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Beating of Hearts

Do you know what noise awakes you
Every morning from your bed
A coming from the farthest hillside
A coming from inside your head

You have heard
You have heard the loudest sound
In this and every world you can think of

Louder than tanks on the highway
Louder than bombers in flight
Louder than noises of hatred
Dancing us from darkest night is the rhythm of love
Powered on the the beating of hearts

And did you know you had this power?
Drumming on it always stays
Never try to use it badly
Tunes of good are all it plays

You have heard
You have heard the loudest sound
In this and every world you can visit

Louder than tanks on the highway
Louder than bombers in flight
Louder than noises of hatred
Dancing us from darkest night is the rhythm of love
Powered on the the beating of hearts

For a heart without love is a song with no words
And a tune to which no one is listening
So your heart must give love and you'll find that
You shine like rain on the leaves you'll be glistening

You have heard
You have heard the loudest sound
In this and every world you can think of

Louder than thoughts of dictators
Louder than rattling swords
Louder than loading of rifles
Louder than screaming warlords
Louder than tanks on the highway
Louder than bombers in flight
Louder than noises of hatred
Dancing us from darkest night is the rhythm of love
Powered on the the beating of hearts

 

 

 

Wonderland

Can't you see
Love and affection
When it's put
In your direction
Wrapped in your mysterious wonderland
No fast car
Can make you grow up
Gentlemen
You think you've sewn up
Locked in your wonderful wonderland
No dark horse like me can cramp all of your style
Too plain and simple I am for your file

One day you will break out of your spell
And some day you will want me for your own
And I'll say welcome to reality

All this talk
Of late night parties
Flirting with the lower gentry
Lost in your magical wonderland
Out of depth
Out of class
Phase of your life
Will come to pass
Caught in this tragical wonderland
All of the riches that shine will turn sour
Each moment you slip you will bring near the hour

And one day you will break out of your spell
And some day you will want me for your own
And I'll say welcome to reality

Wrapped in your mysterious wonderland
Caught in your superficial non-existent fairy story
Wonderland

 

Paese delle Meraviglie

Non li vedi
Amore e affetto
Quando sono puntati
Nella tua direzione
Avvolta nel tuo misterioso Paese delle Meraviglie?
Non c'è auto veloce
Abbastanza da farti crescere
E quei signori
Che pensi d'aver in pugno
Chiusa nel tuo meraviglioso Paese delle Meraviglie
Un cavallo ombroso come me non potrà mai impacciare il tuo stile
Sono troppo chiaro e semplice per il tuo archivio

Un giorno ti si romperà l'incantesimo
E un giorno mi vorrai per te
E io dirò: benvenuta alla realtà
Tanto parlare
Di feste notturne
Amoreggiare con la specie peggiore
Persa nel tuo magico Paese delle Meraviglie
Fuori dalle profondità
E dalla classe
Questa fase della tua vita
Finirà per passare
Catturata da questo tragico Paese delle Meraviglie
Tutti gli ori che luccicano s'inacidiranno
Ogni tuo errore avvicinerà l'ora

Un giorno ti si romperà l'incantesimo
E un giorno mi vorrai per te
E io dirò: benvenuta alla realtà

Avviluppata nel tuo misterioso Paese delle Meraviglie
Catturata dal tuo superficiale inesistente fiabesco
Paese delle Meraviglie

(dal volume "XTC"
traduzione di Paolo Bertrando)

 

Love on a Farmboy's Wages

High climbs the summer sun
High stands the corn
And tonight when my work is done
We will borrow your father's carriage
We will drink and prepare for marriage
Soon my darling, soon my darling

Shilling for the fellow who brings the sheep in
Shilling for the fellow who milks the herd
Shilling for the fellow with a wife for keeping
How can we feed love on a farmboy's wages

Deep under winter snow
Deep lay the lambs
And tonight by the full moon's glow
Flask of wine on my feather bedding
We will drink and prepare for wedding
Soon my darling, soon my darling

Shilling for the fellow who brings the sheep in
Shilling for the fellow who milks the herd
Shilling for the fellow with a wife for keeping
How can we feed love on a farmboy's wages

People think that I'm no good
Painting pictures carving wood
Be a rich man if I could
But the only job I do well is here on the farm
On the farm
And it's breaking my back

We will borrow your father's carriage
We will drink and prepare for marriage
Soon my darling, soon my darling

Shilling for the fellow who brings the sheep in
Shilling for the fellow who milks the herd
Shilling for the fellow with a wife for keeping
How can we feed
Love on a farmboy's
Love on a farmboy's
Love on a farmboy's wages?

 

 

Great Fire

Great fire burning
You supplied the spark
Fires burning spreading through the ark
Animals are panicking
I'm animal and panicking

Your glance a match on the tinderwood
You never spoke but I understood
Bring water
Eyes bring water

Great fire burning through
Great fire burning through my house
Great fire burning through my house and heart

Great fire burning
All because of you
Fires burning spreading through the zoo
Animals are panicking
I'm animal and panicking

No round of drinks can extinguish this
Feeling of love and engulfing bliss
Bring water
Eyes bring water

Great fire burning through
Great fire burning through my house
Great fire burning through my house and heart

I've been in love before
But it's never been as hot as this
Smoke curling round the door
Memories of old loves crack and blister
Mister fireman bet you couldn't put me out if you tried

Your glance a match on the tinderwood
You never spoke but I understood
Bring water
Eyes bring water

Great fire burning
Great fire burning through
Great fire burning through my house
Great fire burning through my house and
Great fire burning through
Great fire burning through my house
Great fire burning through my house and

 

Grande Fuoco

Grande Fuoco che brucia
Hai fatto scaturire la scintilla
Le fiamme bruciano diffondendosi sull’Arca
Gli animali sono atterriti dal panico
Io sono un animale, e sono preso dal panico
Il tuo sguardo è come un fiammifero sull’esca*
Non hai mai parlato ma ho capito
Sgorga acqua
Dagli occhi sgorga acqua
Grande fuoco che brucia
Grande fuoco che brucia nella mia dimora
Grande Fuoco che brucia nella mia dimora e nel mio cuore
Grande Fuoco divampa
Tutto a causa tua
Fiamme che divampano devastando lo zoo
Gli animali sono nel panico
Io sono un animale e sono atterrito dal panico
Nessun giro di bevute (gioco di parole) può estinguere tutto questo
Sentimento d’amore e felicità che tutto inghiotte
Sorga acqua
Dagli occhi sgorga acqua
Grande fuoco che brucia
Grande fuoco che brucia la mia dimora
Grande fuoco che brucia la mia dimora ed il mio cuore
Sono stato innamorato in passato
Ma non è mai stato incandescente come questo
fumo che striscia attorno alla porta
Ricordi di vecchi amori si inceneriscono e si dissolvono
Signor pompiere, scommetto che non potresti tirarmi fuori anche se ci provassi
Il tuo sguardo è come un fiammifero sull’esca
Tu non hai mai parlato ma io ho capito
Sgorga acqua
Dagli occhi sgorga acqua
Grande fuoco che brucia
Grande fuoco che brucia
Grande fuoco che divora la mia casa
Grande fuoco che divampa nella mia dimora
Grande fuoco che brucia
Grande fuoco che brucia la mia dimora
Grande fuoco che divampa nella mia casa e

*ovvero, la parte ruvida che se sfregata genera la scintilla

(traduzione di Francesco Carbonara e Maurizio Villotta)

 

Deliver us from the Elements

We can plant a seed
And watch it grow
Food enough to fill a table
Running water down an overflow
Eat as much as we are able
But would the fruit turn ripe
If the rains had never been?

Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We at your mercy and your reverence
Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We've no defence we are impotent

You can travel far to distant lands
Some so hot no man could bear
You can conquer peaks with winds of sand
Where Mother Nature didn't care
Would not our world turn cold
If the sun refused to shine

Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We at your mercy and your reverence
Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We've no defence we are impotent

And when the world grows old
And we know more than our brains can hold
Nature will be law
Well we're as helpless now as we've ever been before
Would not our world turn cold
If the sun refused to shine

Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We at your mercy and your reverence
Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We've no defense we are impotent

Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We at your mercy and your reverence
Oh Lord deliver us from the elements
We've no defense we are impotent
Oh Lord deliver us from the elements

 

Liberaci dagli Elementi

Possiamo piantare un seme
E guardarlo crescere
Cibo da riempirne fa tavola
Se l'acqua scorre a cascate possiamo
Mangiare a crepapelle
Ma la frutta maturerebbe
Se non ci fosse mai stata pioggia?

O Signore liberaci dagli elementi
Siamo alla tua mercé e alla tua riverenza
O Signore liberaci dagli elementi
Siamo senza difesa, impotenti

Puoi viaggiare fino a paesi lontani
Troppo caldi per l'uomo
Puoi conquistare picchi con tempeste di sabbia
Di cui Madre Natura non si cura
Ma il mondo non si raffredderebbe
Se il sole rifiutasse di splendere?

O Signore liberaci dagli elementi
Siamo alta tua mercé e alla tua riverenza
O Signore liberaci dagli elementi
Siamo senza difesa, impotenti

E quando il mondo invecchierà
E il cervello ci traboccherà di conoscenze
La natura sarà legge
Bene, ora siamo indifesi quanto e più di sempre
Il mondo non si raffredderebbe
Se il sole rifiutasse di splendere?

O Signore liberaci dagli elementi
Siamo alla tua mercé e alla tua riverenza
O Signore liberaci dagli elementi
Siamo senza difesa, impotenti

O Signore liberaci dagli elementi
Siamo alla tua mercé e alla tua riverenza
O Signore liberaci dagli elementi
Siamo senza difesa, impotenti
O Signore liberaci dagli elementi

(dal volume "XTC"
traduzione di Paolo Bertrando)

 

Human Alchemy

An alchemy, human alchemy
We stole them from their freedom to be sold
To turn their skins of black into the skins
Of brightest gold
An alchemy, human alchemy

We stoked the fires of trade with human coals
And made our purses from the flailed skins of
Purest souls
An alchemy, human alchemy

Other lands became a larder full of all the good things
All we had to do was go and take
Blood the colour of the rain that grew our wicked harvest
Black the colour icing on our cake

We stole their babes and mothers, chiefs and braves
Although we held the whip, you knew we were
The real slaves
To alchemy, human alchemy

Alchemy, human alchemy
alchemy, human alchemy
alchemy, human alchemy

 

Alchemia umana

Un'alchemia, alchemia umana
Li abbiamo derubati della loro libertà per venderli
Trasformando la loro pelle nera in una dorata più brillante
Un'alchemia, alchemia umana
(...)
Abbiamo deportato i loro bambini e le loro madri, i capi e più coraggiosi
Sebbene la frusta fosse nelle nostre mani
Sapevi che noi eravamo i veri schiavi
Dell'alchemia, alchemia umana...

(dal volume "XTC"
traduzione di Vittorio Azzoni)

 

Ladybird

O, ladybird
I have heard you wish to walk me through your garden
I crave your pardon if I woke you with my thinking
Ladybird

O, ladybird
I have heard you wish to walk me through your meadow
You'll spread no wings to fly in fright if I'm beside you
Ladybird

All through the winter time
When wood was worm and splintered
Time seemed longer than a goods train
Now that spring is back again
I'll ask your name, your name

O, ladybird
I have heard you wish to walk across my pillow
No weeping willow was ever as beautiful, sad as you are
Ladybird

And as you're walking past
I'm laying on the grass and making chains of thought
To snare you with my wit
But bit by bit you fade to gone
Gone

All through the iron season
Love was hanged and treason became
Something of a parlour game
Now sun is back in power
I'll ask your name, your name

O, ladybird
I have heard you have to run to tend your children
No flood can drown nor fire blacken purest longing
For ladybird
Ladybird

 

Ladybird

O ladybird
Mi dicono che vuoi guidarmi per il tuo giardino
Chiedo umilmente scusa se ti ho svegliata a forza di pensare
Ladybird

O ladybird
Mi dicono che vuoi guidarmi lungo il tuo campo
Non spalancherai le ali per volar via terrorizzata se sarò al tuo fianco; ladybird

Tutto l'inverno
Quando il legno era ròso e scheggiato
Il tempo pareva più lungo d'un treno di lunatici
Ora che è di nuovo primavera chiederò il tuo nome, il tuo nome

O ladybird, mi dicono
Che vuoi attraversare il mio cuscino
Nessun salice piangente è mai stato cosi bello
Triste quanto te, ladybird

E intanto che cammini
Steso sull'erba io incateno pensieri
Per intrappolarti con l'ingegno
Ma poco a poco svanisci e sei scomparsa
Andata

Tutta la stagione ferrea
L'amore è stato sospeso e il tradimento
È diventato quasi un gioco di società
Ora che il sole è tornato al potere chiedo il tuo nome , il tuo nome

O ladybird
Mi dicono che devi correre dai tuoi bambini
Non c'è acqua che possa annegare ne fuoco che possa scurire il purissimo
Desiderio di ladybird
Ladybird

(dal volume "XTC"
traduzione di Paolo Bertrando)

 

In Loving Memory of a Name

Boom goes my heart
Dancing around your daisies
Church bells will start
Sat on you reading your ages
I drift away
In loving memory of a name
Covered in moss
You may have died for your country
Forgotten not lost
You're laid to rest where you're wanted
I stare awhile
In loving memory of a name

England can never repay you
You gave your life to be buried alongside
The place you loved
The sermons attended when you were young
Still echo round these churchyard walls

England can never repay you
You gave your life to be buried alongside
The place you loved
The sermons attended when you were young
Still echo round these churchyard walls
Heroes and rogues
Together surrounded by nature
Lump in my throat
Sat in the land of your maker
I drift away
In loving memory of a name

 

 

Me and the Wind

Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Me and the wind are pulling kites and pushing tress
Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Me and the wind are feeling freer than air should ever be
Should ever be should ever be should ever

And when you lured me into your syrup
All I could think of was what a lovely way
for me to go
I never really realised that

Just like the struggling summer flies that
I was drowning no matter how sweet or how slow

Have I been such a fool
Have I been sitting on your stool
While you cracked the whip
While you cracked the whip

Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Me and the wind are pulling kites and pushing tress
Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Me and the wind are feeling freer than air should ever be
Should ever be should ever be should ever

I danced imprisoned in your drumbeat
Your tune of spring had me whirling like a mad march
Merry hare
It never really came to mind that
just as the huntress wires bind that
The strings of your instrument were strangling me
Inside their snare

Have I been such a fool
Have I been sitting on your stool
While you held the hoop
While you held the hoop

Now that I'm out and I'm shouting in doorways
Freed from a love more like murder
I should be singing but in liberation
Feel like a ship with no rudder

Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Have I been such a fool
Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Have I been such a fool
Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Have I been such a fool
Me and the wind are celebrating your loss
Have I been such a fool

 

Il Vento ed Io

Il vento e io celebriamo la tua perdita
Il vento e io trasciniamo aquiloni e incalziamo alberi
Il vento e io celebriamo la tua perdita
Il vento e io ci sentiamo più liberi dell'aria
Più liberi dell'aria

E quando mi hai adescato nella tua melassa
Riuscivo solo a pensare che bel modo
D'andare, per me
Non ho mai capito che

Proprio come le mosche estive che lottano
Stavo annegando, non importa quanto fosse dolce o lento

Quanto son stato scemo
A sedere sul tuo sgabello
Mentre tu schioccavi la frusta
Schioccavi la frusta

Il vento e io celebriamo la tua perdita
Il vento e io trasciniamo aquiloni e incalziamo alberi
Il vento e io celebriamo la tua perdita
Il vento e io ci sentiamo più liberi dell'aria
Più liberi dell'aria

Danzavo imprigionato dal rullio del tuo tamburo
La tua canzone estiva mi faceva volteggiare come una pazza
Felice lepre di marzo
Non m'è mai venuto in mente che
Proprio come i lacci della cacciatrice imprigionano
Le corde del tuo strumento mi strangolavano
Dentro il loro cappio

Quanto son stato scemo
A sedere sul tuo sgabello
Mentre tu reggevi il cerchio
Reggevi il cerchio

Ora che ne son fuori, e urlo in ogni portone
Liberato da un amore che sapeva d'omicidio
Dovrei cantare ma per quanto libero
Mi sento una nave senza timone

Il vento e io celebriamo la tua perdita
Quanto son stato scemo
Il vento e io celebriamo la tua perdita
Quanto son stato scemo
Il vento e io celebriamo la tua perdita
Quanto son stato scemo
Il vento e io celebriamo la tua perdita
Quanto son stato scemo

(dal volume "XTC"
traduzione di Paolo Bertrando)

 

Funk Pop a Roll

Funk pop a roll beats up my soul
Oozing like napalm from the speakers and grill
Of your radio
Into the mouths of babes
And across the backs of its willing slaves
Funk pop a roll consumes you whole
Gulping in your opium so copiously from a disco
Everything you eat is waste
But swallowing is easy when it has no taste
They can fix you rabbits up
With your musical feed
They can fix you rabbits up
Big money selling you stuff that you do not need
They can fix you rabbits up
With your musical feed
They can fix you rabbits up
Big money selling you stuff that you do not need
Funk pop a roll for fish in shoals
Music by the yard for the children they keep
Like poseable dolls
The young to them are mistakes
Who only want bread but they're force-fed cake
Funk pop a roll the only goal
The music business is a hammer to keep
You pegs in your holes

But please don't listen to me

I've already been poisoned by this industry

Funk pop a roll beats up my soul

 

Da Funk Pop a Roll

'Funk pop a roll' sbatte la mia anima
Trasudando come napalm dalle casse della tua radio
Dentro le bocche dei bambini
E attraverso le schiene dei suoi schiavi compiacenti
'Funk pop a roll' ti consuma interamente Trangugiando il suo oppio così copiosamente da un disco
Ogni cosa tu mangi è un rifiuto
Ma è facile ingoiare quando non si sente il sapore
(...)
'Funk pop a roll' per banchi di pesci
(...)
'Funk pop a roll', l'unico scopo del music business
È quello di continuare a inchiodarti nel tuo buco
Ma per favore non ascoltarmi
Sono già stato avvelenato da questa industria...

(dal volume "XTC"
traduzione di Vittorio Azzoni)

 

Frost Circus

(instrumental)

 

 

Jump

Scared of love, love and swimming pools
Falling in you said was for fools

But when you're standing on the edge
You won't hear me because your blood is singing

Jump jump go ahead and jump jump
If it's what your heart is wanting to do
This is real life you're dreaming through
And there is no glue to hold you down, so go ahead and . . .
Go ahead and jump

Scared of love, love and aeroplanes
Falling out I said takes no brains

But if your flight is going rough
Your soul will lead you to the nearest exit
Jump, jump . . .
While you're waiting
Time is grinning
Clocks and watches laughing at your indecision
While you're waiting
Worlds are spinning
Find another heart and drive into collision
Knowing this can you tell me you're . . .

Scared of love, love and swimming pools
Stubbornness, I say is for mules

But if you're standing on the edge
You won't hear me because your blood is singing

Jump jump go ahead and jump jump
If it's what your heart is wanting to do
This is real life you're dreaming through
And there'll be no wake up
Jump jump go ahead and jump jump
If it's what your heart is wanting to say
This is really your lucky day
And there is no glue to hold you down, so go ahead and . . .
Go ahead and jump

 

 

Toys

Sindy's spending too much money on clothes
Ken is going back to Gay Bob
The Teddy bears swear the neighbourhood's gone
Since the moving in of Golliwog
Rag doll gets beaten up by the Action Man
The one with the real life hair
He walks and he talks in a commanding voice
But sexually he's not all there

Oh dear what can the matter be, my children sweet children
What gives down in the nursery, my children sweet children
Oh dear what if the cradle falls, my children sweet children
Toys are only human after all, who killed 'em we killed 'em

If toys are quarreling amongst themselves
What hope is there now for the world?

The smell of smoke hanging thick over funland
As the older toys are pushed down a ramp
The microchip master race are melting them down
In a dolly concentration camp
The world's gone mad but in miniature
The kids can only do what they feel
See them copy what their parents have done
'Til they're old enough to do it for real

Burn!

 

 

Gold

Looks as if you're dropping mirrors by the gross
Looks as if your nine lives have left town
When you paint in grey and drear
Eldorado won't appear
To run his sword through all the fears that pull you down

And it's okay, for the setting sun
Will colour everything around you gold
And it's okay, for the setting sun
Will colour everything around you gold

Looks as if you need a lighthouse in your dark
Looks as if I'm now your native guide
When the fog is drawing in
Snarling dragons break to grin
And trample over all the things that pull you down

And it's okay . . .

And all those pebbles in your shoes are precious stones
And all the skeletons in closets
Merely piles of harmless bones

. . . And it's okay, as the setting sun
Will colour everything around you gold
Even though it's brown, you'll
See your old brick town go gold

 

 

Procession Towards Learning Land

(instrumental)

 

 

Desert Island

Cast away on a desert island
Me and poor Crusoe are sharing the same fate
Cast away on a desert island
With Great Britain written on its name plate

With my umbrella I go walking
Through all the sands on a building site
Across the shopping malls and motorways
Birds from Heathrow fill the
Night with people flying to escape
Friday comforts me and says it's pay day

Cast away on a desert island . . .

The game and coconuts is plentiful
You pick 'em right off of a supermarket shelf
And all the man-eaters are parked away
Down in garages
While their selfish owners drinking to escape
Lord of flies with cocktails in his conch shell

Don't rescue me, no
This is my home sweet home dear
Don't rescue me, no
I am far from alone here

Cast away on a desert island
Me and one nation are sharing the same fate
Cast away on a desert island
With Great Britain written on its name plate
Cast away on a desert island

 

 

 

 

 

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