You lean your teeth against the rail and push

You close your eyes and let the sewage wash

Over and into every blessed crack

Barely holding out for the coming sack

And that's just how it is, I hate to tell you, how it will be

And no-one's ever deserved more than you to be set free

The faint knocking of kingdom come

When only God knows what you've done

Sweet nothing in the desert sun

With the promise of a glass bead under your tongue

And that's just how it is, baby, how it will be

And no-one's ever deserved more than you to be set free

You could have been someone

But we had plans for you

Climb into the back seat

We'll all go smiling to

The dust, the dust, the dust, the dust

Master, I'm coming home

Master, we're on our way home

And that's just what he said, babe

When they pulled him from the car

"Do not cry for these children

It was written in the stars"

And that's just how it is, baby, how it will be

And no-one's ever deserved more than me to be set free

Oh St Paul of the tarantulas

Take this one, she’s on fire

That moon is bleeding in a poison sky

Take us to the chapel of St Paul

Summon the minstrels of the town

Bring us guitar, the organetto

The castanet, the horn and the drum

Now she is waking in a world we cannot see

Where the devils and the ghosts are writhing in the trees

Sweat from her brow is pooling in the sheets

She casts them off, staggers to the street

We gather in the square now, children

Cristina, drive out your poison

Cristina, drive it out or die

O tarantula, O tarantella

The men are weeping in the square now

Cristina, drive out your sin, child

Or die

Gods turn and laugh

There’s no respite from the past

It squats like a spider

In the shadow you cast

Gone, gone, the wasted days

Gone and gone all the useless prayers

Death, death, the rack and pail

Wrap her now in her father’s veil

There is a road to the left

And a road to the right

And there's a road to freedom, babe

If you tie the thing right

Went down to your miserable garden

Where hang from callow boughs the fruits of my labour

And where my wagers squat, strain for ascension

For a mention in your bloody black book

And look what comes, slouching towards us

Just turned away from Bethlehem

It comes to revile, it comes to abhor us

All clinging like a child to the vicar's hem

When first I denied, the cock crew in the morning

The second time 'round I was away with the scum

Never mind if I lied to you, baby

I made you a wasteland, put tears on your tongue

I once was blind, now I am blinder

Rolling my rock down the heaving Strand

Baby's alright, she got a real man beside her

And I am on a chain held in his warm hand

See how the sun makes light of the way I'm looking 

See through the rifle's sight the beast ready for cooking

And one more time down into darkness

A wasted husk, a fertile seed

It matters not, the world will ask nothing of you

Ecclesiastes, baby, I got everything you need

...for in much wisdom is much grief...

...and he that increaseth knowledge also increaseth sorrow...

And then I communed with mine own heart

Saying lo, I am come to great estate

And have gotten more wisdom than all those who came before me

But that which is crooked cannot be made straight

What is wanting cannot be numbered

So I sacked it all off for a bitter jug of wine

And a jezebel in Jerusalem, baby

Hang down your head, let the day go by!

Hang down your head, let the children cry!

Down in the stairwell, the key to my heart
We raised a child, we tore it apart
I let it show me the terror of love
All of my failures, they fit like a glove, and now

Get them away from me
Oh get them away from me
Please get them away from me
All of them swinging by the tongue from daddy's tree

I can't forgive myself
For what I'm about to do
I'm born again each night
Just to see it through
Fruit of my labour
Rotting in the sewer
Carry my babies
To some green valley where they may lay

A touch of fear, a little disgust
To keep it coming, we do what we must
Ain't nothing sweeter than the broken back
Of a half-formed diatribe on all I lack, and I

Need something to take the edge
Oh, something to take the edge
Give me something to take the edge
Off a night spent swinging in the gantry by my head

I can't forgive myself
For what I'm about to do
I'm born again each night
Just to see you through
Fruit of my labour
Rotting in the sewer
Carry my babies
To some green valley where they may lay

I can't forgive myself
For what I'm about to do
I'm giving up the ghost
And nailing it to you
Fruit of my labour
Rotting in the sewer
Carry my babies
To some green valley

Fruit of my labour
Rotting in the sewer
Carry my babies
To some green valley where they may lay

I'm walking down the street

You know I mean it

Ain't been to sleep for years

You best believe it

God bless this hernia

And take me by the hand

Go find the gory waiter

Lying in the sand

I love your sickly light

The way it does unfurl

The way it's chased me

Since I was a little girl

I gape and sprawl about

I leap up to my feet

Oh, I hate the pig-dogs

And I take my terror neat

Now get out of my eyeline!

I need a straight shot!

Oh!

James Brown!

A body so designed

To understand the cost

Of making hay from

And degrading what I lost

A patch of common ground

A brutal indecision

Go tell the teacher on me

How I have been living

It's neither here nor there

Not making any sense

There is no better way

To straddle every fence

Long Lankin

Is thrusting through the night

To let you, babe, to bleed you

And to make you feel alright

Now get out of my eyeline!

I need a straight shot!

Oh!

Last call!

But the talk slurred, as if you couldn't

Not above the din from the gantry

Weird and normal and full of football

And when it was, that thin flower

Upside down swinging like Jesus cut half-loose

The gory waiter explains again

That death is simply the best garnish for life

But isn't it funny, I say, clever bastard

That in this knife edge of a world

Among the carcinogens and lily-gatherers

The motherless piping angels with the blinds
drawn down

There is enough room for you and I

To spend our thumping glory on love

Yes! On Love!

I'm walking down the street, you know I mean
it!

I'm walking down the street, you know I mean
it!

I'm walking down the street, you know I mean
it!

I'm walking down the street,

Go disappear

Spare me the careful whisper

And don't come around here

This patch where I am tending to my

Infant fearsI love you, babe, nor do I

Oh my God, how you have grown

I pray to lose the seeds we've sown

No-one is dead enough round here for us

Roll over, roll over, roll over this house!

No-one can get the stuff round here for us

Carry me, carry me, carry me farIs it so wrong

To go lightly by the lamp-posts

Where swingers swingIn more pendulous bundles every season

Drifting through

Halls of indeterminate function

My wet-market abattoir

A tragedy to come this far

No-one is dead enough round here for us

Roll over, roll over, roll over this house!

No-one can get the stuff round here for us

Carry me far

No-one is dead enough round here for us

Roll over, roll over, roll over this house!

No-one can get the stuff round here for us

Carry me!

Roll over, roll over, roll over, roll over

When the shadows of the fathers have receded at last

(Little sister with the ball and chain)

When the doe-eyed stiffs are dust of the past

(Little sister with the ball and chain)

When I crawl back home to some cavernous womb

(Little sister with the ball and chain)

I will close my eyes and dream a face on the loom

(Little sister with the ball and chain)

Yeah, I said I was going, I didn't say when

(Little sister with the ball and chain)

As the doe-eyed mastiffs grow old in their pen

(Little sister with the ball and chain)

As some facile greatness, greatness seeps

(Little sister with the ball and chain)

Into the sadness of my fact as I fall down to sleep

(Little sister with the ball and chain)

My eyes, brother!

Here I come, walking slow

Heading for what, I don't know

But here I come!

Here I come! Here I come, here I come, here I come, here I come! Chains!

When the wound closes up and my bed-sores are gone

(Little sister with the ball and chain)

I will leave you for the violence I have craved all along

Well, there ain’t no flies on me

When I saw that sun a-shining

I got off my dirty knees

Found a girl and asked her nicely (no)

Not a lot of hope to give

Just a little piece of darkness

Took a day to tie the knot

Strapped to the mast and sinking

Oh baby, I’m a pressured man

Burnt feet and frozen hands

But you help me understand

Ain’t nothing like making plans

And so I went there for you

Was nothing else I could do

Into the heart of the sun

You on the tip of my tongue

Well, there ain’t no flies on me

When the sun rose over Eden

And I saw your gentle face

I was like that saintly Stephen (Stephen)

Up go the wall around me

And the stones raining down

Now I’m dead for love and looking

Up at Lucy leaving town

Oh baby, I’m a one-eyed goat

With my hands ‘round my own throat

In a haze of plastic smoke

I’m rubbing out what I wrote

And now I’m burning for you

Nothing else I could do

Into the heart of the sun

You on the tip of my tongue

So help me, I ain’t lying

Can’t save me so don’t try

Just kiss me so you know

Why I’m always dressed for snow

When I’m pissing in the rain, I love you, baby

When I’m scrubbing out the stain, I love you, baby

When the feeling comes again, I love you, baby

But the songs they always end, baby

I watched the red clouds fold back behind the depot

Watched my own coat-tails disappear down the street

Left myself in the lurch but what was worse still

Was the look on Anna's face when I turned to concrete

Because I hadn't been to town, not since the pageant

I was sicker than a general at the sight of blood

But nature forced me on the wagon, now I'm rolling

Through the rain that's falling sadly on bad love

And oh, I'll be alright

If the dog stays down tonight

But if the gate's untended long

In the morning, in the morning I'll be gone

Oh, please forgive me for my bloated invocation

Of roses as a ruse to cover me

I'm bleeding like a pig into the water

Oh, when will I be free?

How could I let a submachine-gun tell my fortune

Or let me think that wanting was enough?

Like windfall fruit I'm coursing down the river

In the wake of insubordinate bad love

And oh, I'll be alright

If the dog stays down tonight

But if the gate's untended long

In the morning, in the morning I'll be gone

I’m going down 

To that hole in the ground

For my withered, wicked little Lords 

I will die

This one’s for the motherland

I will never fail you

The chain, the saw, the rope

I will never let you down

I’ll meet you down there 

When we’re done with the blowtorch and the razor

“Save yourself” they said

I just spat in their eyes

Said “Go on and do me a favour, I’m waiting

And now in the gloom

From the back of the room

Come now and take me

My senses forsake me

I’m open and wide

A curse on you and your rancid ancestors

Take your bloodless head, stick it in the oven

Come on, let’s get into it, let the drain run black

But I never will spill what I’ve got in my sack

And now in the gloom

From the back of the room

Come now and take me

My senses forsake me

I’m open and wide, I’m ready to die

No, no, no… yes! Yes! Yes!

The Unrepentant Soldier

I’ve done a thousand things

Just as one might kill a fly

But there is nothing grieves me so

But that I cannot do ten thousand more

Anyway, as I lay dying

In the dappled lee of a linden tree

The wind commenced its groping

Of the heart-shaped leaves and they all turned to me

And they said “Brother, though you are dying

Do you not crave the blood of one more paisano?”

And my heart commenced its beating

As I raised up my flag for a last pump and flow

I, unrepentant soldier

With my dagger in my fist

Hell punish me for every shot I missed

Look now, over my carcass

Stands a lost little boy from the town down the stream

With a bucket and two wide lidless eyes

And a place in his heart that was dead from the start

And he bends and tilts his bucket

To receive as I fade the bouquet of my veins

And it’s done, the wheel is turning

It’s the same old refrain and it will come again

Oh, how the wind was howling

In the bright indifferent sky

There will be another face in Hell tonight

I, unrepentant soldier

Lie a-mouldering in the grave

But my soul is marching on

Let it flow, let it flow, let it flow, let it flow

I sway in an ill wind, now I see there’s a day coming

Darling, the stream is softly calling to me

And even as I sway I can feel overheard

The gods expiring

Now as the stomach’s torn from the waist of a body burning

Darling, I’m yearning for that milk of kindness

And even as I see my pathetic Calvary

I know I will be happy

‘Til the stream runs dry

Lord, I don’t want to die

But hang my up to dry

And I’ll cry “suffering”

No sooner had I convalesced than I went out to see 

What misery I could collect and gather over me

Veronica, she wiped my face, Simon held my glass

I fell into the roses, lay weeping in the grass

Bend me down and lay me low, ravage me and let me go

A Judas and a saviour sucking on the same stone

I came to the arid gulch, moonlight in the cold garden

When I tell you the rain came down like nails…

‘Til the stream runs dry

Lord I don’t want to die

But hang me up to dry 

And I’m nothing and no-one

And that’s what you get, yeah, that’s what you get

Hung up on the hill, ill wind blowing

Dark was the night, cold was on the ground

Bitter was the beauty of the stream that I had found

And I will be happy

And I will be happy ‘til the stream runs dry

Our love is like an eighteen-wheeler rusting in the sun

Caligula’s on cognac, rasputin’s in the rum

Fascist boots are marching, drumming up the square

We look for God in nothing much, thank God that he’s not there

He’s all along the streets of London

All around that old new York

All along the streets of heaven

They walk, they walk, they walk, they walk, they walk

The search the destination, the gun the word for peace

The Mariana trench is slowly filling up with grief

Man I love the feeling, maybe I always will

When freedom sends the pigeons up oppression takes the kill

All along the streets of London

All around that old new York

All along the streets of heaven

They walk, they walk, they walk, they walk, they walk

This train is bound for glory

This train is bound for doom

This train is bound for nothing

And none too soon

Our love is like a corporation dying on the vine

Don’t feel sorry for me, it happens all the time

Bodies to be broken, wisdom to be choked

Hang the upper management who gave you all that rope

All along the streets of London

All around that old new York

All along the streets of heaven

They walk

Don’t lose yourself

To everyone else

Now we all know that story

The one we like so much

Of a man that you cannot kill

Well, his gun is his word

And he goes with the birds

And his name is Wild Bill

He has the measure of the beast

That thing from way out East

Where the maidens fall

Like firecracker trees

For the West is the best

In life and no death

And Bill is bringing nature to her knees

When the day comes he’ll be ready

Locked and loaded, hand is steady

In the night-time, fire burning

Through the darkness Bill returning

Love him in the morning

Love him in the evening

Love him when his chickens all come home

All the women at the Ivy

And the old folks going politely

They make young Wild Bill feel so alone

Now he’s riding in the desert

Pistol on his hip

Thunder rolling heavy on his trail

Fear is the spring

Of sex, war, everything

And the reason Bill is riding for the grail

When the day comes he’ll be ready

Locked and loaded, hand is steady

In the night-time, fire burning

Through the darkness Bill returning

Now you know what I want to hear

Say my name…

One crack from the suffering whip 

When the flags have fallen still

Filled up with the armistice 

Of a flower on the windowsill

How are you finding

This one-horse-town of Earth?

My baby left me, etcetera

The blue trees are aching through the dirt

And in the morning

When the whistle cuts the still

And my friend the ever-lover

Says he does and always will

Mosquito, helicopter coming around

Death from above, oh my love, oh my love

Hangdog in the afternoon

Where the pictures stain the walls

Hats off to the medicine

Now screening all your calls

How are you finding

This tricky task of Lot?

Know what to leave behind

And what to price and flog

And in the evening

When a whistle stills the scene

All rise for the spotlessness

Of the Atlantian dream

Mosquito, helicopter coming around

Death from above, oh my love, oh my love