Des de Moor: Big Sister

Des de Moor
Lyrics

Big Sister

Water of Europe
One of 12 new English chansons and three covers on this 1999 solo album.
More details.

Des de Moor
voice, shaker egg
Julia Doyle
double bass
David Harrod
piano

Written in 1997 for veteran musical cabaret performer Agnes Bernelle, who sadly died before she could complete the album on which it was due to appear. I've been accused of misogyny over this song, but the main reason the narrator is a female character is because it was written for a woman to sing. Besides which, the modern tendency to encourage the state to intervene in ever wider areas of our private lives is hardly the exclusive preserve of men. Much of the apparatus for this new authoritarianism has been justified both by appealing to feminist ideas and to more traditinally 'feminine' concerns about safety and security in the home, and Tony Blair's much vaunted cohort of New Labour women MPs are among those in its vanguard.

I am the woman
That watches you all,
My eye to your keyhole,
My ear to your wall.
The busiest body,
The ultimate snitch,
A million lace curtains
To regularly twitch.
More cameras than Hollywood,
More tape than Scotch,
More logs than Canada,
Much more to watch.

With a camera on your high street
And a camera in the store
I'm peering at your cashpoint.
You're appearing at your door
As you're walking to the station
Or you're driving in your car
I'm big sister and I'm watching
And I know just who you are.

What do you mean,
It's a question of pride?
You've nothing to fear
If you've nothing to hide.
I am your friend
In the fight against crime.
Won't you be safe
When I'm there all the time
Minding your kitchen
And minding your bed
And for extra security
Minding your head?

You're an image in my freeze frame,
A directory in my root.
Your fortune's in a pack of cards
Where you're the only suit.
You're the data in my database,
The star of my TV.
I'm big sister and I'm watching
But you'll never never never
No you'll never never
Know it's me.

Written: Deptford, London, October 1997

Words

Des de Moor

Music

Des de Moor

From the album Water of Europe (see left).

All rights reserved. No material on these pages can be reproduced in whole or in part in any form, except for short passages for the purpose of quotation or review, without prior written permission of the copyright owner.

More lyrics

Dirty Pictures
Heart of a Heartless World
To Those Born After (Bertolt Brecht; Hanns Eisler)
Joey's Dreams
Margins
Water of Europe
Big Sister
Sleaze City
Sharp Contradictions
Ordinary Joe (Andrew Brooks/Michael Hodges)
My Father Said (Jacques Brel)
Grandmother was a Hero
Avocado
Last Orders Please
Lyrics Index