The Hymn for the Alcohol

B-side My Art College Days are Over

 7 inch on Sticky records

early February 1999 on Sticky Records

 The Hymn for the Alcohol 

Don't start me on the rum, Just because it makes me numb.
Start me on the whiskey I know whiskey is his drink.
You never drank it with me but now you drink it with him,
I'm not good enough for whiskey, not good enough for you.
Let's start drinking wine, we used to all the time.
It used to go to our heads but then you went to his bed.
If the wine stains you lips red then tonight you might forget,
You might not go home to him you might stay here with me.
It is just wishful thinking that all this hard drinking might lure you back to my ramshackle stable,
There's no point in trying, the debutante was lying when she said that she did something that your lips could never do.
And if you know what's true then you know I love you.
Its six months since you left, you must be truly blessed,
Cause you look no less pretty, in fact you may be more so,
If you reap the seeds that you sow, Oh we both know you are going straight to Hell

My art college days are over

When I'm feeling sad, she is feeling nothing.
When she's on the land , I am underwater;
Swimming to the devil in the hope that the words that she stole from my mouth will be placed right back.

When I'm underfed, she is being gluttonous,
eating all the cakes that I cooked with a passion.
I wish that her waste was the size that it was and the taste in her mouth was something like it used to be.

And the girl on the bus used the same soap as her and she stopped and she looked and I had to turn away,
whilst we were getting laid,
I was happiest that way.
And the girl on the train used the same hairspray,
but she looked and I blushed and I had to turn away,
It's getting desperate these days,
Oh my art college days are over.

I always stay up late, and get up even later,
I wish I had the cash to start to redecorate,
The smoked stained walls and the wine stained carpets,
Like my food stained jumpers are reminders of incompetence.
Oh I should be ashamed of letting things go this way.  

This and 'Heart' we were released in the same month! We were still just trying to clear the back log of Pre Breaking God's Heart songs. I don't know why it was so important to me at the time to do this. I guess I felt it would help my writing in some way to be clear of baggage. Too Pure were starting to get annoyed at how many records I was wanting to do for other labels, a lot of these records were turning out better then the ones we were doing for them. Our contract stipulated that we had to get Too Pures' approval before doing these things so its their own fault! They passed up on this stuff!

I guess Alcohol proved too good to keep on just a 7inch so we did eventually re-record it for the Fidelity Wars. This version is a little different though no better or worse. Some songs just come so easily, I can barely remember writing this it came so quickly. As I said we were rehearsing it in the studio during BGH , but I was deliberately keeping together a group of thematically linked songs for our second album.

This was the first time Jack played Pedal Steel for us on record.

The b-side 'My art College Days are Over' is a strange one. I remember writing it on the last day I was in the loft, all my stuff had been moved out , and there was just me, my bed a note pad and a guitar. I was moving in with my girlfriend at the time, and I guess the song is about those moments when you realise you've got some growing up to do. I'd taken down all my blue tacked pictures from the wall and had vowed that in my next place I would put pictures in frames, like adults do.

The recording was done in my new flat in Edward Road with Ant and John, the take is actually just the run through after I've taught them the song and if you listen closely you can hear me reminding John of the chords at the beginning. Gosh we were so brave!

Photos from top; Darren at Club Lek VPRO a dutch radio show. An early sparse audience from a show just outside Brussels, I know for a fact that a few of these people were in the support band! Antony in Holland, Our meagre equipment, Holland also. All pictures by the band.