From the mountain tops down to the sunny street
A different drum is playing a different kind of beat
It's like a mystery that never ends
I see you crying and I want to kill your friends
I hear your footsteps in the street
It won't be long before we meet
It's obvious
Just count me in and count me out and
I'll be waiting for the shout
Oblivious
Met Mo and she's okay, said no one really changed
Got different badges but they wear them just the same
Down by the ballroom I recognized
That flaming fountain in those kindered caring eyes.
I hear your footsteps in the street
It won't be long before we meet
It's obvious
Just count me in and count me out and
I'll be waiting for the shout
Oblivious
I hope it haunts me 'til I'm hopeless
I hope it hits you when you go
And sometimes on the edge of sleeping
It rises up to let me know it's not so deep
I'm not so slow
They're calling all the shots
They call and say they phoned
They'll call us lonely when we're really just alone
And like a funny film, it's kinda cute
They bought the bullets and there's no one left to shoot.
I hear your footsteps in the street
It won't be long before we meet
It's obvious
Just count me in and count me out and
I'll be waiting for the shout
Oblivious...
A different drum is playing a different kind of beat
It's like a mystery that never ends
I see you crying and I want to kill your friends
I hear your footsteps in the street
It won't be long before we meet
It's obvious
Just count me in and count me out and
I'll be waiting for the shout
Oblivious
Met Mo and she's okay, said no one really changed
Got different badges but they wear them just the same
Down by the ballroom I recognized
That flaming fountain in those kindered caring eyes.
I hear your footsteps in the street
It won't be long before we meet
It's obvious
Just count me in and count me out and
I'll be waiting for the shout
Oblivious
I hope it haunts me 'til I'm hopeless
I hope it hits you when you go
And sometimes on the edge of sleeping
It rises up to let me know it's not so deep
I'm not so slow
They're calling all the shots
They call and say they phoned
They'll call us lonely when we're really just alone
And like a funny film, it's kinda cute
They bought the bullets and there's no one left to shoot.
I hear your footsteps in the street
It won't be long before we meet
It's obvious
Just count me in and count me out and
I'll be waiting for the shout
Oblivious...
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As witty as those lines are, as much as they sound like they must add up to something, they really don't.
Roddy told the story of this song many times in interviews in the late 80s. I can't find any of the print interviews available online, although a video at youtu.be/_X1-h8vWHpc gives the one-line version.
After two years of singles that got critical praise but no airplay (even after John Peel tried to break them), he wanted to get on Top of the Pops, so he wrote a "light, straightforward pop song".
The lyrics may seem too clever for a "light, straightforward pop song", but then so are complex jazz chords set to a samba beat, and yet it all worked as intended. Most of the lines came from unrelated notes in Roddy's notebook, and he didn't make any attempt to fit them together into a coherent story or theme, as long as they sounded good. Which they do—the hook is catchy as hell, but without the lyrics it wouldn't be nearly as memorable. Even if they don't mean anything.
Anyway, they had to release the single twice, but the second time, it hit the top 20, they got to appear on Top of the Pops, and then Roddy got to spend the next 5 years trying to shed the "pop boy" image it got him, but that's another story.