The General Electric Company or GEC was a major British-based industrial conglomerate, involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications and engineering. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was renamed Marconi Corporation plc in 1999 after its defence arm, Marconi Electronic Systems was amalgamated with British Aerospace to form BAE Systems. In 2005 Ericsson purchased the bulk of Marconi plc with the remainder of the business renamed Telent.
GEC traces its origins to G. Binswanger and Company, an electrical goods wholesaler established in London during the 1880s by a German immigrant Gustav Binswanger (later Gustav Byng). Regarded as the year GEC was founded, 1886 saw Byng joined by a fellow immigrant, Hugo Hirst, and the company changed its name to The General Electric Apparatus Company (G. Binswanger).
This small business found early success with its unorthodox method of supplying electrical components over the counter. Hugo Hirst was an entrepreneurial salesman who foresaw the potential of electricity and was able to direct standardisation of an industry in its infancy. He travelled across Europe with an eye for the latest products and in 1887 the company published the first electrical catalogue of its kind. The following year the company acquired its first factory in Salford where telephones, electric bells, ceiling roses and switches were manufactured.
You better run as fast as you can,
'cause this passenger's not a happy man,
Start running just as fast as you can
You say, you need a friend,
Hey, well so do I,
But this passenger's just passing by,
Passenger is just passing
Bye.
At your age and stage you should understand,
But you don't care you got a master plan,
Fuck, fuck, fuck 'em all and take what you can
A freezing cold stare and a flick in the eye,
Passengers just passing by [x3].
To walk on water you'd sink in the ice [x4].
You're holding everything inside,
You're holding everything inside [x2].
Don't it feel good just to be alive,
Still holding everything inside?
You don't know what you want,
So you take what you can,
Still don't make you a happy man,
Start running just as fast as you can.
A freezing cold stare and a flick in the eye,
Passengers just passing by [x3].
To walk on water you'd sink in the ice [x2],
For all things gained there's a sacrifice,
To walk on water you gotta sink in the ice.
You're holding everything inside,
You're holding everything inside [x2],
And don't it feel good just to be alive?
Don't it feel good just to be alive?
You're still holding everything inside.
And you don't know what you want, do ya?
Know what you want, do ya?
Know what you want?
What you want?
You're holding everything inside,
You're holding everything inside,
Youre still holding,
You're holding everything inside,
You're holding everything inside,
Youre still holding.
Don't it feel good just to be alive?
Don't it feel good just to be alive?
Don't it feel good?
Youre still holding everything inside,