Jules Verne's Sketchbook

Young Cleopatra
Motorcycle Landscape
Happy Families
Glow
Moonlit Drive
Broomstick Rhythm
Work
Ra Ra for Red Rocking Horse
Disque Bleu
Mopti Fake
Little Lighthouse
When We Get to England
Shaking Skin House
Obscene Procession
Dripping Basin

Andy Partridge's Home Demo Recordings of Un-released XTC material
from 82-86. Volume 1.

Thanks to Derek Miner <ind00163@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu> for his help.

Young Cleopatra

I see them offering you gum
I hear the swarming schoolkids' hum
A tribe of polyester warriors spellbound
They bring you offerings to please
Like cigarettes or new LP's
You'll have them on their knees and begging
Just to play with your comb
One glance from those two eyes
Will seal your playground empire

My oh my, what a sight for sore eyes, young Cleopatra
My oh my, what a wonderful prize, young Cleopatra
You'll never be a queen unless you do as you're told
You wouldn't understand it being fourteen years old
Don't ever give your love for free
But then again, don't even let it be sold

You have your teachers in a trap
There's no age limit or no gap
To who you set alight with firebombs, .........
I'm glad your father is my friend
And now that school is at an end
He's only an excuse for me
To wait here at your palace gates
One glance from those two eyes
Will seal your playground empire

Your school uniform looks grey on others and silver on you
Your yellow wooden rule a golden sceptre to prove it's true

You're at the youth club near the drums
The young guitarist buzzer strums
Anything his royal majesty wishes
Your borrowed perfume fills the air
Pale nostrils start to flare
It's more than some can bear
But this is your court and they are your dogs
One glance from those two eyes
Will seal your playground empire

Motorcycle Landscape

On a hanging garden ------
----------- [babylon seat]
------------- [baby batters]
----------------------- [weak]
---------- [hope you be great]
And the children have said their backbones
Will hurt you if you think

For there is a doll's arm
Floating in the scum
And it's calling you over
While it's calling you a bum
And it beckons you to frown
And it beckons you to brown
And it thinks it's found a
Chance to build another real
Motorcycle landscape

The only thing that watches there
-----------[nails] are bloody red
On a -------------------------
[Come to] ----------- are dead
All that we can read while
---------- are girlie magazines
For their [jest] they're save your wrapper
Girls aren't in their teens

[Billions can sleep while hold to]
[fields of meanless wire]
Do the kids in----------------------
------------- on the fire]
[Though ------ to marriage
[Stabbed of broken bliss]
[Shade ---------------------
[Some them were] like this

For there is a doll's arm floating in the scum
and it's calling you over while it's calling you a bum
Motorcycle landscape

Happy Families

Have you got Miss Fortune, she's the daughter of rich parents,
all she does is cry. One four-letter word is all she wants but
you can't buy love so there's no supply.

Will you take your Master Charge, the boy who's living well
beyond his parents' means. (Happy families.) See his parents
kill theirselves with work to keep their dandy in the latest
jeans. (Happy families.)

Happy families is a kid's game. Happy families is your main aim.
It starts out with a dealing in the middle of the night, and ends
up with a full house if you play your cards out right. Mum says
Dad is cheating, you should see the grown-ups fight for happy
families, the game that's sure to please.

Have you got your Master Race the bigot son who, like his dad, is
full of fear. (Happy families.) Not so much a sun, more of a
storm to her, to burn the books when Dad's not here. (Happy
families.)

Happy families is a kid's game. Happy families is your main aim.
You start out with your first cub and you think that life's a
song. You'll end up with a wolfpack if you lay your cards out
wrong. Dad says Mom is cheating, you can see the children long
for happy families, the game that's sure to please.

Have you got Miss Carriage, she's the girl who wants a baby that
she cannot find. (Happy families.) Strange, the ones who want
to win the race are usually the ones who fall behind.

Glow

Is the airplane sweeping low?
Dropping leaflets down below.
Ho, ho, ho. What they read, what they read
[Aw commation]
Is affecting you
Prince Othello
[Stays her glow]
Othello, the fellow, Othello, Othello
[Down wine] pho-to, oh

[Guess that's lee]
What does this mean to me?

Well, got the airplane sweeping low
dropping photo of Othello
The fellow, Othello is gonna
Make you
Glow, glow, glow.
Glow, glow. Glow.

Moonlit Drive

[instrumental]

Broomstick Rhythm

As you're sweeping
Autumn leaves up
You are sweeping
My fallen heart up with 'em
As you're sweeping
Autumn leaves up
You are sweeping
In swish-back broomstick rhythm

You're dressed in red
Your hair [would had a] brush on fire
To make leaves dress up dead
Ordered to parade
Swayed by broomstick rhythm
Hey!

As you're sweeping
Winter snow up
They have fallen
For you so please forgive 'em
As you're sweeping
Winter snow up
You are sweeping
In swish-back broomstick rhythm

You're dressed in white
There is no; why don't we surrender
And in envy of you
melting drips will rush
Brushed in broomstick rhythm
Hey! Hey!

As you're sweeping
Summer dust up
See a squirrel
In homage making rhythms
As you're sweeping
Summer dust up
You are sweeping
In swish-back broomstick rhythm

You're dressed in blue
The sky and sun a hue more paler
Than the glow in your heart
I bask in your rays
Days of broomstick rhythm

As you're sweeping
Springtime rain up
You are sweeping
My tears up for [I live 'em / a living?]
As you're sweeping
Springtime rain up
You are sweeping up
What there remains
Of fears I earn
Upon giving my heart
Away to somebody
For good

Work

Keep your fingers busy
Mentally or physically
What four-letter word
D'you know like ...

Look at me smile
Look at me doing their
Work
Y'see me shuffle in the dirt
My how I sweat
But I don't mind
Cause it's work
You got me rolling up my shirt

There's all my old friends
Sat by the fountain drinking beer
Their days have no starts and no ends
They drift into pub nights with no
Promise for tomorrow

All that they want is some
Work
Work
Look at me smile
Look at me polish these
Tools
Am I breaking all the rules?
A cycle like that
I don't want to be late for school
Well it's night school

Now all my new friends
Sit in their [site] huts drinking tea
My day has no start and no ends
Drifts into whole nights in my
Coffin by the fireside

Bugger this game
I know who's to blame
And that's
Work
Aw, work

Keep your fingers busy
Mentally or physically
What four-letter word
D'you know like

Oh! Work, work
Oh! Work, work

I'm back with my old friends
Sat by the Brunel drinking beer
Don't want this to ever end
We're living in fear of being
Mizzled by a new myth

Work
I don't want to go to work
Work
I don't want to go to work

Ra Ra for Red Rocking Horse

Did you think you knew the game?
Did you think that fame and fortune's
All that I had in my head?
Bang you're dead
It's not a game I'm gonna play with you

Did you think I'm high and dry?
Did you think I'd hide from the
Tentacles of the deaf dumb and blind
Their poison inks behind me
At the bottom of the sea
And your criticism doesn't worry me
And I'll sing

Ra Ra for Red Rocking Horse
Ride on over all remorse
Ra Ra for Red Rocking Horse
Who won the course
Despite the fact that
No one bet him

Get out
Did you think you'd tie me up
Did you think that I would
Help but dance for your piece of paper
They'll tame you and set you
To licking all the foes
Zap! Pow!

Did you think that I don't feel
Did you think that I'd simply heal up
After each ego beating
We can't go on meeting
This once in every year
And in the meantime if we all stand up
And cheer him up here
Ra Ra for Red Rocking Horse
Ride on over all remorse
Ra Ra for Red Rocking Horse
Who won the course
Despite the fact that
No one bet him

They all took their money out
And they laid it down, down
On the bright colored manes
They all took their money out
But they laid it down, down
On the different names to ours

Ra Ra for Red Rocking Horse
Ride on over all remorse
Ra Ra for Red Rocking Horse
Who won the course
Despite the fact that
No one bet him

Ra Ra for Red Rocking Horse
Ride on over all remorse
Ra Ra for Red Rocking Horse
Who won the course
Despite the fact

Disque Bleu

The bar is crowded and bright
But inside I feel empty and decaying
The smoky air full of music and words
It's our record that is playing

Disque Bleu is all that I hear
Songs that we loved now make me cry
Disque Bleu brings only a tear
You were singing good
But you were singing your good-byes
To me tonight

The night is warm and the pavement
Below is a river of young lovers
A radio drifting in makes me hide
With my heart beneath the covers

Disque Bleu is all that I hear
Songs that we loved now make me cry
Disque Bleu brings only a tear
You were singing good
But you were singing your good-byes
To me tonight

You gave no indication
This was happening to us
You showed no hesitation
As you quickly waved
From your seat on the bus
That pulled away

Disque Bleu is all that I hear
Songs that we loved now make me cry
Disque Bleu brings only a tear
You were singing good
But you were singing your good-byes
To me tonight

You gave no indication
This was happening to us
You showed no hesitation
As you quickly waved
From your seat on the bus
That pulled away

Mopti Fake

[instrumental]

Little Lighthouse

She's a little lighthouse when she
Opens up her huge eyes
And streams of diamonds shoot out
'Til we're wading waist deep in her brilliant love

She's a little lighthouse when she
Opens up her red mouth
And gold word ribbons rope and rodeo
The dark clouds in bouquet above

For how long will this dark age last?
For how long must we wait to learn?
'Cross the black and fossil ocean vast
I spy love and she doth brightly burn
Love sure lives in the right house

She's a little lighthouse when she
Opens up her huge mind and
Thoughts descending spears of crystal
Build a Jacob's ladder up to love

She's a little lighthouse when she
Opens up her red dress
Show skin of rubber marble lit by
Knowledge and the fireflies above

And can others see this splendid beam?
Or do they navigate in dark?
If you ever want to dock your dream
Well you'll need love to guide your fragile ark

Love sure keeps a bright house
She's a little lighthouse

When We Get to England

When we get to England
Will we know when we've arrived?
When we get to England
Will we know if she has died?

Does the girl with the dogs
Still live in the big house
On the corner?
Are the boys collecting frogs
Still marching away
To die in war?

Like it's all from a dream
Like it's all from some history book
Didn't look too hard
Did I miss something that I should have seen?
When we get to England
Will it still be there?

When we get to England
Will we know where we've arrived?
When we get to England
Will a kiss bring her alive?

Once a farmer in the field
Had to grow enough
To feed his family
Now they pay him for his yield
Just to burn it down
And throw away

Like it's all from a dream
Like it's all in a crystal ball
Did it fall so hard?
Rest in pieces on a village green
When we get to England
Will it still be there?

When we get to England

Shaking Skin House

Zap, pow pow zap
Zap, pap, pap, pap zap
Da da da da
Zap, pap pap zap
Pop, pop pop pop

There's something coming
Maybe a song or two
Can't stop from strumming
Can you feel it too?

I'm merely a man and I want
Nothing but love from you
I'm merely a man and I want
Nothing more than to do
What I want in the souls
Of the order

Love [in a write up]
[From an anything] daughter

It's another another [prodder]
From Shaking Skin House
[Another podder]

Obscene Procession

Can't you see 'em, in obscene procession?
Clad in fox fur all cocky, they're violent and insane
Pink and wobbling with all their possessions
They live on junk food and TV and booze
And bottles of pain relief pills and all.

Don't you love them?
They make life hell here
And think there's heaven above 'em.

Can't you hear 'em in obscene procession?
It's called talking, it's how they betray their closest friends.
Cough and wheezing, they dribble pretension,
Slimy tongues tell the truth which they love to bash and bend.

Can't you smell 'em in obscene procession?
Stink of bacon, defoliants, [fear/beer] and [small cigars/swastikas]
Whips and semen, adulterous confessions,
Mixed with money and those little refreshments
Hung in their cars and wardrobes and all

Don't you hate
Those full of hot air
They need their warfare
To deflate 'em.

Animals beware
Knives and forks that glare
Never trust those staring humans
Being the worst
Especially when they're hungry.

Animals beware
Knives and forks so bare
Never trust those staring humans
Being the worst
Especially when they're hungry
They make each other hungry
There's no need to be hungry
Not today.

Can't you see 'em, in obscene procession?
Fat and pompous, they crush their only children to the floor
Aren't you glad that I told you about them?
Aren't you glad you never evolved up any more?

Dripping Basin

[instrumental]