Tom Robinson
1982 USA re-release (1997) Castaway Northwest: CNWVP 004

1) Now Martin's Gone
2) Atmospherics: Listen To The Radio
3) Can't Keep Away (Part 2)
4) Looking For A Bonfire
5) Merrily Up On High
6) Those Days
7) In The Cold
8) The Night Tide
9) Duncannon
10) Love Comes
11) Tango An Der Wand
12) Now Richard's Gone
13) Alptraum Tango Dub
14) Any Favours
15) Out To Lunch

NY Village Voice: Album Review

1) Now Martin's Gone

Martin's gone... Martin's gone
Things will never be the same again
Now Martin's gone

I told my mother and the boy next door
The girl at the garage and my brother in law
I talked to the doctor and I told my boss
The launderette lady and the corner shop
I told the postman, then I told a gag
I told Claire Rayner and the local rag
I told the barmaid and the landlord too
I told everybody in the world I knew

Martin's gone... Martin's gone
Things will never be the same again
Now Martin's gone

I told our father and my favourite guys
Ten Hail Marys and a few white lies
I told the Samaritans, I told my dog
I talked to the telly and the talking clock...

Back on the wagon when the nights are dark
I drive by the diner where I made my mark

Martin's gone... Martin's gone
Things will never be the same again
Now Martin's gone

Tom Robinson (Notting Hill Music)

2) Atmospherics: Listen To The Radio

Leave the bureau in the snow
Catch a tram to Onkel Poe
Early evening ring around the moon
Slip in by the concierge
By the bikes and up the stairs
Snap the latch and creep into the room

You throw off your coat, pick up the post
And put a coffee on
Lie down on the bed, lay back your head
And smoke a cigarette

And listen to the radio
Listen to the radio

In the city late tonight
Double feature, black and white
'Bitter Tears' and 'Taxi to the Klo'
Find a bar, avoid a fight
Show your papers, be polite
Walking home with nowhere else to go

You throw off your coat, pick up my note
Put another coffee on
Lie down on the bed, lay back your head
And smoke a cigarette

And listen to the radio
Listen to the radio

Atmospherics after dark
Noise and voices from the past
Across the dial from Moscow to Cologne:
Interference in the night
Thousand miles on either side
Stations fading into the unknown:

So throw off your coat, we'll butter some toast
And put a coffee on:
We'll lie down on the bed, lay back our heads
Smoke another cigarette

And listen to the radio
Listen to the radio
All night long...

Peter Gabriel/Tom Robinson (Real World Music/Notting Hill Music)

3) Can't Keep Away (Part 2)

Darlington station at a quarter to four
Down in the tearoom watching the wall
Wait till forever for the boy next door
Daylight fading and I'm hating it all

Can't keep away - I can't keep away...
Can't keep away - I keep coming on back for more...
Can't keep away - I can't keep away...
I can't keep away from the other door
From the other door

The door says welcome when you're all alone
Come in, sit down - make yourself at home
Can't help crying when I'm lying in bed
Cos I need this feeling like a hole in the head

Can't keep away - I can't keep away...
Can't keep away - I keep coming on back for more...
Can't keep away - I can't keep away...
I can't keep away from the other door
From the other door

Stevie Blanchard/Tom Robinson (Copyright Control/Notting Hill Music)

4) Looking For A Bonfire

Been collecting pennies
In a hat and a mask
On a cold November evening
Before the fireworks start
Woodsmoke drifting into the trees
Crackle of bracken and burning leaves
At the height of the season
I'm looking for bonfire

See the smoke and cinders fly
Feel as if I'm on fire
Just another jealous guy
Looking for a bonfire

Well we found our matches
And we started a spark
Now we're touching the paper
And standing back in the dark
Hot potato - better for some
But I've burned my fingers
And bitten my tongue
I can never remember...
I'm looking for a bonfire

See the smoke and cinders fly
Feel as if I'm on fire
Just another jealous guy
Looking for a bonfire

Oh - I don't want to turn away
We've been on the wheel
Now we're watching it burn away
Burn away...

Tom Robinson (Notting Hill Music)

5) Merrily Up On High

Everybody's on vacation -
Have a holiday, take a break
Spend and borrow, there's no tomorrow
So get your present today
Take some time and stuff the turkeys
Watch the Western world go by
Pull a cracker and light the candles
Merrily up on high

Lets all party -
War has started
Let's forget about days gone by
We won't see another year like it
So drink your dinner tonight:
It's no use to face the future
Count to twenty -
Close your eyes
This year, next year
Thermonuclear
Merrily up on high

End of term administration
Private prison or public school
Graduation celebration
Everyone playing the fool
Family gathering - strained relations
Festive gesture, don't say die
Drunken patients, old acquaintance
Merrily up on high

Lets all party -
War has started
Let's forget about days gone by
We won't see another year like it
So drink your dinner tonight:
It's no use to face the future
Count to twenty -
Close your eyes
This year, next year
Thermonuclear
Merrily up on high

6) Those Days

There's thunder on the Baltic
Radiation on the rain
Uncertainty and mayhem
In the wind again
Ever since I left you
I've been stranded on the tide
Just another hundred miles now
Till I'm by your side

Those happy days we used to spend
Do you remember the time of year...
It feels like those happy days are here again
Those happy days are here

Now the days are getting colder
And the nights are drawing in
Floodwater rising
As the waves roll in
Out across the Alster
I can see the lights
Hold out a little longer
I'll be home tonight

Those happy days we used to spend
Do you remember the time of year...
It feels like those happy days are here again
Those happy days are here

7) In The Cold

Got an earsplitting headache
And it's driving me blind
Can't work any faster
And I'm falling behind
Mr Gillett's always on at me
Getting hard on my case
Picking me up on...
Every little mistake

Out-out-out in the cold again
Out in the cold

There's a kid down the corridor doesn't know what to do
Standing in the passage, blue eyes on you
It could be the first time -
What on earth would he say?
He'll never dare approach you
Now he's walking away

Out-out-out in the cold again
Out in the cold

Seems such a long way
Looks like a long way
Feels such a long way
To go...

Stood up on your doorstep - try the buzzer again
Waiting on the pavement like a fool in the rain
Well you said seven twenty - now it's nine fifteen
Maybe you're trying to tell me something
I don't want to believe

Out-out-out in the cold again
Out in the cold

Stevie Blanchard/Tom Robinson (Copyright Control/Notting Hill Music)

For christsake Chrissy, won't you open the door -
Don't tell me you're still sleeping
All hell's going on in the street outside
All the roads are closed this evening
Tried to call you but the lines are jammed
Don't say you're not ready after all we planned

Sail on the night...
Sail on the night tide

There's no need packing, you can leave your keys
We're running out of time now
That money's worth nothing when we're all at sea
Leave it all behind now
Down the culvert and across the tracks
Down to the river as we turn our backs

Sail on the night...
Sail on the night tide

There's only one way out of town tonight

Miss the mayhem if we time it right

Sail on the night...
Sail on the night tide

Jo Burt/Tom Robinson (Notting Hill Music/Josongs/Leosong Ltd)

9) Duncannon

After a month here out of the country
Thought I'd go up the wall
Twisted and turning - can't stop the burning
It isn't any better at all
Drove me over the wall...

So I'm stood at a slip road tired and unshaven
Next day at quarter to three
Left all the troubles so far behind me
I know where I want to be:

I... wanna see Duncannon
I... wanna see him

Found the name in a phone book,
Major obsession - a mile away in the rain:
Out in the darkness, psychotic schoolboy
Watching your window again
Looks like nothing has changed

(Always me, always me...)

I... wanna see Duncannon
I... wanna see him

Stevie Blanchard/Tom Robinson (Copyright Control/Notting Hill Music)

10) Love Comes

Love comes
And takes you by the hand again
Did you think that you'd remain
Melancholy, baby..?
The watermelon's tasting so sweet
This year...
It's gotta be a good year
It's gotta be your year;

Did you ever think you and me
Would ever end up happy...
Can it be true?
Well it's gotta be true
I'm sending my love
Out there to you

Love comes
And takes me by the hand again
I never thought I'd feel the same
But here I am beside you...
The watermelon's tasting so sweet
This year...
It's gotta be a good year
It's gotta be our year;

Did you ever think you and me
Would ever end up happy...
Can it be true?
Well it's gotta be true -
I'm sending my love
Out there too

11) Tango An der Wand

Hier machten Huende ihr Geschaeft
(immer an der Wand lang)
Heute ist der Platz besetzt
(immer an der Wand lang)

Wessen Zukunft ist verschwommen
Heimatlos und mitgenommen
Lasst sie nach Berlin herkommen
Und tango and der Wand entlang

Letzte Tango an der Wand
Liebling, gib' mir deine Hand
Jedes Kind im ganzen Land singt:
"Ich bin ein Brliner"

Kommu-Kapi-Apokal-ismus
(immer an der Wand lang)
Kamikaze Pazifizmus
(immer an der Wand lang)

Wessen Zukunft ist verschwommen
Zaehlen Greise Megatonnen
Lasst sie nach Berlin herkommen
Und tango and der Wand entlang

Letzte Tango an der Wa
Liebling, gib' mir deine Hand
Jedes Kind im Ganzen Land singt:
"Ich bin ein Berliner"

Immer an der Wand lang, immer an der Wand
Immer an der Wand, an der Wand entlang
Immer an der Wand lang, immer an der Wand
Immer an der Wand entlang

Stepp' doch mal auf dem Vulkan
(immer an der Wand lang)
Macht die rote Lichter an
(immer an der Wand lang)
Auf dem Boden um zu sonnen
Ihr habt den Blumentopf gewonnen
Braucht nur nach Berlin zu kommen
Und tango an der Wand entlang

Letzte Tango an der Wand
Liebling, gib' mir deine Hand
Ich weiss gar nix von diesem Land, da
Ich bin kein Berliner

Immer an der Wand lang, immer an der Wand
Immer an der Wand, an der Wand entlang
Immer an der Wand lang, immer an der Wand
Immer an der Wand entlang

Tom Robinson/Horst Koenigstein (Notting Hill Music/Francis, Day & Hunter GmbH)

12) Now Richard's Gone

Tom Robinson (Notting Hill Music)
Instrumental dance remix by Richard Mazda of 'Now Martin's Gone

13) Alptraum Tango Dub

Tom Robinson/Horst Koenigstein (Notting Hill Music/Francis, Day & Hunter GmbH)
Instrumental remix by TR of 'Tango An Der Wand'

14) Any Favours

If you think you're slumming
when you're coming with me -
Don't do me any favours
If you think you're slumming
when you're coming with me -
Don't do me any favours
If you think you're slumming
when you're coming with me -
Don't do me any favours

I never get to meet your friends or folks
(Don't do me any favours)
And I'm the butt of all your jokes
(Don't do me any favours)
You talk down to me like a clapped-out fool
(Don't do me any favours)
If you're so clever and cutting and cool
(Don't do me any favours)

If you think you're slumming
when you're coming with me -
Don't do me any favours
If you think you're slumming
when you're coming with me -
Don't do me any favours
If you think you're slumming
when you're coming with me -
Don't do me any favours

Well you may be pretty and you might be young
(Forget it!) - Don't do me any favours
But you think the sun shines out of your bum
(Forget it!) - Don't do me any favours
You're so sarcastic, ha ha ha
(Forget it!) - Don't do me any favours
Just who the hell do you think you are?
(Forget it!) - Don't do me any favours

If you think you're slumming
when you're coming with me -
Don't do me any favours
If you think you're slumming
when you're coming with me -
Don't do me any favours
If you think you're slumming
when you're coming with me -
Don't do me any favours

Talk, talk, talk... Talk, talk, talk...
Bitch, bitch, bitch... Talk, talk, talk...

Talk, talk, talk... Talk, talk, talk...
Bitch, bitch, bitch... Talk, talk, talk...

If you think you're coming
when you're slumming with me...
Forget it

Tom it's Colin here. Er... are you there? If so, don't forget lunch today, erm... 12.30 Ian Randall. Er... give me a call or something so that... it takes place. Bye

You're not there are you? Tom, Colin here...
Tom, it's extremely urgent: we're meant to be having lunch with Ian Randall - where are you?

Tom... Tom, this is Colin. Are you there? Are you there? This is EXTREMELY urgent. I'm ringing to remind you. We're meant to be having lunch with Ian Randall

If you do get in while I'm at lunch will you PLEASE go to L'Escargot at the bottom of Greek Street as fast as possible. The lunch is due to start at 12.30. I shall be there. See you later. Bye

Hi, I'm ringing on behalf of Colin Bell regarding your lunch date today. Thanks very much. Goodbye

Tom, it's Colin here. Are you there? Are you there, Tom? You're not there. Well, I'm at L'Escargot. Alright... Bye

Hello - I'm calling
On behalf of Colin Bell at the Press Office
regarding your lunch date today
This is Jill. Thanks. Bye bye

Hello - this is Jill here from Phonogram press office regarding your lunch date today. Thanks. Bye bye

Here are you there
Here are you there
Here are you there

Are you there, Tom...Tom
Are you there, Tom...Tom
Are you there, Tom...Tom

Hello - it's Jill again
Ringing on behalf of Colin Bell
At the press office...

EXTREMELY urgent
EXTREMELY urgent
EXTREMELY urgent

Lunch with Ian Randall
Lunch with Ian Randall
Lunch with Ian Randall

Tom, you lucky schmuck - you've missed a wonderful lunch with Ian Randall. Heh heh.
Give me a call when you get in - don't worry about it, alright? See you later. Bye

Tom Robinson (Notting Hill Music)

With love, thanks and apologies to Colin & Jill