Painting by Dennis, Thanx to him and his talent.    Lyrics Part 3

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New York

Romeo Had Juliette

Caught between the twisted stars the plotted lines the faulty map
that brought Columbus to New York
Betwixt between the East and West he calls on her wearing a leather vest
the earth squeals and shudders to a halt
A diamond crucifix in his ear is used to help ward off the Fear
that he has left his soul in someone's rented car
Inside his pants he hides a mop to clean the mess that he has dropped
into the life of lithesome Juliette Bell

And Romeo wanted Juliette and Juliette wanted Romeo
And Romeo wanted Juliette and Juliette wanted Romeo

Romeo Rodriguez squares his shoulders and curses Jesus
runs a comb through his black pony-tail
He's thinking of his lonely room
the sink that by his bed gives off a stink
Then smells her perfume in his eyes and her voice was like a bell

Outside the street were steaming the crack dealers were dreaming
of an Uzi someone had just scored
I betcha I could hit that light with my one good arm behind my back
says little Joey Diaz
Brother give me another tote those downtown hoods are no damn good
those Italians need a lesson to be taught
This cop who died in Harlem you think they'd get the warnin'
I was dancing when his brains run out on the street

And Romeo had Juliette and Juliette had her Romeo
And Romeo had Juliette and Juliette had her Romeo

I'll take Manhattan in a garbage bag with Latin written on it that says
"It's hard to give a shit these days"
Manhattan's sinking like a rock, into the filthy Hudson what a shock
they wrote a book about it, they said it was like ancient Rome
The perfume burned his eyes, holding tightly to her thighs
and something flickered for a minute and then it vanished and was gone

Halloween Parade

There's a down town fairy singing out "Proud Mary"
as she cruises Christopher Street
And some Southern Queen is acting loud and mean
where the docks and the Badlands meet

This Halloween is something to be sure
Especially to be here without you

There's a Greta Garbo and an Alfred Hitchcock
and some black Jamaican stud
There's five Cinderellas and some leather drags
I almost fell into my mug

There's a Crawford, Davis and a tacky Cary Grant
And some Homeboys lookin' for trouble down here from the Bronx

But there ain't no Hairy and no Virgin Mary
you won't hear those voices again
And Johnny Rio and Rotten Rita
you'll never see those faces again

This Halloween is something to be sure
Especially to be here without you

There's the Born Again Losers and the Lavender Boozers
and some crack team from Washington Heights
The boys from Avenue B and the girls from Avenue D
a Tinkerbell in tights

This celebration somehow get me down
Especially when I see you're not around

There's no Peter Pedantic saying things romantic
In Latin, Greek or Spic
There's no Three bananas or Brandy Alexander
Dishing all their tricks

It's a different feeling that I have today
Especially when I know you've gone away

There's a girl from Soho with a teeshirt saying "I Blow"
She's with the "jive five 2 plus 3"
And the girls for pay dates are giving cut rates
Or else doing it for free

The past keeps knock knock knocking on my door
And I don't want to hear it anymore

No consolations please for feelin' funky
I got to get my head above my knees
But it makes me mad and mad makes me sad
And then I start to freeze

In the back of my mind I was afraid it might be true
In the back of my mind I was afraid that they meant you

The Halloween Parade
At the Halloween parade
At the Halloween parade
See you next year - at the Halloween parade

Dirty Blvd.

Pedro lives out of the Wilshire Hotel
He looks out a window without glass
The walls are made of cardboard, newspapers on his feet
His father beats him 'cause he's too tired to beg

He's got 9 brothers and sisters, they're brought up on their knees
It's hard to run when a coat hanger beats you on the things
Pedro dreams of being older and killing the old man
but that's a slim chance he's going to the boulevard

He's going to end up, on the dirty boulevard
He's going out, to the dirty boulevard
He's going down, to the dirty boulevard

This room cost 2,000 dollars a month, you can believe it man it's true
Somewhere a landlord's laughing till he wets his pants
No one here dreams of being a doctor or a lawyer or anything
they dream of dealing on the dirty boulevard

Give me your hungry, your tired your poor I'll piss on 'em
That's what the Statue of Bigotry says
Your poor huddled masses, let's club 'em to death
and get it over with and just dump 'em on the boulevard

Get 'em out, on the dirty boulevard.
Going out, to the dirty boulevard.
They're going down, on the dirty boulevard.

Going out

Outside it's a bright night, there's an opera at Lincoln Center
Movie stars arrive by limousine
The klieg lights shoot up over the skyline of Manhattan
But the lights are out on the mean streets

A small kid stands by the Lincoln Tunnel
He's selling plastic roses for a buck
The traffic's backed up to 39th street
The TV Whores are calling the Cops out for a Suck

And back at the Wilshire, Pedro sits there dreaming
He's found a book on Magic in a garbage can
He looks at the pictures and stares at the cracked ceiling
"At the count of 3" he says, "I hope I can disappear"

And fly fly away, from this dirty boulevard
I want to fly, from dirty boulevard
I want to fly, from dirty boulevard
I want to fly, fly, fly, fly, from dirty boulevard

I want to fly away
I want to fly
Fly, fly away
I want to fly
Fly, fly away
Fly, fly, fly
Fly, fly away
Fly away

*** Thanx to Ugo who corrected a few mistakes ***

Endless Cycle

The bias of the father runs on through the son
and leaves him bothered and bewildered
The drugs in his veins only cause him to spit
at the face staring back in the mirror
How can he tell a good act from the bad
he can't even remember his name
How can he do what needs to be done
when he's a follower not a leader

The sickness of the mother runs on through the girl
leaving her small and helpless
Liquor files through her brain with the force of a gun
leaving her running in circles
How can she tell a good act from the bad
when she's flat on her back in her room
How can she do what needs to be done
when she's a coward and a bleeder

The man if he marries will batter his child
and have endless excuses
The woman sadly will do much the same
thinking that it's right and it's proper
Better than their mommy or their daddy did
Better than the childhood they suffered
The truth is they're happier when they're in pain
In fact, that's why they got married

There Is No Time

This is no time for Celebration
This is no time for Shaking Heads
This is no time for Backslapping
This is no time for Marching Bands

This is no time for Optimism
This is no time for Endless Thought
This is no time for my country Right or Wrong
Remember what that brought

There is no time X4

This is no time for Congratulations
This is no time to Turn Your Back
This is no time for Circumlocution
This is no time for Learned Speech

This is no time to Count Your Blessings
This is no time for Private Gain
This is no time to Put Up or Shut Up
It won't no time to come back this way again

There is no time X4

This is no time to Swallow Anger
This is no time to Ignore Hate
This is no time to be Acting Frivolous
because the time is getting late

This is no time for Private Vendettas
This is no time to not know who you are
Self knowledge is a dangerous thing
The freedom of who you are

This is no time to Ignore Warnings
This is no time to Clear the Plate
Let's not be sorry after the fact
and let the past become out fate

There is no time X4

This is no time to turn away and drink
or smoke some vials of crack
This is a time to gather force
and take dead aim and Attack

This is no time for Celebration
This is no time for Saluting Flags
This is no time for Inner Searchings
The future is at head

This is no time for Phony Rhetoric
This is no time for Political Speech
This is a time for Action
because the future's Within Reach

This is the time X3
because there is no time

There is no time X4

Last Great American Whale

They say he didn't have an enemy
His was a greatness to behold
He was the last surviving progeny
The last one on this side of the world

He measured half a mile from tip to tail
silver and black with powerful fins
They say he could split a mountain in two
That's how we got the Grand Canyon

Last Great American Whale X4

Some say they saw him at the Great Lakes
Some say they saw him off the coast of Florida
My mother said she saw him in Chinatown
but you can't always trust your mother

Off the Carolinas the sun shines brightly in the day
The lighthouse glow ghostly there at night
The chief of a local tribe had killed a racist mayor's son
and he'd been on death row since 1958

The mayor's kid was a rowdy pig
spit on Indians and lots worse
The old chief buried a hatchet in his head
life compared to death for him seemed worse

The tribal brothers gathered in the lighthouse to sing
and tried to conjure up a storm or rain
The harbor parted and the great whale sprang full up
and caused a hugh tidal wave

The wave crushed the jail and freed the chief
The tribe let out a roar
The whites were drowned
the browns and reds set free
but sadly one thing more

Some local yokel member of the NRA
kept a bazooka in his living room
and thinking he had the chief in his sight
blew the whale's brains out with a lead harpoon

Last Great American Whale X4

Well Americans don't care for much of anything
land and water the least
And animal life is low on the totem pole
with human life not worth more than infected yeast

Americans don't care too much for beauty
They'll shit in a river, dump battery acid in a stream
They'll watch dead rats wash up on the beach
and complain if they can't swim

They say things are done for the majority
Don't believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear
It's a lot like what my painter friend Donald said to me
"Stick a fork in their ass and turn them over, they're done"

Beginning Of A Great Adventure

It might be great to have a kid that I could kick around
a little me to fill up with my thought
A little me or he or she to fill up with my dreams
a way of saying life is not a loss

I'd keep the tyke away from school and tutor him myself
keep him from the poison of crowd
But then again pristine isolation might not be the best idea
It's not good trying to immortalize yourself

Beginning Of A Great Adventure
Beginning Of A Great Adventure

Why stop at one, I might have ten, a regular TV brood
I'd breed a little liberal army in the wood
Just like these redneck lunatics I see at the local bar
with their tribe of mutant inbred piglets with cloven hoovers

I'd teach them how to plant a bomb, start a fire, play guitar
and if they catch a hunter, shoot him in the nuts
I'd try to be as progressive as I could possibly be
as long as I didn't have to try too much

Beginning Of A Great Adventure
Beginning Of A Great Adventure

Susie, Jesus, Bogart, Sam Leslie, Jill and Jeff
Rita, Winny, Andy, Fran and Jet
Boris, Bono, Lucy, Ethel Bunny, Reg and Tom
that's a lot of named to try not to forget

Carrie, Marlon, No and Steve La Rue and Jerry Lee
Eggplant, Rufus, Dummy, Star and The Glob
I'd need a damn computer to keep track of all these names
I hope this baby thing don't go too far

I hope it's true what my wife said to me
I hope it's true what my wife said to me
Hey I hope it's true what my wife said to me

She says, baby, it's the Beginning of a Great Adventure
Baby, it's the Beginning of a Great Adventure
Take a look

It might be fun to have a kid that I could kick around
create in my own image like a god
I'd raise my own pallbearers to carry me to my grave
and keep me company when I'm a wizened toothless clod

Some gibbering old fool sitting all alone drooling on his shirt
some senile old fart playing in the dirt
It might be fun to have a kid I could pass something on to
something better than rage, pain, anger and hurt

I hope it's true what my wife said to me
I hope it's true what my wife said to me
I hope it's true what my wife said to me
She says Lou, it's the Beginning of a Great Adventure
Lou, Lou, Lou, Beginning of a Great Adventure
She says baby, how you call your lover boy
Sylvia, quite you call your lover man

Busload Of Faith

You can't depend on your family
You can't depend on your friends
You can't depend on a beginning
You can't depend on an end

You can't depend on intelligence
Ooohhh, you can't depend on a god
You can only depend on one thing
You need a Busload of Faith to get by, watch, baby

Busload of Faith to get by X3
You need a Busload of Faith to get by

You can depend on the worst always happening
You can depend on a murderer's drive
You can bet that if he rapes somebody
There'll be no problem having a child

And you can bet that if she aborts it
Pro-Lifers will attack her with rage
You can depend on the worst always happening
You need a Busload of Faith to get by, yeah

Busload of Faith to get by X2
Busload of Faith to get by, babe
Busload of Faith to get by

You can't depend on the goodly hearted
The goodly hearted made lampshades and soap
You can't depend on the Sacrament
No Father, no Holy Ghost

You can't depend on any churches
Unless there's a real estate you want to buy
You can't depend on a lot of things
You need a Busload of Faith to get by, wow

Busload of Faith to get by X4

You can't depend on no miracle
You can't depend on the air
You can't depend on a wise man
You can't find them because they're not there

You can depend on cruelty
Crudity of thought and sound
You can depend on the worst always happening
You need a Busload of Faith to get by, ha

Busload of Faith to get by X4

Sick Of You

I was up in the morning with the TV blarin'
brush my teeth sittin' watchin' the news
All the beaches were closed the ocean was a Red Sea
but there was no one there to part in two
There was no fresh salad because there's hypos in the cabbage
Staten Island disappeared at noon
And they say the midwest is in great distress
and NASA blew up the moon

The ozone layer has no ozone anymore
and you're gonna leave me for the guy next door
I'm Sick of You, I'm Sick of You

They arrested the Mayor for an illegal favor
sold the Empire State to Japan
And Oliver North married William Secord
and gave birth to a little Teheran
And the Ayatollah bought a nuclear warship
if he dies he wants to go out in style
And there's nothing to eat that don't carry the stink
of some human waste dumped in the Nile

We one thing is certainly true
no one here knows what to do
I'm Sick of You, I'm Sick of You

The radio said there were 400 dead
in some small town in Arkansas
Some whacked out trucker drove into a nuclear reactor
and killed everybody he saw
Now he's on Morton Downey and he's glowing and shining
doctors say this is a medical advance
They say the bad makes the good and there's something to be learned
in every human experience

Well I know one thing that really is true
This here's a zoo and the keeper ain't you
And I'm sick of it, I'm Sick of You

They ordained the Trumps and then he got the mumps
and died being treated at Mt. Sinal
And my best friend Bill died from a poison pill
some wired doctor prescribed for stress
My arms and legs are shrunk the food all has lumps
They discovered some animal no one's ever seen
It was an inside trader eating a rubber tire
after running over Rudy Giuliani

They say the President's dead but no one can find his head
It's been missing now for weeks
But no one noticed it he had seemed so fit
and I'm Sick of it

I'm Sick of You, I'm so Sick of You, bye, bye, bye
bye, bye, bye

Hold On

There's blacks with knives and whites with guns
fighting in Howard Beach
There's no such thing as human rights
when you walk the N.Y.streets
A cop was shot in the head by a 10 years old kid
named Buddah in Central Park last week
The fathers and daughters are lined up by the coffins
by the Statue of Bigotry

You better hold on, something's happening here
You better hold on, meet you in Tompkins Square

The dopers sent a message to the cops last weekend
they shot him in the car where he sat
And Eleanor Bumpers and Michael Stewart
must have appreciated that
There's a rampaging rage rising up like a plague
of bloody vials washing up on the beach
It'll take more than the Angels or Iron Mike Tyson
to heal this bloody breach, hey, hey

You better hold on, something's happening here
You better hold on, meet you in Tompkins Square

A junkie ran down a lady a pregnant dancer
she'll never dance but the baby was saved
He shot up some China White and nodded out at the wheel
and he doesn't remember a thing
They shot that old lady 'cause they thought she was a witness to
a crime she didn't even see
Whose home is the home of the brave
by the Statue of Bigotry, hey

You better hold on, something's happening here
You better hold on, meet you in Tompkins Square

You got a black .38 and a gravity knife
you still have to ride the train
There's the smelly essence of N.Y. down there
but you ain't no Bernard Goetz
There's no Mafia lawyer to fight in your corner for that
15 minutes of fame
The have and the have nots are bleeding in the tub
that's New York's future not mine, oh

You better hold on, something's happening here
You better hold on, something's happening here
Hold on

Good Evening Mr.Waldheim

Good evening Mr.Waldheim
and Pontiff how are you ?
You have so much in common
in the things you do
And here comes Jesse Jackson
he talks of Common Ground
Does that Common Ground include me
or is it just a sound

A sound that shakes
Oh Jesse, you must watch the sounds you make
A sound that quakes
There are fears that still reverberate

Jesse you say Common Ground
does that include the PLO ?
What about people right here right now
who fought for you not so long ago ?
The words that flow so freely
falling dancing from your lips
I hope that you don't cheapen them
with a racist slip

Oh Common Ground
Is Common Ground a word or just a sound
Common Ground
Remember those civil rights workers buried in the ground

If I ran for President
and once was a member of the Klan
wouldn't you call me on it
the way I call you on Farrakhan
And Pontiff, pretty Pontiff
can anyone shake your hand ?
Or is it just that you like uniforms
and someone kissing your hand

Or is it true
The Common Ground for me includes you too
Oh is it true
The Common Ground for me includes you too

Good evening Mr.Waldheim
pontiff how are you
As you both stroll through the woods at night
I'm thinking thoughts of you
And Jesse you're inside my thoughts
as the rhythmic words subside
My Common Ground invites you in
or do you prefer to wait outside

Or is it true
The Common Ground for me is without you
Or is it true
The Common Ground for me is without you
Oh is it true
There's no Ground Common enough for me and you

Xmas In February

Sam was lyin' in the jungle
agent orange spread against the sky like marmalade
Hendrix played on some foreign jukebox
they were praying to be saved
Those gooks were fierce and fearless
that's the price you pay when you invade
Xmas in February

Sam lost his arm in some border town
his fingers are mixed with someone's crop
If he didn't have that opium to smoke
the pain would never ever stop
Half his friends are stuffed into black body bags
with their names printed at the top
Xmas in February

Sammy was a short order cook
in a short order black and blue collar town
Everybody worked the steel mill
but the steel mill got closed down
He thought if he joined the Army
he'd have a future that was sound
Like no Xmas in February

Sam's staring at the Vietnam Wall
it's been a while now that he's home
His wife and kid have left, he's unemployed
He's a reminder of the war that wasn't won
He's the guy on the street with the sign that reads
"Please help send this Vet home"
But he is home
And there's no Xmas in February
No matter how much he saves

Strawman

We who have so much to you who have so little
to you who don't have anything at all
We who have so much more than any one man does need
and you who don't have anything at all, ah
Does anybody need another million dollar movie
does anybody need another million dollar star
Does anybody need to be told over and over
spitting in the wind comes back at you twice as hard

Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman, going straight to hell
Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman, Strawman
Strawman, Strawman, yes

Does anyone really need a billion dollar rocket
does anyone need a $60,000 car
Does anyone need another President
or the sins of Swaggart parts 6, 7, 8, and 9, ah
Does anyone need another politician
caught with his pants down money sticking in his hole
Does anyone need another racist preacher
spittin' in the wind can only do you harm, wow

Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman, going straight to hell
Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman, Strawman
Strawman, Strawman

Does anyone need another faulty shuttle
blasting off to the Moon, Venus or Mars
Does anyone need another self-righteous rock and roll singer
whose nose he says has led him straight to God
Does anyone need yet another blank skyscraper
If you're like me I'm sure a minor miracle will do
A flaming sword or maybe a gold ark floating up the Hudson
When you spit in the wind it comes right back at you

Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman, going straight to hell
Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman, Strawman, Strawman
Strawman, Strawman

Dime Store Mystery

He was lying banged and battered, skewered and bleeding
talking crippled on the Cross
Was his mind reeling and heaving hallucinating
fleeing what a loss

The things he hadn't touched or kissed his senses
slowly stripped away
Not like Buddha not like Vishnu
life wouldn't rise through him again

I find it easy to believe
That he might question his beliefs
The beginning of the Last Temptation
Dime Story Mystery

The duality of nature, Godly nature,
human nature splits the soul
Fully human, fully divine and divided
the great immortal soul

Split into pieces, whirling pieces, opposites
attract
From the front, the side, the back
the mind itself attacks

I know the feeling, I know it from before
Descartes through Hegel belief is never sure
Dime Store Mystery, Last Temptation

I was sitting drumming thinking thumping pondering
the Mysteries of Life
Outside the city shrieking screaming whispering
the Mysteries of Life

There's a funeral tomorrow
at St. Patrick's the bells will ring for you
Ah, what must you have been thinking
when you realized the time had come for you

I wish I hadn't thrown away my time
on so much Human and so much less Divine
The end of the Last Temptation
The end of a Dime Store Mystery

Songs For Drella

Smalltown

When you're growing up in a small town
When you're growing up in a small town
When you're growing up in a small town
You say no one famous ever came from here

When you're growing up in a small town
and you're having a nervous breakdown
and you think that you'll never escape it
Yourself or the place that you live

Where did Picasso come from
There's no Michelangelo coming from Pittsburgh
If art is the tip of the iceberg
I'm the part sinking below

When you're growing up in a small town
Bad skin, bad eyes, gay and fatty
People look at you funny
When you're in a small town

My father worked in construction
It's not something for which I'm suited
Oh, what is something for which you are suited ?
Getting out of here

I hate being odd in a small town
If they stare let them stare in New York City
As this pink eyed painting albino
How far can my fantasy go ?

I'm no Dali coming from Pittsburgh
No adorable lisping Capote
My hero, oh, do you think I could meet him ?
I'd camp out at his front door

There is only one good thing about small town
There is only one good use for a small town
There is only one good thing about small town
You know that you want to get out

When you're growing up in a small town
You know you'll grow down in a small town
There is only one good use for a small town

You hate it and you'll know you have to leave

Open House

Please
Come over to 81st street I'm in the apartment
above the bar
You know you can't miss it, it's across from the subway
and the tacky store with the mylar scarves
My skin's as pale as outdoors moon
my hair's silver like a Tiffany watch
I like lots of people around me but don't kiss hello
and please don't touch

It's a Czechoslovakian custom my mother passed on to me
The way to make friends Andy is invite them up for tea
Open house, open house

I've got a lot of cats, here's my favorite
she's lady called Sam
I made a paper doll of her, you can have it
That's what I did when I had St.Vitus dance

It's a Czechoslovakian custom my mother passed on to me
Give people little presents so they remember me
Open house, open house

Someone bring the vegetables
someone please bring heat
My mother showed up yesterday
we need something to eat

I think I got a job today they want me to draw shoes
The ones I drew were old and used, they told me to draw something new
Open house, open house

Fly me to the moon
fly me to a star
But there are no stars in the New York sky
they're all on the ground

You scared yourself with music, I scared myself with paint
I drew 550 different shoes today, it almost made me faint
Open house, open house
Open house, open house

Style It Takes

You've got the money, I've got the time
You want your freedom, make your freedom mine
'Cause I've got the style it takes
And money is all that it takes

You've got connections, I've got the art
You like my attention and I like your looks
And I have the style it takes
And you know the people it takes

Why don't you sit right over there, we'll do a movie portrait
I'll turn the camera on and I won't even be there
A portrait that moves, you look great I think

I'll put the Empire State Building on your wall
For 24 hours glowing on your wall
Watch the sun rise above it in your room
Wallpaper art, a great view

I've got a Brillo box and I say it's art
It's the same one you can buy at any supermarket
'Cause I've got the style it takes
And you've got the people it takes

This is a rock group called The Velvet Underground
I show movies on them, do you like their sound
'Cause they have a style that grates
And I have art to make

Let's do a movie here next week
We don't have sound but you're so great
You don't have to speak

You've got the style it takes, Kiss
You've got the style it takes, Eat
You've got the style it takes, Couch
You've got the style it takes, Kiss

Work

Andy was a Catholic
the ethic ran through his bones
He lived alone with his mother
collecting gossip and toys

Every Sunday when he went to Church
He'd kneel in his pew and say
"It's work, all that matters is work."

He was a lot of things
what I remember most he'd say
"I've got to bring home the bacon
someone's got to bring home the roast."

He'd get to the factory early
If you'd ask him he'd tell you straight out
It's work

No matter what I did it never seemed enough
he said I was lazy, I said I was young
He said, "How many songs did you write ?"
I'd written zero, I'd lied and said, "Ten."

"You won't be young forever
You should have written fifteen"
It's work

"You ought to make things big
people like it that way
And the songs with the dirty words
make sure your record them that way"

Andy liked to stir up trouble
he was funny that way
He said, "It's just work

Andy sat down to talk one day
he said decide what you want
Do you want to expand your parameters
or play museums like some dilettante

I fired him on the spot
he got red and called me a rat
It was the worst word that he could think of
And I've never seen him like that
It's work, I thought he said it's just work

Andy said a lot of things
I stored them all away in my head
Sometimes when I can't decide what I should do
I think what would Andy have said

He'd probably say you think too much
That's 'cause there's work that you don't want to do
It's work, the most important thing is work
It's work, the most important thing is work

Trouble With Classicists

The trouble with a classicist he looks at a tree
That's all he sees, he paints a tree
The trouble with a classicist he looks at the sky
He doesn't ask why, he just paints a sky

The trouble with an impressionist, he looks at a log
And he doesn't know who he is, standing, staring, at this log
And surrealist memories are too amorphous and proud
While those downtown macho painters are just alcoholic

The trouble with impressionist is X4

The trouble with personalities, they're too wrapped up in style
It's too personal, they're in love with their own guile
They're like illegal aliens trying to make a buck
They're driving gypsy cabs but they're thinking like a truck

The trouble with personalities is X4

I like the druggy downtown kids who spray paint walls and trains
I like their lack of training, their primitive technique
I think sometimes it hurts you when you stay too long in school
I think sometimes it hurts you when you're afraid to be called a fool

The trouble with classicists is X4

Starlight

Starlight open wide, starlight open up you door
This is New York calling with movies on the street
Movies with real people, what you get is what you see
Starlight open wide, Andy's Cecil B. DeMille

Come on L.A. give us a call
We've got superstars who talk, they'll do anything at all
Ingrid, Viva, Little Joe, Baby Jane, and Eddie S.
But you better call us soon before we talk ourselves to death

Starlight open wide everybody is a star
Split screen 8-hour movies, we've got color, we've got sound
Won't you recognize us, we're everything you hate
Andy loves old Hollywood movies, he'll scare you hypocrites to death

You know that shooting up's for real
That person who's screaming, that's the way he really feels
We're all improvising, five movies in a week
If Hollywood doesn't call us, we'll be sick

Starlight open wide, do to movies what you did to art
Can you see beauty in ugliness, or is it playing in the dirt
There are stars out on the New York streets, we want to capture them on film
But if no one wants to see them, we'll make another and another

Starlight let us in that magic room
We've all dreamt of Hollywood, it can't happen too soon
Won't you give us a million dollars the rent is due
And will give you 2 movies and a painting
Starlight open wide !

Faces And Names

Faces and names, I wish they were the same
Faces and names only cause trouble for me
Faces and names

If we all looked the same and we all had the same name
I wouldn't be jealous of you or you jealous of me
Faces and names

I always fall in love with someone who looks
the way I wish that I could be
I'm always staring at someone who hurts
And the one they hurt is me

Faces and names, to me they're all the same
If I looked like you and you looked like me
There'd be less trouble you see

Faces and names, I wish they'd go away
I'd disappear into that wall and never talk
Faces and names

I wish I was a robot or a machine
Without a feeling or a thought
People who want to meet the name I have
Are always disappointed when they meet me

Faces and names, I wish they were the same
Faces and names only cause problems for me
Faces and names

I'd rather be a hole in the wall, looking out on the other side
I'd rather look and listen, listen and not talk
To faces and names

If I had a breakdown when I was a kid
I lost my hair when I was young
If you dress older when you're not
As your really age you look the same

If we all looked the same, we wouldn't play these games
Me dressing for you and you dressing for me
Undressing for me

Faces and names, if they all were the same
You wouldn't be jealous of me or me jealous of you
Me jealous of you, me jealous of you

Your face and your name, your face and your name
Faces and names, faces and names

Images

I think images are worth repeating
images repeated from a painting
Images taken from a painting
from a photo worth re-seeing

I love images worth repeating
project them upon the ceiling
Multiply them with silk screening
see them with a different feeling

Images, oh, images
Images, oh, images

Some say images have no feeling
I think there's a deeper meaning
Mechanical precision or so it's seeming
instigates a cooler feeling

I love multiplicity of screenings
things born anew display new meanings
I think images are worth repeating
and repeating and repeating

Images, oh, images
Images, images

I'm no urban idiot savant
spewing paint without any order
I'm no sphinx, no mystery enigma
what I paint is very ordinary

I don't think I'm old or modern
I don't think I think I'm thinking
It doesn't matter what I'm thinking
It's the images that are worth repeating

Ah, repeating, images
Images

If you're looking for a deeper meaning
I'm as deep as this high ceiling
If you think technique is meaning
you might find me very simple

You might think that images boring
Cars and cans and chairs and flowers
You might find me personally boring
Hammer, sickle, Mao Tse Tong

Mao Tse Tong
Images, images, images

I think that it bears repeating
the images upon the ceiling
I love images worth repeating
and repeating and repeating

Images, images
Oh, images, oh, images

Slip Away (A Warning)

Friends have said to lock the door
and have an open house no more
The said the Factory must change
and slowly slip away

But if I have to live in fear
where will I get my ideas
With all those crazy people gone
will I slowly slip away

Still there's no more Billy Name
and Ondine is not the same
Wonton and the Turtle gone
Slowly slip away
Slowly slip away

If I close the Factory door
and don't see those people anymore
If I give in to infamy
I'll slowly slip away

I know it seems that friends are right
Hello daylight, goodbye night
But starlight is so quiet here
Think I'll slowly slip away

What can I do by myself
it's good to here from someone else
It's good to hear a crazy voice
That will not slip away
Will not slip away

If I have to live in fear
my ideas will slowly slip away

If I have to live in fear
I'm afraid my life will slip away

If you can't see me past my door
Why your thoughts could slowly slip away

If I have to lock the door
another life exists no more slip away

Friends have said to lock the door
Watch out for who comes through the door
The said the Factory must change

But I don't

It Wasn't Me

It wasn't me who shamed you, it's not fair to say that
You wanted to work I gave you a chance at that
It wasn't me who hurt you, that's more credit that I'm worth
Don't threaten me with the things you'll do to you

It wasn't me who shamed you, it wasn't me who brought you down
You did it to yourself without any help from me
It wasn't me who hurt you, I showed you possibilities
The problems you had were there before you met me

I didn't say this had to be
You can't blame these things on me
It wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me
I know she's dead, it wasn't me

It wasn't me who changed you, you did it to yourself
I'm not an excuse for the hole you dropped in
I'm not simple minded but I'm not father to you at all
Death exists but you do things to yourself

I never said give up control
I never said stick a needle in your arm and die
It wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me
I know she's dead but it wasn't me

It wasn't me who shamed you, who covered you with mud
You did it to yourself without any help from me
You act as I could've told you or stopped you like some god
But people never listen and you know that that's a fact

I never said slit your wrists and die
I never said throw your life away
It wasn't me, it wasn't me, it wasn't me
You're killing yourself, you can't blame me

I Believe

Valerie Solanis took the elevator
got off at the 4th floor
Valerie Solanis took the elevator
got off at the 4th floor
She pointed the gun at Andy saying
you cannot control me anymore

I believe there's got to be some retribution
I believe an eye for an eye is elemental
I believe that something's wrong if she's alive right now

Valerie Solanis took three steps
pointing at the floor
Valerie Solanis waved her gun
pointing at the floor
From inside her idiot madness spoke
and bang, Andy fell onto the floor

I believe life's serious enough for retribution
I believe being sick is no excuse and
I believe I would've pulled the switch on her myself

When they got him to the hospital
his pulse was gone they thought that he was dead
His guts were pouring from his wounds
onto the floor they thought that he was dead
Not until years later would
the hospital do to him what she could not, what she could not

"Where were you, you didn't come to see me"
Andy said, "I think I died, why didn't you come to see me"
Andy said, "it hurt so much, they took blood from my hand"

I believe there's got to be some retribution
I believe there's got to be some retribution
I believe we are all the poorer for it now

Visit me, visit me
Visit me, visit me
Visit me, why didn't you visit me
Visit me, why didn't you visit me
Visit me, visit me
Visit me, why didn't you visit me

Nobody But You

I really care a lot
although I look like I do not
Since I was shot
there's nobody but you

I know I look blase (* accented on "e")
party Andy's what the papers say
At dinner I'm the one who pays
for a nobody like you

Nobody but you, a nobody like you
Since I got shot, there's nobody but you

Won't you decorate my house
I'll sit there quiet as a mouse
You know me I like to look a lot
at nobody like you

I'll hold your hand and slap my face
I'll tickle you to your disgrace
Won't you put me in my proper place
a nobody like you

Sundays I pray a lot
I'd like to wind you up and paint your clock
I want to be what I am not
for a nobody like you

The bullet split my spleen and lung
the doctors said I was gone
Inside I've got some shattered bone
for nobody but you

Nobody but you, a nobody like you
Shattered bone, for nobody but you

I'm still not sure I didn't die
and if I'm dreaming I still have bad pains inside
I know I'll never be a bride
to nobody like you

I wish I had a stronger chin
my skin was good, my nose was thin
This is no movie I'd ask to be in
with a nobody like you


Nobody like you, a nobody like you
All my life

It's been nobodies like you

A dream

It was a very cold clear fall night.
I had a terrible dream the other night. Billy Name and Brigid were
playingunder my stair case on the secaond floor about two o'clock
in the morning I woke up because Amos and Archie had started barking.
That made me very angry because I wasn't feeling well and I told them.
I was very cross the real me, that they just better remenber waht
happened to Sam the Bad Cat that was left at home and got sick and went pussy heaven.
It was a very cold clear fall night. Some snowfalkes were falling,
gee it was so beautiful, and so I went to get my camera to take some
pictures. And then I was taking the pictures but the exposure thing
wasn't right and I was going to call Fred or Gerry to find out how
to get it set but oh it was late and then I remembered they were still
probably at dinner and anyway I felt really bad and didn't want to
talk to anybody anyway but the snowflakes were so beautiful and real
looking and I really wanted to hold them. And that's when I heard
the voices from down the hall near the stairs. So I got a flashlight
and I was scared and I went out into the hallway. There's been all
kinds of troubles lately in the neighborhood and someone's got to
bring home the bacon and anyway there were Brigid and Billy playing.
And under the stair case was a little meadow sort of like the park at
23rd street where all the young kids go and play frisbee, gee that
must be fun, maybe we should do an article on that in the magazine,
butthey'll just tell me I'm stupid and it won't sell, but I'll just
hold my ground this time, I mean it's my magazine isn't it?
So I was thinking that as the snowflakes fell and I heard those
voices having so much fun. Gee it would be so great to have some
fun. So I called Billy, but either he didn't hear me or he didn't
want to answer which was so strange because even if I don't like
reunions I've always loved Billy. I'm so gald he's working I mean
it's different than Ondine. He keeps touring with those movies and
he doesn't even pay us and the film, I mean the film's just going
to disintegrate and then waht. I mean he's so normal off of drugs.
I just don't get it.
And then I saw John Cale. And he's been looking really great. He's
been coming by the office to exercise with me. Ronnie said I have
a muscle but he's been really mean since he went to AA. I mean what
does it mean when you give up drinking and then you're still so mean.
He says I'm being lazy but I'm not, I'm just can't find any ideas.
I mean I'm just not, let's face it, going to get any ideas up at the
office. And seeing John made me think of the Velvets and I had been
thinking about them when I was on St. Marks Place going to that
new gallery those sweet new kids have opened, but the thought I
was old, and then I saw the old Dom, the old club where we did our
first shows. It was so great. And I don't understand about that
Velvet's first album. I mean I did the cover and I was the producer
and I always see it repacaged and I've never gotten a penny from it.
How could that be. I should call Henry, but it was good seeing John,
I did a cover for him, but I did in black and white and he change
it to color. It would have been worth more if he'd left it my way
but you can never tell any body anything, I've leaned that.
I treid calling again to Billy and John but they wouldn't recognize
me it was like I wasn't there. Why won't they let me in. And then
I saw Lou I'm so mad at him. Lou Reed got married and didn't invite me.
I mean is it because he thought I'd bring too many people. I don't
get it. he could have at least called. I mean he's doing so great.
Why doesn't he call me? I saw him at the MTV show and he was one row
away and he didn't even say hello. I don't get it. You know I hate Lou
I really do. He won't even hire us for his videos. And I was proud of him.
I was so scared today. There was blood leaking thought my shirt
from those old scars from being shot. And the corset I wear to keep
my insides in was hurting. And I did three sets of fifteen pushups and
four sets of ten situps. But then my insides hurt and I saw drops of
blood on my shirt and I remember the doctors saying I was dead. And
then later they had to take blood out of my hand 'couse they ran out
or veins but then all this thinking was making me an old grouch and
you can't do anything anyway so if they wouldn't let me play with
them in my own dream I was just going to have to make another and
another and another. Gee wouldn't it be funny if I died in this dream
before I could make another one up.
And Nobody Calld.

Forever Changed

Train entering the city
I lost myself and never come back
Took a trip around the world, and never came back
Black silhouettes, crisscrossed tracks, never came back

Forever changed X2

You might think I'm frivolous, uncaring and cold
You might think I'm frivolous, depends on your point of view
Society andy, who paints and records them
The high and the low, never turn back

Forever changed X4

Got to get to the city, get a job
Got to get some work, to see me through
My old life's behind, I see you quickly receding
My life's disappearing, disappearing from view

Hong Kong, and I was changed
Burma and Thailand, and I was changed
A few good friends, to see me through
Henry and Brigid, to see me through
Only art, to see me through
Only heart, to see me through
My old life's disappearing, just feelin' from view

Forever changed X2
I was, forever changed

Hello It's Me

Andy it's me, haven't seen you in a while
I wished I talked to you more when you were alive
I thought you were self-assured when you acted shy
Hello it's me

I really miss you, I really miss your mind
I haven't heard ideas like that in such a long, long time
I loved to watch you draw and watch you paint
But when I saw you last, I turned away

When Billy Name was sick and locked up in his room
You asked me for some speed, I though it was for you
I'm sorry that I doubted your good heart
Things always seem to end before they start

Hello it's me, that was a great gallery show
Your cow wallpaper and your floating silver pillows
I wish I paid more attention when they laughed at you
Hello it's me

"Pop goes pop artist," the headline said
"Is shooting a put-on, is Warhol really dead ?"
You get less time for stealing a car
I remember thinking as I heard my own record in a bar

They really hated you, now all that's changed
But I have some resentments that can never be unmade
You hit me where it hurt I didn't laugh
Your Diaries are not a worthy epitaph

Oh well now Andy, guess we've got to go
I hope some way somehow you like this little show
I know it's late in coming but it's the only way I know
Hello it's me, goodnight Andy

Goodbye, Andy

Magic & Loss

What's Good - The Thesis

Life's like a mayonnaise soda
And life's like space without room
And life's like bacon and ice cream
That's what life's like without you

Life's like forever becoming
But life's forever dealing in hurt
Now life's like death without living
That's what life's like without you

Life's like Sanskrit read to a pony
I see you in my mind's eye strangling on your tongue
What's good is knowing such devotion
I've been around - I know what makes things run

What good is seeing eye chocolate
What good's a computerized nose
And what good was cancer in April
Why no good - no good at all

What good's a war without killing
What good is rain that falls up
What good's a disease that won't hurt you
Why no good, I guess, no good at all

What good are these thoughts that I'm thinking
It must be better not to be thinking at all
A styrofoam lover with emotions of concrete
No not much, not much at all

What's good is life without living
What good's this lion that barks
You loved a life others throw away nightly
It's not fair, not fair at all

What's good ?
Life's good -
But not fair at all

Power And Glory - The Situation

I was visited by The Power and The Glory
I was visited by a majestic hymn
Great bolts of lightning
lightning up the sky
Electricity flowing through my veins

I was captured by a larger moment
I was seized by divinity's hot breath
Gorged like a lion on experience
Powerful from life
I wanted all of it -
Not some of it

I saw a man turn into a bird
I saw a bird turn into a tiger
I saw a man hang from a cliff by the tips of his toes
in the jungles of the Amazon
I saw a man put a red hot needle through his eye
turn into a crow and fly through the trees
swallows hot coals and breathe out flames
and I wanted this to happen to me

We saw the moon vanish into his pocket
We saw the stars disappear from sight
We saw him walk across water into the sun
while bathed in eternal light
We spewed out questions waiting for answers
creating legends, religions and myths
Books, stories, movies and plays
all trying to explain this

I saw a great man turn into a little child
The cancer reduced him to dust
His voice growing weak as he fought for his life
with a bravery few men know
I saw isotopes introduced into his lungs
trying to stop the cancerous spread
And it made me think of Leda and The Swan
and gold being made from lead
The same power that burned Hiroshima
causing three legged babies and death
Shrunk to the size of a nickel
to help him regain his breath
And I was struck by The Power and The Glory
I was visited by a majestic Him
Great bolts of lightning lighting up the sky
as the radiation flowed through him
He wanted all of it
Not some of it

Magician - Internally

Magician Magician take me upon your wings
and ... gently roll the clouds away
I'm sorry so sorry I have no incantations
only words to help sweep me away

I want some magic to sweep me away
I want some magic to sweep me away
I want to count to five
turn around and find myself gone
Fly through the storm
and wake up in the calm

Release me from the body
from this bulk that moves beside me
Let me leave this body far away
I'm sick of looking at me
I hate this painful body
that disease has slowly worm away

Magician take my spirit
inside I'm young and vital
Inside I'm alive please take me away
So many things to do - it's too early
For my life to be ending
For this body to simply rot away

I want some magic to keep me alive
I want a miracle ... I don't want to die
I'm afraid that if I go to sleep I'll never wake
I'll no longer exist
I'll close my eyes and disappear
and float into the mist

Somebody ... please hear me
my hand can't hold a cup of coffee
My fingers are weak - things just fall away
Inside I'm young and pretty
Too many things unfinished
My very breath taken away

Doctor you're no magician - and I am no believer
I need more than faith ... can give me now
I want to believe in miracles - not just belief in numbers
I need some magic to take me away

I want some magic to sweep me away
Visit on this starlit night
replace the stars the moon the light - the sun's gone
Fly me through this storm
and wake up in the calm ...
I fly right through this storm
and ... I ... Wake ... Up ... In ... The ... Calm

Sword Of Damocles - Externally

I see The Sword of Damocles is right above your head
They're trying a new treatment to get you out of bed
But radiation kills both bad and good
it can not differentiate
So to cure you they must kill you
The Sword of Damocles hangs above your head

Now I have seen lots of peoples die
from car crashes or drugs
Last night on 33rd st. I saw a kid get hit by a bus
Bus this drawn out torture over which part of you lives
is very hard to take
To cure you they must kill you
The Sword of Damocles above your head

That mix of morphine and dexedrine
we use it on the street
It kills the pain and keeps you up
your very soul to keep
But this guessing game has its own rules
the good don't always win
and might makes right
The Sword of Damocles
is hanging above your head

It seems everything's done that must be done
from over here though things don't seem fair
But there are things that we can't know
maybe there's something over there
Some other world that we don't know about
I know you hate that mystic shit
It's just another way of seeing
The Sword of Damocles above your head

Goodby Mass - In A Chapel Bodily Termination

Sitting on a hard chair try to sit straight
Sitting on a hard chair this moment won't wait
Listening to the speakers they're talking about you
Look at all the people all the people you know

Sitting with my back straight it becomes hard to hear
Some people are crying it becomes hard to hear
I don't think you'd have liked it you would have made a joke
You would have made it easier you'd say "tomorrow I'm smoke"

Sitting on a hard chair how far we have come
Trying hard to listen to your friends who have come
Some of them are famous and some are just like me
Trying hard to listen trying hard to see

Sitting in a hard chair it's over time to stand
Some people are crying I turn to grab your hand
It's your daughter saying thank you
You, you would have made a joke
"Isn't this something," you say, "tomorrow I'm smoke"

Cremation - Ashes To Ashes

Well the coal black sea waits for me me me
The coal black sea waits forever
The waves hit the shore
Crying more more more
But the coal black sea waits forever

The tornados come up the coast they run
Hurricanes rip the sky forever
Through the weathers change
the sea remains the same
The coal black sea waits forever

There are ashes split through collective guilt
People rest at sea forever
Since they burnt you up
Collect you in a cup
For you the coal black sea has no terror

Will your ashes float like some foreign boat
or will they sink absorbed forever
Will the Atlantic Coast
have its final boast
Nothing else contained you ever

Now the coal black sea waits for me me me
The coal black sea waits forever
When I leave this joint
at some further point
The same coal black sea will it be waiting

Dreamin' - Escape

If I close my eyes I see your face and I'm not without you
If I trying hard and concentrate I can still hear you speak
I picture myself in your room by the chair
you're smoking a cigarette
If I close my eyes I can see your face you're saying, "I missed you"
Dreamin' - I'm always dreamin'

If I close my eyes I can smell your perfume you look and say "Hi baby"
If I close my eyes pictures from China still hang from the wall
I hear the dog bark I turned and say, "what were you saying?"
I pictured you in the red chair inside the pale room

You sat in your chair with a tube in your arm - you were so skinny
You were still making jokes I don't know what drugs they had you on
You said, " I guess this is not the time for long term investments"
You were always laughing but you never laughing at me

They say in the end the pain was so bad that you were screaming
Now you were no saint but you deserved better than that
From the corner I watch them moving things from your apartment
But I can picture you red chair and pale room inside my head

If I close my eyes I see your face and I'm not without you
If I try hard and concentrate I can gear your voice saying,
"Who better than you"
If I close my eyes I can't believe that I'm here without you
Inside your pale room your empty red chair and my head
Dreamin' , I'm always dreamin'

No Chance - Regret

It must be nice to be steady, it must be nice to be firm
It must be nice never to move off the mark
It must be nice to be dependable and never let anyone down
It must be great to be all the things you're not
It must be great to be all the things that I'm not

I see you in the hospital your humor is intact
I'm embarrassed by the strength I seem to lack
If I was in your shoes
so strange that I'm not
I'd fold up in a minute and a half
and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye

It must be nice to be normal it must be nice to be cold
It must be nice not to have to go oh up or down
But me I'm all emotional no matter how I try
you're gone and I'm still here alive
and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye
No - I didn't get a chance to say goodbye

There are things we say we wish we knew and in fact we never do
But I'd wish I'd known that you were going to die
Then I wouldn't feel so stupid, such a fool that I didn't call
And I didn't get a chance to say goodbye
I didn't get a chance to say goodbye

No there's no logic to this - who's picked to stay or go
If you think too hard it only makes you mad
But your optimism made me think you really had it beat
So I didn't get a chance to say goodbye
I didn't get a chance to say goodbye

Warrior King - Revenge

I wish I was the warrior king in every language that I speak
Lord over all that I survey and all that I see I keep
Power omnipresent undiminished uncontrolled
with a message violent fury at the center of my soul

I wish I was a warrior king inscrutable benign
with a faceless charging power always at my command
Footsteps so heavy that the world shakes
My rage instilling fear
Yet cautious firm but fair and good
The perfect Warrior King

I wish I installed angles in every subject's house
Agents of my goodness no one would be without
A steak on every plate a car for every house
and if you ever crossed me
I'd have your eyes put out

You don't exist without me without me you don't exist
And if logic won't convinced you then there's always this
I'm bigger, smarter, stronger, tough
yet sensitive and kind
And though I could crush you like a bug
it will never cross my mind

It wouldn't cross my mind to your neck
or rip out your vicious tongue
it wouldn't cross my mind to snap your leg like a twig
or squash you like some slug
You are a violent messenger
and I'm not above your taunts
And if you hit me you know I'll kill you
because I'm the Warrior King

Harry's Circumcision - Reverie Gone Astray

Looking in the mirror Harry didn't like what he saw
The cheeks of his mother the eyes of his father
As each day crashed around him the future stood revealed
He was turning into his parents
The final disappointment

Stepping out of the shower Harry stared at himself
His hairline receding the slight overbite
He picked up the razor to begin his shaving
and thought oh I wish I was different

I wish I was stronger I wish I was thinner
I wish I didn't have this nose
These ears that stick out remind me of my father
and I don't want to be reminded at all
The final disappointment

Harry looked into the mirror thinking of Vincent Van Gogh
and with a quick swipe lopped off his nose
And happy with that he made a slice where his chin was
He's always wanted a dimple
The end of all illusion
Then peering down straight between his legs
Harry thought of the range of possibilities
A new face a new life no memories of the past
and slit his throat from ear to ear

Harry woke up with a cough the stitches made his wince
A doctor smiled at him from somewhere across the room
Son we saved your life but you'll never look the same
And when he heard that, Harry had to laugh
Although it hurt Harry had to laugh
The final disappointment

Gassed And Stoked - Loss

Well, you covered your tracks
and now I can't see you
You had your ashes scattered at sea
There's no grave to visit no tombstone to look at
You were in the NY Times obituary
There's no record no tape no book no movie
Some photographs and some memories
Sometime I dial your photo number by mistake
and this is what I hear

This is no longer a working number baby
Please redial your call
This is no longer a working number
Your party doesn't live here anymore
This is no longer a working number
if you still require help
Stay on the line and an operator
will try to bail you out

I knew I should have seen you that Thursday
I knew I shouldn't left
But you sounded so good your spirits so up
I thought I'd see you next week
I say over and over if I had half a brain
if I had half a brain in my head
I wouldn't sit here dialing a wrong number
and listening to what some recording said

I knew I should have written, written things down
I always say I'll never forget
Who can forget a one-eye pilot
Who's a concert pianist
A 0painter a poet songwriter supreme
My friends are blending in my head
They're melting into one great spirit
and that spirit isn't dead

Now I may not remember everything that you said
But I remember all the sings you've done
And not a day goes by not an hour
when I don't try to be like you
You were gassed, stoked and rarin' to go
and you were that way all the time
So I guess you know why I'm laughing at myselves
every time I dial the wrong line

This is no longer a working number baby

Power And Glory Part 2 - Magic Transformation

I was visited by The Power and The Glory
I was visited by a majestic hymn
Great bolts of lightning
lightning up the sky
Electricity flowing through my veins

I was captured by a larger moment
I was seized by divinity's hot breath
Gorged like a lion on experience
Powerful from life
I wanted all of it -
Not some of it

I saw a man turn into a bird
I saw a bird turn into a tiger
I saw a man hang from a cliff by the tips of his toes
in the jungles of the Amazon
I saw a man put a red hot needle through his eye
turn into a crow and fly through the trees
swallows hot coals and breathe out flames
and I wanted this to happen to me ...
I wanted all of it -
Not some of it

We saw the moon vanish into his pocket
We saw the stars disappear from sight
We saw him walk across water into the sun
while bathed in eternal light
We spewed out questions waiting for answers
creating legends, religions and myths
Books, stories, movies and plays
all trying to explain this
I wanted all of it -
Not some of it

I saw a great man turn into a little child
The cancer reduced him to dust
His voice growing weak as he fought for his life
with a bravery few men know
I saw isotopes introduced into his lungs
trying to stop the cancerous spread
And it made me think of Leda and The Swan
and gold being made from lead
The same power that burned Hiroshima
causing three legged babies and death
Shrunk to the size of a nickel
to help him regain his breath
And I was struck by The Power and The Glory
I was visited by a majestic Him
Great bolts of lightning shooting up his veins
as the radiation flowed through him
He wanted all of it
Not (just) some of it

Magic And Loss - The Summation

When you pass through the fire
you pass through humble
You pass through a maze of self doubt
When you pass through humble
the lights can blind you
Some people never figure that out
You pass through arrogance you pass through hurt
You pass through an ever present past
and it's best not to wait for luck to save you
Pass through the fire to the light

As you pass through the fire
your right hand waving
there are things you have to throw out
That caustic dread inside your head
will never help you out
You have to be very strong
'cause you'll start from zero
over and over again
And as the smoke clears
there's an all consuming fire
lying straight ahead

They say no one person can do it all
but you want to in your head
But you can't be Joyce
so what is left instead
You're stuck with yourself
and a rage that can hurt you
You have to start at the beginning again
And just this moment
This wonderful fire started up again

When you pass through humble
when you pass through sickly
When you pass through
I'm better than you all
When you pass through
anger and self deprecation
and have the strength to acknowledge it all
When the past makes you laugh
and you can savor the magic
that let you survive your own war
You find that that fire is passion
and there's a door up ahead not a wall

As you pass through fire as you pass through fire
trying to remember its name
When you pass through fire licking at your lips
you cannot remain the same
And if the building' burning
move towards that door
but don't put the flames out
There's a bit of magic in everything
and then some loss to even things out

Set The Twilight Reeling

Egg Cream

When I was a young man - no bigger than this
A chocolate egg cream was not to be missed
Some U Bet's Chocolate Syrup, seltzer water mixed with milk
Stir it up into a heady fro - tasted just like silk

You scream, I steam, We all want Egg Cream ...

Now you can go to Junior's, Dave's on Canal St.
And I think there's Ken's in Boston
There must be something in L.A.
But Becky's on Kings Highway
Was the Egg Cream of choice
And if you don't believe me
Go ask any of the boys

You scream, I steam, We all want Egg Cream ...

The only good thing I remember about P.S.92
Was the Egg Cream served at Becky's
It was a fearsome brew
For fifty cents you got a shot - chocolate bubbles up your nose
That made it easier to deal with knife flights
and kids pissing in the street

You scream, I steam, We all want Egg Cream ...

So the next time you're in Brooklyn - Please say hello for me
At Totonno's for Pizza and ice cream at Al and Shirley's
But mostly you go to Becky's - sit in a booth and say hello
And have two chocolate Egg Cream - one to stay and go

You scream, I steam, We all want Egg Cream ...

NYC Man

It can only lead to trouble if you break my heart
If you accidentally crush it on the ides of March
I'd prefer you were straight forward
You don't have to go through all of that
I'm a New York city man, baby
Say "go" and that is that

New York city man, you just say "go" and that is that
I'm a New York city man, you just say "go" and that is that

It's far too complicated to make up a lie
That you'd have to remember and really why
I wouldn't want to be around you
If you don't want to have me around
I'm a M-A-N-N man
Slink your eyes and I'll gone

I'm a M-A-N-N man, slink your eyes, honey, I love you, and I'll gone
New York city man, slink your eyes and I'll gone

Brutus made a pretty speech but Caesar was betrayed
Lady Macbeth went crazy but Macbeth ended slain
Ophelia and Desdamona dead leaving Hamlet in a play
But I'm no Lear with blinded eyes
Say " go " and I am gone

The stars have shut their eyes up tight
The earth has changed it's course
A Kingdom sits on a black knight's back
As he tries to mount a white jeweled horse
While a clock full of butterflies on the hour
Releases a thousand moths
You say " leave" and I'll be gone
Without any remorse
No letters faxes phones or tears
There's a difference between
Bad and worse

I'm a New York city man, blink your eyes and I'll be gone
New York city - man, blink your eyes and I'll be gone

New York city, I love you, New York city man
New York city, I love you, blink your eyes and I'll be gone
Just a little grain of sand
New York city, ooohhh, I love you
New York city, baby, blink your eyes and I'll be gone
I love you ...

Finish Line

Wind blows snow outside my windows
Crowd below runs wild in the streets
Two rented brothers race down two separate alleys
Heading for the finish line

Down in the train yard out by the stockyard
Butchers with aprons hack meat in the snow
Blood has the brothers pulsing with envy
Heading for the finish line

Two rented brothers. Their faces keep changing
Just like these feelings I have for you
And nothing's forever not even five minutes
When you're headed for the finish line

Down in the depot out by the meat rack
Down by the tunnels surrounding the jail
Prisoners are marching in squares and in circles
They're heading for the finish line

They're lining up for Noah's Ark
They're stabbing each other in the dark
Saluting a flag made of some rich guy's socks
Heading for the finish line

Close to the line the ice is cracking
Two rented feelings sitting in the stands
Two mothers, two fathers and both of them are paid for
All of a sudden it comes back to me

Just up ahead is the finish line
Two rented referees and two checkered rags
Out of the corner of my eye comes a
Dark horse with black wings
Headed for the finish line

I'm five years old the room is fuzzy
I think there's also a very young girl
It's hard to remember what happened exactly
As I'm staring at the finish line
First came fire then came light
Then came feeling then cane sight

Trade In

I met a new me at 8 am
The other one got lost
This was not a trade in
Although I wouldn't believe the cost
I woke up crying as we said goodbye
Me an my old self
Each day he vanished more and more
As I became someone else

He actually was murdered I had taken him apart
But when I put him back together
I couldn't find his heart
It was resting underneath a chair
In a bed of bright tin foil
If I pulled back the flaps
I could still see it beat
I could still hear his voice uncoil

As I said :
I want a trade in
A 14th chance at this life
I've met a woman with a thousand faces
And I want to make her my wife

How could I have been so mistaken
How could I think that it was true
A child that is raised by an idiot
And that idiot then becomes you
How could I believe in a movie
How could I believe in a book
But most of all how could I listen to you
Such an obvious schmuck
A life spent listening to assholes
It's funny but it's true
So get rid of them I said to myself
But first I'm getting rid of you

I want a trade in
A 14th chance at this life
I've met a woman with a thousand faces
And I want to make her my wife

Take me over to the window
My heart said to my head
Please set me on fine
So we can start again
I was so wrong that it's funny
And I can't apologize/ but instead,
You can be everything that I'm not
The second that I die

I want a trade in
The second chance at this life
I've met a woman with a thousand faces
And I want to make her my wife

Hang On To Your Emotions

When your imagination has too much to say
When the chill of the night meets the sweat of the day
And you have trouble understanding what other people have to say
You'd better

hang on to your emotions ...

When a demagogue inside your head has taken charge
And by default what you say or do is criticized
And this litany of failures is recited a thousand times
You'd better

hang on to your emotions ...

Could it be you've never felt like that
That your mind's a cage - inside the cage a cat
That spits and scratches all it can get at
And that's you
And your emotions
Could it be you've never felt like that
Your mind's a cage - inside the cage a rat
Rabidly trying to get it
You

and your emotions
You and your emotions

When your imagination has too much to say
When that facile voice inside your head says give your life away
You might think to ask - how it got that way
What books it has read - that make it that way
And where it got the right - to speak to anyone that way
You'd better

hold on to your emotions
Hold on to your emotions

When a night city's breeze blows across the room
And a 5 am moon and sun start their swoon
You hear your lover's breath
And not a moment too soon
You get to

release all your emotions ...

Sex With Your Parents (Motherfucker) Part 2

I was thinking of things that I hate to do, -sex with your parents
Things you do to me or I do to you, baby, -sex with your parents
Something fatter or uglier than Rush Rambo
Something more disgusting than Robert Dole
Something pink that climbs out of a hole
And there it was - sex with your parents

I was getting so sick of this right wing republican shit
These ugly old man scared of young tit and dick
So I try to think of something that made me sick
And there it was - sex with your parents

Now these old fucks can steal all they want
And they can go and pass laws saying you can't say what you want
And you can't look at this and you can't look at that
And you can't smoke this and you can't snort that
And me baby - I got statistics - I got stats
These people have been to bed with their parents

Now I know you're shocked but hang and have a brew
If you think about it for a minute you know that it's true
They're ashamed and repelled and they don't know what to do
They've had sex with their parents
When they looked into their lovers eyes they saw - mom
In the name of the family values we must ask whose family
In the name of the family values we must ask
Senator
It's has been reported that you have had
Illegal congress with your mother, - sex with your parents
Senator
An illegal congress by proxy is a
Pigeon by any other name, - sex with your parents
Senators you polish a turd
Here in the big city we got a word
For those who would bed their beloved big bird
And make a mockery of our freedoms
Without even using a condom
Without even saying " no "
By god we have a name for people like that
It's - hey motherfucker

HookyWooky

I'm standing with you on your roof
Looking at the chemical sky
All purple blue and oranges, some pigeons flying by
The traffic on canal street so noisy it's a shock
And someone's shooting fireworks
Or a gun on the next block

Ah-ah-ah, I wanna hookywooky with you ...

Traffic's so noisy it's a shock
Sounds like fireworks or a gun on the next block

A hookywooky with you

Your ex-lover Satchel is here from France
Yet another ex
They gather about you like a mother superior
All of you still friends, ah-ah-ah
None of my old flames ever talk to me
When things end for me they end
They take your pants your money your name
But the song still remains

Ah-ah-ah, I wanna hookywooky with you ...

They take your pants your money your name
But the song still remains

I wanna hookywooky with you

You're so civilized it hurts
I guess I could learn a lot
About people plants and relationships
And how not to get hurt a lot
And each lover I meet up your roof
I wouldn't want to throw them off
Into the chemical sky
Down into the streets to die
Under the wheels of a car on Canal Streets
And each lover I meet up on your roof
I wouldn't want to throw them off
Into the chemical sky
Under the wheels of a car to die on Canal streets

Ah-ah- I, I wanna hookywooky with you ...

I wouldn't want to throw them off
Into the chemical sky, down into the streets to die
Under the wheels of a car on Canal streets

Under the wheels of a car on Canal Streets ...

The Proposition

You can't have the flower without the root
You can't have the fire without the soot
Even a stripper needs her red tasseled suit
And we were meant to be

In every war the North needs the south
And everyone knows all assholes have a mouth
Without mystery what would writers talk about
And we were meant to be

An apple needs pits the way melons need seed
Your foot needs your arm and your arm needs your knee
And one of these days I know you will need me
We were meant to be ...

You're mother's an ogre your father's a scamp
You won't see my parents honored on any stamp
But just like a bulb screws into a lamp
We were meant to be

The way the AIDS needs a vaccine
Somewhere a vaccine needs AIDS
The way a victim needs life
A life needs to be saved
And out of all of this
Will come a better way
We were meant to be

So you can go to Europe , Los Angeles or Mars
You can stand on a building throwing cinder blocks on cars
You can practice deep voodoo
But like me you'll see
We were meant to be ...

We were meant to be ...

Adventurer

You're an adventurer
You sail across the oceans
You climb the Himalayas
Seeking truth and beauty as a natural state

You're a queen reborn
Worshipped from above afar
Some see you as an elixir
An elemental natural seeking perfect grace

In a catacomb
Or cave of endless drawings
Prehistoric or religious
Your accomplishments prodigious
Seeking out the perfect tone

Your language so clear
Your voice perfectly turning
As in the city I sit yearning
Blowing rings of smoke from thin cigars
Or driving fast in foreign cars
To capture your remains


You're an adventurer
A turban wet wrapped round your head
On the mountainside they predict your death
Oh how you fooled them all

But subjects are a poor excuse
When what you really want's a muse
An inspirating knowledge of what comes before

Speeds of light
The momentary flicker of a candle in its wicker basket
Smoking wax - Facts!
Did you find that superior knowledge that eluded you in college
Did you find that super vortex that could cause your cerebral cortex
to lose its grip

You're an adventurer
You were out looking for meaning
While the rest of us were steaming in an inspirating urban pit
An adventurer
You enter as I'm dreaming
I wish I'd never wake up
Differentiating scheming from my one true love


You're an adventurer
You love the angles and the cherries
The height and width of levies
The natural bridge and tunnels of the human race

You're an adventurer
Nothing seem to scare you and if it does it won't dissuade you
You just will not think about it
You dismiss it and defocus
You redefine the locus of your time in space - Race!
As you move further from me and though I understand the thinking
And have often done the sane thing I find parts of me gone

You're an adventurer
And though I'll surely miss you
And of course I'll survive without you and maybe good will come of that
But at this point I anticipate some grieving
And although I know your leaving
Is a necessary adjunct to what we both do

An adventurer
Splitting up the atom
Splitting up the once was
Splitting up the essence
Of our star-crossed fate

None who meet you do forget you
My adventurer, my adventurer ...
My adventuress

Riptide

She's out of her mind, like the wind in the storm
Like the ocean in the dawn as it disappears, with the riptide
She's out of her mind, she's pulled away by the moon
She's ripped from her sleep ... As the cold luna sweep gains control

What you gonna do ... With your emotions
Ones you barely recognize
In your sleep I heard your screaming
"This is not voluntary! This is not voluntary !
If this is life I'd rather die !"

In the riptide ...

She's out of her mind, riptide
Like a muscle that swells
You know when you trip
Whether you're well or sick
Your body aches
She's out with the tide
Gone to a prisoner's dance
Where a monkey's her date
Eating limbs off a plate with a spoon

What you gonna do with your emotions
Said the seagull to the loon
What you gonna do with your emotions

She said " Please wake me up"
She said " Don't touch me now"
She said " I wish I was dead"

In the riptide

She's out of her mind riptide ... You always win
It happens over and over again rip tide
She's out of her mind like a hurricane's rain
She does not stand a chance at this luna dance riptide

I was thinking of Van Gogh's last painting
The wheatfields and the crows
Is that perhaps what you've been feeling
When you see the ground
As you fall from the shy
As the floors disappears
From beneath your feet riptide

She's going out of her mind ...
With the riptide ...

Set The Twilight Reeling

Take me for what I am ... a star newly emerging
Long simmering explodes ... inside the self is reeling
In the pocket of the heart, in the rushing of the blood
In the muscle of my sex, in the mindful mindless love
I accept the new found man and set the twilight reeling

At 5 am the moon and the sun ... sit set before my window
Light glances off the blue glass we set ... right before the window
And you who accept ... in your soul and your head
What was misunderstood ... what was thought of with dread
A new self is born ... the other self dead
I accept the new found man and set the twilight reeling

A soul singer stands on the stage ... the spotlight shows him sweating
He sinks to one knee ... Seems to cry ... the horn are unrelenting
But as the drums beats he finds himself growing hard
In the microphone's face he sees her face growing large
And the swelling crescendo no longer retards
I accept the new found man and set the twilight reeling

As the twilight sunburst gleams
As the chromium moon it sets
As I lose all my regrets and set the twilight reeling
I accept the new found man and set the twilight reeling

Ecstasy

Paranoia Key Of E

How come you say you will and then you won't
you change your mind and then you say you don't
The mystery is why I play the goat
the mystery you call love

Sometimes you're like an eagle strong like a rock
other times it seems you get unlocked
And all your worst fears come tumbling out
into the street, into the snow

I remember when you had a dream
everything was what it seemed to be
But now nightmares replace everything
and everything you see is wrong

You said we'd meet but you're two hours late
you said you thought someone had picked your gate
So you hid and were afraid to wait
seeing shadows in the snow
Seeing shadows in the snow

Now your friend Godfrey is a perfect choice
one minute down next time rejoice, he seems -
- To have found the perfect voice
paranoia key of E

Let's say everything he says is true
you love me but I cheat on you
And in my bedroom is a female zoo
worse then Clinton in prime time

I swear to you I'm not with Jill or Joyce
or Cyd or Sherry or Darlene or worse
I'm not kissing you while inside I curse
paranoia key of E

Let's play a game the next time we meet, ah
I'll be the hands and you be the feet
And together we will keep the beat
to paranoia key of E

Now, you know mania's in the key of B
psychosis in the key of C
Let's hope that we're not meant to be
in paranoia key of E

Anorexia is in G flat
and F is anything I've left out
Dyslexia, kleptomania and vertigo
patricide A, matricide D the same schizos

Paranoia key of E

Let's have a coda in the key of K
something that only we can play
Maybe we'll light up like a hundred K
paranoia out of key

Paranoia key of E
paranoia key of E

Anorexia, dyslexia
kleptomania, patricide A, matricide D, vertigo, schizos

Paranoia key of E, paranoia
paranoia, paranoia, paranoia key of E
Paranoia, paranoia, paranoia key of E

Mystic Child 

It was only the time of the newly born dead
with wispy cobwebs in your head
the polar moon looked out instead
goin' wild

Liquor shifting through the brain
the manic depressive goes insane
goin' wild
goin' wild

Desperate anger hits the streets
by the foul smelling river by the meat market
goin' wild
mystic child

Goin' wild
mystic child

In the winter with frozen toes
looking out the big windows
to fly
goin' wild

Situation X out of control
my eyes half opened like a mole
who smiles
goin' wild

Who smiles
goin' wild

In the mystic morning where the river meets
the hurdy-gurdy of the hip-hop beat
5 a.m. the viscous street

Oh, wild
goin' wild

Out the window like a flash
fallin' through a rooftop crash
blind
goin' wild

Sick and misty like a pup by the curb
he's throwin' up
wild
like a child

Goin' wild
like a child

If he can't have all that relates
to testify that he is great
he'll cut someone with a broken plate
stand upon the subway grate

And smile
goin' wild
goin' wild
with a smile

Holy morning
sun is up and someone
here has lost his cups

The dawn is tattered all cut up
goin' wild
like a mystic child

Like a mystic child

Sunday morning looking down from the rooftop
goin' wild with a smile
mystic child

Top of the world he's got it made
rings are gold, braids are jade
jumped to the street, he's got it made
goodbye, child

Goodbye, child
mystic child
goin' wild
like a mystic child

Goodbye
goodbye
Goin' wild, ah
goin' wild
Like a mystic child
holy morning
sun is up and someone
Going wild
like a mystic, like a mystic, like a mystic -
- Child
goin'-goin', goin'-goin' wild
Like a mystic child
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh
Jumped to the street

Mad 

Mad, you just make me mad
I hate your silent breathing in the night
Sad, you make me sad
when I juxtapose your features I get sad

I know I shouldn't had someone else in our bed
but I was so tired, I was so tired
who would think you'd find a bobby pin
it just makes me mad, makes me mad
It just makes me, makes me -

- Mad

Glad, when I'm gone you're glad
that overwhelming tension dissipates
Oh, tad, you think I'm a baby
nobody likes to here, Why don't you grow up at dawn

I know I shouldn't had someone else in our bed
but I was so tired, so tired
who would think you'd find a bobby pin
it makes me mad, makes me mad
Don't you know it just makes me -

- Mad
it just makes me mad

Dumb, you're dumb as my thumb
in the wistful morning you throw a coffee cup at my head
Scum, you said I'm scum
what a very lovely, feminine thing to do

Bark, why don't you just bark
sit, come, stay are the perfect words meant for you
Ah, ass, you says I'm an ass
you better call 911 'cause I'm gonna hold you tight

I know I shouldn't had someone else in our bed
but I was so tired, so tired
you said you're out of town for the night
and I believed in you, I believed you
And I was so tired, it makes me so mad
it makes me so -

- Mad
it makes me so mad
It just makes me mad
it makes me mad
It makes me mad
it makes me mad
It makes me mad
It makes me mad, ah
dumb

Ecstasy 

They call you ecstasy
nothing ever sticks to you
Not velcro, not scotch tape
not my arms dipped in glue

Not if I wrap myself in nylon
a piece of duct tape down my back
Love pierced the arrow with the twelve
and I can't get you back

Ah, ecstasy
ecstasy
Ah, ecstasy

Across the streets an old Ford, they took off its wheels
the engine is gone
In its seat sits a box
with a note that says, Goodbye Charlie, thanks a lot

I see a child through a window with a bib
and I think of us and what we almost did
The Hudson rocketing with light
the ships pass the statue of liberty at night

They call it ecstasy, ah
ecstasy
Ecstasy, ah
ecstasy

Some men call me St. Ivory
some call me St. Maurice
I'm smooth as alabaster
with white veins runnin' through my cheeks

A big stud through my eyebrow
a scar on my arm that says, Domain
I put it over the tattoo
that contained your name

They called you ecstasy, ecstasy
ecstasy
They call you ecstasy, ecstasy
ecstasy

The moon passing through a cloud
a body facing up is floating towards a crowd
And I think of a time and what I couldn't do
I couldn't hold you close, I couldn't, I couldn't become you

They call you ecstasy, I can't hold you down
I can't hold you up
I feel like that car that I saw today, no radio
no engine, no hood

I'm going to the cafe, I hope they've got music
and I hope that they can play
But if we have to part
I'll have a new scar right over my heart
I'll call it ecstasy

Oh, ecstasy, ecstasy
ecstasy
Ecstasy, ecstasy
ecstasy

Modern Dance 

Maybe I should go and live in Amsterdam
in a side street in a big canal
spend my evenings in the Van Gogh Museum
what a dream, Van Gogh Museum

Maybe its time to see Tangiers
a different life-style some different fears
and maybe I should be Edinburgh
in a kilt in Edinburgh

Doin' a modern dance
doin' a modern dance

Or maybe I should get a farm in Southern France
where the winds are wispy and the villagers dance
and you and I we'd sleep beneath a moon
moon in June and sleep till noon

And maybe you and I could fall in love
regain the spirit that we once had
you'd let me hold you and touch the night
that shines so bright, so bright with fright

Doin' a modern dance
doin' a modern dance

Shit, maybe I could go to Yucatan
where women are women, a man's a man
ah, no one confused, ever loses place
with their place in the human race

Maybe I'm not cut out for city life
the smell of exhaust, the smell of strife
and maybe you don't wanna be a wife
it's not a life being a wife

Doin' a modern dance
doin' a modern dance

So maybe I should go to Tanganyika
where the rivers run, down mountains tall and steep
or go to India to study chants
and lose romance to a mantra's dance

I need a guru, I need some law
explain to me the things we saw
why it always comes to this
it's all downhill after the first kiss

Maybe I should move to Rotterdam
maybe move to Amsterdam
I should move to Ireland, Italy, Spain
Afghanistan where there is no rain

Or maybe I should just learn a modern dance
where roles are shifting the modern dance
you never touch you don't know who you're with
this week, this month, this time of year
this week, this month, this time of year

Doin' a modern dance
you don't know who you're with modern dance
I should move to Pakistan, go to Afghanistan
Dance, you don't know who you're with
dance, you don't know who you're with
modern dance
And maybe you don't wanna be a wife
it's not life being a wife
doin' a modern dance
you never touch you don't know who you're with
Dance, modern dance
the roles are shifting dance
you never touch you don't know who you're with
Dance, modern dance
maybe you don't wanna be a wife

Tatters 

Some couples live in harmony
some do not
Some couples yell and scream
some do not

But what you said was something
that I can't forget
It echoes in my head
like a bullet made of lead

Some people yell and scream
and some do not
Some people sacrifice their lives
and some do not

Some people wait for sleep
to take them away
While others read books endlessly
hoping problems will go away

I know you're hoping everything
works out
Neither one of us is
the type who shouts

You sleep in the bedroom
while I pace up and down the hall
Our baby stares at both of us
wondering which one of us to call

I guess it's true that not
every match burns bright
I guess it's true
not all that I say is right

But what you said still bounces
around in my head
Who thought this could happen to us
when we first went to bed

I'm told in the end
that none of this matters
All couples have troubles
and none of this matters

But what you said
still echoes in my head
And I'm still in the hallway
downstairs sleeping alone instead

I know you don't care
but here's my last thought
Not that it matters
but here's the last thing I thought

Our little thing is lying
here in tatters
And you my dear
don't have any manners

Sad to leave this way
to leave it all in tatters
Saddening to leave this way
to leave it all in tatters
I suppose that we all could say
that nothing of it matters
Still it's sad
to see everything in tatters

Future Farmers Of America 

Born on a farm in a transatlantic moonlight
split like a cord of wood my family broke up
Sold like a piece of steer, a piece of meat, a cow
a breathing piece of shit

Picked for my age, for my strength and make up
called for I was tall, I was big, I could hold up
A tree or a piece of steel I could do
what my fat owner can't

Ah, future farmers of America
future farmers of America
Future farmers of America

Ah
I'm always watching the way his wife looks me over
I have a sex twice as big as her husband's
If I wasn't so large, so strong, so pale
I'd disappear under a bush

Colorless men and ladies of the world unite
kill your master with one cut of your knife
Kill them during sex, kill them during talk
kill them whenever you can

Future farmers of America
future farmers of America
Future farmers of America

These -
- stupid black owners are foreigners to affairs of the heart
look at me, I'll never own land that I work on
Every one of us here shares a surname
this father must die

I was born on the dark cusp of twilight
my father was dark, my mother was light
Look at me, I'm strong
I could crush him in my fist

Ah
I could crush him in my
I could crush him in my
I could crush him in my fist

I could crush him in my
I could crush him in my
I could crush him in my fist

Future farmers of America
I could crush him in my fist
Future farmers of America
I could crush him in my fist
Future farmers of America
I could crush him in my fist

Turning Time Around 

She says, What do you call love
well I call it Harry
Oh, please I'm being serious
what do you call love

Well I don't call it family and I don't call it lust
and as we all know marriage isn't a must
And I suppose in the end, it's a matter of trust
if I had to, I'd call love time

She says, What do you call love
can't you be more specific
What do you call love
is it more than the heart's hieroglyphic

Not for me, time has no meaning, no future, no past
and when you're in love, you don't have to ask
There's never enough time to hold love in your grasp
turning time around

Turning time around
that is what love is
Turning time around
yes, that is what love is

My time is your time when you're in love
and time is what you never have enough of
You can't see or hold it, it's exactly like love

Turning time around
turning time around
Turning time around
turning time around
Turning time around
well I gotta have it
I gotta-gotta-gotta have it

Turning, turning time around
gotta have it, turning time around
Turning, turning time around
turning time around

White Prism 

There's a white prism with phony jism
spread across its face
and the soulful convicts forever interred
lose the smile across their faces
The smile that registered hopes or dreams
has proven just a waste

And I'm the indentured servant
forever in his place
and I'm the indentured servant
forever in his place

I wish I built a cabinet
of shiny bolts and wood
secret draws and hiding places
sculpted out of wood
Secret places, secret lies
in a desk lying alone

Secret letter written to you
to be read when you're alone
secret letter written to you
to be read when you're alone

It says, I'm your indentured servant
I can no longer pretend
that I'm a lover or an equal
I'm not even a friend
I'm not good enough to serve you
I'm not good enough to stay

So it is that I beseech you
to please turn me away
so it is that I beseech you
to please turn me away

Turn me away
turn me away
turn me away

I'm asking you to let me go
it hurts me when you're sad
and I can not do better than this
which must surely make you mad
I'd be better off in your cabinet
or in a prison made of cloth

Crouched beneath your dress I come
shooting little spurts
crouched beneath your dress I come
shooting little spurts

I'm your indentured servant
but even I have pride
in what I make or say or do
although I've lots to hide
I hide from freedom and I hide from you
'cause you've found me out

I belong in prison beneath your legs
in a cabinet that I've built
beneath a candle in a secret drawer
in a prison by a moat

I'm your indentured servant
and I'm asking you to leave
me outside this prison cell
where only you can breathe
I-I-I, I'm your indentured servant
but I'm asking you for this

Please release me from this love
and do it with a kiss
I'm your indentured servant
I'm the one you'll miss

Do it with a kiss
do it with a kiss
do it with a kiss
I'm the one you'll miss

Rock Minuet 

Paralyzed by hatred and a piss ugly soul
if he murdered his father, he thought he'd become whole
While listening at night to an old radio
where they danced to the rock minuet

In the gay bars in the back of the bar
he consummated hatred on a cold sawdust floor
While the jukebox played backbeats, he sniffed coke off a jar
while they danced to a rock minuet

School was a waste, he was meant for the street
but school was the only way, the army could be beat
The two whores sucked his nipples 'til he came on their feet
as they danced to the rock minuet

He dreamt that his father was sunk to his knees
his leather belt tied so tight that it was hard to breathe
And the studs from his jacket were as cold as a breeze
as he danced to a rock minuet

He pictured the bedroom where he heard the first cry
his mother on all fours, ah, with his father behind
And her yell hurt so much, he had wished he'd gone blind
and rocked to a rock minuet

In the back of the warehouse were a couple of guys
they had tied someone up and sewn up their eyes
And he got so excited he came on his thighs
when they danced to the rock minuet

On Avenue B, someone cruised him one night
he took him in an alley and then pulled a knife
And thought of his father as he cut his windpipe
and finally danced to the rock minuet

In the curse of the alley, the thrill of the street
on the bitter cold docks where the outlaws all meet
In euphoria drug in euphoria heat
you could dance to the rock minuet

In the thrill of the needle and anonymous sex
you could dance to the rock minuet

So when you dance hard, slow dancing
when you dance hard, slow dancing
When you dance hard, slow dancing
when you dance to the rock minuet

Baton Rouge 

When I think of you baton rouge
I think of a mariachi band
I think of sixteen and a crisp green football field
I think of a girl I never had

When I think of you baton rouge
I think of a back seat in a car
Windows are foggy and so are we
as the police asked for our I.D.

So helpless
so helpless

Ooohhh, so helpless
ooohhh, so helpless
Ooohhh, so helpless
so helpless

Well I once had a car lost it in a divorce
the judge was a woman of course
She said give her the car and the house and your taste
or else I set the trial date

So now when I think of you baton rouge
and the deep southern belles with their touch
I wonder where love ends and hate starts to blush
in the fields in the swamps in the rush

In the terra-cotta cobwebs of your mind
when did you start seeing me as a spider spinning web
Of malicious intent and you as poor, poor me
at the fire at the joint, this disinterred and broken mount
in the bedroom in the house where we were unmarried

So helpless, so helpless
so helpless
So helpless, so helpless
so helpless

When was I the villa in your heart
putting the brake on your start
you slapped my face and cried and screamed
that's what marriage came to mean
The bitterest ending of a dream

You wanted children and I did not
was that what it was all about
You might get a laugh when you hear me shout
you might get a laugh when you hear me shout
I wish I had


So helpless, so helpless
so helpless
So helpless, so helpless
so helpless

Sometimes when I think of baton rouge
I see us with two and a half strapping sons
One and a half flushed daughters preparing to marry
and two fat grandsons I can barely carry

Daddy, uncle, family gathered there for grace
a dog in a barbecue pit goes up in space
The dream recedes in the morning with a bad aftertaste
and I'm back in the big city worn from the race of the chase
what a waste

So thanks for the card the announcement of child
and I must say you and Sam look great
Your daughter's gleaming in that -
- white wedding dress with pride
sad to say I could never bring that to you that wide smile

So I try not to think of baton rouge
or of a, of a, of a mariachi band
Or of sixteen and a crisp green football field
and the girl, and the girl I never had

So helpless, so helpless
so helpless
So helpless, so helpless
so helpless

Like A Possum 

Good morning, it's possum day
feel like a possum in every way
like a possum

Possum whiskers, possum face
possum breath and a possum taste
ooohhh, like a possum

Possum tales, possum eyes
possum bones, possum thighs
oh, like a possum

Possum shots, possum runs
possum sleeps to possum drums
calm as an angel

Good morning, it's possum day
I feel like a possum in every way
like a possum

Wake up with a possum smile
look at me, look at this smile
like a possum

Things ar