The Lovemongers · 1986 · Premonition
Bullet
Written by Tim Whelan, Jim Irvin, Hamilton Lee
Published by Survival Music / Chrysalis Music
Can I have a Kleenex? We should have changed the sheets last night. Are you really sleeping? Right now I don't know if you want to talk to me. I can't predict anything, I wouldn't want to. You could spit in my face but that's not like you. And I could know things you've never even dreamed of. I didn't sleep much. You said, "Now don't feel guilty" Well I can't help it. Can I watch TV? You look so beautiful I don't want to wake you. I'm feeling the daybreak, I'm frightened by the marks on my back in the mirror. Sometimes I touch you And I feel nothing — Like a parasite in someone else's skin, Someone else that you're examining. You can read a book But in the end you've got to teach yourself. This is my failure, Not yours, not anyone else's And I can't pass it off any more. You won't remember The time I tried to get you to shout back at me. My heart's not in it. Remember when we stood on the bridge and cried?
Commentary
This grew from a few words of Jim's into a 13-minute piece based on a simple but elaborate tape-loop set-up. Tim and Hami recorded it in 1981 in a mobile studio with a Swedish busker they'd run into — Helena Björglius, credited on percussion and "Phantom Violin". Recorded by Sid Wells on The Master Mobile round at Simon Moon's place. This version first appeared on "The Lovemongers", a compilation of singles, B-sides and out-takes released by Survival for the Japanese market in early 1986. One day we might get the full-length version out, who knows.
Band commentary — She Gets Out the Scrapbook — 1991 inlay (compiled by Jim, Tim, Hami)
The full version of Bullet was finally released in 2018 as part of the 'On Broken Glass' EP.
Author's Note