In the following you will find the lyrics to all pieces on EXPOSURE as published on the original 1979 release. The transcript of Water Music I is my own.:

You Burn Me Up I'm A Cigarette

Disengage

North Star

Chicago

NY3

Mary

I May Not Have Had Enough Of Me But I've Had Enough Of You

Water Music I (transcript of John G. Bennett excerpt)

Here Comes The Flood

 

YOU BURN ME UP I'M A CIGARETTE

You burn me up I'm a cigarette
You hold my hand I begin to sweat
You make me nervous
Ooh I'm nervous
It must be real bad karma
For this to be my dharma
With you

You burn me up I'm a cigarette
Life with you is a loser's bet
You make me crazy
Ooh I'm going crazy
Your therapeutic antics
Well they really make me frantic
With you

Strategic interaction irreducible fraction
Terminal inaction and a bitter hostile faction
I'm getting anxious
I'm franxious
Transactional diseases are the only thing that pleases
We

You burn me up I'm a cigarette
Demanding my attention which you're not gonna get
What did the sage mean?
What had the sage seen?
Musical elation is my only consolation
Oh yeah

You burn me up I'm about to ignite
When you tell me you love me I give up this fight
I'm feeling put down my feelings shut down
I want rejuvenation from male emancipation

[note: some releases omit printing this verse]

Strategic interaction terminal inaction
A bitter hostile faction irreducible fraction
Transactional diseases are the only thing that pleases
We

Words by Robert Fripp

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CHICAGO

I smile like Chicago
She laughs like the breeze
I try so hard to charm her
With minor mysteries
I collide with her softness
With whispers and pleas
Echoes of the movements
Delicate obscenties

It's a one quarter rain dance
Half of it's prayer
It's a simplest romance
Rattles high in the air
She's the gentlest pretender
I'm a clown on a spree
Still it's sweet to remember
The way it might be

I smile like Chicago

Words by Joanna Walton

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DISENGAGE

Mrs Marion is strict with her servant
Behind locked doors over coffee they speak
They speak to my sister my parents
And I'm trying hard not to shriek
Disengage
Disengage
Disengage

She decodes my secrets my fragments
I'd create any betrayal for their sake
She asks me to wait in the hallway
Where I'm doing my best not to shake
Disengage
Disengage
Disengage

Muttering words to her for convenience
I start to head for the door
Mrs Marion screams over my shoulder
Walking out's just another metaphor

Words by Joanna Walton

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NORTH STAR

North Star
We stare
How far
How clear

Now touch
Touch here
Now warm
Now near
Now near

Within
With you
With love
With love
How sweet
How filled
Now time
Now time
Now touch
How sweet
How near
How filled
Now time
Times still
I'm still
Tonight

North star
We stare
How far
How clear
How far
How clear
How far
How clear
Now touch
Touch here
Now warm
Now near
Within you
With you
With love
With love
With love

I stand in the hallway
She stands in the hall
I stand at the doorway
She stands at the door
I lean in the window
She leans on the wind
I wait for beginnings
She waits for the end

North star
North star
How far
How clear
Now touch
Touch here
Now warm
Now near
Now near
How far
How clear
Now touch
Touch here
Now warm
Now near
Now near

Words by Joanna Walton

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NY3
 

Father:	Your house
Daughter:	My house
Father:	Your house
Daughter:	My house
Father:	Your house
Daughter:	My house  Well get out there's the door  Well get out there's the door  Well get out there's the door  Well get out there's the door
Father:	It is not your house  It is not your house  It is not your house  It is not your house  It is not your house
Mother:	And you're a cocaine sniffer  And you're a cocaine sniffer  And you're a cocaine sniffer  And you're a cocaine sniffer  Don't you call me a slut
Father:	No
Mother:	You're carrying a baby  You don't know whether it's a nigger a spic or a white baby  Don't you call me a slut
Father:	No
Mother:	You're carrying a baby  You don't know whether it's a nigger a spic or a white baby  You've got to go for an abortion baby  I never had to
Father:	No way never
Mother:	You've got to go for an abortion baby  I never had to
Father:	No way never
Mother:	You're carrying a baby  You don't know whether it's a nigger a spic or a white baby  You've got to go for an abortion baby  I never had to
Father:	No way never
Father:	Your house
Daughter:	My house
Father:	Your house
Daughter:	My house
Father:	Your house  Your house
Daughter:	My house
Father:	Your house
Daughter:	My house  Well get out there's the door

 

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MARY

That a creature could be so lonely
It became my deepest wish
To give her my love
To embrace her forever
And to have her find some peace
She who was so lonely
Came with volumes of feeling I have never known
Except perhaps for Mary
And she was always my sister
And she was always my sister

That a creature could be so lonely
It became my deepest wish
To give her my love
To embrace her forever
And to have her find some peace
She who was so lonely
Came with volumes
Volumes of feeling
I have never known
Except perhaps for Mary
And she was always my sister

Words by Joanna Walton

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I MAY NOT HAVE ENOUGH OF ME BUT I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU

That is the way it is because it is that way
It is that way in that it is the way it is
In the way that it is that way that is the way it is
In the way that that is the way that is the way it is that isit is the way
Or, that it is that way is the way it is
The way it is that is the way it is
In that it is the way it is is because it is that way
Or that it is the way that it is is the way that it is that
That is the way that it is the way that it is is the way thatit is that way

I may not have enough of me but I've had enough of you

Words by Joanna Walton

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WATER MUSIC I

(original text by John G. Bennett, my transcription)

From the scientific point of view it is now very likely that there will be again another Ice Age, quite soon, in the world, that we shall have the north part of the world all frozen like it used to be, and we're beginning to have natural disasters, from the scientists' study it seems likely that we should soon begin to have these great changes in the earth's climate so people will not be able to live where they have, and the oceans will rise, and many cities will be flooded, like London, and Calcutta, and so on. These things, they say, will happen, according to scientific theory, in about forty years at the most, but maybe even quicker.

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HERE COMES THE FLOOD

When the night shows the signals grow on radios
All the strange things they come and go as early warnings
Stranded starfish have no place to hide
Still waiting for the swollen easter tide
There's no point in direction
We cannot even choose a side
Crowd

Lord here comes the flood
We'll say goodbye to flesh and blood
If again the seas are silent in any still alive
It'll be those who gave their island to survive
Drink up dreamers you're running dry

I took the old track
The hollow shoulder, across the waters
On the tall cliffs
They were getting older; sons and daughters
The jaded underworld was riding high
Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky
And as the nails sunk in the cloud
The rain was warm and soaked the crowd

When the flood calls
You have no home, you have no walls
In the thunder crash
You're a thousand minds, within a flash
Don't be afraid to cry at what you see
The actors gone, there's only you and me
And if we break before the dawn
They'll use up what we used to be

Words by Peter Gabriel

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