The Business - The Definitive Singles Collection

Disc 1

Disc 2

Disc 3

Mistakes

It's not so easy to find out later

About the necessary needs for survival,

You think you know enough to get you through life

But find out too late of chances passed by.



An early start is not so important 

But timing is most essential,

Opportunity gone is gone forever

You'll never know how much you could have been.



And once gone, gone forever

You will find out to your cost

A better use can be made of your time



But don't think that life is easy

You may never get a lucky break

They'll put you down, cold and unknown

A total failure from womb to grave





Deceives The Eye

In the earliest days of my shoplifting career,

You could safely say I was filled with fear.

It was nail biting work from the very start,

But several quick sucesses soon gave me heart.

After a while I could pick or nick or steal,

Some shirts some trousers and a few LPs.

No-one ever stopped me, they didn't seem to care.

It sometimes seemed to me that there was no-one there.



Then a fine summers day my mates and me,

Set off down the westend on our usual spree.

Things were as normal for an hour or so,

Then my nimble hands were a bit too slow.

Two store detectives made a fast approach,

One grabbed my jacket (you're nicked!)

The other grabbed my throat.

So they caught me at last, one said with joy:

"You'll have to do some time, my light fingered boy!"



If only I'd remembered my common sense,

They captured me red-handed with evidence.

If I go to the manager and say I'm sorry,

Maybe he'll forgive me for my youthful folly.



But what will me social worker say,

If I don't come home today?

He'll give me a clout!

What if they don't let me out?

I told him I'm on me own!

Don't they understand?

I'm from a broken home!



I'll tell them I'm the product of a broken home,

And I always went out on my own.

Was it too late to say I'd pay,

And I'll never steal again 'till the end of my days?

Because I have no friends to call as such,

Money and posessions I did not have much,

So I started to steal in order to get by.

The quickness of the hand deceives the eye.

deceives the eye the eye the eye...







Never Ask Twice (aka Airplane)

Please observe my continental

alligator-skin lined shoulder bag.

I've covered it in stickers from far and wide

and stuffed it full of suits and matching ties.



I've travelled on the seas and I've travelled on the land

and there's not a single person I can't understand.

I've forgotten the languages and waved my cash.

I've enjoyed every minute of it with a splash.



I wear a panama on my brylcreamed hair

I think I carry it with a certain flair.

When travelling abroad I know the score

with a voice of authority from the first world war.



I travelled down the congo on a magic persian rug,

stavin' off disease with hallucinagenic drugs

when a mind bending root from a local native store's

made my mind and my body have a premature divorce.



I felt like I was sliding from a massive height.

It seemed like it was morning in the middle of the night.

My eyes are open though there's nothing much to see.

A swelling mist of images.



The seas are my friend and the sky's my home.

When clinging to the armrest I travel alone.

I'm always ready to give advice.

Travelling companions never ask twice.



I've travelled on the seas and I've travelled on the land

and there's not a single person I can't understand.

I've forgotten the languages and waved my cash.

I've enjoyed every minute of it with a splash.





Shadow On The House

I loved the girl but I miss the rain.

Now she's with another so I've found.

They say "Better to have loved and lost, than not have loved at all".

But much more than my foolish pride, has took a fall.

They all tell me about, mistakes that I have made.

And I have no doubt, my hand was overplayed.



There's a shadow on my house, the window's shed no light.

Since you've gone it seems so wrong, I can't tell day from  night.



All too late I have learnt.

Burn the candle at both ends and you'll get burnt.

How could there be, a fool such as I?

To let you walk away, out of my life.

Sitting here alone all the days seem the same.

I don't know how much longer I can stand the pain.



There's a shadow on my house, the window's shed no light.

Since you've gone it seems so wrong, I can't tell day from night.





Lyrics Not Available :-(



Sorry, lyrics not available. Help will be appreciated.





Swan Lake



[instrumental]





Fireball XL5 (B-side of "The Sun and the Rain", 1983)



I've saved a little bit of money from Christmas gone,

What with my Birthday nearly due,

I'm dressing up as Guy in the shopping arcade,

Have you a penny for a boy named blue ?



I've seen it advertised on TV shows,

Flashed up on the evening news,

My local M.P. said I should grin and bear it,

But I'd rather go and blow her fuse,



Right on, right off!

Right off, right on.

Right on, right off!

Right off, right on.



Let me tell you a little tale of naughty's,

On the estate I used to loathe,

I aimed 30 rockets at a Shilling each,

You should have seen their front door's go,



Right on, right off!

Right off, right on.

Right on, right off!

Right off, right on.

Let it talk CB



Fireball XL sitting in the window,

Just waiting for a match to come,

You're looking so so sad in your pretty coloured frock,

Don't let that make up on your eye balls run.



I got my little lot of money from a cherished friend,

His name was piggy but he wasn't to know,

He hit my god-damn hammer like a wall of bricks,

You should have seen his pig tail go,



Right on, right off!

Right off, right on.

Right on, right off!

Right off, right on.



Fireball XL propped up at my window,

Wondering what on earth it's to do!

Now that it's gone from the window of the shopping arcade,

Everybody's looking for a boy named blue.



Blue who ?

Blue who ?

Blue who ?

Blue who ?



Quack, quack, quack, quack.

Oink, oink, oink, oink.

Woof, woof, woof, woof.

Bridit, bridit, bridit, bridit.

Albert, albert.

Don't call us we'll call you.



All I Knew (B-side of "Yesterday's Men" ,1985)

Hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, ...



Here comes an honest looking man with his round face and his flat 

hands

See the news, there he is with the answers to the last quiz

I could never know what I then knew in a million years

I could never know what I used to in a million tears



Turn it on, we will see everything today (everything today)

Me and you will lose our marbles on the way

I'll remember you forever till the day I'm dead

I'll remember us together and the things you've said



I'll spare a penny for my thoughts

And try and work out what I've just thought

Let me think, let me think

Left swimming in an icerink



Hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, ...



I don't want to hear what someone has to say

I'll just write it down and throw it all away

I could never know what I then knew in a million years

I could never know what I used to in a million tears



Hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo, ...



I'll remember you forever till the day I'm dead

I'll remember us together and the things we've said

I could never know what I then knew in a million years

I could never know what I used to in a million tears



In a million tears, tears, tears, tears, ...

In a million tears, tears, tears, tears, ...

In a million tears, tears, tears, tears, ...

In a million tears





The National Anthem



Sorry, lyrics not available. All Brits are called to the rescue :-)