may2001songs

IRIDIUM (MUSCUTT)
Cheap kicks is all you want from me Iridium stays after everything else has gone
But the kicks round here aren�t cheap and the dreams are losing sense
And as the place goes down I hope you see yourself in the flames
Iridium will remain after everything else has gone it will remain after everything of you has gone

I don�t know what iridium is, it�s either a metal or some kind of substance of one sort or another. Anyway, that�s irrelevant, what�s important is the fact that this song is saying that no matter what we do in life, we are going to die at some point. There are things like the land and the oceans that defy time and will probably be here either until the end of time or until the planet blows up, whichever is sooner. They�ll be here longer than us, that�s for sure.

SURROUNDINGS (MUSCUTT)
As close to philosophy we�ll never find the clues as to why we bothered coming here we know that it�s no use
To claim ignorance or misunderstanding because we saw it all
And now the times we thought of leaving are stopping us with truth
In unfamiliar surroundings we tried to get away to new places where we�re not alone
But the time is getting shorter and we�ve failed again
Knowing we�ll return just to fail again I know you�re aching for some solitude
But in the end it�s just a waste of time we always find you in the end they say
And is it worth having time alone for what they�re going to put you through?

This song is pure and simple about being at university and suffering through it if you�re not a very social person, like me. I was in halls of residence at the time I wrote this, and it was the most wretched place I�d ever lived in. Nothing seemed to work, the security arrangements were ridiculous (everyone broke into each others rooms or so it seemed), it was all dirty and it was right next to a part of town where all the prostitutes, drug dealers and nasty people hung out. Which was nice.

ALBUQUERQUE (MUSCUTT)
On a roadside in Albuquerque they bury what�s left of the man
Who gave his life for something tragic he had done who hid the evidence the best he could
They found his secrets they found his secrets and lies and something terrible they found inside the house
Something terrible they buried with his body by the roadside

This little piece was inspired by a place on a map of America I was looking at that belonged to my mum. I�d had this dream about this killer being executed and for some reason being buried by the side of the road in some little village somewhere. For the record, it�s probably worth mentioning that nobody probably has been buried by the side of the road in Albuquerque. It was on �Jackass� on MTV once, and looked a pretty decent place.

ELECTRO-HEAD (MUSCUTT)
Place me in this room on my own hear me shout for someone to listen
But they�ve shut the doors and darkened the windows again as if I shouldn�t be tolerated on the outside
Look at me in this room alone does it turn you on to see me this way?
Nineteen hours since nothing happened at all the darkness tells daylight unexplained
Now they�re coming down this corridor down this corridor for me
Taking me to the place I never thought I�d see taking me to the place that�s where I want to be

This song was originally going to be an instrumental, and then I read �1984� by George Orwell and realised I�d been missing out on a style of writing that was very special. The song is not written in the style of Orwell, but the lyrics are influenced by the part of the �1984� story where the main character is waiting to be taken to Room 101 and he�s wondering what is inside it. I based a short story called �Floor 96� on the style of writing Orwell uses in �1984�.

OVERDOSE (MUSCUTT) (MAY 2001)
Put the bottle back on the shelf again unheeded unneeded actions
Compatibility lifestyle magazines tell us how to look and how to wear
It was all too much for you to bear what was the reason you tried to take your life?
Why did you try to take more than you should? You might not get the chance to live again
So why waste the only chance you�ll get?

Kind of ties in with the other �overdose� song � �Prozac�. I guess this could be the first part of that situation.

PAYING TO LIVE IN HELL (MUSCUTT)
Time flows inside this cell we pay for time moves inside this Hell we�ve mad for ourselves
Continues to pass continues to pass us by breaking down the barriers of society
Challenging the rules of conformity pass judgement on the guidelines of authority
For me for everyone inside these cells we just want you to know we�re still here
Not waving not drowning just existing in a continuum you never found
Never ending corridor thirty storeys high life goes on around us but you�ll never know what I�m thinking
Or what I dream of in my spare time

Originally called �Continuum�. Another song written about, and whilst I was living in, halls of residence at university. I always thought of living there as �paying to live in Hell�. Then it goes on to say �we are still alive, but people probably haven�t noticed because they steer clear of this building because fucking STUDENTS live there�. I really, really hated pretending to be sociable you know. Everyone would go and sit and eat their dinner in the corridor, sat round smoking crap hand rolled cigarettes, moaning about not having any money, drugs, sex�you get the picture. I just couldn�t do that, so I stayed in my room most of the time. Kept myself to myself. It was only as I was moving out that people said to me �I�ve not seen you round before � do you live here?� which I thought was pretty amazing (that I�d managed to avoid meeting many new people that whole year).