Here Come the Warm Jets [Album cover] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEEDLES IN THE CAMEL'S EYE Those who know They don't let it show They just give you one long life And you go, oh oh, oh oh Goes to show How winds blow The weather's fine And I feel so so-so, so Birds of prey With too much to say Oh what could be my destiny Another rainy day Why ask why? For by the by and by All mysteries are just more Needles in the camel's eye ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative hearings: They just give you one long life == They just give you one long glance ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE PAW PAW NEGRO BLOWTORCH My, my my, we're treating each other just like strangers I can't ignore the significance of these changes But you can't treat it lightly, And you'll have to face the consequences All my worst fears are grounded You have to make the choice between The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch and me (no, no, no, no) By this time time I got to looking for a kind of substitute I can't tell you quite how, Except that it rhymes with dissolute (oh naughty, naughty): But my baby's so lazy, she is almost unable And it's driving me crazy 'Cause her loving's just a fable that we sometimes try, With passion, to recall... Send for an ambulance or an accident investigator He's breathing like a furnace, so I'll see you later, alligator He'll set the sheets on fire - mmm, quite a burning lover Now he'll barbecue your kitten: he is just another learner lover You have to make the choice between The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch and me... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative hearings: I can't tell you quite how == I can't tell you who I found He's breathing like a furnace, so == He's breathing like a Furnace-saur he is just another learner lover == He's just another lava lover Now he'll barbecue your kitten: he is just another learner lover == He'll barbeque your mittened penis: just another murder lover This was from an interview with BE just after HCTWJ was released; I think it was in "Creem" Mag -- Scott & Chris May References: "Eno explains that this song was inspired by the case of A.W. Underwood of Paw Paw, Michigan, who could set things on fire merely by breathing on them. 'The song celebrates the possibility of a love affair with the man', says Eno." (More Dark Than Shark) The word "Negro" was still in common and non-pejorative use in Britain in the early 1970's when this song was written. The choice of the word here should be viewed in this context. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BABY'S ON FIRE Baby's on fire Better throw her in the water Look at her laughing Like a heifer to the slaughter Baby's on fire And all the laughing boys are bitching Waiting for photos Oh the plot is so bewitching Rescuers row row Do your best to change the subject Blow the wind blow blow Lend some assistance to the object Photographers snip snap Take your time she's only burning This kind of experience Is necessary for her learning If you'll be my flotsam I could be half the man I used to They said you were hot stuff And that's what Baby's been reduced to... Juanita and Juan Very clever with maraccas Making their fortunes Selling second-hand tobaccoes Juan dances at Chico's And when the clients are evicted He empties the ashtrays And pockets all that he's collected But Baby's on fire! And all the instruments agree that Her temperature's rising But any idiot would know that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CINDY TELLS ME Cindy tells me, the rich girls are leaving, Cindy tells me, they've given up sleeping alone And now they're so confused By their new freedoms. And she tells me They're selling up their maisonettes Left their Hotpoints to rust in their kitchenettes And they're saving their labours for insane reading. Some of them lose -- and some of them lose, But that's what they want -- And that's what they choose. It's a burden -- such a burden Oh what a burden to be so relied on. Cindy tells me, What will they do with their lives? Living quietly -- like labourers' wives... Perhaps they'll re-acquire those things They've all disposed of. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- References: Hotpoint: a manufacturer of white goods -- cookers, fridges etc. These "labour-saving devices" (a buzz-phrase in the 1950's & '60's) get referred to again in the following line, "saving their labours". Eno carries this idea through into the last verse's "labourers' wives". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ON SOME FARAWAY BEACH Given the chance I'll die like a baby On some faraway beach When the season's over Unlikely I'll be remembered As the tide brushes sand in my eyes I'll drift away Cast up on a plateau With only one memory A silver sail on a boat Oh lie low lie low, li-li-li-li li-li-lo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative hearings: A silver sail on a boat == A single syllable References: Lie low / Li-lo (final line): A Lilo is a small inflatable for use on swimming pools. Eno's repetition of "li-lo, li-lo" may be a reference to a lullaby which begins "Lullay, lullay..." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DRIVING ME BACKWARDS Ohohohohohohoh oh Doo doo doo doo doo doo dah I'll be there Oh driving me backwards Kids like me gotta be crazy Moving me forwards Perhaps you think that I'm lazy Meet my relations All of them grinning like facepacks Such sweet inspiration Curl me up, a flag in an icecap Now I've found a sweetheart Treats me good, just like an armchair I try to think about nothing Difficult, I'm most temperamental I gave up my good living Typical I'm most sentimental Ah Luana's black reptiles Sliding round make chemical choices And she responds as expected To the only sound, hysterical voices And you are driving me backwards Kids like me gotta be crazzzzzy i-i-i-i-i-i-i doo doo doo dodoo dodah I'll be there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternative hearings: I try to think about nothing == Ah, try to think about loving ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BLANK FRANK Blank Frank: he's the messenger of your doom and your destruction. Yes, he is the one who will set you up as nothing. And he is the one who will look at you sideways His particular skill is leaving bombs in people's driveways. Blank Frank has a memory that's as cold as an iceberg The only time he speaks is in incomprehensible proverbs Blank Frank is the siren, he's the air-raid, he's the crater. He's on the menu on the table, he's the knife and he's the waiter. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEAD FINKS DON'T TALK Oh cheeky cheeky Oh naughty sneaky You're so perceptive And I wonder how you knew. But dead finks don't walk too well (oh no) A bad sense of direction (oh no) And so they stumble round in threes (oh no) Such a strange collection. Oh, you headless chicken Can those poor teeth take so much kicking? You're always so charming As you make your way up here. And dead finks don't dress too well No discrimination To be a zombie all the time Requires such dedication. "Oh please sir, will you let it go by, 'Cos I failed both tests with my legs both tied In my place the stuff is all there I've been ever so sad for a very long time. My my, they wanted the works: Can you this? and that? I never got a letter back More fool me, bless my soul More fool me, bless my soul." Oh perfect masters They thrive on disasters They all look so harmless Till they find their way up here. But dead finks don't talk too well They've got a shaky sense of diction It's not so much a living hell It's just a dying fiction. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- References: “Dead Finks Don’t Talk is the most randomly generated of my songs. I wrote the lyrics at home with my girl-friend with a cassette of the backing track from the studio. I sang whatever came into my mind as the song played through. Frequently they’re just nonsense words or syllables. First I try for the correct phonetic sound rather than the verbal meaning. Off the top I was singing ‘oh-dee-dow-gubba-ring-ge-dow.’ So I recorded these rubbish words and then I turned them back into words. It’s the exact opposite of the technique used in phonetic poetry where words are changed into pure sounds. I take sounds and change them into words. “Dead Finks is not about Bryan Ferry. After all the music was recorded and the words written, Chris Thomas (my producer and Roxy’s as well) said, ‘you’ll get me shot for that track. It’s obviously about Bryan.’ So I listened back to it and it obviously was. It was certainly something I hadn’t realised. Essentially all these songs have no meaning that I invested in them. Meanings can be generated within their own frame-work. It may be a very esoteric thing to talk about but I don’t think it’s entirely out of the question.” -- Brian Eno, 1973 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOME OF THEM ARE OLD People come and go And forget to close the door, And leave their stains and cigarette butts trampled on the floor, And when they do, remember me, remember me. Some of them are old, Some of them are new, Some of them will turn up when you least expect them to, And when they do, remember me, remember me. Lucy you're my girl, Lucy you're a star, Lucy please be still and hide your madness in a jar, But do beware: it will follow you, it will follow you. Some of them are old But it would help if you could smile, To earn a crooked sixpence you'll walk many a crooked mile, And when you do, remember me, remember me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- References: To earn a crooked sixpence you'll walk many a crooked mile (penultimate line): a reference to the nursery rhyme: There was a crooked man Who walked a crooked mile And found a crooked sixpence Beside a crooked stile. He bought a crooked cat And it caught a crooked mouse And they all lived together In his little crooked house. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HERE COME THE WARM JETS [...Inaudible...] [Further] we make claims on [our teas] [Dawn inner here] for we've nowhere to be Nowhere to be Nowhere to be [Father stains], we're all on our knees Down on our words and we've nothing to be Nothing to be Nothing to be Further down we're all on our [sails] [Paid to upheed] though we've nothing these days Nothing these days Nothing these days [Further still, their stall in a daze] We're down on our knees and we've nothing to say Nothing to say Nothing to say... -------------------------------------------------------- Note: The lyrics above are what Tom reckons he heard on the cleaned-up version of the song included in the Eno Box set. Words in brackets are things he's not sure about. Alternative hearings: I was especially pleased to see someone had had a go at the "Here Come The Warm Jets" (song) lyrics as these had always intrigued me. I already had a few ideas and comparing what I had with what's on the site was interesting and informative. Here are a few observations: I think the first word of the first line of each verse is "father" or "farther" in each case. I'm certain that the last word of verse 1 line 1 is "knees" just like verse 2. I'd make a stab at the first line actually being "Father we make prayers on our knees". Try "Dawning a year" or perhaps "Dawn in a year" for the first few words of the second line of verse 1. I'msure verse 2 line 1 word 3 is "they're" and not "we're" - in other words in "Father (or whatever it is) stains", "stains" is not a verb but a noun and the words together are not a description of what father does but is a description of what the stain is - i.e. the "they're" refers to the stain and not to us. The first two words of verse 3 are "Father drowned" (maybe "Father drowns" but I'd favour the former) which would I guess sit in with the "sails" reference later, but perhaps I was being subconsciously influenced there. I think the first line of verse 4 is "Father, here they're sprawled in a daze". That doesn't make much more sense than what was there before, but it was particularly the "sprawled in a daze" bit that stood out. The whole thing seems to be vaguely about praying or being on your knees (rather than just one or two verses on this thread) although given the title of the song it could be about being on your knees doing something quite different I suppose. Crowded House had an album called "The Temple Of Low Men" which I am told, although I'd never encountered the phrase myself, has sexual connotations which may also fit in vaguely here - given my interpretation on the "praying" front. -- Simon Coward 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]