Second House Now

(1)

There's ghosts
I get a lift on highway
WM dot C
Where ya been?
Where ya going, man? (this is reply)
Nowhere to go, this is his reply:
Ghosts are rising
Coming down
It's al return--
He's coming back...ward

He said I'm going to a big city
My image, black and white
Said he's going to big city
My image, black and white
The tearing of muscle years

Sword of Mexico
Spirit-like
Horrible
Its sword is red

I'm going to big city
My mirage: black and white
Sword of Mexico
Any spirit-like
New facts emerge

The city lights used tonight in
The AM/PM
Come chew you up
I'm going big city
My image in black and white
Apparition-like
Come on! Come on!
Everybody come on with me!

Down on the street (2)
Wind rising red
Am/P
Within, rising red
Circle trails around

Come on! Come on!
Come on! Come on
Going to the big city
Come on! Come on! 
Everybody come on with me!
Tearing of muscle years
Black and white!
 

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1. Thanks to Buy Kurious!, on whose transcription this is based.

From Pamela Vander's instragram post about Mark's death:

"He was happy and excited and we’d found a second home a couple of years back, moved in, set up shop. Total privacy. He loved it there, wrote a lot, walked in the garden, we watched films."

From Robert Brokenmouth in I-94 Bar:

". . . the extremely well-read MES often hints at the social origins of Nazism - or shall we say, fascist bullshit - in his lyrics. The title 'Second House Now' echoes the chant popularised by the Communist Party and their adherents in UK from late 1942, 'Second Front Now'. Russia was a selfish and ugly ally, which could not comprehend the idea of a discerning and decent life after the war. Similarly (and you don't even need to read the lyrics) Mark knows that the time of fascism in the UK is at hand - and by that, I don't mean either the National Front or the Tory Party. No, it's a social requirement by now, that free people are required to merge into the mass, accept what they're given and be told what to do by the state. This ties in with the lyrics to 'Couples vs Jobless mid-30s' as well, the way in which large chunks of the young population are both disregarded and used as fodder, forcing their ambitions to be selfish and unthreatening to those genuinely in power. This is not the first time MES has compared the social situation in the UK to that of the Communist Bloc. 

MES also knew - as do many others - that the UK was heading in this direction in the 1980s, a circumstance exacerbated by the Blairites. (If I was going to write a song about the place now I'd start with 'Land of Roundabouts and Warning Signs'). It might not be too long before we see scenes reminiscent of the Nuremberg rallies - oh, wait... that's on TV now ..."

Dan reports that, according to Greenway, the intro is the band's "daft version" of "In The Jailhouse Now."

^

2. "Down on the Street" is opening track on the Stooges' Funhouse which, as Zack points out, MES has cited at least once as his favorite album.

^

Second House Now: Fall Tracks A-Z