All lyrics to Chrysanthemum Storm LP (2017) © Bill Direen

Side A

NOBODY’S FAULT

It’s nobody’s fault, it’s everyone’s grief
When you live in a vault every caller’s a thief
When you live in a hole you’re afraid of the flood
When you live in swamp you dig the mud

It’s nobody’s fault, it’s everyone’s pain
We bite without having the teeth to explain
The poison is slow, we bicker and we break
When you live in a tunnel you think like a snake

It’s nobody’s fault, but your own
You never felt so dreadfully alone
Nobody’s fault, but your own

It’s nobody’s fault, we’re stuck in the glue
The icecaps will melt but what can we do?
We do what we do not to live like a toad
But you'd better not trust the one over the road

It’s nobody’s fault, it’s the system’s you know
It all started millions of years ago
It’s the law of the jungle, you don’t have a chance
With your feet in the muck it’s so hard to advance

It’s nobody’s fault, but your own
You never felt so dreadfully alone
Nobody’s fault, but your own




CRIMINAL MIND

She got the grain
Criminal mind
Inside her brain
It’s there to find
If you don’t see criminal mind
You have to be blind

He got the mark
Criminal deeds
It glows in the dark
He got criminal seeds
Hope you don’t mind he got criminal needs
Criminal mind

We got criminal genes
We’re the evil unseen
We’re criminal bein's
We’re eternally mean
Got no right to run free, we’re the criminal kind
Criminal mind
Criminal tongue
Criminal lips
Another criminal hung
Criminal trips
Travel en masse in criminal ships
Criminal minds

Now you been lured
Of your criminal type
It’s time to be cured
Criminal psych
Has the degree — you been onlined with your
Criminal mind

Criminal drugs
Criminal songs
Criminal hugs
Subliminal longings
Criminal pain — it’s enough to drive
A Criminal insane

It's there to find
If you don't see
Criminal mind
You have to be blind


ROSKO

Rosko used to come down to the hall
Rosko had his lucky number called
Rosko! We don’t see Rosko no more

Rosko earned, Rosko paid
Rosko learned, Rosko laid
Rosko tell you his struggle’s humane
Help you feel the pain!

“You have to make your hay when the sun
Shines, not lie abed!
You have to step upon the one
Ahead!” Says Rosko

Rosko earned…

“You have to cut plants back hard
Before the seed scatters
You have to play the winning card
When it matters! When it matters!” Says Rosko

Rosko earned…

“Education is a right
That children got to earn
You got to feel the teacher’s bite
to learn!” say Rosko

“Some people dance around
As if life is their prize
You got to cut some people down
To size!” Rosko

Rosko earned…



THE STORY OF LEE ANNE

Thieves & cranks & shirkers
Her face seemed to say
That dismal day
It was plain to see she
Had already categorised me
She was one of the social workers
We went to see about Lee Anne

The guy liked a bit of ass
There were bits of ass on his wall
In the garage where he changed my wheel
With the help of a powertool
(I wished I'd had something that powerful)
Then he went outside to pump gas
And he never once looked once at Lee Anne SLOWUP!!!!!!
The night-nurse, she was a raver,
I’d seen her around
She followed the sound
She skipped the paperwork
I could do it later
She said we were going to save her
And I believed her for Lee Anne

Yesterday a guy in a van
Gave a neighbour a quote
He’s a guy, you know, he’s happy he woke
With his Hiace
He’ll put a heat pump in your place
He’s a guy, you know, he does all he can
He can’t do anything about Lee Anne
He can’t do anything about Lee Anne.


CHRYSANTHEMUM STORM

Behind me the past
And before me the damp
I’d been driving from the Trading Post
Where I’d been looking for an amp
When from east to west
A voice as dry as pain, said
Said Refrain, do your best to keep warm.
The Chrysanthemum Storm

Hit at the corner
Of Stuart and York
A shower of flowers
The colour of chalk
They were not to be harvested
They fell on the pane
And said Refrain, do your best to stay in form
The Chrysanthemum Storm

Lasted all the way down Queen’s Drive
It was cold enough to kill
I was glad to be alive
Flakes of good gesture
Had come to explain
Refrain! Beauty is always being born
The Chrysanthemum Storm

Was ending
I had to find a hat for my head
By the time I found the camera
The batteries were dead
Love is unceasing
Come sunshine or rain
Refrain! Leave behind you what is torn.
The Chrysanthemum Storm



LOSERS WEEPERS
(Vocal Version )

They give us the drug
All we think about is losing
We're on a high
A high as high as government
We're on a real cool drug
Sets your child wheezing
The reason is plain
Their gain
Your loss
Losers weepers



They give us the smile
The smile that's worth a million
Count what remains
after settlement
It's a settlement smile
That sets your child wheezing
The reason is plain
Their gain
Your loss
Losers weepers

The deal
A deal that rolls on real estate
Evaluate
the value of betterment
It's the best deal yet
That sets the child wheezing
The reason is plain no gain
No gain without loss
Your loss
Losers weepers

They give us the drug
All we think about is losing
We're on a high
A high as high as government
We're on a real cool drug
That sets your child wheezing
The reason is plain
Their gain
Your loss
Losers weepers



Side B

MARIE

This is the story of Marie
LIttle winsome Marie
She knows how to hang
Her friends eat croissants
And harangue
She escaped to Paris for fun
She discovered the caress of one

Faceless
She never shows her mood
Her cat is sexless
But her dog is extraordinarily rude
She met him jogging in the Boulogne rain
They went out clubbing &
Drank Champagne

He’d known the dark wood
To be a soulless place
He’d left the priesthood
In disgrace
He gave confessions in a “chambre de bonne”
And went out at nights
Dressed like a nun

Now when she sees him
Because all cities are small
They make like
They never met at all
They both know it was for more than kicks
But it wasn’t anything
Solitude won’t fix

A trifle winsome
She knows how to hang
Some of her friends make threesomes
And go bang
She escaped to Paris for fun
She discovered the caress of one



THE PHOTOGRAPHER & THE OCEANOGRAPHER

The photographer and the oceanographer
Were sleeping the evening I knocked
He found his Lees
The sound of keys
As door after door unlocked

He was unfocussed, she was into hocus pocus
My reason would sadden them or not
Before I could say
I’d be going away, he said
Don’t tell me, the president’s been shot

She : “In 1963!”
Me : “The president of what?”
They could see from my eyes
My spirits were not high --
So they brewed up the pot.

The storm was hardly warm
But the brew with bergamot
Did no harm
It brought some calm
Thankful I drank the lot

But my star was declining and theirs was arriving
And we’d exhausted the subjects of Walts Disney and Scott
We hugged with some tears
For I’d be gone for some years
And into the night I did trot.


A LOT OF REASONS TO SMILE

It snowed last night this morning the sky was blue
I got eleven dollars even odds it’s gonna see me through
I've got a recurring image of the tide of the rising sea
Self-immolation will never be the end of me

A letter in my heart gives hope to my soul
I've got the craziest idea there can be food in every bowl
I got a horror of newscasts on satellite t.v.
Self-persecution will never be the end of me

I got two good hands, make a stand against the Claw
I got two good eyes, see the good in what they saw
I've got fifty one reasons not to fly to Djibouti
Self-annihilation never be the end of me

I got the ghost of my mother lays the blankets on me so I’m warm
I got the love of a woman, gave me haven from the storm
I got the trace of a demon in the body of a Chimpanzee
Self-congratulation never be the death of me

I've got a musical mate knows a Rickenbacker and what’s not, and what's hot
I've got thoughtful friends giving me a tactful prod
I've got a healthy fear of doctors and the pharmacy
Self-administration never be the end of me

I've got a mountain of firewood see me through the cold cold nights
I’m a victim of a toughness warmer than the brightest lights
I've got a romantic notion, be useful to society
Self-alienation never be the end of me

I've got a lot of good reasons, you see, to walk another mile
I've got eleven hundred reasons, and eighty five to make me smile
I got a lot good reasons — to be!
Self-impersonation never be the end of me.



ROSE IN THE RAIN

It all started with the girl
She had one rose left
She smiled like the sun
All over the spent rain
I went down past the FM station called Fleet
Shops were closing on Symonds Street

World leaders were talking
About flood relief
That was the news that day,
in the main
They were going to give the stricken something to eat
That was the news, isn’t that sweet?

Over the tower a rainbow
Plenty of water underneath
Rolling to the ocean—
isn’t that insane!?
Plenty of rose petals, too, in the Auckland heat
Rafting the rivers
Rafting the rivers down Symonds Street



TRY AGAIN IN TEN MINUTES

My partner was expecting a baby
One morning at half past four
It was time to call for the taxi
To get her to the hospital door
A voice addressed me sternly
As if I had no balls. It said
“Try again in ten minutes"
— "Unusual calls!”

Some time after I was born
They told me I would die
So I phoned the cemetery
To see where I might lie
A voice without joy or hunger,
Of one in whom all passion palls, said
"Try again in ten minutes
We're experiencing an influx of unusual calls"

Try again! Try again!
"We're experiencing …"
Try again in ten minutes.


BADEN

Now Baden knew time is a thief
Never was he late
Immigration was his brief
That’s a Department of the State
Now Baden worked with all his power
Industrious as any mouse
Every Friday he would drive for hours
To his secondary house

To Immigration he was not confined
Gardening was his private folly
Gardening was often on his mind
Gardening and Monopoly
He believed that in life if you miss a turn
It’s not easy for a player to catch up
Baden was a man whose chief concern
Is seeing that his socks match up

Now Baden wasn’t paid to air
Opinions as you’d guess
As far as policy on welfare
Was concerned, his opinion was ever Yes
So when the ministry changed its course
He acceded tamely
He plodded on like a horse
And expelled the entire family

Planeloads of families he was soon sending out
[Can we have another draw please]
No sooner came in than they went out
Baden got a hike in salary
But one night as he zoomed by mooing mammalians
To his lakeside retreat
A spaceship of particularly hungry aliens
Made of him mincemeat

Baden was never seen again
He was less than a burger of beef
But another Baden inherited his pen
Immigration would be his brief.
Thanks for coming everybody.
Another lucky, lucky draw. Here we go!
And the lucky number is—
Number four.

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