1. |
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MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S SCENE
Petals and flowers...
In the park, getting dark, eating the heat.
There’s an eye in the sky, melting your feet.
You see a chick who starts to nick the petals and flowers.
She starts to joke and then provoke the Dance of the Hours.
It’s all down to a midsummer night’s scene.
It’s all down to a Shakespearean dream...
In her face there’s a place disfigured with love.
Her hands are white like the night encased in a glove.
She starts to swing and watches you nick/eunuch petals and flowers.
She starts to joke and then evokes the Dance of the Hours.
It’s all down to a midsummer night’s scene.
It’s all down to a Shakespearean dream...
Petals and flowers...
In the park, getting dark, eating the heat.
There’s an eye in the sky, melting your feet.
You see a chick who starts to nick the petals and flowers.
She starts to joke and then provoke the Dance of the Hours.
It’s all down to a midsummer night’s scene.
It’s all down to a Shakespearean dream...
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2. |
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LEAH HIRSIG
The walls have faces, not just ears.
And nothin’, no nothin’ is the same as it appears.
Now rivers run where silence used to be,
And thunder crash,
And that’s a symbol/cymbal with a capital C.
Night after night,
Sweet mother of the living light,
I come when you call,
And cherish your name.
And when you walk the wire
You claim the fire and blame the fool.
Honor and love are the same.
I never knowed your secret heart –
A hidden world so far apart –
And lookin’ on with a heavy hand
And all hot to harvest
The wages of sin.
Night after night,
Sweet mother of the living light,
I cum when you call,
And cherish your name.
And when you walk the wire
You claim the fire and blame the fool
When honor and slut are the same.
Night after night,
Sweet mother of the living light,
I come when you call,
And cherish your name.
And when you walk the wire
You claim the fire and blame the fool
When honor and slut are the same.
I wrap the night around me like a velvet robe,
And I stalk the stages like a starlit rogue.
And here today is gone tomorrow…
All the kindness left to borrow!
Night after night,
Sweet mother of the living light,
I come when you call,
And cherish your name.
And when you walk the wire
You claim the fire and blame the fool
When honor and love are the same.
--James Wright
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3. |
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LIVING UNDER
The radio you clutch is drowned by the sirens wailing.
This is it! This is it! and the family is helter skelter!
You’re running down the steps that lead to your private shelter,
But it won’t do you any good.
The radio announced that the nuclear dawn has arrived.
The radio announced that you’ve twenty-three minutes alive.
The radio announced that only undergrounders survive.
This is it! This is it! and the family is helter skelter!
You’re running down the steps that lead to the private shelter.
The radio you clutch is drowned by the sirens wailing,
But it won’t do you any good.
The radio announced that the nuclear dawn has arrived.
The radio announced that you’ve twenty-three minutes alive.
The radio announced that only undergrounders survive.
You’re running down the steps that lead to the private shelter,
This is it! This is it! and the family is helter skelter!
The radio you clutch is drowned by the sirens wailing.
And it won’t do you any good.
The radio announced that you’ve really only seconds minutes alive.
The radio announced that the nuclear dawn has arrived.
The radio announced that only undergrounders survive.
The radio you clutch is drowned by the sirens wailing.
This is it! This is it! and the family is helter skelter!
You’re running down the steps that lead to your private shelter,
But it won’t do you any good.
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4. |
PALINDROME
02:38
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PALINDROME
No good winking at the fashionable plate.
She’s the least likely to make a break.
It’s not that your approach is too abrupt –
She hasn’t had the chance to size your wallet up.
History is written in the buff,
But by the time you read it it’s all window dressing stuff.
The mannequins may get a change of clothes,
But look! They’re in the self-same pose.
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5. |
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I DIG YOUR MIND
I dig your hair and your eyes, baby.
I dig the sounds you groove behind.
I dig the flowers that you wear baby,
But most of all: I dig your mind.
I dig your mind!
Now your pussy’s out-a-sight, baby.
You’re always ready for a good time!
I love so many things about you, girl.
But most of all: I dig your mind.
I dig your mind!
You’re the kinda girl I can talk to
As the crowd disappears.
You know exactly where I’m at,
You say the things I want to hear.
You can talk about love and life, baby.
A girl with so much soul is hard to find.
I groove with you in so many ways,
But most of all: I dig your mind.
I dig your mind!
You’re the kinda girl I can talk to
As the crowd disappears.
You know exactly where I’m at.
You say the things I want to hear.
You can talk about love and life, baby.
A girl with so much soul is hard to find.
I dig so many things about you babe,
But most of all: I dig your mind.
I dig your mind.
I dig your mind!!!
Yeah!
I dig, dig, dig your mind, baby!
I diga-dig-it, dig your mind-mind-mind-mind girl!
I dig your mind, baby! Woo!
I dig your mind. Yeah!
Dig your, dig your, dig your mind!
I dig your mind, baby.
I dig your mind.
Oooh, I dig your mind, yeah…
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6. |
WHIRLING DERVISH
03:19
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WHIRLING DERVISH
Rolling snake eyes on a silly grave.
Crawling through used car lots on broken legs.
Doing the cha-cha for puppets there.
The church so quiet, the beggars beg,
And they beg…beg…beg…beg.
Hold me under. Hold me under now.
Whirling dervish won’t you kiss my lover?
Painted nails on a cross-town bus.
A new drug, a strip of leather,
So cold and so new, why don’t you do do do the things like you used to?
Why do they all want to look like us?
Painted nails on a cross-town bus.
Silly eyes, silly eyes…they turn into each other.
Hold me under. Hold me under now.
Whirling dervish won’t you kiss my lover?
Rolling snake eyes on a silly grave.
Crawling by harlots on broken dates.
Shooby dooby rama lama lama lama lama
Ha hari ha ha hari ha ha hari
Now my doctor he is in a coma.
Jesus eats chicken.
Chickens eat Jesus,
So…
Hold me under. Hold me under now.
Whirling dervish won’t you kiss my lover?
Painted nails on a cross-town bus.
Oh! And since you didn’t ask:
He was a black man
He was a white man
He was a black man
He was a white man.
Twice saved.
Took a pill and he fell in the pool.
I’d tell you more…
I’d tell you more
But it’s just too cruel!
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7. |
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|
BUSPASS TO BUDAPEST
[instrumental]
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8. |
PANURGE
02:27
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|
PANURGE
Come you comely daughter, willingly to water
The flower that is opening inside my head.
Nectar of your sunshine slips into my mainline.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Due to our genetics two is copacetic,
One can only get so high.
The earth is in your rhythm. Feel the synergism!
Parch, and liquefy.
Virtue and the vice prez bicker over hairshirts
Towards accord that would never jell.
I give Barbara Eden able-bodied semen
In the wishing well.
Your fetching pale complexion flushed with my injection.
We were always meant to fly!
The past is prone to dozing with its petals closing,
Waving us bye-bye…
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9. |
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CAPITOL
I was not the only ploughboy to leave the village for the capitol.
That summer work was where you found it
And the land outside the city needed to rediscover
The pure and gentle nature of the Indians on her skin.
The plants were flourishing like no others,
And when I saw you on the street
I knew that I was in the right place.
What’s that in the tapebox, ye little shame of sin!
We coupled highly in the capitol.
And if I could just hold you. One more time in my arms again
Like we did last Sunday, I’m sure that you will recognize
That we should be together all the time.
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10. |
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PRETTY GIRL
I was walkin’ down the street one day, yeah,
When I came across a girl I’d really like to meet.
She had hair hangin’ down to her waist, yeah,
She had a pretty face.
And so I asked her:
Where you going?
Where you been?
Where you comin’ from and what’s your name?
Where you going?
Where you been?
Where you comin’ from and what’s your game?
Baby, baby, baby, I haven’t seen you before, no no!
No, no, no, no-no-no-no-no!
Baby, baby, baby, baby!
The way she walked, it was oh so sweet!
You want to kiss her from her head to her feet!
The way she smiled across to me
Drive a poor man wild, yeah!
Where you going?
Where you been?
Where you comin’ from and what’s your name?
Where you going?
Where you been?
Where you comin’ from and what’s your game?
Baby, baby, baby, I haven’t seen you before, no, no!
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Baby, baby, baby. I haven’t seen you before, yeah!
Where you going?
Where you been?
Where you comin’ from and what’s your name?
Where you going?
Where you been?
Where you comin’ from and what’s your game?
Baby, baby, baby, I haven’t seen you before, no no!
Owwww!
No, no, (walk) no, no.
Where you going? Where you been?
Baby, baby, baby, I haven’t seen you before, no!
Baby, baby, baby, baby.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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11. |
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THE HANGED MAN
[These are the lyrics to Version V, the never-completed studio version of the song.]
I grew up thinking I was free
But life sets snares so subtly
That every day along the way
I fill some gaoler’s vacancy.
My mother says I’ll die in vain,
And on the streets I’ll live again.
She says I spill until it’s gone
To find my well-earned (urned) overdrawn.
So come on people, sway with me!
Are we not hanging from a tree?
This gibet grows into the sky.
I know my mother’s lullaby.
Are you not swinging with the tide?
Do you now show? Do you now hide?
The sea’s sequential, don’t you see?
I’m swinging from the hanging tree.
But as I’m hanging by my foot
I am alive, and this is good!
You think my world is upsidedown,
But still the sun and moon are round.
She dressed and wore her feelings to the hilt.
You knew it felt like silk…
If only by the thimbleful
I gave you my very soul.
A heavy load and truly, truly, truly,
The seed has overflown the bowl!
She stooped and plucked one single seed
And put in her pocket then.
“I shall go and plant it in the hay,
And plant it in the hay.”
And when that grain had grown quite tall,
Yeah, yeah, shoulder to a man,
He has took a galleon on the sea,
A galley on to Galilee.
And there he found growing from the ground
An angel of herbs and spice.
And she was such that he was offered much.
That he was offered much!
But he could not, should not, would not part with her.
Nay, nay, she was just too nice!
Would you ignore your feelings like a whore?
Your feeling’s like a whore?
And oceans roar from shore to shore
When we pass it to and fro.
My iris grew, and yes, my pupils do.
She takes me to the door!
A few good guys who can play it right.
Doo doo rock rock shake it up shake it up.
A few good guys who can play it right!
Doo doo rock rock shake it up shake it up!
--Leslie Medford
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12. |
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STAY WITH ME
This is the heartache of my heart.
Here is the wound, and here the smarting.
This is as well my, well, my well of joy.
Here is my luckiness employing me.
Though in the sunlight I’ve often played,
This has been well-used too, this row of shade trees.
Where is your cradle and your last bed?
Here with these same notes my mother led me through.
Does sidewalk parquetry make you play?
Yes, and I’m dancing from grey to grey,
Because when I move the tune chooses to stay with me.
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13. |
TURN INTO A BERRY
03:47
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|
TURN INTO A BERRY
In the sky a cloud.
In the cloud a lake.
In the lake a fish
Granting you one wish.
And your wish, of course, is that you wish,
Any time you choose,
To have a similar opportunity
To change anything you want to.
She turned into a fairy
So I’ll be a berry,
And when she comes to suck me
We both shall make merry,
Cuz in that special moment
When feeling can foment,
We’ll ask ourselves the question,
And answer, “Most definitely, yes!”
You made yourself into a warm wind in my heart, yes you did!
On a cool cold September evening in the chill, I swear I saw you there.
I knew every time I tucked my eyes into ol’ tarot’s party (ha-ha) that you threw,
In that wind I put a seed of mine…
It’s meant for you!
The more that you can see it
The less you can taste it.
The more that you can taste it
The less you can see it.
The less that I can see it
The more I can feel it.
And yeah, the more I feel it
The more I believe it is true!
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14. |
LOVE IS TEASING
02:22
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LOVE IS TEASING
Love is pleasing, love is teasing, when first it is new,
But it changes, re-arranges, like the morning dew.
Once we welcomed intercourse between us —
It was just a little while ago —
But now we’ve vanished from all speaking.
Love is pleasing, love is teasing, when first it is new,
But it changes, re-arranges, like the morning dew.
I can only marvel at the speed at which love’s arrow flies,
So swiftly it is sure to exit the other side.
Love is pleasing, love is teasing, love is pleasing, love is teasing,
Love is pleasing, love is teasing when first it is new.
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15. |
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|
PLASTER OF PARIS
The road here turns inward and is at it for days.
A minotaur met/minor torment in an emotional maze.
Circus came crashing with the smell of esprit,
And time is a floppy disc wobbling haywire at me.
Plaster of Paris, how white your hair is!
Plaster of Paris, how white is your hair!
O wheel of Ferris, so high in the air!
Plaster of Paris, how white your hair is!
Switchbacks and cul-de-sacs are the rule of the day.
You have to punch air-holes just to keep you in play.
And obiter dicta can confuse your resolve
If you don’t watch how the grandads of alabaster revolve.
Plaster of Paris, how white your hair is!
Plaster of Paris, how white is your hair!
O wheel of Ferris, so high in the air!
Plaster of Paris, how white your hair is!
I am rounding the calendar,
A fleeting retreating blur.
I am sounding the tenterhook,
Played on a brassy horn!
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16. |
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THERE'S A BELL
There’s a bell on your windowsill.
They were like two cakes of friction
Eaten together out of spite.
They thought dessert should have a reason,
They thought their favorite sense was sight!
There’s a bell on the top of us spiralling down
There’s a bell on the top of your hill.
There’s a bell by the side of a sound that shines
There’s a bell on your windowsill.
Bell top sound shine bell top hill
Bell side sound that shines
Bell on your windowsill.
B - E (ROCK) L - L
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17. |
IN AMERICA THE OTHER DAY
03:14
|
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|
IN AMERICA THE OTHER DAY
I walked into a room the other day
Off a main street in the U.S.A.
It was full of Vietnamese
In America the other day.
Some were standing, some were sitting.
Only one spoke English, and he was asleep.
I walked into a room in America the other day.
Nobody moved or snored
Stood and stared in America the other day
I couldn’t speak the language
In America the other day
In a room on a back street in a city on the coast.
I talked to a white racist
The other night on a bus
In America the other day
I talked to a white racist
The faces of races turned
The white man went on
In America the other day
The bus was driving through the night
White racist lost
Missed his stop (didn’t know it)
In America the other day
Went too far down the road
In America the other day
Could have been anywhere the other day
Should have been a long time ago
In America the other day
Could have been anywhere the other day
On a bus on a boulevard in a city on the coast
Could have been anywhere in America the other day
In America the other day.
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18. |
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I WILL DIE IN YOUR POCKET
Sweet William sweats upon a stem,
His eyes upon a pond.
Why must we die all the time
Even when we are like swans?
Dodge citadel and land in Lethe’s lap.
Just picture lilies nap…
Why must we boast all the time
Even when we are like whores?
Sweet William sweats upon a stem,
His eyes upon a pond
(Ponder the situation.)
Why must we knock all the time
Even when we are like doors?
Why must we knock all the time
Even when we are like whores?
Why must we die all the time
Even when we are like whores?
Why must we die all the time
Even when we are like swans?
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19. |
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|
THE NIGHT OF HALLOWEEN
The owls are a-hootin’ and the bats take their flight,
‘Cause it’s time to be spooky, that’s Halloween night.
I was passing a graveyard by an old haunted house
Where the witches were stirring their brew,
But all I could hear was the squeak of a mouse
And the tumbling winds that blew.
Up in the tree in the light of that bluish moon,
An owl sat whistling the spookiest tune.
Along the fence a cat did crawl with his back arched way up high.
It was funny to see his outline all across the dark blue sky.
Most of the trees were bare this night,
And goblins were quite a sight!
All of this happened on one scary night…
The Night of Halloween.
All of this happened on one scary night...
The Night of Halloween
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20. |
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|
SOUTHEAST-ASIAN-AMERICAN BLUES
You been nothin’ but trouble, dealin’ me double like I jus’ got off the boat.
You got me goin’ in circles like I must be rowin’ on some kinda moat.
I may be sinkin’ but you’re wrong if you’re thinkin’ you got the only thing afloat.
I was lost in the forest, not a sample star in sight.
I was lost and I was tired and the hoar frost was sure puttin’ on a bite.
And I came knockin’ at your door, you knew what for, but you just turned out your light.
I was behind you in line with a dollar and a dime just the other day.
Well I was so damn hungry an’ I was pleased as punch to pay.
Well what could I say when you just walked away with everything on your tray!
Now you should put that look in mothballs before it does somebody harm.
For you to wear a smile upon your face I suppose somebody has to twist your arm.
We’ll if your tryin’ to take a page from that book about Captain Hook it’s workin’ like a charm.
I don’t know why you have it in for me, is it because I’m from so far away?
Hey, well, we was just lookin’ for a peaceful place to stay.
I never knew it could be true, and to think that you grew up in the U.S.A!
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21. |
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|
CLASH OF THE TITANS
In this Clash of the Titans no surprise will arise tonight.
When this feeling closes in it’s like I’m finally drawing a bead on life.
We cross the bridge to the city and my heartbeat picks up the time.
Can you feel it? Can you see it in my eyes that I’m treading on a fine line?
It’s getting faster now, brothers of mine!
Let’s climb the tower now, brothers of mine!
In the glare of the moment we owned all of space and time.
Then the negative results were all dashed on the street behind.
Only you and I know how it feels to smash that borderline. (Oooo)
Can you feel it? Can you see it in my eyes that I’m treading on a fine line?
It’s getting faster now, brothers of mine!
Let’s climb the tower now, brothers of mine!
In the Clash of the Titans no surprise will arise tonight.
When this feeling closes in it’s like I’m finally drawing a bead on life.
We cross the bridge to the city and my heartbeat picks up the time. (Boom boom)
Can you feel it? Can you see it in my eyes that I’m treading on a fine line?
It’s getting faster now, brothers of mine!
Let’s climb the tower now, brothers of mine!
In the glare of the moment we owned all of space and time.
All the negative results are all dashed on the street behind.
Hey baby, only you and I know how it feels to smash that borderline. (Wooo!)
Can you feel it? Can you see it in my eyes that I’m treading on a fine line?
B-brothers of mine!
Let’s climb the tower now, brothers of mine!
It’s getting faster now, brothers of mine!
Let’s climb the tower now, brothers of mine!
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The Ophelias San Francisco, California
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