I always like to read the lyrics before I listen to the record.
'Cloud of Evil'
And I think there was men before who were too scrambled
By Donna's awesome awesome power
But did any of them ever fly? and by fly I mean moving in and out of the crescents and into the indentations and the golden crescents of the sky?
the pink flowers are dying but everything everywhere is occasionally getting into the dying
see william see that brown speck on top of that irish island that is sure proof man that everything is sometimes into dying
I never liked that co-pilot now even less
since he took my laughter and bled it upon the altar of his own designs
slit my joy's neck
drained it of its blood raised a sacrificial goblet to himself and the virulent power of his own fucking loins
decelerate decelerate
the aeroplane is diving
out of gold
and if we go slow enough I might drop to bombay
I might sense the green air I might be dropped out of phase
I wish the pink flowers away
'Biloxi, in a grove, cleans out his eyes'
This is the cleft where she fell
I found her at the bottom of some small canyon on the floor
I remember you as cold so I turned the heat to your legs: oh Donna I was so much less than the sun
she's going to be
better than she could ever seem
when she blows her flame man
It's like she knows you're watching the days turn into flame
Donna's oh got a right to
look into glass tubes
but the prisoner is a like a dock in a bay
Donna rose
defiled the flowers
picked a pink flower
from the country fields
and if you love me
you'll be on fire
undone country: i'm on a base
we don't feel disdain
you didn't mean it when we stayed on fire
even Dido never stayed on fire
but Donna cares
that's why I care back
there's a hundred roads
there's a hundred flames
clean out my eyes
return her gaze
(daddy always)
I see my life is made of rain
'Three Men Drown in the River'
COMPANY HALTS
CALL DONALD FROM THE REAR: ASK HIM TO SURVEY THE DISTANT PEAKS
ASK HIM IF THIS IS WHAT HE IN LATER LIFE SHALL SEEK
AND ARE THERE RIVERS AND RUNNING WATER?
DOES DONNA LIE UPON THE BANK IN SELFISH SLUMBER?
THREE MEN DROWN IN THE RIVER
DAMIAN, WILLIAM, AND HAROLD S. DEE
I GOT THE FEELING THAT THE REST OF THE MEN JUST WANTED TO LAY
JUST FALL AROUND EACH OTHER, AND SIFT THROUGH THE LAST DUSTY SPECKS OF THE DAY
BUT I AM EVIL SO I ORDERED THEM ON!
COMPANY HALTS...I SEE DONNA, I SEE HER AWAY...
'William, the Crowd, it's William'
Teacher's on the edge of a precipice,
Teacher is racing 2 monks to the edge of bliss,
Teacher always hated those phone calls from the parsonage,
They made him feel as if he was careening towards the edge of a Precipice,
Teacher: teach yourself to be away,
Teach yourself that if Donna wanted to have stayed,
She surely would have stayed
And I'll be the doom of your days
Just because I love Donna: doesn't mean that I ever thought I would be the doom of your days
I could have cared less but the way they wept, it smelt through the phone like the weaknesses
of old cuckolds rusted to the edge of some precipice
for I am the doom of your days
'The Roman'
I been laid out on the floor
from the passing of time
I kiss my palm to see if it's awake
and I noticed the absence of any signs
I broke my leg three months ago: dousing
that candlelight with wine
Snagged and caught my elbow on the shelf
knocked to the floor my collection of weeping Augustine
Dutifully
I remember Donna as she was 3 months ago
and most faces get lost in the haze
Clutch this tacky caricature of you to my chest and
remember that Carthage was covered in a smoky haze
a Mimetic haze
The automatic and justified response
to a crude and graceless age
is to run away
to keep running and fleeing and greeting and holding and beholding
your love
still man: why did she have to go?
My ENEMY is time
'Woe to the Minds of Soft Men'
Donna: Woe to the minds of soft men...
'The Whistle'
I HEARD THE DAY OF OUR NIGHT SHALL START WITH THE SETTING OF THE SUN
AND THE HARDSHIP OF LABOR SHALL FOR THREE BLESSED HOURS BE UNDONE
I WALK INTO THE GOSSIP, FULFILL MY NEEDS, EAT TO SATIATE THAT WHICH HAS FLOWN
RUB MY DIRTY FINGERS UPON THE DENIM THAT SHALL ONE DAY BE CASHMERE, AND FIND THE CASH FOR THE PHONE
CALL DONNA SAY I AM TIRED CALL HER EVERY NIGHT, BEACHES SOUND THE SAME OVER THE PHONE
JUST ALOT OF LAUGHTER AND sunlight and WILLIAM: HER BOYFRIEND FEELING HER UP so tacky so SHE GROANS
SO I LAUGH; AN OLD FRIEND, BUT FUCKING WILLIAM: I SHALL CRACK HIS NECK AND PERFORM ONE MILLION CASTRATIONS WITH HIS BONES
NO I WON'T NO I WON'T I SHALL DESCEND INTO MY BUNK AND WONDER AT THE COLD
AND WONDER THAT anything has ever happened BEFORE THIS DATE TO MAKE ME FEEEL UNCOLD
I REMEMBER MY YOUTH: SEEING SOME GREAT SCAPE, SOME SINLESS PLOT OF DAWN'S NAPE
SOME STRETCH OF WHITE DAWN LIT TIP OR CAPE
OR HORN OR FROSTY BIT OF LAND'S LAST HEAD OF STATE
SEEING MYSELF BUNDLED SOME BLIND YOUTH THINKING THAT ALL LAND COULD JUST BE SURVEYED AND NOT YOU KNOW DUG UP:
SURE DONNA YOU CAN BORROW 200 BUCKS, REAGAN SUCKS, THE WEATHER SUCKS, THE BLASTED COLD CURLS MY HAND, THE QUARTERS ARE HELL TO HOLD, I WANT TO TALK TO YOU NOW, I WANT TO TELL YOU THAT WILLIAM IS THE WHORE, WILLIAM IS THE WHORE, THE SIMPERING BEAST IN A CAGE, THE BASTARD DRUNK IN THE RAGE, THE BLASTED HEATH ON THE PAGE, THE FUCKING WHIMPER FROM SOME SAGE PRETTY BOY FROM OUTSIDE OF THE CITY, BUT CLOSE ENOUGH TO KNOW, MAN, THAT CITY GIRLS ARE THE ONLY WAY TO LOSE YOURSELF IN DARKNESS MAN! WILLIAM YOU'RE GOING TO BE LOSING YOURSELF--IN DARKNESS--UNTIL THE 4TH WIND ARRIVES...
'Nineteen, One God, One Dull Star'
we were always rivers flowing
from the meadows to the light sea
it's nineteen miles to the coast
the birds are crowded around
payphones and their beaks re-devouring
every last seed that they saw
this was a war
Donna is like some boat
we break our paddles in woe
a wake is full of woe
so blow that boat
i'm deficient in my jaw
nights have been kidding around with the captain's son
i miss you when the sea hisses its white call
I'm a wait for you by the shore
one hundred tapestries; but did you sow this?
judas I know you're with her but:
donna lies
she burnt the orphanage, but saved the payroll
in case the accountant came along
so dutiful
we shall row into wakes full of woe
and downstairs is below waterlines
meaning below deck has no sense of star's sight
appraised still of the sorrow of her flight
we row we shall escape this bay
no no don't let us sin
I seen the lighthouse under the floor
I seen the lighthouse light sink underneath the floor
'Sophia, Donna, I was down the River waiting'
I gently pour the alcohol over your wounds and watch the scars fade into time
and watch the wincing fall away
donna was hired to mend the flowers of my father's prized estate
and when she worked
it was as if we had never felt the cold
we quickly came to love her
but i most of all came to love her
it was not easy to meet you, but in the soil I felt your fingers grope,
in the virgin soil I passed through a groan
attacked you with my sense of a smile
you must quit this work and caress the radio's bulbs
and turn the blue green dials,
and notice that the blue lights are parallel and move in file
with the strength of the wave
'Astoria, Menthol Lite, Hilltop, Wave of Evil 1982'
you see i'm always bent out of shape
like an ocean town stuck in the winter,
and logs just seem to wait
hopefully the clouds clear because the clouds have canned our fate
and I hate that WINDY whip-up, that doldrum of breeze, I hate that which is my state
I built a nest out of logs on that sandy cape
I found Donna huddled and wet holding some cracked tape
it only played two songs, from her mother, I think her name was Kate
beautiful songs man like: 'donna takes her name from the beauty of the wintertime: the candied crust of the snow'
And the other one was: 'I shall love you always you should know'
And I am feeling for a reason not to burn this blasted tape
She wanted to sail way to some other cape, some other town, some other series of towns that suck the little highway into the ground
but that was not alright with the dawn
that was not alright with the dawn