She speaks in a voice that rings

She dances with a body that sings

She knows all those special things

Lorelei.

She lives in a stony place

The sun reflects her gaze

No-one can tell you her race.

Lorelei

Lorelei, Lorelei

I’ve been looking for someone like you.

Her house is made of air

She waits and combs her hair

One day I’ll find the stair that leads to my

Lorelei.

She’s protected by a wall of sound

Surrounded by marshy ground

That’s where her beauty is found

Lorelei.

Lorelei, Lorelei

I’ve been looking for someone like you.

She is with me all the time

I keep her shadow in my mind

One day, one day I’m going to find

My Lorelei.

---

Choirs of angels in the sky

Black dogs prowling the highway

Stun gun rattle in the breaking dawn

And a single Mad God’s call.

If we climb above the wall

Do we think we’ll see it all?

Damp, dark breath from the Everglades

Alligator eyes burning in the shade

Insect clicking in the dying sun

And a single wild thing’s call.

If we climb above the wall

Do we think we’ll see it all?

So if you want to sing

Just sing it to the wind

The grains of sand are listening

The ocean waves are glistening

If you’re not there you’re missing it.

Brown brick cell in a tenement sprawl

Paining my soul all over the walls

Syncopated rhythm from the tangle of lives

And a single child in time.

If we climb above the wall

Do we think we’ll see it all?

Choirs of angels in the sky

Black dogs prowling the highway

Syncopated rhythm from the tangle of lives

And a single child in time.

If we climb above the wall

Do we think we’ll see it all?

So if you want to sing

Just sing it to the wind

The grains of sand are listening

The ocean waves are glistening

If you’re not there you’re missing it.

---

“It is always this: there is a thing that is there, a thing made of writing, a solid (digital) material object, which cannot be changed, and through this thing we measure ourselves against something else that is not present, something else that belongs to the immaterial, invisible world, because it can only be thought, imagined, or because it was once and is no longer, past, lost, unattainable, in the land of the dead … “

Italo Calvino: If On A Winter’s Night a Traveller

Almost there, almost on the verge

Almost there, almost on the verge

One more step, just one more step

One more step, just one more step

And we fly.

Maybe we’re walking, maybe we’re standing still

Chains around our ankles, chains around our wills

One more step, just one more step

One more step, just one more step

And we fly.

Look around, look at the shadows, stretching behind, in front, as the sun descends. Long, languid, large, taller than the houses, the trees, taller than our souls. If we got close enough to the sun our shadows would engulf the world.

Almost there, almost on the verge

Almost there, almost on the verge

One more step, just one more step

One more step, just one more step

And we fly.

---

Black as night

The pack is taking flight

Tearing up the ground

Hear that howling sound

Don’t you raise your head

Don’t you raise your head

Smell the sweat, taste the breath

Feel the heat at your back

Warm bodies all around

Get those feet to pound

Don’t you raise your head

Don’t you raise your head

All for one and one for all

You pay a price for every bone

Run with the pack

Or run alone.

Thunder in the air

Blood on the wind

Dark heart pumping

Power to your limbs

Don’t you raise your head

Don’t you raise your head.

---

It’s seven o’clock on a Wednesday and we’re wasted

You’re with me, we’re flying and your lips never tasted so good

We can stay in this room, we can look at the moon, if you want to.

Thank God for the bus stops, park benches and your warm hands

Thank God for the street lights and memories of a slow dance (so good)

And thank God, ’cause by God, you can thank God and not feel depleted.

Hey, do you have a cigarette? I think I can find us some beer.

If you don’t it’s okay, I’m happy to stay and tomorrow is another day.

I saw my reflection, it was slouching down the back stairs

I thought I was taller, a little thicker maybe but who cares (‘cept you)

Another sunset is gone and I’m not alone. Can I trust you?

Hey do you have some aspirin? I think I’ve caught a chill.

If you don’t it’s okay, I’m happy to stay and tomorrow just won’t go away.

---

There’s a shadow risen in the west

Driven by men looking for happiness

There’s a storm that comes from the east

Driven by men looking for release

And in between there are fields of blood

Waiting for the darkness and the rains to flood

And you won’t know how situations change

And you won’t feel a thing until you see it on the Front Page.

There are lands of beauty under the hammer

Lands of wonder under claw and wing

And in the twilight you might hear the voices

Raised in defiance as the chorus sings

“A united people will not be defeated

No one gets through if it’s war they bring”

But do far away these shouts of rage

And you won’t feel a thing until you see it on the Front Page.

In sulphurous pits and dirty alleys

Bargains are struck with hooded eyes

Unseen hands chart the landscape

The rooftops are thick with The Enemy’s spies.

And from our labour born of pain

They deal in death for political gain

But you won’t know the players on this stage

And you won’t feel a thing until you see it on the Front Page.

It’s from the north that the winter comes

With wind and snow and the sound of guns

And all those voices that you thought you heard

Are buried in paper, entombed with words.

All those voices that you thought you heard

Are buried in paper, entombed with words.

This doom has fallen on our age

And you won’t feel a thing until you see it on the Front Page.

---

Sometimes I think I’m going down

Fall, fall, fall down to the ground

Digging myself a deep, deep hole

Closer to mu last home, that old tombstone.

I can hear those angels sing

Hallelujah nearly time to come in.

Every man carries a heavy load

Every woman walks a lonely road

Everyone wants a piece of your time

But time runs out at the end of the line.

I can hear those angels sing

Hallelujah nearly time to come in.

You’ve got to feel bad before you feel good

This world don’t work the way it should

Got to get low before you can rise

Crawl like a baby before you can fly

They say the Lord became flesh to feel our pain

And if we follow in his path we’ll rise again

But I’m so down that my weary bones

Ain’t ever going to leave this old tombstone.

I can hear those angels sing

Hallelujah nearly time to come in.

---

If you ever get to this town

Don’t hesitate to look me up

I make few promises but that’s a fact

My door is always open

Though I may not be waiting.

If you should write a short note

I’d be happy to reply

Just say how you’re getting by

My heart is always open

Though I may not be waiting.

Can’t you see, the moon is low on the horizon

It’s getting late and the sky looks like poison

My memory train has jumped the track

Oh and I still want you back.

I still want you back.

I remember the bad times

Though I try I still remember the good

I guess there’s not much left to say

We both always understood

My heart is still open

Though I may not be waiting.

---

I want to be

Your shelter and your shade

The bed where you were made

The taste upon your tongue

The ground on which you run.

I want to be

A ladder for your step

A baby at your breast

A cup to catch your tears

A dream to hold your fears.

I want to be

Your shadow and your sun

The ground on which you run

The air inside your sighs

A muscle for your smile.

I want to be

The thunder in your storm

The town where you were born

The ocean where you swim

The sand against your skin.

I want to be

A string for your guitar

The leather in your car

The leaves inside your breeze

The first thing that you see.

I want to be

Your shadow and your sun

The ground on which you run

The air inside your sighs

A muscle for your smile.

---

Walked into a one car town

Air was dry and the sun beating down

If I walk out of here again

I’m going to need to find me a brand new friend.

Dust devils lick my shoes

Somehow I thought I had nothing to lose

Street’s deserted and the shutters frown

No surprises in Desperation Town.

Desperation, Desperation Town.

Dark angels appear at my side

They’ve got lover’s lips and banker’s eyes

One’s got a name that’s been long out of fashion

What she lacks in truth she makes up in passion.

The monkey on my back whispers in my ear

He says, “I know how to stop the tears.”

In just one second he’ll start his show

And every time I listen he just grows and grows.

Desperation, Desperation Town.

If I could choose where to make my stand

It would not be in this forsaken land

And If I still had the use of my guns

You would not find me here come tomorrow’s sun.

I get to thinking that my monkey’s diseased

He used to be cute, used to fill me with ease

But now his weight is just bringing me down

No surprises in Desperation Town.

Desperation, Desperation Town.

---