Lyrics by P. Greatorex. Music by G. Davies/P. Greatorex/S. Lock/J. Willmot. Recorded, mixed and produced by George Davies at Silent Running Studios Exeter, Autumn 1991. Remastered at Wud Records Studios 2010.
Performers: Peter Greatorex – vocals George Davies – electric and acoustic guitars, bass, Boss DR55A drum machine Sammi Lock – flute Jeff Willmot – soprano sax Rowena Parsons – tenor sax
ARMED & DANGEROUS In the circus there’s a uniform for fun The love they got is fired from clownish guns But it’s so dangerous Armed laughter changing us Warmed up with a yellow paper sun
Each act in line comes right in on cue Bringing our emotions into view And it’s so dangerous Armed laughter changing us Next time bring your mind along with you
There’s a pistol in my smile It shoots grins for miles and miles But look into my eyes The reflection’s saying goodbye
Outside the ring we sit and blankly stare Nobody but our own selves in the chair But it’s so dangerous Armed laughter changing us Close your eyes and no-one knows you’re there
With animals such tricks are neatly made They nod and wink in terminal parade It’s oh so dangerous Armed laughter changing us Into their souls we think we can invade
There’s a pistol in my smile It shoots grins for miles and miles But look into my eyes The reflection’s saying goodbye
Words by Peter Greatorex. Copyright (c) Wud Records 2010, (p) D & G Music 1990.
This song is very closely related to The Joker as they both share the same tune in the verses. George considered this tune-sharing conundrum a challenge and set about making this song and The Joker appear to not be all that similar after all. The original guitar parts came from a groove that George wrote whilst living in Plymouth. The tempo is 150BPM. When Sammi first heard this song, she sat and thought for a moment, then suddenly said: “I think here it should go like this,” and played the instrumental flute parts. During this recording we discovered that giggling and playing the flute are reasonably incompatible activities due to one’s inability to form the correct shape with one’s lips to blow anything resembling music from the silvery pipe. It took three or four weeks of visits and prolonged outbreaks of the giggles all round before Sammi finally nailed the parts. This was the most joyously memorable aspect of the entire recording of the Signmaker album. The 12-string was made by Melody. George acquired it by swapping a pair of jeans with ripped knees for it, a deal with which he was most chuffed. Some years later the guitar was destroyed by the boot of a drunken Satan’s Slave at an Ug Brothers after-show party (harumph). Jeff borrowed the soprano sax from Chrissie and recorded his parts before becoming a more permanent Dark Company member. The bass for Armed & Dangerous had already been recorded when he arrived. Guitars were plugged straight into the desk. George used the lyrics for this song in a fiendishly difficult English lesson when working as a TEFL teacher. When he ran seminars for other TEFL teachers on The Use of Music in the Classroom he would set the lesson’s tasks to groups of teachers, and even they would struggle with it. Pete wrote this song about the circus and enforced jolliness. George felt that it was about the unwanted and resented child whose role in life was to be its parent’s performing monkey, e.g. “aren’t I clever because isn’t my little Johnny clever”. To correctly spell the title of this song, an ampersand must be used. George and Jeff each produced a dub remix of this song, available as bonus tracks. Thus it came about that the ampersand would be used for & co, the remixing arm of the Dark Company project.
See also: http://www.wudrecords.co.uk/artists/dark-company http://www.explicitmusic.co.uk/lyrics-information/dark-company/signmaker/armed-dangerous https://twitter.com/Dark_Company https://www.facebook.com/Dark-Company-154909774522910/ https://twitter.com/WudRecords