Un

Chumbawamba's Un CD release.

The Wizard of Menlo Park

"Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow, and everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go."
Old Thomas Edison mixing up the medicine
Messing up time from Accrington to Amazon
See them all come with their wires and booms and their itchy little thumbs saying "Play your funky drum!"
Each jump in the dark we claim as our own
We know it's a lie; we never acted alone
Each jump in the dark, each jump in the dark
The machine became the star, beats to the bar, poor Gus Dudgeon lying in his car
Down in the basement messing with the moment
Alchemy and elements smashing up your instruments
Old Thomas Edison mixing up the medicine
Messing up time from Accrington to Amazon
See them all come with their wires and booms and their itchy little thumbs saying "Play your funky drum!"
A foot in the past, a head in a book, a soup of opinion, a ladle of luck
Each jump in the dark, each jump in the dark
Old Thomas Edison mixing up the medicine
Messing up time from Accrington to Amazon
See them all come with their wires and booms and their itchy little thumbs saying "Play your funky drum!"
From starlight to flashlight, sorting out the copyright
It takes a little time but the contract's airtight
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
The money's in the black but the needle's in the red
"One, two, one, two, check, Wednesday, Wednesday, Mississippi, yeah..."
Old Thomas Edison mixing up the medicine
Messing up time from Accrington to Amazon
See them all come with their wires and booms and their itchy little thumbs saying "Play your funky drum!"

Just Desserts

See them scramble to the top, watch them fall from grace
Never trust a man with egg on his face
Groucho-Marxists look so sweet
Slapstick anarchists, nice enough to eat
Peter Kropotkin in the way we talk
Charlie Cairoli in the way we walk
See them scramble to the top, watch them fall from grace
Never trust a man with egg on his face
Intellectual tarts with a good left hook
Copycat killers--cover and duck!
Polite assassins
You shout, I scream!
And the party starts on the count of one, two, three
See them scramble to the top, watch them fall from grace
Never trust a man with egg on his face
We talk without words, and everybody understands
Just desserts, delivered by hand
"Nobody move! Or the CEO gets it in the face with cream and dough!"
See them scramble to the top, watch them fall from grace
Never trust a man with egg on his face
(Repeats)

On eBay

Mr Kokoschka, it just happened again
Sad, so sad
They struck the museum like a hurricane
Sad, so sad
All of our culture, it's dead and its gone
Sad, so sad
From Babylon, baby, back to Babylon
Sad, so sad
There's stuff you find along the way and stuff you leave behind
And it all ends up as stuff that you can buy
On eBay, from Babylon back to Babylon
On eBay, from Babylon back to Babylon
In old Bahgdad they're dusting off the antiques
Sad, so sad
It's the fourteenth Guernica we've had this week
Sad, so sad
I got twenty-five dollars for a Persian vase
Sad, so sad
Hold the critque! I think I'll go large!
Sad, so sad
That stuff inside your houses and that stuff behind your eyes
Well it all ends up as stuff that you can buy
On eBay, from Babylon back to Babylon
On eBay, from Babylon back to Babylon
They're building a tower out of wrappers and cans
Sad, so sad
Now we speak in a language that we all understand
Sad, so sad
T-t-t-t-toungue-tied and starry-eyed
Sad, so sad
It's the ancient history of old school ties
Sad, so sad
There's stuff dressed up as truth and then there's stuff dressed up as lies
And it all ends up as stuff that you can buy
On eBay, from Babylon back to Babylon
(Repeats)

Everything You Know Is Wrong

Taking scissors to play cut up with the black vote down in Florida; coloured pens and glitter glue for sexing up the dossier. I'm the someone who knew something they're not telling pre-September. I lean on people in the loop to help them un-remember
I was flying on UA 93
That shadow in the footage? It was probably me
I'm the rumor, I'm the doubt, I'm the lie, but you wouldn't stand near me if you didn't want to die
(Chorus)
Everything you know is wrong
Theres a verse missing out of this song
Everything you know is wrong
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong
I was there when they landed on the moon, in a studio in Kentucky in June
I've got Kennedy's brain in a jar
If you knew what I knew you wouldn't laugh so hard
(Repeat chorus)
In the canteen down at Columbine with the bags they never found
Striking matches up at Waco when they burnt it to the ground
That true?
Without me, Oklahoma wasn't possible at all
See my silhouette in the Super 8 around the grassy knoll
True
(Repeat chorus)
(Repeat chorus)
I was in Paris in the underpass
I'm the FO-sponsored super grass
I'm Charlie Thrush in Minnesota
And I smuggled hep across the border
Stole Danny Casolaro's memoirs
Put the acid in the reservoirs
I'm Ron Brown's body on a T-43
And I hid those missing WMDs
What did the president know? When did he know it? Everything you know is...
Everything you know

Be With You

The future glints like the moon on an old slate roof
And everything you say sounds like the truth
The things you did made half my dreams come true
And I wanted to be with you
And I wanted to be with you
Sing your songs of what could be
Of all the things you brought back home to me
And I wonder what the papers are going to say
Another actress, another war, another day
But everything's changed, the world woke up today
And I wanted to be with you
And I wanted to be with you
Sing your songs of what could be
Draw the world for those who couldn't see
And I wanted to be with you

When Fine Society Sits Down To Dine

With her friends on a road less travelled, on a journey of do's and dares
Looking back on a fear of leaving and forgetting how it felt to be scared
There are those paying fancy prices to pretend they have fancy lives
But at every charity banquet the majority stay outside
(Chorus)
We play to a packed gallery
We smile for the CCTV
We're making our own history
When fine society sits down to dine, remember that someone is pissing in the wine
Pissing in the wine, pissing in the wine
Remember that someone is pissing in the wine
She'd love to be dancing the tango and she traces the steps in her mind
You can tell by the snap of her fingers that she moves to a different time
Where all the quiet submission is smeared in lipstick red
And every act is a crime of passion
"That's not all she wrote," she said
(Repeats)
(Repeat chorus)

A Man Walks Into A Bar

A man walks into a bar, he says, "Give me a Bacardi and Coke!"
The Back o' Beyond Repair welcomes the broken and the broke
Blather hitches a ride on the back of second-hand smoke and the man, well, he'll be the punchline in someone else's joke
"I'll beat this drink! It's a habit I'll kick. Please help me now, I'm gonna be sick. Something hit me; I wound up on the floor. Damn this Bacardi! I don't want any more."
A man walks into a think-tank full of hooch and future sales, mixing wish lists with extention plans re: Guantanamo jail
Smell the solid beech, and a whiff of 'cannot fail' and a gilt-tray chock with goblets dripping cut-throat cocktails
And they drink a toast to Florida and all its air-conditioned hum, and they damn the health of Cuba and they damn its bona fide rum
He sucks a kalamata olive, spits out the stone, and he mimics crushing people between forefinger and thumb
"I'll beat this drink! It's a habit I'll kick. Please help me now, I'm gonna be sick. Something hit me; I wound up on the floor. Damn this Bacardi! I don't want any more."
The first man wakes up in the same bar, but it's different, as in a dream
In fact it's someone else's dream
Clean sheets and new regime
Fidel burns as Nero roams
"Give the bar a zip code!"
"See you..."
"Si... C.U."
And it's one more for the road
"I'll beat this drink! It's a habit I'll kick. Please help me now, I'm gonna be sick. Something hit me; I wound up on the floor. Damn this Bacardi! I don't want any more."

Buy Nothing Day

I woke up this morning my temperature high
Buy, buy, buy
"I'll never buy nothing again," I lied
Buy, buy, buy
My doctor told me to stay out of town
Buy, buy, buy
He said, "Affluenza will get you down"
Buy, buy, buy
(Chorus)
What did you do in the war, Dad? What did you do in the war?
Ring up the tills in the High Street--I'm not coming in anymore
There's a price tag on me and there's sick on the floor
Buy, buy, buy
We're buying up anything we can't afford
Buy, buy, buy
Wherever I go I keep hearing this voice
Buy, buy, buy
Saying "choose what you want" but there's so little choice
Buy, buy, buy
(Repeat chorus)
Give it a rest
(Repeats)
There's dumb moves behind me and bad debts above
Buy, buy, buy
I pawned my affections and still got no love
Buy, buy, buy
My heart and my pocket will say it's unfair
Buy, buy, buy
I'm unlearning the cost of this laissez-faire
Buy, buy, buy
(Repeat chorus)
November twenty-three is buy-nothing day

Following You

Lilac growing up the walls
This sunny afternoon is ours after all
The sip sip sip of the dripping tap
Raise the pirate flag and laugh
This town, as ugly as sin
Hidden from our secret garden
We make it up as we go along
Sometimes it turns into a song--this song
(Chorus)
Don't ask me what needs doin' when there is so much to do
Don't ask me where I'm goin', 'cause I'm just following you, following you
We took back this bit of space
And made it into a different place
Now there's a promise in your eyes
And there'll be breakfast when you rise
(Repeat chorus)

We Don't Want To Sing Along

Tap, tap, tap in the chatrooms
We're learning how to make a bomb
Hmm, well whatever...
We don't want to sing along
(Chorus)
We don't want to sing along, we don't want to sing along
We know every word to the song, but we don't want to sing along
Oh Marilyn, she'll desert me, telling me I was wrong
She's all lipstick and instinct for money
But we don't want to sing along
(Repeat chorus)
Shhh!
Listen to the bullies singing to prove that they all belong
You'd better watch your step, bully, 'cos we don't want to sing along
(Repeat chorus)

I Did It For Alfie

Rejoice! Just rejoice at that news!
This girl has got the midlife blues
She lost her favourite marble again
It rolled down the nearest drain
A swing to the right and she's under attack
Much-sought-after property, completely detached
Plunging at the neck and daring at the back
And everybody says she looks better like that
Everybody says she looks better like that
(Repeat)
Rejoice! Just rejoice at that news!
This girl was split completely in two
Trevor, knock me down with a feather!
In the United Kingdom of Whatever
With a clean-cut center parting and a bloodrush to the head
"You won't get any older, dear" is what her stylist said
It's elegant bold and striking!
She'll never need a hat
And everybody says she looks better like that
Everybody says she looks better like that
(Repeat)
Alfie, I did it for Alfie
(Repeat)

Rebel Code

Dreaming that you're quietly driving by
Waking, wiping sleep out of your eyes
Watching firey cocktails in the sky
Rebel code, rebel code
Huddled in the cellars underground
They're tapping out a code to bring you down
Hacking into every home in town
Rebel code, rebel code
(Chorus)
One mic, three chords, our memories stored
Rebel code
One song, two words, no chance to get bored
Rebel code
Stalin waits forever at the gate
We simplify, we complicate
The urge to break, the need to recreate
Rebel code, rebel code
Changing everything that they were taught
Alcohol and fire and ones and noughts
Something in the water and the bones
Rebel code, rebel code
(Repeat chorus)