New York

He was lying banged and battered, skewered and bleeding
Talking crippled on the cross
Was his mind reeling and heaving hallucinating
Fleeing what a loss

The things he hadn't touched or kissed his senses
Slowly stripped away
Not like buddha not like vishnu
Life wouldn't rise through him again

I find it easy to believe
That he might question his beliefs
The beginning of the last temptation
Dime story mystery

The duality of nature, godly nature,
Human nature splits the soul
Fully human, fully divine and divided
The great immortal soul

Split into pieces, whirling pieces, opposites
Attract
From the front, the side, the back
The mind itself attacks

I know the feeling, i know it from before
Descartes through hegel belief is never sure
Dime store mystery, last temptation

I was sitting drumming thinking thumping pondering
The mysteries of life
Outside the city shrieking screaming whispering
The mysteries of life

There's a funeral tomorrow
At st. patrick's the bells will ring for you
Ah, what must you have been thinking
When you realized the time had come for you

I wish i hadn't thrown away my time
On so much human and so much less divine
The end of the last temptation
The end of a dime store mystery

We who have so much to you who have so little
To you who don't have anything at all
We who have so much more than any one man does need
And you who don't have anything at all, ah
Does anybody need another million dollar movie
Does anybody need another million dollar star
Does anybody need to be told over and over
Spitting in the wind comes back at you twice as hard

Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman, going straight to hell
Strawman, going straight to the devil

Strawman
Strawman
Strawman
Strawman, yes

Does anyone really need a billion dollar rocket
Does anyone need a 60,000 dollars car
Does anyone need another president
Or the sins of swaggart parts 6, 7, 8 and 9, ah
Does anyone need yet another politician
Caught with his pants down and money sticking in his hole
Does anyone need another racist preacher
Spittin' in the wind can only do you harm, ooohhh

Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman, going straight to hell
Strawman, going straight to the devil

Strawman
Strawman
Strawman
Strawman

Does anyone need another faulty shuttle
Blasting off to the moon, venus or mars
Does anybody need another self-righteous rock singer
Whose nose he says has led him straight to god
Does anyone need yet another blank skyscraper
If you're like me i'm sure a minor miracle will do
A flaming sword or maybe a gold ark floating up the hudson
When you spit in the wind it comes right back at you

Strawman, going straight to the devil
Strawman, going straight to hell
Strawman, going to the devil

Strawman, strawman
Strawman, ...., ah
Strawman
Strawman

I was up in the morning with the tv blarin'
Brush my teeth sittin' watchin' the news
All the beaches were closed the ocean was a red sea
But there was no one there to part in two
There was no fresh salad because there's hypos in the cabbage
Staten island disappeared at noon
And they say the midwest is in great distress
And nasa blew up the moon

The ozone layer has no ozone anymore
And you're gonna leave me for the guy next door
I'm sick of you
I'm sick of you

They arrested the mayor for an illegal favor
Sold the empire state to japan
And oliver north married william secord
And gave birth to a little teheran
And the ayatollah bought a nuclear warship
If he dies he wants to go out in style
And there's nothing to eat that don't carry the stink
Of some human waste dumped in the nile

We one thing is certainly true
No one here knows what to do
And i'm sick of you
I'm sick of you

The radio said there were 400 dead
In some small town in arkansas
Some whacked out trucker drove into a nuclear reactor
And killed everybody he saw
Now he's on morton downey and he's glowing and shining
Doctors say this is a medical advance
They say the bad makes the good and there's something to be learned
In every human experience

Well i know one thing that really is true
This here's a zoo and the keeper ain't you
And i'm sick of it
I'm sick of you

They ordained the trumps and then he got the mumps
And died being treated at mt. sinal
And my best friend bill died from a poison pill
Some wired doctor prescribed for stress
My arms and legs are shrunk the food all has lumps
They discovered some animal no one's ever seen
It was an inside trader eating a rubber tire
After running over rudy giuliani

They say the president's dead but no one can find his head
It's been missing now for weeks
But no one noticed it he had seemed so fit
And i'm sick of it

I'm sick of you
I'm so sick of you, bye, bye, bye

Bye, bye, bye

There's a down town fairy singing out "proud mary"
As she cruises christopher street
And some southern queen is acting loud and mean
Where the docks and the badlands meet

This halloween is something to be sure
Especially to be here without you

There's a greta garbo and an alfred hitchcock
And some black jamaican stud
There's five cinderellas and some leather drags
I almost fell into my mug

There's a crawford, davis and a tacky cary grant
And some homeboys lookin' for trouble down here from the bronx

But there ain't no hairy and no virgin mary
You won't hear those voices again
And johnny rio and rotten rita
You'll never see those faces again

This halloween is something to be sure
Especially to be here without you

There's the born again losers and the lavender boozers
And some crack team from washington heights
The boys from avenue b and the girls from avenue d
A tinkerbell in tights

This celebration somehow get me down
Especially when i see you're not around

There's no peter pedantic saying things romantic
In latin, greek or spic
There's no three bananas or brandy alexander
Dishing all their tricks

It's a different feeling that i have today
Especially when i know you've gone away

There's a girl from soho with a teeshirt saying "i blow"
She's with the "jive five 2 plus 3"
And the girls for pay dates are giving cut rates
Or else doing it for free

The past keeps knock, knock, knocking on my door
And i don't want to hear it anymore

No consolations please for feelin' funky
I got to get my head above my knees
But it makes me mad and mad makes me sad
And then i start to freeze

In the back of my mind i was afraid it might be true
In the back of my mind i was afraid that they meant you

The halloween parade
At the halloween parade
At the halloween parade
See you next year, at the halloween parade

Good evening mr.waldheim
And pontiff how are you?
You have so much in common
In the things you do

And here comes jesse jackson
He talks of common ground
Does that common ground include me
Or is it just a sound

A sound that shakes
Oh jesse, you must watch the sounds you make

A sound that quakes
There are fears that still reverberate

Jesse you say common ground
Does that include the plo?
What about people right here right now
Who fought for you not so long ago?

The words that flow so freely
Falling dancing from your lips
I hope that you don't cheapen them
With a racist slip

Oh common ground
Is common ground a word or just a sound
Common ground
Remember those civil rights workers buried in the ground

If i ran for president
And once was a member of the klan
Wouldn't you call me on it
The way i call you on farrakhan

And pontiff, pretty pontiff
Can anyone shake your hand ?
Or is it just that you like uniforms
And someone kissing your hand

Or is it true
The common ground for me includes you too

Oh, oh, is it true
The common ground for me includes you too

Good evening mr.waldheim
Pontiff how are you
As you both stroll through the woods at night
I'm thinking thoughts of you

And jesse you're inside my thoughts
As the rhythmic words subside
My common ground invites you in
Or do you prefer to wait outside

Or is it true
The common ground for me is without you

Or is it true
The common ground for me is without you

Oh is it true
There's no ground common enough for me and you

Caught between the twisted stars
The plotted lines the faulty map
That brought columbus to new york
Betwixt between the east and west
He calls on her wearing a leather vest
The earth squeals and shudders to a halt
A diamond crucifix in his ear
Is used to help ward off the fear
That he has left his soul in someone's rented car
Inside his pants he hides a mop
To clean the mess that he has dropped
Into the life of lithesome juliette bell

And romeo wanted juliette
And juliette wanted romeo
And romeo wanted juliette
And juliette wanted romeo

Romeo rodriguez squares
His shoulders and curses jesus
Runs a comb through his black pony-tail
He's thinking of his lonely room
The sink that by his bed gives off a stink
Then smells her perfume in his eyes
And her voice was like a bell

Outside the street were steaming the crack
Dealers were dreaming
Of an uzi someone had just scored
I betcha i could hit that light
With my one good arm behind my back
Says little joey diaz
Brother give me another tote
Those downtown hoods are no damn good
Those italians need a lesson to be taught
This cop who died in harlem
You think they'd get the warnin'
I was dancing when his brains run out on the street

And romeo had juliette
And juliette had her romeo
And romeo had juliette
And juliette had her romeo

I'll take manhattan in a garbage bag
With latin written on it that says
"it's hard to give a shit these days"
Manhattan's sinking like a rock
Into the filthy hudson what a shock
They wrote a book about it
They said it was like ancient rome

The perfume burned his eyes
Holding tightly to her thighs
And something flickered for a minute
And then it vanished and was gone

It might be fun to have a kid that i could kick around
A little me to fill up with my thoughts
A little me or he or she to fill up with my dreams
A way of saying life is not a loss

I'd keep the tyke away from school and tutor him myself
Keep him from the poison of the crowd
But then again pristine isolation might not be the best idea
It's not good trying to immortalize yourself

Beginning of a great adventure
Beginning of a great adventure

Why stop at one, i might have ten, a regular tv brood
I'd breed a little liberal army in the wood
Just like these redneck lunatics i see at the local bar
With their tribe of mutant inbred piglets with cloven hooves

I'd teach 'em how to plant a bomb, start a fire, play guitar
And if they catch a hunter, shoot him in the nuts
I'd try to be as progressive as i could possibly be
As long as i don't have to try too much

Beginning of a great adventure
Beginning of a great adventure

Susie, jesus, bogart, sam, leslie, jill and jeff
Rita, winny, andy, fran and jet
Boris, bono, lucy, ethel, bunny, reg and tom
That's a lot of names to try not to forget

Carrie, marlon, mo and steve, la rue and jerry lee
Eggplant, rufus, dummy, star and the glob
I'd need a damn computer to keep track of all these names
I hope this baby thing don't go too far

I hope it's true what my wife said to me
I hope it's true what my wife said to me, hey
I hope it's true what my wife said to me

She says, "baby, it's the beginning of a great adventure"
"babe, beginning of a great adventure"
Take a look

It might be fun to have a kid that i could kick around
Create in my own image like a god
I'd raise my own pallbearers to carry me to my grave
And keep me company when i'm a wizened toothless clod

Some gibbering old fool sitting all alone drooling on his shirt
Some senile old fart playing in the dirt
It might be fun to have a kid i could pass something on to
Something better than rage, pain, anger and hurt

I hope it's true what my wife said to me
I hope it's true what my wife said to me
I hope it's true what my wife said to me
She says, "lou, it's the beginning of a great adventure"
"lou, lou, lou, beginning of a great adventure"
She says, "babe, how you call your lover boy"
"sylvia, quite you call your lover man"