design flaw

Art Bergmann: vocals, 6 and 12 string guitars
Chris Spedding: electric guitar
Peter J. Moore: harmonica on "She Hit Me"

Words and music by Art Bergmann, except where noted.
Produced by Peter J. Moore at Beaconsfield Studios, Toronto, Canada.
Design by Rodney Bowes.
Photography by Kevin Kelly, except front left panel by Villiam, and Spedding/Bergmann by Anthony MacMorrin.

Design Flaw (OMP 2121) ©, (p) 1998 Other Peoples Music, Toronto, Canada

our little secret

I know
What she wants
But she don’t
Get it from me
Opened up and broken
By the age of thirteen
Daddy says
Father knows best
No one else
Needs to know

Tell me how
You got this sickness
What an age
To be involved with us
There’s a little secret
We all share
And I think I get it
When I see you
Laying there
With me in your arms

Did a lot of reading
But talked too little
Nietzsche, Sartre, Stendhal
Et al.
Daddy read a lot
But he never
Took us anywhere
Just a room
With a lock
At the top of the stairs

Tell me how
You got this sickness
What an age
To be involved with us
There’s a little secret
We all share
And I think I get it
When I see you
Laying there
With me in your arms

Will you come running
When his face falls
Will you come running
When he’s giving you
The call
As we walk
Hand in hand
Into our own
Wasteland

I know
What she wants
But she don’t
Get it from me
Opened up and broken
By the age of thirteen
Daddy says
Father knows best
My baby
Let’s go upstairs

Tell me how
You got this sickness
What an age
To be involved with us
There’s a little secret
We all share
And I think I get it
When I see you
Laying there
With me in your arms

crawl with me

I was lying on the table
Prone and oblivious
You were staring at me
Intentions obvious
I thought I might be able
To make something
Out of this
We shook hands
Later we’d kiss
You asked where
We were going
I said that depends
If we fall in love
It will be your living end

Everybody wants
What they can’t have
You could have me
But you won’t keep
Opportunity knocks
Only once
I said get lost
Now here’s your chance

Crawl with me
Crawl with me home
Wast my time then
Leave me alone
Use me
Turn me to stone
Take another nail and
Drive it home

All my investments
Get no return
Just double-digit interest
on nothing learned
So why continue
What do you earn
By staying cool
While I still burn

When the bank forecloses
On all your debts
I’ll still open up and
You can dig through that

Now you know
I let myself go
You used that up
Now I’m sold
So go ahead
Sell me sloppy dead
We both end up empty
Let’s repeat history

please don't be late

You’re making me wait
Please don’t be late
You’re making me hate you
I’d never rape you

You’re strange
You get stranger on me
When you come on me
You get obvious on me

I’m not like those other guys
I wouldn’t bake you
Like they did in 1939
Then you go and spoil it all
By saying something stupid
Like I love you

You’re strange
You get stranger on me
When you come on me
You get obvious on me
Come on
Get obvious on me

hospital song

Yes I know
What I’ve done
And I know
That it’s wrong
Cuz I talked
To your mom
We watched you
All night long
I put a pillow
Under your head
Laid down some rags
You’d read
Friends sent cards
And flowers
Said they hoped
You got well

From your hospital bed
To my padded cell
There’s not one thing
We need
This is heaven and hell

Maybe later
We’ll get together
Learn how to relax
Maybe later
We’ll get together
And have a relapse

I watch you sleep
In your tubes
And IV’s
They kept your face
So clean
Would it seem
Too mean
If I pull the plug
On your dream machine
Would I be
Losing you
Or would we
Meet again

sin city

This old town is filled with sin,
It’ll swallow you in
If you’ve got some money to burn.
Take it home right away,
You’ve got three years to pay
But Satan is waiting his turn

This old earthquake’s gonna leave me in the poor house.
It seems like this whole town’s insane
On the thirty-first floor your gold plated door
Won’t keep out the Lord’s burning rain

The scientists say
It’ll all wash away
But we don’t believe any more
Cause we’ve got our recruits
And our green mohair suits
So please show you ID At the door.

A friend came around.
Tried to clean up this town,
His ideas made some people mad.
But he trusted his crowd,
So he spoke right out loud
And they lost the best friend they had

On the thirty-first floor your gold plated door
Won’t keep out the Lord’s burning rain

faithlessly yours

God’s got an answer in that jukebox
I pick the wrong song every time
I know my song is in that jukebox
And I’ve been suckered for the last time

God hid an answer in her body
I’ve been in the wrong room for so long
I found no question in her body
I’m in the room where I belong

God placed an ad in her paper
A cryptic clue without a crossword
How could I have known she worked that paper
The sweetest sound the world has heard

buried alive

Lead me down your garden path
Show me my innocent past
All the good things
I thought were trash
All the king’s horses
All the queen’s men
Couldn’t put me back together again
Does it take a genius
To understand

She says don’t worry
My whole life’s a crime
Roll over me
And I’ll bury you alive

Practising students
Offer up the cure
All the liars talk
That hang around here
It was the longest day
Of the year
In my never-ending search
For culture and bliss
A cup of coffee
And a morning kiss
How could I ever think
There was more than this

She says so sorry
My whole life’s a crime
Roll over me
And I’ll bury you alive

All the king’s horses
All the queen’s men
Couldn’t put me back together again
Does it take a genius
To understand

She says so sorry
My whole life’s a crime
Roll over me
And I’ll bury you alive
Don’t worry
My whole life’s a crime

she hit me

Janis never gave it
Away freely
But I knew we’d make it
After one look in her eye
Then we got all
Touchy feely
I’m impulsive
Away we did fly
I used to be convulsive
Now I’m hap-hap-hap-happy

Joanna always
Kept her head up
She was a nazi
She caught me
On the chin
I never got fed-up
You know I told her
"I never hit women
If you get any bolder
I’m gonna have to be
Tough tough tough"

What will I call
The girl this time
The little harlot
Is a real drug slut
Now she’s a friend of mine
She’ll forget about me
Now that she’s in this song
I knew all along
That we were
Wrong wrong wrong

more blue shock

Is it really true?
You’re not coming
Round here no more
No face at my door
No jokes that had us
Rolling on the floor

You said you didn’t like
The spare-ribs
In the restaurant
But I saw the papers
The police gave you
They charged you
With assult

More blue shock more blue shock
More blue pills more blue pills
It reminded me of a friend
They found him hanging
From a light fixture
In the middle of his room
Just before breakfast
Swinging in the gloom
And I couldn’t help thinking
This was gonna happen to you
All screwed up in your head
In your cell
Swinging in the gloom

Is it really true
You’re not coming
‘Round here no more
Locked up once
And let out
Never more

if she could sing

If she could sing
I wonder what she’d say
Would she do as I’ve done
And put me on display
Use me for fun
As I have done
As I have done
She’d make me shudder and run

If she could sing
Just like me
Would she bring
Heartache and misery
Throw me to the Huns
As I have done
As I have done

Maybe there is something someone
Could have said or done
To change my mind
I don’t think so this time

When she finds her voice I’ll listen
For a clue to what was missing
When I placed the emphasis
On mine

She would call me down
She would call me down
She would call me down
She would call me down

dive

Got a mouthful of ashes
And I got some rope
You got a pocketful of plastic
I guess you’ve never been broke
Long-distance phone call
From a noisy bar
Says they’ll be digging
Through your trash one day
I said they already are
Hush now baby
Don’t you cry
Dry your eyes
Watch me dive
Got a mouthful of ashes
And I got some rope
You got a pocketful of plastic
Guess you’ve never been broke
There’s no secrets
No they don’t have one
Watch ‘em find some food today
Before it rots in the sun
I long for the night
Where I can hide
Maybe dream up a life
Instead of living this lie
Yeah, I love the night
I feel safe and warm inside
Instead of living this lie
Got a mouthful of ashes
And I got a gun
You got a pocketful of tragic
You always had your fun
Kid says where’s the car
And where are you parked
Hmm…maybe in the garage
Where I was a star
Hush now baby
Don’t you cry
Dry your tears
And watch me dive

design flaw

art bergmann

our little secret

crawl with me

please don't be late

hospital song

sin city

faithlessly yours

buried alive

she hit me

more blue shock

if she could sing

dive

hung out to dry