This album opens with jangly pop song Don’t take the silence too hard and includes the operatic Ave Lolita.
Looking back through the years, it’s pretty obvious I have a fondness for overblown melodramatic music.
CV
In recent tours the track has been reinterpreted acoustically.
Martin McCarrick played cello and contributed string arrangements on Ave Lolita, Paper crown and To take a piece.
This album was the first to be released on Black’s own label, and was licensed to major labels for distribution.
This album was issued in two sleeves, one showing three flies pinned down and one showing Colin’s face in shadow. Don’t take the silence too hard, Wishing you were here, Just like love and Swingtime were released as singles in various territories.
Are we having fun yet? was produced by Mike Hedges. Mike’s other production credits include work with The Associates, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, U2, Travis and Texas.
All the way from America holding out your hand You pinned your colours to the mast Pinned them high up in the sky Look what you do to me My hands keep thumping waltz in triple time
So she wrote All the way from America Arriving just as planned passing through the blocks and alleyways The avenues I’m crying Look what you do to me Look what your tender hands have done this time
And I say Don’t take the silence too hard Don’t take the silence too hard Your absence lasts through every passing year Don’t take the silence too hard
All the way from America Straining with my eyes to see the hours stretched out before me As I cross the ocean line Look what you do for me My hands are ruby warm and I feel fine
And I sail To the home of erotica Pictured on the stand kneel down and pray you take no burdens Out of the Promised Land Into the mystery Your eyes are full of tales of idle hands
She says Don’t take the silence too hard Don’t take the silence too hard Your absence lasts through every passing year Don’t take the silence too hard
All the way from America Holding out your hand You pinned your colours to the mast Pinned them high up in the sky Look what you do to me My hands keep thumping waltz in triple time
Don’t take the silence too hard Don’t take the silence too hard Don’t take the silence too hard Don’t take the silence too hard
Too many souls are lost So many dreams lie broken Will you try to help them Chase the night away, turn on the booming silver day
We do it in swingtime We don’t count the skinny seconds passing by or wonder why We do it in swingtime Make the moment suit the time we make the rescue – fit the crime
And feel each passing year Absorb the well of tears They shoot horses, don’t they? So we dance and sway into the pulsing, silver grey
We do it in swingtime We don’t count the skinny seconds passing by or wonder why We do it in swingtime Make the moment suit the time we make the rescue – fit the crime
So many people fail So many hearts are broken We come to live with pain We leave our arms wide open
Too many fights are thrown We count the cost of it growing Will you try to stop them Roll away the night, break out the champagne, hit the lights
We do it in swingtime We don’t count the skinny seconds passing by or wonder why We do it in swingtime Make the moment suit the time we make the rescue – fit the crime
Yes I believe I’m not trouble sent to haunt you Tell you for truth or did no one ever warn you Til we stop these silly games I can’t believe what you say
I see your face across the miles and miles between us Do they separate, do they separate or join us Do they join us at the hips I need to kiss your sweet lips
There’ll be sparks in the rain Honey in your hair I’m wishing you were here with me (I’m wishing you were here)
Turn out the lights if it helps to re-assure you Call me a fool but you can’t only eat it twice So eat it slowly let the juice run out And believe what I say
Calling your name across the miles and miles between us I see your face and the laugh lines reading join us Join us right there at the hips And I can taste your sweet lips
There’ll be sparks in the rain Honey in your hair I’m wishing you were here with me (I’m wishing you were here)
I see your face across the miles and miles between us Do they separate, do they separate or join us Do they join us at the hips I need to kiss your sweet lips
There’ll be sparks in the rain Honey in your hair I’m wishing you were here with me (I’m wishing you were here)
Hand me my five and dime Pass me my shirt hung on the line I’ll polish up my boots and then take the first plane stateside I can find
It’s a handicap to try to see this far When this place seems so cramped and small In these streets they whisper legends And it seems that I’m riding for a fall I’m leaving, I’m leaving
All of my sense is shot The streets are like a premonition of a crime I wrote without you and I took the first plane stateside I could find
If they could they would have stopped me They’d say I’m gaping at a dream I’m leaving, I’m leaving
So I polish up my brand new car Then take my tunes from door to door I try not to see their faces as I’m dealing out my aces The horizon seems so far away
From a penthouse for a king and queen I expected more of the stuff of dreams
If they can they like to get their man and cut him right down to his knees And I’m leaving, once again I’m leaving I’m leaving, once again I’m leaving I’m reeling, and once again I’m leaving
It is true maybe You never ask for much But when your heart’s been broken into tiny little pieces Who will pick them up You know who’ll pick them up
That’s just like love To see you through
You live with the silence It wraps your every mood With tender velvet fingers And they cling just like the ivy on a sunny roof If that’s what it takes to prove That you live with your weakness You face it every day But when you play the let’s make lovers game Someone has to pay You know who’ll pay and pay and pay
If your face hurts Feel like a bruised dog on a dusty street But you’ve got lipstick on your feet Lose your sad and wizened stare Reach out and I’ll be there I will set your senses alight And blow them out one by one
That’s just like love To see you through That’s just like love To see you through
Gone and gone for good Grown up and gone away Passed from now to then like a river running by to Rush headlong in to the sea
She hears the band play ‘Ave Lolita” She sees her future coming to her in a flash Starts counting hours, starts counting minutes And walks the line while there’s still time Ave Lolita
If you sleep at all sleep well for the coming day won’t spare you If fear is the key you are locked outside the door And you’ve been there before
When you heard the band play ‘Ave Lolita’ And you saw your future coming to you in a flash Start counting hours, start counting minutes And walk the line while there’s still time Ave Lolita
Watch the sky for details, watch the distance for fire Fiery pinpricks out of reach I can’t hold the lines of words To tick them off but it won’t be long now
Cause she hears the band play ‘ave lolita’ She sees her future rushing by her in a flash Starts counting hours, starts counting minutes And walks the line she still can’t define Ave Lolita
Your life is like free to fly If feeling it is wrong I don’t ever want to feel it right It could almost be so Sensational
My prayer is seldom heard Ease into my arms And whisper liquid words of love It could give you everything That you wanted to, if you want it to
Get up get up get up get up get up Wish the world awake Get up get up get up get up get up Wish the world awake
She gave and gave of herself Til there was nothing left And got down on her knees and prayed Prayed for an angel to fill her empty soul Do angels come so big? I don’t think so
If only you would jump on board And ride the train of thought Wish the world awake If only you could break the line You could learn this time And wish the world awake
You know you’re where it’s at But you don’t know where that is When your friends come round smiling And greet you with a kiss Then push you in the dirt from behind
There’s no time like the right time When the now time’s wearing thin For their silver tinsel dresses And their microwave skin And their cheap books of romance I think I’ll take my chances
So I run like I’d run from a flood Like you know it’s understood That your golden hair Was never meant to wear A paper crown
You know that a smile is their workaday face You can’t calculate the effort Just to keep it in its place They don’t shoot to kill, they’d always miss So shoot to wound
Like they’re always searching through your pockets Like they expect to find an answer The truth is that the truth is as commonplace as cancer If only you’d take the time You don’t need to shoot to find it
Just run like I’d from a flood Like you know it’s understood That your golden hair Was never meant to wear A paper crown
Run like you’d run for good Like the rivers running blood And you see your life flashing by I run like I’d run from a flood Like you know it’s understood That your golden hair Was never meant to wear A paper crown
Now and again an innocent shines Out from the crowd and scenes that Roll down the streets the inhuman streams Down from the trees up from their knees
Jump overboard strike for the shore Leave your clothes to the fire Counting the ways your innocence paid You can play it, rearrange it You can change your mind
Tell me now the horrors escape As we follow their trail ’til dark One for the need twice for the thrill Into the groves, into the groves
Washed up ashore follow the call Leave your debts behind you Counting the ways your innocence paid You can play it, rearrange it You might change your mind
In the big city heat a photo can fade Who were the saints of old? Keep a brush at your heels And cover your tracks Aim for the higher ground in the field
Jump overboard strike for the shore Leave your clothes to the fire Counting the ways your innocence paid You can play it, rearrange it You can change your mind Change your mind Change your mind Change your mind
I want you I want you For everything you do You do To take a piece
I need you I need you Cause everything you do Is right on cue To take a piece
You’re my find But I’ll take my time Until your eyes have dimmed from hot To soft and mellow
You tease me To please me Like everything you do You do To take a piece
You’re like a team A vixen queen You turn my spine from diamond hard To soft and yellow
I want you I want you For everything you do You do To take a piece
Everything you do You do To take a piece
For everything you do You do To take a piece
Album credits
All songs written by Colin Vearncombe Martin Ditcham played percussion on tracks 1 2 4 5 7 8 9 Greg Harewood played bass on tracks 1 2 Martin Green played saxes & flute on tracks 1 5 8 & the horn arrangement on track 5 Martin McCarrick arranged the strings & played cello on tracks 6 8 10 Pete Davis additional keyboards & programming on tracks 3 6 8 9 10 Doreen Edwards sang backing vocals on track 8 Backing vocals on track 7 were performed by Mr. & Mrs. Black All other instruments & vocals by Black
Recorded at the Chateau De La Rouge Motte, Normandy France Recorded by Andy Todd Tracks 1 3 5 6 mix engineered by Ken Thomas Tracks 2 4 7 8 9 10 mix engineered by Lance Phillips Recording & mix assistants Rattika, Phillipe Garcia & Gravel Macintosh Produced by Mike Hedges & Black
LP co-ordination creative collaboration & sequencing by Michael Gaunt Smooth running by Karen Rainford
