Live 1988

Luxuria Live 1988 Lyrics
1.Public Highway(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Howard Devoto/Noko

I am the public highway, baby
I'm no place for pretence or protocol
I could take you
By way of a garden city
I could run you along
The libido del sol

I am this street now
I am the street where you live
See me from your window
And be a fugitive

Back of beyond the horizon
I cut and stretch
The outer space of open air
If there's somewhere
You just have to be, babe
Oh let me be your thoroughfare

I am this street now
I am the street where you live
See me from your window
And be a fugitive
There is a pale swamp
A glacier
Waxy crystal car
And the smell of wood smoke
Is on the evening breeze
And your engine's humming
Like a pleasure boat
In the distance of the heat
Tearing the blossom off the trees

We pass by pere lachaise
And broken fences
We pass hospitals
In the san fernando valley
And all of my tricks
And turns and inclinations
You can't find them in your rand mcnally

Live now - live a thousand other lives
Live now - and learn the secret names of time
Live now - all at once and forever
Live now - and you'll be all mine

I am this street now
I am the street where you live
See me from your window
And be a fugitive


2.Celebrity(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Howard Devoto/Leroy James/Noko

We'll hurl my biography
into this whirling pool
see which way the blue ink runs
on an ocean of lenses
I'm drifting like a fool
smouldering focus of those instant suns

And all of these
cause and effect motion pictures
impossible to avoid
a single image of me
it's living
on a whole subcontinent of celluloid

You'll like me
you're like me
you'll recognise my name
you'll like me
you're like me
have a picture of me
pointing out of frame
now go ...

The magnifying circus
the magnifying circus
a wealth of detail is going cheap
cause and error
trial and effect
isn't it enough to put you all to sleep?

But my likeness
it's to your liking
so I won't stay away
I'll be back long before you know it
to dazzle you again
I daresay

You'll like me
you're like me
you'll turn the page and watch
your kids are eating effigies of me
fluorescent butterscotch

There's a shimmering lake of real lives
it's a backdrop
it's an afterthought
tell rite, will there be a dressing room
and will there be shadows at the airport?

This set is hotter than the Holy Land
it all beats down from above
long golden weeks of close-ups
cool and convincing shows of love

You'll like me
you're like me
you'll recognise my name
you'll like me
you're like me
have a picture of me
pointing out of frame

You'll like me
you're like me
you'll turn the page and watch
your kids are eating effigies of me
fluorescent butterscotch

If one life has been saved
by this photography session
it has been worth it


3.The Light Pours Out of Me(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Howard Devoto/John McGeogh/Pete Shelley

Time flies
Time crawls
Like an insect
Up and down the walls

The light pours out of me
The light pours out of me

The conspiracy
Of silence ought
To revolutionize
My thought

The light pours out of me
The light pours out of me

The cold light of day
Pours out of me
Leaving me black
And so healthy

The light pours out of me
The light pours out of me

It jerks out of me
Like blood
In this still life
Heart beats up love

The light pours out of me
The light pours out of me
Magazine The Light Pours Out Of Me


4.She's Your Lover Now(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Bob Dylan

Oh, everybody that cares
Is going up the castle stairs
But I'm not up in your castle
It's true, I just can't recall
San Francisco at all
I can't even remember El Paso
You never had to be faithful
I didn't want you to grieve
Oh, why was it so hard for you
If you didn't want to be with me, just to leave?
NOw you stand here while your finger's going up my sleeve
And you, just what do you do anyway?
Ain't there nothing you can say?
She'll be standing on the bar soon
With a fish-head and a harpoon
An a fake beard plastered on her brow
You'd better do something quick
She's your lover now

Oh, why must I fall into this sadness?
Do I look like Charles Atlas?
Do you think I still got what you still got, baby?
Her voice is really warm
It's just that it ain't got no form
But it's just like a dead man's last pistol shot
Oh, your mouth used to be naked
Your eyes used to be so blue
Your hurts used to be so nameless
And your tears used to be so few
Now your eyes cry wolf while your mouth cries
'I'm not scared of animals like you'
And you there's really nothing about you I can recall
I just saw you that one time and you were just there, that's all
But I've already been kissed
I'm not going to get into this
I couldn't make it anyhow
You do it for me
You're her lover now


5.Lady 21(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Barry Adamson/Howard Devoto/Noko

I was thinking of phoning
the richest woman in the town
a radio was playing nonsense
and yes,
the cigarette machine is broken down
watch yourself now
the lino's greasy
it could surely kill
ever since they fixed the light in here
this place has gone downhill

And now I'm running
up the aisle
of an endless train
and when I try to sleep
I dream the very same
I am nothing
becoming nothing
and nothing's to be done
then I'm falling in love
with Lady 21

Press me to her tumbling beauty
oh gorgeous siren wraith
I may never know what hit me
but I'll leap with all of my faith
I'll have her way with me
and be delivered as it occurs
she'll be smiling so happily
I'll break my body on hers
I'll break my body on hers

Put out the fetch-candle
if you're coming through
and be my familiar spirit
if you want to
deliver me unto my desire
deliver me unto my desire
I'm up on the heights
I'm still up on the heights


6.Flesh(Part Recording)(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Howard Devoto/Noko

By the Egyptian Gate
I wait in my penance vest
I've never been so lost before
so I can't help myself possessed
I want to be torn through
the material of your flesh

Your husband lies unconscious
on Samuda's precipice
I drink in the dead night air
and your astringent kiss

She's slovenly lovely
he's a moth over opium
so long time stone cold sober
now marked down for delirium
her perfume draws his blood out
and back to this asylum slum

One man, one woman
walk around Newington Green
the worst case of resemblance
in N16

I hate having to desire you
hate feeling this again
I hate having to desire you
in common with other men

My fellow-creature-gods look out
to be mutually blessed
this therapeutic age leaves them cold
so fashionably distressed
but I just want to be torn through
the material of your flesh

'Cheer up, it'll never happen' they said
'not every candle burns
lighting up these lonely nights
in this century of germs
so ... many ... happy ... returns'

'Cheer up it'll never happen' they said
'we're here on your behalf'
'It already has' I said
they evaporate and laugh

I hate having to desire you
hate feeling this again
I hate having to desire you
in common with other men

The best in life
it's nothing special
remember who said it
our lives are running
oh my little death
this is forever
the final edit


7.Sickly Thug And I(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Howard Devoto/Noko

We're deep in her diary now
a month for every kiss
and this passion-in-hours amounts
to little more than this
she keeps wisteria
I keep forgetting to die

We keep on getting there
sickly thug and I
she keeps a distance
I keep forgetting to die
we'll keep on getting there
sickly thug and me
she keeps wisteria
I keep turning to lapis lazuli

A pistol whipping wind
sickly thug and me
our hearts fire blanks
over the marshes
the River Lee
was there anything
really moving in the news tonight?

If there's no hope for us
there'll be no respite
just a drop or two
from a bottle of the widow's mite
we'll keep on getting there
I'll just happen to you
we'll be back from somewhere else
we'll never get to

Over here may be bad
realissimo bad
but that nameless other place
it's far far worse
I'm an innocent
I never resisted
alcohol and coloured beads

Broken sunshine swells
the length of Waltham beach
and nothing ever changes
and nothing ever lasts for long
it just stays out of reach
this feeling's mutual
for sickly thug and me

This feeling's mutual now
but so separately
we're burning up
we're collapsing into probability
and there's no hope for us
and there's no respite
just a drop or two
from a bottle of the widow's mite


8.Parade(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Barry Adamson/Dave formula/Howard Devoto

They will show me what I want to see
we will watch without grief
we stay one step ahead of relief
you tell me we've been praying
for a bright and clever hell
I think we've been forced to our knees but I can't tell
Sometimes I forget that we're supposed to be in love
Sometimes I forget my position
It's so hot in here
What are they trying to hatch?
We must not be frail, we must watch
Now that I'm out of touch with anger
now I have nothing to live up to
and I don't know when to stop joking
when I stop I hope I am with you
Sometimes I forget that we're supposed to be in love
Sometimes I forget my position
What on earth is the size of my life?


9.Redneck(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Howard Devoto/Noko

It's opening night
let's give them their money's worth
may this show run and run
till it falls off the edge of the earth
put on your make-up
powder puff adder of mine
dusk is upon us
switch on that shining sign

I am a major prophet
I'm heaven and hell bent strong
I am the height of a sign
wide of the mark
deep as the Amazon

I must impress on them
this opportunity
it'll be too late
by the time they put me on TV
I feel sharp
I feel blunt
a precision instrument
I really gleam
watch me bite on a bullet
and spit out a limousine

I am a major prophet
I'm heaven and hell bent strong
I am the height of a sign
wide of the mark
deep as the Amazon

Feel my wild sadness blowing down
feel my wild sadness blowing
all the way down

I stand before you
in full possession of the facts
I make no use of effects
no use for clever counterbalancing acts
I've broken every bone of meaning
in this body and this soul
I've bought knowledge
at the cost of a complete loss of self-control

All the truth you can bear
is yours to take away tonight
- the longer you leave it
- the more there's to leave
like you, I once saw
those pretty colours in black and white
- you've got to get it over with
- stop being naive
strangers to truth and to fiction
you will remain
- if I meet you at the fountainhead
- I'll win you downstream
walk away if you like
you've only yourself to blame
- I'm not talking eyewash
- I'm talking strychnine

I am a major prophet
I'm heaven and hell bent strong
I am the height of a sign
wide of the mark
deep as the Amazon

And I simply may be evil
I simply may be evil


10.Pound(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Howard Devoto/Noko

Can you put a price upon
every lingering breath
can you work it out and say
what every minute's worth
time is always money
and you're such a very heavy spender
you're squeaky clean
you're out of legal tender
then ...

Certainty
it's so sexy
you're too cold to drop
you could be eating
Ciba Geigy goat cheese
you need to tell someone
to tell you when to stop

There's only ever been
one soft option
one blank cheque
one deep breath
to take you up to the neck
you need more
I'll get you some
see me okay
with Rimbaud bubblegum

So much goes to Sally
so much goes to Mack & Nicholas
you'll get back your money
when the sublime
meets the ridiculous
bewitchingly ridiculous

You put your money where your mouth is
your balance is astounding
you're in for every penny
you're in for every pounding

Look at you now
powdered
pounding
now you're shilling
out for any count

any killing
you listen to the hours of your fingers flip flop
you need a franchise
Yamaha soda pop

What's that funny smell?
why aren't you out earning?
gimme your pittance, boy
the holes in your pockets
they're burning
I smell them burning

You put your money where your mouth is
and you can talk till doomsday
you can't take it with you, son
the hours of your fingers
tap on an empty urn
unless you let things take forever
they never get done
unless you let things take forever
they never get done

This is what I mean by my money
this is what I mean by my money

You put your money where your mouth is
and you can talk till doomsday
you can't take it with you, son
the hours of your fingers
tap on an empty urn
unless you let things take forever
they never get done

The real cost of living
it's changing all the time
don't set the clocks
against me again
hard luck
hard cash
but no hard feelings
I must dash
I have my feelings
I just can't say exactly when
I just can't say exactly when


11.Rubbish(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Howard Devoto/Noko

Oh I leave to you
the rubbish of my love
oh my sunken love

I leave to you
the rubbish of my love
my nyktomorphic love

Today I bury my love alive
today I bury my love alive

I bury my love alive
under the rubble of my estate
I bury my love alive
under the rubble of my estate

And she gained on me
as I gave up
in the distance
out of sight
down a valley
where mist was hanging
in a pink and a golden light

In a pink and golden light
I bury my love alive
under the rubble of my estate

She said
'We could try getting lonely
on an altogether higher spiritual plane'
I said
'If it's all the same to you
I can't be bothered with that again'

Oh I leave to you
the rubbish of my love
oh my sunken love

Oh I leave to you
the rubbish of my love
my nyktomorphic love

Today I bury my love alive


12.Mlle(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Barry Adamson/Howard Devoto/Noko

A winter's night
The northern quay
The isle of dogs
The rabid one is me
You sip your drink
Undismayed
And I just said
'these days my heart seems to be a kind of hand grenade'

Nothing in the air tugs at the tower blocks
As you raise your finger and pull the pin
Nothing much on earth moves down these desolating docks
Do you really think you just scratched your chin?

But you were never albertine
And I was never poor marcel
Who were you that time round,
Mademoiselle?

Monsieur a peur du parfum des princesses
And now I act up
And you've a winning frown
I've contracted love
As I'm devoured down
Blame my deadening intensity
And tell me how you got the part in this
My own illicit agony

I lay it on pretty thick
You spread yourself pretty thin
Ducking and dividing under every skin
And my final words as you get up and leave
'if you're free as air, I don't want to breathe'

Good evening,
I am the madman in love with your daughter
We need to talk
Just you and me
I saw her last in eden
Or some other far eastern quarter
Where the river snakes it's way out to sea

But you were never albertine
And I was never poor marcel
Who were you that time round,
Mademoiselle?

* marcel proust - a l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs

Those few steps from the landing to albertine's door,
Those few steps which no one now could prevent my
Taking, I took with delight, with prudence, as though
Plunged into a new and strange element, as if in going
Forward I had been gently displacing the liquid stream
Of happiness, and at the same time with a strange feeling
Of absolute power, and of entering at length into an
Inheritance which had belonged to me from all time.

Translated by c k scott moncrieff


13.A Song From Under the Floorboards(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Barry Adamson/Dave formula/Howard Devoto/John Doyle/John
McGeogh

I am angry, I am ill and I'm as ugly as sin
I don't know what keeps me alive and kicking
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I speak it
This is a song from under the floorboards
here is a song from where the wall is cracked
my force of habit, I am an insect
and I must confess I'm very proud of that

I have known the highest and I've known the best
I accord death with all its due respect
but the brightest jewel inside of me
glows with pleasure at my own stupidity

This is a song from under the floorboards
here is a song from where the wall is cracked
my force of habit, I am an insect
and I must confess I'm very proud of that

I used to make phantoms I could later chase
images of all that could be desired
then I got tired of counting all of these so-called blessings
and then I just got tired

This is a song from under the floorboards
here is a song from where the wall is cracked
my force of habit, I am an insect
and I must confess I'm very proud of that

This is a song from under the floorboards
here is a song from where the wall is cracked
my force of habit, I am an insect
and I must confess I'm very proud of that


14.Luxuria(Live 1988)

Writer(s):Howard Devoto/Leroy James/Noko

We sleep in the city of dreams
we have settled under the dust
we take 40,000 winks
on the threshold of
unanswerable lust

God's gone back to heaven
he's deserted us
but what the hell
he never understood us anyway

Have our souls pined away?
have we sowed our seed in vain?
has he set his face against us
and now shall we be slain?
this is the Stone Age of our desire
these are our formative years
don't let them say the devil
slaked his raging thirst
on our filthy tears

God's gone back to heaven
he's deserted us
but what the hell
he never understood us anyway

We simply may be evil
I don't care if it's true
we simply may be evil
I don't care if it's true
I'm going to try anything, try anything
because I really want you
I've got to have everything, have everything
because I really really need to

God's gone back to heaven
he's deserted us
but what the hell
he never understood us anyway