The Top

Studio album released 22 May 1984

Shake Dog Shake

Ha ha ha!
Wake up in the dark
The aftertaste of anger in the back of my mouth
Spit it on the wall
And cough some more and scrape my skin with razor blades
And make up in the new blood
And try to look so good
Follow me!
Make up in the new blood
And follow me to where the real fun is
Ha ha ha!

As stale and selfish as a sick dog
Spurning sex like an animal of god
I’ll tear your red hair by the roots and hold you blazing
Hold you cherished in the dead electric light

Your face
I’ll never see you this way again
I captured it so perfectly as if I knew you’d disappear away
Oh, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake dog, shake
Oh, yeah, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
Shake, shake, shake, shake dog, shake

You hit me again
You howl and hit me again
The same sharp pain
Wakes me in the dark
And cuts me from my throat to my pounding heart
My heart, my shaking heart
Oh, shake, shake
Oh, shake dog, shake
Shake, shake
Shake, shake, shake dog, shake

But we slept all night in the virgin’s bed
And dreamed of death and breathed like sick dogs
We slept all night in the virgin’s bed
And breathed like death and dreamed of sick dogs

Oh, shake, shake
Oh, shake, shake
Shake, shake
Shake dog, shake

Wake up wake up wake up!
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake dog shake
Wake up wake up wake up!
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake
Shake, shake, shake, shake, shake dog, shake

Wake up in the new blood
Make up in the new blood
Shake up in the new blood
And follow me to where the real fun is…

Shake dog, shake
Shake dog, shake
Shake dog…

Bird Mad Girl

This girl has got a smile
That can make me cry
This girl just burns with love
She’s burning burning deep outside

Night time night time sets my house on fire
Oh, I’ll turn into the melting man
I’ll lose my life to feel I feel desire

Oh, I should feel
Like a polar bear…
Like a polar bear…
It’s impossible

She flies outside this cage
Singing girl-mad words
I keep her dark thoughts deep inside
As black as stone and mad as birds

Burn wild wild wild and never turn away
Oh, sends me all her love, she sends me everything
She sends me everywhere

Oh I could be
A polar bear…
Oh I could be
A polar bear…
It’s impossible

I try to talk
The sky goes red
I forget, so fill my head
With some of this, some of that
Some of every word she said

Oh, night time night time sets my house on fire
Oh, I’ll turn into the melting man
I’ll lose my life to feel I feel desire

Oh, I should be
A polar bear…
Oh, I should be
A polar bear…
But it’s impossible

Wailing Wall

The holy city breathed
Like a dying man
It moved with hopeful tears
With the tears of the blind

And on and on as the night drew in
Through broken streets
That sucked me in
My feet were bare and cut with stones
With walking to the Promised Land

I pushed through crowds
Through seas of prayer
Through twisting hands and choking air
A vulture at the Wailing Wall
I circled…
Waiting…

And on and on as the night drew in
Through broken streets
That sucked me in
My feet were bare and cut with stones
With walking to the Promised Land

Give Me It

Get away from me
Get your fingers out of my face
This room’s so hot
This room’s so hot

I break the walls

Get away from me
Leave me alone
Oh, like the pig on the stairs
Hanging in a groovy purple shirt

Gasping for air
I’m gasping for air
I’m gasping for love
I’m gasping for air…

Slit the cats like cheese
Then eat the sweet sticky things
Suck harder! Suck harder!
Suck your insides, insides out!
Blood thick swimming round your feet
As you’re choking choking
Choking on the fleshy words

Give me it give me it give me it
Deaden my glassy mind
Give me it give me it
Make me blind
One step back and one step down
And slip the needles in my side…

My head is cold
My hands are cold
My heart is cold
My heart is black
And stops every fucking night, every night
I wait until it stops, but it’s…

Sing birds sing birds sing birds sing
Get away…
Get away
Get away

Dressing Up

Going under slowly
It never seems too late
Going under so slow, oh
So slow

Dressing up to kiss
Dressing up to touch all this
(Dressing up, dressing up)
I’m dressing up to dance all week
I’m (dressing up, dressing up)
I’m dressing up to sleep
Dressing up to kiss
Oh, dressing up to be all this

I could eat your face
I could eat all of you
(Dressing up, dressing up)
(Dressing up, dressing up)
Oh, this night will never let me go…

Going under slowly
Never seems too late
Going under slowly…

You’ll pick me up again

The Caterpillar

(Sunday Tuesday Wednesday…)

Flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker, flicker
Here you are
Cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata
Caterpillar girl
Flowing in and filling up my hopeless heart
Oh never, never go
Dust my lemon lies
With powder, pink and sweet
The day I stop is the day you change
And fly away from me

You flicker and you’re beautiful
You glow inside my head
You hold me hypnotized, I’m mesmerized…
Your flames, the flames that kiss me dead

Dust my lemon lies
With powder, pink and sweet
The day I stop is the day you change
And fly away from me

Cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-caterpillar girl
Cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-caterpillar girl

Cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata

Cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata
Cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-cata-caterpillar girl

Piggy In The Mirror

Shapes in the drink like Christ
Cracks in the pale blue wall
I’m walking slowly and quickly but always away
Twisting twisting to the floor

Flowers in your mouth and the same dry song
The routine from laughter land
Sixteen white legs and a row of teeth
I watch you in secrecy

You’re dying, for the hope is gone
From here we go nowhere again
Oh, I’m trapped in my face and I’m changing too much
I can’t climb out the way I fell in

Jump with me, for that old forgotten dance
The midnight sun will burn you up
Your life is cold, your life is hard
Your life is too much for words

These occasions are such a relief
Another point, another view to send
Hey hey hey!
We start to talk, and it’s all so safe…
Oh, I feed you in my dreams

Footsteps on a wire, high above my head
The stain reveals my real intention
I’m the waiting beast, I’m the twisted nerve
As I dance, dance back to the body in my bed
As I dance, dance back to the body in my bed
To the body in my bed

Look at the piggy, piggy in the mirror
At the piggy, piggy in the mirror
At the piggy, the piggy in the mirror
At the piggy, piggy in the mirror
Oh, look at the piggy in the…
At the piggy, piggy in the mirror
Oh, look at the piggy in the mirror
Oh, look at the piggy in the mirror
Oh, look at the piggy in the mirror
Oh, ho

The Empty World

As stiff as toys and tall as men
And swaying like the wind torn trees
She talked about the empty world
With eyes like poisoned birds

She talked about the armies
That marched inside her head
And how they made her dreams go bad
But oh!
How happy she was!
How proud she was!
To be fighting in the war
In the empty world!

As stiff as toys and tall as men
And swaying like the wind torn trees
She talked about the empty world
With eyes like poisoned birds

Bananafishbones

Curl into a ball like you have more fun
Oh, that would make it faster
Why do you do it do you do it do you act like you?
Why do you do it do you act like you?

Don’t fight
Go red and blue and black and white
Sell this sell this
Or leave it senseless like a suck on a gun?
“Put a piece of metal in your head” you said
“Make you dead
Make you hippa hippa hippa hippa…”

A palace of stones of your bananafishbones
I’d buy you a hundred years old
To celebrate our difference, theorize and talk yourself
Until you’re tired and old

Disappear everywhere and watch me
Pull my lips apart
Exploit! Inspire! Encourage! Be responsible for this…
Ha ha!

I don’t think
I don’t think
I make use of all this time
Oh, kill me, kiss me once and then we’ll throw it away
And then we’ll throw it away…

Curl into a ball like you have more fun
Oh, that would make it faster
Why do you do it do you do it do you act like you?
Why do you do it do you act like you?

I don’t think
I don’t think
I make use of all this time
Oh, kill me, kiss me once and then we’ll throw it away
And then we’ll throw it away…

And tell me about the games you play
Turn off the lights
And tell me about the games you play…

“I don’t care”
If only I could say that and not feel so sick and scared
“I don’t care”
If only I could say that
If only my eyes would close…

“It’s Jesus brilliant” You used to laugh
“Walking these gorgeous blocks…
This top is the place where nobody goes
You just imagine
You just imagine it all…”

Every day I lie here
And know that it’s true
All I really want is you

Please come back
Please come back
Like all the other ones do…

“It’s Jesus brilliant” You used to laugh
“Walking these gorgeous blocks…
This top is the place where nobody goes
You just imagine
You just imagine it all…”

Please come back
Please come back, all of you…
Please come back
Please come back, all of you…

℗ 1984 Fiction Records. Written by Smith/Tolhurst.