Details

Author
Robyn Hitchcock
According to our records, Robyn has played this song 175 times, most recently at World Café Live on April 24, 2024. He first performed it at Hope & Anchor on January 23, 1981, 43 years and 3 months earlier.

Comments

From Robyn on Patreon in 2022
On the 1981 “Black Snake Diamond Role” album this song is all about the sound, really - double-tracked Telecaster recorded with a wah-wah pedal accidentally left on maximum treble. I laid this over a bed of flanged bass, served with a drizzle of watercress and sun-dried tomatoes, as it were. Morris Windsor had never heard the song before, but so intuitive is his drumming that the part he played has remained a template for all those who’ve played it since.

Lyrics

Sucking on a tap that never dries
Could you take it right between your eyes?
Bending blood, bending blood
The father stood, the father's hood
Black shadow on an acid bird that etched her way across a field
So long ago

Walking through the fields in summer heat
Look at all the creatures 'round your feet
Pumping blood, pumping blood
The mother gave, the mother gave
White ointment of an acid kiss that burned upon the lips she gave you
So long ago
So long ago

Fun in the sun, luck in the bloodstream
Shallow bodies writhing on the grass
Fun in the sun, hair in the slipstream
Tadpoles shooting through a hollowed glass

Cutting out a silhouette of dreams
Everything is older than it seems
Son of blood, son of blood
The baby shakes the baby snakes
That crawl across the acid rings that flicker from your corpuscles
One sunny day
One sunny day

Fun in the sun, everyone knows it
They could be as mellow as the hay
Fun in the sun, everyone blows it
They grow up and instantly turn grey
Black shadow of an acid bird that etched its way across a field (Black shadow of an acid bird that etched its way across)
So long ago
So long ago

Ah

<Alternates>
Would you take it right between your eyes?  2a
The baby shakes, the baby wakes            21a
We could be as mellow as the hay           26a
They grow up and instantly decay           28a