| 
Album:
City Child
City Child
| Shorty
| Changes
|
Butter On The Mind
| Hole
Song |
Shame
Crazy
Lil' Man |
The
Great Beast |
Synopsis
| Report
Back
1.
City
Child
I grew up to
public noises
I grew up so badly, badly
I grew up with corner shop talking
Running in and out of me
I grew up to city freedom
I grew up so poorly, poorly
REFRAIN:
I grew up without knowing I was growing
Into what I have become
I grew up with social conditions
Making me what I am
But I'm only what you've made me
In your constant shaping
What I have become
You knew all along you were making
Don't be surprised
To find this look in my eyes
You've made me this wild
You've made a city child
I grew up to Christian thinking
I grew up so strangely, strangely
I grew up with a dented conscience
Scared of everything around me
I grew up to city hatred
I grew up so quickly, quickly
REFRAIN
Repeat verse 1 and refrain
Lyrics: Syd Kitchen
Published:
Kitchen Kulture
1995
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2.
Shorty
What's
that they say - they say you're going away
They say you're going to London
With a thumping in your heart
Mind you take care - don't go losing your flair
Keep your sense of indifference
And you'll always stand apart
CHORUS:
There's a world out there - it's often cruel never fair
You seldom know that you're losing
Till you're shaking in you're shoes
All the golden rules - they've been designed for fools
You don't need a conscience, you've settled all your dues
The opportunity game - it's such a devil to tame
Life can be so optional
Keeps you guessing all the time
But if you live your dream - you'll never be inbetween
You'll never walk in the middle
With a foot either side of the line.
CHORUS
Hey! But what's that they say
They say you'll never go away
They say you're walking in the twilight
With a thumping in you're heart
The opportunity game - it's enough to drive you insane
Keep your sense of indifference
And you'll win before you even start.
CHORUS
Lyrics: Syd Kitchen
Published:
Kitchen Kulture
1995
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3.
Changes
Something changes everyday
You hardly notice but it does
Just when you think you've got it all together
Along comes Mr. Clever to knock you out of view.
Something's given everyday
You get your share then it goes away
Don't feel despondent when you find you're confronted with
Old Mr. Goodbye slapping you in the face.
Something changes everyday
You hardly notice it, you seldom care
Just when you think you've got you're head in heaven
Along comes Mr. Question with an answer for you.
Something's given everyday
Something's given - then it's taken away
Don't feel rejected when you find you're subjected to
Old Mr. Sadness staring you in the eyes.
Something changes everyday
Bid it farewell and be on your way
No need to run from all the places you're come from
Maybe next time Mr. Luck will smile on you.
Lyrics: Syd Kitchen
Published:
Kitchen Kulture
1995
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4.
Butter
On The Mind
Tell it to the leaves - they dance like marionettes
Blowing in the trees - each dances a life to forget
Tell it to the leaves - they shimmer then drop to the ground
Falling from the trees - each dies that another may abound
In some ancient game (isn't it concentric)
That may be so but the parting becomes such pain
Tell it to the clouds - tall ships they sail the sky
Riding on the wind - they spin and confuse the eyes
Tell it to the clouds - they choke with a million tears
Punished by the wind - they've been crying for a million years
in this celestial game (isn't it concentric)
That maybe so but the parting becomes such pain.
You're not butter on the mind
You'll never ever melt away
No no not butter on the mind
You'll never ever melt away
No you're not butter on the mind
You'll never ever melt away
You'll never leave my heart this I now can say
You'll never leave my thoughts you'll never melt away.
Tell it to the waves - they follow each other ashore
Washed up by the sea - each dies like a soldier of war
Tell it to the waves - proud barers of a force so great
Washed up by the sea - they embrace the earth they hate
In some ancient game (isn't it concentric)
That maybe so but the parting remains such pain.
Lyrics:
Syd Kitchen
Published:
Kitchen Kulture
1995
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5.
Hole Song
I see you on the 5.15
Amongst the everyday people
Wearing regulation denim jeans
Wearing indian cheesecloth
You catch the same bus everyday
With your smile in your pocket
Sit by the window in the same 'ole way
You really make me wonder
If the future's all you chase
If Prince Charming's there waiting
Or if you're just another lonely face
Whose got lost in the drifting
Hey - they say life's like a crowed street
Full of heartaches and hustlers
But something happens when two strangers meet
It's just someone finding someone
Well maybe your lonely eyes
Are no more than a cheap disguise
A little world you monopolise
Hell, I hate to criticise
There's nothing worse than a happy soul
Hiding in some unhappy hole
Waiting for that right repose
Waiting for goodness knows
So come on, get up, walk out, be strong
Only you can change what's going on
Don't be fuddled by what you see
Hell, you might even meet somebody like me
They say life's a crowded street
Watch your back, watch your feet
Don't run away from every chance to meet
That someone looking for someone.
Lyrics:
Syd Kitchen
Published:
Kitchen Kulture
1995
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6.
Shame
Shame
on you, you social chancer
Whatever happened to your dream grin
Shame on you, you opportunity dancer
See the state you've wound up in
Who would have thought you'd prove so helpless
It's so strange seeing you crawl around
Who would have thought you'd be so foolish
You've gone and lost your midas touch
I never new you owed so much.
Shame on you, you silly person
You're acting like a little babe in arms
Shame on you, you silly sucker
Who would have thought you'd ever lose your charms
When you walk you look for dreams in the gutter
It's so strange seeing you shuffle along
When you talk your words stumble and stutter
You've gone and lost your magic mind
It's unreal what some people find.
Shame on you, you social chaser
Whatever happened to your heavenly head
Shame on you, you flashlight facer
You wound up sitting in the dark instead
It's not surprising when looking at your habits
You cruised around in your "name dropping ship"
The only thing real was the way you were slipping
You've lost your golden feel
You'd better believe it's for real.
Lyrics:
Syd Kitchen
Published:
Kitchen Kulture
1995
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7.
Crazy Lil' Man
Crazy lil man haven't they told you
Don't you know, don't you care
That somehow, somewhere,
Somebody's gonna burn your ass
You shouldn't believe all those things you do
You should be walking down a different avenue.
You silly lil fool none of it matters
None of it did, none of it ever will
Just keep walking down that straight line
You find you bump trouble everytime
Life's not a game that keeps an honest score
The competition's outside the door.
Maybe one day you'll find
You could've lost your mind
Your consolation prize
For wasting all your time
But when your back's against the wall
Very few will see you fall
Somehow you're so
Magnifique - you turn the other cheek
You're like a one-way street
Beautiful but incomplete
And when you finally win the race
You'll wonder how you stood the pace
That's just the way you are.
You wasted lil man trapped in a wasteland
Chained like a dog, eating yourself
Build a dream that your heart can sail to
No matter how small - its' yours to look up to
Life's not a game that keeps an honest score
The competition's outside the door.
Lyrics:
Syd Kitchen
Published:
Kitchen Kulture
1995
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8.
The Great
Beast
Alone again in his glass-walled mansion
The great beast sits and laughs at his crazy needs
Laughs at his crazy needs
The dizzy shapes - the see-saw habits
He feels them long before they come alive
Long before they come alive.
Here again in his nervous statement
Dancing in the fog that flutters past
Like a wish that flutters past
The conquered space - the real equation
He knows it like the earth that feeds his shell
The earth that feeds his shell.
CHORUS:
But there forsaken deep down in the dungeon -
Of his magic , dangling like a drunken puppet,
He breeds conditions that are doomed to linger
Who knows what energies live?
Maybe one day come to pass a newborn catalyst
Propel him into a tunnel of madness
No wild horse to drag him free
Who knows what energies must be?
Alone again in his surreal jungle
The great beast sits and feeds, off his imagery
Feeds off his imagery
The abstract shapes - the concave reason
He gives it to the moon, that governs all
The moon that governs all
CHORUS
Lyrics:
Syd Kitchen
Published:
Kitchen Kulture
1995
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9.
Synopsis
He started living when he reached the age of birth
He started walking when he realised what his legs were worth
He started eating when he found out what his tummy was for
He started living when he was born - hey that's for sure
He started thinking when he found he had a mind
He started choosing what to keep and what to leave behind
He started talking when he stumbled on his little voice
He started dying when he was born - he had no choice.
O earthly dream, come pat the shoulder
Your boy's growing older
And his heads in a mess
O earthly dream, come sing the praises
Your boy's gone to blazes
But there's no need for distress
He started growing in a most peculiar way
He started hearing what mankind had to say
He started fumbling for the answers in a million books
He started living when he was born - oops!
He started seeing through the eyes of nonchalance
He started loathing when all he saw was mans ignorance
He started screaming before he realised that he'd gone to far
He started dying when he was born - so there you are!
Lyrics:
Syd Kitchen
Published:
Kitchen Kulture
1995
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...................................................................................
10.
Report
Back
I got your invitation
Must admit my first impression
Was one of sheer amazement
I was definitely stunned
Oh gee! Now you've gone and bothered me
You make me wanna stay
Then make me wanna run.
CHORUS:
With your bright eyes and your curly hair
You're just my type I really must declare
I'm gonna shout it so's I know you'll hear
This is no this or that - no idle chat
It's just my report back.
Hell I know that this surprise
Is no automatic paradise
You've got me straddled here
Pinned to the floor
Ooh! tell you what I'm gonna do
You look the other way
And I'll just slip out the door
You see it's your..........chorus.
REFRAIN:
Don't you think you ought to tell her 'bout the indiscretions
Lurking at the bottom of your heart
(Hell I don't know)
Don't you think you need to tell her 'bout the preconditions
Before you give it all a chance to start
(Hell I don't know)
Maybe you should be a little more conciliatory and tell her
'Bout the hopes you drag around
(No I don't think so)
Maybe you should meet her in the open to discover whether
There's at least a common ground
(Well I guess you're right)
We know we are it's just that we want you to also find out
(Let me turn on the light)
Such honesty is what the game of life is all about.
Be careful what you tell her doesn't start an inquisition that
Pushes you against another wall.
(I'll tell her 'bout my future)
She doesn't wanna hear about a future full of fear that's
Really not much future-filled at all.
(I'll tell her 'bout my prospects)
Don't be so sarcastic life is never that elastic she's a lot
More sussed and where it's at.
(I'll tell her about my dreams)
There you go again assuming all the wrong conclusions why
Would she be interested in that.
(Okay I'll tell her 'bout the real me)
How you're talking wise you're on the road to compromise
There's really not much more that can be said.
(I'll tell it like it is)
We know you will there's really not much else you can consider.
(Yeah i'll tell it like it is)
Such honesty is bound to cause a tremor and a shiver.
(My report back)
Well there you go boom boom boomin my heart
Spinning me round like a catherine wheel
With your ways - and your mysterious days
I don't know whether to run
Or whether to stay here and feel
Your.....
Lyrics:
Syd Kitchen
Published:
Kitchen Kulture
1995
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Credits
Recorded at Selby's Studio, Kwazulu,
South Africa
Engineered by Ron Selby, assisted by Marc Duby
Digitally reborn at Gerald Lapierre Studio, University of Natal,
Durban, SA
Engineered by Jurgen Brauninger
Mastered at Digital Masters, Stuttgart, Germany
Engineered by Matthias Schneider - Hollek
Graphic Designer - Mark Weatherston
Cover photo - Syd circa '57
Design and layout by Harry Lock and Mark Weatherston
Art Direction - Keith Bunyan
Additional photography by Harry Lock
Produced by Syd Kitchen for Ultrazultcha Promotions
Thanks to everyone at Tekweni where the dream is real - Gillian,
Sandy, Grant, Keith,
Gill, Lisa, Jan, Vicky, Craig, Bowzer --- my kids who grew up while
my head was turned
Ulli Seusse for his couriership---Harry Lock for his effort. God
bless Umbilo!
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