Coil, "Live Three"

Backwards

Backwards, backwards
The world ended a long time ago (repeated)
It's moving backwards
It's moving backwards
It's moving backwards
Backwards, backwards
It's moving backwards
Backwards, backwards
Fuck me from behind
Fuck me from behind
Fuck me in reverse
Fuck me in reverse
Everything's backwards
Everything's backwards
Everything, everything's backwards
Everything's backwards
Everything's backwards
I'm fine
I'm fine
I'm fucking incapable of normal emotions
Fucking incapable of normal emotions
Fucking incapable of normal emotions
Fucking incapable of normal emotions
Everything's backwards (repeated)
In fear, when false evidence appears
Real false evidence appears
Real false evidence appearing real
False evidence appearing real
It's all backwards (repeated)

Fuck me from behind
Fuck me from behind
Fuck me in reverse
Fuck me in reverse
Everything's backwards
Everything's backwards
Everything's backwards
Everything's backwards
I'm fine
I'm fine
I'm fine
I'm fine
I'm fine, I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine
It's just it's all backwards
Backwards in the backwoods
In the backwoods
??? backwoods
Everything's black squids
Everything's black squid
Everything's black squid

[Think I'm?] backwards
Everything's backwards (repeated)
Living [around?] the wrong way round
Everything's backwards
Everything's backwards

I'm fine
I'm fine
With false evidence appearing real
False evidence appearing real
False evidence appearing real
False evidence appearing real
Everything's backwards (repeated)

We're backwards

Everything's backwards
Everything's backwards
Everything's backwards-aah
With false evidence appearing real
False evidence appearing real
False evidence appearing real
False evidence appearing real
Everything's backwards
Everything's backwards

???
Everything's black squids (repeated)

Everything's backwards (repeated)

The world's turned upside down (repeated)
Everything's backwards
The world's turned upside down
Oh, the world's turned upside down

Hornet, wasp or hoverfly
Even the birds have their lullaby
All hummingbirds must die
All hummingbirds must die
I want you, I need you, but I can't find you
I need a killer to take my pain away
I need a killer to take my pain away
And Christ on a bike with carpet burns keeps falling to his knees
In United States of American death
??? pollinating disease
And when I reach the station in the heaven of glass
I'll say a little prayer for you
And when I reach the station in the heaven of glass
I'll say a little prayer for you

Paranoid Inlay

Serenity is a problem
When you've been this close to Heaven
What you really wanted to see
Was the wonders of the underworld
I caught Saint Peter's disease
As he rattled his keys

Now serenity is a problem
Serenity is a problem
Serenity is a problem
Serenity is a problem
Such a paranoid inlay
Pain by numbers, just join the dots

Now serenity is a problem
Serenity is a problem
Serenity is a problem

Bloody British bulldozers
These vegetables are suicidal
These vegetables are suicidal

It seems concussion suits you
He said it seems concussion suits you
He said it seems concussion suits you
He said it seems concussion suits you

Now serenity is a problem
When you've been this close to Heaven
What you really wanted to see
Was the wonders of the underworld
I caught Saint Peter's disease
As he rattled his keys
Now serenity, serenity
Serenity is a problem

Crystalline ladders, shiny things, mirror-balls
I used to believe in mirror-balls
I've gotta be af-- to give up being afraid of people I have not met yet
I'm going to destroy my television
I'm going to destroy my television before it destroys me

Serenity is a problem these days
Serenity is a problem
Serenity is a problem
Serenity is a problem

Bloody British bulldozers
Turned all our vegetables suicidal
How do you expect it to be another way except
A problem?

Serenity is a problem
Serenity is a problem

This documents a Spring 2002 show performed in Bologna. It was an interesting period for Coil performances, as Thighpaulsandra temporarily left the line-up to tour with Spiritualized. To make up for his noticeable absence, Peter and John enlisted Mike York and Cliff Stapleton to fill in with hurdy-gurdy and Breton pipes. This new, exotic instrumentation adds an unstable, organic element to the performance that works well with the setlist chosen for these shows. The disc opens with the ritualized workout of "Anarcadia: All Horned Animals." If you've heard The Remote Viewer EP, these ethnic-inflected drones will sound very familiar, not entirely dissimilar from Taj Mahal Travellers or The Magic Carpathians at their most psychedelic. "Amethyst Deceivers" is here again, one of four slightly variant versions available in the box set. The classic track "Slur" from Horse Rotorvator is given a faithful rendition, but Balance's voice is not quite equal to the job of singing this one, and Marc Almond's backing vocals are sorely missed. Balance dedicates "A Cold Cell" to all the prisoners of the world, as well as those "in prisons of their own making." It's always been a haunting song, and the live version enhances its lonely, melancholic atmosphere. Track six is an accomplished recreation of "Paranoid Inlay" from Musick To Play in the Dark 2, even though the tracklisting on the back of the digipack omits it completely. "Sick Mirrors (Version)" is a meditation on the concept of remote viewing utilizing dense Middle Eastern melodies. The song seamlessly segues into a frighteningly intense version of "A.Y.O.R.," the second of three songs in this set that may have been destined for Coil's long-promised-but-never-delivered Nothing Records album, now referred to as The World Ended a Long Time Ago. "Backwards" ends the set, a joyous psychosexual EBM bacchanalia, with Balance uttering some of his most transgressive lyrics: "Fuck me in reverse/Normal is perverse/Everything's backwards." This disc would be perfect were it not for a rather nagging problem with the mixing, which seems to favor Balance's vocals and pushes much of the music into a muddy, nebulous background. Even with the technical difficulties, Live Three is an essential chronicle of one of Coil's most inspired shows. - Jonathan Dean, Brainwashed