The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

When all this revolution is over, he sits down on a highly polished floor while his dizziness fades away. it is an empty modern hallway and the dreamdoll saleslady sits at the reception desk. wi
Prompting she goes into her rap: "this is the grand parade of lifeless packaging, those you are about to see are all in for servicing, except for a small quantity of our new product, in th
Ond gallery. it is all the stock required to cover the existing arrangements of the enterprise. different batches are distributed to area operators, and there are plenty of opportunities for the
E investor. they stretch from the costly care-conditioned to the most reasonable mal-nutritioned. we find here that everyone's looks become them. except for the low market mal-nutritioned, each
Ovided with a guarantee for a successful birth and trouble free infancy. there is however only a small amount of variable choice potential - not too far from the mean differential. you see, the
Has predetermined the limits of ac
Tion of any group of packages, but individuals may move off the path if their diversions are counter-balanced by others."


"it's the last great adventure left to mankind"
- screams a drooping lady
Offering her dreamdolls at less than extortionate prices,
And as the notes and coins are taken out
I'm taken in, to the factory floor.

For the grand parade of lifeless packaging
- all ready to use
The grand parade of lifeless packaging
- i just need a fuse.

Got people stocked in every shade,
Must be doing well with trade.
Stamped, addressed, in odd fatality.
That evens out their personality.
With profit potential marked by a sign,
I can recognise some of the production line,
No bite at all in labour bondage,
Just wrinkled wrappers or human bandage.

Grand parade of lifeless packaging
- all ready to use
It's the grand parade of lifeless packaging
- i just need a fuse.


As he wanders along the line of packages, rael notices a familiarity in some of their faces. he finally comes upon some of the members of his old gang and worries about his own safety. running o
Rough the factory floor, he catches sight of his brother john with a number 9 stamped on his forehead.

The hall runs like clockwork
Their hands mark out the time;
Empty in their fullness
Like a frozen pantomime.
Everyone's a sales representative
Wearing slogans in their shrine.
Dishing out failsafe superlative,
Brother john is no. 9.

It's the grand parade of lifeless packaging
- all ready to use
It's the grand parade of lifeless packaging
- i just need a fuse.

The decor on the ceiling
Has planned out their future day
I see no sign of free will,
So i guess i have to pay,
Pay my way,
For the grand parade...
It's the grand parade of lifeless packaging
- all ready to use
It's the grand parade of lifeless packaging
- i just need a fuse.

Exhausted by all this conjecture, our hero gets the chance in a lifetime to meet his hero: death. death is wearing a light disguise, he made the outfit himself. he calls it the "supernatura
Esthetist." death likes meeting people and wants to travel. death approaches rael with his special cannister, releases a puff, and appears to walk away content into the wall.


Here comes the supernatural anaesthetist.
If he wants you to snuff it,
All he has to do is puff it
- he's such a fine dancer.

Rael cannot look away from those eyes, mesmerized by his own image. in a quick movement, his consciousness darts from one face to the other, then back again, until his presence is no longer soli
Ontained in one or the other. in this fluid state he observes both bodies outlined in yellow and the surrounding scenery melting into a purple haze. with a sudden rush of energy up both spinal c
S, their bodies, as well, finally dissolve into the haze.

All this takes place without a single sunset, without a single bell ringing and without a single blossom falling from the sky. yet it fills everything with its mysterious intoxicating presence.
Over to you.


When its cold, it come slow
It is warm, just watch it grow
- all around me
It is here. it is now.

Just a little bit of it can bring you up or down.
Like the supper it is cooking in your hometown.
It is chicken, it is eggs,
It is in between your legs.
It is walking on the moon,
Leaving your cocoon.

It is the jigsaw. it is purple haze.
It never stays in one place, but it's not a passing phase,
It is in the singles bar, in the distance of the face
It is in between the cages, it is always in a space
It is here. it is now.

Any rock can be made to roll
If you've enough of it to pay the toll
It has no home in words or goal
Not even in your favourite hole
It is the hope for the dope
Who rides the horse without a hoof
It is shaken not stirred;
Cocktails on the roof.

When you eat right through it you see everything alive
It is inside spirit, with enough grit to survive
If you think that its pretentious, you've been taken for a ride.
Look across the mirror sonny, before you choose decide
It is here. it is now
It is real. it is rael

'cos it's only knock and knowall, but i like it...

At the top of the stairs he finds a chamber. it is almost a hemisphere with a great many doors all the way round its circumference. there is a large crowd, huddled in various groups. from the sh
G, rael learns that there are 32 doors, but only one that leads out. their voices get louder and louder until rael screams "shut up!" there is a momentary silence and then rael finds h
F the focus as they direct their advice and commands to their new found recruit. bred on trash, fed on ash the jigsaw master has got to move faster. rael sees a quiet corner and rushes to it.


At the top of the stairs, there's hundreds of people,
Running around to all the doors.
They try to find, find themselves an audience;
Their deductions need applause.

The rich man stands in front of me,
The poor man behind my back.
They believe they can control the game,
But the juggler holds another pack.

I need someone to believe in, someone to trust.
I need someone to believe in, someone to trust.

I'd rather trust a countryman than a townman,
You can judge by his eyes, take a look if you can,
He'll smile through his guard,
Survival trains hard.
I'd rather trust a man who works with his hands,
He looks at you once, you know he understands,
Don't need any shield,
When you're out in the field.

But down here,
I'm so alone with my fear,
With everything that i hear.
And every single door, that i've walked through
Brings me back here again,
I've got to find my own way.

The priest and the magician,
Singing all the chants that they have ever heard;
And they're all calling out my name,
Even academics, searching printed word.

My father to the left of me,
My mother to the right,
Like everyone else they're pointing
But nowhere feels quite right.

And i need someone to believe in, someone to trust.
I need someone to believe in, someone to trust.

I'd rather trust a man who doesn't shout what he's found,
There's no need to sell if you're homeward bound.
If i choose a side,
He won't take me for a ride.

Back inside
This chamber of so many doors;
I've nowhere, nowhere to hide.
I'd give you all of my dreams, if you'd help me,
Find a door
That doesn't lead me back again
- take me away.

He panics, feels around for a stone and hurls it at the brightest point. the sound of breaking glass echoes around the cave. as his vision is restored he catches sight of two golden gloves about
Foot in diameter hovering away down the tunnel. when they disappear a resounding crack sears across the roof, and it collapses all around him. our hero is trapped once again.

"this is it" he thinks, failing to move any of the fallen rocks.


All the pumping's nearly over for my sweet heart,
This is the one for me,
Time to meet the chef,
O boy! running man is out of death.
Feel cold and old, it's getting hard to catch my breath.
's back to ash, 'now, you've had your flash boy'
The rocks, in time, compress
Your blood to oil,
Your flesh to coal,
Enrich the soil,
Not everybody's goal.

Anyway, they say she comes on a pale horse,
But i'm sure i hear a train.
O boy! i don't even feel no pain -
I guess i must be driving myself insane.
Damn it all! does earth plug a hole in heaven,
Or heaven plug a hole in earth - 'how wonderful to be so profound,
When everything you are is dying underground.'


There's not much spectacle for an underground creole as he walks through the gates of sheol. "i would have preferred to have been jettisoned into a thousand pieces in space, or filled with
M and floated above a mausoleum. this is no way to pay my last subterranean homesick dues. anyway i'm out of the hands of any pervert embalmer doing his interpretation of what i should look like
Ffing his cotton wool in my cheeks."

I feel the pull on the rope, let me off at the rainbow.
I could have been exploding in space
Different orbits for my bones
Not me, just quietly buried in stones,
Keep the deadline open with my maker!
See me stretch; for god's elastic acre
The doorbell rings and its
"good morning rael
So sorry you had to wait.
It won't be long, yeh!
She's very rarely late."

I got sunshine in my stomach
Like i just rocked my baby to sleep.
I got sunshine in my stomach
But i can't keep me from creeping sleep,
Sleep, deep in the deep.


He wakes in a cold sweat with a strong urge to vomit. there's no sign of the cocoon and he can see more of the cave about him. there is much more of the glowing water dripping from the roof and
Ctites and stalagmites are forming and decomposing at an alarming rate all around him.

Rockface moves to press my skin
White liquid turn sour within
Turn fast - turn sour
Turn sweat - turn sour.
Must tell myself that i'm not here.
I'm drowning in a liquid fear.
Bottled in a strong compression,
My distortion shows obsession
In the cave.
Get me out of this cave!


As fear and shock register, he assures himself that self-control will provide some security, but this thought is abandoned as the stalactites and stalagmites lock into a fixed position, forming
E whose bars are moving in towards him.

If i keep my self-control,
I'll be safe in my soul.
And the childhood belief
Brings a moment's relief,
But my cynic soon returns
And the lifeboat burns.
My spirit just never learns.

Stalactites, stalagmites
Shut me in, lock me tight.
Lips are dry, throat is dry.
Feel like burning, stomach churning,
I'm dressed up in a white costume
Padding out leftover room.
Body stretching, feel the wretching
In the cage
Get me out of the cage!


At one moment there is a flash of light and he sees an infinite network of cages all strung together by a ropelike material.

In the glare of a light,
I see a strange kind of sight;
Of cages joined to form a star
Each person can't go very far;
All tied to their things
They're netted by their strings,
Free to flutter in memories of their wasted wings.


As the rocky bars press in on rael's body, he sees his brother john outside, looking in. john's face is motionless despite screams for help, but in his vacant expression a tear of blood forms an
Ckles down his cheek. then he calmly walks away leaving rael to face the pains which are beginning to sweep through his body.

Outside the cage i see my brother john,
He turns his head so slowly round.
I cry out help! before he can be gone,
And he looks at me without a sound.
And i shout out 'john please help me!'
But he does not even want to try to speak.
I'm helpless in my violent rage
And a silent tear of blood dribbles down his cheek,
And i watch him turn away and leave the cage.
My little runaway.

(raindrops keep failing on my head, they keep falling on my...)

In a trap, feel a strap
Holding still. pinned for kill.
Chances narrow that i'll make it,
In the cushioned straight-jacket.
Just like 22nd street,
They got me by my neck and feet.
Pressures building, can't take more.
My headaches charge, earaches roar.
In this pain
Get me out of this pain.

If i could change to liquid,
I could fill the cracks up in the rocks.
I know that i am solid
And i am my own bad luck.


However, just as john walks out of sight, the cage dissolves and rael is left spinning like a top.

Outside john disappears, my cage dissolves,
Without any reason my body revolves.

Keep on turning,
Keep on turning,
Turning around,
Spinning around.

(round, round, round, round...)

No-one seems to take up the chase, and with the familiar faces fresh in his mind he moves into a reconstruction of his old life, above ground - too much time was one thing he didn't need, so he
To cut through it with a little speed. he was better off dead, than slow in the head. his momma and poppa had taken a ride on his back, so he left very quickly to join the pack.


I see faces and traces of home back in new york city -
So you think i'm a tough kid? is that what you heard?
Well i like to see some action and it gets into my blood.
They call me the trail blazer - rael - electric razor
I'm the pitcher in the chain gang, we don't believe in pain
'cos we're only as strong, yes we're only as strong,
As the weakest link in the chain.


Only after a spell in pontiac reformatory was he given any respect in the gang.

Let me out of pontiac when i was just seventeen,
I had to get it out of me, if you know what i mean, what i mean.

You say i must be crazy, 'cos i don't care who i hit, who i hit.
But i know it's me that's hitting out and i'm, i'm not full of shit.
I don't care who i hurt, i don't care who i do wrong.
This is your mess i'm stuck in, i really don't belong.
When i take out my bottle, filled up high with gasoline,
You can tell by the night fires where rael has been, has been.


Now, walking back home after a raid, he was cuddling a sleeping porcupine.
That night he pictured the removal of his hairy heart and to the accompaniment of very romantic music he watched it being shaved smooth by an anonymous stainless steel razor.


As i cuddled the porcupine
He said i had none to blame, but me.
Held my heart, deep in hair,
Time to shave, shave it off, it off.
No time for romantic escape,
When your fluffy heart is ready for rape. no!
Off we go...

Your sitting in your comfort you don't believe i'm real,
You cannot buy protection from the way that i feel.
Your progressive hypocrites hand out their trash,
But it was mine in the first place, so i'll burn it to ash.
And i've tasted all the strongest meats,
And laid them down in coloured sheets (laid them down in coloured
Sheets).
Who needs illusion of love and affection
When you're out walking the streets with your mainline connection?
Connection.

As i cuddled the porcupine
He said i had none to blame, but me.
Held my heart, deep in hair.
Time to shave, shave it off, it off.
No time for romantic escape,
When your fluffy heart is ready for rape. no!

He dives down into the cold water. at first he is thrown onto the rocks, and pulled under the water by a fast moving channel, which takes him right past john, down river.


Moving down the water
John is drifting out of sight,
Its only at the turning point
That you find out how you fight.

In the cold, feel the cold
All around
And the rush of crashing water
Surrounds me with its sound.


Rael manages to grab a rock, pull himself to the surface and catch his breath. as john is carried past, rael throws himself in again and catches hold of his arm. he knocks john unconscious and t
Ocking themselves together, he rides the rapids into the slow running water, where he can swim to safety.

Striking out to reach you
I can't get through to the other side,
When you're racing in the rapids
There's only one way, thats to ride.

Taken down, taken down
By the undertow
I'm spiralled down the river bed,
My fire is burning low.
Catching hold of a rock that's firm,
I'm waiting for john to be carried past.
We hold together, hold together and shoot the rapids fast.


But as he hauls his brother's limp body onto the bank he lies him out and looks hopefully into his eyes for a sign of life. he staggers back in recoil, for staring at him with eyes wide open is
Ohn's face - but his own.

And when the waters slow down
The dark and the deep
Have no-one, no-one, no-one, no-one
No-one left to keep.
Hang on john! we're out of this at last.
Somethings changed, that's not your face.
It's mine - it's mine!

The sky is overcast and as rael looks back a dark cloud is descending like a balloon into times square. it rests on the ground and shapes itself into a hard edged flat surface, which solidifies
Xtends itself all the way east and west along 47th street and reaching up to the dark sky. as the wall takes up its tension it becomes a screen showing what had existed in three dimensions, on t
Her side just a moment before. the image flickers and then cracks like painted clay and the wall silently moves forward, absorbing everything in its path. the unsuspecting new yorkers are appare
Blind to what is going on.


There's something solid forming in the air,
And the wall of death is lowered in times square.
No-one seems to care,
They carry on as if nothing was there.


Rael starts to run away towards columbus circle. each time he dares to take a look, the wall has moved another block. at the moment when he thinks he's maintaining his distance from the wall, th
D blows hard and cold slowing down his speed. the wind increases, dries the wet street and picks up the dust off the surface, throwing it into rael's face. more and more dirt is blown up and it
S to settle on rael's skin and clothes, making a solid layered coat that brings him gradually to a terrified stillness. a sitting duck.

The wind is blowing harder now,
Blowing dust into my eyes.
The dust settles on my skin,
Making a crust i cannot move in
And i'm hovering like a fly, waiting for the windshield on the freeway.

The moment of impact bursts through the silence and in a roar of sound, the final second is prolonged in a world of echoes as if the concrete and clay of broadway itself was reliving its memorie
E last great march past. newsman stands limp as a whimper as audience and event are locked as one. bing crosby coos "you don't have to feel pain to sing the blues, you don't have to holla -
Don't feel a thing in your dollar collar." martin luther king cries "everybody sing!" and rings the grand old liberty bell. leary, weary of his prison cell, walks on heaven, talks
Ell. j.f.k. gives the o.k. to shoot us, sipping orange julius and lemon brutus. bare breasted cowboy double decks the triple champion. who needs medicare and the 35c flat rate fare, when fred as
And ginger rogers are dancing through the air? from broadway melody stereotypes the band returns to 'stars and stripes' bringing a tear to the moonshiner, who's been pouring out his spirit from
Illegal still. the pawn broker clears the noisy t
Ill and clutches his lucky dollar bill.


Echoes of the broadway everglades,
With her mythical madonnas still walking in their shades:
Lenny bruce, declares a truce and plays his other hand.
Marshall mcluhan, casual viewin', head buried in the sand.
Sirens on the rooftops wailing, but there's no ship sailing.
Groucho, with his movies trailing, stands alone with his punchline
Failing.
Klu klux klan serve hot soul food and the band plays 'in the mood'
The cheerleader waves her cyanide wand, there's a smell of
Peach blossom and bitter almonde.
Caryl chessman sniffs the air and leads the parade, he knows
In a scent, you can bottle all you made.
There's howard hughes in blue suede shoes, smiling at the
Majorettes smoking winston cigarettes.
And as the song and dance begins, the children play at home
With needles; needles and pins.


Then the blackout.

The arrival

Leaving by the same door from which he had come in, he finds some sort of freaks ghetto on the other side. when they catch sight of him, the entire street of distorted figures burst into laughte
E of the colony approaches him.

Rael:

I wandered lonely as a cloud,
Till i came upon this dirty street.
I've never seen a stranger crowd;
Slubberdegullions on squeaky feet,

Continually pacing,
With nonchalant embracing,
Each orifice disgracing
And one facing me moves to say "hellay".


He is grotesque in every feature, a mixture of ugly lumps and stumps. his lips slip across his chin as he smiles in welcome and offers his slippery handshake.

His skin's all covered in slimy lumps.
With lips that slide across each chin.
His twisted limbs like rubber stumps
Are waved in welcome say 'please join in.'

My grip must be flipping,
Cos his handshake keeps slipping,
My hopes keep on dipping
And his lips keep on smiling all the time.


Rael is a little disillusioned, when the slipperman reveals that the entire colony have one-by-one been through the same glorious romantic tragedy with the same three lamia, who regenerate thems
Every time, and that now rael shares their physical appearance and shadowy fate.
Slipperman:

"we, like you, have tasted love.
Don't be alarmed at what you see,
You yourself are just the same
As what you see in me."


Rael:
Me, like you? like that!


Slipperman:
"you better watch it son, your sentence has only just begun
You better run and join your brother john."


Amongst the contorted faces of the slippermen, rael recognises what is left of his brother john. they hug each other.


A visit to the doktor
John bitterly explains that the entire life of the slipperman is devoted to satisfying the never-ending hunger of the senses, which has been inherited from the lamia. there is only one escape ro
A dreaded visit to the notorious doktor dyper who will remove the source of the problems, or to put it less politely, castrate.

They discuss the deceptively-named escape for a long time and decide to go together to visit the doktor.

Slipperman:

"you're in the colony of slippermen.
There's no who? why? what? or when?
You get out if you've got the gripe
To see, doktor dyper, reformed sniper - he'll whip off your
Windscreenwiper"


Rael:
John and i are able
To face the doktor and his marble table.


The doktor:
Understand rael, that's the end of your tail.


Rael:
"don't delay, dock the dick!"
I watch his countdown timer tick....


The raven
They survive the ordeal and are presented with the offensive weapons in sterile yellow plastic tubes, with gold chains. "people usually wear them around their necks," said the doktor h
G them over. "the operation does not necessarily exclude use of the facility again, for short periods, but of course when you want it you must provide us with considerable advance warning.&



He places the number into a tube,
It's a yellow plastic "shoobedoobe".
It says: "though your fingers may tickle
You'll be safe in our pickle."


As the brothers talk themselves through their new predicament, a big black raven flies into the cave, swoops down, grabs rael's tube right out of his hands and carries it up into the air in his


Suddenly, black cloud come down from the sky.
It's a supersized black bird that sure can fly...

The raven brings on darkness and night
He flies right down, gives me one hell of a fright.
He take the tube right out of my hands
Man, i've got to find out where that black bird lands.


Rael calls for john to go with him.
And he replies "i will not chase a black raven. down here you must read and obey the omens. there's disaster where the raven flies."


"look here john, i've got to run
I need you now, you going to come?"

He says to me:


John:
"now can't you see
Where the raven flies there's jeopardy.

We've been cured on the couch
Now you're sick with your grouch.
I'll not risk my honey pouch
Which my slouch will wear slung very low."


So once more john deserts his brother.
Rael:

He walks away and leaves me once again.
Even though i never learn,
I'd hoped he'd show just some concern.


The bird leads rael down a narrow tunnel, he seems to be allowing him to keep at a closed distance. but as rael thinks he might almost catch hold of the bird, the tunnel opens and finishes at an
Mous subterranean ravine. casually, the raven drops his precious load into the rushing waters at the bottom. it's enough to drive a poor boy ravin' mad.
Seeing the dangers of the steep cliff, our courageous hero stands impotent and glowers.


I'm in the agony of slipperpain
I pray my undercarriage will sustain.
The chase is on, the pace is hot
But i'm running so very hard with everything that i've got.
He leads me down an underpass
Though it narrows, he still flies very fast,
When the tunnel stops
Catch sight of the tube, just as it drops.
I'm on top of a bank too steep to climb
I see it hit the water just in time
To watch it float away...