In the town where I was born
Lived a man who went to work
And he told us of his life
Building spaceships on £40 a week
And he'd take us all for rides
And we'd do some serious drugs in
Onboard the Enterprise Allowance
We could do whatever we liked
We would go to a Meadowlark Lemon seminar
Be at the Tony Monopoly incident
Sort a strobe for Connie Plank
Shop around with Johnny Kwango
If you would come with me to Dawlish
I'd be like Stadler's caddy for ya
And we would return in time for tea
And our Dad's would not have inklings
We said we'd been to organise a Frisbee competition
With the gypsies down the road
Do you want to swap a hundred spandex overcoats
For the mental age of a haversack
It's been like this since we saw
Prag Vec at the Melkweg
Oh I doctored my edible thong with Listeria
My only hope is that your offspring walks backwards
And just as I expected the shopkeeper appeared
And then the band began to play
Notes from www.hmhb.co.uk Prag Vec Actually written "pragVEC"; London-based band fronted by Susan Gogan, and the first home of Jim Thirlwell (Foetus etc). Never played the Melkweg. Reissues coming soon (as of 01/01). Melkweg Nightclub in Amsterdam, literally the "Milky Way". Starts off like Beatles "Yellow Submarine" forty pounds a week -- enterprise allowance money. Meadowlark Lemon was the leader of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. Tony Monopoly Singer who won Opportunity Knocks hundreds of times in the 70's, thereby demonstrating the vacuum at the heart of Britain's popular culture. Connie Plank Famous German (male) record producer. Johnny Kwango Wrestler (or is that actor?, could never tell). Had a "jungle" theme. Dawlish Boring English seaside town on the South Devon coast. [Craig] Stadler Golfer. listeria popular variety of food poisoning caused by eating Edwina Currie. Just as I expected, the shopkeeper appeared From kids TV program Mr. Benn.
Half Man Half Biscuit Half Hearted
Half Man Half Biscuit Half Hearted
Ah yes. Why spend time typing up the lyrics to Half Man Half Biscuit songs? Because they are gems like no other. We celebrate British bands and artists for seminal musical works (think Bowie or Elvis Costello) and, unless you happen to know the late John Peel's inside leg measurement or you were enlightened as a student, the majesty, wit and sheer intelligence of the HMHB opus is ignored. Shame, shame, shame.
Over the years a number of web sites have recorded some lyrics and a multitude of research notes for the songs [see the excellent www.hmhb.co.uk]. The latter are invaluable to understanding the wide ranging and often obscure historical references. The former are a mixed bag, with only a few songs listed.
So what started out as a full hearted attempt by me to record the lyrics so my sister could understand the songs has developed into a blog post and a project to educate the half-hearted masses and to provide a definitive song list with lyrics.
They'll be other crap on here too such as my own songs "Progressive Dads", "People called Wilson", "Blog-proof iPod", "Armchair Expert" and "Holistically Challenged"- I need to finish writing them first :)
"...Baby I'm from the Wirral Peninsula.
A merciless despot with nothing to lose"
Please note that all lyrics are mostly my interpretation and are presented here to assist you in understanding the songs. They are the copyright of others.
You should also pay a visit to www.chrisrand.com/hmhb/ for HMHB lyrics - a superb site with a superb range of listings
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oh i doctored by edible thong with listeria
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