knife

AZTEC CAMERA

Members: Roddy Frame, Bernie Clark, Craig Gannon, Dave Mulholland, Campbell Owens, Malcolm Ross, David Ruffy ...

basic information

release date 1984 Sept, 13
country of manufacture Germany
label WEA
catalog no. 240 483-4 [Cass.], 2292-40483-2 [CD], 240483-1 [LP]
format Cass., CD³, LP
note of registration P + ©1984 WEA Records Ltd.
recording Air Studios, London by Nigel Walker [1984 May]
mixing n/a
mastering n/a
production Mark Knopfler
credits n/a

musicians

Roddy Frame vocals, guitar
David Raffy drums, backing vocals
Campbell Owens bass
Malcolm Ross guitar
Guy Fletcher 5) 1) keyboards, backing vocals
Frank Ricotti 5) 1) percussion
Chris White 5) 1) saxophone
Martin Drover 1) trumpet

tracks [CD]

lyrics

  • 1. still on fire
  • 2. just like the USA
  • 3. head is happy (heart's insane)

still on fire
(Roddy Frame)

Im in love with everything
That breaks the grip of caution
On our getting up and leaving
For a bigger day, still some say
That all you need is money
To be free from what is poor
Well thats the lie of looking up
From somewhere down.

Chorus:
Because the sun will show to testify
That all the time between belongs to you and i,
To be still on fire,
And when the strongest words have all been used
And all the new ones sound confused,
To be still on fire.

Somewhere in the middle
We could see through all the people
And be playing second fiddle
And be feeling sore,
Shown the door.
To chase out all the child in you
Is throwing out the baby for the
Chance to make it easy to be more.

Chorus

straitjacket songs ltd.

just like the USA
(Roddy Frame)

Stuck in my beat suede shoes I cant wait
Oh what a state to be in
I need her heart and get a jack-jones for my sins
Shes gonna ditch that shining, sick machine
And be speeding straight my way
But Im churning in neutral, turning in a circle
Just like the USA

The secret is silver, its to shine and never simply survive
And dont swallow substitutes and never see second prize
Cos I know that my might could change my mind
And Im told that by rights its not my find
Id be a tribute to temptation in its glory and its grave
But Im churning in neutral, turning in a circle
Just like the USA

The secret is silver, its to shine and never simply survive
And dont swallow substitutes and never see second prize
Cos I know that my might could change my mind,
And Im told that by rights its not my find
Id be a tower to your highest hopes
That no southern star could sway
But Im churning in neutral, turning in a circle
Just like the USA

I hear those rhyming bells and heed the words they say
And with a string of diamelles Ill steal her heart away

Cos I know that my might could change my mind
And Im told that by rights its not my find
In my star-bangled sailor suit
Id be the pioneer by day
But Im churning in neutral, turning in a circle
Just like the USA

straitjacket songs ltd.

head is happy (heart's insane)
(Roddy Frame)

I recall the biggest beach
Throwing stones, almost alone apart from
Something just outside of reach
And I'd swear I wouldn't say and then I'd
Paint me up into a scene
And throw me like a party which had
Come and stayed and left and been
And had still refused to end

And if your head is happy, and your heart's insane
I'll take you there
When you throw your thunder and you snap my reins
I'll make you care

Since I'm scattered and deranged
I shall seek your holy lunacy, and
Laugh with joy and laugh with pain
So don't say I didn't say
Or I'll remember a Texan man
When he spoke in major sevenths and I'd
I'd get my gun and blow his tan
And banish him from heaven

Chorus

My mind has torn it's track to you
My feet can't wait to go
That's why I'm coming back to you
You know I'm coming, you know I'm coming
You'll feel me coming like a gun from below

Chorus

straitjacket songs ltd.

  • 4. the back door to heaven
  • 5. all I nead is everything
  • 6. backwards and forwards

the back door to heaven
(Roddy Frame)

My eyes are stuck on sleepless dreams
This world is never what it seems
We've sold it short it's what we're taught
Lost it in the living
Allegiance is the strangest thing
It's grown too fast, grown some wings
It's flown away, flown away

Chorus:
The back door to heaven, is open wide to me
So when I'm wrapped up tight in a hell of the night
Can I still decide to be
Where the mad road goes, 'neath the shapeless glow
Or will we swop ourselves like children
For the value of our innocence
A gentleman's a golden card and a red, red rose

Transformed by some strange alchemy
You stand apart and point to me
And point to something I can't see
And it's a lousy rainbow anyway
Allegiance is the strangest thing
It's grown too fast, grown some wings
It's flown away, flown away

Chorus

Your cheating heart will choose a way
To borrow, burn and throw away
Tomorrow same as yesterday
It's a lousy rainbow anyway

Chorus

straitjacket songs ltd.

all I nead is everything
(Roddy Frame)

Tears, just like the jewels
Adorn their corporate crown
Weigh on me worthless and I
Shake them down and leave now
And have no royal things

You, would consecrate the ground
I paced in pain
And though those pavements
Caught your sorrow stains
They fall from me and I say
Maybe don't fall for anything
That says it's never gonna
Give you everything

I wish myself into your arms
To know that all I need is everything

The size of the sea, and the sun in my eyes
And the line in my head
Yearning for more, only for more
These days are as bright as the days I have seen
In the wildest of dreams
Yearning for more, only for more

I wish myself into your arms
To know that all I need is everything

Hold back the night, I am tired of my sight
That won't see anymore
More than today, threatening to stay
Yearning for more, only for more

I wish myself into your arms
To know that all I need is everything

Hold back the night, I am tired of my sight
That won't see anymore
More than today, threatening to stay

Hold back the night, I am tired of my sight
That won't see anymore
"Show me you care," is "Show me the door"

straitjacket songs ltd.

backwards and forwards
(Roddy Frame)

Craze my hair and shine my shoes
And kiss the kiss that I could lose
And I looked at what I have
And I have one wish
And I looked back in your eyes
And there were two words
Backwards and forwards

Here lies the essence of my peers
Handshakes, hellos and golden years
See it smiling through it's teeth
It's the whore who has to die
Unhappy, underneath
And it's long learned not to show it
Get backwards and forwards

How come when I'm gone I get the blues?
Or something special that I might confuse
With getting gifts I'm not at liberty to use.
It's cold to the touch and older than I know
And when the world's with me too much
I say she comes and then it goes

Could completeness still appeal
To one who thinks what he should feel?
And it stares me in the face
And holds me speechless
And I look back in your eyes
And see your eyes gaze
See your eyes gaze into mine
Forever

straitjacket songs ltd.

  • 7. the birth of the true
  • 8. knife

the birth of the true
(Roddy Frame)

I feel the magic that our time has traced
And make a point of it in every place.
But every place deserves a curse or two
For making me so far away from you

I saw some pictures of the world at war
I couldn't suss what all the fuss was for
I wear a picture of you wearing black
And kissing me behind the butler's back

Sometimes I get down
But it's not you that gets me down
It's just that sense of the impossible
Gratuitously handed down

But oh no, not you, don't wipe your eyes over lies
Just let them shine their blue
On every whisper that welcomes the inconceivable
And the birth of the true

I'd sack the world and make a second start
I'd sack my head until I'd found my heart
I'd fill the distance with a red parade
And burn the banks down while the bugles played

Sometimes I get down
But it's not you that gets me down
It's just that sense of the impossible
Gratuitously handed down

But oh no, not you, don't wipe your eyes over lies
Just let them shine their blue
On every whisper that welcomes the inconceivable
And the birth of the true

straitjacket songs ltd.

knife
(Roddy Frame)

Like a child could have the trigger
And the best man needn't fall
To understand that heaven
Could be any place at all
Just five colours set in motion
And I try again to place it
And it's features are obscured
Everytime I turn to face it
But I still chase it

Oh it's twists are cruel and hopeless
Like neglect has worn it thin
And it could rip the sky wide open
And let the rain come tumbling in

And we wait on every whisper
Like it makes us more alive
There's a sense we didn't have
And I feel it in the other five.
See the pity and the pride
In the same sea of emotion
Cup my hands and touch the tide
And expect to feel the ocean
It's just a notion

And the knife has got my number
And the number that you keep
And the knife has called division
And it's drawn when I'm asleep

Oh it's twists are cruel and hopeless
Like neglect has worn it thin
And it could rip the sky wide open
And let the rain come tumbling in

straitjacket songs ltd.

notes

1) Which musicians play which track is not clear from the accompanying material of the album.
3) Source Golden Guide [A]

Mark Knopfler producer.

also available

cover year country of manufacture format label catalog no. notes of registration
2012 EU CD³
Edsel Records EDSA 5012 (P) 1984 WEA International Inc. (C) 2012 Demon Music Group Ltd.

expanded edition with bonus tracks: 9. all I need is everything (7" edit) [3:48], 11. all I need is everything (remix) [6:05]

further releases of this album

knife / Aztec Camera original album series³ backwards and forwards : the wea recordings 1984-1995    
   
2002 2010 2021    

CDBox "backwards and forwards : the wea recordings 1984-1995" CD 1 = Knife with bonus tracks 9. all I need is everything (7" edit) (3:47) and 11. all I need is everything (latin mix) (6:03)

  • lp's
  • cassettes
  • singles
  • promos
  • compilation
  • sampler

cuchilla

country of manufacture: Argentina • label: WEA • catalog no.: 89114 • note of registration: P 1984 WEA Records Ltd.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  
 

    1
    Argentina edition:
    title: cuchilla
    label: wea • catalog no.: 99114 • note of registration: ?

    2
    Australian edition:
    label: wea • catalog no.: 240483-4 • note of registration: © & ℗ 1984 WEA Records Ltd.

    3
    Brasilian edition:
    label: wea • catalog no.: 761.7057 • note of registration: ℗ 1986 WEA Records Ltd.

    4
    Britannic edition:
    label: wea • catalog no.: WX BC • note of registration: © & ℗ 1984 WEA Records Ltd.

    5
    look at:
    basic information

    6
    Spanish edition:
    label: wea • catalog no.: 24 0483-4 • note of registration: © & ℗ 1984 WEA Records Ltd.

    7
    Spanish edition:
    label: wea • catalog no.: 240 483-4 • note of registration: © & ℗ 1984 WEA Records Ltd.

    8
    Taiwanese edition:
    label: wea • catalog no.: WU1092 13) • note of registration: ?

    9
    ? edition:
    label: AS • catalog no.: AS 5069 13) • note of registration: ?

all I need is everything | birds | somewhere in my heart | still on fire

Modified tracks
all I need is everything (1) (2) | how men are

Compilations

all I need is everything ¬the¬ best of Aztec Camera retrospect ¬the¬ best of Aztec Camera      
     
Vinyl 12" CD CD CD-R      
1984 1993 1993 [1999]      

with tracks all I need is everything (edit- and lp-versions), backwards and forewards, still on fire

Sampler

with tracks all I need is everything (edit-version, ?), still on fire

LP

take 5 wea top 100 vol. 18 wea top 100 vol. 19 promo-disco no. 5 : internacional promo-disco no. 23 : internacional
1984 [1984] 1984 1986 1986

CD

hang the dj : [the very best of new wave punk and the rest!] ; sampler            
           
1999            

Tracks all I need is everything, the back door to heaven, backwards and forwards, the birth of the true, head is happy (herat's insane), just like in USA, knife, still on fire also available

¬the¬ best of Aztec Camera³ deep and wide and tall³ walk out to winter : the best of Aztec Camera³      
     
1999 2005 2011      

with tracks: all I nead is everything, still on fire

1984   video music      
1985 don't watch that, watch this! : vol. 2 PolyGram Video 041 118 ©1985 PolyGram MusicVideo Ltd.
1986 nu-wave : vol. 1 WB Records FC-146 WEA International Inc.
1989 left of center : אוסף רוק אלטרנטיבה
Hed-Arzi ARTON 256237-2  
1998 free soul voice WEA WPCR-1778  
2006 1984 - ein Jahr und seine 20 Songs   3-86615-083-0 © [+] ℗2006 Süddeutsche Zeitung GmbH
2007 neo acoustic parade : walk out to winter Warner Music WPCR-12536  
2009 smash hits 1984³
Rhino 5186-52140-2 ℗ [+] ©2009 Warner Music UK Ltd.
2010 100 hits : electric eighties³
DMG DMG 100 066 ℗ [+] ©2010 Demon Music Group Ltd.
2019 big gold dreams : a story of Scottish independent music 1977 - 1989 Cherry Red CRCBOX69 ℗ 2019 Various - see Booklet for details ©2019 Cherry Red Records

revised
12.07.2022

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