The Big Express

You put your cleanest dirty shirt on
Then you stagger down to meet the dawn
You take a ride upon a bus, it's just a fuss
You know it keeps you born
You get to know a morning face
You get to join the human race
You get to know the world
Has passed you by

Who cares? you might be dead
Who cares? you stayed in bed
Who cares? you wrote the note
Who cares? you might have spoke

Wake up!

You take a snack to fill the gap
And then you're ready for another shift
Your attention was diverted
By the girl who smiled and made the lift
The radio is blaring out
It's in one ear and then it's out
You didn't notice that the record's over

Who cares? you might be dead
Who cares? you stayed in bed
Who cares? you wrote the note
Who cares? you might have spoke

Wake up!

In the road a crowd had gathered
And a man was close to dead
The blood is running down the gutter
While you're yawning, nothing's said
His body's wriggling like an eel
They got no sense, no touch, no feel
Somebody better go and get a blanket

Who cares? you might be dead
Who cares? you stayed in bed
Who cares? you wrote the note
Who cares? you might have spoke

Who cares?

Here he come again
Dress in all that skin
Like he was still human being

Look at he long ears
And he big brown eyes
And with them truth he is seeing

Isn't it a shame you kicked that girl
Isn't it a shame she kicked you back, jackass

She really shake you donkey up
She really make you donkey up
She really shake you donkey up, quite a packet

How she carry you
Over thick and thin ice
You still dug you spurs in
Now you forced to walk
Laden down with shame
It's not just you back that's hurting

Now children saddle him for riding
Pick a fight with love and she will
Tan your hide in

She really shake you donkey up
She really shake you donkey up

Shake you donkey!

Smalltown, snoring under blankets
Woken by the clank
It's just the milkman's dawn round
Smalltown, hiding undercovers
The lodgers and the lovers
Are asleep 'round smalltown

Shiney grey black snake of bikes
He slithers
Bearing up the men and boys
To work
We're standing in poplar lines
Making alarm clocks that'll wake our wives up
Don't ask us, we haven't the time
We're racing the hooter that'll signal life's up

Smalltown, crouching in the valley
Woken by the sally army
Sunday marchround
Smalltown, coughing in the toilet
Who on earth would spoil it
Would they pull down smalltown?

If it's all the same to you
Mrs progress
Think i'll drink my oxo up
And get away
It's not that you're repulsive to see
In your brand new catalogue nylon nightie
You're too fast for little old me
Next you'll be telling me it's 1990

I have lived here for a thousand years or maybe more
And i've sheltered all the children who have fought the wars
And as payment they make love in me
In squeaky beds
In bicycle sheds
Inside of their heads
As singles and weds
As tories and reds
And that's how i'm fed
And that's how i'm fed

Smalltown, snoring under blankets
Woken by the clank
It's just the milkman's dawn round
Smalltown, hiding undercovers
The lodgers and the lovers
Are asleep 'round smalltown

Smalltown, crouching in the valley
Woken by the sally army
Sunday marchround
Smalltown, coughing in the toilet
Now who on earth would spoil it
Will you pull down smalltown

Smalltown
Smalltown

Do something for me, boys
If i should die at sea, boys
Write a little note, boys
Set it off afloat, saying

Bless you, bless you, all of you pretty girls
Village and city girls by the quayside
Bless you, bless you, all of you pretty girls
Watching and waiting by the sea

Bless you, bless you, all of you pretty girls
Quiet or witty girls by the quayside
Bless you, bless you, all of you pretty girls
Watching and waiting by the sea

I think about your pale arms waving
When i see the caps upon the green
And the rocking roller-coaster ocean
Think about you every night when i'm fathoms asleep
And in my dreams
We are rocking in a similar motion

I think about the salt sea rolling
Down in pearly tears upon your cheeks
Just like the day the harbour pulled away
I think about your warm white sheets unfolding
The more i have to drink
The more that i can think to say

I bought myself a liarbird
He came with free drinks just to blur
The lies falling out like rain
On an average english summer's afternoon

I bought myself a new notebook
Sharpened my guitar and went to look
If this biz was just as bongo as the liarbird made out

All he would say
Is ``i can make you famous''
All he would say
All he would say
``just like a household name'' is
All he would say

Methinks world is for you
Made of what you believe
If it's false or if it's true
You can read it in your bible
Or on the back of this record sleeve

I bought myself a liarbird
Things got more and more absurd
It changed to a cuckoo
And expanded filling up with all i gave

I bought myself a big mistake
He grew too greedy, bough will break
And then we will find that liarbirds
Are really flightless on their own

All he would say
Is ``i can make you famous''
All he would say
All he would say
``just like a household name'' is
All he would say

Methinks world is for you
There's no handing it back
If it's false or it's true
You can read it in your prayer book
Or on the side of a cornflake pack

I gave away a liarbird
A couple less drinks and now i've heard
The truth shining out like sun
On an average english winter's afternoon

Me train running low on soul coal
They push+pull tactics are driving me loco
They shouldn't do that no no no
They shouldn't do that

Me train running low on dream steam
They pull me whistle too hard me bound to scream
And they shouldn't do that no no no
They shouldn't do that

Think i'm going south for the winter
Think i'm going mad in this hinterland
Between young and old
I'm a thirty year old puppy doing what i'm told
And i'm told there's no more coal
For the older engines
Me train running low on soul coal

Think i'm going south for the winter
Think i'm going west and my sprinter's speed
Is reduced to a crawl
My rails went straight, but straight into the wall
It's the wall on which they dash the older engines

And all my servants are leaving
Imagination gone packing
Can't find the wound from where i'm bleeding
He's just a nut and he's cracking

Hammer goes down
Brakes all scream
Me and a couple of empty carriages
Slide down hill still
Next stop bad dreamsville

Think i'm going south for the winter
Me train running low on soul coal.