[Track Info] [The Lyrics] [Explanation]
01. Studio version (06:54)
02. Demo Version (06:34)
Notes: The demo 2) is from the Fugazi recording sessions.
The most important differences between this demo and the album version:
- more evident bass line
- raw Fish vocals
- guitar riffs during the verses
- simpler guitar solo
- abrupt finale instead of the fading-out one
Lyrics by Derek William Dick (Fish)
Performed Live for the first Time: June 19th 1982
Published by Marillion Music, Charisma Music Publishing Co. Ltd., Chappell Music Ltd.
Sheltering her ego on the edge of a floodlit arc,
She'll contemplate seduction, she'll calculate the catch,
When she moved, her presence speared me
When she spoke, her words ensnared me
Watch the lizard, watch the lizard, watch
Watch the lizard with the crimson veil.
Distinctly a casual affair
She crucified my heart in the depth of a satin grave,
As I lay in sweating monologue I sensed the lovelight fade,
Within the spiral of the cigarette, you betrayed your bedside etiquette,
I saw the lizard, touch, I saw the lizard, touch
I touched the lizard with the crimson veil.
I've seen a different doorway shut a million times before,
The smiling she chameleon, the smiling vinyl whores
Distinctly a casual affair
They know what they want, they sing your name
And glide between the sheets,
I never say no, in chemical glow we'll let our bodies meet,
So was it just a fuck, was it just a fuck, just another fuck I said,
Loving just for laughs, carnal autograph, lying on a lizard's bed.
So was it just a fuck, was it just a fuck, just another fuck I bled,
Degraded and alone, raped and still forlorn,
Betrayed on a lizard's bed, on a lizards bed.
We chameleon, we chameleon, we [oui!] chameleon.
Copyright © 1997 Fraser Marshall, Matthew Anderson & Bert ter
Steege.
Cesar Bittar: A Chameleon, the woman (or the women) of this song, are women who changes, that though looking nice, they are evil, and though looking as angels, are nothing but whores. They can be anything they want. They are some kind of actress that know what to be and how to be it.
We see that all the woman cares for is to be recognised. And she is able to do it, she has the skills to do it so. She trapped the man, she got him crazy about her, but she is not to be trusted. She is a lizard, and he knows that. (You know, lizard's tears can't be trusted), She is a lizard dressed by the human skin.
She got him only to show him what she really was. She wouldn't listen to him, the only thing he wanted was to talk, she didn't want to talk, she only used him for having fun, she crucified his heart, she betrayed his love.
They would only laughed of him.Women would only treat him that way.
They sing your name, as the sirens. In the mythology the sirens were nymphs with a women's bust an the body of a bird. They were wrongly represented by the figure of a half woman, half fish. They had a beautiful voice and they enchanted sailors singing melodies that woult atract the men to them. Then they killed them. (From the Quillet Encyclopedia)
The picture is pretty clever. They got laid, using a condom, and they just did it for fun. This woman brought him to her bed and did what he wanted with him, then she left him.
And lying there, Just alone and realising what he has just done, he realises that he is just like them. He can't just blame them. He is guilty too, because after all, he enjoyed and enjoys doing that.
William Campbell : Cesar's description of this song is one that I feel most everybody might agree with: the man goes through a series of sensual relationships with possibly more than one woman. I see this just a wee bit different. Let me explain. So far the album has taken a relationship and really put it under the microscope. We've seen the couple start using words to verbally hurt one another (Assassing). This is where the trouble first sets in. Words, no matter how much you say you're sorry, can never truly be taken back.
Next we see the couple in a later stage of deteriotion. Their arguements have incresed in intensity, and they are missing the good ol' days when their relationship was young and hot and steamy. Punch & Judy ain't so happy anymore.
In Jigsaw, the couple are finally beginning to realize that the marriage is doomed. They've tried picking up the pieces, but they can't fit them all back correctly anymore. It's time for the two to look each other in the eye and admit it's truly over. Sad.
Emerald Lies is the divorce itself. The wedding ring is nothing more than a band of gold (OK, so that's a H lyric...excuse me!)
Now for She Chameleon. I think this is just the aftermath of the divorce. Even if they were married for five, ten, or twenty years, the whole relationship was just a fuck.
Sources:
Last Modified: 27 Jul 2000