Night of the Lotus Eaters - Nick Cave

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!

Now hit the streets!

Albert Goes West - Nick Cave

Albert goes west, he crossed the vast indifferent deserts of Arizona, oh yeah
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

Mhm

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

Sha la-la-la, sha la-la-la, sha la-la-la-la-la-la
Sha-la-la-la, sha la-la-la, sha la-la-la-la-la-la

We Call Upon the Author - Nick Cave

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

(Doop doop doop doop dooop)

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

(Doop doop doop doop dooop)

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

(Doop doop doop doop dooop)

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

(Doop doop doop doop dooop)

Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!
Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!

(Doop doop doop doop dooop)

Well, I go guruing down the street, young people gather round my feet
Ask me things, but I don'r 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

(Doop doop doop doop dooop ...)

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

(Doop doop doop doop dooop ...)

Oh rampant discrimination, mass poverty, third world debt, infectious diseease
Global inequality and deepening socio-economic divisions
Well, it does in your brain
And we call upon the author to explain

(Doop doop doop doop dooop ...)

Now hang on, my friend Doug is tapping on the window (Hey Doug, how you been?)
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

(Doop doop doop doop dooop ...)

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

(Doop doop doop doop dooop ...)

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!