Before and After Science [Album cover] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NO ONE RECEIVING It will shine and it will shudder as I guide it with my rudder On its metalled ways It will cut the night before it as it leaves the day that saw it On its metalled ways Nobody passes us in the deep quiet of the dark sky Nobody sees us alone out here among the stars In these metal ways In these metal days Through a fault of our designing we are lost among the windings Of these metal ways Back to silence back to minus with the purple sky behind us In these metal ways Nobody hears us when we're alone in the blue future No one receiving the radio's splintered waves In these metal ways In these metal days ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative hearings: On its metalled ways == on its metal base Through a fault of our designing == Through no fault of our designing No one receiving the radio's splintered waves == No one receiving the radio signal waves (-- Jim Sullivan) == No one receiving, the radio spits with rage (-- George Lewandowski) References: According to Russell Mills, the line 'On its metalled ways' is from the poem Burnt Norton by T.S. Eliot. -- Craig Clark ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BACKWATER Backwater! We're sailing at the edges of time Backwater! We're drifting at the water-line Oh, we're floating in the coastal waters You and me and the porter's daughters Ooh, what to do? Not a sausage to do. And the shorter of the porter's daughters Dips her hand in the deadly waters Ooh, what to do in a tiny canoe? Black water! There were six of us but now we are five We're all talking To keep the conversation alive There was a senator from Ecuador Who talked about a meteor That crashed on a hill in the south of Peru And was found by a conquistador Who took it to the Emperor And he passed it on to a Turkish Guru... His daughter Was slated for becoming divine He taught her, He taught her how to split and define But if you study the logistics And heuristics of the mystics You will find that their minds rarely move in a line So it's much more realistic To abandon such ballistics And resign to be trapped on a leaf in the vine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative hearings: He taught her how to split and define == He taught her how to spend every dime -- George Lewandowski References: According to Richard Poyner, Eno's fascination with the concept of heuristics goes back to 1971, when he was involved in a recording of 'Paragraph 2' and 'Paragraph 7' of The Great Learning by Cornelius Cardew. Although the score imposes few constraints on its performers, Eno learnt with interest that individual performances do not diverge significantly from one another, nor does the piece degenerate into chaos. According to Eno, 'the fact that this does not happen is of considerable interest, because it suggests that somehow a set of controls which are not stipulated in the score arise in performance, and that these "automatic" controls are the real determinants of the piece.' (Eno's emphasis). For Eno, this was the beginning of a long interest in cybernetics -- Craig Clark (quoting More Dark Than Shark) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- KURT'S REJOINDER Burger cruising just above the ground, ground, ground And gunner puts a burnish on his steel Anna with her feelers moving round, round, round Is sharpening her needles on the wheel. Burger Bender bargain blender shine, shine, shine And gunner burn the leader on the fuse Bundle up the numbers counting three - six - nine Here's Anna building webs across our shoes. Celebrate the loss of one and all, all, all And separate the torso from the spine Burger Bender bouncing like a ball, ball, ball So Burger Bender bargain blender shine. Do the Do-si-do, do the Mirror Man Do the Boston Crab, do the Allemande. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative hearings: Do the Boston Crab == Do the Buster Crabbe References: "There is some uncertainty as to who actually does the recital of Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate [which appears in the backgound of the song]: Eno believes it is Schwitters himself, whereas Russell Mills believes it to be by Eberhard Blum. Schwitters was a Dadaist artist from Hanover who was forced to flee Nazi Germany after Hitler declared his work to be decadent; Eberhard Blum made several recordings of Schwitters' abstract poems, and is regarded as an 'accomplished Schwitters interpreter'." (Richard Poyner, More Dark Than Shark) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- KING'S LEAD HAT Dark alley (dark alley) black star Four turkeys in a big black car The road is shiny (bright shine) the wheels slide Four turkeys going for a dangerous ride The lacquer crackles (black tar) the engines roar A ship was turning broadside to the shore Splish splash, I was raking in the cash The biology of purpose keeps my nose above the surface (Ooh) King's lead hat put the innocence inside her It will come, it will come, it will surely come King's lead hat was a mother to desire It will come, it will come, it will surely come. In New Delhi (smelly Delhi) and Hong Kong They all know that it won't be long I count my fingers (digit counter) as night falls And draw bananas on the bathroom walls The killer cycles (humdrum), the killer hurts The passage of my life is measured out in shirts Time and motion (motion carried) time and tide All I know and all I have is time And time and tide is on my side King's lead hat put the poker in the fire It will come, it will come, it will surely come King's lead hat was a mother to desire It will come, it will come, it will surely come. The weapon's ready (ready Freddy) the guns purr The satellite distorts his voice to a slur He gives orders (finger pie) which no-one hears The king's hat fits over their ears He takes his mannequin (tram line) cold turpentine He tries to dial out 999999999 He dials reception (moving finger): he's all alone He's just a figment on the telephone! King's lead hat made the Amazon much wider It will come, it will come, it will surely come King's lead hat was the poker in the fire It will come, it will come, it will surely come King's lead hat was a mother to desire It will come, it will come, it will surely come King's lead hat put the innocence inside her It will come, it will come, it will surely come. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative hearings: The killer cycles (humdrum), the killer hurts -- The kilocycles (humdrum), the kilohertz References: The words in brackets in the fifth line of the third verse ( tram lines ) may be incorrect. Eno didn't write anything down for this part of the line, preferring to improvise at the microphone. King's lead hat is an anagram of Talking Heads. I count my fingers -- possibly a reference to the phrase "I'm not saying he can't be trusted, but after shaking hands with him, you need to count your fingers." He tries to dial out 999999999 -- 999 is the Emergency Services phone number in Britain (equivalent to 911 in the U.S.) The passage of my life is measured out in shirts -- compare the line: I have measured out my life with coffee spoons, from T.S. Eliot's poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HERE HE COMES Here he comes The boy who tried to vanish to the future or past Is no longer here with his sad blue eyes. Here he comes He floated away and as he rose above reason He rose above the clouds, he was seven feet high. Here he comes The night is like a glove and he's floating like a dove That catches the wind in the deep blue sky. Here he comes The boy who tried to vanish to another time Is no longer here with his sad blue eyes. Here he comes Here he comes Ooh ooh ooh ooh Ooh ooh ooh ooh Ooh ooh ooh ooh Ooh ooh ooh ooh Here he comes The boy who tried to vanish to another place Sees us following here all one at a time. Here he comes And we're checking out each other's supplies And looking at the eyes of all the others standing in the line. Here he comes The night is like a glove and he's floating like a dove With his deep blue eyes in the deep blue sky. Here he comes The boy who tried to vanish to the future or past Is no longer alone among the dragonflies. Here he comes Here he comes Ooh ooh ooh ooh Ooh ooh ooh ooh Who will remember him? Who will remember him? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative hearings: Who will remember him? -- Who will remember me? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- JULIE WITH... I am on an open sea, Just drifting as the hours go slowly by. Julie with her open blouse Is gazing up into the empty sky Now it seems to be so strange here Now it's so blue. The still sea is darker than before... No wind disturbs our coloured sails. The radio is silent, so are we. Julie's head is on her arm; Her fingers brush the surface of the sea Now I wonder if we'll be seen here Or if time has left us all alone. The still sea is darker than before... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BY THIS RIVER Here we are Stuck by this river, You and I Underneath a sky that's ever falling down, down, down Ever falling down. Through the day As if on an ocean Waiting here, Always failing to remember why we came, came, came: I wonder why we came. You talk to me as if from a distance And I reply With impressions chosen from another time, time, time, From another time. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SPIDER AND I Spider and I Sit watching the sky On our world without sound. We knit a web to catch one tiny fly For our world without sound. We sleep in the mornings, We dream of a ship that sails away, A thousand miles away. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE PRINTS Before And After Science originally included four prints by Brian Eno's friend, artist Peter Schmidt. "The Other House" (43K JPEG) "Look at September, Look at October" (48K JPEG) "Four Years" (42K JPEG) "The Road to the Crater" (37K JPEG) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THANKS TO: Craig Clark, Jay Sachs, Phil Gyford and other nameless denizens of the alt.music.brian-eno newsgroup who worked together in 1995 to create the transcriptions on which the EnoWeb's lyrics pages are based. The references are not intended to indicate the "meaning" of the lyrics -- it's well-known that Brian did not intend his lyrics to have a set meaning and often selected words for the way they sounded. The references may, however, suggest some of the reasons why some words or phrases got chosen rather than others. Back to lyrics page Got alternative lyrics you'd like to share? [Back to EnoWeb homepage]