1.DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!

Dig yourself
Laz'rus dig yourself
Laz'rus dig yourself
Laz'rus dig yourself
Back in that hole
Larry made his nest high up in the autumn branches
Built from nothing but high hopes and thin air
He collected up some baby blasted mothers who took their chances
And for a while they lived quite happily up there
He came from New York city man, but he couldn't take the pace
He thought it was like dog eat dog world
Then he went to San Francisco, spent a year in outer space
With a sweet little San Fransiscan girl
I can hear my mother wailing and a whole lot of scraping of chairs
I don't know what it is but there's definitely something going on upstairs
Dig yourself
Laz'rus dig yourself
Laz'rus dig yourself
Laz'rus dig yourself
I want you to dig
I want you to dig
I want you to dig
Back in that hole
Yeah, New York City he had to get out of there and San Francisco well,
I don't know and then to LA where he spent about a day
he thought even the pale sky stars were smart enough to keep well away from LA
Meanwhile Larry made up names for the ladies
Like miss Boo and miss Quick
He stockpiled weapons and took potshots in the air
He feasted on their lovely bodies like a lunatic
And wrapped himself up in their soft yellow hair
I can hear chants and incantations and some guy is mentioning me in his prayers.
Well, I don't know what it is but there's definitely something going on upstairs
Dig yourself
Laz'rus dig yourself
Laz'rus dig yourself
Laz'rus dig yourself
I want you to dig
Back in that hole
I want you to dig
Well New York City man, San Francisco, L.A. I don't know
But Larry grew increasingly neurotic and obscene
I mean he, he never asked to be raised from the tomb
I mean no one ever actually asked him to forsake his dreams
Anyway to cut a long story short, fate finally found him
Mirrors became his torturers, cameras snapped him at every chance
The women all went back to their homes and their husbands with secret smiles in the corner of their mouths
He ended up like so many of them do, back on the streets of New York City
In a soup queue, a dope fiend, a slave, then prison, then the madhouse, then the grave
Ah poor Larry.
But what do we really know of the dead And who actually cares
Well, I don't know what it is but there's definitely something going on upstairs
Laz'rus dig yourself
Laz'rus dig yourself
Laz'rus dig yourself
I want you to dig
Back in that hole
Dig yourself

2.TODAY’S LESSON

Little Janie, she wakes up from a dream
A gun like a jawbone down the waistband of her jeans
Mr Sandman, he can recite today's lesson in his sleep
He says there oughta be some kind of law against me going down the street
And little Janie pipes up and she says
She says we're gonna have a real cool time tonight
Yeah, tonight
All right
Down the back of Janie's jeans she had the jawbone of an ass
Mr Sandman, he runs around the corner
Trying to head her off at the pass
He sticks his head over the fence and yells something way too fast
It's today's lesson, yeah, something about the corruption of the working class
Little Janie wakes up on the floor and she says
We're gonna have a real cool time tonight
Come on
Janie says we're all such a crush of want half-mad with loss
We are violated in our sleep and we weep and we toss and we turn and we burn
We are hypnotised we are cross-eyed we are pimped we are bitched
We are told such monstrous lies
Janie wakes up and she says
We're gonna have a real cool time tonight
Mr Sandman, he has a certain appetite for Janie in repose
He digs her pretty knees and that she is completely naked underneath all her clothes
He likes to congregate around the intersection of Janie's jeans
Mr Sandman the inseminator he opens her up like a love letter and enters her dreams
Little Janie wakes up and she says
We're gonna have a real good time tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight
We're gonna have a real good time
Come on, come on, come on
We're gonna have a real good time

3.MOONLAND

When I came up from out of the meat locker
The city was gone
The sky was full of lights
The snow provided a silent cover
In moonland
Under the stars
Under the snow
And I followed this car
And I followed that car
Through the sand
Through the snow
I turn on the radio
I listen to the DJ
And it must feel nice
It must feel nice to know
That somebody needs you
And everything moves slow
Under the stars, under the ash, under the sand
And the night drifts in
The snow provided a silent cover
And I'm not your favourite lover
I turn on the radio
And it must feel nice
Oh, very, very nice to know
That somebody needs you
And the chilly winds blow
Under the snow, under the stars
The whispering DJ on the radio
The whispering DJ on the radio
I'm not your favourite lover
I'm not your favourite lover
And it must feel nice
To leave no trace
That somebody needs you
And that somebody is me
Under the stars, under the snow
Your eyes were closed
You were playing with the buttons on your coat
In the back of that car
In moonland
Under the stars
In moonland
And I followed that car

4.NIGHT OF THE LOTUS EATERS

Sapped and stupid I lie upon the stones and I swoons
The darlig little dandelions have done their thing and changed from suns into moons
The dragons roam the shopping malls, I hear they're gonna eat our guts
If I had the strength I might pick up my sword and make some attempt to resist
Get ready to shield yourself
Grab your sap and your heaters
Get ready to shield yourself
On the night of the lotus eaters
Mmm, don't you love my baby
Mmm, and don't you love my baby anymore
They gilded my scales, they fish-bowled me and they toured me round the old aquariums
They come in their hordes to tap at the glass, the philistines and barbarians
I like floating here, it's nice, they've hung seaweed around my hips
And I do the hula for the hungry ones and the lames all throw me tips
Get ready to shield yourself
Grab your sap and your heaters
Get ready to shield yourself
On the night of the lotus eaters
Mmm, don't you love my baby
Mmm, and don't you love my baby anymore
Get ready to shield yourself
From our catastrophic leaders
Get ready to shield yourself
Grab your sap and your heaters
On the night of the lotus eaters
Now hit the streets

5.ALBERT GOES WEST

Albert goes west
He crossed the vast indifferent deserts of Arizona
He had a psychotic episode on a dude ranch that involved a bottle of ammonia
Henry, he went south and lost his way deep in the weeping forests of Le Vulva
He grew so wan, he grew so sick
He ended up in a bungalow sucking a revolver
The light upon your rainy streets offers many reflections
I won't be hold responsible for my actions
Bobby, he goes north, then goes east, then over to New Hampshire
Bobby is a cautious man
He walked into a Concord dive to drink a beer
Do you wanna dance
Do you wanna move
Do you wanna dance
Do you wanna groove
I said the world is full of endless abstractions
And I won't be held responsible for my actions
Me, I ain't going anywhere, just sit and watch the sun come up, I like it here
I watch the people go ticking past, go hey hey hey
You know I gotta say I like it here
All right

6.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't 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 disease
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
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!

7.HOLD ON TO YOURSELF

I'm so far away from you
Pacing up and down my room
Does Jesus only love a man who loses
I turn on the radio
There's some cat on the saxophone
Laying down a litany of excuses
There's madhouse longing in my baby's eyes
She rubs the lamp between her thighs
And hopes the genie comes out singing
She lives in some forgotten song
And moves like she is zombie-strong
Breathes steady as the pendulum keeps swinging
You better hold on to yourself
Well, cities rust and fall to ruin
Factories close and cars go cruising
In around the borders of her vision
She says ooh
As Jesus makes the flowers grow
All around the scene of her collision
You know I would, yes, I would
I would hold on to yourself
In the middle of the night
I try my best to chase outside
The phantoms and the ghosts and fairy-girls
On 1001 nights like these
She mutters open sesame and Ali Baba and his forty thieves
Launch her off the face of the world
You know one day I'll come back and I'd hold on to yourself
To yourself, I'd hold on to yourself
Ooh baby, I'm a 1000 miles away
And I just don't know what to say
Cause Jesus only loves a man who bruises
But darling, we can clearly see
It's all life and fire and lunacy
And excuses and excuses and excuses
Well, you know if I could, I would
I'd lie right down and I'd hold on to yourself
Yeah, I would lie right down and I would hold on to yourself
One day I'll come back to you and I'd hold on to yourself
Yeah, I'm gonna come back, gonna lie down
And I would hold on to yourself
Yeah, to yourself

8.LIE DOWN HERE (& BE MY GIRL)

Well, you lost a foe
And found yourself a friend
Lie down here & be my girl
I'm back now, baby, that man
He won't be coming round here again
Lie down here & be my girl
I'm trying to tread careful, baby
You're as brittle as the wishbone of a bird
Lie down here & be my girl
We've been scribbled in the margins of a story
That's patently absurd
Lie down here & be my girl
And let it all come down tonight
We can shine, shine
Let it all come down
Be my girl, be my girl
It's a matter of some urgency, oh darling, can't you see
I can't hold back the tide
Lie down here & be my girl
And stop your frantic little fingers trying to collect the years
That pour from the hole in my side
Lie down here & be my girl
Oh, don't worry, baby, this old snake banging on your door
Has got a few skins left to shed
Lie down here & be my girl
Oh, you look so good, you look so good
The rest is better left unsaid
Lie down here & be my girl
And let it all come down tonight
And shine, oh, we can shine
Let it all come down
Tonight
Be my girl, yeah, be my girl
You look so good, you look so good
One day I'll buy a factory
And assemble you on a production line
Lie down here & be my girl
I'd buy a million of you, baby
And every single one of them will be mine
Lie down here & be my girl
I will fill the house with you stack you up in every room
We'll have a real good time
Lie down here & be my girl
But right now, I'm sitting here on my own
Going out of my mind
Lie down here & be my girl
And let it all come down tonight
And shine, oh, we can shine
Let it all come down
Tonight
You look so good, you look so good

9.JESUS OF THE MOON

I stepped out of the St. James Hotel
I'd left you behind curled up like a child
A change is gonna come, and as the door whispered shut
I walked on down the high-windowed hall
You lay sleeping on the unmade bed, the weatherman on the television
In the St. James Hotel said that the rains are gonna come
And I stepped out on the streets all sparkling clean
with the early morning dew
Maybe it was you or maybe it was me
You came on like a punch in the heart
You lying there with the light on your hair
like a Jesus on the moon
A Jesus of the planets and the stars
Well, I kept thinking about what the weatherman said
And if the voices of the living can be heard by the dead
Well, the day is gonna come when we find out
And in some kinda way I take a little comfort from that now and then
Cause people often talk about being scared of change
But for me I'm more afraid of things staying the same
Cause the game is never won by standing in any one place for too long
Maybe it was you or maybe it was me
But there was a chord in you I could not find to strike
You lying there with all the light in your hair like a Jesus of the moon
A Jesus of the planets and the stars
I see the many girls walking down the empty streets
And maybe once or twice one of them smiles at me
You can't blame anyone for saying hello
I say hey, I say hello, I say hello
Will it be me or will it be you
One must stay and one depart
You lying there in a St. James Hotel bed
Like a Jesus of the moon
A Jesus of the planets and the stars
I say hello, hello, hello

10.MIDNIGHT MAN

Hold that chrysalis in your palm, see it split and change
It won't do you any harm, it's just trying to rearrange
It was born to live a day, now it flies up from your hand
It's beautiful, it's the one they call your ever-loving man
Wolves have carried your babies away,
oh your kids drip from their teeth
The nights are long and the day is bitter cold beyond belief
You spread yourself like a penitent upon the mad vibrating sand
And through your teeth arrange to meet your midnight man
Everybody's coming round to my place
Everybody's coming round to my place
Everybody's coming round, oh baby, don't you see
Everybody wanna be your midnight man
Don't disturb me as I sleep, treat me gently when I wake
Don't disturb me when I sleep even though your body aches
Even though your body aches to serve at his command
Between the wars she still adores her ever-loving man
Close your eyes, sleep in him
Dream of your lost sons and daughters
Me, I'll raise up the dorsal fin, and glide up and down the waters
I'll glide up and down the waters, then I'll walk upon the land
And call them out, the ones who doubt your midnight man
Everybody's coming round to my place
Everybody's coming round to my place
Everybody's coming round, oh baby, don't you see
Everybody wants to be your midnight man
It's early in the morning and I don't know what to do
It's early in the morning and I can't believe it's true
It's early in the morning and it's happening again
I called you once, I called you twice, ain't I your midnight man
Everybody's coming round to my place
Everybody's coming round to my place
Everybody's coming round, oh baby, don't you see
Everybody wants to be your midnight man
Everybody's coming round
Everybody's coming round
To be your midnight man
To be your midnight man

11.MORE NEWS FROM NOWHERE

I walk into the corner of my room, see my friends in high places
I don't know which is which and whom is whom
They've stolen each other's faces
Janet is there with her high-hatting hair full of bedroom feathers
Janet is known to make dead men groan in any kind of weathers
I crawl over to her, I say hey baby, I say hey Janet
You are the one, you are the sun and I'm your dutyfull planet
But she ain't down with any of that, she's heard that shit before
I say ah ha, oh yeah you're right
Because I see Betty X standing by the door
With more news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
And it's getting strange in here
Yeah, it gets stranger every year
More news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
Now, Betty X is like Betty Y minus that fatal chromosome
Her hair is like the wine dark sea, on which sailors come home
I say hey baby, I say hey Betty X
I lean close up to her throat
This light you're carrying is like a lamp, hanging from a distant boat
It is my light, said Betty X, Betty X says this light ain't yours
And so much wind blew through her words
That I went rolling down the hall
For more news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
And it's getting strange in here
Yeah, it gets stranger every year
More news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
I turn another corner, I go down a corridor and I see this guy
He must be about 100 foot tall and he only has one eye
He asks me for my autograph, I write nobody and then
I wrap myself up in my woolly coat and blind him with my pen
Cause someone must have put something in my drink
Everything getting strange looking
Half the people had turned into squealing pigs
The other half were cooking
Let me out of here, I cried, and I went pushing past
And I saw miss Polly singing with some girls, I cried strap me to the mast
For more news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
And it's getting strange in here
Yeah, it gets stranger every year
More news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
Then a black girl with no clothes on danced across the room
We charted the progress of the planets around that boogie-wongie moon
I called her my nubian princess
I gave her some sweet-back bad-ass jive
I spent the next seven years between her legs pining for my wife
But by and by it all went wrong, I felt all washed-up on the shore
She stared down at me from up in the storm as I sobbed upon the floor
For more news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
And don't it make you feel alone
Don't it make you wanna get right-on home
More news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
Here comes Alina with two black eyes,
She's given herself a transfusion
She's filled herself with panda blood to avoid all the confusion
I said the sun rises and falls with you, and various things about love
But a rising violence in me cut all my circuits off
Well, Alina, she starts screaming
Her cheeks are full of psychotropic leaves
Her extinction was nearly absolute
when she turned her back on me
For more news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
And it's getting strange in here
Yeah, it gets stranger every year
More news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
I bumped bang crash into Deanna hanging pretty in the door frame
All the horrors which have befallen me, well, Deanna is to blame
Every time I see you, babe, you make me feel so all alone
And I wept my face into her dress long after she'd gone home
With more news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
And don't it make you feel alone
Don't it make you wanna get right back home
More news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
Don't it make you feel so sad, don't the blood rush to your feet
To think that everything you do today, tomorrow is obsolete
Technology and women and little children too
Don't it make you feel blue
Don't it make you feel blue
For more news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
And don't it make you feel alone
Don't it make you wanna get right back home
More news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
Well, I've gotta say
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye