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The Common Touch

custard stub album music dylan astronomy pink floyd apocalyptic head canon

The Words are Important, The Words are Important
—Nice Bird

Okay, here's how we play the game.

Custard, the band, put out a new album. And I go through it, one lyric at a time, writing down everything I know.

I've been a Custard fan for a long time, and I'm from Custard's hometown of Brisbane, so sometimes the connections I make are well-informed. But it's pretty hit and miss. Really I'm just sharing the thoughts that bounce around my weird little brain as I listen to a new record over and over. Repetition makes for some pretty crazy thoughts.

The Common Touch came out in the second half of 2017. It's their second album of their long-awaited comeback.

The Common Touch

In The Grand Scheme Of Things (None Of This Really Matters)

Your lips are moving
But I can not hear
A word that you're saying

This is clearly reminiscent of the first line of "Everybody's talkin'", the Fred Neil song made famous by Harry Nilsson's rendition, which features in the disturbing New York movie "Midnight Cowboy" — to wit:

"Everybody's talking at me, I don't hear a word they're saying."

You may be complaining a little too much I fear

Is it too early in the album to mention Shakespeare? Not if you're Custard.

The line above is clearly a reference to this from Hamlet,

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"

I wonder how much of the Bard's work we'll see throughout this album?

And do you think, as Shakespeare lay dying in 1616, he would've thought to himself, "I wonder if, 401 years from now, my paltry works will finally be referenced in the works of Custard?"

Oh what are we gonna do?
Oh no

This is what the philosophers call the "Existential Angst."

I really don't want to
Wear out my welcome here

The previous album, Come Back All Is Forgiven was Custard's first album in 15 years. They were very suspicious of this gift they'd been given, an extra chance, and in We Are The Parents (Our Parents Warned Us About) intimated:

we must have made a deal with someone
either up above
or down
we've scored one more night to
make amends

...which I've interpreted as being about the record deal that ABC presented them with. Now, they're still suspicious of this gift, and still not sure how things will turn out. They don't want to wear out their welcome.

The truth is you're saying
that maybe we're straining
a little too much I fear

...and they're afraid that the comeback might fizzle out and be soon forgotten.

I know the feeling. You know the feeling when you decide to write 10,000 words about an album and you end doing more research than you can fit inside a single human lifetime, so you're forced to build a device in which you can save up time and you fall asleep in there and emerge 1000 years later? That's how it feels.

Oh what are we gonna do?
Oh no

(Mouth Wah-Wah)

There is also some mouth wah-wah in 'Hit Song' (The second single from Loverama)

By "mouth wah-wah" I mean the effect of using the facial apparatus to impersonate the sonic distortions that arise from using a wah-wah pedal (with an electric guitar) to create a spectral slide by rapidly sweeping a frequency filter up and down. The wah-wah pedal itself impersonates the use of a bell mute on a trumpet, which in turn impersonates the sound of a person moving their lips in and out as they cry uncontrollably. So it's a deep moment. Also reminiscent of Fozzie Bear saying his "Wokka Wokka Wokka" catchphrase.

And in the grand scheme of things none of this really matters

This is not a simple reference to the Metallica song "Nothing Else Matters," (played here by the affable Marty Schwartz of Marty Schwartz music...

...) Nor is this is a simple Call back to an earlier custard lyric— in case you somehow missed it, custard sang the line:

Nothing else matters

…in their song “I didn’t know I loved you ‘til I saw you rock n roll” - way way back on track 3 from their 1993 single “Casanova”

Half of you weren’t yet born when that came about. Statistically it’s very unlikely that anyone you were in the process of being born at the exact moment when that single was released. But statically it’s definitely possible. In which case you’re very welcome to be here reading this. I thank you.

No, this lyric - in this song - here and now — “in the grand scheme of things none of this really matters”, this is a far more punching stab at the meaning of life itself. This is nihilism. More than that, it's not even simple nihilism, it's Existential Nihilism.

I can't think of a more fitting song than this, from some other musical philosophers:

The space theme is completely on point.

Bill Murray's 'It Just Doesn't Matter' speech from Meatballs springs to mind also:

Just close your eyes
Don't give me no alibis

And the line "Don't give me no alibis" fits with the grand tradition of grammatical laxity in song lyrics.

we don’t need no education

But now we're getting to the apocalyptic sci-fi feel of the album. This is what I like best about the common touch:

In a world that's out of time
All the books explode

Scene from Zabriskie Points with books exploding

Shown above is a scene from Zabriskie Point with books exploding. The Zabriskie Point soundtrack featured Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, and others.

Here's the cover:

zabriskie_point_cover.jpg

I picked up a copy of this for about 50 big ones last year and was pretty pleased with the outlay.

I don't know much about the film beyond that. Did the books explode in a world that was out of time? Perhaps they weren't referencing the Custard song after all?

Or is this lyric a reference to the Nazi Book Burnings of World War II? Nasty nasty business.

In 1823, Heinrich Heine wrote the words, "Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen," or "Where books are burned, in the end, people will also be burned." More than a century later in 1933, young Nazi students in Germany organized a nationwide book burning to eliminate foreign influence

Heinrich Heine quoted at curiosity.com

Hold my hand

Reminiscent of the first lyric of the album Wahooti Fandango: "I will take your hand, we'll travel across the land."

But also reminiscent of the kind of songs that launched the Beatles onto the world scene. There's certainly a lot of British 60's music coming across.

I'll do for you what I can

Possibly a reference to 'I'll do 4 U' by Father MC:

...but possibly not.

And then we roar into a "BIG FINISH". One of the biggest finishes to a custard song. Some have called it 'sumptuous'.

There's a lot of trumpet and then a lot of harmonica and then a lot of both.

The trumpet is a piccolo trumpet played by Desmond Honeybottom. And the harmonica is played by Little Roy Grunt. Little Roy Grunt is a great monicker. I wonder who he really is. (Explained later.)

That's Jack Ward on cello.

Here's a piccolo trumpet. It's an octave higher than a regular Bb trumpet. What a gorgeous little darling of an instrument.

piccolo_trumpet.png

It took a while to work out what Beatle's song this reminded me of. But when I found it I knew for sure. There's a piccolo trumpet used in Penny Lane. Listen for the little solo from 1:13 to 1:30.

“Little Roy Grunt” is a pseudonym employed by Ian McCormack, the father of David McCormack (and also the father of Dylan McCormack, the skilled musician.), sometimes known by his other moniker, the Cusdad. Not so coincidentally, the name “Little Roy Grunt” is reminiscent of Bob Dylan’s alias “Blind Boy Grunt”. Ian McCormack co-wrote several of Custard's songs. I had the immense fortune to get to know Ian McCormack and he’s possibly my actual favorite thing about the entire Custard Musical Universe. Of course, I’m a lifelong member of the Paul Medew Army — a small but devout group of hardcore warriors who have pledged to always promote the interests, achievements, and songs of Paul Medew ahead of any other band, and ahead of any other member of custard, and even ahead of the band Custard itself, if ever one is forced to choose (which one seldom is.) But regarding all of the people that are in any way associated with the group, it’s definitely Ian McCormack who is the kind of — let me put it this way. If Custard was a Christmas tree, then Ian McCormack would be the Angel on top of the tree. If Custard was a 1907 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost — then Ian McCormack would be The Spirit of Ecstasy ornamental bonnet sculpture that makes the whole thing just… perfect. A very good man Ian McCormack.

Halley's Comet

I watched Halley's Comet go by

Hey! I remember that! I watched Halley's Comet go by.

From a backyard in Indooroopilly
It was cold, it was autumn '86

Back in those halcyon days of '86 you could hardly walk down a school corridor without being assaulted by a reproduction of this portrait of Edmond Halley. I’m not sure if they were publishing it in Australian Geographic or simply distributing it to every school - but Edmond Halley’s eyes would follow you every where you went in ‘86. You turn a corner — and there’s another Edmond Halley looking deep into your soul!

Edmond Halley

For my part, Halley’s comet itself was a bit of a dud. I'd heard that my grandad saw it last time, and it was so bright in the sky you didn't need a light on your push bike to get home at night. (That sort of rhymes...).

Regardless, time spent outside staring at the night sky during my formative years helped me develop a lasting appreciation for astronomy and gave me a sense of the awesome wonder at the vast endlessness of space.

This song and this lyric is part of the recurring astronomical motif from many Custard lyrics. ("And I'm checking out Venus and I'm checking out Mars".... "Lucky Star"... "Pluto parts I and II"... if the sun exploded... etc etc etc)

We drunk the rest of your gin

Reminiscent of "the taste of scotch rich on my tongue" from "This Year" (aka "I'm gonna make it through this year if it kills me", by "The Mountain Goats"

And looking for a word to rhyme with "gin", we have.... "anything"?

You could have done anything

But don't play "Forever Now"

I thought this was a reference to Cold Chisel's "Forever Now" — and indeed when I got my hands on the lyrics and found double-quotes around "Forever Now" I was not disappointed.

The song forever now is primarily caught up with the question of:

“Is this the way it’s gonna be forever”, now?

…a throw down to social stagnancy, a youthful cry of despair at lost relationships, a classic case of the fortune telling mental distortion, from cognitive behavioural therapy.

The meteor shower caught us all by surprise

Now we've departed into Science Fiction territory again — awesome!

What's happened during this part of the song, is that things have taken an unexpected twist.

Our intrepid party revelers are outside looking for Halley's Comet, when a meteor shower strikes the earth. Only a tiny handful of people survive.

This is similar to The Blindness in "The Day of the Triffids" and an episode of the show Benson that it was based on.

After talk about Halley's comet, Kraus dreams that she and Benson are the only ones left on earth.

How good was that episode? The triffid is also a music venue in Brisbane, in which Benson has never been spotted.

And how'd we get to here and how are we going home?

ET — the Extra Terrestrial — was also plagued by this question, "How am I going home?"

ET phone home

Well I don't know
I don't know

Here's some deep philosophy:

"I know that I know nothing" is a saying derived from Plato's account of the Greek philosopher Socrates. It is also called the Socratic paradox. The phrase is not one that Socrates himself is ever recorded as saying.

Wiki: I know that I know nothing

...and continues with:

Walking past the deserted agency

You know when you're walking through your home town, when you haven't been there for a long time, or when there's been an apocalyptic meteor shower, and you see a newsagent that is now abandoned?

That's the landmark we're evoking here.

I stopped the cab and tried to see

Notice we're in a cab. So we've returned to our home town but we haven't rented or borrowed a car. We're getting about in cabs.

Most likely not the same cab from Rice & Beans.

What was that place you lived before?

On this nostalgic tour of the old home town we head down empty streets trying to find the place where the girl we used to love used to live when we loved her, but the streets don't yield their secrets.

How'd you get all those bruises?

What? Now we're bringing in the domestic violence motif, as mentioned in The Streets of Your Town, which also mentions streets.

I don't care what your excuse is

Domestic abuse survivors sometimes find themselves concocting elaborate stories to cover for the bad things that happen to them. But none of those excuses are enough to allow you to listen unironically to Cold Chisel:

Don't play "Forever Now"

The meteor shower caught me right between the eyes

Very few people in recorded history have ever been directly struck by a meteor. The most famous such person is Ann Hodges:

Ann Hodges was hit by a meteorite in her Alabama home in 1954.
—The True Story of History's Only Known Meteorite Victim

It's unlikely that this song is about Ann Hodges. But unlikely doesn't mean impossible does it, Sherlock Homes.

How'd we get to here and how are we going home?
Well I don't know

You mean you still don't know. Given that you were in a cab just a few lines ago, it's possible you could use that cab to get home?

I don't know

Now there is a bridge. And it's not just a bridge. It's Bridgey Bridgerson, the bridgiest bridge in bridge land. It's the bridgiest bridge since "There's a stretch of road, out past the gap" from "Nice Bird", and that was Quite Some Bridge.

I feel like you've intrigued me for centuries

Centuries is a long time for a person to be intrigued. People don't generally live for centuries.

Humans, as a species, have been intrigued about certain topics for centuries and longer. The Pyramids spring to mind. What is with those pyramids?

And Roman dodecahedrons. Those things have led to centuries of intrigue.

But for my money, nothing surpasses The Antikythera Mechanism.

I love you just the way you are

Ah, what have we got here? A Billy Joel memory? Billy Joel's popular album 'The Stranger' (titled after an existentialist french novel) was bound to get thrown in the blender and served up sooner or later....

Just let those comets go by

Choosing to let the comets go by instead of engaging with them, is much like some of the central meditative practices of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

Do you let yourself get Hooked In by a passing thought — thoughts bubble up and arise and fall and swirl around inside the mind — or do you allow them to drift, drift by.

They shouldn't mess with you
There's just one thing I would like to say to you

The purpose of a bridge is to lead you into the chorus and the line above explicitly achieve this goal.

Oh please don't play "Forever Now"
The meteor shower caught me right between the eyes
And how'd we get to here and how are we going home?

ET — the Extra Terrestrial — was also plagued by this question, "How am I going home?"

et phone home

Well I don't know
I don't know
I don't know
I don't know

  • Pedal Steel - Jy-Perry Banks

I’m not well

It's only a little piece of sky

Amateurs and alley cats think this is a reference to Brabra Streisand, "Piece of Sky"

...inventor of the Streisand Effect. (Please don't look up what the Streisand Effect is.)

It's possible that this "piece of sky" is what is seen out of the window of a hospital bed.

It's only a little tear in my eye

Julian Lennon "Saltwater" (wells in my eyes)

Take the ones you think will last

I have a theory here... that this song is about a dying man talking to his son, in a hospital room or a nursing home.

The visitor is poring over something, perhaps some paintingS on the wall, or records in a collection, or books on a bookshelf. Book or records or paintings collected over a lifetime.

And you can take them, take the ones you think will retain their value and not depreciate to nothing as quickly as these tired bones, this aging flesh will shuffle off this mortal coil

Take another one on my behalf

...please, please take more, take them because I want you to take them.

And as long as we can hold it together
Well, the rest can go to hell

How much longer will I survive?

And as long as we can hold up in here
As the weather starts to swell

Weather is evocative, and always worth including in a song. Weather is a more expressive way to reveal your feelings than any direct statement about your feelings. A suitable level of indirection is necessary in ever work of art to achieve the necessary.

I'm thinking of a number
Somewhere between me and you

Ok, now this is how you play the "I'm thinking of a number" game. You say something like "I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100" and the person guesses the number. You then say "higher" or "lower" or "Correct." I once built a "guess a guid" game that is a heap of fun. Like, so much fun. It usually takes about 100 guesses to narrow down on the correct answer.

The upper and lower bound of the range should both be numbers. So the line 'Somewhere between me and you' doesn't make any sense unless me and you are numbers.

Who is to say that you and me are not numbers? Would a number know that it was a number? Why do you think that? Are you, speaking as a number, a reliable source of number facts?

I'll just sit here for a minute

When you're dying you have time to contemplate the ineffable

Watch the oil water red and blue

Oil and water do not mix, and when oil sits on top of water, and the water moves around, the sides of the oil are momentarily not parallel. This causes refraction to occur, as seen on the cover of Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon", and thus the appearance of trippy swirly rainbow patterns.

Watching oil on water is a fun way to pass the time. Watching water boil is just as fun.

I'm happy watching the water boil, I love the way the water dances.

So take a walk around the grounds now
Hear the sprinklers chiming in

The automated sprinklers at the grounds of a hospital or nursing home. A melancholic mechanical chattering.

And as long as we can hold up in here
We'll let the rest of the world begin

(I don't think anyone can tell)

At first when you're unwell, when you're dying, no one else can see. The symptoms are invisible. You tell people, but they do not believe.

I told you I'm not well

Spike Milligan wanted his tomb stone to read:

"See? I told you I was sick!"

...a fitting and inevitable end for a life long hypochondriac.

i_told_you_i_was_sick.png

spike_milligan_grave_stone.jpg

I told you baby, yeah I'm not well

Over use of the word "baby" is a rock n roll epidemic. Even the rock and roll programming language embraces this norm.

I told you I'm not well
Pretty soon everyone can tell

The illness progresses to a point where it's no longer experienced only inside the mind of the affected. Blind Freddy on a Galloping Horse becomes aware of it.

So I sold off all your memories

Now we're talking from a different point of view, from the pov of the son not the father.

In response to the father's request, we got rid of all those collected items. We sold them.

Gave away all the things you don't need

They were no longer needed. They were only taking up space. And yet...

But there's something I couldn't let go of

There was one thing I couldn't dispose of. The thing you forced me to take. The thing I didn't even choose to take. It holds the most sentimental value of all.

But it's nothing you don't know of

So let's just call it quits now
And farewell those Graceville girls

  • Graceville?

Now we’re not talking about Graceland — the real yet mythical kingdom of rock n roll established by Elvis Presley — we’re not talking about Going to Graceland — the magical song by Paul Simon in which we hear wonderful lyrics such as

TK

We are talking about Graceville Girls. "Grace-ville" girls... not Brownsville Girl — the epic Bob Dylan song that is as deep and mysterious as Cleopatra's eyes staring at you from the Bermuda Triangle — but Graceville, Graceville girls.

In an effort to uncover the meaning here I’ve searched far and wide.

At striped sunlight’s page about Who’s Gerald? I found this comment, referring to a piece of graffiti in Graceville

Anonymous
November 30, 2016 at 11:42 PM
I remember a “who’s Gerald” under the Graceville side of the Indooroopilly bridge and wondered what it was until I mentioned it at work — Hungry Jacks Taringa — to have Cathy tell me it her band.

“Who’s Gerald?” is the first band Paul Medew and Dave McCormack were together in, with Cathy Atthow, as mentioned above, who we must now accept worked at Hungry Jacks Taringa (very close to Graceville) — Cathy Atthow, who could well be the Catherine mentioned in the Custard song “1990s.”

Who was it that put that graffiti under the Indooroopilly bridge? Even Sherlock Holmes would Struggle to solve this one.

Unless of course — S.Holmes read the comments at the aforementioned website.

For example:

Dave McCormack
June 15, 2012 at 11:09 PM
Damn, it was a fun time. Practicing and recording at Payne Street was so much fun. We did play a hell of a lot of gigs at various bowls clubs and house parties and university things. We were definitely a live band, the recordings are all pretty horrible. Although I am sure the ones you did Paislie are okay. You did email them to me years ago and I was going to put them up on the Who's Gerald myspace but I have long since forgotten the login details.

I can't believe our friends and us were so bold/egotistical as to constantly spray paint "who's gerald?" all around town. Surely we must have been the most annoying band in Brisbane between 1986 and 1989. But we did have fun.

Thanks,
David McCormack

LOL. Okay S.Holmes might be able to figure out who the perp is.

And as long as we can hold up in here
And wave goodbye to this world

Further dark hints of the apocalyptic theme of the album. One's own death is a personal apocalypse.

(I didn't think anyone could tell)

But I told you I'm not well
I told you baby, yeah I'm not well
I told you I'm not well
And pretty soon everyone can tell

Here there's a shift and we take the track in a different direction. It's a Christmas jingle! Go firgure.

Merry Christmas baby
We're gonna miss you baby
Merry Christmas baby
We're gonna miss you baby

Merry Christmas
You're gonna miss us
Merry Christmas
You're gonna miss us

  • Backing Vocals - Meghan Drummond

Princes HWY

There's a disconnect here. The lyrics say "Princess", the title says "Princes".

The Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney to Port Augusta via the coast through the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
—Wikipedia: Princes Highway

The Princess Highway
Was so quiet at the dawn

Ordinarily a highway is very busy. That's the point. It's reason for existence. But at dawn, it is relatively quiet, much like:

A highway with no-one on it.

I was introduced to this lyric by the "U2" song "All I want (is you)" which I maintain to this day, is an OK U2 song. Perhaps the only OK U2 song.

And later I thought it was an echo of this Pink Floyd lyric:

Would you like to watch T.V.?
Or get between the sheets?
Or contemplate the silent freeway?
Would you like something to eat?
Would you like to learn to fly?
Would'ya?
Would you like to see me try?

But if you've played this game before you know it always comes back to Bob Dylan:

I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it

Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall, is an early highwater mark in Zimmerman's lyrical craftwork. He takes a structure from the traditional folk songs he'd cut his teeth mastering, and overlays the hypnotic myriad of ideas that would become his signature. Sort of thing.

And who could forget Edie Brickell's cover of "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" from Born on the 4th July?

Edie Brickell has been touring with Steve Martin, by the way, as he dazzles the world with his glittering banjo.

He's gonna hate me for sharing this, but here's Steve in 1979, performing King Tut (which he still plays to this day!)

You can't make it on your own
Have you thought of going home?

ET -- the Extra Terrestrial -- was also plagued by this question, "How am I going home?"

et phone home

Yes, that's three times now.

Leaving everyone alone

  • alone

They had a song called "alone" once. That was the track that made me take notice of this band. So glad I did.

Don't cry

Gun'n'Roses have never publicly confirmed that they took their inspiration from Custard. But here we find them reusing a custard lyric as the name of one of their popular songs:

Come inside
You can't hide the fact my heart is melting by the fire

Hearts - and the damage they endure - are a recurring motif of the love and break up song playbook.

It's likely that the heart is not literally melting in a fire. Were that the case, it would be a medical marvel for the afflicted individual to find the energy to write a song about it.

It is however a definite reference to -- spoiler alert-- the heart of Howl, from Howl's Moving Castle, which powers the moving castle and is voiced by Billy Crystal.

howls heart

It's true, it's true, you never promised a happy every after

And also, I never promised you a rose garden. Okay?

If you're not familiar with it, the song "I never promised you a rose garden" by Lynn Anderson, is the diss track of its era.

Cos you don't know how

There's something in the tune here that strongly reminds me of Wonderwall, by Oasis, those shite brit-pop fakers. (I'm still bitter that they didn't play Wonderwall at Livid. But of cours they didn't. Of course they wouldn't.)

(I'm in team Pulp. And team blur. But not in team oasis. Sorry.)

These childhood streets

Ah, we're back in the childhood streets.

Are wider and drier than I remember

I lived in London for a couple of years. And when I returned to Brisvegas one of the things that blew my mind was just how wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide the streets are here.

Down here is where we used to live

Yes, indeed.

The phone rings but no one ever answers

On the last album a phone rang for exactly 47 seconds.

It's been ringing here for a thousand years

It not likely that a phone would be left to ring for a thousand years. They tend to "ring out" much sooner. But even if they didn't ring out, it would be very hard for a phone company to go 1000 years without disconnecting an attempted call. Even continuing to pay your bill across many generations would be a remarkable feat.

Don't cry
Come inside
You can't hide the fact my heart is slowly melting by the fire
It's true, it's true, you never promised a happy every after
Cos you don't know how

And it's now
You expect all the damage to start
When you're digging around those parts
You said you'd never mention
Well it's true
What they said that you put me through

I have a theory hear but I'm not going to say what it is.

I'm fine, how are you?
.... and congratulations

You know when you catch up with a long lost love and they've had kids or gotten married or divorced or changed their name and you congratulate them? That's what this is.

Five years later
It must be getting close to dawn
I think of all those things undone
And all the places in the sun
And the shadows fall apart in time

I'll be fine
But I can't hide
The fact my heart is slowly melting by the fire
And it's true, it's true, I was never promised a happy ever after
Because you don't know how
I know you don't know how

  • Pedal Steel - Jy-Perry Banks
  • Cello - Jack Ward
  • Cello arrangement - Antony Partos

Sinking Deep

Drove through the AM
Just to get my prescription filled

This probably not - but in my head canon it certainly is a callback to the Paul Medew Custard track “The truth about drugs.”

It’s also squarely in the genre of the road ballad. Custard have several such “driving songs”. Streets and highways are always getting a shout out.

And the local, the local authorities

  • Local authorities, again here my head canon dictates that this is a call back to earlier custard lyrics —

TK

Inform me that they have several leads

We're sinking deep in our love
We're up to our necks in it, it's all we're thinking of

Throw me a question mark

I stared at the stars for so, so long I wasn't sure if they were really there
So come back, come back into the light
It appears to me right now that you were right

We're sinking deep in our love
We're up to our necks in it, it's all we're thinking of
Yeah we're like sheep in a trough
We're up to our necks in it, it's all we're thinking of

Just throw me a question
It couldn't be anyone else
So throw me a question
It couldn't be anyone else
But still there's you
Always shining in the sun
Yeah baby it's you
Dipping your lights at everyone

We're sinking deep in our love
We're up to our necks in it, it's all we're thinking of
Yeah we're like sheep in a trough
We're up to our necks in it, it's all we're thinking of

  • Backing Vocals - Meghan Drummond

You Always Knew #

I'll give all my money to your friends that I can't afford
Stick my head out of your limo as we pass at dawn
It's not the first time, it won't be the last
End up in a station thinking about pumping some gas

And you always knew how to do it right
Yeah, you press on the button, I'll turn out the light

This ain't a setback, can't be a setback
Give me another reason to stay off the decks
This is the first time, this is the first time
Sweaty George hangs on the back of your toilet door

sweaty_george.png

Source of Sweaty George, discussed in facebook custard page, october 2017:

Sharon Christison:
Loving the album... davey.. sweaty george on the back of the toilet door . Was that our toilet door at redhill.. me and miss suzies place... george was on the back of our door... hahaha....

Dave McCormack:
That’s it!

Sharon Christison:
Bloody ripper davey...

Sharon Christison:
My sole employee bought me toowoomba ticket for my birthday yesterday... yeah baby... cant wait...

Leon Bambrick:
Sharon got any pictures of this famous back of the toilet door? Needed for posterity. ;)

Sharon Christison:
Sadly no... very proud my collage work has made a custard lyric.... it was 25 years ago.... sweaty george was i name i called a friend of ours... i did mad collages in our rental house....tex perkins was on the cistern...amongst others... but i feel ive made it finally... very proud... hahaha

Dave McCormack:
yes Sharon, is there a photograph of the Sweaty George toilet door artwork? I recall it as being quite New Romantic.

Sharon Christison:
Sweaty george was a little new romantic....it was a black and white photocopy image of him that id enlarged... for a party invite to one of those great partys at water st...

Because I overthink things, I deconstructed the above and thought about this " miss suzies place" and wondered to myself.... Does "Ms Suzie" mean "Suzie Hansen" -- see, Dave McCormack was partnered with Maureen Hansen for a while (an excellent person is Maureen, and you can hear her vocals in the band "Miami"). Maureen has a twin sister called Suzie (according to the history of custard zine from DFHannah). So is that who lived at the place with Sweaty George on the door? Suzie Hansen? Dear sweet Suzie.

But then I realised: Suzie could be anyone! At that point in time, in Red Hill, fully 50% of the people had the name either Suzie or Cathy. And amongst women the percentage were even higher.

And you always knew how to do it right
Yeah you press on the button, I'll turn out the lights
And you always knew what you were asking for
Yeah you acted like you'd seen it all before

Yeah you always knew how to do it right
Yeah you press on the button, I'll turn out the lights
And you always knew what you were asking for
Yeah you acted like you'd seen it all before

  • Backing Vocals - Adele Pickvance

Hands On Fire #

You know I really don't mind it when you hold my hands on fire
It took a really long time of slamming doors and kicking tyres
Then I found you rock'n'roll
Stones Corner fruit bowl
That's when my radar locked
You know I really don't mind it when you hold my hands on fire
If it's all the same with you I'd like to carry on
And invite our friends over and get our marry on
You know I really don't mind it when you hold my hands on fire
You owned a Holden then a Zephyr then an even better Holden car
I was so jealous of your wheels and always wondering who you are
And if it's all the same with you I'd like to carry on
And invite our friends over and get our marry on
You know I really don't mind it when you hold my hands on fire
Then I found you rock'n'roll
Stones Corner fruit bowl
That's when my radar locked
You know I really don't mind it when you hold my hands on fire (*4)

Armageddon #

All your friends
They all dress up pretty smart
Filling rooms
Chuckin' darts and breaking hearts

But I can't bring myself to care anymore
What with this coming Armageddon

Go!

"I'm running out...... I'm running out of time", she said
"And these four walls.... they're loose in my mind"
She said that I can't bring myself to care anymore
What with this coming Armageddon

So why don't we go?
We don't have to stay

You gave me a look
A look like I should just stop
I tied my mouth
I tied my mouth in a knot

But I can't bring myself to care anymore
What with this coming Armageddon

So why don't we go?
We don't have to stay
What are you complaining for?
And what are we waiting for?

I don't wanna cause no offence, but baby your friends they're not worth dying for
I don't wanna cause no offence, but baby your friends, no way
I don't wanna cause no offence, but baby your friends they're not worth dying for
I don't wanna cause no offence, but baby your friends, no way

Dr Huxley Creeper #

I found myself singing One Plus One

Walking around the house
Empty in Bexley
And I remembered they were making a film about you
And I thought I had some photographs upstairs that might be useful

Oh, don't say you've gone
You'll be back here when the morning comes
You'll be back in a little while
Oh, don't say you've gone
You'll be back here when the morning comes
You'll be back in a little while

Up here it's warm, not hot
Jacaranda everywhere
And I went through all I got
Some dating back to '89
But I could only find one photograph of you

Oh, don't say you've gone
You'll be back here when the morning comes
You'll be back in a little while
Oh, don't say you've gone
You'll be back here when the morning comes
You'll be back in a little while

And I can say here with no doubt
Of all the time we were left without
Not even a ghost to upset her
We didn't think it could any betterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

October 2001
Somewhere in West End
You're playing my white guitar
I might have even taken the shot
But I just can't be sure
So I put the photo away

Oh, don't say you've gone
You'll be back here when the morning comes
You'll be back in a little while
Oh, don't say you've gone
You'll be back here when the morning comes
You'll be back in a little while

2000 Woman #

She's 2000 WOMAN, she can shoot you with her robotic eyes
She's 2000 WOMAN, and she can see through all of your lies
She's 2000 WOMAN, yeah, you can run but you can't get away
She's 2000 WOMAN, she knows everything you're gonna say before you even say it
She's 2000 WOMAN, she don't need no twentieth century man
She's 2000 WOMAN, she's much more powerful than such a primitive man
She's 2000 WOMAN, she's got the answers and she got a plan
She's 2000 WOMAN, she's got the aces you hold in your hand before you even play it
She's 2000 WOMAN
She's 2000 WOMAN, you can run but you can't hide from the
She's 2000 WOMAN, she's better at telling your own lies
She's 2000 WOMAN, she'll run you down with her autonomous cars
She's 2000 WOMAN, she's got the moon and she's got the stars right in her fingers
She's 2000 WOMAN

  • Additional vocals by Matteo Zingles, Anwyn Watkins and Haylee Poppi

  • Attack of the 50 ft woman

  • Autonomous cars

  • red right hand

  • Wonder woman

Police Cars #

Calling all police cars
Deploy them on the streets 'cause
There's trouble in the states
The power of the people
The government and steeple
It slowly dissipates
Suspend all disbelief
Suspend all disbelief
Shake it up
Shake it, shake it all up
I want my communism back
It's on the other feet hmm
The picture's incomplete hmm
We had to run away
It never works out now why why why why why
why why why why why
why why why why why
It never works out now why why why why why
why why why why why
why why why why why
Shake it up
Shake it, shake it all up
I want my communism back
Suspend all disbelief
Suspend all disbelief
Shake it up
Shake it, shake it all up
I want my communism back

  • communism

Take It From Here #

And this is what we'll talk about
And this is what we'll say
I heard that you signed yourself out and then moved away

And you can hold my hand just like some old time movie

And you can take it from here
You can take it from here
You can take it from here

We should pull in soon
There's storms up ahead
And it's good that you now know we can make this the last one, then let it go

And the lightning crackles the songs on the AM station

And you can take it from here
You can take it from here
You can take it from here

And the lighting cracks just like some old time movie
And you can take it or leave it here
You can take it or leave it here
And you can take it or leave it here
You can take it or leave it

  • Cello arrangement - Antony Partos
  • Cello - Jack Ward
  • Backing Vocals - Meghan Drummond
  • Pedal Steel - Jy-Perry Banks

References

So many references, and no referees

See also

 

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