• I Wanna Live With You

    You could meet me in the cafe

    We could connect to the Wi-Fi, cheek to cheek

    We could connect like we’ve never done before

    We could suck a little heaven off the kitchen floor

    And I will say that I love you

    And you’ll say you love me 

    And we’ll sign our lives away

    And go down on our knees baby

    I wanna live with you 

    I wanna cry til my face is blue

    I wanna die with you

    I wanna do whatever people do

    When I was sleeping in the meadow

    I felt a long dark shadow fall on me

    Felt a hand like a vice between my legs 

    And a voice like shellfire in my head

    And I just can’t wait to toe the line

    In this prison yard of mine

    And we will hang our pictures high

    And go down with a long deep sigh

    I wanna live with you

    I wanna dream my whole life through

    I wanna drink your blood

    I wanna do whatever people does

    Home at last, oh mama-mama

    Take me now, baby, take me now

    Honey kill me now, baby take me now

    I wanna live with you

  • St Paul of the Tarabtulas

    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

  • Dust

    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

  • Piping Angels

    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,

  • 1 : 18

    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!

  • Children

    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

  • Malarkey

    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

  • Chains

    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

  • I Love You, Baby

    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

  • Dog Stay Down

    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

    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

    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

  • ‘Til The Stream Runs Dry

    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

  • This Train

    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

  • Wild Bill

    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…

  • Mosquito

    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