The Collector

S. Kilbey
(Karmic Hit Publishing)

Appears On:

• Steve Kilbey - Freaky Conclusions (2003), Track 9
• Steve Kilbey - Artifacts (2006), Track 11
• Steve Kilbey - Artifacts (2010, Second Motion Records), Track 11

From a demo reel dated Dec. 14, 1983, also containing "I See Your Beginning" and "A Means To An End."

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Lyrics (unofficial)

[rev. Dec. 15, 2021]

(So divine, so divine) [Repeated in background throughout song, increasingly distorted]

(I, I, I, I) [on Artifacts only]

I take the things from their leather cases
And I arrange them in their special places
I collected people like you might collect flowers
But they only lived for a couple of hours
A famous flicker in these flames
And hear the waiting and played their games

Only a mad dog would turn on the world
Only a mad dog would turn on the world

I watched the morning in the evening
I saw the clouds as they were leaving
Collected people as you might collect stamps
Princes, killers, heroes, tramps
The lonely locked here in this room
With scant regard and no perfume

Only a mad dog would turn on the world
Only a mad dog would turn on the world (left for you)

I have performed to finer ??? [3:11]
In avenues and garden groves
I collected people like you might collect coins
I quenched their hearts and burned their loins
This is where the general slept
Near the place their soldiers wept

Only a mad dog would turn on the world
Only a mad dog would turn on the world

Only a mad dog would turn on the world
Only a mad dog would turn on the world

Only a mad dog would turn on the world
Only a mad dog would turn on the world

Only a mad dog would turn on the world
Only a mad...

[Part of another old Kilbey song, possibly recorded over on the original tape, plays at the end - on Freaky Conclusions only.]

It's so, so far fetched
It's just a fading dream I kept
It's just a song I thought I heard
But when I listen very hard
I must've been asleep or somewhere else

The slippery fish that swims away
Nibble corners of my mind...