It’s four in the morning, the end of DecemberI’m writing you now just to see if you’re betterNew York is cold, but I like where I’m livingThere’s music on Clinton Street all through the evening. I hear that you’re building your little house deep in the desertYou’re living for nothing […]
Now I’ve heard there was a secret chordThat David played, and it pleased the LordBut you don’t really care for music, do you?It goes like thisThe fourth, the fifthThe minor fall, the major liftThe baffled king composing Hallelujah. HallelujahHallelujahHallelujahHallelujah. Your faith was strong but you needed proofYou saw her bathing […]
I greet you from the other sideOf sorrow and despairWith a love so vast and shatteredIt will reach you everywhere. And I sing this for the captainWhose ship has not been builtFor the mother in confusionHer cradle still unfilled. For the heart with no companionFor the soul without a kingFor […]
I came by myself to a very crowded place; I was looking for someone who had lines in her face. I found her there but she was past all concern; I asked her to hold me, I said, ‘Lady, unfold me,’ But she scorned me and she told me I […]
Field Commander Cohen, he was our most important spy.Wounded in the line of duty,Parachuting acid into diplomatic cocktail parties,Urging Fidel Castro to abandon fields and castles.Leave it all and like a man,Come back to nothing special,Such as waiting rooms and ticket lines,Silver bullet suicides,And messianic ocean tides,And racial roller-coaster ridesAnd […]
Ah we’re drinking and we’re dancingAnd the band is really happeningAnd the Johnny Walker wisdom running highAnd my very sweet companionShe’s the Angel of CompassionShe’s rubbing half the world against her thighAnd every drinker every dancerLifts a happy face to thank herThe fiddler fiddles something so sublimeAll the women tear […]
Your father’s gone a-huntingHe’s deep in the forest so wildAnd he cannot take his wife with himHe cannot take his child. Your father’s gone a-huntingIn the quicksand and the clayAnd a woman cannot follow himAlthough she knows the way. Your father’s gone a-huntingThrough the silver and the glassWhere only greed […]
Do you remember all of those pledgesThat we pledged in the passionate nightAh they’re soiled now, they’re torn at the edgesLike moths on a still yellow lightNo penance serves to renew themNo massive transfusions of trustWhy not even revenge can undo themSo twisted these vows and so crushed. And you […]
I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,You were talking so brave and so sweet,Giving me head on the unmade bed,While the limousines wait in the street.Those were the reasons and that was New York,We were running for the money and the flesh.And that was called love for the workers […]
You were the promise at dawn,I was the morning after.You were Jesus Christ my Lord,I was the money lender.You were the sensitive woman,I was the very reverend Freud.You were the manual orgasm,I was the dirty little boy. And is this what you wantedto live in a house that is hauntedby […]
It’s coming through a hole in the air,From those nights in Tiananmen Square.It’s coming from the feelThat this ain’t exactly real,Or it’s real, but it ain’t exactly there.From the wars against disorder,From the sirens night and day,From the fires of the homeless,From the ashes of the gay:Democracy is coming to […]
Can you tell me why the bells are ringing?Nothing’s happened in a million yearsI’ve been sitting here since Wednesday morningWednesday morning can’t believe my ears. Jazz police are looking through my foldersJazz police are talking to my nieceJazz police have got their final ordersJazzer, drop your axe, it’s Jazz police!. […]
I saw you this morningYou were moving so fastCan’t seem to loosen my gripOn the pastAnd I miss you so muchThere’s no one insideAnd we’re still making loveIn my secret life. I smile when I’m angryI cheat and I lieI’ll do what I have to doTo get backBut I know […]
