Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

[fox69]

"We Call Upon The Author"

"We Call Upon The Author"


What we once thought we had we didn't, and what we have now will never be that way again
So we call upon the author to explain

Our myxomatoid kids spraddle the streets, we've shunned them from the greasy-grind
The poor little things, they look so sad and old as they mount us from behind
I ask them to desist and to refrain
And then we call upon the author to explain

Rosary clutched in his hand, he died with tubes up his nose
And a cabal of angels with finger cymbals chanted his name in code
We shook our fists at the punishing rain
And we call upon the author to explain

He said everything is messed up around here, everything is banal and jejune
There is a planetary conspiracy against the likes of you and me in this idiot constituency of the moon
Well, he knew exactly who to blame
And we call upon the author to explain

Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!
Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!

Well, I go guruing down the street, young people gather round my feet
Ask me things, but I don'r know where to start
They ignite the power-trail ssstraight to my father's heart
And once again I call upon the author to explain

We call upon the author to explain

Who is this great burdensome slavering dog-thing that mediocres my every thought?
I feel like a vacuum cleaner, a complete sucker, it's fucked up and he is a fucker
But what an enormous and encyclopaedic brain
I call upon the author to explain

Oh rampant discrimination, mass poverty, third world debt, infectious diseease
Global inequality and deepening socio-economic divisions
Well, it does in your brain
And we call upon the author to explain

Now hang on, my friend Doug is tapping on the window (Hey Doug, how you been?)
Brings me back a book on holocaust poetry complete with pictures
Then tells me to get ready for the rain
And we call upon the author to explain

I say prolix! Prolix! Something a pair of scissors can fix

Bukowski was a jerk! Berryman was best!
He wrote like wet papier mache, went the Heming-way weirdly on wings and with maximum pain
We call upon the author to explain

Down in my bolthole I see they've published another volume of unreconstructed rubbish
"The waves, the waves were soldiers moving". Well, thank you, thank you, thank you
And again I call upon the author to explain
Yeah, we call upon the author to explain

Prolix! Prolix! There's nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!

 

[fox69]

"We Came Along This Road"

"We Came Along This Road"


I left by the back door
With my wife's lover's smoking gun
I don't know what I was hoping for
I hit the road at a run
I was your lover
I was your man
There never was no other
I was your friend
Till we came along this road
Till we came along this road
Till we came along this road

I ain't sent you no letters, Ma
But I'm looking quite a trip
The world spinning beneath me, Ma
Guns blazing at my hip
You were my lover
You were my friend
There never was no other
I hope you understand
Till we came along this road
Till We came along this road
Till We came along this road

 

[fox69]

"We No Who U R"

"We No Who U R"



The tree don't care what the little bird sings
We go down with the dew in the morning light
The tree don't know what the little bird brings
We go down with the dew in the morning

And we breathe it in
There is no need to forgive
Breathe it in
There is no need to forgive

The trees will stand like pleading hands
We go down with the dew in the morning light
The trees all stand like pleading hands
We go down with the dew in the morning

And we breathe it in
There is no need to forgive
Breathe it in
There is no need to forgive

The trees will burn with blackened hands
We returned with the light of the evening
The trees will burn with blackened hands
Nowhere to rest, no where to land

We know who you are
We know where you live
And we know there's no need to forgive

We know who you are
We know where you live
And we know there's no need to forgive

We know who you are
We know where you live
And we know there's no need to forgive

We know who you are
We know where you live
And we know there's no need to forgive... again

 

[fox69]

"We Real Cool"

"We Real Cool"


Who took your measurements?
From your toes to the top of your head
Yea, you know
Who bought you clothes and new shoes
And wrote you a book you never read
Yea, you know

Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
On the far side of the morning,
Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
Now I hope you're listening, are you?

Who was it you called the good shepherd,
Rounding up the kids for their meal
Who chased your shadow running out behind
Clinging to your high flying heels
Your high flying, high flying, high flying heels

Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
On the far side of the morning, who was it
Yeah you know, we real cool
And I hope you're listening too

Who measured the distance from the planets
Right down to your big blue spinning world
And heartbeats and tears and nervous laughter
Spilling down all over you, girl

Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
And the world keeps on turning
Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
And I hope you're listening, are you?

Sirius is 8.6 light years away
Arcturas is 37
The past is the past and it's here to stay
Wikipedia's heaven
When you don't want to remember, you know
On the far side of the morning
Who was it, yea you know, we real cool
And I hope you hear me, and you'll call
Yeah, we real cool
Yeah, we real, real cool

 

[fox69]

"Well Of Misery"

"Well Of Misery"


Along crags and sunless cracks I go
Up rib of rock, down spine of stone
I dare not slumber where the night winds whistle
Lest her creeping-soul clutch this heart of thistle

O the same God that abandon'd her
Has in turn abandon'd me
And softenin' the turf with my tears
I dug a Well of Misery

And, in that Well of Misery
Hangs a bucket fulla Sorrow
It swings slow an' achin' like a bell
Its toll is dead and hollow

Down that well lies the long-lost dress
of my lil floatin girl
That muffles a tear that you let fall
All down that Well of Misery

Put ya shoulder to the handle, if ya dare
and hoist that bucket, hither
Lord, crank'n'hoist'n'hoist'n'crank
Till ya muscles waste'n'wither

O the same God that abandon'd her
Has in turn abandon'd me
Deep in the Desert of Despair
I wait at the Well of Misery

 

[fox69]

"West Country Girl"

"West Country Girl"


With a crooked smile and a heart-shaped face
Comes from the West country where the birds sing bass
She's got a house-big heart where we all live
And plead and council and forgive
Her widow's peak, her lips I've kissed
Her glove of bones at her wrist
That I have held in my hand
Her Spanish fly and her monkey gland
Her Godly body and its fourteen stations
That I have embraced, her palpitations
Her unborn baby crying, "Mummy"
Amongst the rubble of her body
Her lovely lidded eyes I've sipped
Her fingernails, all pink and chipped
Her accent which I'm told is "broad"
That I have heard and has been poured
Into my human heart and filled me
With love, up to the brim, and killed me
And rebuilt me back anew
With something to look forward to
Well, who could ask much more than that?
A West country girl with a big fat cat
That looks into her eyes of green
And meows, "He loves you", then meows again

 

[fox69]

"When I First Came To Town"

"When I First Came To Town"


When I first came to town
All the people gathered round
They bought me drinks
Lord, how they quickly changed their tune

When I first came to town
People took me round from end to end
Like someone may take round a friend
O how quickly they changed their tune

Suspicion and dark murmurs surround me
Everywhere I go they confound me
As though the blood on my hands
Is there for every citizen to see

O sweet Jesus
There is no turning back
There is always one more town
A little further down the track

And from my window, across the tracks
I watch the juicers burn their fires
And in that light
Their faces leer at me
How I wish they'd just let me be

When I first came to town
Their favours were for free
Now even the doors of the whores of this town
Are closed to me

I search the mirror
And I try to see
Why the people of this town
Have washed their hands of me

O sweet Jesus
There is no turning back
There is always one more town
A little further down the track

O lord, every god-damn turn I take
I fear the noose, I fear the stake
For there is no bone
They did not break
In all the towns I've been before

Well those that sin against me are snuffed out
I know from every day that I live
God-damn the day that I was born
The night that forced me from the womb
And god-damn this town
For I am leaving now
But one day I will return
And the people of this town will surely see
Just how quickly the tables turn

O sweet Jesus
This really is the end
There is always one more town
A little further round the bend.

 

[fox69]

"Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere"

"Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere"


I remember a girl so very well
The carnival drums all mad in the air
Grim reapers and skeletons and a missionary bell
O where do we go now but nowhere

In a colonial hotel we fucked up the sun
And then we fucked it down again
Well the sun comes up and the sun goes down
Going round and round to nowhere

The kitten that padded and purred on my lap
Now swipes at my face with the paw of a bear
I turn the other cheek and you lay into that
O where do we go now but nowhere

O wake up, my love, my lover wake up
O wake up, my love, my lover wake up

Across clinical benches with nothing to talk
Breathing tea and biscuits and the Serenity Prayer
While the bones of our child crumble like chalk
O where do we go now but nowhere

I remember a girl so bold and so bright
Loose-limbed and laughing and brazen and bare
Sits gnawing her knuckles in the chemical light
O where do we go now but nowhere

You come for me now with a cake that you've made
Ravaged avenger with a clip in your hair
Full of glass and bleach and my old razorblades
O where do we go now but nowhere

O wake up, my love, my lover wake up
O wake up, my love, my lover wake up

If they'd give me my clothes back then I could go home
From this fresh, this clean, antiseptic air
Behind the locked gates an old donkey moans
O where do we go now but nowhere

Around the duck pond we grimly mope
Gloomily and mournfully we go rounds again
And one more doomed time and without much hope
Going round and around to nowhere

From the balcony we watched the carnival band
The crack of the drum a little child did scare
I can still feel his tiny fingers pressed in my hand
O where do we go now but nowhere

If I could relive one day of my life
If I could relive just a single one
You on the balcony, my future wife
O who could have known, but no one

O wake up, my love, my lover make up
O wake up, my love, my lover make up

 

[fox69]

"Where The Wild Roses Grow"
(feat. Kylie Minogue)

"Where The Wild Roses Grow"
(feat. Kylie Minogue)


They call me The Wild Rose
But my name was Elisa Day
Why they call me it I do not know
For my name was Elisa Day
From the first day I saw her I knew she was the one
She stared in my eyes and smiled
For her lips were the colour of the roses
That grew down the river, all bloody and wild
When he knocked on my door and entered the room
My trembling subsided in his sure embrace
He would be my first man, and with a careful hand
He wiped at the tears that ran down my face
[Chorus]
On the second day I brought her a flower
She was more beautiful than any woman I'd seen
I said, "Do you know where the wild roses grow
So sweet and scarlet and free?"
On the second day he came with a single red rose
Said: "Will you give me your loss and your sorrow"
I nodded my head, as I lay on the bed
He said, "If I show you the roses, will you follow?"
[Chorus]
On the third day he took me to the river
He showed me the roses and we kissed
And the last thing I heard was a muttered word
As he knelt (stood smiling) above me with a rock in his fist
On the last day I took her where the wild roses grow
And she lay on the bank, the wind light as a thief
And I kissed her goodbye, said, "All beauty must die"
And lent down and planted a rose between her teeth
[Chorus]

 

[fox69]

"Wide Lovely Eyes"

"Wide Lovely Eyes"


You wave at the sky with wild lovely eyes
Waves and waves of love goodbye
And through the garden with your secret key
Down the tunnel that leads to the sea
Step on the beach beneath the iron sky
You wave and wave with your wild lovely eyes
Crystal waves and waves of love
You wave and say goodbye

Your dress size with your wild lovely strides
And all along the street and lately the stories abound
They've dismantled the fun fair and they've shut down the rides
And they've hung the mermaids from the streetlights by their hair
And with wild lovely eyes you wave at the sky
And me at the high window watching the ride
The waves of blue and the waves of love
You wave and say goodbye

The night expands, I am expanding
I watch your hands like butterflies bending
All among the myths and the legends we create
And all the laughing stories we tell our friends
Close the windows, clear up the mess
It's getting late, it's darker and closer to the end

Through the tunnel and down to the sea
And on that pebble beach, your laces you untie
And arrange your shoes side by side
You wave and wave with your wide lovely eyes
Distant waves and waves of distant love
You wave and say goodbye