Scott Walker

See the dwarves and see the giants
Which one would you choose to be?
And if you can't get that together
Here's the answer, here's the key
You can freeze like a 30 Century Man
Like a 30 Century Man
I'll save my bread and take it with me
'Til a hundred years or so
Shame you won't be there to see me
Shakin' hands with Charles De Gaulle
Play it cool and Saranwrap all you can
Be a 30 Century Man
You can freeze like a 30 Century Man
Like a 30 Century Man
Like a 30 Century Man

When I crossed the river
with a heavy blanket roll
I took nobody with me
not a soul.

I took a few provisions
some for comfort, some for cold
but I took nobody with me
not a soul.

The windows are ringing
shaking Night-nites for angels
rattling throats up and down on a beam.

Cooling the hearts
cooling the plasma
keeping ice junkies packed hard on a seam

The other side of a prowler
the dead still search the living.

At least there we did not not fail.

Coming to in the overcast
tracks are still flowing.

At least there he does not wail.

Psalms of your hands
sung into the lateness
move a circuit on the white
and he can't feel a thing.

Gone always alone to all you are never
he climbs into your mouth
when the windows ring.

The windows are ringing
shaking dead men for angels
Hissing brains boiling up
press't to the bone

uncoils the wire whole night long
bumping out thru the eye in knots.

Sweet hot numbers
sweet hots
bumping out thru the eye
on a wire of knots.

Sweet hot numbers
sweet hots
bumping out thru the eye
on a wire of knots.

Psalms of your hands
sung into the lateness
move a circuit on the white
and he can't feel a thing.

Gone always alone to all you are never
he climbs into your mouth
when the windows ring.

This is how you disappear
out between midnight,

called up under valleys
of torches and stars.

Foot, knee, shaggy belly, face
famous hindlegs,

as one of their own
you graze with them.

Cro-magnon herders
will stand in the wind,
sweeping tails shining,
and scaled to begin,

SHUTTING DOWN HERE
SHUTTING DOWN HERE ?

? to where necks
leave the air
unpossesed

and giant heads lock
constellations.

A last grain of dust
lands in the darkness
on tongues laid bare,

and turning to chalk.

Shutting down here.

Freezing in red,
bent over his ice skin,
The insomniac gnaws
in the On-Offs;

he is glazed
in the hooves
all round.

It is losing its shape.
Losing its shape,
as the heat
in your hands
carve the muscle
away.

And he grins
from a break
in a backflash.

Delivers it up
on a break
in a backflash.

Motionless brands
burn into a hipframe
As a saviour
loads sightlines
backlit by fires,

on the ridges
of the highest
breeder

In the time of an exile
from the jails of another
where soundings are taken
raw to his eyes.

I have walked the way from him
down to splintering bone ashes
with your voice shining sea
in his fractures and skys.

There are no voices here.

There are only confessions.
keeping him hidden
weighed out of his name

We have entered deserted.

He has gazed from my windows
as if all that replaced us
could still end in me.

For the first time unwoken
I am returned.

For the first time unwoken
I am returned.

He arrives from a place
with a face of fast sun.

Arrives from a space
his refuge overrun.

She will fold him away in his
badly changed hand.

Fold him away far behinf
where I am.

For the first time forgetting
I am returned.

As if all that replaced us
ends it again
as if all that replaced us
ends.

It's a starving reflection
if he dies in the night
listening to the increase.

It cuts out your likeness
in blood circulations
suspended beneath a release.

A low volume force feed
lower than pity
slips across under the heart
and your hostage rewinding
from every eclipse
rolls in the voltage
run-off rain on his lips.

We chew up the blackness
to some high sleep
travel a faster silence.

One to go long again
in the going ?
? gone again.

Full stare passages
striking less face;
outside on the move
a shattered heart pace
greases the fade;
sinking the blood back
breaking to where loaded icons wade.

Eyesides catch far awake
in a cols sanctuary.

Pain sonics eternities
all through themoves.

A first communication
tears loose undelivered
and swims unassigned
in your dimmed latitudes.

And the heat from the shore
melts down to recieve us;
floodlit foreheads
howled open and so nearly blessed
as they soften round dog-joys
of unfinished strangers
rubbed out on a point
afterburning

Stump of a drowner.
The delta holder.
Lowered up from his boulder
and riding pains
steady blowout.

All those arms in the gullys
chewed through at the wrists.
All that won't flood awake ?
? all that listens and lifts

Deserting your lead
while the figure is also carrying

Deserting your lead
while the figure is also carrying.

Your hands are drained.
Your skins are stained and heavy.

Go to ground
you are sealed against the night.
Spotted head blood head
heat up the stars.
Polish and silence away your parole.

She's a dugout;
her second sleeps
dreagging the roads.
Her fixed strays
shine from ditches

wherever she goes ?

? Deserting your lead
while the figure is also carrying

Pry open those jaws
try and hear your own way out.

Driven in deep;
you save yourself the burying.

The darkness swarms;
Try and hear your own way out.

Say it got late
on that one.
That life-giver one.
Hanging weightless from the wound
in a half-light.

Taken up I could hold him
when all falls away.
Prayed into each other
you stood in the air

and the ceiling are rising
and falling.
The ceiling are shining
and slow
peeling tongues from the ice hums
and letting it go.

and the ceiling are rising
and falling.
The ceiling are shining
and slow
peeling tongues from the ice hums
and letting it go.

Delayed in the headlong
Resembled to breaking-point
I swear you never slept at night
when the growing is slow.

After me I'm no man's son
run out of recognize.

The blood of our
split back without his prisoner
the distance rigged in his eyes

Rock of cast-offs
bury me
hide my soul
and sink us free.

Rock of cast offs
bury me
hide my soul
and pray us free.

From the host of late-comers
a miracle enters the streets
shining with rain
he is shaking to wash
the murder away.

The shadow of the son
made the son a shadow

it's never night when I die.

That desert clouds under
and so Lord lightens
sleepers wait there
with wounds in their sides.

In the strength of the crime
you sing like a stranger
and your failure fulfills
your most secret defeat.

After me I'm no man's son
run out of recognize.

A life of it's own
lays down the horizon
the distance rigged in it's eyes

Rock of cast-offs
bury me
hide my soul
and sink us free.

Rock of cast offs
bury me
hide my soul
and pray us free.

Corneas misted
Put put put put
Color high
Put put put
Motionless
Put put put put
For seconds at a time
A hand that is cold in another colder
Put put put
And everything
Put put put put
within reach
This is a waltz for a dodo
A samba for Bambi
Gavotte for the Kaiser
Bolero for Beuys
A reel for Red Rosa
A polka for Tintin
Corneas misted
Put put put
Color high
Put put put
Motionless
Put put put put
One hand that is cold in another colder
Put put put
And everything
within reach

"Milosevic couldn't care less if Bosnia was recognized" a laughing Dr. Karadzic later told a television interviewer. He said, "Caligula proclaimed his horse senator but the horse never took his seat."

Polish the fork and stick the fork in him
Polish the fork and stick the fork in him
Shinier still and stick the fork in him
He's done boys
he's done boys
Where will you sleep my stomach
My second stomach through the trees
Handicapped
Buzzing out on the steppes
Spooking yourself in the breeze
Somebody dies
Somebody don't shave
Ruminating the slimy stars
Polish the fork and stick the fork in him
Kad Tad -- Kad Tad -- Kad Tad
Polish it more and stick the fork in him
Kad Tad -- Kad Tad -- Kad Tad
Shinier still and stick the fork in him
He's done boys
He's done boys
Faces of the grass go lenghtening (oor)
The lengthening faces through the ice and sun (ooor)
Faces lengthen go lengthening faces
Into lengthening faces from the branch to the grass
With buried heads they stand in full view
Eyes sliding of the faces up and up
Slide up the faces and up the sun
And up the faces go lengthening faces
Eyes are sliding above the tall and peaceful grass
Polish the fork and stick the fork in him
Kad Tad -- Kad Tad -- Kad Tad
Polish the fork and stick the fork in him
Kad Tad -- Kad Tad -- Kad Tad
Shinier still and stick the fork in him
He's done boys
He's done boys

Birds
Birds
This is not a cornhusk doll
Dipped in blood in the moonlight
Like would happen in America
This is us
Our eyesides snagged
Dipped in mob in the daylight
Like would happen in America
The breasts are still heavy
The legs long and straight
The upper lip remains short
The teeth are too small
The eyeside is green
The hair long and black
Still coming through
Still coming through
She knows this room
She can navigate it in the dark
She entered the Palazzo at night by a side door
To ascend to a lift in the upper floor
She lies on the bed
Looking up not yet seeing
The signs of the zodiac painted in gold
On the blue vaulted ceiling
His enormous eyes as he arrives
Coming nearer in the surrounding darkness
His strange beliefs about the moon
Its influence upon men of affairs
The danger of its cold light on your face
While you were sleeping
She'll eclipse it with her head
Stroke him 'til he sleeps
Until he has nothing to do among men of affairs
Sometime before dawn
Her bare feet cross the floor
She gazes from the window
At the fountain in the courtyard
Sometimes I feel like a swallow
A swallow which by some mistake
Has gotten into an attic
And knocks its head against the walls in terror
This is not a rabbit skinned
With a body of silver
Like would happen in America
The breasts are still heavy
The legs long and straight
The upper lip remains short
The teeth are too small
The eyeside is green
The hair long and black
Still coming through
Still coming through
The mood soon changed
In the clear morning air
A man came up towards the body
And poked it with a stick
It rocked swiftly
And twisted around at the end of the rope
Finer than a hair from every side
Finer than a hair
Birds
Birds
This is just a cornhusk doll
Dipped in blood in the moonlight
This is just a cornhusk doll
This morning in my room
A little swallow was trapped
It flew around desperately
Until it fell exhausted on my bed
I picked it up
So as not to frighten it
I opened the window
Then I opened my hand

"A moving aria
for a vanished
style of mind
A noble debut
tackling vertiginous
demands
Has absence ever
sounded so
eloquent
so sad
I doubt it?"
With an arm
across the
torso
face on
the nails
with an arm
across the
torso
face on
the pale
monkey
nails
"Touching the
shattered lives
it unearths
A nocturne
filled with
glorious ideas
A chilling
exploration
of erotic consumption"
With an arm
across the
torso
face on
the nails
with an arm
across the
torso
face on
the pale
monkey
nails
Cossacks are
charging in
charging into
fields of
white roses
Cossacks are
charging in
charging into
fields of
white roses
"That's a nice suit"
"That's a swanky suit"
"Been a pope like no other"
"I'm looking for a good cowboy"
"A rare outcry makes you lead a larger life"
"You could easily picture this in the current top ten"
"Medieval savagery
Calculated cruelty"
"It's hard to pick the worst moment"
Calculated cruelty"
"It's hard to pick the worst moment"
With an arm
across the
torso
face on
the nails
with an arm
across the
torso
face on
the pale
monkey
nails

What do Seoul/Sudan have in common?
Both start with an S
Deep as a virus
Little Mary
Little Mary
From scratchless I ascend
Stamps tongue-swabbed
Now embark for the Ivory Coast
Chiming like mouse bells
BAM BAM BAM BAM
BAM BAM BAM BAM
At the birth of a vermin Holy Ghost
Stars led to sky
Lash led to eye
Herpes to clit
Then stopped
Expect
I'm carried by lanterns
Expect
I will follow the aerosol patterns
Immunity won't feed on the bodies
Bones closing
Too soon at the tips
Won't feed on the bodies
From the fat black crocodile on the sand bar
Can't swallow it then bury it
From the voice flooded semen clotting to paste
Can't swallow it then bury it
And the jigger raps pits
Darkness long
Jigger raps pits
BAM BAM BAM BAM
BAM BAM BAM BAM
Shoes had to shine
Splicing to swine
Strain after strain after strain after strain
Immunity
Immunity
Through the dominant wards and nurseries
A flugleman moves
In the lung-smeared slides and corridors
A flugleman moves
And his tune rises on the harvest clouds of dust
Trading the wah-wah's for
BAM BAM BAM BAM
BAM BAM BAM BAM
Stars led to sky
Toe led to thigh
Rumor to breast
Then stopped

Nose holes caked in black cocaine
Pow! Pow!
No one holds a match to your skin
No dupe
No chiming
A way off miles off
No needle through a glove
Famine is a tall tower
A building left in the night
Jesse are you listening?
It casts its ruins in shadows
Under Memphis moonlight
Jesse are you listening?
Six feet of foetus
Flung at sparrows in the sky
Put yourself in my shoes
A kiss, wet, muzzle
A clouded eye
No stars to flush it out
Famine is a tall tower
A building left in the night
Jesse are you listening?
It casts its ruins in shadows
Under Memphis moonlight
Jesse are you listening?
Pow! Pow!
In the dream
I am crawling around in my hands and knees
smoothing out the prairie
All the dents and the gouges
And the winds dying down
I lower my head
Press my ear to the prairie
Alive, I'm the only one
Left alive
I'm the only one
Left alive
I'm the only one
Left alive
Alive
I'm the only one
Left alive
I'm the only one
Left alive
I'm the only one
Left alive

As the grossness of spring lolls its head against the window
As the grossness of spring lolls its bloodshot head
Curare! Curare! Curare!
Brogue cries from the street
Curare! Curare!
As the grossness of spring rose
A tumor balloon to squeak against the window
With the grossness of spring staining into the walls
The chair had been shifted ever so slightly
Say five feet or two centimeters
The prints of my fingers dusted from doorknobs
A lamp had been dimmed
Some sawdust where a ring had been
Where nice girls were turned into whores
Gardens with fountains where peacocks had strutted
Where deaf children were born
The splendor of tigers turning to gold in the desert
Pale meadows of stranded pyramids
Sonny boy
such a sonny boy
There's a song in the air
Curare! Curare! Curare!
But the fair senorita don't seem to care
Curare! Curare! Curare!
As the grossness of spring lolls its head against the window
As the grossness of spring lolls its bloodshot head
I merely got up so slowly
Shuffled across the floor
Closed the door on the landing
Descending the stairs
Dipping into the street
The paralysed street
Brogue says "Good afternoon!"
I say "Good afternoon!"
"It's a lovely afternoon"
"Yes, it's a lovely afternoon"I
Into pockets unstitching so weighted with pins
Into eyes imploding on mazes of sins
The puddle beneath the cork
Bobbing on a mild chop that rolled in
Off the river Dix and the open water beyond
Brogue says
"I'LL PUNCH A DONKEY IN THE STREETS OF GALWAY"
Then me
"I'LL PUNCH A DONKEY IN THE STREETS OF GALWAY"
Brogue
"I'LL PUNCH A DONKEY IN THE STREETS OF GALWAY"
"I'LL PUNCH A DONKEY IN THE STREETS OF GALWAY"
Sonny boy
Such a sonny boy
In her voice, there's a flaw
Sonny boy
Such a sonny boy
E-e-aw and e-e-aw

Neath the bougie a thimble rigger slyly rolls the pea
Bye the bye the bye the bye
Red is patchy
Snows the silver
Bye the bye the bye the bye
Can't turn from a crotch in the darkness
To turn to the valley of a king
Ja-da ja-da ja-da ja-da
jing jing jing
Wrapped in blankets
then in blankets
Hear the germs pinging on the night wind
Cross the west coast to the west coast to the west coast
The angelus begins
Eye for hand
Dye y-et eye
bye-t the negro
come on sucker
anthrax jesus
sack of the-b
shawl for he-b
no bye the bye
Pulling out won't be slow
sorry baby b the needles
another night I gotta pull
muffle bye
no bye the bye
by the bye
no bye the bye

Neath the bougie a thimble rigger slyly rolls the pea
Bye the bye the bye the bye
Red is patchy
Snows the silver
Bye the bye the bye the bye
Don't think it hasn't been fun because it hasn't
Donje is Donje in the spring
Ja-da ja-da ja-da ja-da
jing jing jing
Here blankets
Here come the blankets
They plunge like rays
Snapping down the night wind
Cross the east coast to the east coast
Scratch the air and blue burn
The angelus begins
Pulling out won't be slow
Sorry baby
Stuff the chancellor
dreamed he mans
gathered y-et
bye the bye
no bye the bye
Scaling comes scaling comes
Red is patchy
Snows the silver
Another night I gotta pull
muffle bye
no bye the bye
bye the bye
no bye the bye

The car in front follows the long way around
Prey moves
Predator moves
Foreshortened angels hunting me down
Halle -- halle -- halle
Underkill
Sticks in gutters
Overkill
Is personal
Too many bullets
Rabbi crater
Keyed for action
hits the marks
I wish I was in Dixie
Sleet switches silence
To the shredding of larks
Serifot
Combs of honey
Kellipot
Saliva's coating
balls of money
You and me against the world
You and me against the world
You and me against the world
World about to end
World about to end
World about to end
Windblown hair in a windowless room
A lifeline of knuckles
Waddles into the afternoon
Look into its eyes
It will look into your eyes

See the dwarves and see the giants
Which one would you choose to be?
And if you can't get that together
Here's the answer, here's the key
You can freeze like a 30 Century Man
Like a 30 Century Man
I'll save my bread and take it with me
'Til a hundred years or so
Shame you won't be there to see me
Shakin' hands with Charles De Gaulle
Play it cool and Saranwrap all you can
Be a 30 Century Man
You can freeze like a 30 Century Man
Like a 30 Century Man
Like a 30 Century Man

She stands all alone
You can hear her hum softly
From her fire escape in the sky
She fills the bags 'neath her eyes
With the moonbeams
And cries 'cause the world's passed her by

Didn't time sound sweet yesterday?
In a world filled with friends
You lose your way

She's a haunted house
And her windows are broken
And the sad young man's gone away
Her bathrobe's torn
And tears smudge her lipstick
And the neighbors just whisper all day

Didn't time sounds sweet yesterday?
In a world filled with friends
You lose your way

There's a butterfly circling the beach
Searching the rocks where you are
He chooses your hair, and that's where he belongs
For he's lost like a star
Head down, reluctant and warm
You give your thoughts to the sea
Dark rivers your eyes belong to no-one
Like a star
Like a butterfly

Hope for me, I hope for you,
We're snowdrops falling through the night.

We'll melt away before we land,
Two teardrops for somebody's hand.

Follow me into just one more Spring.

Copenhagen, you're the end,
Gone and made me a child again.
Warmed my feet beneath cold sheets,
Dyed my hair with your sunny streets.

Children aren't afraid to love
And laugh when life amuses them.

And our love is an antique song
For children's carousels

Oh I can see them now
Clutching a hankerchief
And blowing me a kiss
Discreetly asking how
How came he died so young
Or was he very old
Is the body still warm
Or is it already cold
All doors are open wide
They grope around inside
At my desk my drawers my trunk
There's nothing left to hide
Some love letters are there
And an old photograph
They've laid my poor soul bare
And now all they do is laugh

Oh I can see them all
So formal and so stiff
Like a seargant at arms
At a policeman's ball
And everybody's pushing
To be the first in line
Their hearts upon their sleeves
Like a ten cent valentine
The old women are there
Too old to give a damn
They've brought along the kids
Who don't know who I am
They're thinking about the price of my funeral bouquet
What they're thinking isn't nice
For now they'll have to pay

Oh I see all of you
All of my phoney friends
Who can't wait for it ends
Who can't wait till it's through
Oh I see all of you
You've been laughing all these years
Now all that you have left
Are a few crocodile tears
Ah you don't even know
That you're entering your hell
As you leave my cemetary
You think you're doing well
With that one who's at your side
You're as proud as you can be
Ah she's going to make you cry
But not the way you cried for me

Oh I can see me now
So cold and so alone
As the flowers slowly die
In my field of little bones
Oh I can see me now
I can see me at the end
Of this voyage that I/m on
Without a love without a friend
Now all this that I see
Is not what I deserve
They really have a nerve
To say these things to me
No girls just bread and water
And your money you must save
For there'll be nothing left for us
When you're dead and in your grave

If you go away
On this summer day
Then you might as well
Take the sun away
All the birds that flew
In the summer sky
When our love was new
And our hearts were high
And the day was young
And the night was long
And the moon stood still
For the night bird's song

If you go away

But if you stay
I'll make you a day
Like no day has been
Or will be again
We'll sail the sun
We'll ride on the rain
And talk to the trees
And worship the wind

Then if you go
I'll understand
Leave me just enough love
To fill up my hand

If you go away
As I know you will
You must tell the world
To stop turning, turning
'til you return again
If you ever do
For what good is love
Without loving you?
Can I tell you now
As you turn to go
I'll be dying slowly
'til the next hello

But if you stay
I'll make you a night
Like no night has been
Or will be again
I'll sail on your smile
I'll glide on your touch
I'll talk to your eyes
That I love so much

But if you go
I won't cry
Though the good is gone
From the word goodbye

If you go away
As I know you must
There'll be nothing left
In this world to trust
Just an empty room
Full of empty space
Like the empty look
I see on your face
And I'd have been the shadow
Of your shadow
If it might have kept me
By your side

It's raining today
and I'm just about to forget the train window girl
That wonderful day we met
She smiles through the smoke from my cigarette
It's raining today
But once there was summer and you
And dark little rooms
And sleep in late afternoons
Those moments descend on my windowpane
I've hung around too long
Listenin' to the old landlady's hard-luck stories
You out of me, me out of you
We go like lovers
To replace the empty space
Repeat our dreams to someone new
It's raining today
And I watch the cellophane streets
No hang-ups for me
'Cause hang-ups need company
The street corner girl's a cold trembling leaf
It's raining today
It's raining today

Voices from a photograph
Laugh from your wall
Scream through your dreams
Wake up Rosemary and wipe your teary eyes

Rise and cross the cold bare floor
And watch the moon through frosted glass
Damn that photograph
I'll have to take it down

She hears the boats as they move down the river
She sees a dog straining hard on his leash to get away
She hears the clock and it strikes like a hammer
Pounding the nails one day further in the coffin of her
youth

Evenings with your mother's friends
Pregnant eyes, sagging chins
Swollen fingertips
Pour antique cups of tea

Who are you and where you been?
Suspended in a weightless wind
Watching trains go by
From platforms in the rain

Look at the photograph
Dream back last summer
Dream back the lips
Of that traveling salesman, Mr. Jim

He smelled of miracles
With stained glass whispers
You loved his laughter
You tremble beneath him once again

That's what I want
A new shot at life
But my coat's too thin
My feet won't fly

And I watch the wind and I see another dream blowin' by

Sons of the thief, sons of the saint
Who is the child with no complaint
Sons of the great or sons unknown
All were children like your own
The same sweet smiles, the same sad tears
The cries at night, the nightmare fears
Sons of the great or sons unknown
All were children like your own...

So long ago: long, long, ago...

But sons of tycoons or sons of the farms
All of the children ran from your arms
Through fields of gold, through fields of ruin
All of the children vanished too soon
In tow'ring waves, in walls of flesh
Among dying birds trembling with death
Sons of tycoons or sons of the farms
All of the children ran from your arms...

So long ago: long, long, ago...

But sons of your sons or sons passing by
Children we lost in lullabies
Sons of true love or sons of regret
All of the sons you cannot forget
Some built the roads, some wrote the poems
Some went to war, some never came home
Sons of your sons or sons passing by
Children we lost in lullabies...

So long ago: long, long, ago

But, sons of the theif, sons of the saint
Who is the child with no complaint
Sons of the great or sons unknown
All were children like your own
The same sweet smiles, the same sad tears
The cries at night, the nightmare fears
Sons of the great or sons unknown
All were children like your own...

They spoke transparent phrases to looking glass women
And they took the detours that scattered the way
They departed from summer like two ragged soldiers
Dragging their heels through their fantasies

There were meals in the missions for two frozen statues
And long draughty sermons devouring their knees
Sometimes passions in winter turn to cold soundless moments
That teared in the eyes of their fantasies

There were nights on park benches, stale bread for the pigeons
Good mornings to faces who just turned away
And on one road confusion, the other desire
So they took to the road of their fantasies

One would speak of a lake where he used to go swimming
The other had no memories left for his mind
With their arms round each other the two ragged soldiers
Laughed through a war that they couldn't see

Laughed for a world filled with fantasy

Two weeks since you've gone
And I feel like the tramp
Picking dustbins in the alley.
He looks up as I pass
Clutching rags from a city's restless night

I could read all my sadness
In faces I knew
Down at Kelly's bar last Friday
And I haven't been back since I mistook
Somebody for a friend

And if I walk these streets long enough
Will you happen to me again?
With whom are you sharing
The sweet taste of summer?
My memories pursue you
Like puddles of rain
The river inside me still flow
To the sea of your hands

And if I close my eyes for a while
Will you happen to me again?

We came through
We came riding through like warriors from afar
Our black horses danced upon the graves of yesterday's desires
Haunted by our visions framed in fire
I greet you, for you still believe in what's behind the door
You've seen the children freeze upon their knees
And praying to the wind
To send their grey madonnas back again
Fire the guns, and salute the men who died for freedom's sake
And we'll weep tonight, but we won't lie awake
Gazing up at statues dressed in stars
We won't dream, for they don't come true for us
Not anymore
They've run afar to hide in caves
With haggard burning eyes
Their icy voices tear our hearts like knives

We came through
Like the Gothic monsters perched on Notre Dame
We observe the naked souls of gutters pouring forth mankind
Smothered in an avalanche of time
And we're giants as we watch our kings and countries raise their shields
And Guevara dies encased in his ideals
And as Luther King's predictions fade from view
We came through

You're like a winter night
Your thoughts are frozen
You kiss your lovers
In the snow

Too many icy tears
Glisten for someone

You watch the leaves
As they shiver your loneliness
Your eyes are lanterns
Growing dim

I hum inside
Like the meadows in summer

But I'll never light them up
Again

The Angels of Ashes
Will give back your passions
Again and again

Their light shafts
Will reach through the darkness
And touch you my friend

They'll fly in a mind dance
And blind you with wings
Wrapped in flame

If you're down to an echo
They just might remember
Your name

In the unbroken darkness
Where emptiness empties
Alone

There's no starting or stopping
Where there is no right or
No wrong

Well that's all right for some
Who can hang the absurd
On their wall

If your blind hands can't grope
Through these measureless waters
You'll fall

You've been following patterns
And fleeting sensations
Too long

And the fullness that fills up
The pulse of durations
Is gone

Let the great constellation
Of flickering ashes
Be heard

Let them burn with a fire
All it takes to confess
Is a word, just a word

I can recommend angels
I've watched as they've made a man strong
Oh so strong

If your humbleness shows
Then I'm sure that they'll take you
Along

You can tell them who sent you
It might help to get you
Above

You can say that he laughed
And he walked like St. Francis
With love

She stands all alone
You can hear her hum softly
From her fire escape in the sky
She fills the bags 'neath her eyes
With the moonbeams
And cries 'cause the world's passed her by

Didn't time sound sweet yesterday?
In a world filled with friends
You lose your way

She's a haunted house
And her windows are broken
And the sad young man's gone away
Her bathrobe's torn
And tears smudge her lipstick
And the neighbors just whisper all day

Didn't time sounds sweet yesterday?
In a world filled with friends
You lose your way

There's a butterfly circling the beach
Searching the rocks where you are
He chooses your hair, and that's where he belongs
For he's lost like a star
Head down, reluctant and warm
You give your thoughts to the sea
Dark rivers your eyes belong to no-one
Like a star
Like a butterfly

If you go away
On this summer day
Then you might as well
Take the sun away
All the birds that flew
In the summer sky
When our love was new
And our hearts were high
And the day was young
And the night was long
And the moon stood still
For the night bird's song

If you go away

But if you stay
I'll make you a day
Like no day has been
Or will be again
We'll sail the sun
We'll ride on the rain
And talk to the trees
And worship the wind

Then if you go
I'll understand
Leave me just enough love
To fill up my hand

If you go away
As I know you will
You must tell the world
To stop turning, turning
'til you return again
If you ever do
For what good is love
Without loving you?
Can I tell you now
As you turn to go
I'll be dying slowly
'til the next hello

But if you stay
I'll make you a night
Like no night has been
Or will be again
I'll sail on your smile
I'll glide on your touch
I'll talk to your eyes
That I love so much

But if you go
I won't cry
Though the good is gone
From the word goodbye

If you go away
As I know you must
There'll be nothing left
In this world to trust
Just an empty room
Full of empty space
Like the empty look
I see on your face
And I'd have been the shadow
Of your shadow
If it might have kept me
By your side

If time were not a moving thing
And I could make it stay
This hour of love we share
Would always be
There'd be no coming day
To shine a morning light
And make us realize our night is over

When you walk away from me
There is no place to put my hand
Except to shade my eyes against the sun
That rises over the land
I watch you walk away
Somehow I have to let you go
Cause it's over

If you knew just how I really feel
You might return and yet
There are so many times
That people have to love and then forget
Oh there might have been a way somehow
I have to force myself to say
It's over

So I turn my back,
Turn my collar to the wind
Move along in silence
Trying not to think at all
I set my feet before me
Walk the silent street before me
Now it's over

If time were not a moving thing
And I could make you stay
This hour of love we share
Would always be
There'd be no coming day
To shine a morning light
And make us realize our night is over

It's over

It's raining today
and I'm just about to forget the train window girl
That wonderful day we met
She smiles through the smoke from my cigarette
It's raining today
But once there was summer and you
And dark little rooms
And sleep in late afternoons
Those moments descend on my windowpane
I've hung around too long
Listenin' to the old landlady's hard-luck stories
You out of me, me out of you
We go like lovers
To replace the empty space
Repeat our dreams to someone new
It's raining today
And I watch the cellophane streets
No hang-ups for me
'Cause hang-ups need company
The street corner girl's a cold trembling leaf
It's raining today
It's raining today

And if one day I should become
A singer with a Spanish bum
Who sings for women of great virtue
I'd sing to them with a guitar
I borrowed from a coffee bar
Well, what you don't know doesn't hurt you
My name would be Antonio
And all my bridges I would burn
And when I gave them some they'd know
I'd expect something in return
I'd have to get drunk every night
And talk about virility
With some old grandmother
That might be decked out like a christmas tree
And though pink elephants I'd see
Though I'd be drunk as I could be
Still I would sing my song to me
About the time they called me "Jacky"

If I could be for only an hour
If I could be for an hour every day
If I could be for just one little hour
Cute in a stupid ass way

And if I joined the social whirl
Became procurer of young girls
Then i would have my own bordellos
My record would be number one
And I'd sell records by the ton
All sung by many other fellows
My name would then be handsome Jack
And I'd sell boats of opium
Whisky that came from Twickenham
Authentic queers
And phony virgins
If I had banks on every finger
A finger in every country
And every country ruled by me
I'd still know where I'd want to be
Locked up inside my opium den
Surrounded by some china men
I'd sing the song that I sang then
About the time they called me "Jacky"

If I could be for only an hour
If I could be for an hour every day
If I could be for just one little hour
Cute in a stupid ass way

Now, tell me, wouldn't it be nice
That if one day in paradise
I'd sing for all the ladies up there
And they would sing along with me
And we be so happy there to be
Cos' down below is really nowhere
My name would then be Junipher
Then I would know where I was going
And then I would become all knowing
My beard so very long and flowing
If I became deaf, dumb and blind
(was: If I could play deaf, dumb and blind)
Because I pitied all mankind
And broke my heart to make things right
I know that every single night
When my angelic work was through
The angels and the Devil too
Would sing my childhood song to me
About the time they called me "Jacky"

If I could be for only an hour
If I could be for an hour every day
If I could be for just one little hour
Cute in a stupid ass way

Joanna I cant forget the one they call joanna We own the summer hand in hand joanna
And now she"s always just a tear awayGoodbye you-you long lost summerLeaving me behind youRepeating things for loversThat may find youI still hang on to every word that dayYou passed my way
Joanna you made the man a child again so sweetlyHe breathed your smileLooked in your eyes completely

And on his heart theres still a trace of you
I loved you but nothing in this world could make you mineYet still in time joanna
----joanna you may remember me and change your mind----musical break
I loved you but nothing in this world could make you mineBut still in time joanna
Joanna you may remember me and change your mind

Mama, do you see what I see
On your knees and pray for me
Mathilde's come back to me
Charley, don't want another beer
Tonight I'm gonna drink my tears
Mathilde's come back to me
Go ask the maid if she heard what I said
Tell her to change the sheets on the bed
Mathilde's come back to me
Fellas, don't leave me tonight
Tonight I'm going back to fight
Wretched Mathilde's in sight

My heart, my heart, stop beating so
Just make as if you didn't know
That Mathilde's come back to me
My heart, I don't want you to say
She's lovelier than when she went away
Mathilde, who's come back to me
My heart, stop beating overjoyed
Remember you were once destroyed
By Mathilde, who's come back to me
Fellas, please don't go away
Tell me that I mustn't stay
Mathilde's coming back today

My hands, you'll start to shake again
When you remember all the pain
Mathilde's come back to me
You'll want to beat her black and blue
But don't do it, I beg of you
Mathilde's come back to me
My hands, remember all the years
Remember when you caught my tears
Mathilde's come back to me
My hands, you'll want to touch her now
But please try and be strong somehow
Mathilde's here, she's coming now, now

Mama, can you hear me yell
Your baby boy's gone back to hell
Mathilde's come back to me
Charley, champagne right away
I know you've been saving it for the holiday
But Mathilde's come back to me
Go ask the maid if she heard what I said
Tell her to put the best sheets on the bed
Mathilde's come back to me
My friends, don't count on me no more
I've gone and crashed through heaven's door
My sweet Mathilde's here
Once more, once more

Naked as sin, an army towel
Covering my belly
Some of us blush, somehow
Knees turning to jelly
Next, next

I was still just a kid
There were a hundred like me
I followed a naked body
A naked body follwed me
next, next

I was still just a kid
When my innocence was lost
In a mobile army whorehouse
Gift from the army, free of cost
Next, next

Me, I really would have liked
A little touch of tenderness
Maybe a word, a smile
An hour of happiness
But, next, next

Oh, it wasn't so tragic
The high heavens did not fall
But how much of that time
I hated being there at all
Next, next Now I always will recall
The brothel truck, the flying flags
The queer lieutenant who slapped
Our asses as if we were fags
Next, ne xt

I swear on the wet head
Of my first case of gonorrhea
It is his ugly voice
That I forever hear
Next, next

That voice that stinks of whiskey
Of corpses and of mud
It is the voice of nations
It is the thick voice of blood
Next, next

And since the each woman
I have taken to bed
Seems to laugh in my arms
To whisper through my head
Next, next

All the naked and the dead
Should hold each other's hands
As they watch me scream at night
In a dream no one understands
Next, next

And when I am not screaming
In a voice grown dry and hollow
I stand on endless naked lines
Of the following and the followed
Next, next

One day I'll cut my legs off
Or burn myself alive
Anything, I'll do anything
To get out of line to survive
Never to be next
Never to be next.

Over the rooftop sails Billy
A string tied to his underwear
Through cobbled stone streets a child races
And shouts "Billy, come down from there"

"My mother's calling" his voice whimpers
A string clutched in his tiny hand
Not till I've seen the sky's not lit up
In tears, child try and understand
Don't pull the string, Don't bring me down
Don't make me land

Plastic palace people
Sing silent songs, they dream too long
Their memories just stare
Plastic palace Alice
She steals the cards tomorrow deals
With deafening despair

Hurry, you've got to get in line
Your nose might start to shine
And sweat it out and dance about
The whole eternal life

A harvest of stars surrounds Billy
The night clings to his happy eyes
Asleep in town square beneath a fountain
A child murmurs a weary sigh
My mother weeps, And weaves her hair
With worries please, Come down from there

Plastic palace people
Through fields of clay and granite grey
They play without a sound
Plastic palace Alice
Blows gaping holes to store her fears
Inside her lovers head

Listen, they're laughing in the halls
They rip your face with lies
To buzzing eyes you cry for help
Like gods they bark replies

Over the rooftops burns Billy
Balloon sadly the string descends
Searching its way down through blue submarine air
The polka dot underwear
To meet the trees, In morning square
Just hanging there, Just hanging there

I've come from far from chains,
From metal and stone,
From makeshift designs,
And seeking a star

To grab for the truth,
To keep myself warm,
I turn and it's gone,
You smile and it's born.

The rhymes of a woman's,
A river that never ends
The Rhymes of Dimension,
Surrounds us with fire and friends,
And roaring through darkness,
The Night children fly,
I still hear them singing the rhymes of goodbye

There's nothing within,
but within says a voice,
That's still my Empire,
And I've got a choice

Its healers of death,
It's still got a fire,
And I keep it burning,
With hands of desire

The bells of our senses,
Can cost us our pride,
Can toll out the boundaries,
That level our lives

Can slash like the sunlight,
Through shadows and cracks,
Our nakedness calling,
Our nakedness back

The rhyme of our passions,
Find beauty in loving love,
The rhyme of our madness,
Burn cities and push'n'shoves,
And roaring through darkness,
The Night children fly,
I still hear them singing the rhymes of goodbye

Mist falls and his voice cracks from the morning
Flowers and my body feels like lead
Someone should have stopped the birds from singing today
Hammers from striking nails into clay

Her face penetrates the blue gray morning
Her eyes pregnant pools produce a tear
Someone should have shouted you had gone in her ear
That summer was stolen away

Such a small love
Such a little tear
You would laugh so loud
If you could see us here

With my one suit
Badly pressed and worn
Like a child left
In the world alone

He speaks I don't hear a word he's saying
Hang on to the pine trees and the snow
Reach out grab the memories that are left for your hand
They'll help you get by for a while

Such a small love
Such a little tear
Is this all that's left
On your cheek so pale

His shallow half lit eyes
His rotted teeth grown on
Our drunken madman nights
Ending up in jail

Midnight mornings
Drenched in day-glo red
Words colliding
Things we left unsaid

Perfumed pillows
Girls that clung so near
Such a small love
Such a little tear

I've watched her from the river banks
I knew her when she danced with dreams
White doves were there to dress her hair
And so was Madelaine

At night the people's faces danced
Like pearls colliding on the breast
Of fat Marie whose thunder laugh
Was just a thread from crying

Her sailors stained her cobblestones
With wine and piss and death desire
And sometimes blood for Madelaine
Whose laughter was the night

Her girls would lift their dresses high
and breathe the stars and kiss the sky
She'd smother them with whispers then
Embrace them with her sighs

Before the bottle dulled my eyes
And made me so I couldn't stand
I'd overact and play the clown
When Madelaine would cry

And now I watch from riverbanks
I watch it weave it's memories
White doves turned gray and flew away
And so did Madelaine

You're like a winter night
Your thoughts are frozen
You kiss your lovers
In the snow

Too many icy tears
Glisten for someone

You watch the leaves
As they shiver your loneliness
Your eyes are lanterns
Growing dim

I hum inside
Like the meadows in summer

But I'll never light them up
Again