The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

maybe fair kill

oh yes i like things too sweet way too sweet

white sugar honey

oh i like it sweet

you say you deserve it sweet

well yes i do

today i feel kinda light headed

what a dream i had last night

i was wriggling across your lush landscapes

i was a blind eel darting in the glimmering shallows

i was walking down this street i was your lover

i was meeting you somewhere and you held my hand

i was waiting for you outside a shop

and you walked out n kissed me

how can you be so many things

how you can change things in my life

how you can sink down on your bed

how you can be so  smart n so stupid

i never know who i’m talking to

dont you understand me by now

oh youre good yes youre good

you really got me now you really got me going oh

the morning arrives slowly its quiet

where am i this room in shadows

i remember your words

i remember what you said

you told me you told me good

do what you fucking will is the whole of this lawlessness

baby i followed your atmosphere to this door

you reached out n pulled me in

your eyes roll back in your head

you arrange yourself just so

i feel lonely today surrounded by these guitars

you made me feel special you made me feel spacious

you made me feel my crown open up

you made me sacrifice my bishop for your knight

you made me feel like i didnt wanna leave you

nice

yes youre nice

the weather is nice

the world is nice

i cruise thru suburbs on my way to work

my car purrs along

it drives itself wherever i’m going

i steer from behind my haze

i think about you slinkin’ around somewhere

wonder what youre doing in this life

larger than life

oh stay now stay here in this life

look after your self now

if its not alkaline its not mine

oh so soothe yourself

you already proved your self

i drive along everysong makes me dream

left right straight ahead dead end boulevard

is there any more of that stuff

man i need an early night

my eyes are heavy leaden

pleasantly languid

just another dream

grace poole

i jumped ship awhile ago tho nobody noticed

i swam to the blooming horizon i ran to the waiting sea

down by the docks they were unloading a mystery

some one said

an angel they dragged from the water

superstitious fools vicious brutes surly oafs

i jostle thru a crowd

i talk to strangers i talk to journeymen

wickedness wildness woman out of wedlock

wedlock bedlock deadlock

deflower devour desire

the bible in a hotel room

i am just another man at last

how the sea laps the shore

how  sure the lie of the land

how lost the losing hand

i look at you who are so strange to me

i see only mask i see only lovely task

i touch the screen i touch the silk scream

my hard luck as for certain now i am ready  again

oh stream thru the night towards thee

follow the signs follow the stars in your sky

follow the tricks follow the under tricks

follow the first fellow you see

my morning is spent in a blue and white scene

my canteen is empty

my carpark is full

my word is mud

my word

my blood

my world

turns

n

turns

crumble down

pluperfect for you

the island nights

some force picks us up

some thing takes root

some spirit comes thru

we crash on this side of universe #23

wrecked in a flowerbed rolling over in poppies

hurt in every feeling there was

a little evening music pumps my jumper

i release the weeks surrounding me

and i plummet down in time burning air live

i drive in my gold flash i fishtail through a bend

i end up sending a tender legal friend a good mend

the music we make compensates me sates me uncomplicates me

the music we make slakes me shakes me almost mistakes me

the music we make forsakes me bakes me rakes me over shoals

i sit down in front of a screen

the sea appears a sailing ship

a cargo of spices

the prince of this realm in his educated sphere

the merchants dressed in their satin n tat

the colliers who mine deep in the earth

the prisoners who groaning beyond all these walls

the silence of midnight amongst  the graves

the future of silence when everything stops

the  end of the sounds the end of the noise

i’m under this tree i’m under this branch

i wait in this room its all white n controlled

waiting n waiting inside all the words

my hotel is a spartan affair

i post you a postcard that never arrives

i pop on a stamp a picture of queen

i lie by the pool with sun on my arm

i hide in the gloom of arbours n fog

i walk through your dream incessantly smug

mid tempo

the strings pull me to extremes

i find purchase in your sky

i climb on backs of clouds

i reach up for a place

give me what i need then give me what i want

a cottage by the rolling ocean the grass grow lush

a magic been

a golden goose

a giantess on the loose

or no use

no excuse

when i wake up with my kissed back someone hassles me over insurance

yeah the sacred river alph lady can you dig it indeed can you really dig it….?

we float through the cool roots of mountain

underground past the red n green lanterns where we swiftly drift

and it rains gently and the hissing drops melt on your skin

well we were making a movie werent we

i was trying to learn my lines

i was lucky to have got this role

i was playing this guy i guess

he wasnt that different to some version of myself

some kinda singer he had gone into hiding

in some foreign land

i sat in my caravan in my gown

my ipod oozing music

there was a knock at the door

spring had opened herself right up

i felt softly happy  for a little while

the wild raspberries with their certain scent

the calm warm feeling a kind of composure

david neil says man this is 1973 again

just before it all died

david neil carrying his guitar in its subjective case

david neil died so young now he’s singing a sad song

david catch up with me in hawaii

just before our show yes this was true

our show we had booked at the kon-tiki club

i was only 19 years old of course

i flew here on demetrius airlines

playing bass with davy neil at the kon-tiki bar

how wild that must have sounded to kathy and dad

boy how they musta teased me only i was never there

kathy came in smiling the kon-tiki hut has sold out

wow i said as i sat up suddenly

david was swimming in the pool

he’d been working on hollywood ending

it was the beginning of his magnum hopeless he said

a whole suite of songs it was supposed to be

david played it all to me one day

i was fucking gobsmacked

a blue crane flew overhead at that moment

i shivered even though the evening was transparently warm

i walked through that clear air towards you

kathy you were a sister to david too

or maybe you n he were lovers

dad said he liked david

he said david was an alright bloke

kathy said more than alright dad

dad said alright is alright

kathy said dad david is kinda….

dad said hes kinda alright

kathy hugged dad then

kathy said yes dad david is kinda alright….

when david passed away kathy never cried

the mornings just grew somehow shorter for her

she huddled down low to be so unnoticed

david never recorded hollywood ending suite tho

only the title song still remains extant in this universe #23

its a real fucking rocker

it travels past like a wild rhine-oceros

like a nibelung spell

like a strumpet from lyonesses old town

david what went on in your head

where did all that music go?

i pour thru davids record trying to find some answers

david took off my bass guitar parts replaced em with double bass

why did we have to argue man?

because steve you let me down

we stayed at a hotel called neptunes apts 13 strickland ave just by black sand beach

the morning we arrived

and the vista of fruit trees

we rehearsed cross legged under the lemons in the courtyard

i slapped my bass david strummed

the magic comes

holly wood end ing

we have a good fucking laugh right then

the future is obvious oblivious

the sunshine will last forever

the wheeling gulls echo in the sky

the fresh sea breezes

the honeycombed domed tower where we called home

kathy and dad stand waving goodbye against a whitewashed wall

david neil n his band of 2 aboard a ferry for illyria

lady is this illyria ..? david  would joke to kathy as they stood on the beach

now he was finally going there

the elysium club in the underworld district

where he had procured a long engagement

hono lulu leilani tahiti seeker

hawaii is a b n w photo in my seaside hotel

i turn from a hundred sunsets red in the dying glow

the palm trees and the canoes

i was christian fletcher i was wandering your virgin soil

i was paulie go-gan i was painting your marvels in my image

i was some hippy surfer with a golden body and water on the brain

i was some fuckin’ buccaneer lucking into this isle

oh hawaii oh fiji oh suva oh bikini

the islands eruption red hot ash deep in green sea

but im down on a black sand beach waxing my fin

im shooting down the pipeline into a lemon juice future

i’m washed up in the ionian tropics cut by a hundred shells

i’m cast up on some distant strand rescued by an alien creature

we do not talk the same language

we do not see the same things

all my worries pull me to the floor

i wake up at a heathen ceremony

the aztecs cut the beating heart from a man

god damn you white man you always intrude

wait a minute where am i …..?

i wake up gasping in my hotel room

listen to them ukeleles in the darkness

listen to them maidens singing to the old dead gods

listen to the surf pound 7 mile beach

listen to your friend whose asleep

light up yer hawaiian spliff

snort yer crystalline love

shoot yer warm desire

the boards creak in the hold

i whip up some lash

the harpoons hideous barb

the shout the shot the ball crashes through rigging

the blue sea opens up to swallow

i see the sand at the bottom each tiny grain is different n counted

my hotel with its quik-chek out

neptune parade number 456

air condition

kava kava gets me all numb n stoned

i spear a fucking fish i cut my ankle open

the piano plays in a bar as the fan spins

jungle juice and indonesian cigarettes

i dance with some blurry woman

her breath is warm as she whispers in my ear

your ship has gone down again

i lurch about on a hopeless deck

someone chucks a bucket of water over me from the wings

oh yeah i’m an actor too, didnt you know

and i’m marooned 5 years to the daylight

and im understrung on the heliotropics bloomin’ in my head

and im funfreaking sun-hit like a coco cane baby in mirror

and im saint to fire fly all nightridden

and who is the neutronic lagoon boy

and among the cults of islet chicks tricked into lovelife

so i wander the way key ki

and my hotel casts a fortune

my card bounces in a cave casino and i bet all my clams

ok thats enough i suppose for now

its not often i get a chance to speak

hedonist shot

kilbey your mind

this is the day of choice

choose night choose day

you dribble out your feeble burst

you swim in the green n golden sea quite a sight to see

you talk about yerself i blah blah blah

you use yer gadgets touch touch touch

figures change in yer accnt

thanks texas david neil is under resurrection

david neil on the slab twitchin’ like a bitch

david neil coming back to life

ricky miami breathing life into his grooves

soon david soon

soon you will sing your long lost songs to the people of universe #23

was there ever talk of love asks neil

the days bring dark news my friend

all things put together must fall asunder

we see the dissolution we see the wide spread anguish

we see the diseases striking us down in our prime

we gotta live tho we gotta prevail

cmon sister i exhort thee from my wobbly pulpit

alkaline fine raw raspberries n cauliflower stew

all washed down with adams ale

swim through these days sleep through these nights

sit on a deck chair n eat breakfast

lie in a hammock listening to the vast silence

lie about the past lie about the future lie about the house

i drive thru streets in dream

my car purrs my tires roll my wheel turns

my daughters have flown

all five in stockholm now i wonder if its snowing

i turn up for church rehearsey

the boys ha ha

the instrumence

the talk talk talk

lets decide this

lets decide that

i cant concentrate

everything all behind

sorry bout that folks

premium sk still coming folks

so is david neil now thanks

david neil dead now so long so long david

baby im all confused see me drowning drowning on land

please come up to the cockpit i need a hand

boy i feel sleepy guys

i could just curl up here n ………

like a fine fuzz of water like a million points

tiny droplets of rain

we walk home from a hotel thru its mist

we stub our toe we sigh we laugh

strange days surround us have found us

things are weird things are distorted

i play behind the glass in a humid room

the people look in at me like i’m in a zoo

a performing beast at least i growl politely

i talk and i sing i dunno i ching

i jump up n down on the poor spot

i strummy  strum strum my old guild 12

thats it goodnight folks i finish in a sudden

whoah people smoking weed outside like its new orleans

the wine doth flow too like some martyrs blood

the fine fine rain you can only see in the lights

the lights question the night

although it never replies

the mist kissed my fist n i wonder why

the rain is suspended in mid air hanging there

the street is empty and shiny the trees are ultra green

its going on midnight

i wonder where everyone is never seen

where?

what next

the world turns

the earth moves

people come n go

being passing leaving returning

flickering forms on a screen

as if talking to a ghost

some autumnal twilight

some hazy summer day

the ever present wind bringing us news

news of the ocean where there is no news but hunger

the clouds oh all the usual stuff

the tourists the shouting the pushing the queues

the smell of frying food

the ice creams

the fruit shops the fizzy drinks the bikinis

hard to find somewhere to park

hard to find the money to get everything you need

the leaves rustle in the garden they whisper late spring-ish things

i forgot to eat i eat too much

i cant sleep so well but i oversleep the day by a mile

check the mirror nobody home

old age patiently waiting on each line

all struggle is futile

the universe will swallow us soon

i rush towards my doom impelled by years

sunday market bustles regardless

the sea is cold someone says

the sun is hot someone says

the summer is here i say to no one in particular

the sand is so white i think

the people are crowding in today

in their cars and buses and trains and bikes

they arrive and arrive and arrive

a cloud passes over the sun a wave crashes a child shouts out

young handsome dads carrying lovely kids

surfer girls in rubbery black suits

visitors from other places stand around gawking at the spectacle

everywhere the feeling of money money money

someone recognizes me hey stevekilbey you iconlegend

hey i listened to you my wholelife allyourrecords

oh gosh i say but the moment has gone

what says the guy whatdoyoumean

a helicopter flies overhead

look i say its an insect world…..

the guy walks away shaking his head

see ya later stevekilbey he mutters to his familiar a one legged gull

women come up n say hello to me too

hello steve they coo how are you?

oh nice ladies i am very well thank you

do you need anything honey they wink in unison

oh no ladies i am fine fine fine

well if you think of anything at all……

yes ladies yes i say

but they are already on a bus into town

i stick my card in a slot n some dosh appears

i buy a fizzy drink n some greasy item

i look in the shops but theres nothing there for me

i run into lucky jim and i run into eddie the photographer

i run into the dutch twins and i run into somebody else

oh hi oh bye i say

the water does feel cold even to me

its salty and it stings where i shaved

a car beeps another car

gee

life in 2010

in the east a star appeared

come upon a strange child mourning the cities of the plain

oh strange child why do yet cry for wicked mammon

does she not lie in ashes one hundred leagues hence

and all her bones have gone bleach beach white

below the surface under glass

deep in the bubbled marble

in the melted night

my cities crying out

one for the beggarman

one for the thief

one for the sugarman

one for the king

my skull keeps me in

the speed of a dream

i stumble all crumble all feint n fumble

i whirl and i twirl standing so very still

i hang on i bang on

n on n on non

i am not alone here

none of us

we are not alone oh ha ha no no

surrounded by friday night

connected up we all swim in the same sea

voices argue over something stupid

hands manipulate me as if from afar

lips kiss my forehead and then i briefly see

my eyes are seemingly shut

where can i go

voices bickering guffawing whispering

in here where i am

words occur to me from dead languages

i labour in pain i labour in love

i am between body and mind

i am soaked in 2010 and sinking in it

i talk to anyone with a kind voice

outside the shops i am another old stranger

in my pocket the keys that will not let me in

in my hand the coins that do not purchase anything

in my desk the tickets are all void

someone cancels my appointments

someone chucks out my clothes

someone closes and reopens my eyes

i claw at faux pas

i climb my baby fig

sometimes beautiful women seem ugly to me

sometimes my hearts in the wrong place

sometimes i wish i never met you steven

sometimes

afternoon of a fawn

the delightful night delivers

cocktail wait a while tuxedo poet

the shambles the preambles

naked air transmits chemical messages

the storm my god hesitates

white lightning black empty stockings

old photographs

in my room where sleep is waiting

in my room so full of  darkness

the raindrops are fuller than ever

the windows rattle rattle in the wind and shook shaking

i lie in a bed with no sheets

something sticks into my shoulder

my other shoulder older brother to the first

the rain contained in black black cloud

by midnights grace i cross the floor into the poor place

my head aches my eyes hurt

my  throat is tight

i lie upright

in tonight

moon in pinkish light

even

my friends say daddy youre a fool to cry

and

it makes me wonder why