Track Listing:
| 1. Down To Nowhere |
| 2. When Did You Get So Safe |
| 3. Tear It All Down |
| 4. The Dirt Is Your Lover Now |
| 5. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine |
| 6. Lip Reading |
| 7. Heart String Blues |
| 8. Mud On My Shoes |
| 9. Water To Sky |
| 10. And We’ll Dance |
| 11. Bonus tracks |
| 12. Cover Me (Springsteen) |
| 13. I’m Not Down (Strummer, Jones, Simonon, Headon) |
Thea's Album Rationale
Songs from the Gutter
"From the dregs of songs from the bargain bin of the psyche... here are two records. One of them has songs (from the last few years) which I finished but possibly never meant to release and the other one has songs (from the last few weeks) that I'm releasing but possibly never meant to finish... one of them chronicles some obscure nooks and crannies 1996-2001 and some roads not taken...the other (my favourite) happened in May 2002 with a guitarist, bassist, drummer, a girl and her capo and a really good Chinese next door. Here are some recordings light on rehearsal and short on edits. Songs from the gutter bypassing the subtleties and the subtitles here is a record about abandon with a band on."
- Thea Gilmore, October 2002
Lyrics
Down To Nowhere
Well I am going down to nowhere
Its not too far from here
The Rain’ll be running rings
Around this tinpot cavalier
and there are skeletons and wastrels
As far as the eye can see
So if you want me baby
The Nowhere's where I’ll be
Yeah I am going down to nowhere
Oh its childsplay
We are turning up our collars
We are hijacking the day
And you can tell me about your journeys
You can tell me all your dreams
But nothing comes close
To the nowhere that I’ve seen
And all you people heading somewhere
Well you don’t know what you’re missing
Cos there's nothing like the freedom
Of a place where no one listens
So I am going down to nowhere
It is steeped in history
This is high-rise living for a
Joke Like me
We are such pretty little failures
On streets paved with fools gold
And no-one will think twice about
The nothing that they’ve sold
And all you people heading somewhere
Well you don’t know what you’re missing
Cos there's nothing like the freedom
Of a place where no one listens
So I am going down to nowhere
With the drop-outs and the bums
I’m a soldier of the vacuum
When the darkness comes
I’m a vaudeville comedian
In a theatre of bones
And Its a laugh a minute
When nowhere is your home
When Did You Get So Safe?
God you must have some balls
To open your mouth at all
There's nothing happening
Around this scene you’re in
And when did you get so safe?
Must be the last resort
To crash before you’re caught
You pretty mid-town boys
Pumping designer noise
Tell me when did you get so safe?
Oh those veiled love songs that you play
Have you really got nothing better to say?
This is the reckoning This is the mess we’re in
Your half smoked cigarette’s as risque as you can get
And when did you get so safe?
Yeah you’re all outlaws then
Mavericks in Mercedes Benz
A smile before you go
Revolution in a fashion show
Tell me when did you get so safe?
Tear It All Down
B
Pressed up against this shop front
E
Drawing faces there in Crayon
B F#
It's a long way from the pocket full of rain
B
And you have walked the streets for hours
E
With your loose change and your flowers
B F#
And now I'll learn your body like a nursery rhyme in braille
B E
It's a simple explanation for the paths that you have taken
B F
You have stumbled from the cradle to a prayer
B E
But in this darkened room we have got heart enough to burn
B F#
We can dance away the hours we can leave our questions there
B G A B G A
And we'll tear it all down
B E
So welcome to our winning streak no broken bones or old deceits
B F#
Its you and me versus this little town
B E
We're the rag dolls in the gutter we're the curses that they'll mutter
B F#
And you will still be trying on my heart just like a crown
B G A B G A B G A
B G A
And we'll tear it all down
D C#m E F#
I know your tactics all the practice this bravery took
D C#m E F#
And the flags are flying you're trying out a different look
B
E
So there's a candle in the window I've got a lousy history of tomorrows
B F#
So I'll spill the beans in every little sound
B E
You are the creaking of the door you are the chorus of applause
B F#
You are wishbones and the axis that these songs will spin around
The Dirt is Your Lover Now
Gabardine roses and tortured vines
The sun has been hiding all this time
I thought that I’d see you again somehow
But the dirt is your lover now
And outside the all night In an orchestra of rain
You fell in love with a hurricane
You were torn like a road map and lost in the crowd
And the dirt is your lover now
Fingernails thorn trees my fickle heart too
So many things in this sad little world grow back
Except for you
The streets of my home town
Still look the same
But behind shaking fingers they’re whispering your name
And its funny the tears that time will allow
But the dirt is your lover now
Fingernails thorn trees my fickle heart too
So many things in this sad little world grow back
Except for you
There are fists on the front page and blood in the sky
There’s no shoulder strong enough when the clouds start to cry
Did you propose to the bedrock on your way underground?
Cos the dirt is your lover now
Lip Reading
Spare me the psycho babble the mental rub-down
For the third time today I put his record on
I caught this ailment on the rebound
I'm looking for another one
Listen to the DJ and follow the instruction
Yeah you're all so passive you drive me to destruction
You're melting yourselves down into the cogs of mass production
And you're lip reading you're lip reading
You've gotta see the designer souls in action
Flagging each disaster so you know where they've been
And I may be a sucker but I don't see the attraction
Cos your name is mud round here if you don't come clean
Now the bedsits and graffiti squats are up for rent
And the rebels here today are just tomorrows accidents
And you've been walking white lines but you're so hell bent
Cos you're lip reading you're lip reading
Yeah you're not listening its more than you can manage
Trusting the soul transmission trusting the body language
In the distance someone plays a music hall classic
And the small time pushers predicting snow again
Someone tells the songwriter to quit the theatrics
I expect revolution before I count to 10
So stand in line behind the miss-world failures
Behind the leading voices and behind the drunken sailors
Put our hands together pray for these drowning men to save us
But they're lip reading they're lip reading
Just pick up your bible of practical achievement
Step one is how to catch him and step two is how to keep him
Those halfwits have to check their pulse and make sure they are breathing
Cos they're lip reading they're lip reading
Heart String Blues
It is spitting like an open fire in a dark alleyway
It is sitting on the shoulder of every yesterday
It is shining a light in your eyes
It is checking every one of your new alibis
It is rising like the evening tide around an old shipwreck
It is tightening that pretty little noose around your neck
Oh and any second now it will choose
Yeah any second now all hell will break loose
So keep it safe keep it safe keep it safe
All of the thousands of you come down with the heart string blues
It is preaching all the virtues of love and providence
It would sell your soul for a sad song but it wont pay you rent
It is raising those old rebel flags
It is picking though your long buried ashes and rags
So keep it safe keep it safe keep it safe
All of the thousands of you come down with the heart string blues
It is singing its songs for the injured and dispossessed
It it pointing that twelve gauge of truth straight at your chest
Though its been broken more times than you know
Its blue and its bleeding its got a mind of its own
So keep it safe keep it safe keep it safe
All of the thousands of you come down with the heart string blues
Mud On My Shoes
I’ve got mud on my shoes
I’ve got a hole in my head
I’ve got mud on my shoes
I’ve got a hole in my head
It is high fashion
It is highly suspect
We’re one groove short of a record
Oh we’re forty four
We’re one groove short of a record
Oh we’re forty four
And we’ve got more substance
Than a chemist store
Oh I don’t really care what you think about me
I’ve got better things to do
Than disagree
I spilled wine over your blue-prints
I lost your grand designs
I spilled wine over your blue-prints
I lost your grand designs
I’m gonna head straight down to nowhere
You know its gonna save some time
I’ve got mud on my shoes
I’ve got a hole in my head
I’ve got mud on my shoes
I’ve got a hole in my head
It is high fashion
It is highly suspect
Water to Sky
She grew up fast as a cabaret show
Take her to the frozen earth god
With a head full of coppers like a beggars bowl
Take her from the water to sky god
Take her from the water to sky
She lived in the spaces where the lightning fries
Take her to the frozen earth god
Yeah she lives in the spaces with the dark in her eyes
Take her from the water to sky god
Take her from the water to sky
They dragged her out on the lakeside stones
Take her to the frozen earth god
And they tore her skin until the light was gone
Take her from the water to sky god
Take her from the water to sky
She went out to the lake when the air was red
Take her to the frozen earth god
And she broke like kindling on the watery be
Take her from the water to sky god
take her from the water to Sky
And We'll Dance
Meet me by the tail lights
Meet me here by moonlight
Meet me by the river bed
And we’ll dance
Meet me where the sky bleeds
Meet me by the needle priest
Meet me by the window
and we’ll dance
We will dance to the music of this motorway
We will dance to the drums of the street cabaret
I don’t care if all of our steps come out wrong
Cos you see we’ve been here all along
Meet me where the silk tears
Meet me in your double dares
Meet me as the bell tolls
and we’ll dance
Meet my by the ruined tower
Meet me in your final hour
Meet me as the sun goes down
And we’ll dance
