Okay, remember
Okay, remember
That we have just allowed
Half an hour
To get in, do it, and get out

The sense of adventure
Is changing to danger
The signal has been given
I go in
The crime begins
My excitement
Turns into fright

All my words fade
What am I gonna say?
Mustn't give the game away

We're waiting
We're waiting
We're waiting

We got the job sussed
This shop's shut for business
The lookout has parked the car
But kept the engine running
Three beeps means trouble's coming

I hope you remember
To treat the gelignite tenderly for me
I'm having dreams about things
Not going right
Let's leave in plenty of time tonight

Both my partners
Act like actors
You are Bogart
He is George Raft
That leaves Cagney and me
(What about Edward G.?)

We're waiting
We're waiting
We're waiting

You blow the safe up
Then all I know is I wake up
Covered in rubble
One of the rabble needs mummy
(What's all this then?)
The government will never find the money
(What's all this then?)

I've been here all day
A star in strange ways
Apart from a photograph
They'll get nothing from me
Not until they let me see my solicitor

Oh, I remember
That rich, windy weather
When you would carry me
Pockets floating
In the breeze

Oh, there goes a tenner
Hey look! There's a fiver
There's a ten-shilling note
Remember them?
That's when we used to vote for him


Lyrics submitted by weezerific:cutlery, edited by Mellow_Harsher

There Goes a Tenner Lyrics as written by Kate Bush

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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There Goes a Tenner song meanings
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    General Comment

    IMHO... I think this song's about an IRA job (political, anti-UK government) by an over-enthused outfit who didn't have the gelignite sussed! ... The humour is great - act like actors; needs mummy; and the way the exasperated protagonist regards himself as a more authentic criminal over the "rabble" (yet the voice-over thinks he's also acting like an actor, E.G.!) ... The protagonist is arrested/questioned/imprisoned. When released, the money is obsolete. The mentioned actors and shilling notes suggest the robbery took place 30/40s (also the band sound and the cinematic Oh-Oh's?). So I think the 'remember him' refers to Sir Oswald Mosley (1896-1980): Google: By 1922, Mosley was ready to leave the Conservative Party over its Irish policy which had created the Black and Tans and supported the violent repression of Irish Nationalism. Mosley, of Irish descent himself, sat the next two years as an Independent, eventually joining Labour in 1924... - (If him/Mosley is correct, this brings even more humour to the song: In 1932 Mosley met Benito Mussolini in Italy and founded the British Union of Fascists; and in 1936 he married Diana Mitford in Goebbels's drawing room, with Adolf Hitler one of only six guests at the ceremony!) -

    NOTS was an Ireland-only single. So I guess KB is showing her love of Ireland in both these songs... C'mon and blow it a kiss now...

    Theresa_Gionoffrioon December 04, 2007   Link

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