1. |
Hum
05:12
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She's got a circuit in her blood that makes her body hum
Sanguine rivers flow down the curves of her tongue
Razor sharp, mind meld, tooth shaped, bite wound
Now now now
Oh, I want you now, I want you
Right now now
Pin me down, if I let you
Take my pulse
Does it mean you'll show me through the
Stained-glass doors
(Open a vein)
In the center of her mouth, where the life comes in
Lovely center of her mouth, open mouthed, her teeth
(Burgundy stain)
Are window panes framed red, how can she
eat the hearts of men? she's a vegetarian...
Red drops are not an elixir for me
But given some time, I could be made to believe
I'm not dying to become undead
It would be nice for a while to live forever
"When we can say goodnight and stay together"
It would be nice for a while to live forever
"You know it's gonna make it that much better"
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2. |
Holes
06:14
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The picture stutters out of sync with the sound
Colors on the wall start to mingle around
A yellow birthday cake, five candles of blue
Lead marks on the wall show how much I grew
What was it you told me? Five is such a big age to be
Will I still want a birthday party when I turn thirty-three
The are parts of a whole
These are windows captured on rolls
Of celluloid
It's not so easy, boy
To be full of holes
Burn out to white, load another reel
Searching for more casualties to reveal
Matted shocks of hair on a dog that won’t play
The beast friend of a boy falls apart in three days
What was it you taught me about responsibility?
Can I throw the ball far enough that he won’t come back to me?
A sudden flare of the lens, I’ve lost clarity
Incandescence lends obscurity
This could be anybody’s life on display
Mixing Technicolor from a palette of grey
Even Ludovico could see that I can’t take any more
Can I use the sticks in my eyes to prop me up off the floor?
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3. |
Subject 99
05:14
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Discovered by some scientists living on an island near Peru
Experiments with monkeys, they taught one monk to wash his food
Some others imitated, they picked right up on what to do
‘Til 98 was greeted, by one who’ll finally change the rules
Caught herself washing apples
Unaware of her own designs
Soon hundreds emulate it
Make way for monkey 99
The rest need not see to fall in line
Is there some sense of the divine?
All hail this monkey 99
A man sits out one sunny day beside a Mexican café
Observes the teeming masses, exquisite dances happen
He leans back with his eyes closed, into an angle of repose,
And through the seams he sees how these cars and roads and empires came to be
When I’m stuck inside this
Grand network of our lifetimes
Til others like him follow
We wait for subject 99
Just like the prophets of our time
Is there some sense of the divine?
We wait for subject 99
I will walk, I will think, I will wake the other nine-tenths
Of my brain from below, I will catch the falling snow
On my tongue I will taste the sour and the bitter
And when the sweet morning comes, I will learn, I will love
We wait for subject 99
Just like the prophets of our time
Is there some sense of the divine?
We wait for subject 99
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4. |
Slow Boat
06:03
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I press snooze a few times on the alarm clock
I rise out of sleep like a ship through the locks
At the first sounding call I'm still deep and sublime
With the second and third I surface a little more each time
It's a bit early for yesterday's ghost
I'll just wade around in the fog off the coast
Minute after minute flow swiftly away
Surely the clock wasn't moving so fast yesterday
Finally captain myself into motion
Turn on the spray, cut through the commotion
I push the door and watch the steam clear
As the warmth of the watery womb disappears
Tug an old t-shirt over my head
Til I see it's the one I wore last night to bed
So I pull it back off, let it fall to the floor,
Fish out a clean, faded red one from the bottom drawer
Sweet emptiness
Standing alone, halfway dressed
Emptiness suite
Picture-less frames hung around me
Tend to the tetras, make sure they have food
Laugh at them swimming around in the nude
Hook through the key ring and head out the door
Cruise down Canal and get lost in the roar
Desperate faces of those run aground
Waves upon waves of these strangers all spiral around
The funneling walls of the whirlpool surround
Waves upon waves of these strangers all spiral around
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5. |
The War of Alice Ann
02:31
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It's the story of Alice Ann
And how she met her grisly end
Ashes and dust have taken up residency
Where her heart should beat
True love daydreams and ballgown fantasies
Never came true, this Cinderella had turned to blue
She had become a pro cigarette smoker
Took her life into her nicotine-stained hands
Pots and pans are flying off the handle of this
Screaming roman candle
Grab your babies, run for cover
'Cause it's the war of Alice Ann
Fighting for salvation
She's a dying conversation
On a telephone that's off the hook
It's the glory of Alice Ann
Steely blade in her sweaty hand
Over her monthly drag, she caught it by the throat, put it in the bag
Out the window, this defenestrated cycles plunges through the deep
And chalk don't work in the sea
Was the story of Alice Ann
And how she met her grisly end
Ashes and dust have taken up residency
Where her heart should be
True love daydreams and ballgown fantasies
Never came true
And now it's the war of Alice Ann
Fighting for salvation
She's a dying conversation
On a telephone that's off the hook
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6. |
Dr. Gerald E. Bunker
06:11
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Last night in Calais I met the doctor
With powdered bulbs for healing wounds
Must have been a strong concoction
What once were legs, replaced by snakes
I staggered in to the bedroom
Black velvet curtains hung their heads
"Do you want a little more?"
Mais si tu savais pourtant
"Can I offer you some more?"
With a drawl, the words are slowly spoken
And leave me shaking in my seat
He said I was under for an hour
But I've aged several days
Rusted cigarettes and leaves
Invoke the sounds from carbon trees
Poison smiles on rubber faces
Drain my heavy chocolate veins
Sudden came the bleached-out morning
Skeletal birds in a burning sky
Cobbled stones beneath my leather
Chasing lines along the way
I staggered in to the bedroom
Black velvet curtains hung their heads
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7. |
My Big Head
04:13
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I thought so much I stretched my brain,
Now we can all take cover in the pouring rain under my big head
Hypothesized now prosthelysized
Is my body on straight? Does it match the eyes on my big head?
The ever-growing hemispheres are
Running out of room in here
Now I'm lucky if I keep her up
No body ever knew my name til they
Saw the locks of the giant mane on my big head
Front cover of a fashion magazine
Now they all wanna look the same as my big head
Away away away, I'm gonna float away
Hoist the anchor and drop the ballast
And meet me in the space out there
And soon the news will say "If we grow a little more each day,
We'll need our own ZIP codes and ground controls
And shopping malls with Big and Talls"
No body ever knew my name til they
Climbed the stalks of the giant mane on my big head
Now the traffic looks like rice and grains, so I
Tip my big hat to the passing planes by my big head
We're filling up the skies like fireflies
Dot the hillsides in the summertime
Now photosynthesis is done
One by one we block out the sun with our big heads
The world's together under sentient skies
We've obliterated all truth and lies under our big heads
Away away away
We're all gonna float away
With our big heads
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8. |
Grean Devil
05:23
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Waves upon waves
Of insatiable flames
Split the air from the inside
While streaking their way through the sky
And they’re all I can see
And they glow brilliantly
The black night is cloaked in an emerald grean devil
Mustache stiffly waxed, silver watch in his pocket
A quiver of stars rests inside his eyelids and blinks
Languidly coaxes the prose from a poet
Navigates horsehair through channels of color
Turns life into tones which ring out in the keys of the teeth
You can see his influence in all the great works of man
Who knows what alkaloids lurk in the dense mundungus?
A pipe splits the smile of the emerald grean devil
Crooked and knotted, yet lacquered and polished
The blaze when he draws leaves the witnesses glareblind and mute
Drenched in the finest perfumes from his chemist,
Double-edged s-words house him in their corners
Astral processions, he charts with chrome sextants and tea
Can a blood-and-guts man gaze into the smoke rings and live to tell?
Or will he be banished forever to the antediluvian palace that we call the sea
Result or reason, madness or genius
Looks like the man in the Gabardine suit is a spy
Man plans, the devil laughs
All aces and eights in a roomful of straights
So kill the conductor and strike down the band
The revolution's composed with the slight of his hand
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9. |
Next Time Around
03:35
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Next time around, I don't wanna be a man
I wanna be a jellyfish
i wanna be a jellyfish
Yeah when I come back, I don't wanna be a man
I wanna be a jellyfish
I wanna be a jellyfish
I wanna hear it again
I wanna hear it again
Cuz last time around I couldn't stand the sound of
Elevators countin' off the up and down
Impatiently, I climb
Somebody open the door
I been up all night by the light of the moth
Gotta dig a hole, crawl in, and fill it up with dirt
I kinda think it's the end
You just know the people all would say that
Something new begins
Well I take my growth with a splash of gin
I'm heading out the door
The tape's unwound, I wouldn't play it anyway
Maybe I should've paid more attention
Turned my head around, around
Next time around, I don't wanna be a man
I wanna be a razor blade
I wanna be a razor blade
Yeah when I come back, I don't wanna be a man
I wanna be a razor blade
I wanna be a razor blade
I wanna be a rabbit
I wanna be a rabbit
The kind that you fed to me
The kind that you said to me
Had escaped the gate
Left open too late
Why did you leave the gate open again?
Bunner got out and was never seen again
Sure looks like bunner lying on my plate
I guess I'm not the only one who's skinned alive todaaaay
I wanna be a rabbit
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