Best Of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

I've searched the holy books
I tried to unravel the mystery of jesus christ, the saviour
I've read the poets and the analysts
Searched through the books on human behaviour
I travelled this world around
For an answer that refused to be found
I don't know why and i don't know how
But she's nobody's baby now


I loved her then and i guess i love her still
Hers is the face i see when a certain mood moves in
She lives in my blood and skin
Her wild feral stare, her dark hair
Her winter lips as cold as stone
Yeah, i was her man
But there are some things love won't allow
I held her hand but i don't hold it now
I don't know why and i don't know how
But she's nobody's baby now


This is her dress that i loved best
With the blue quilted violets across the breast
And these are my many letters
Torn to pieces by her long-fingered hand
I was her cruel-hearted man
And though i've tried to lay her ghost down
She's moving through me, even now
I don't know why and i don't know how
But she's nobody's baby now
She's nobody's baby now
Nobody's baby now
She's nobody's baby now

Ah wanna tell ya 'bout a girl
You know, she lives in room 29
Why... why... that's the one right up top a mine
Ah start to cry, ah start to cry


O ah hear her walkin'
Walkin' barefoot cross the floor-boards
All thru this lonesome night
Ah hear her crying too.
Hot-tears come splashin on down
Leaking thru the cracks,
Down upon my face, ah catch'em in my mouth!
Ah catch'em in my mouth!
Ah catch'em in my mouth!
Walk'n'cry walk'n'cry-y!!!


From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!


Ah read her diary on her sheets
Scrutinizin' every lil bit of dirt
Tore out a page'n'stufft it inside my shirt
Fled outa the window,
And shinning it down the vine
Outa her night-mare, and back into mine
Mine! o mine!


From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!
Cry! cry! cry!


She's wearing them bloo-stockens, ah bet!
And standin' like this with my ear to the ceiling
Listen, ah know it must sound absurd
But ah can hear the most melancholy sound
Ah ever heard!
Walk'n'cry! kneel'n'cry-y!


From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!


O tell me why? o tell me why?
Oh why? why? why?
O tell me why and don't tell me a lie!
Why the ceiling still shakes? shakes! shakes! shakes!
Why the fixtures turn to serpents and snakes?


This desire to possess her is a wound
And its naggin at me like a shrew
But, ah know, that to possess her
Is, therefore, not to desire her.


O o o then ya know, that lil girl would just have to go!
Go! go-o-o! from her to eternity!


From her to eternity! [repeat]

Looka yonder! looka yonder!
Looka yonder! a big black cloud come!
A big black cloud come!
O comes to tupelo. comes to tupelo


Yonder on the horizon
Yonder on the horizon
Stopped at the mighty river
Stopped at the mighty river and
Sucked the damn thing dry
Tupelo-o-o, o tupelo
In a valley hides a town called tupelo


Distant thunder rumble. distant thunder rumble
Rumble hungry like the beast
The beast it cometh, cometh down
The beast it cometh, cometh down
Wo wo wo-o-o
Tupelo bound. tupelo-o-o. yeah tupelo
The beast it cometh, tupelo bound


Why the hen won't lay no egg
Can't get that cock to crow
The nag is spooked and crazy
O god help tupelo! o god help tupelo!
O god help tupelo! o god help tupelo!


Ya can say these streets are rivers
Ya can call these rivers streets
Ya can tell ya self ya dreaming buddy
But no sleep runs this deep
No! no sleep runs this deep
No sleep runs this deep
Women at their windows
Rain crashing on the pane
Writing in the frost
Tupelos' shame. tupelo's shame
O god help tupelo! o god help tupelo!


O go to sleep lil children
The sandmans on his way
O go to sleep lil children
The sandmans in his way
But the lil children know
They listen to the beating of their blood
Listen to the beating of their blood
Listen to the beating of their blood
Listen to the beating of their blood
They listen to the beating of their blood
The sandman's mud!
The sandman's mud!
And the black rain come down
The black rain come down
The black rain come down
Water water everywhere
Where no bird can fly no fish can swim
Where no bird can fly no fish can swim
No fish can swim
Until the king is born!
Until the king is born!
In tupelo! tupelo-o-o!
Til the king is born in tupelo!


In a clap-board shack with a roof of tin
Where the rain came down and leaked within
A young mother frozen on a concrete floor
With a bottle and a box and a cradle of straw
Tupelo-o-o! o tupelo!
With a bottle and a box and a cradle of straw


Well saturday gives what sunday steals
And a child is born on his brothers heels
Come sunday morn the first-born dead
In a shoebox tied with a ribbon of red
Tupelo-o-o! hey tupelo!
In a shoebox buried with a ribbon of red


O ma-ma rock you lil' one slow
O ma-ma rock your baby
O ma-ma rock your lil' one slow
O god help tupelo! o god help tupelo!
Mama rock your lil' one slow
The lil one will walk on tupelo
The lil one will walk on tupelo
Black rain come down, black rain come down
Tupelo-o-o! yeah tupelo!
And carry the burden of tupelo
Tupelo-o-o! o tupelo! yeah!
The king will walk on tupelo!
Tupelo-o-o! o tupelo!
He carried the burden outa tupelo!
Tupelo-o-o! hey tupelo! [repeat]
You will reap just what you sow

Take a litle walk to the edge of town
Go across the tracks
Where the viaduct looms,
Like a bird of doom
As it shifts and cracks
Where secrets lie in the border fires,
In the humming wires
Hey man, you know
You're never coming back
Past the square, past the bridge,
Past the mills, past the stacks
On a gathering storm comes
A tall handsome man
In a dusty black coat with
A red right hand


He'll wrap you in his arms,
Tell you that you've been a good boy
He'll rekindle all the dreams
It took you a lifetime to destroy
He'll reach deep into the hole,
Heal your shrinking soul
Hey buddy, you know you're
Never ever coming back
He's a god, he's a man,
He's a ghost, he's a guru
They're whispering his name
Through this disappearing land
But hidden in his coat
Is a red right hand


You ain't got no money?
He'll get you some
You ain't got no car? he'll get you one
You ain't got no self-respect,
You feel like an insect
Well don't you worry buddy,
Cause here he comes
Through the ghettos and the barrio
And the bowery and the slum
A shadow is cast wherever he stands
Stacks of green paper in his
Red right hand


(organ solo)


You'll see him in your nightmares,
You'll see him in your dreams
He'll appear out of nowhere but
He ain't what he seems
You'll see him in your head,
On the tv screen
And hey buddy, i'm warning
You to turn it off
He's a ghost, he's a god,
He's a man, he's a guru
You're one microscopic cog
In his catastrophic plan
Designed and directed by
His red right hand


(organ solo)

Extra verse from dj spooky remix (from scream 2 soundtrack):
He'll extend his hand, real slowly for a shake
You'll see it coming toward you, real slowly for a shake
(grabbing at your peril buddy?) cause you know you ain't
Getting near much as he will take.


He's a...

He's mumbling words you can't understand
He's mumbling word behind his red right hand.

And no-one saw the carny go
And the weeks flew by
Until they moved on the show
Leaving his caravan behind
It was parked out on the south east ridge
And as the company crossed the bridge
With the first rain filling the bone-dry river bed
It shone, just so, upon the edge
Away, away, we're sad, they said

Dog-boy, atlas, half-man, the geeks, the hired hands
There was not one among them that did not cast an eye behind
In the hope that the carny would return to his own kind

And the carny had a horse, all skin and bone
A bow-backed nag, that he named "sorrow"
How it is buried in a shallow grave
In the then parched meadow

And the dwarves were given the task of digging the ditch
And laying the nag's carcass in the ground
And boss bellini, waving his smoking pistol around
Saying "the nag is dead meat"
"we caint afford to carry dead weight"
The whole company standing about
Not making a sound
And turning to dwarves perched on the enclosure gate
The boss says "bury this lump of crow bait"

And thean the rain came
Everybody running for their wagons
Tying all the canvas flaps down
The mangy cats crowling in ther cages
The bird-girl flapping and squawking around
The whole valley reeking of wet beast
Wet beast and rotten hay
Freak and brute creation
Packed up and on their way

The three dwarves peering from their wagon's hind
Moses says to noah "we shoulda dugga deepa one"
Their grizzled faces like dying moons
Still dirty from the digging done

And as the company passed from the valley
Into a higher ground
The rain beat on the ridge and on the meadow
And on the mound

Until nothing was left, nothing at all
Except the body of sorrow
That rose in time
To float upon the surface of the eaten soil

And a murder of crows did circle round
First one, then the others flapping blackly down

And the carny's van still sat upon the edge
Tilting slowly as the firm ground turned to sludge
And the rain it hammered down

And no-one saw the carny go
I say it's funny how things go

Get down, get down, little henry lee
And stay all night with me
You won't find a girl in this damn world
That will compare with me
And the wind did howl and the wind did blow
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on henry lee

I can't get down and i won't get down
And stay all night with thee
For the girl i have in that merry green land
I love far better than thee
And the wind did howl and the wind did blow
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on henry lee

She leaned herself against a fence
Just for a kiss or two
And with a little pen-knife held in her hand
She plugged him through and through
And the wind did roar and the wind did moan
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on henry lee

Come take him by his lilly-white hands
Come take him by his feet
And throw him in this deep deep well
Which is more than one hundred feet
And the wind did howl and the wind did blow
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on henry lee

Lie there, lie there, little henry lee
Till the flesh drops from your bones
For the girl you have in that merry green land
Can wait forever for you to come home
And the wind did howl and the wind did moan
La la la la la
La la la la lee
A little bird lit down on henry lee

go son, go down to the water
And see the women weeping there
Then go up into the mountains
The men, they are weeping too

Father, why are all the women weeping?
They are weeping for their men
Then why are all the men there weeping?
They are weeping back at them

This is a weeping song
A song in which to weep
While all the men and women sleep
This is a weeping song
But i won't be weeping long

Father, why are all the children weeping?
They are merely crying son
O, are they merely crying, father?
Yes, true weeping is yet to come

This is a weeping song
A song in which to weep
While all the men and children sleep
This is a weeping song
But i won't be weeping long

O father tell me, are you weeping?
Your face seems wet to touch
O then i'm so sorry, father
I never thought i hurt you so much

This is a weeping song
A song in which to weep
While we rock ourselves to sleep
This is a weeping song
But i won't be weeping long
But i won't be weeping long
But i won't be weeping long
But i won't be weeping long

They call me the wild rose
But my name was elisa day
Why they call me it i do not know
For my name was elisa day

From the first day i saw her i knew she was the one
She stared in my eyes and smiled
For her lips were the colour of the roses
That grew down the river, all bloody and wild

When he knocked on my door and entered the room
My trembling subsided in his sure embrace
He would be my first man, and with a careful hand
He wiped at the tears that ran down my face

Chorus

On the second day i brought her a flower
She was more beautiful than any woman i'd seen
I said, "do you know where the wild roses grow
So sweet and scarlet and free?"

On the second day he came with a single red rose
Said: "will you give me your loss and your sorrow"
I nodded my head, as i lay on the bed
He said, "if i show you the roses, will you follow?"

Chorus

On the third day he took me to the river
He showed me the roses and we kissed
And the last thing i heard was a muttered word
As he knelt (stood smiling) above me with a rock in his fist

On the last day i took her where the wild roses grow
And she lay on the bank, the wind light as a thief
And i kissed her goodbye, said, "all beauty must die"
And lent down and planted a rose between her teeth

Chorus