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Retrospect

by Forever and Ever

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1.
John works in computers, Rod’s in consultancy Tony’s with a multinational oil company Simon he’s an ad man, but when we meet at John’s We all take off our red glasses and we really get it on Ageing Hippies, stop messing around Take your suits off, and let your pony tails down Ageing Hippies, you’re slipping too far Forget the mortgage and pick up your guitars The band reunion starts off at a quarter to eight We check who’s thinnest on the top and thickest round the waist The women leave the sinking ship as if at some command They don’t mind the bad behaviour, it’s the music they can’t stand John can’t play a boogie, Tony can’t keep time Rod’s synthesizer plays itself, Simon can’t remember his lines But we find a riff and play it till the early hours of morn And then we have a bowl of soup and watch a little porn Ageing Hippies, stop messing around Take your suits off, and let your pony tails down Ageing Hippies, you’re slipping too far Forget the mortgage and pick up your guitars Ageing Hippies, stop messing around Take your suits off, and let your pony tails down Ageing Hippies, you’re slipping too far Are you ready to pick up your guitars?
2.
Eleusis 02:20
He reads the bible every night His cockney vowels are a delight Golden ringed and clothing loud Shadow boxing for the crowd Thrills them with his wit He's the once and future king David sent out with his sling The one who syndicates his pain Who dies and is reborn again In any face that fits Figures shamble through his dreams With double vision, ruptured spleens Broken fingers, broken schemes Broken men with bleeding brains Who don't know when to quit In the dressing room he waits And tries to summon up some hate Hardly hears the trainer's words As like two tearing, screaming birds They're thrown into the pit The canvas leaps and hits again Crimson shock waves, pain on pain Swollen faces oozing gore On his gloves and on the floor Mingling with the spit Now the old king's on his back Backbone arched and pupils black Now at last he can atone For every hurt they've ever known Now he can pay for it The new king gives a last salute His face a bruised and punctured fruit The crowd cheers as he lifts his hands I guess I'll never understand How they can idolize a man Whose job it is to hit.
3.
Shall we slice the cake between between us? Shall we battle for our turn? Shall we turn up the CD While we watch the city burn? And play the zero sum game everybody My gain is a loss for somebody Carry on, carry on , carry on And if that is what you want Turn on each other when you go to the wall Divided you stand so discarded you fall Well if that is the God that you serve You get what you deserve Advertise a better future Advertise for better health You just adjust the image And watch reality take care of itself And play the zero sum game everybody My gain is a loss for somebody Carry on, carry on , carry on And if that is what you want Turn on each other when you go to the wall Divided you stand so discarded you fall Well if that is the God that you serve You get what you deserve Is greed a law of nature? Is it magic or divine? Will selfishness become good Like water into wine? Do you believe in progress For better or for worse? Will the bubble keep expanding Or will it burst? And play the zero sum game everybody My gain is a loss for somebody Carry on, carry on , carry on And if that is what you want Are you Pavlov’s dogs, are you Skinner’s pigeon too? Will you jump for each crumb that they offer to you? Well if that is the God that you serve You get what you deserve.
4.
The household is warm and well ordered The fire has stopped in mid-flame A man is asleep in the armchair The TV is locked in freeze-frame A woman stands out in the kitchen The rings on the cooker glow red The children are up in the bedroom The cat is curled up on the bed This is the dream that I walked in Suspended in time Outside the smoke from the chimney Hangs like a wraith in the air And only a metre above it The fuselage is hanging there The mid-section broken and gaping The stubs where the wings took their flight Some figures with seatbelts still tightened Aglow in the ghostly street light This is the dream that I walked in Suspended in time This is the dream that I walked in An instant suspended in time And I went like a spectre among them Checked none of their faces were mine Then I started and woke in my armchair My dinner was cold on the tray On the TV the news was just starting And fate one statistic away And I know I’m still dreaming Suspended in time
5.
Plain Jane 03:20
Plain Jane, say it one more time Let me hear your love Plain Jane, you caught me in my prime Let me hear your love It's no good thinking that everybody's thinking That you're tied up inside So get revealing the things that you are feeling Succour to my pride Succour to my pride Ooh let me hear your love Ooh let me hear your love Plain Jane, we get along just fine Let me hear your love Plain Jane, everybody knows you're mine Let me hear your love Do you imagine that everybody's having A ball out there tonight Don't want to damage my cultivated image, now Let's get this act right Let's get this act right Ooh let me hear your love Ooh let me hear your love
6.
Driving through the intersection in the rain Cardboard boxes on an empty plain Faded billboards swaying in the wind See the nodding donkeys broken down Scattered like weeds on the stony ground You've come to the place where life runs thin Where life runs thin Here among the clustered towers of glass Tombstones rising from a field of ash Ayn Rand's paradise beckons you in Vacant lots in the noonday sun The freeway a desert where you see no-one And nothing breaks the spell where life runs thin Where life runs thin Some bits of paper in a broker's tray In a city half a world away Sucked you dry and left no life within Made a desert of your community Here in the land of opportunity But nothing shakes your faith where life runs thin I wish the world would leave me alone I've got enough troubles of my own It's every man for himself, sink or swim We're all drowning in that same old sea 'Cause there's just one way, one philosophy And it leads you to the place where life runs thin Where life runs thin.
7.
It's a lesson too late for the learning It's just too late to find where we went wrong Now there's really only just eight notes to an octave And we just keep churning out the same old song 'Cause you go so gladly into that dark night Smile and say there's really not much time I don't know if you're dead, or just resigned But if you need it, throw down a line Now when I see you I'm ashamed to be human Your skull may be swollen but you're less than a fucking ape Don't come to me with your platitudes and epigrams Don't give me crap about man's high estate 'Cause you go so gladly into that dark night Smile and say there's really not much time I don't know if you're dead, or just resigned But if you need it, throw down a line Yes you taught me how a person should behave You made me eat raw meat and go back to the caves You taught me it's better to be guilty than be kind Your legacy is with me all the time 'Cause you go so gladly into that dark night Smile and say there's really not much time I don't know if you're dead, or just resigned But if you need it, throw down a line
8.
Somewhere, out across the sea There's a place where I would be Where sky met sea, where sea met land Where you and I walked hand in hand And this feeling comes upon me When I think about it still So hold me, lead me to the hill With cinquefoil and tormentil Bright streams from the snows above Where I first lived with my love Yellow sun lighting up the west Where my two children first drew their breath And this feeling comes upon me And it takes an act of will To hold me, further from the hill With cinquefoil and tormentil Ferry boats out upon the sea Making lines to infinity Birds wheel in the scented air Though far away, my heart beats there When this feeling comes upon me My cup is overflowing still So hold me, lead me to the hill With cinquefoil and tormentil
9.
His spirit walks these shores The more layers he strips away The more the mystery shows through Looking out from the shores of Cromarty Searching for a soul And the sands turned smooth as the tide lapped the shore Did it wash away the footprints of the creator? The starry dome and the mountain core To all these things, farewell Sun and moon and Kingdom Come, all is one To Hugh Miller's gun A fearful dream now rises on me May the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me My brain burns as the recollection grows My dear, dear wife farewell Life and death and Kingdom Come, all is one To Hugh Miller's gun And still his soul's abroad He'll look out upon the shore Till the miracle's restored And he knows that the testimony's there Written out in stone And the gunsmith picked up Hugh Miller's gun He looked down the barrel and he saw oblivion And you who stare through your eyepiece now You glimpse these truths as well Life and death and Kingdom Come, all is one To Hugh Miller's gun
10.
There were a few and you were one Who bore his double standard along Who gathered round him in the night Like moths around a light Told him what he did was right To stick beside him to the end Be both a cuckold and a friend That was the trend But in the end just you remained Paying homage to his pain And though not one of them was real You knew his wounds would never heal Everybody knew the deal And when he told you he would die You let him believe in his own lie Don't ask me why 'Cause now the hole in your heart has healed over And nobody wants to know an ailing Casanova Because it's getting nowhere And now you know he didn't want to recover He needed a nurse and an uncomplaining lover A drip feed to his ego and a lifetime of intensive care And oh the heart that beat so true Was just a valve his life passed though But with the pulse no longer strong And the circulation gone Must the body linger on? Turn off the life support machine And leave him to his private dreams Behind the screens 'Cause now the hole in your heart has healed over And nobody wants to know an ailing Casanova Because it's getting nowhere And now you know he didn't want to recover He needed a nurse and an uncomplaining lover A drip feed to his ego and a lifetime of intensive care

about

One day at the turn of the millennium this amazing psychedelia enthusiast, Thomas, calls us out of the blue, wanting to re-release an old (1972) mono album of ours - All On the First Day - into the collectors' market.

That reminded us that nothing cast into the ether ever totally disappears and it made us think about our back catalogue too: so here, in “Retrospect”, is a small piece of it.

Members of Tony, Caro and John plus friends Simon Burrett and Rod Jones, released as "Forever and Ever"

credits

released June 6, 2001

Tony Dore, John Clark, Rod Jones and Simon Burrett

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Tony, Caro and John London, UK

The band, a slightly bizarre combination of ex-folkies (Tony, Julie, Caro), electronics aficionados (John, Rod) and R & B types (Simon, Jonny), one that has persisted through numerous spin-off bands, the loss of several drummers, onstage electrocutions, and long expatriations to Norway, Holland, Spain and the USA. ... more

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