Versions

Version	Length	Source	Availability
Studio [1]	4:28	Human Frailty album.	Extremely common. Available new in CD and digital form.
Studio [1]	4:26	2 CD versions of the Natural Selection album.	Moderately rare. Not available new.
Studio [2]	4:12	1985 01 05 06 Hardware St, Melbourne Rehearsal VHS PCM.	The Vault digital download at True Believers for 31 May 2015.

Recommended Version.

Commentary

Comments from the “Natural Selection” liner notes (by Mark Seymour):

A bed sit the size of a small caravan, over the top of a bistro in Fitzroy Street. It was cheap, with a view. There was a large bay window next to the bed that received the full blast of a prevailing south westerly, and at night we lay there listening to the rain pounding on the tin roof, or the drug dealers and junkies scuffling in the alley below.

Lyrics

It took a lie, took a lie, took a lifetime
It took a lie, took a lie, took a lifetime
Driven under 20k of rain
I had to crawl, I had to beg
I had to pay for it through the nose
To get into this tiny shiftless room
With the bar heater broken
And the stale chips in the oven
And the fly there on the table
With its legs stuck in the butter block

Well here it is, here it is
The one place that’s small enough
To hold a finger tight
A well-oiled rat’s nest
On a shapeless summer night
Shapeless summer night

I fanged it, I fanged it
[repeat]

It took a lie, took a lie, took a lifetime
It took a lie, took a lie, took a lifetime
We made the whole building sway
Made the whole city shudder
You off in one corner
And me back here in the other

Well here it is
Here it is
The one place that’s small enough
To hold a finger tight
A well-oiled rat’s nest
On a shapeless summer night.
Shapeless summer night

I fanged it, I fanged it

[repeat]