Songs Of Love And Hate

Ah his fingernails, i see they're broken,
His ships they're all on fire.
The moneylender's lovely little daughter
Ah, she's eaten, she's eaten with desire.
She spies him through the glasses
From the pawnshops of her wicked father.
She hails him with a microphone
That some poor singer, just like me, had to leave her.
She tempts him with a clarinet,
She waves a nazi dagger.
She finds him lying in a heap;
She wants to be his woman.
He says, "yes, i might go to sleep
But kindly leave, leave the future,
Leave it open."

He stands where it is steep,
Oh i guess he thinks that he's the very first one,
His hand upon his leather belt now
Like it was the wheel of some big ocean liner.
And she will learn to touch herself so well
As all the sails burn down like paper.
And he has lit the chain
Of his famous cigarillo.
Ah, they'll never, they'll never ever reach the moon,
At least not the one that we're after;
It's floating broken on the open sea, look out there, my friends,
And it carries no survivors.
But lets leave these lovers wondering
Why they cannot have each other,
And let's sing another song, boys,
This one has grown old and bitter.

The rain falls down on last year's man,
That's a jew's harp on the table,
That's a crayon in his hand.
And the corners of the blueprint are ruined since they rolled
Far past the stems of thumbtacks
That still throw shadows on the wood.
And the skylight is like skin for a drum i'll never mend
And all the rain falls down amen
On the works of last year's man.

I met a lady, she was playing with her soldiers in the dark
Oh one by one she had to tell them
That her name was joan of arc.
I was in that army, yes i stayed a little while;
I want to thank you, joan of arc,
For treating me so well.

And though i wear a uniform i was not born to fight;
All these wounded boys you lie beside,
Goodnight, my friends, goodnight.

I came upon a wedding that old families had contrived;
Bethlehem the bridegroom,
Babylon the bride.
Great babylon was naked, oh she stood there trembling for me,
And bethlehem inflamed us both
Like the shy one at some orgy.
And when we fell together all our flesh was like a veil
That i had to draw aside to see
The serpent eat its tail.

Some women wait for jesus, and some women wait for cain
So i hang upon my altar
And i hoist my axe again.
And i take the one who finds me back to where it all began
When jesus was the honeymoon
And cain was just the man.
And we read from pleasant bibles that are bound in blood and skin
That the wilderness is gathering
All its children back again.

The rain falls down on last year's man,
An hour has gone by
And he has not moved his hand.
But everything will happen if he only gives the word;
The lovers will rise up
And the mountains touch the ground.
But the skylight is like skin for a drum i'll never mend
And all the rain falls down amen
On the works of last year's man.

Four o'clock in the afternoon
And i didn't feel like very much.
I said to myself, "where are you golden boy,
Where is your famous golden touch?"
I thought you knew where
All of the elephants lie down,
I thought you were the crown prince
Of all the wheels in ivory town.
Just take a look at your body now,
There's nothing much to save
And a bitter voice in the mirror cries,
"hey, prince, you need a shave."
Now if you can manage to get
Your trembling fingers to behave,
Why don't you try unwrapping
A stainless steel razor blade?
That's right, it's come to this,
Yes it's come to this,
And wasn't it a long way down,
Wasn't it a strange way down?

There's no hot water
And the cold is running thin.
Well, what do you expect from
The kind of places you've been living in?
Don't drink from that cup,
It's all caked and cracked along the rim.
That's not the electric light, my friend,
That is your vision growing dim.
Cover up your face with soap, there,
Now you're santa claus.
And you've got a gift for anyone
Who will give you his applause.
I thought you were a racing man,
Ah, but you couldn't take the pace.
That's a funeral in the mirror
And it's stopping at your face.
That's right, it's come to this,
Yes it's come to this,
And wasn't it a long way down,
Ah wasn't it a strange way down?

Once there was a path
And a girl with chestnut hair,
And you passed the summers
Picking all of the berries that grew there;
There were times she was a woman,
Oh, there were times she was just a child,
And you held her in the shadows
Where the raspberries grow wild.
And you climbed the twilight mountains
And you sang about the view,
And everywhere that you wandered
Love seemed to go along with you.
That's a hard one to remember,
Yes it makes you clench your fist.
And then the veins stand out like highways,
All along your wrist.
And yes it's come to this,
It's come to this,
And wasn't it a long way down,
Wasn't it a strange way down?

You can still find a job,
Go out and talk to a friend.
On the back of every magazine
There are those coupons you can send.
Why don't you join the rosicrucians,
They can give you back your hope,
You can find your love with diagrams
On a plain brown envelope.
But you've used up all your coupons
Except the one that seems
To be written on your wrist
Along with several thousand dreams.
Now santa claus comes forward,
That's a razor in his mit;
And he puts on his dark glasses
And he shows you where to hit;
And then the cameras pan,
The stand in stunt man,
Dress rehearsal rag,
It's just the dress rehearsal rag,
You know this dress rehearsal rag,
It's just a dress rehearsal rag.