[rev. Mar. 6, 2011]
Emerald haunt in overdrive
Nightmare descent into Jericho city
Camel dust heralds our arrival
New Christ beneath the drumkit moon
Oh Lord we are threatened again
In the slipstream pull of the federal men
Plummeted in some seamless night
Down here to earth it's hopeless then
Apache gunman in the boiling crowd
Who never got to meet you last time
We're interrupted by the telephone
You didn't think they were invented then
Oh Lord we need miracles
We need more wine and gold
We need slaves and roads and personal favors
We need microphones and manifolds
How can you be so invisible
Give me the nerves to see
Privilege on privilege
An unwanted discovery
So now we're cruising down this shuddering highway
With a dead sun shining on my back
And we talk about the way people treat us back there
Their hollow laughter, the pain in their eyes
Oh my Lord I trust your intentions
But money strangles our love
Struggling like a fool with my junk and my jewels
You would have thought I'd had enough
How can you be so invisible
Give me the nerves to see
Privilege on privilege
An unwanted discovery
How can you be so invisible
Give me the nerves to see
Privilege on privilege
An unwanted discovery
[rev. Mar. 6, 2011]
Here in this desert, beneath the sun and stars
Still troubled by the rumbling of a million distant cars
Please be good to me tonight, let me find my way
The air has some command in it I cannot disobey
A gunfight in Dodge City, a murder in Bombay
All these deeds and worldly needs I must shrug off today
All my life spent searching for prowess
Left me lying here with you, Tristesse
I was working in an orchard that grew the strangest fruit
It wasn't Mother Nature that made those trees take root
Your children cannot hear you, they only want your loot
You hold on to their essence like a parachute
They never believed you were in distress
Now you've gone and left them with Tristesse
Oh, waters inflamed
Ah, fires burning out
Ah, ice melting down
Ah, fires burnt out
A hotel suite in a rich man's town, a hut in Botany Bay
A prisoner by my own device, a mountain in my way
Gonna have to alter my address
I can't stay much longer with Tristesse
And they call this carnival progress
Invited by our queen tonight, Tristesse
[rev. Mar. 6, 2011]
It's already yesterday
We're off the calendar
I heard the sirens play
Just like an orchestra
Mechanical bird of prey
Sing for your emperor
Last broken flash of love
Still in the camera
We don't feel those locks and chains
We won't listen to the lizard part of our brains
Giving the orders
Another morning we'll be gone
I start the car for Ten Mile Beach
Or maybe Avalon
Across the water
It's already yesterday
And nobody's answering
Disconnected, drift away
Nobody's questioning
Head of silver, feet of clay
Who is surrendering
They fall in our heyday
I am remembering
We don't feel those locks and chains
We won't listen to the lizard part of our brains
Giving the orders
Another morning we'll be gone
I start the car for Ten Mile Beach
Or maybe Avalon
Across the water
We can't feel those aches and pains
We won't listen to the voices in the city rain
Giving the orders
Another morning I'll be gone
I start the car for Violet Town
And then to Babylon
Over the border
Another morning we'll be gone
I start the car for Ten Mile Beach
Or maybe Avalon
Across the water
We don't feel those locks and chains
We won't listen to the lizard part of our brains
Giving the orders
Another morning we'll be gone
I start the car for Ten Mile Beach....
[rev. Mar. 6, 2011]
The king had something changed within him
I should have told him no
Oh Columbus, I never should have let you go
Now aching wires, midnight fires
Things I could not know
Oh Columbus, I never should have let you go
You don't suppose there'd be room in here somewhere for me
I think I just need someone's words to reassure me
I don't blame any of you
And I don't blame myself
Waiting for my small reward
It's going to come somehow
Oh Columbus, I wish that you could see us now
We don't possess a single empty tear or furrowed brow
Oh Columbus, I wish that you could see us now
You don't suppose there'd be room in here somewhere for me
I think I just need someone's words to reassure me
I can't change any of you
I can't change myself
The man had something strange about him
He should have let me know
Oh Columbus, I wish I'd never let you go
You don't suppose there'd be room in here somewhere for me
I think I just need someone's words to reassure me
I don't blame any of you
And I don't blame myself
(Columbus)
Instrumental
[rev. Aug. 30, 2007]
God I've been asleep so long, I've been away
Back from software limbo the natives call today
I let their promises bind me
The seductive logic blind me
I embraced a machine, went through the routine
I hid from the people who were trying to find me
Till the day comes when you realize
Otherwise you never care
Pandora's box reveals a new surprise
Can't wait to see your eyes
Now you've been tantalized
A hundred and one voluptuous days I broke the law
The labyrinth was closing so we panicked up a door
I let their wanton flesh obsess me
Felt their dreams and drugs assess me
I was hired and fired yet never inspired
Flattering, chattering words to impress me
All that glittered had me mesmerized
Otherwise I would have dared
Guess the nature of our enterprise
Can't stop to sympathize
Now you've been tantalized
I turned up in some harsh doomed city on another plane
I couldn't believe the room I got, the guests I entertained
I felt the dirty streets surround me
Let the buzzing swarm confound me
I gave money to ghosts, I insulted my hosts
I could never get off the stuff that spellbound me
Till the day comes when you realize
Otherwise you never care
Pandora's box reveals a new surprise
Can't wait to see your eyes
Now you've been tantalized
All that glittered had me mesmerized
Otherwise I would have dared
Guess the nature of our enterprise
Can't stop to sympathize
Now you've been tantalized
[rev. Aug. 29, 2015]
Well look at you
Hands full of money you always wanted to have
Saying sweet life is a downright drag
Down to the very last seed in the bag
As if it's never gonna end
And the scene is through
Summer slipped under in this neighborhood
I'd like to hold onto you if I could
But now I'm gonna have to let you go for good
My disenchanted friend
They say that character you play is rising fast
So you get drunk, make a half second jump and experience it as the past
But this is it, the closer you get
The deeper you go, the tighter the net looks to me
Do you enjoy the view
They say it makes you dizzy your first time up there
Till you get used to breathing rarefied air
Auditioning for the part of Mr. Despair
Well I know him personally
And this hotel's a zoo
You gotta be some creature to get a room in here
You can live like a king on a throne of tears
It's a mighty long way from the innocent years
And it waits inevitably
They say that character you play is rising fast
But you get drunk, make a half second jump and experience it as the past
But this is it, the closer you get
The deeper you go, the tighter the net looks to me
And I'm asking you
If you think that success is its own reward
Now then go and see what your persistence has scored
The voices are calling and it can't be ignored
You might be underground but you're overinsured
You used to be unknown, now you're mapped and explored
You like to be untouched, now you're handled and pawed
And it's never gonna end
They say that character you play is rising fast
But you get drunk, make a half second jump and experience it as the past
But this is it, the closer you get
The deeper you go, the tighter the net looks to me
[rev. Aug. 21, 2013]
Dishwater cafe in a torn paper street
A rundown future let me down, now everything's complete
Uncurling human tragedy
Apparently a parody
Send my love upstairs to me
She used to be a symphony
I let her go into the night
Night of light, satellite
Quite a sight to see
Dream importer's underling who answers to the boss
Can't afford a breakage, I'll pay for any loss
Uncurling human tragedy
There's definitely a remedy
Let her come and look for me
She used to be the enemy
I let her go into the night
Night of light, satellite
Quite a sight to see
Seaside town in winter, I'm trying to write my book
She's broken down, it's raining, I said I'd have a look
Uncurling human tragedy
Appropriately a mystery
She tells my story back to me
She said I'll live this chapter till eternity
I let her go into the night
Night of light, satellite
Quite a sight to see
I let her go into the night
Night of light, satellite
Quite a sight to see
I let her go into the night
Night of light, satellite
Quite a sight to see
Quite a sight to see
Night of light, satellite
[rev. Mar. 6, 2011]
Youth worshipper, goddess of ruin
Youth worshipper, like you know what you're doing
I'll bet the sun and rain never touch your face again
Race against the time
Youth worshipper, hope you know what you're worth now
Youth worshipper, like you're paying the earth now
You want the child back, want an aphrodisiac
To fill the crack with time
Hooves and horns and teeth and bones
Gonna stitch you up where you've come unsewn
Hooves and horns and teeth and bones
Gonna stitch you up where you've come unsewn
Youth worshipper
Youth worshipper
Youth worshipper, wrapped in blue fox and ermine
Youth worshipper, got no pity for vermin
Your engines and machines
Drink your fuels and steal your scenes
They come between in time
Hooves and horns and teeth and bones
Gonna stitch you up where you've come unsewn
Hooves and horns and teeth and bones
Gonna stitch you up where you've come unsewn
Youth worshipper, goddess of ruin
Youth worshipper, like you know what you're doing
I'll bet the sun and rain never touch your face again
Race against the time
Hooves and horns and teeth and bones
Gonna stitch you up where you've come unsewn
Hooves and horns and teeth and bones
Gonna stitch you up where you've come unsewn
[Chorus repeated just over 3 more times to fade out.]
[rev. Aug. 21, 2013]
Oh oh what a feeling baby, knowledge and brutality
Whose soul you stealing baby, lost your immortality
Another empty conquest, Venus set me free, set me free
Oh oh what a ritual father, father why you leaving me
They've found another martyr, rather it was him than me
They took away his language, then his memory
He said I'm never, never coming back again
Never coming back again
Never coming back again
Never coming back
Oh oh what a battle master, what a noble enemy
We have to kill them bastards, then compose an elegy
I thought I saw the leader fallen on his knees
He said I'm never, never coming back again
Never coming back again
Never coming back again
Never coming back
Oh oh what an ending baby, promise you'll remember me
I'm not pretending baby, your sweet and wicked treachery
Water all my orchids, save my dynasty
I said I'm never, never coming back again
Never coming back again
Never coming back again
Never coming back
Never coming back again
Never coming back again
Never coming back again
Never coming back
Never coming back again
Never coming back again
Never coming back again
Never coming back
[rev. Aug. 21, 2013]
Wake up late, day is still dawning, get out on the road
Meet up with a man, his face well worn in, he's carrying a load
On the way to paradise
Summer rain falls, head for some shelter close to a wall
See the lady dressed in chance, you try to help her, she heeds your call
On the way to paradise
Find a hidden door that leads to a garden and venture through
Sun shines bright, a witness to pardon the world that you knew
On the way to paradise
Ornamental, or warm and gentle
On the way to paradise
Ornamental, or warm and gentle
On the way to paradise
As you will some day
All is well, the distant horizon, it's there in wait
Get so close, you're so much wiser, but wake up late
On the way to paradise
Ornamental, or warm and gentle
On the way to paradise
Ornamental, or warm and gentle
On the way to paradise
As you will some day
Ornamental, or warm and gentle
On the way to paradise
Ornamental, or warm and gentle
Can you tell heaven from hell
As you will some day
Ohh, on the way to paradise
Ohh, on the way to paradise
As you will some day
[rev. Mar. 6, 2011]
Someone fell across me
Regretting their honesty
Shook away the cautious care
Look right though me like I wasn't there
River came to meet me
Relationships can be like water
Deep but shallow, the popular bed
Springs to mind my undetected closure
You'll only scratch the surface
If you bounce around like an adult ball
Oh yeah, oh yeah, it's nice up there
Be a lighthouse, don't block out your view
Whispers in a cream cake
Sweet and quiet again tonight
Could the sun arrest it
Sometimes heavy living should be crushed
Now I search for hours
Rubble kills my finger's looks
I'll only stop when it hurts a lot
My heart is slender
My wooden tambourine is drenched in blues
Redesign your answer
If you're the post, then prove you're tall
Oh yeah, oh yeah, we slid around
Polish your window, don't block out your view
Take this daring leap
Wake, you've been asleep
Go attack your life
The paint is peeling, scrape to save what's yours
Someone fell across me
Regretting their honesty
Shook away the cautious care
Look right though me like I wasn't there
Don't block out your view
Don't block out your view
Strange girl sing
Think all my life to me
Wild things you bring
Bring drums and bells to me
We dance and sway
Sway like the drunken priest
We dream all day
Day of the wedding feast
Dark hooded eyes
Eyes of a stallion
We roll the dice
One in a million
Bring drums and bells to me