Swear I'm not Paul: The Annotated Bell x1

The first of a series. Part One Neither Am I is much less extensive than later editions, especially Music in Mouth. Although God knows when I'll get around to them. Please make note of any omissions in the comments section.

PINBALL MACHINE

Tear that trickles from your eye to your ear
Like a pinball machine
Arm that melts over me
Like Salvador's¹ dream
Light that spits across the ceiling
'Cos someone burst the stitches on the curtain of night

Maybe it's all about sowing my seed²
But subject to conditions and not while you bleed³

I follow you at a distance
Bounced through others eyes
Like a pinball machine
Dressed as Mr. Walker⁴
But in disguise
I could have been a contender⁵
But instead I'm content with
The gin and tonic⁶ dressing gown I lament
One night only
The great and the glory
Let's see if it sticks

You still love me
I believe
If push came you'd shove me
I believe you share my bed
You share the blame
I believe
In pinball machines

¹ Spanish surrealist painter and artist Salvador Dali (1904-1989), whose best known painting 'The Persistance of Memory' from 1931, features dripping, or melting clocks - tying in with the preceeding line "arm that melts over me".
² Fertilization or human reproduction.
³ The act of reproduction depends on both her humour, as well as her menstrual cycle.
⁴ American singer Scott Walker (1943-), former member of the Walker Brothers, and now solo artist.
⁵ Quote from the multiple Academy Award winning 1954 film On the Waterfront, about an ex-boxer who stands up to his union bosses, featuring Marlon Brando in the lead role as Terry.
⁶ A diluted alcoholic drink, usually associated with the elderly.

THE MONEY

He's for the sailboat
He's for the sea
He's for Betty Ford¹
He's for anarchy
He'll die for his country
He'll stick a flag in your soul
He'll jump on your sandcastle
He'll drown in your moat
He's for the money
And he just wants to sleep with me
He's for the money
He just wants to sleep with me

She tries too hard
She doesn't try at all
She'll push you over
She'll break your fall
She puts it out
She reels it in
She makes immaculate love²
She makes original sin³
She's for the money
She just wants to sleep with me
She's for the money
And she just wants to sleep with me

She's missing the notes but she hears the strain
She knows she's been strung
But she looks for change

He's for the birds
He's for all living things
I'm lost for words
I don't believe in things
I'm for the money
I just want to sleep with me
I'm for the money
I just want to sleep with me

¹ Betty Ford (1918-) Wife of thirty-eight US President Gerald Ford, and co-founder of the Betty Ford drug rehabilitation center.
² According to the Bible, Jesus (c. 5 BC-30 AD), the son of God was conceived immaculately (without intercourse) by Mary.
³ The original sin was the eating of the apple by Eve in the Garden of Eden (cf. 'Eve, the Apple of My Eye'), resulting in the Fall of Man.

VOLCANO

Don't hold yourself like that
You'll hurt your knees
I kissed your mouth and back
Is that all you need
Don't build your world around
Volcanoes melt you down

What I am to you
Is not real
What I am to you
You do not need
What I am to you
Is not what you mean to me
You give me miles and miles of mountains
And I'll ask for the sea¹

Don't throw yourself like that
In front of me
I kissed your mouth and back
That's all I need
Don't drag my love around
Volcanoes melt you down

What I am to you
Is not real
What I am to you
You do not need
What I am to you
Is not what you mean to me
You give me miles and miles of mountains
And I'll ask for the sea

What I give to you
is what I'm going through
This is nothing new
Just another phase of finding
What I really need
Is what makes me bleed
Like a new disease
She's still to young to bleed

Not a song with many (if any) references. It's a straightforward tale of lost love.
¹ Not a direct reference, but rather the implication that she does not give him what he wants, but instead gives him something totally different.

MAN ON MIR¹

She's like a stellar
She's got a fella
She knows Italian too
She just started driving you

I know the man on Mir
I'd love to see what he can see
The black and grey that share his sleep
Alone, alone
Butterfly in cocoon²

I've lost my way
I want my way
To see the green and white and blue
See the Great Wall
See me and you

I feel I know the man on Mir
I'd love to see what he can see
The black and grey that share his sleep
Alone, alone
Butterfly in cocoon

¹ The Soviet (later Russian) Mir (1986-2001) was the world's first consistently manned space station. It was in orbit around the earth from February 19, 1986, and was occupied by cosmonauts and astronauts until August 1999.
² This should actually be chrysalis, the pupal stage of butterflies. A cocoon is the pupal stage of moths. Here it is used to signify a sense of being tapped, as in the 100-tonne space station Mir.

SLOWSET¹

So I asked her to dance
She said she wasn't able
And all her friends laughed
She was just trying to be gentle
And so we danced
Round and round in circles
Not of that lovesong
But our very own circles

Slowset is dead
No more love on the dancefloor
Unless you're out of your head
That's all that we went for

So she asked me to dance
I did but I wasn't able
Oh where to put your hands
When there's so much food on the table²

Slowset is dead
No more love on the dancefloor
Unless you're out of your head
That's all that we went for

What do you say
When she's in your arms and you're going round in those circles
When both of you know that you've risen to the occasion
When her friend comes along and you know that she's been rescued³
When your eternal flame⁴ has been drowned by her
Purple rain⁵

Slowset is dead
No more love on the dancefloor
Unless you're out of your head
That's all that we went for
That's all

¹ A song specifically chosen at a dance or disco for couples who wish to dance together in close proximity. Usually followed by the awkward proposition "will you shift my mate?"
² The food on the table here is her womanly figure, of which he doesn't know what parts to touch, and especially what he's permitted to touch.
³ A common occurrence at dances or discos, where the disapproving friend will interrupt the proceedings in order to "save" her friend from making any of a multitude of wrong decisions.
⁴ An eternal flame is a torch which burns for an indefinite period. ' Eternal Flame' was a 1989 hit pop song for the Bangles, which has been covered by many artists, most notably Atomic Kitten in 2001.
⁵ 'Purple Rain' was a 1984 film starring the musician Prince, with an accompanying soundtrack and pop song of the same name.

GODSONG

Everybody finished their honey tipped cigar
Our after dinner speaker tonight is God
A warm round of applause
And then silence

Tell us of love, we said
Tell us of love
Great one above
Won't ya tell us of love

And he said, well
I've never tasted your flavour before
So maybe love is your whore
Maybe just a figment of emotion

Hear my
Hear my song
What if I'm
What if I'm wrong
Hear my
Hear my song
I'm always right
But what if I'm wrong

The crowd went wild
Man, woman and child
Fuelled by brandy and cherry wine
And the apple in the mouth of the head of John the Baptist¹
Tell us of hate, we said
Tell us of hate
Don't spare the bait²
Won't ya tell us of hate
And he said, well
I've never tasted your flavour before
So maybe hate is your whore
But I remember when we were lovers

Hear my
Hear my song
What if I'm
What if I'm wrong
Hear my
Hear my song
I'm always right
But what if I'm wrong
What if I'm wrong

¹ John the Baptist (c. 6 BC-36 AD) was a preacher, who is said to have baptised Jesus, the son of God, in the River Jordan. He was imprisoned and beheaded following his marriage to the ex-wife of Herod II.
² The bait used to catch prey, such as a fish on a fishing rod. Here it is taken to mean "tell us the entire story, without leaving anything out."

BLUE RINSE BABY¹

In the womb
Back in playschool
In the yard
Where it first got hard
Button Moon²
On a Tuesday at noon
Bagpuss³ gave me the fear
But as if by magic she appeared

Through rose coloured glasses
I fall
Fall foul of the masses

Melodrama
In Valderrama⁴
Twenty-something blues
What on earth will I do
Copulation
Ingratiation
I reach for the stars
And wherever you go
There you are

Through rose coloured glasses
I fall
Fall foul of the masses
I know
You're the one to save me
And I hope
You'll be my blue rinse baby

¹ A blue rinse is a form of hair dye used by older women to hide the onset of grey hair.
² Button Moon was a British children's television programme running from 1980 to 1988. It followed the adventures of Mister Spoon, who travelled to Button Moon in his rocket ship. Each of the characters on Button Moon consisted of kitchen utensils, such as knives and forks.
³ Bagpuss was a British children's television program, aired in 1974. It was a stop motion animation series, where the titular character (a scruffy cat) would wake up once the humans had left the shop where he lived.
⁴ Valderrama is an area in the Philippines, with a population of over 17,000.

OFFSHORE

You haven't changed at all
Not much does in a frame on a wall¹
The paper's tarred and brown
If I hold you too close, you blur
Fearing it will fade away in darkness

So throw it overboard
And the next time we hit shore
I will stay behind
But she's washed up on the shore
Her salty spit her pours so pure
Leaves me choking on the sand
And her waves come in again
And she takes my hand

Gotta hold myself away
By blocking out the light of day
I can't hold you the way that I used to.
A picture you truly are
All legs and suicide
And where there's no room for lies
She lies across the breeze
Calling to me
Calling to me

¹ Here it emerges that the narrator is addressing either a photograph or a painting of someone.

BEAUTIFUL MADNESS

Give me an opinion
'Cos I don't have one
I'll agree with you if you're right
I always know where you're coming from
But I've never been there
I have to steal from you when you write

Your beautiful madness
My beautiful grief
Your dreams are my torture
Your dreams my relief

I'll give you an opinion
'Cos I just found one
You won't agree with me out of spite
I lay siege to your fortress
But you'll never give in
No, you'll just change your mind

Your beautiful madness
My beautiful grief
Your dreams are my torture
Your dreams my relief

You're mad to burn, mad to fly, mad to be saved
I stumble through the darkness looking for the day
Fabulous yellow roman candles¹ explodes like spiders across the sky
And in the sparkling of the day we all go.

Mad to burn, mad to cry, mad to run and mad to fly, you're mad to burn and mad to die, mad to stay away, you're mad to run and mad to die, you're mad to run away, you're mad to fake and mad to cry get the fuck away, from me.²

¹ A Roman Candle is a type of firework, which explodes into many parts, like "spiders across the sky".
² This song is heavily inspired by the following passage of beat novelist Jack Kerouac's 1957 opus On the Road:
"...because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars..."

FACE

How I know
Go bow end send mend bend pretend
Shut your face again
Bleed seed need read breath on my knees
How I choose to breath
Lie cry learn grow slow false start
How I build my wall
Hate wait bait kiss or taste the place
And make weather in my face

How I choose bruise loose win sin bin tease please
Better have her on her knees
Play pray say rock feel kneel dream
How I choose to scream
Shout wake sleep need to touch her deep
Change
Rearrange
Fate wait weight kiss or taste the place
And make weather in my face

I wanna be the only one that you know
Happily your placebo
I wanna be the only one that you know
Cos I adore you
I wanna be the only one that you know
Don't believe your placebo
I wanna be the only one that you know
Cos I adore you

This is filled with nonsense lyrics chosen especially to rhyme with each other. A deeper meaning? You tell me...

LITTLE SISTER

There's another kind of red under the bed
We've all been branded
Barcode¹ on my head
We can all go beep as we checkout
Your flexible friend² is but a spy
Your movements mapped
Your drinklink³ dries
I fail to see how this card is so smart

Little sister's been watching you
Little sister

So you want to walk the earth
You know she flies
She's mastered the art
Of truth and lies
To her you'll never be more than just a number

There's another kind of red under the bed
We've all been branded
We can all be read
Or is it all in my head
Kill the cowboy

Little sister's been watching you
Little sister

¹ A barcode is a picture created using thick and thin black horizontal stripes, accompanied by a number which is used to identify products for sale. The barcode is scanned into a machine which then displays the correct price for the item at a shop's cash register or checkout.
² A flexible friend is a term used for any sort of Credit Card, but was originally coined in an advert for Access Credit Cards.
³ A drinklink is an attempted comical term for an ATM or banklink, usually uttered by people who have consumed copious amounts of alcohol on a night of ribaldry.

DEEP

I don't wanna shake you off
I love the way we fit
I can't resist one who dares
Nor ones who shares like that

And returning to your sea
Somewhere I can bathe my feet
But if the wounds are too deep
You may not have the want
To heal me

You dig it babe
You dig it in deep

The mould¹ has been repressed
And with it all I've known
We have one up on each other
The same mistake

You dig it in babe
You dig it in babe