Paintwork

(1)

We go two, twice all the way round those things
Two high ones, two low ones, yeah
Right man

Man stopped us at the corner
He had a bloody nose
I mean, he opened his denim jacket
It was under his vest made out of tracing paper
Chest scars portrayed Aztec life in his horrible...

"... formation of Beryllium 8. Main sequence stars were no good for making carbon in this way. Red Giant stars ..." (2)

...self-made
Disfigured maybe
Tedious in its overaquaintance and obviousness


Then I woke up, then I decided to recommence my diary
Then I read Paula Yates on Vision mopeds (3)
Then I found out we were not going to Italy 
Later Mam said "Them continentals are little monkeys" (4)
And yesterday we had liver and sausage over

And sometimes they say "Hey Mark, you're spoiling all the paintwork"
And sometimes they say "Your thumbprints are on the paintwork"

Distractors, constructors conniving, come here
Dressed in suits, grow talons
Everyone clenched, black, horrid

And sometimes they say "Hey, you're messing up the paintwork...
... thumbprints are on the paintwork"
And sometimes they say "Hey Mark, you're just spoiling all the paintwork"
And sometimes they say "Your thumbprints are on the paintwork"

And sometimes I feel like saying
Hey, this is bloody Newark (5)
Or some drive-in slab place
In Breda, NL, Cologne (6)
With the shirt on
Sun of vicinity
As if I hadn't done 10 months service
In the USA on the big yachts
That circle is where I'm still at

And sometimes they say "Hey Mark, you're spoiling all the paintwork"
And sometimes they say "Your thumbprints are on the paintwork"
And sometimes they say "Hey! You're messing up the paintwork!" 

And I think
If I wanted to, if I wanted to live in Holland
And if I'd wanted to be European
I'd have packed up and pissed off
When I was 16
A Swiss Guard  (7)
And this lousy business
Was the last thing I was ever imagining

"Hey! Mark!" Why can't I live in England?

The end of shoes, all warehouse you've got
Cheap neon, the target is too yahoo
And take over all the desparate
I'll take over discussion and
...humanely regular colours over...
...engineered oxidate zeppelin 
Old world style, old man only juke box caught
Two carat gems carved with 56 spectacular facets  (8)

And sometimes they say "Hey, you're spoiling all the paintwork!"
And sometimes they say "Hey Mark, you're messing up the painwork!"
I thought we lived in England!
And sometimes they say "Hey, you're fucking up the paintwork"
And sometimes they say "Hey, hey! Your footprints are on the paintwork"
And sometimes they say "Hey Mark, Hey Mark! You're spoiling all the paintwork"

What is this thing they're so hard-assed about?
What is this thing you're being so hard-assed about?
I thought, I thought we lived in England!
"Hey! Hey! Hey Mark!"
And sometimes they say "Hey Mark, Hey Mark! you're messing up the paintwork..."
They say, "Hey..."

SaveSave

1. MES was playing the tape of this song in a hotel room when he accidentally activated the "record" function, and the snatches of a TV program (see note 2 below)  that made it onto the tape were left in the final version of the song. Here are various remarks about the song information from the Reformation entry:

Paintwork: Fall Tracks A-Z