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We Are Sane

from Collector's Item by Twelfth Night

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about

Recorded at Revolution Studios, Manchester - Summer 1982.
Originally released on 'Fact And Fiction'. TN006

lyrics

i) Te Dium

In upstairs rooms the meals are eaten
The cars in the garage ready to go-go
Disco baby shed no tear hot light overhead shaking meat meet
Ho ho weekend, ha ha party, moo moo sacred cow
The White House some days on the lawn
Well kept pedigree snap over bones
Surplus requirements appetite angel going down

ii) We Are Sane

Meanwhile below reports flop into the in-trays, in-trays
Meanwhile below reports flop into the in-trays

She stares out of her window, her will is still in bed
She has no memory of herself for care has drained her head
The poster on the billboard says she should paint her lips
Like the smiles on the TV people

Would you file this please Mary?
Would you file this please Mary?

File # 1 “If the thought processes of an individual can be permanently limited to the point of strict conformity to an outside source of thought, the said individual need no longer be considered as such. The enforcement of order becomes possible for anybody with enough power to control what is projected.
See? It’s all quite simple…“

“Mary!”

This woman’s place is in a home, society has judged
She does not fit official standards and they cannot be budged
There’s something in her eyes that says
The struggle’s gone too deep
And there’s no comfort in the thought of
Watching acolytes of doubt try hard to fight their problems out
Excess profit has the clout to spread the message

We are sane! Not insane!

She reads about a will to power in papers full of lies
She hears that every time she breathes
Some foreign kiddy dies
She’s convinced it’s her fault, she’s tortured by the strain
As words of judgement pour out of the
Mouths of those who make their mark
By keeping people in the dark
Those who bite worse than they bark are loudly shouting

We are sane! Not insane!

And the chorus says – “It’s all quite normal…”
And the chorus says – “It’s all quite normal…”
The choruses…
Are happy as they know no different way
Except what they’ve been told today
Accepting their limited ‘truth’ and blankly humming

We are sane!

But we are not to blame, we must protect the claim

iii) Dictator’s Excuse Me

Praise those who hold power, they shall save the last hour
Using sacred science they can stamp out defiance

File # 2.”Technician, we want you to build a component
For each of our workers, to be with them always,
At all time watch closely, so we can keep track of
Their actions, their interests, their morals, their time out.
Some musak to maim them, some fear to contain them.
Policy will judge them, brute forces degrade them.
Practical behaviour, the cleanser, the saviour.
A private vocation has no sense of nation.

The maintenance of power can be so fulfilling,
Just as long as all the slaves are willing.

So this is an order, we must curb thought disorder
With a miniature transmitter, we can Pavlov the litter
And train it to do what we tell it, state surgeon, the seed plant
Thought soon get a new slant.
So tiny a dogma, idea turn to quagmire,
Thrum-humming transistor, a brain-wave insistor,
Closed circuit hypnosis, an inbuilt psychosis,
Not one self expression, deliberate supression.
A cycle to squeeze out, anyone who we doubt
Will must be pliable to be reliable“

Tuned into the media system, picture getting hard to see
How did you end up as a prisoner
When you were supposed to be free?
Oh, wouldn’t you like to know?

Lebensraum for megalomania
Endless song with one refrain
All eyes fixed upon the conductor
Baton taps inside the brain…

At least
We are sane!

credits

from Collector's Item, released June 30, 1990
Geoff Mann: vocals, tape effects, Andy Revell: guitar, Brian Devoil: drums, typewriter, Clive Mitten: bass, keyboards

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Twelfth Night UK

Twelfth Night are an English progressive rock band of the 1980s, reformed between 2007 and 2012 and again in 2014.

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