Lyrics

Alphabetically.



A E I O U
(early Units song)

a e i o u



A GIRL LIKE YOU

(Duet)
S:
It takes a girl like you
To have a man like me
A lot of people think
That it all comes from me
They think I do the work
They think I make the moves
But I do what I do
'Cause of a girl like you

R:
It takes a girl -
It takes a girl like me
To have a man like you

S:
I know that you're not here
So I can love myself
I won't persist at all

Little else.
I took a girl like you
To help me find that out
It takes a girl like you
To have a man like me

S:
If I had realized that
Along time ago
I could've been today
Much farther down the road

R:
It takes a girl like me (girl like you)
To have a man like you. (man like me)


BLOODLETTING
(unreleased, 1982)

From up on a hill
I see the big ones go to work
And the little ones go to school
Holding boxes

I walk around the streets
And listen to what they’re saying
Trying to think
Of what’s missing

Put a scar on my face
Gave myself a physical change
Now everyone knows
What I stand for

(Chorus)
Were there straight lines
Were there straight lines
Was it such a straight line
Before man came around



BUG BOY

His father was a lawyer
Mother a psychologist
He was just a boy who liked to torture bugs

When they'd go out to work
He'd go out to play
With pockets full of weapons
Bugs you'd better stay out of my way

He'd say
There's no love, no understanding
I just torture the bugs
It's survival of the fittest
And torture for the winner

He liked to get in garbage cans
And capture little bugs
And burn them with a magnifying glass
After he pulled off their wings

His father did not think it right
To pick upon helpless things
And his mother did not understand
How he could be so unfeeling



CANNIBALS

1,2,3,4!
I see a lot of people lined up in formation
Waiting for lively moments to come to them like victims
Rows and rows and rows of vampire eyes
This is a generation of cannibals

(Chorus)


Lines & lines & lines & lines of people
Rows & rows of people feasting on a rare man's life
Lines and line of people, waiting for a victim
This is a generation of cannibals

(Chorus)

People out there lying, waiting to be discovered
People out there lying, hoping to be discovered
Rows & rows of graves waiting to be uncovered
This is a generation of cannibals,
Hoping some rare man's blood is going to give them life
Hoping some rare man's blood is going to give them life
Hoping some rare man's blood is going to give them life
This is a generation of cannibals



CONTEMPORARY EMOTIONS
(early Units version)

It feels so good to be alive,
To feel the rush of our times.
It goes so fast I could lose my mind!
Contemporary Emotions,
They grab my soul & take me away...


(1983 version)

(instrumental)



COWBOY

(instrumental)



DIGITAL STIMULATION

Roger liked to watch her with a telescope
And follow her around with a tape recorder
He put the information in the firm's computer
Comparative analysis, he thought he knew her

I need to know her, I need to know her.

He pulled out his digital calculator
And figured out a formula on how he could make her
Bill Wyman's T.V. course for data technician
Planned his future around a woman and children

Roger finally met her on an elevator
And put his plan to work for a movie and dinner
But afterwards he realized there's no gratification
Without digital stimulation



GO

My dad yells I gotta leave
Get into my car, I drive hard
Outside, it's a real nice blur
But inside, I'm just sitting here
I want to be a blur, I wanna be GO!
I wanna be go, I want to be a blur
I wanna be GO!

Like the blood in my veins
I drive around the same old lanes
With windows up at a hundred & ten
I feel my sigh upon my head
I've never held a girl
As long as this wheel
One two oh
It seem so still
I punch it to the floor
I hit the tape machine
I open up the windows
And listen to the scream

Now no more time, no more space
just energy...until I stop some place
I WANNA BE A BLUR, I WANNA BE GO!

Let's GO!
GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO....GO!



HIGH PRESSURE DAYS

Saw Johnny tonight, but we didn't say hello to eachother
Were all moving pretty fast these days
bumping around like bumper cars
Slippery kelp in the tide
It's awful hard to hang on to eachother
Flying around hot H2O molecules
Balls that come in contact often alter their direction

High pressure days, high pressure
high pressure days, high pressure!

Our paths still cross in these high pressure days,
Acrowd pattern will emerge
Exchange phone numbers, wither away

High pressure days, finding that our motions
High pressure nights, fit into a pattern



I-NIGHT

When the sun goes down
And leaves this unit all alone
I stand up to face him
Because i'm tired of this lie life
When no one hears my shoes
And no one sees my face
I feel just like a fast fog
That goes dancing past the street light

When the sun goes down
And leaves this unit all alone
I stand up to face him
Because i'm tired of his lie life
Surrounded by smells
Surrounded by sounds
I feel life on my skin
Like a fog that's on a street light
So quietly i yell
It's my time now...

Invisible man
What i want to be
The crest of a wave
Escaping the sea
A dot of the fog
Evaporating
The part of the wind
That lives in the night

I-night



I WANNA TAKE YOUR RED
(early Units song)

I just wanna take your red out dancing
Man, that's right
That's what I came here for

I wanna take your red out
Unhuh, right

I wanna take your red out dancing
In the night. Umhum
I wanna feel your red dancing in my hands
Ohh!

Chorus:
I live across the channel with a telescope
At night, I see her walking by the window
I live across the channel with a telescope
The yellow windows up there shining with the stars

I wanna take your red out dancing
I wanna take your red out dancing
I wanna take your red...

(chorus)


I just wanna take your red out dancing
With a couple of airborne units
Mr. Blue and Yellow sun
A couple of phantom bass notes
Dancing...

I just wanna take your red out dacing
With a air guitar, dancing with a yellow disk
And a purple haze

I just wanna take your red out

(chorus )

I promise not to take her to the saxophone cemetary
in my velvet suit and ... hood, sir
I'll even wear a wig, I'll sit on the third-degree sofa
And say I'm going to college. Sir.

I'll try to take the questions out of my eyes
And try not to be quiet and serious all the time.

I just wanna take your red out dancing!
Don't make me spill your blood all over this lousy carpet!

(chorus)



THE LOVE OF A GIRL
(Scott Ryser song)

It's hard for me to speak
In this social world
But I can still get by
With the love of a girl.

In the springtime breeze
In the reflections of the sun
And the sound of the sky
And the love of a girl

In the river's edge
Feel like I'm floating in the breeze
The sound of kids at play
Makes the city seem silly

All the city lines and squares
Like dirty piano keys

And my identity
?????????
a melody ????????

In the springtime breeze
In the reflections of the sun

With the love of a girl
play with me like a harmony

It's hard for me to speak
In this social world
But I can still get by
With the love of a girl



MORE ALIKE

When our team goes out to bowl
When we go to the shopping mall
When we're riding on the bus
We will look more alike

We will look more alike

Standing in line at the bank
Someone notices my tie
Says "yeah that kinda looks like yours!
I got it at the Roos-Atkins"
We will look more alike

Chorus:
People look (we look) more alike (Alike)
People look (we look) more and more alike (Alike)

Sally puts on a wig
Beth puts on her shoes
Lois puts on eyelashes
Mary puts on a belt
Don your identity, don your identity
Rely on your neighbor for the correct century
Sam takes a diet pill
Bob shaves his face
Gus eats bran buds
Fred puts on a hair piece
Products are like fate...
Products are like a fate in which we will look alike
 
People look more alike

When our team goes out to bowl
When we go to the shopping mall
When we're riding on the bus
We will look more alike

(Chorus)



MISSION

Low riders
New shoes
Shooting pool
I've got some news for you

Chorus:
The mission is bitchin'!
The mission is bitchin'!
Mission - I don't take no ....
Alright!

Lights in the wheel wells
I've got my hairnet on
Come on girls, let's cut English
And go cruising down Delores

(chorus)

I like a big burrito
With a lot of hot salsa
And a big Pepsi-cola
And some good marijuana

(Chorus)

I spent all my money
On a portable radio
It measures 3 feet by 4
Have to tilt it sideways
Just to get it through the door

(Chorus)



NEW WAY TO MOVE

Show me a way, a new way to move(x2)
Show me

Rooted to the ground, a human tree
While there's people overhead
People with wings

Looking at the stick man
Stuck in the mud
Giving it the gas
Give it the gun

Hoping to break away
Buy a nose, buy a hair
By the seat of my pants

Show me a way, a new way to move(x2)
Show me

Birds that fit into my pocket
Walk under the wire
Smoke comes up from the chimney
And disappears

I might be stuck, but I have ears
I have eyes, I have fear
Show me now, a way to see clear
Down to the wire
Drive to the wall
End of my rope
End of the road

Not in a book
It's not in school
Out on the street
A new way to move

Hoping to break away
Buy a nose, buy a hair
By the seat of my pants

Show me a way, a new way to move



OUT OF MY POCKET
(early Units song, by T. Ennis)

Out of my pocket, where does my money go...
Into the pocket of the man with all the dough
The rich man, he never helps the poor
He takes all we have and still wants more...
Safeway shoppers think they're savin' cents
But they don't know where their dollars went...



PASSION OR PATTERNS

Not new, old hat
Good times, low rent
Known love, same language
Good bargain, same brand

Minutes matter and the hearts beats weaker
The hair gets thinner and the fat gets thicker
Is it passion, or patterns you're after?

When you worry so much about your image
You only look good in front of a mirror

You calculate the things that worked in the past
And think that will guarantee your future success
Your formula provokes no exhaustion or esteem
You end up in the dull boy's skin.

Is it passion, or patterns you're after?


POSTCARD
(live song, early 1980)

New York and LA are okay
Yeah they're all right
But San Francisco is for me
I'm in love with the city

From Hunter's Point
To the Golden Gate
From China Town
To SF State

I love the city
I love the city

All you wineos on Third and Howard
All you secretaries on Union Square
All you loverboys on Folsam
I love your city

Well I like living in a vertical town
Where a lot of ....is happening all around
I like .....sights and sounds
I like a lot of things to do when the sun goes down

I love the city
I love the city

San Francisco
San Francisco



TIGHT FIT

(instrumental)



THE RIGHT MAN

No time to suffer
No time to suffer a fool

Don't let the wrong man in
Don't let him take it for free
Don't let him do it to you
No time to suffer a fool

Chorus:
Night and day, I pray
The right man will come our way

I see the wrong man coming
Coming after you
Shaking you up, shaking you down

This time you have a choice
You better make it right
No time to suffer -
No more time - to suffer a fool.

(Chorus)

Can't take it away from me

I'm not giving it away for free



SIDEWALK REEL
(ca. 1982)

Eyes that meet from across the street
Split second encounters that seldom repeat
For all the different things men think
Their actions seem so few and similar
Fall into step with men
That are silent with ideas
Think about your partner
Peek at your partner
Join the sidewalk reel

Chorus:
The buildings get taller
The people get smaller
Step by step through generations
The sidewalks start to fill
Join the sidewalk reel

Shuffle down Broadway at night
Like moths attracted to the light
For all the different things men like
Their actions seem so few and similar
Fall into step with men that are silent with ideas

(chorus)




SOCIETY FOR TWO
(ca. 1982)

I almost lost you in this crowd
There you are
So many faces
Flash by in front of me
Angry people's words are flying round
Better keep your head down
Let’s fight our way from here
Don't let them separate us

Chorus:
We'd better stay together
It's a society for two

A scene here...a stare there
Keep your eyes on the ground
No one to hide us here
Don’t let them separate us
Angry people’s words are flying round
Better keep your head down
Let’s try and disappear
You can let go of my hand now

(chorus)



WARM MOVING BODIES

Out of six million sperm cells
I came in first
And won a warm moving body...

A warm...moving...body.

I get to see hear touch taste smell
My partner
Attracted by the odor
I respond to the stimulus
A gene machine
Surrounded by a cell wall
Protective shell of similar units

We are the ones
The ones that won the bodies

The warm...moving...bodies...

Skyscraper cells, full of water
A portion of water, structure and substance
Scientifically different than the monkey...
Turn back the hand of time
With a youthful chin line

Look sharp feel sharp be sharp see sharp
Head to foot and cellar to attic...
Lovely hair deserves fine care
There's a five o'clock shadow
Beneath skin level

An anonymous sperm bank donation
Stepping in a roll of propagation
Versatile hands and a well-developed larynx
A nose that blows
Tongue that licks...

Now lets
Turn off the sentences
And turn on the senses

On our warm...moving...bodies...



WORK

I've been working for years
I can barely afford to buy some beers
Working can feel so good!(x3)
I'm gonna find me some work where my boss don't get rich off me(x3)
I'm gonna find me some work, help out the community(x3)
Working can feel so good



YOUR FACE

I see your face(x2)
I smell your smell(x2)
I hear your voice(x2)
But you're not here(x2)

Chorus:
I see your face everywhere I go
I see your face in everyone I know
When you're not here
I see you everywhere
I see your face
But you're not here

I don't care about eating
Unless you're the waitress
I don't care about money
Unless you're the teller
I don't care about fashion
Unless you're the dealer
I don't care about sleeping
Unless you're in my dreams

(Chorus)