Neneh Cherry

Songwriter: Booga Bear Neneh Cherry Simon Hopwood

Producer: Jonathan Sharp Dave Allen Booga Bear

Hard black soil called the Chernozem
Driving uptown with some per diems
Won't somebody check the hem
Falling down this dress again
Sporting hot jeans on the butt again
Got to get home before the mayhem
Leave that fem for another tide
Before we run and hide again

Got a hornbeam growing in the garden
Always climbing the tree is the morphine
Got a view of the love and I'm chillin'
Got a view of the hem of the horizon

Stole the weel off a car called a Porsche
While I was chewing the fat that disturbs me
It's always there because we
We play the game the we are
I got a view on outer space paparazzi
It's always there cause I know that they watch me
I bathe away in darkness
All because I'm paranoid

Got a hornbeam growing in the garden
Always climbing the tree is the morphine
Got a view of the love and I'm chillin'
Got a view of the hem of the horizon

Won't you unbotton my stuff
Won't you come and zip me up
Won't you unbotton my stuff
Won't you come and zip me up

Chauvinistic femme come arousing
Got a groove in the hem of your hygiene
Won't somebody break my boundary
Or leave that femme for another day
I like my brain and I like my bimbo
I like 'em vain let 'em lick my limbo
The boldest kiss the mayhem
Slipping down the waterside
Mum & dad are feeling kind of hurt
To get me back they got to get me first
Am I guilty quench my thirst
Spill my wine and french I quim

Got a hornbeam growing in the garden
Always climbing the tree is the morphine
Got a view of the love and I'm chillin'
Got a view of the hem of the orizon

Won't you unbotton my stuff
Won't you come and zip me up
Won't you unbotton my stuff
Won't you come and zip me up

Neneh Mariann Karlsson was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and a father from Sierra Leone. Her mother raised her in a commune with her stepfather, jazz musician Don Cherry (father of Eagle Eye Cherry).

She moved to London in the 1980s and immersed herself in the Bristol music scene (where Massive Attack and Portishead would form), getting involved with bands such as The Cherries, The Slits, New Age Steppers, Rip Rig + Panic and Float Up CP.

But it was her collaboration with the duo Morgan-McVey, who released only the one single “Looking Good Diving”, that would be the springboard to launch her into international stardom. The single’s B-side featured Cherry rapping over the A-side’s instrumental tracks with what later became the lyrics to her 1988 debut breakout single “Buffalo Stance” (its music reworked by Bomb The Bass' Tim Simenon) – which reached the top 10 in eleven countries.

more tracks from the album

Man

From the album

Man (1996)

Neneh Cherry popular songs

HornbeamNeneh Cherry

Neneh Cherry

Man