He Knows You Know

[Track Info] [The Lyrics] [Explanation]

He Knows You Know - Track Info

01. Album version (05:22)

02. Edited 12" version (05:05)

03. Edited 7" version (03:30)

04. Manchester Square Demo (04:28)

05. Live (Reading, England, "Reading Rock Festival", August 29th '82) (04:25)

06. Live (London, England - "Hammersmith Odeon", April 18th '83) (05:20)

07. Live (Sheffield - "City Hall", March 6th '84) (05:12)

Notes: 2), compared to 1), lacks the phone call ("Don’t give me your problems!") at the end of the song.
3) lacks the intro (first 25 seconds). After the line "Your were walking with the death" it goes straight into the instrumental part till the next couplet, but skippes a couplet and starts with "Blank eyes.." and skipping the "Fast feed, crystal fever..." part. It also lacks the phone call.
4) is a demo recorded during the "Script" recording sessions. There are several differences between this demo and the released studio version 1). The main differences are:
- The whole introduction is missing, the songs starts with a brief instrumental section and then continues with the first verse "Light switch, yellow fever..".
- After the first strophe, instead of the whole refrain "He knows, you know...", there are only two verses: "But he's got problems, he's got problems".
- In the quiet section after the verse "...and you were walking with the dead" a short bass guitar line introduces the refrain "He knows, you know...".
- The verse "You should have stayed at home and talk with father..." is replaced by "You should have listened to your father talking...".
Live version 5) follows demo version 4) (it was recorded a few days before), but it has the whole first refrain "He knows, you know..." and the right verse "You should have stayed at home and talk with father..." at the end (in the "Marquee The Collection" LP the brief spoken introduction is missing).
Live versions 6) and 7) follow the album version 1).

Lyrics by Derek William Dick (Fish)
Preformed Live for the First Time: 24-Apr-81

Published by Marillion Music, Charisma Music Publishing Co. Ltd., Chappell Music Ltd.

He Knows You Know - The Lyrics

He knows, you know, he knows, you know
Problems, problems, problems, problems

Light switch, yellow fever, crawling up your bathroom wall
Singing psychedelic praises to the depths of a China bowl
You've got venom in your stomach, you've got poison in your head
You should have listened to the priest at the confession
When he offered you the sacred bread

He knows, you know, he knows, you know, he knows, you know
But he's got problems

Fast feed, crystal fever, swarming through a fractured mind
Chilling needles freeze emotion, the blind shall lead the blind
You've got venom in you stomach, you've got poison in your head
When your conscience whispered, the vein lines stiffened
You were walking with the dead

He knows, you know, he knows, you know, he knows, you know
He's got experience, He's got experience, he knows, you know
But he's got problems
Problems, problems, problems, problems, problems, problems.

He knows... Slash wrist, scarlet fever, crawled under your bathroom door
Pumping arteries ooze the problem, through the gap that the razor tore
You've got venom in your stomach, you've got poison in your head
You should have listened to your analyst questions
when yo lay on his leather bed

He knows, you know, he knows, you know, he knows, you know
But he's got problems

Blank eyes, purple fever, streaming through the frosted pane
You learned your lesson far to late from the links in a chemist chain
You've got venom in your stomach, you've got poison in your head
You should have stayed at home and talked with father,
Listen to the lies he fed

He knows, you know, he knows, you know, he knows, you know
But he's got problems
He knows, you know, he knows, you know, he knows, you know
He's got experience, He's got experience, he knows, you know
He knows, you know, you know, you know,
You know, you know, you know, you know

Problems, problems, problems, problems, problems, problems.
Don't give me your problems.

In the edited version the purple coloured parts are missing.

EXPLANATION OF SONF ELEMENTS
Copyright © 1997 Fraser Marshall, Matthew Anderson & Bert ter Steege.

HE KNOWS YOU KNOW

‘This is a song about drugs. . . ’
Intro on La Gaza Ladra

‘Singing psychedelic praises to the depths of a China bowl’
‘To vomit’ - Source: The Sick Book (Moran, Campbell da Vinci) (Yes, it does exist; a book about chutney juggling! - Ed)

‘listened to the priest. . . the sacred bread’
Fish is clearly not a Roman Catholic, else he would know that the host is not taken at the confession. That said, the offer might be for a later date.

‘crystal fever’
Meth-amphetamine or heroin are both crystalline before melting and injecting.

'the blind shall lead the blind’
This is an illusion to Matthew XV, 14.

‘vein lines stiffen’
With injecting over a period of time, the veins become hardened. Eventually, even with the use of a tourniquet it is impossible to get the needle into the vein. I accidentally had the great displeasure of seeing someone shooting up once. She took about eight goes to get it into her arm. It was seriously unpleasant, and not an experience I’d recommend even seeing, let alone trying!

Torsten Berger said: I figure the "chemists chain" is a pun with two meanings:

  1. a complex molecule, such as cocaine (C17H21NO4, I think :-)
  2. The progression of medicine that a patient might get to battle depression or perhaps pain. You buy medicine at the "chemists", which I believe is what they call a pharmacy in Britain. This medicine is a "chain" in that it gets more and more powerful as you go along, and often more addictive in the process.

Mark Dempster feels that the second interpretation is incorrect: There seems to be some confusion around the words 'Chemist chain' - I believe this refers merely to pharmacists, generally called Chemists here in the UK; a chemist's chain is simply a retail company who deals in such things - Boots & Superdrug being probably the two biggest chains here.

Sources

Last Modified: 27 Jul 2000