore
Think back to the day we spent in Singapore
On the 50th floor
We were falling out of love and you were telling me why
We couldn't keep doing this any more
I asked what and you said "Us, babe!"
I said "What, a lack of trust, babe?"
You said no, we just need to change
'Cos everything needs to be rearranged
If you can't get over you
Find some new breakthrough
Out here on a Singapore roof
I can't really see the way
From the love that was to the love that isn't
A love of narcissism
Day after tomorrow to the day before
Let's go back to Singapore
If I can't get over me
I can't get on with you
Gonna leave this victimhood
Spread out here on a Singapore roof
Love me, love our problems
How we really hate to change
At the end of a love that wasn't really love
In Singapore
If you can't get over you
I can't get on with you
Leave your victimhood
Spread out here on a Singapore roof
Love you, love your problems
How we really hate to change
At the end of a love that wasn't really love
In Singapore
The Enshittification of Everything
Take three twice
Get a free one back
In leather with a cake from the box
Break it down
It's better and better
Chapter and verse
It's got to get better
Before it gets worse
Whatever the weather
It's hotter than hell
That old ballyhoo when
There's something to sell
A broken invention
I offer the skies
You believe in my heaven
Hype-hypnotised
It starts with the pleasure
It ends with the pain
The enshittification
Of everything
I've been digging the flunky
With the grey-haired funk
And I think I'm at my best
Break it down
It starts at conception
Continues with birth
Then you grow up
Start to fend for yourself
And soon you get sick
And soon you get old
The bucket gets kicked
The body goes cold
You're a broken invention
Brought up on lies
There's no guarantee when
You're hype-hypnotised
It starts with the pleasure
Ends with the pain
The enshittification
Of everything
Capitalism promised the skies
Tell me it isn't, isn't all lies
It starts with the pleasure
It ends with the pain
The enshittification
Of everything
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Feel so good I could come
On the grim ship Lollypop
Where the economic growth will never stop
Three Trapped Tigers
Yes! You're down! Buck up!
Ha ha! Ha ha!
Check out!
Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Sent to tell you who I am
The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
Sent just to make you guess
You ripped out the pages
In one of your rages
You're such a drama queen
Good Queen Trampoline
Beautiful vagina now
You're mounting the mountain of the eiderdown
In a sashay, in a ballet
In the milk white room
I'd rather have a catchy mouth
Getting eager not to read The Magic Mountain
A sweet bed
Given up for you
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Yes! You're down! Buck up!
Three Trapped Tigers may ignite
Hopscotch in the melting night
The Apple in the Dark
Came near to your wild heart
Beautiful designer now
You're mounting the mountain of the eiderdown
In a sachet, in a ballet
In the milk white room
I'd rather have a catchy mouth
Getting eager not to read The Magic Mountain
A sweet bed
Given up for you
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Yes! You're down! Buck up!
Ha ha! Ha ha!
Check!
Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Sent to tell you who I am
The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
Sent just to make you guess
Check!
Beautiful vagina now
But don't try that again
Can't handle that
That's fashion: colour's bright
Dancing through to the aeon night
Leather jeans and laser beams
In this world nothing's what it seems
People hot in cyberlove
Floating high like stars above
Ha ha! Ha ha!
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Beautiful vagina now
But don't try that again
Can't handle that
Can't handle that
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Bless!
Chromosomes
Naughty doll, under the night
Being torn in constant new pain
Bring hopes in the twilight
Here comes the poison legerdemain
Riproaring into the void
Coprophiles grin into the night
Afterechoes in a trapezoid
Faster than its own delight
Oh oh we run
We leave the zone
Living for nothing
But chromosomes
And already our lives are all done
Sex shadows play upon my wall
My faith comes and my face is God's
My ears hear the telephone call
And my nose just glows
Weary from sun
Heavy from nothing
The chromosomes
Have already hung up sometimes
Hold your breath
You wilt on my wall
The girl with the wand
Come back to life
Try not to laugh
And why not bring some pie?
Hold your breath you will die
It will probably be wild
Come back to life
Why not bring some pie?
Oh oh we run
We leave the zone
Living for nothing
But chromosomes
And already our lives are all done
Catchy
Some days when I feel low inside
You turn up and you're like some gift
I'm in a quandary of moonshine
Come, quintessence, and spin me round again
In me, through me, playing me again
Ooh you're getting catchy
Want you tonight (hey hey!)
Need that hoochie coochie action
There's something about you
Feel so game since you came to me
Wrapped up spicy like onigiri
All these things that wash the pain away from me
Cue them up, because I'm sketchy
Ecchi, up there, uh, in there
Ooh you're being catchy
Need you tonight (hey hey!)
Need that hoochie coochie action
I'm in a dark place
Isn't she a catch, incredible?
And how we match, incredible
Move up, got your back
I would say you're catchy, so, uh
Ooh you're getting catchy
Want you tonight (hey hey!)
Need that hoochie coochie action
There's something about you
Sun, stars, ever-loving polar stars
How you radiate for me these days
I'm in the luxury of wunderschön
Hauled by my britches through the music of the spheres
In me, through me, made by me
Ooh you get catchy
Want you tonight (hey hey!)
Need that freaky-freaky action
There's something about you
Ooh you're getting catchy
Want you tonight (hey hey!)
Need that hoochie coochie action
There's something about you
Cruel
I'm not blinded by your talent
I'm not blinded by your taste
I'm not teased by these skinny rabbits
You hide in the hat, the hat on your face
And if I ever see you grazing at my door
I'll give you all my money if you promise me to go
And if I ever hear you sing your donkey song
I'll ask you like policemen do to kindly move along
Because I'm cruel, there's no denying
Fool, no point in crying
Though I mock you to the end of Donkeyday
Yet somehow you still continue to bray
Big-skulled donkey-nosed fool
Leave me, donkey-brained fool
Shoo shoo, donkey-face fool
Well... hey, hey
Cruel
Cruel
Donkey fools are all around us
Donkey fools with wonky taste
Donkey fools with questionable habits
All chomping in a field, a terrible waste
It's not because you're stupid that I call you Donkey Fool
More because you're stubborn, stubborn like a mule
And if I ever hear you sing the donkey song
I'll ask you like policemen do to kindly move along
Because I'm cruel, there's no denying
Fool, no point in crying
Thought I'd kicked you to the end of Donkeyday
And yet somehow you still continue to bray
Big-skulled donkey-nosed fool
Leave me, donkey-brained fool
Shoo shoo, donkey-face fool
Well... hey, hey
Cruel
Cruel
Guess you haven't got talent
Guess you haven't got taste
Guess you just stumble through life
Munching on a carrot with a clumsy great face
It's not because I hate you that I call you Donkey Fool
More because I love you, love you like a mule
And if I ever heard you sing the donkey song
I'd bray all donkeyday and try to sing along
Because love, there's no denying
You, no point in crying
Though I kicked you to the end of Donkeyday
Hey, thank God you still continue to bray
Big-skulled donkey-nosed fool
Stay here, donkey-brained fool
Don't trot away, donkey fool
Need you, hey, hey
Uh...
Cruel
Cruel
Reshape
Garbage in, garbage out
It's what you left when you went about
Educating me
Spreading roots, tender shoots
You snipped ‘em off, to reshape me
But who can I be?
I've come to question everything
I used to think I'd ever be
And do I write the songs I write
Or do the songs write me?
Indoctrination, contamination
You're gonna fake me 'til you make me
That's your guarantee
What defines me just reminds me
Of everything you hate to see in me
But you reshape me
And you remake me
'Til I've run out of skins
And then who can I be?
Tonight we'll climb into the night
Feel the heat, we'll take some drugs
Tonight's the night, or so it seems
That's the life, we'll drive into the night
Feel the beat, we'll take some drugs
Tonight's the night, or so it seems
Garbage in, garbage out
It's what you left when you went about
Educating me
Spreading roots, tender shoots
You snipped ‘em off, to reshape me
But who can I be?
I've come to question everything
I used to think I'd ever be
And do I write the songs I write
Or do the songs write me?
The Fox in Winter
You want to know the facts
You stop me in my tracks
To be a silver fox
Now wouldn't that be grand
To lurk amongst the rocks
And shag upon the sand
To dip one's bushy tail
In everything that moves
To trip through hill and dale and say
That life only improves
But that would be a fail
And that would be a fall
The fox would be a fool
He'd lose it all
Hello everybody I'm the fox in winter
It's me everybody I'm the fox in winter
Shivering alone, if it weren't for you
To stop me doing what I want to do
Not wanting what he wants
Our complicated fox
Leaps for grapes he hopes
Hopes he never gets
He leaps through hoops for grapes
He hopes he never gets
He fails and then forgets
A complicated fox
You keep the fox with love
He loves you back with heat
And he may still snatch victory
From the jaws of self-defeat
He spins the lovely tales
You struggle to believe
Of where he's been and what he's done
But you know he'll never leave
To leave would be to fail
To leave would be a fall
The fox would be a fool
He'd lose it all
To leave would be to choose
To choose to lose
Exchanging happiness
For wilderness
Hello everybody I'm the fox in winter
It's me everybody I'm the fox in winter
Wandering alone, if it weren't for you
To stop me doing what I want to do
I'm not the silver fox
In winter it gets cold
This schtick, like me,
Soon gets old
You want to know the facts?
You stop me in my tracks
Glassy Menageries
In Berlin I made my cabaret
New York tried its best to make me gay
Buenos Aires saw me scribbling
Writing porn and soaking gin
Polish in my emigre cafe
In Athens a eucalyptus tree
With breezy leaves wafted hot aroma over me
In Montreal a padded suit
Helped me not to freeze
Skating with my brother
On lakes the size of seas
Fleeing gowdspeak in Reekie
To Rangoon in Madras-patterned lungi
To pose with Sydney Goodsir Smith
The Deevil's Waltz in '56
Looking ten years older
At the Schwedagon Pagoda
They swirl around me
Like so many leaves
The cities that have made me
Someone I was never meant to be
Konbini moon
Above Garfinkel's deli
All these glassy menageries
London at its sniffy, stuffy best
Made me run away like Joyce did to Trieste
But it really took Berlin
To make me stop and see
That cities are as liquid as my identity
In Athens I was king for a day
In Paris found a queen and I stayed
In Osaka what I really liked
Was riding on my shopping bike
Through streets that I was never meant to see
In silence, exile and cunning
I will sneak away to where it's sunny
In Palermo I'm a Bangladeshi
Feeling right at home
I'm ancient like the Romans
When I walk in Rome
Stretched out on matted ground
Tatamise
Cypriot in Gaza, British in LA
Auden in Austria in his prim chalet
Wondering who Chester was pestering that day
They swirl around me
Like so many leaves
The cities that have made me
Someone I was never meant to be
Konbini moon
Above Garfinkel's deli
All these glassy menageries
They swirl around me
Like so many leaves
The cities that have made me
Someone I was never meant to be
Konbini moon
Floats above Garfinkel's deli
All these glassy menageries
Faraday
Nowkoelln
Seppentee
Barraree
Nowkoelln
Carrarou
Parablue
Barrantrue
Fellitown
Smalaroe
Hattensow
Faraday
Smallengro
Nowkoelln
Index