Poor Skeleton Steps Out

"Poor Skeleton Steps Out" is a song by Andy Partridge. It appeared on the 1989 album Oranges & Lemons.

A live in-studio version, for BBC, appeared on Drums and Wireless, later on the 1998 Transistor Blast box set.

The demo appeared on Andy's Fuzzy Warbles Volume 8 in 2006.

Quotes

Andy (on the BBC session): “I'm really proud of the stuff I wrote on keyboards. I know what I'm doing on guitar - sort of - but I haven't got the faintest clue when I sit at a piano, so anything that comes out is delightfully terrible. This was from the car-smash session in '89. Maybe we were all amped up after the crash.”

Andy: “Truly a Fuzzy Warble. It's that association game again: marimba = skeleton = inside = escape. Or is it just me showing my femur side? Known, as we were recording the finished thing, as ‘Peter Skellern Steps Out’.”

Lyrics

Poor skeleton steps out,

Dressed up in bad blood,

Bad brains, bad thoughts, and others deeds

Poor skeleton no doubt,

One of these days,

You can cast aside your human, be free

When the cities run with blood,

And you drink our health in mud,

"All flesh be gone"

Save your dry and joyous shout,

For the day poor skeleton steps out

Poor skeleton steps out,

Sprung from his life sentence,

Deep inside some muscle mask

Poor skeleton devout,

Propping up truck drivers,

Filmstars, thieves or queens, your brave task

When technology is rust,

And you write your book in dust,

"All flesh be gone"

Can't buy tickets from a tout,

For the day poor skeleton steps out

Poor skeleton steps out,

Liberated from sex organs,

And brown, black, white skin

Poor skeleton you lout,

Don't you think that we might,

Like to have been asked to join in?

For good skeletons are we,

And we're dying to be free,

"All flesh be gone"

I will scream or sulk and pout,

Until my poor skeleton steps out

Better watch out, here comes bony boy