Everyone’s Got One
Tracklisting
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Today Tomorrow Sometimes Never 3:39
Lyrics
Today Tomorrow Sometimes Never
Today I can’t seem to find what I’m searching for
Oh well, maybe tomorrow
I wait, devious thoughts but no inspiration at all
I have shut downGenerations lost in the haze of these apathy days
When everyone falls
Segregation, someone to blame
But the problems remain when everyone fallsSomewhere looking for shelter
I still can’t find myself, I am alone
Aware, is it my colour or culture, who can tell
Should we be hated for ourselves, where should we goGenerations lost in the haze of these apathy days
When everyone falls
Segregation, someone to blame
But the problems remain when everyone fallsAre you with me, sometime or never
Are you with me, sometime or never
Or never, never, never, don’t let me downGenerations lost in the haze of these apathy days
When everyone falls
Segregation, someone to blame
But the problems remain when everyone fallsGenerations lost in the haze of these apathy days
When everyone falls
Today tomorrow sometime never
Today tomorrow sometime neverToday tomorrow sometime never
Today tomorrow sometime never
Today tomorrow sometime never -
Father, Ruler, King, Computer 2:40
Lyrics
Father, Ruler, King, Computer
Is it wrong to be alone?
An adventure of my own
A celebration of myself and me
Discovering what I can be
The half a couple fantasyOh, luck is on my side
I celebrate my life
Don’t try to come
Don’t pin me down with vows and flowersI was brought up, I’ve been told
That a husband is the goal
What connotations in these loaded words
A spinster and a bachelor
I am whole all by myself
I don’t need nobody elseOh, luck is on my side
I celebrate my life
Don’t try to come
Don’t pin me down with vows and flowersOh, luck is on my side
I celebrate my life
Don’t try to come
Don’t pin me down with vows and flowersFather, ruler, king, computer
Father, ruler, king, computer
Father, ruler, king, computerHello destiny, is this what you want from me?
Don’t anybody try to stop meOh, luck is on my side
I celebrate my life
Don’t try to come
Don’t pin me down with vows and flowersOh, luck is on my side
I celebrate my life
Don’t try to come
Don’t pin me down
Don’t pin me down -
Give Her A Gun 3:37
Lyrics
Give Her A Gun
Let the fear dislocate
Lest we frown upon the female aggressor
Makes no sense, goes against the gender
Let her anger curse the years of oppression
Blame the mother, sell the sister before she blows you awayWon’t someone give her a gun, won’t someone?
Won’t someone give her a gun, won’t someone?In a lifetime full of changes
A woman’s group is still a second-class convention
Look around who has the power
Am I a big mouth with a fix of paranoia?
On your side, on your side, not here for the rideWon’t someone give her a gun, won’t someone?
Won’t someone give her a gun, won’t someone?
Oh, oh, a gunHalf the population, one percent of wealth
Half the population, one percent of wealth
Blame the mother, sell the sister
Blame the mother, sell the sister
Oh, before I blow you awayWon’t someone give her a gun, won’t someone?
Won’t someone give her a gun, won’t someone?
Won’t someone give her a gun, won’t someone?
Won’t someone give her a gun, won’t someone? -
I Can’t Imagine The World Without Me 3:00
Lyrics
I Can’t Imagine The World Without Me
What I tell is a different story
What I have, I take, then give it all away
So, if you’d like to come this way
Then help me climb the walls that stand before meI wanna know, if this is just a game?
Can anybody play?
Can everybody win?
Can you believe it?I may be lost, I may be blind
I may be cursing most of the time but it’s half the fun
And in this world we spin and shout
We want it all, we want it now
They said, “Oh, shut your mouth
You don’t know what you talk about”I wanna know, if this is just a game?
Can anybody play?
Can everybody win?Another show, another scene
The city sleeps below you, sing a lullaby
Another show, another scene and
I can’t imagine the world without me
I can’t imagine the world without me
I can’t imagine the world without me, hey
I’m on a roll, I’m on a roll, la, la, la, laI’m on a roll, la, la, la, la
I’m on a roll, la, la, la, la
I’m on a roll, la, la, la, la
Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me
Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me -
Bellyache 4:29
Lyrics
Bellyache
Impotence, the price of a dark affair
It’s more than a bellyache
There’s something alive in hereWhat do I, what do I care, now that it’s over
What do I care I, what do I care, now that it’s overSplinters, shatter my one track mind
I lie on a sea of nails and thorns
Spitting out the same old lineOh, what do I, what do I care, now that it’s over
What do I care I, what do I care, now that it’s overNow you shoot me down
Serenade my ears, my heart, I’m falling, falling
Echoing your soundWinter’s breath all fall down
Spin me out and spin me round
Enter darkness enter lies, oh noWhat do I, what do I care, now that it’s over
What do I care I, what do I care, now that it’s over
Now you shoot me down, serenade my ears, my heart
I’m falling, falling, echoing your sound -
Taste Of You 3:30
Lyrics
Taste Of You
Now the fire has gone away
I face you with a broken pen
And sympathy and gratitude dissolve into disarray
I relied, undisguised, followed all, you’d sayWas your weakness momentary
You’re devotion temporary?It’s a question of taste
Like a slap in the face
Let the vain do what they do
Did you laugh at my innocence?Custom made but gone astray
Erase you with a pencil head
I’m bulletproof now I hide
But somehow I was happy then
Do you know, how lost, how lost, how lost?Was your weakness, momentary
Your devotion, temporary?It’s a question of taste
Like a slap in the face
It’s a question of taste
Let the vain do what they do
Did you laugh at my innocence?I don’t want to live forever
I just want some, oh, oh, oh, oh
I don’t want to live forever
I just want some, oh, oh, oh, oh -
Insomniac 4:15
Lyrics
Insomniac
I think you ought to know
I think we’ve lost control dear
Whatever turned you on
You put it up your nose dearAnd though the feeling was sublime
I think we’re running out of time
‘Cause when you found it, you’d fix it
Then lose it and then you’d goWill you be long, will you be long dear
Will you be long, I’m waiting
No sleep at all, carry me home
No sleep at all, carry me home
Won’t you take me thereI serenade the walls
Young people have it all dear
And surely life is a gas
We never had it bad dearOh was it pointless from the start
Or did we cultivate the arts
I swim in circles, in puddles, in trouble and then I go
Will I be long, will I be long dear
Will I be strong, you’re waitingNo sleep at all, carry me home
No sleep at all, carry me home
Won’t you take me here
I don’t feel good inside, I don’t feel good inside
My darling don’t you cry, home, homeNo sleep at all, carry me home
No sleep at all, carry me home
Won’t you, won’t you home home, won’t you take me there
I’m ready home, home, won’t you take me thereI’m willing home, home, won’t you take me there
I want you home, home, won’t you take me there -
Call Me Names 3:49
Lyrics
Call Me Names
I’ve tried so hard, you know I can’t do more
It’s the turn of the card, it’s the close of the door
The lies you told, you know they hurt so deep
So I’ll go home and cry myself to sleepAnd day after day, you’ve been treating me bad
Friends come up and say, “Why do you take all that?”
‘Cause it’s making me moan and it’s making me weep
So I’ll go home and cry myself to sleepYou play at love like a child plays games
One day I’m in then I’m out again
You change the rules and I just can’t win
You’ve broken me now so I give in, yeah, yeahI’ve been through worse but I don’t know what
Oh, I gave to you, everything that I got
So take this heart or what’s left to keep
And I’ll go home and cry myself to sleep
So I’ll go home and cry myself to sleepCry myself to sleep
Cry myself to sleep
Cry myself to sleep
Cry myself to sleepCry myself to sleep
Cry myself to sleep -
Close… But 2:50
Lyrics
Close… But
You’re moving in a circle
I’m coming on in a little dizzy spells
And the room is all forlorn
We could be stuck in substance hell
Some more of this is what we need
So hand in hand and off we swayI’m not that close
I’m not that close to you
I’m not that close
I’m not that close to youYour face is taking pictures of itself
I close my eyes and sighs explode
We cello tape the telephone
And all the little voices grow
Some more of this is what we need
So hand in hand and off we swayI’m not that close
I’m not that close to you, oh, oh, oh
I’m not that close
I’m not that close to youIt’s only the state I’m in
And I’m about to come down
It’s only the mess within in about to come out
La, la, la, la, la, la [unverified]It’s only the state I’m in
I’m about to come down
It’s only the mess within is about to come outI’m not that close
I’m not that close to you
I’m not that close
I’m not that close to you, no -
Cold Feet Warm Heart 3:28
Lyrics
Cold Feet Warm Heart
You were grounded
Hadn’t eaten or slept for days
When I found you, you’re washed out
Your life, your loves, everyone founders
But you are a spell that I’m underAlive, live for the rest of your life
You’re alive, live for the rest of your life
It’s the way it goesYou were wounded
Suck the poison from your vein
Sow a seed for you, a fever once again
Your life, your death, everything’s wrong
But you are the heart of this songAlive, live for the rest of your life
You’re alive, live for the rest of your life
You’re alive, live, live, live, la la la la la la live
You are alive, you are aliveIt’s the way it goes
It’s the way we are
It’s the way we chose
It’s the way we areMy life your death, everyone founders
But you are a spell that I’m underAlive, live for the rest of your life
You’re alive, live for the rest of your life
You’re alive, live, live, live, la la la la la la live
You are alive, you are alive -
Scream 5:52
Lyrics
Scream
What’s it all about? Ah, ha, ha
Spent my whole life praying for a chance to be here
And things are not the same as expected
It’s been a hard timeOh, to be wrong
There’s no heaven in the sky, have you ever?
Well, here’s your chance and you can’t tell me
This is wrong, there’s no heaven in the sky
Have you ever? Have you ever? Have you ever
Cared to scream?First you steal my breath, ha, ha, ha
And now I’m short on trust
I stand up for the test
And then I lie downOh, to be wrong
There’s no heaven in the sky, have you ever?
Well here’s your chance and you can’t tell us
This is wrong, there’s no heaven in the sky
Have you ever? Have you ever? Have you ever
Cared to scream, cared to scream?Let me take you down, ’cause I feel divine
Like some holy cow on a fallen shrine
Like a waterfall made of alcohol
Oh, why? Tell me, why?Waiting for a friend, ah, ha, ha
It’s been a long time
I’m waiting here again
Such a long timeLong, long, long
Long, long, long
You, oh, you bring me down
You, you kill me,
You kill me, you kill me -
BONUS MATERIAL - ON 2014 REISSUE:
- Bellyache (Original EP Version) 4:59
- Sleeping Hitler (from Bellyache EP) 4:43
- Give Her A Gun (from Bellyache EP) 4:19
- I Don't Belong Here (from Bellyache EP) 5:03
- Centipede (B-side from Insomniac) 4:06
- Talent (B-side from Insomniac) 2:09
- Sober (B-side from I Can't Imagine the World Without Me) 5:30
- Venus Wheel (B-side from I Can't Imagine the World Without Me) 3:14
- So La Di Da (B-side from Close... But) 4:42
- I Can't Imagine The World Without Me (Live) (B-side from Close... But) 3:24
- Cold Feet Warm Heart (Live) (B-side from Close... But) 3:39
- Father Ruler King Computer (Steve Lamacq Evening Session BBC Radio 1 - 2 February 1994) 2:38
- Call Me Names (Steve Lamacq Evening Session BBC Radio 1 - 2 February 1994) 3:51
- Taste Of You (Steve Lamacq Evening Session BBC Radio 1 - 2 February 1994) 3:27
- Give Her A Gun (Steve Lamacq Evening Session BBC Radio 1 - 2 February 1994) 3:34
Credits
Original Album Credits:Bass, Piano, Whistle – Alex Keyser
Design – Stylorouge
Drums, Percussion – Andy Henderson
Engineer – Ronen Tal (tracks: 1 to 6, 8 to 11)
Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals [Additional] – Glenn Johansson
Guitar, Noises – Debbie Smith
Management [For Ulterior] – Paul Bailey
Photography By – Maria Mochnacz
Producer – Simon Vinestock (tracks: 1 to 6, 8 to 11)
Voice – Sonya Aurora Madan
℗ © 1994 Rhythm King.
Distribution Sony Music.
A Fauve / Rhythm King recording except tracks 3 & 5 by kind permission of Pandemonium.
Published by Fauve Music.
2014 Expanded Edition Credits:
Arranged By [Strings] – Lino Robinson (tracks: 1-4)
Bass Guitar, Piano, Whistle – Alex Keyser
Cello – Audrey Riley (tracks: 1-6, 1-10), Huw Warren (tracks: 2-2)
Coordinator [Project] – Julian Fernandez
Design – Stylorouge
Design [Additional] – Keith Davey
Didgeridoo – Juju Midget (tracks: 2-1)
Drums, Percussion – Andy Henderson (2)
Engineer – Clive Martin (tracks: 1-7, 2-5, 2-6), Miti Adhikari (tracks: 2-10, 2-11), Nick Addison (tracks: 1-4, 2-7), Ronen Tal (tracks: 1-1 to 1-3, 1-5 to 1-6, 1-8 to 1-11)
Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals – Glenn Johansson
Guitar, Noises – Debbie Smith
Liner Notes – Sonya Aurora Madan
Mixed By – Alan Moulder (tracks: 1-4), Dick Meaney (tracks: 2-8)
Percussion – Miles Bould (tracks: 1-6)
Photography – Maria Machenez
Photography [Additional] – Ray Burmiston
Piano – Lino Robinson (tracks: 1-4, 2-7)
Producer – Clive Martin (tracks: 1-7, 2-5, 2-6), Dick Meaney (tracks: 2-1 to 2-4), Echobelly (tracks: 2-1 to 2-4, 2-7, 2-8), Sam Cunningham (tracks: 2-10, 2-11), Simon Vinestock (tracks: 1-1 to 1-6, 1-8 to 1-11, 2-9)
Remix – Simon Vinestock (tracks: 1-7)
Trumpet – Barbara Snow (tracks: 1-4)
Voice – Sonya Aurora Madan
Sonya's notes
The title for our first album E.G.O – (Everyone’s Got One), was inspired by my fascination with wordplay. Growing up, I never consciously conspired for a place in popular music, to be a frontwoman, or to experience a rock’n’roll lifestyle. My real joy came from the written word and its ability to create worlds in which I could lose myself.
Triggers for song lyrics were everywhere. My upbringing, some would call strict, along with a predominance of females in my family, (dad complained that even the cat was a eunuch), fuelled rich pickings and fresh perspectives. I chose what I thought were unexplored subject matters for many of the lyrics for EGO: (Father, Ruler, King, computer, Give Her A Gun, Call Me Names…..) I did not have much access to the pantheon of great musical pioneers. I did have Top of the Pops, the weekly pop chart counterbalanced by my father’s tears as he listened to the poignancy and multi-faceted meanings inlaid into classical Indian Ghazals.
I first met Glenn Johansson in a bar in London, wrote my number on a cigarette packet and three weeks later, he’d moved into my flat in Soho, W1, London. He was in a band of Swedish pretty young things but he willingly let me steal him to start something of our own. Without Glenn’s talent for songwriting, I would never have had access to this world. I would be somebody else, doing something else. I’ve always been blown away by how easily the melodies pour out of him.
Andy Henderson and Alex Keyser, our drummer and bass player, quickly followed and as retrospective acuity allows, we became aware that together we were creating something we called special.
There were, at one time, four of us, a dog and two cats living in a one bedroom flat in W2 London. Andy’s focus and enthusiasm was the driving force, the backbone. We all did pretty much everything together, drank and drugged, wrote and played, gigged and ganged up, Echobelly became real, really real.
The BELLYACHE e.p, our first release came out in late 1993. I DON’T BELONG HERE, is still one of my personal favourites. The band couldn’t quite nail it in the studio. We nearly gave up until Alex made a fire hazard with loads of candles and in the early hours, it came through as pretty much one take. Us lot as one together, that elusive atmosphere we’d been chasing, captured and sparkling on two-inch tape.
Alex was dark haired, cool, aloof till you knew him with deep pockets of hidden kindness. He was well connected and seemed to know “a man who could…..” in every area that would be of use to us. The first T-shirts (sold out before we could print off anymore, dark denim blue with “There’s something alive in here,” were his idea. The radio stations (the ones we listened to anyway), were playing the e.p. and there was a “this is something special” buzz that morphed into sold out sweaty gigs…..Braintree, Essex, no-one came to see us, not one person. Camden Falcon, The Monarch, Kentish Town, Water Rats, Kings Cross all rammed, Army and Navy, Chelmsford, well past the legal limit of tightly packed jumping bodies, the ceiling collapsed on us and we kept playing. I half fainted, not enough oxygen in the room to fuel my voice.…. Driving home on a shared high.
As Echobelly, we did not do our fair share of the musical apprenticeship, transit van gigs and years of honing, which typify the early years for a lot of bands. It happened very quickly for us. The boys had all been in bands before, but I was winging it, it was all brand new to me. Now there was a fresh wave of groups coming up that somehow we were being included in, a (pseudo) camaraderie and a defining look was what it now took to be that week’s gossip.
Our very first single, INSOMNIAC, was released in March 1994. The lyrics echoed our lifestyle: On a high and not coming down anytime soon. The B-side, TALENT, a cutting homage to the um and ahs, talent scouts of the then great record label machine.
During the summer of 1994, we had about two weeks to record E.G.O. at a residential studio in Chipping Norton. Simon Vinestock, an endearing and talented man, produced it. Debbie Smith had joined us. She came to one of the London shows, stood right in front, singing the lyrics back to me, introduced herself after the gig and told us that she had been playing our songs on her guitar. A few weeks later, during a night out in Camden, Glenn fell and hurt his arm. We were going to see a band and it wasn’t until the early hours that Andy took Glenn to hospital and we realised the significance. We were about to go on tour and Glenn wouldn’t be able to easily play his guitar for a while. A quick call to Debbie asking if she’d like to help out? She quickly becomes one of us. That girl was unique, prowling on stage like a panther. She taught me quite a lot about what rock’n’roll really meant.
We got busy with touring. Gigs and festivals in the UK, Europe, Japan, USA and Canada lined up. Radio sessions, press and television were thrown in. Most of it is a blur with the oddest of in focus moments and memories thrown in.
I CAN’T IMAGINE THE WORLD WITHOUT ME was released as the second single in July ‘94. The lyrics are tongue in cheek, willfully arrogant and true: Which world, which you? Alex added the perfect touch with a cheeky whistle in the beginning and I wrapped it up with a “me, me, me…..” mantra rant at the end.
Our last single, CLOSE, BUT, came out in October ’94. The lyrics were written in an attempt to understand the feeling of loneliness that was growing inside me while I was surrounded by an entourage of more “friends” than I had ever known before.
The year ended with sold out shows in Japan and afterwards, at the airport in Tokyo, everyone was together, flying back to England to be home for Christmas, exhausted and exuberant. I, however, was taking another flight as I was squeezing in a visit to mum and dad, who had moved back to India. I found myself suddenly alone, even more so as we had travelled together, band and the extended family we called the crew, for what seemed a lifetime already. What a year it had been.
(As I recall). Sonya Aurora Madan – March 2014 – London