The Hidden Agenda  1993

Lip Sync

The Deadline

Show me your allegiance or show me a sign
Do yourself a favour, stop wasting my time
Call me collusion or call me benign
Here's a reasonable reason to go out of your mind

The deadline

Show me temptation or show me a fire
Call information and call it desire
Call me elusive or call me divine
Here's a reasonable reason for meeting my eye

The deadline

Show me intention or show me a liar
Strip me of conscience, it keeps me alive
Call me seduction or call me resigned
Here's a reasonable reason for crossing our wires

The deadline
The deadline

The Great Design

Sam was in her room
Marking out her moves
And throwing caution to the wind
Her husband was a sailor
He sailed too far to save her
To escape this great design

Daddy was collecting
Keepsakes and reflections
In a cellar full of wreckage
And leaving it to you
Mummy was a memory
Remembering a friend of me
Who escaped this great design

True love was my joker
I took her hand to poker
She just smiled, I'd woken her
Nothing further from my mind
She stepped out all too soon
She was reaching for the moon
She escaped this great design

Escape this great design
Escape this great design
Escape this great design
Escape this great design

Sister Theresa

God and his companion
Asked me if I damned them
Broke a window in my dream, this morning's scene
Took me by suprise
Took me to communion
I figured how to fool them
I broke bread with honey and lead for money
But sin was in my eye

Teresa said, "You look your age"
And we all hide our face inside
Teresa said, "You look so strange"
Teresa, sister, saying that she tried

Man, I was contented
Ask if I repented
Broke a door into my world, this evening's girl
Took me for a ride
Taken by illusions
So many ways to use them
I gave my head for sugar and rent to my brother
But time was on my side

Teresa said, "You look your age"
And we all hide our face inside
Teresa said, "You look so strange"
Teresa, sister, saying that she tried

Swallowing my pride
I pulled myself up and out of the familiar
I drifted up and far away
From the roar of the disenchanted
We smiled
While the hole in the sky was unravelling

Teresa said, "You look your age"
And we all hide our face inside
Teresa said, "You look so strange"
Teresa, sister, saying that she tried

Teresa said, "You look your age"
And we all hide our face inside
Teresa said, "You look so strange"
Teresa, sister, saying that she tried

The Silent Mind

God in his wisdom tried
A new religion out for size
Kicked out the Christian's lies
Shocked his many minions
By silencing their mind

Dying for love
And this kind of fire inside
My blood is blind
I'm dining on a silent mind
And several other friends of mine

Goddamn this whisky
It's running all my system dry
An angel's gonna be my guide
Crying for assistance
Got an angel to find

Dying for love
And this kind of fire inside
My blood is blind
I'm dining on a silent mind
And several other friends of mine

Heard little sister sigh
She's not entirely acclimatised
To my not-entirely violent side
Something for deliverance?
There's a million ways to try

Dying for love
And this kind of fire inside
My blood is blind
I'm dining on a silent mind
And several other friends of mine

Dying for love
And this kind of fire inside
My blood is blind
I'm dining on a silent mind
And several other friends of mine
The silent mind

The Cage

Pulling on my cigarette
A breath away from paradise
I'm sick to death of surrogates
Book me in with you tonight
I could pretend a little bit
I'd sooner add a second to the flame
I could pretend a little bit
Step into my cage

Into my cage

Sweeten the most bitter home
Bathing it in candlelight
Saccharine and methadone
A step away from suicide
Reminds me of a book I read
Step into my cage

Come in closer

Emptiness has come of age
All the way from blinding light
And gilded like a serenade
I'm never far from paralysed
Between a whisper and a rage
The other side of Heaven is the place
Between a whisper and a rage
Step into my cage

Step into my cage

The Mercy Machine

Convalesce and contact
Come to me for company
Convoluted contract
Come to me, your company

Conquest and firefight
Come to me, the company
See how we kneel
To the mercy machine

See how we kneel
How our conscience is cleared
Come, make your deal
With the mercy machine

Concrete and conceal
Come to me, for company
Unconditional conscience
Come to me, your company

Conscript and conflict
Come to me, the company
Hear how we scream
At the mercy machine

See how we kneel
How our conscience is cleared
Come, make your deal
With the mercy machine

Consume and confess
Come to me, for company
Conclusive conduct
Come to me, your company
Control and condemn
Come to me, the company
See how we bleed
With the mercy machine

See how we kneel
How our conscience is cleared
Come, make your deal
With the mercy machine

Kneel, kneel, kneel
To the mercy machine

The Next Day

And the next day
I felt something
Which I'd never felt before

I was talking to a man
I was talking to
He said he was Jehovah
But he could be you
I told him that I knew him
But he didn't know me
He looked into my eyes
And said that he agreed

The next day
What a surprise
The next day
What a surprise

Now I'm with the woman
With the white face on
She said she knew a secret
And she's keeping one
I asked her if I knew her
And she said maybe
She said she was my mother
She could be my lover

This is the voice of God speaking
I won't attempt to hide it or anything
I got worn-out shoes and a jacket for dancing
I'm the original sinner in just about anything

The smoke cleared
I think I'd had a cigarette
He was smoking at a teepee
He couldn't really see me

What a surprise
When he looked at my eyes
I was passing
I was leaving
Oh, it couldn't be
It couldn't be
Said he knew how it felt
And it couldn't be helped

The next day
My lover

The next day
This is the voice
The next day
This is the voice

I won't attempt
To hide this thing
This is the voice
Of original sin

Lip Sync

I got pearls for girls
But I wish I had a penny for the poor I despise
If I touch, your skin
And you break my back
You bring tears to my eyes

Whiten the walls
They whiten the walls of Washington
Lip sync

I got shells as well
But I'm holding back my fire till they're in my sights
I got guns to run
Catch me running faster than a white boy's lies

Red as the roads
Running red as the roads of Birmingham
Lip sync

I got sex for sale
I'm trading in chains for the virgin brides
I got hell to pay
And I'm cracking like the whip for the dog I hired

Darken the doors
We darken the doors of Whitehall
Lip sync

Darken the doors
Lip sync

The Third House

The third house
Has got to be believed to be seen
And next to Heaven
It's the finest place I've ever been

And though it gets upsetting
We keep on forgetting all our dreams
And we spend too little
Trying to figure out what it all means