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(I am Michael Caine)
He's walking where I'm afraid I don't know
I see the firemen jumping from the windows
There's panic and I hear somebody scream
(aaaah)
He picks up useless paper
And puts it in my pocket
I'm trying very hard to keep my fingers clean
I can't remember tell me what's his name
(My name is Michael Caine)
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
The sun is laughing its another broken morning
I see a shadow and call out to try and warn him
He didn't seem to hear
Just turned away
The quiet fellow follows and points his fingers
Straight at you
He had to sacrifice his pride yes throw it all away
(I am Michael Caine)
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
His days are numbered he walks round and round in circles
There is no place he can ever call his own
He seems to jump at the sound of the phone
Staring out the window there's nothing he can now do
All he wanted was to remain sane
He can't remember his own name
(My name is Michael Caine)
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
And all I wanted was a word or photograph
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
And all I wanted was a word or photograph
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
He's walking where I'm afraid I don't know
I see the firemen jumping from the windows
There's panic and I hear somebody scream
(aaaah)
He picks up useless paper
And puts it in my pocket
I'm trying very hard to keep my fingers clean
I can't remember tell me what's his name
(My name is Michael Caine)
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
The sun is laughing its another broken morning
I see a shadow and call out to try and warn him
He didn't seem to hear
Just turned away
The quiet fellow follows and points his fingers
Straight at you
He had to sacrifice his pride yes throw it all away
(I am Michael Caine)
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
His days are numbered he walks round and round in circles
There is no place he can ever call his own
He seems to jump at the sound of the phone
Staring out the window there's nothing he can now do
All he wanted was to remain sane
He can't remember his own name
(My name is Michael Caine)
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
And all I wanted was a word or photograph
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
And all I wanted was a word or photograph
And all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep
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In THE IPCRESS FILE, Michael Caine plays an army sergeant who becomes a spy in order to work off a black-marketeering background. Through the film, his loyalty is torn between two department heads, he accidentally kills a CIA agent, and he becomes brainwashed to become a mind-controlled sleeper agent, meant to kill one of the department heads upon hearing a trigger word. So his loyalties are complicated, to say the least.
"Michael Caine" the song concerns informers within the Provisional IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a hot subject at the time--a major news story was about Sean O'Callaghan, an informer who foiled an IRA bomb plot to injure Princess Diana at a Duran Duran concert. As I see it, the song's "He" is the informer. By the second verse he has done his doublecross ("sacrifice his pride"), and by the third verse is a paranoid wreck living under an assumed name. And Michael Caine is used as a representation of the informer's questionable, distrustful nature.