That What is Not lyrics
All tracks written by Public
Image Ltd
Published by Rotten Music Ltd / Chrysalis Music Ltd
© Virgin Records 1992
(information taken
from record sleeve)
ACID DROPS
What does it mean
What does anything mean
Sending out signals
I see the smoke screens
What is not dirty
What is not clean
What should we not hear
What shouldn't be seen
Running off verbals like a runaway truck
Who censors the censor
Can I do that myself
Make up my own mind like anyone else
Forget me
Forget me not
Remember me like acid drops
Mind over morals
Anything banned
The zealots are marching
With Bible in hand
Keyed to the roof 100 proof
Some of them hairpins
Some of them clams
Desperate Susans
Desperate Dans
Who censors the censor
Can I do that myself
Make up my own mind
Like anyone else
You read but missed my plot
You only see that what is not
These are clueless
Living in fear
Scared of their own sex
Or anything clear
Still looking down proboscis crown
Vague hope and no charity
Welcome to the 21st century
The hush puppy hushes
A dummy dumb struck
What is bad language
What shouldn't be heard
Or used as a token
Or used as a word
What is not dirty
What is not clean
What is not filthy
What is obscene
Who censors the censor
Can I do that myself
Make up my own mind
Like anyone else
Forget me
Forget me not
Remember me like acid drops
These different colours
Different style
Different cultures
These blend in a while
Prejudice prods through a big picket fence
Divided we fall without a defence
The seat of easement
The privy parliament
Petticoat merchants bent on intent
They're everywhere
These tricks of the trade
Some in the light
Some in the shade
LUCKS UP
When the blood in your drugs
turns to shale
They had you hung
Drawn and quartered tooth and nail
Empty pockets make idle hands
And mugging as a job requires good plans
Luck's up - tough stuff
Your luck's up
tough stuff
Luck's up
tough stuff
Unlucky you
And where were you
When the pickings were thicker than slime
A serious problem needs to be on time
Not good enough to crawl in the dark
You idiot getting ripped off in the park
When the drugs you were mixing blew up in your face
You blew your brains out and put a hole in its place
You wear your luck now all over your face
Still singeing like an old fire place
So yet again I hear you're gonna clean up your act
But once a junkie
Always and that's a fact
You've begged
Stole and borrowed time far too long
See you at your funeral
I'll sing your swan song
CRUEL
Body and soul
An animal
As a sword
Swing double edged
Dig deep down
That monthly frown
You have the tools
To make men fools
Cleopatra
The rat catcher
Preambling
Eyeball shopping
You're measuring
Your next victim
Too good to be sin
Far too entertaining
She said the most evil thing
I can do
Is to give my body to you
In silhouette
The suffragette
Behind the scenes
The deadly schemes
Your best nightmare
Without a prayer
From ship to shore
Paramour l'amour
Inside our head
22 lead
The modern miss
With modern gifts
In tragedy
Hilarity
Never sin
Far too entertaining
GOD
I can only feel and think
In the language of cliches
Others have concocted for you
Prefabricated preconception
Worn like the walls around you
All around you
How good to walk
With the caprice of God
How good to talk
With the caprice of God
Build your ivory tower
So you can scratch the sky
How could I forget that
You're not finished yet and that
All that you have done
Still adding up the sum
This totem has some use
The total of abuse
Real life is never used as truth
Angry artillery on your tongue
Bows and arrows highly strung
Same shadow I can see right through
Whenever I picture you
How good to walk
With the caprice of God
How good to talk
With the caprice of God
An ordinary human
An ordinary mortal
And ordinary model
Build your ivory tower
So you can touch the sky
Don't hide inside the sentiment
The real test is never finished yet
Face up
Collect the interest
Of all the idiots you should detest
How good to walk
With the caprice of God
How good to talk
With the caprice of God
An ordinary human
An ordinary mortal
An ordinary model
COVERED
Some unions are based on trust
Some unions are a must
Trussed up like a turkey
Upside down on a turn key
You and me
Some like it on the other side
Others like to play both sides
Big Girls
Big joys
Big toys
I got you covered
I got you covered
I'll give you gristle
You blow the whistle
Waiter service
Wait for this miss
And don't you diss this
This is bliss miss
Around the world with this Miss
Disgusting lewd rudeness
Secretly seductive
Spontaneous combustive
Happiness a penis
I give I give I give
You can wear high heals in unusual places
And different situations can fit into new faces
Somebody's like to roll in a sleaze
Never mind me
Just do as you please
All these implications
All these connotations
The pleasure in the leisure
Without the complications
I give I give I give
LOVE HOPE
Drawing you in drawing you
on
Leading you in taking you on
I can see potential
I can see intention
With a pocket full of seeds
Hope keeps me alive
I can see contention
Financing situations
And maybe may never be
Nothing comes from nothing
No wisdom than the silence
Negotiable affections
Even lovers need lessons
Love bites trivia severely
It has to be treated with respect
And
Taken seriously
Seriously
Lonely
I want to belong
UNFAIRGROUND
Where can I stand in my uniform
Cannon fodder
Six foot tall
Big and brave
Next to my grave
Wait patiently for the death of me
Swings and roundabouts on unfairgrounds
Ground in the ground on the merry-go-rounds
Blood and toil swim well in oil
And you and me the perfect foil
Unified units to invest
Patriots do not protest
The weight of the world on your shoulders
A brass monkey on your back
As beautiful gardenia boulders
Or dead meat hung on a rack
Bigger the man
Bigger the desk
Questioning your IQ test
Are you now so easily led
And lose the brains inside your head
Weight of the world on your shoulders
Boulders on your back
Wait patiently
For the death of me
THINK TANK
Could have been a major problem
But I did not
I didn't look back
And all you dirty druggies
Chicken shit
Sad sacks
Rewriting history
Tampering in my story
Standing in my shadow
But still so pale
So shallow
Think tank
Winner takes all
Loser takes blank
Think tank
Burning off steam
l'Il let you dream
Dream on
Mother nature's kind regards
Balancing the house of cards
Assuming and consuming
Of the peg commodities
The politics of common sense
Violence as self defence
Smiles and metaphors
The languages of lesser whores
I might no know much
But I know all this
Did you think
I would not notice
Love loves money
And delights in praise
Easy money as a virtue
Watch it quickly fade
And it could have been a problem
But I did not
I don't look back
EMPEROR
Is there a king
That can do no wrong
The crown that sings
Its very own song
When I play my fiddle
Will I see you dance
You crack the whip
And I'll break the lance
You make me feel like an emperor
You make me feel so proud and sure
So secure from the familiar
Uncommon sense is the great leveller
An emperor
We need you
An emperor
We need you
Best to flatter the devil
Than fight him
The weak heart hidden
In weaker sin
An occupation is as good as land
In you I have a kingdom in the palm of my hand
Even a speckle of sand
Can be dangerous in the right hand
Don't want to be no inflexible flake
If I'm standing too brittle
I know that I'll break
And all the doors
I broke into
And all the doors
I opened for you
I've seen too many crack at the seams
I need the wonder of all my wet dreams
The chance to put heaven back on earth
And lift the hammer
Lift the curse
Little fears keep us in chains
And throw away thoughts
Flushed down the drains
Sweet poetry
GOOD THINGS
Little white lies
They hold little surprise
Good things come in threes
The places I haunt
The powers I taunt
And the little I need
I need
Where the arrogance of presidents
Drive with the top down
And pop singers bite bullets
And popes kiss the ground
The most favoured nations
Should be atheists
Not the penny pinch manipulators
Of the fundamentalists
For everyone spotted
Ten get missed
The deeper you look
The longer the list
And the CNN calling card
Red herring day
No news today
Somebody somewhere
Indirectly directs them on their way
Stand up a token figure
And twist whatever they say
Pin it on no one
It doesn't matter anyway
How many political despots worked for the USA
And who controls down South America way
and who controls the modern Russian way
Death in the streets
Death is a project
All in the weak
The poor
The rich
The racist
And free thought should be looked upon
As an enemy
Because free thought went to jail
Long ago
What a pity
The spider's kiss
The White House astrologists
How many political despots worked for the CIA
The spider's kiss
The White House astrologists
Fuck, it's the CIA
