@ALBUM: Globe Of Frogs

Globe Of Frogs
by
Robyn Hitchcock

@SONG: Tropical Flesh Mandala

Lying out there on the beach was a pleasant growth in the reach of me and you in the reach of both tropical flesh mandala, tropical flesh mandala

floating in a moist exotic pool
feeling so good-natured I could drool

So I took a photograph so there'd be no doubt when I got the pictures back none of them came out tropical flesh mandala, tropical flesh mandala

underneath your ribcage and your skin
honey there's a new way to get in

it was covered in pink scales lots of tiny feathers valves that opened up and valves that closed very tight together tropical flesh mandala, tropical flesh mandala

on the night the creature came ashore
someone told Joanna what they're for

@SONG: Vibrating

Cross-legged on the bed she gazed across the town her shadow climbed the wall until the sun went down she bought a china pug it lay there on the bed and in the paper bag she could just see its head She was vibrating She was vibrating She was vibrating

and in an adoring pose he shriveled up and died until his bones were stems upon the grass they dried and made an alphabet of white upon the green and it was beautiful and some would say obscene she was vibrating she was vibrating she was vibrating

and in the demon's hat discolored flowers grew and they had fleshy stems and fleshy petals too to slither is divine to multifoliate
she just lost her watch she couldn't concentrate she was vibrating she was vibrating she was vibrating she was vibrating she was vibrating she was vibrating

@SONG: Balloon Man

I was walking up Sixth avenue when Balloon Man came right up to me he was round and fat and spherical with the biggest grin I ever seen he bounced on up toward me but before we could be introduced he blew up very suddenly I guess his name was probably Bruce and I laughed like I always do and I cried like I cry for you and balloon man blew up in my hand

he spattered me with tomatoes, hummos, chickpeas and some strips of skin so I made a right on 44th and I washed my hands when I got in and it rained like a slow divorce and I wished I could buy a horse and balloon man blew up in my hand

I was walking up sixth avenue when balloon man blew up in my face there were loads of them on Bryant Park so I didn't feel out of place there must have been a plague of them on the TV when I came home late They were guzzling marshmellows and jumping off the Empire state and I laughed like I always do and I cried like I cry for you and balloon man blew up in my hand, balloon man blew up in my hand

@SONG: Luminous Rose

Oh the bodies of drowned sailors and dead airmen flounder upside down beneath the roaring wave and the fishes eat the flesh from off their fingers and the sea is so much deeper than the grave and the pale English stone stands alone over me oh the bodies rise and fall in slow motion as the flesh gives way to coral and her charms if you listen hard you'll hear the sea is breathing and she's waiting there to hold you in her arms and the pale English sun shone over me

oh the telegram is lying on the table
you left it there you can't believe its true God finds you naked and he leaves you dying what happens in between is up to you
and the luminous rose glows over me over me

@SONG: Sleeping With Your Devil Mask

I see the birdies in the trees I see the fishes in the seas and perching on the garden wall I see the man that made it all I see the sand, I see the stones I see right through into your bones your skeleton can dance all night and caper beneath the swaying light sleeping with your devil mask is all I want to do and when I stop it means I'm through with you yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah

so welcome Mr. Dennis Forbes who's brought along his perspect orbs and they are full of leather peas that rattle like a slow disease I've got to have a nasty thought because of all the stuff I bought from sultry Mr. Garrick Hobbs who does a load of useless jobs and in the chapel after lunch they used to cluster in a bunch sleeping with your devil mask is all I wanna do and when I stop it means I'm through with you yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah

it's all compulsion, there's no choice my mother's second name is Joyce and once when she was very young she saw a cellist being hung thirteen men with long black heads all came and stood around her bed and when the morning light came in she saw their heads had all caved in their rotting brains fell to the floor and crawled away towards the door sleeping with your Devil mask is all I wanna do and when I stop it means I'm through with you yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah

the organism rapes itself as it gives birth upon the shelf and over where the magpie struts a flower billows from my guts some things go in some things go out and next time back I'll come back a trout

@SONG: Unsettled

What can I say to you?

Batter engines pack a swallow piston in you shatter inches bell bloody glass eruption it embarrassed of the seven druids muscle-bound instructions over patient forest fire in the month the dogs expire

helicopter pepper cord I'm ram impatient swallow on patrol gotta leave her heart plug in her dinner service multiply my cat a role is friendship easy fear and pattern lease suddenly the feeling of you leaves

everybody fourteen-points in session buy a rusty pair of clint should in fact potatoes straddles rockery of hairy mythic mental dung-heap flurry over shot lasagna breeds in a hollow shoe the mincemeat seeds for you everything breathes for you

get a heart exact tomato flourish on a spike of greedy prawns if a base were dug moussaka Al unwraps the biscuit in you drummer moral bombs excepted every turning bends away running off a cross the troubled hey do you what can I say to you what can I say to you what can I say to you

@SONG: Chinese Bones

Watching Romeo dissolve I was tempted to join him by the mirror of the lake where the statues unfurled I had never seen a man so abuse his reflection as the light shines through your Chinese bones watching Juliet unrobe I would hasten toward her but around her feet I sat that her serpent was curled and her eyeballs had rolled up so her pupils had vanished and the light shines through your Chinese bones as the light shines through your Chinese bones

I met an interesting dwarf and I told him a story as he walked towards the East then the shadow was right something Shakespeare never said was 'you've got to be kidding' as the light shines through your Chinese bones as the light shines through your Chinese bones the line between us is so thin I might as well be you and everywhere I've ever been I know you're going to Chinese bones Chinese Bones

@SONG: Globe of Frogs {acoustic}

And when she feeds the flowers up they rise their pretty little heads and when she waters them they glow and smirk and smile in their beds and in a globe of frogs we're making love and looking on and in a globe of frogs we're making love and moving on

And when she walks across the floorboards how they creak and ooze and moan (I want you)
and when she walks across the floorboards they're so glads she's on her own and in a globe of frogs we lie on sack and moving on and in a globe of frogs we lie on dark and saying: "Mrs. Watson all your children have been certified insane" and I want you

And when the night comes down the houses close their doors and dream of her their shuttered eyes are closed inside their curtains wrap around her form and in a globe of frogs we're linking tongues and moving on and in a globe of frogs you know what's right you know it

Mrs. Watson you've been certified as good as gold and I want you and I want you

Ain't you never seen a disembodied soul before? Ain't you never seen a soul seeking incarnation? Information?

And when she feeds the fish they flip and jerk and wriggle in the pond (I want you)
and when she hands them things they all perk up and nibble on her thumb and in a globe of frogs the moth unfurls its moistened wings and in a globe of frogs a soul appears the words made flesh

@SONG: The Shapes Between Us Turn to Animals

Desires muck and algae were the shadows on the wall glasses shatter ornaments on to the ground they fall our hair like anemone's that wave beneath the seas our fingers are like the fingers of baboons up in the trees and the shapes between us turn into animals the shapes between us

The lion is your anger as it smashes up the chair the zebra is my answers as your pounding up the stairs that's black and white and yes and no and can't make up it's mind when you gonna see that love is dumb as well as blind oh the shapes between us turn into animals the shapes between us

when the night is over and the dawn comes shining through everything is smashed to bits including me and you the animals are snoring open-mouthed inside the cage waiting for the wine to turn and ache into a rage 'cause the shapes between us turn into animals the shapes between us

@SONG: Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis)

There's a house burning down on the radio, but we're in love we don't mind we're as far as I can tell everyone worries so much about themselves there's nothing happening to you that means anything at all

there's a plane crashing down on the studio, but we're in luck we're not there so we're somewhere else instead everyone wishes so much upon themselves there's not a thing that you can do that'll make me come again

there's a house burning down on the radio, but we're in love we don't mind we're as far as I can tell everyone worries so much about themselves there's nothing happening to you that means anything at all