Last Day On Earth

May i help you, sir?

Yes, i'd like to buy a map, please.

What kind of map?

As up-to-date as possible, i'm thinking of doing a bit of travelling and i need the latest world atlas.

I'm sorry but we may be in a bit of trouble there. all the maps are changing so rapidly it's difficult to follow these days since the east has returned to the dance floor.

Yes, i sense a loss of asimuth here, a falling off the edge of the world as we know it, a scattering of temples, a wish for a more modern [cairo], a more [devisive] equator, a more beautiful sun
A bluer sky, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

I'm leaving for home, leaving for home tonight. gabon, zaire, congo, rwanda. i'm leaving for home, leaving for home tonight. zimbabwe, botswana, lesotho, tansania.

The world changes partners to dance. poor libya, so misunderstood. the mighty zambezi, the windblown kalahari, a wish for a more electronic mailbox, a more african nightmare, a more vigorous bur
Mozambique electronique, the armies of namibia. angola, who is your cuba now? changed partners, the world wants to dance.

I'm leaving for home, leaving for home tonight. somalia, equatorial guinea, cameroon, togo. i'm leaving for home, leaving for home tonight.
Tothigua, sierra leone, senegal, western sahara.

The maidens of morocco, burkina faso the riches of liberia, a stranger symbolism, a sand-storm of antiquities, a more beautiful sunset, a sparser continent, a bluer sky, a more disturbing rhythm
Angrier drum-beat.

I'm leaving for home, leaving for home tonight. estonia, latvia, kazakhstan, nashville. changed partners again, changed partners just for the night.
Ankara, enseno and madrid, twin cities, reno.

I'm leaving for home, leaving for home tonight. inuit, rome, vancouver.
Changed partners again, changed partners just for the night. afghanistan, sardinia, peru. changed partners again, changed partners just for the night.
Columbia, argentina, france, syria, catalan, oslo.

The sky's full of dirty, aching air, that's burning a greasy yellow and zooming
Slowly in on everyone, [untie] these fighting sunsets that will not be fulfilled.
The noise on her eyes is still there, even when the retina yields in the strain of
The dull, sacreligious commandment of an eye for an eye or a tooth for a truth.

Even the ocean is ghettoized now, another dirty alleyway that leads nobody home.
When you're so young and full of expectations, you're looking for that perfect wave
And when you'd like to ride them all/on. so i ask you from the bottom of my heart,
Is that any way to treat your mother? red, red, red river, bloody ocean of
Sorrowful memories carry me to the deep blue sea. i hear you. call me.

Is it true that virtue fell by the wayside? not even a mark. and who will lift
The fog of bitterness, who [will sigh] the tide of regret? who'll avoid the
Undertow of sentimental drift? who can live long on poetry and rats? i don't have
The patience, but what does it cost on the open market? and who can afford that?

I wanna be buried in the bottom of the ocean, like shelly winters in "the
Night of the hunter". my hair abillowing, being kissed by the fishes, sushi
For shabu. if fishes were wishes i'd have you. i'd have you. ahh, i've never
[felt one tremor] that is greed, envy, lust, gluttony, anger, pride.

Sitting 'round, talking 'bout old china and how the ladies hair will go to grey, paying for a speedy revolution, hoping those fine lines will go away. someone screams about abuse of power, so lo
There was nothing left to say, hoping for a speaking revolution, and wishing that the crimes would go away.

Cross your heart and hope to die, it'll happen in the blinking of an eye.
Cross your heart and hope to die, it'll happen in the blinking of an eye.

Dealing with the mask of your deception, i threw that other chance away today.
I'd been asking for a speedy resolution, hoping other signs would go away. since
Sitting here, talking 'bout old china, and how old ladies hair will go to grey, i'd
Been praying for a speedy resolution, expecting that the time will slip away.

Cross your heart and hope to die, it'll happen in the blinking of an eye.
Cross your heart and hope to die, it'll happen in the blinking of an eye.

Consternation on the dance-floor i can't take it anymore.
My ugly girl-friend has these big eyes, she's running out the door.
Get her back, the regulars cry.
All the bar-flies are going dry.
We need some business says the man reaching out with the greasy hand.
We need some business says the man with the broken heart.

Broken hearts are good for business these days, broken hearts are good for business always.

Mass confusion on the turnpike, which way did the lady go?
Rumour has it she was flying through the toll-booth down the road.
Get her back, the troopers cry, all the judges need a boost, bad reviews in the daily news, and the
Chickens come home to roost.

Broken hearts are good for business these days, broken hearts are good for business always.

Welcome to the goldrush, ladies and gentlemen, where california begins and maybe ends.

California is the last stop on the great hitchhike west and now it's getting a little full. too many thumbs. well, when you get too many people in one place, you get intolerance and contempt and
Dity and tension and sarcasm, distrust, anxiety, envy, hate, cynicism, discontent, self-pity, malice, suspicion, jealousy and snobbishness. and this leads right into poetry, painting, sculpture,
E, music and literature, photography. these are known as the arts. and art will break your heart. so what? so will a good meal. art is not the spiritual side of business-as-usual.

And art is not for everyone. never has been and it never will be. now me, i don't know much about art, but i do like what i know. you know in these days when everybody is mistaking celebrity for
Nt, ambition for genius, self-pity for humility, style for content and loathing for love, they spend a lot of time getting in touch with themself. and then they find self-justification, self-rig
Sness, self-obsession, self-pity, self-loathing, self-concern, self-centredness, self-reliance, and self-serving gratification.

Desparation sets the clock, buried treasure, call the shots, family jewels in the vault, sleep safe at any cost.

When the life begins to fade, snakes rattle in the cage, nasty creatures on the crawl, nothing dead as much at all.
Streets come alive after midnight.
Streets come alive after midnight.

Spot targets, pick and choose. rage and pain are on the move. fears, that's to play a part, sending daggers to the heart. dream scenes, forgotten lives, nightmare noise and blinded eyes, crude s
And kerosene, broken glass and strangled dreams.
Streets come alive after midnight.
Streets come alive after midnight.

[blocked/splashed] up your burning nose, politics step on your toes, day-break will bring you back, bright lights will make you crack. streets come alive after midnight. there are no guaranties
Midnight. eyes in the skies after midnight. fire in the skies after midnight.

God knows how long she was waiting on the mountain, staring at the river, watching all her dreams go by. every single morning she sang of crystal fountains, counting the days until she spread he
Gs and fly. she had her eye on a man, the hero of the valley. born in an alley wearing felony-shoes. when it came to the ladies, that man became a legend, famous for his freedom, freed to pick a
Oose. lay your money, lay your money down. lay your money, lay your money down.

It was a marriage made in heaven, meant for each other, natural born lovers want to sing each other's song. it was too good to be true, too good not to try, too soon to tell, it was too late to
There were shadows in [the kitchen], poison in the air. secrets to be hidden, they were too much to care. it was lipstick for breakfast, and fine wine in a glass, resentments in the mirror, ther
No way you can last. lay your money, lay your money down. lay your money, lay your money down.

There was static on the juke box and murder on their minds, money on the table, there were [walls left to climb]. lights across the water, and fireworks in the sky, paradise nevada on the fifth
Of july. twisting like a dancer she took everything he had. this side of whiskey nothing cut in half is bad. there are losses, there are debts, there are winners to be found, there are wagers,
Are bets, there are losers in the crowd. lay your money, lay your money down. lay your money, lay your money down.

Before the end of the beginning, before the finish credits role, there is a brief but brutal truth along the high and mighty road. faces tend to run together, names be lost and legends told, of
Ays to be forgiven on that high and mighty road.

There is a will to test the power, there is the struggle for control of the basic rights of passage along the high and mighty road.

It is a journey for the taking, it is a choice that can be made.
It is the soul that may be shaken, it is the spirit to be sane.



There is hypocrisy and wonder, when fortunes pale and empires home to an ancient way of magic along a high and mighty road.
Money changers seeking payments for the priviledged to be so bold, to say the train is not too crowded for a high and mighty road.
And the courage may be tested, by judgement harsh and cold, from the monitors of progress along that high and mighty road.

There are the words that have been spoken, there is the life that's been portayed, it is a promise to be broken, it is the joy that dies in vain.

Pale treasure, fragile beauty, or the messages set in coal, we delivered as nostalgic on that high and mighty road.



Sacrifice and deprivation are spiteful paradoxes sold as begrudging restitutions along that high and mighty road.

And yet the faces, oh god the faces, they seldom change from young to old, they only seem to grow more brazen along the high and mighty road.
It is the future we are trading, it is the prices that we pay, it is the mind that is mistaken, it is the heart we give away.