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 | Silence, Sea And Sky (2'00) The CD includes: In Shreds (4'05) |
| Technical Data |
| Mark Burgess: Bass, voices,keyboards and lyrics All songs written and arranged by Burgess, Fielding, Smithies, Lever Cover ilustration: Reg. © 1985 Statik Records. VLP 133 © 1995 Dead Dead Good Records. GOOD CD 7 |
Note - We include at the beginning of each song the comments Mark Burgess made for the official web site. These brief notations will help you to understand the reason why of each song. Enjoy!
Comments by StrangE TimeS
Two years after their debut it is released What Does Anything Mean? Basically. On this occasion the band gets deep into the landscapes of sound and the songs are more ethereal than in the first work. The general feeling of the album is the sadness and melancholy; the last song of the album, P.S. Goodbye, is like a goodbye hymn. A premonition to what would occur on the next work.
This time the melodies of songs like Perfume Garden, On The Beach or One Flesh are the highlights of the album and a good example of what the sound of The Chameleons has been and will forever be.
What Does Anything Mean? Basically Lyrics
Silence, Sea and Sky
Notes by Mark - Ok not a song in the full sense but a beautiful instrumental in my view, written by Dave on his favourite instrument, the Solina, a 'strings' keyboard.
Notes by Mark - When we fell out with Statik Records we were in a difficult situation because we couldn't officially record anything for any other label. When we were invited back to do the third Peel session it was a god-send and we came up with the songs so we could do the session. The lyrics of the Peel versions are different from that of the album and I think as a result I like the radio versions much better 'cause they feel more spontaneous than the album, which was just a way to get out of the Statik thing, to be honest. As usual the session came so fast I hadn't had time to develop the idea and so I just made it up on the spot, but later I thought I owed it to myself to write something proper. The live version became a kind of combination of the two. The themes deal with the lies and rigidity that existed in the British education system at that time, they probably still exist, worse if anything, I couldn't say. The opening verse is a swipe at pop-stars in general. It always struck me as strange, that, with the odd exception, artists only got played on the radio when they were saying nothing of any importance whatsoever. That's definitely more true today than then.
You can shake your hips
You can seal your lips
I can't make that trip
And all life's fears
Can invade my ears
I can handle it
I can laugh with a friend
And remember the faces
We wore at school
Making the madness
And solitary sadness
A friendly fool
I thought of stories
They told us long ago
Of how the world was a perfume garden
I haven't yet learned to tame the creature there
And that at least I think is something good
All across the town
And across the street
You could feel the heat
Let me tell you friend
They could hardly wait
To mark your sheet
It was maximum joy
For the men they employed
To hold you down
Well I hope now you know
That this isn't the bliss
That you thought you found
Endless emptiness
An endless ringing bell
I couldn't show you
But I hope to one day
Pretty promises to teach the tender child
To welcome madness every Monday
Beck and call
It didn't seem to matter at all
Beck and call
You told us how to conquer it all
Beck and call
These children have nothing at all
Listening hard
For the voice of the child
I thought I heard
An alarm bell ringing
Pulled from my sleep
By invisible hands
The distant sound of a lady singing
Notes by Mark - Again, recorded only half written for the last John Peel session the lyrics came from frequent visits to a home for retired service men called Broughton House, in Salford Manchester, were I'd often go to visit my grandfather. It made me very aware of my own relative youth and how precious my time was. There was one chap there, a former seaman in the merchant navy, who was bound to a wheelchair and likened his life there to being buried alive. I use to take him some hash whenever I went over and he'd sit in his chair, getting stoned and watching TV. He'd call them "funny cigarettes." He used to talk of all these far-away exotic sounding places he'd visited, like Tangier.
When it's summer
And the skies are glass
When it's summer
And the skies are glass
I just have to make the evenings last
They're always flashing past
And when it's raining
And the skies are black
When it's raining
And the skies are black
I just have to hear the thunder roll
And see the lightening crack
With fading powers
We sit for hours
By a television screen
With funny cigarettes
And talk for hours
Of places that we've seen
Brother can you hear my voice
Brother can you hear my voice
Every second that you cling to life
You have to feel alive
It's an easy thing to sell your skin
It's an easy thing to sell your skin
When the devil's banging on your door
You always let him in
With fading powers
We dream of hours
That'll never come again
Old defenders are themselves defenceless
When the mad attack the sane
What can you do
When you see no future in front of you
Food for the few
So many it seems are in front of you
I see my face
Reflecting there in a sweating brow
You hate what you see
But what can you do when there's no way out
No way out now
But when you sleep
Where do you go
Notes by Mark - The title came from the notebook I had with me the evening of the acid trip at Tandle Hill. I'd written down all these weird phrases like 'Script of the bridge,' and 'What does anything mean? And 'the return of the roughnecks.' The lyric is pretty self-explanatory. The politics of the day constantly went on about a glowing material future. A sort of anti-yuppie anthem. The end is a snippet from a very early song called 'Turn To The Vices' which never got recorded in itself.
Up and down
These days are up and down
They call it elevated living
A faster future for a faster breed
Unforgiving unfulfilling
The spirit's willing
But the mind is weak
I had an empty education
I want to speak
But when I try to speak
It doesn't help the situation
And some they fly while others fall
And some they walk while others crawl
It stops them feeling small
That's all
Shake your hand
They'll always shake your hand
Without a moments hesitation
Burning bridges
And snapping strands
That support a generation
You want to climb
But when you try to climb
You see the ladder getting shorter
You want to drink
But when you try to drink
There's someone pissing in the water
The soul is something they can buy
So softly step inside
Says the spider to the fly
Nice try
And every day you're crucified
If you can't look them in the eye
Smile and wave goodbye
Nice try
Vices embraced in times of crisis
Sweet vices embraced in times of crises
That's all
Singing Rule Britannia (While The Walls Close In)
Notes by Mark - When 'Basically' was reviewed in the NME the hack said something like "only someone completely insane would write a song called ...." The song refers to those people, at the time that included my father, that would go on and on about how great The Conservative Party was, while their lives and the country in general were disintegrating around them. This song was actually one of the very first we did and the words were a response to the election of Thatcher in 1979. I'm reminded of the first song I remember seeing Dave Gedge play with his band in 1980, 'Thatcher The Snatcher.'.
A prisoner of my paradox
Heaven or hell
Pacing up and down my cage
Too soon to tell
What a suffocating state to be
Working class heroes
Mean nothing to me
I'm a working class zero
Chained to the tree of life
A dangerous thing to be
And now the baby needs to grow
But the mother is crazy
What lies behind the mask
Behind the wave and the smile
Your appearance is deceptive
Sweet crocodile
What a fascinating thing to see
Revealing all your secrets
You'd better beware
Revealing all your secrets
You wouldn't dare
Reveal yourself to me
Would you?
It must have been like this before
But my memory's hazy
So I'll stand in line
Three million desperados
There's hope for me
But for some the story's different
They'll stand in line
They'll bide their time
Waiting for a sign
Counting out the time
Clever clever creatures
Death in your kiss
Playing with the future
In innocent bliss
What a suffocating state to be
But what a fascinating thing to see
Notes by Mark - This song came very quickly to a guitar riff that Dave started playing one afternoon at rehearsal. It's actually a true story of what happened one night at Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness. It took me a very long time to come to terms with what I thought I saw that night, I mean someone who sees angelic visions appear in the sky must be going mad right? Actually many years later, as I stood before a priest in the very same spot waiting for my bride to arrive so the wedding could begin, she walked across the lawn and I thought "That's It! That's what I saw!"
The Autumn leaves were falling
Hearing nature talking
I thought I heard her calling
Hush now don't you cry
Figure in the sky
Can't stop myself from shaking
My mind at last is waking
Eight minds embracing
Figures in the sky
Hadn't time to analyse
What I saw before my eyes
But nothing would surprise me
Here on our beach
Far away from you all
I thought I heard her calling
Unsure of what we're facing
The precious time we're wasting
I'll always be embracing
Figures in the sky
Notes by Mark - This was written very early and was recorded for the first Peel session in 81. It hadn't seemed to fit on 'Script' at the time so we put it in here. It didn't really change much from the improvised Peel version and it seems fresh I think because it wasn't a song we played very often. Confused introspection, very dull in my view.
I delve into myself ceaselessly
But I rarely see
What I want to see
Embracing the future
Forgetting the past
Loves lost and misfortune
The chaos and the crass
I'm wary of you
But you're oblivious to me
I'm chained to your ego
And there isn't a key
I play with emotions
But never my own
Don't you recognize me
Try looking inwardly
But you won't see me
Such a strange situation
As I wallow in waste
That such a trivial victory
Could put a smile on your face
Using me as the scapegoat
For what you want to believe
So I'll just bow out politely
And tip my cap as I leave
Comme ci comme ca
My eyes are wide open
Yours are closed
It's time you realised
I'm a part of you
Look inwardly
Don't bleed for me
Look to yourself.
Notes by Mark - I'd always had a dim view about the way women were treated in our culture, especially within the traditional British working class marriage. These lyrics were really dedicated to my mother. Again we had half the song sorted but didn't know where to go with the end. As usual we played the new song at a gig in Berlin and we were all wondering what would happen when we got to the end. Having an audience staring at you is great motivation for artistic block and when the end came, we just made it up as we went along. Fortunately the sound engineer recorded the gig and we were able to reference it when we came to record the album.
With the sun in your eyes
Always mistaking
The truth from the lies
In the love that you're making
Don't pretend it isn't so
With the sun in your eyes
It always reveals
A voluntary bondage
That always appeals
It's how you make the garden grow
But why this weakness
No-one knows
Our conscience cries his sorrow
While we sleep
But once the morning's dawned
Out the back-door
Silently he creeps
With the sun in your eyes
Always reminding
A sense of excitement
You've no hope of finding
With the chains that bind your feet
Belonging or longing
For a few empty hours
In a strangers bed
To chase away
A fear that's in your head
And why this weakness
No-one knows
The vacant faceless voices
On the phone
Bring words that offer no
Consolation when you're all alone
With the sun in your eyes
Beaten on the brow of history
A union forged in slavery
In all that's hope and decency
A hope for you and a hope for me
For every woman child and man
To those who'll chain you if they can
The babe you're bouncing on your knee
Needs your help now can't you see
Notes by Mark - This is one of my all time favourite Chameleons songs which I still play on occasion with the various people I play with these days. It was very influenced by a TV programme I was crazy about in my younger days called 'The Prisoner.' Again it's quite paranoid and sinister in its themes but was aimed at people I knew who just drew the blinds to what was happening around them. Whenever I got into conversations around these themes I would often remark that the Devil's greatest victory was convincing the world that he didn't exist. Imagine my amazement when these very same words cropped up in the script of 'Usual Suspects.'
So here we are waking
Savages shaking
The road that we're taking
We've walked before
And if these times
Should seal our fate
You won't see me
At Heavens gate
Danger is lurking
Evil is working
Yet here we are hiding
Behind our doors
Come out come out
It's time to grow
Enjoy the ride
One more time before you go
According to Hoyle
All cards on the table
What else can you do
When life is unstable
The night's growing colder
The enemy bolder
But as you grow older
You cease to care
But if we run
Or try to hide
And turn our faces
We'll have no hopes
To keep alive
According to Hoyle
All cards on the table
Reactions cool
The world is unstable
According to Hoyle
All cards on the table
What can you do
When life is unstable
So here we are waking
Savages shaking
Here we are hiding
Danger is lurking
Notes by Mark - The last of the four recorded for the last Peel session. Very, very rarely does anyone, fortunate enough to get to do a session for John Peel's programme, get asked back to do another, let alone three. I knew there wouldn't be a fourth and so the song was really a post script to all three sessions. I tried to explain in lyrical terms where all the previous songs had come from, in three simple stanzas.
I've had too many crazy nights
I've seen too many crazy sights
I didn't want the scars to show
In those moments only mothers know
You know in retrospect it seems
There's always danger in your dreams
Like an actor stealing scenes
All the magic moments in your teens
All the thoughts you fight to hide
Lady passion lady pride
Sisters side by side
Talking while our tongues are tied
La da da
Da da da da
