Vinny Peculiar

Whatever Happened to Vinny Peculiar? part 1

All songs written by Vinny Peculiar except * written by Vinny Peculiar&Tim Browne

Working Class Escape [2000]

Here’s to the good and the great
Working class escape
For some of us will make it
Most of us just fake it
I’ve been here before
And I am no exception
I simply failed to learn
The nature of rejection

All settled down with a mortgage and baby
Quality time is driving you crazy
She’s had enough and she can’t understand you
And god forbid if she did what would you do

Here’s to a giant leap of faith
A working class escape
For some of us will out grow it
Most of us just blow it
We’ve been here before
And we deserve much better
But sods a stupid law
And love a sweet oppressor

Uno Disco [2001] *

The man who couldn’t enjoy himself was stuck to the guns of his father
Walking on by with fear in his eye and a tear on the face of his partner
Oooh nothing was going on
Oooh nothing he could quite bare to put a finger on

The man who couldn’t enjoy himself broke down in the presence of beauty
The world on his shoulders the cross on his back he was dragging himself to the party
Oooh nothing was going on
Oooh nothing he could quite bare to put a finger on

Uno disco
Bobbing around in a freak show
Chasing a beautiful rainbow
He says come on
Come out and have some fun

The man who couldn’t admit to himself that the game was as good as all over
Stood naked and alone before an ugly bedroom mirror
Oooh something was going on
Happiness is just a mind set
I haven’t manage to find yet
I’ve got a thousand and one things to do
And I can’t enjoy myself the way you do…

Ironing the Soul [2001] *

I recall the characters you wore and the clothes that you stole
Name dropping John-Paul Sartre
You were greeted with such laughter
As you dug your own hole

And I remember the curtains the curtains as they closed
The mattress on the floor and the quote from On the Road

This half is not whole
This heart is cold
Ironing the soul

I forget tomorrow I recall today I made a stupid phone call but I’m 20 years away
As the shadow man comes a calling
Soap opera’s make you cry
There’s everything and nothing left here for you to try

It’s showcase time and you’re the spotlight kid
All the people in the house they say they’re really hungry for it
But you’ve been here before and you feel like a fake
Getting sick and tired of dreaming of that lucky break

But the show goes well important people want to shake your hand
You don’t know what to say when they talk about supply and demand
They say they love what you do and they’re too cute and so polite
And they tell you now for sure you’ve got it absolutely right

You tell your girlfriend when you get she says well done
You tell your self that the stupid game you’ve been playing has been won

But as the weeks go by you’re still waiting for that call
Your manager is hopeful but so far he’s got absolutely nowhere at all
I guess that’s the way it goes just like pissing in a lake
And you’re sick and tired of dreaming
And you’re sick and tired of dreaming
Sick and tired of dreaming of that lucky break

A friend of mine called me up the other day he said what are you going to do?
I said there’s another showcase coming off pretty soon
And then he said to me
It’s going to happen
It’s going to happen
I just know its.

Big star diving through the neighborhood at twilight
Looking through the window of the limousine
Eating fancy chocolates and ice cream

Big star congratulations now you’re a success
In the coffee bars and cinemas they’re dreaming no less
And wishing they were you

Big star signing autographs and making eyes
Touching simple ordinary lives
What anyone who’s anyone would give to take that..

Big Star cut off from the chaos and confusion
If fame were such a grand illusion
Why are we rejoicing in your cause?

Big star signing autographs and making eyes
Touching simple ordinary lives
What anyone who’s anyone would give to take that..

Celebrity’s a bore
Don’t tell us you don’t need us anymore
You showed us what to do
We fell in love with you
Setting our hearts aflame
With such ill gotten gain
Believing every lie
Now’s not the time to say goodbye

Royal Variety Talk of the Town
You’re on top of the world so don’t let us down…

Slow Television [1999]

What’s on TV just a load of old rubbish?
Still I can’t really see without my glasses
We love Dr Who but it’s time to grow up now
I’ve got so much to do with so little know how

Watching a slow television

Talk shows are trite and the pop presenters are wacky
The weather girls all look the same and the sports announcer is tacky
We love Forrest Rangers but we no longer get them
I got a taste for nostalgia and it’s a running away…away with me again

Watch a slow television
And there’s no intermission

You spend all your life channel hopping
From one station to the next
With your concentration span fading
Is this as good as it gets

Watching a slow television
And there’s no intermission

What’s on TV just a load of old rubbish
Still I can’t really see without my glasses

She’s hanging out with the men in dresses
Evensong and evening classes
A sweet contentment in her eyes
I’m trying hard not to act surprised

Oh yeah Jesus stole my girlfriend
Oh yeah Jesus stole my girl
Oh yeah Jesus stole my girlfriend
And I can’t get her back
And I just want her back

She’s going off to church on Sunday
The harvest festival on Monday
We go to bed but we don’t make love
Cause her thoughts are lost to the one above

I know you’re up there listening
So go ahead and do the decent thing
Perform a little miracle
I much preferred her cynical, miserable, impossible, hysterical, illogical, despicable…

Now all I seem to do is mope around the house
Feeling like the anti Christ
She says she’s training to become a missionary
Or suchlike

Capital City [2000]

You are my capital city
I’ve become so patriotic
You are my London pose
But I’m feeling so neurotic

Comes to us once or twice
Often in our dreams at night
Reality sandwiches bite
And make this one a useless fight

I’ll get better in a week or two
Sleep through the night
Write a letter tell you something new
As the cat goes hungry and
The dog looks blue

I’ll get better in a week or two
See if I might
Write a letter tell you something new
Like the flies have taken over
The metros gone to Rover
The floors in need of sweeping and my tears in need of weeping
Yeah…

You are my Disney movie
The one I can’t forget
You are a game of pontoon
And you stick you wont regret

You are a rubber truncheon
I’ll keep you in my pants
No longer meat for luncheon
Nice thought but no thanks

I’ll get better in a week or two…

How Come the Revolution [1999]

A benevolent provider
Pats you on the back
Then sends out a reminder of
What is working well and what it is you lack

The considerate commissioner
Wants to help you out
With a baby-sitting crochet knitting
Woman who has never been in doubt

In sixes and in sevens
You are nervous you are sick
And the meeting lasts forever and ever and ever
Your challenging behaviour
Wont save you from the places they can take you
They can make you
Convinced that they can break you

How come the revolution
How come
How come the revolution
My son?

Police sirens and white coats
Daffodils and milk floats
The pear tree and the five pronged fork
You hold on tight refuse to talk

And a place of safety order
Is the best that they can do
To stifle all conviction
They haven’t got a clue

How come the revolution…

Favourite Boy-Girl Song [1993]

Girl cries wolf and the boy cries please
He begged her stop on bended knees
His heartbeat fell in silence as in movie
The girl made up and the boy dressed down
Paint despair all over town
And nothing’s as it seems or as it should be

So shy like its some kind of test

The girl cries help and the boy can’t hear
It’s a heady kind of atmosphere
Where reason has no rhyme to disappear in

The girl can’t stop and the boy can’t think
The relatives all turned to drink
And no one keeps ahead of what they’re stealing

There was a time when all you did
Was opting out and staying hid
But something has to give before it’s taken

You promised me you’d fixed the race
Threw it all back in my face
You push me out of place I’ll feeling shaken

So shy like its some kind of test..
You try not to be like all the rest
Still I’m oh so terribly impressed
My favourite boy-girl sonCount your blessings well
Name them one by one
It’s so hard to tell
Whichever side you’re on…

And me too proud to sing along
Oh sing along

Operation [2002] *

I had an operation when I was just a lad

They removed my heart that's why I can't feel happy or sad

And nobody belives me nobody understands

When I stamp my feeet I really mean to clap my hands

I had a beautiful girlfriend but love died I felt no pain i never cried

And nobody believes me nobody wants to know

The nurses look impressive in their snow white nylon dresses as the lights go down

The doctors dehydrated the orderly frustrated as the tea comes round

Are you one of them or one of us do you drive a car or take the bus

Have you come to fix the lights or check the drugs that kill imagination

They put me back under the knife when I was a man to take away my mind was their plan

Nobody can tell me the exact time or the place but I still dream of the theatre and I know that look on the surgeons face

Big Grey Hospital [1989]

I want a brother and I want my dog and I want to look at the ocean blue
I want a lover and I want a god and I want to feel some emotion with you

On the outside looking in at the Big Grey Hospital
An old man fingers through the paper
Nobody understands his maker
Along the polished corridor
They led you straight into seclusion
They said this boy's in need of treatment
Could be a paranoid delusion

And you can visit when you want to
When the staff say it’s convenient
The doctor says the illness
Is none specific but they’re looking hard for it

And on the inside looking out from the big grey hospital
Watching the nurses as they float
From ward to ward in their white coats
In the summer of 83
Me and my really crazy family
Changing a baby in the day room
Glued to the TV every afternoon

And you can visit when you want to
Any time that it’s convenient
Thanks for the history and the insight
Pretty soon we’ll get the drugs right

You see the shape of this cold fist
In the frozen early morning air
Held it up against the sky
Lets walk and talk and laugh and cry

Back in the quiet side of town
We recognize that boys brigade band sound
Could have been a drummer of a comic
What is and what is not ironic

And you can visit if you want to
There is a WRVS shop
Down the corridor by D block
Just ask somebody if you get lost

Sat all alone in a side room
It’s no good staring into space
And for all tomorrows birthdays
The ward sister says no change

Suppose you make a rug or tray
Those OT helpers all sugar and spice
Hand rolling cigarettes to save
Of cause the benefits have been delayed

You go to therapy at nine
Back to the ward for mealtimes
Some of the patients go berserk
Soon they get treated by a nurse

Time out is quiet and its safe
You get wrapped up unconscious finally you wake
And in the dormitory alone
You hear the ringing of the office telephone

And you can visit when you want to
Anytime just call beforehand
The injection is two weekly
Those tranquillizers make you sleepy
They make you sick they make you creepy…

I want a brother and I want my dog and I want to look at the ocean blue
I want a lover and I want a god and I want to feel some emotion with you

On the inside looking out
On the outside looking in
At the loony’s in the bin
Its not me or you its him
In the Big Grey Hospital