Songs For Drella

I really care a lot
Although i look like i do not
Since i was shot
There's nobody but you

I know i look blase (note: blase - "e" with acute)
Party andy's what the papers say
At dinner i'm the one who pays
For a nobody like you

Nobody but you
A nobody like you
Since i got shot
There's nobody but you

Won't you decorate my house
I'll sit there quiet as a mouse
You know me i like to look a lot
At nobody but you

I'll hold your hand and slap my face
I'll tickle you to your disgrace
Won't you put me in my proper place
A nobody like you

Sundays i pray a lot
I'd like to wind you up and paint your clock
I want to be what i am not
For a nobody like you

The bullet split my spleen and lung
The doctors said i was gone
Inside i've got some shattered bone
For nobody but you

Nobody but you
A nobody like you
Shattered bone
For nobody but you

I'm still not sure i didn't die
And if i'm dreaming i still have bad pains inside
I know i'll never be a bride
To nobody like you

I wish i had a stronger chin
My skin was good, my nose was thin
This is no movie i'd ask to be in
With a nobody like you

Nobody like you
A nobody like you
All my life

It's been nobodies like you

When you're growing up in a small town
When you're growing up in a small town
When you're growing up in a small town
You say, no one famous ever came from here

When you're growing up in a small town
And you're having a nervous breakdown
And you think that you'll never escape it
Yourself or the place that you live

Where did picasso come from
There's no michelangelo coming from pittsburgh
If art is the tip of the iceberg
I'm the part sinking below

When you're growing up in a small town
Bad skin, bad eyes, gay and fatty
People look at you funny
When you're in a small town

My father worked in construction
It's not something for which i'm suited
Oh, what is something for which you are suited
Getting out of here

I hate being odd in a small town
If they stare let them stare in new york city
As this pink eyed painting albino
How far can my fantasy go

I'm no dali coming from pittsburgh
No adorable lisping capote
My hero, oh, do you think i could meet him
I'd camp out at his front door

There is only one good thing about small town
There is only one good use for a small town
There is only one good thing about small town
You know that you want to get out

When you're growing up in a small town
You know you'll grow down in a small town
There is only one good use for a small town

You hate it and you'll know you have to leave

Andy was a catholic
The ethic ran through his bones
He lived alone with his mother
Collecting gossip and toys

Every sunday when he went to church
He'd kneel in his pew and say
It's work
All that matters is work

He was a lot of things
What i remember most he'd say
I've got to bring home the bacon
Someone's got to bring home the roast

He'd get to the factory early
If you'd ask him he'd tell you straight out
It's work

No matter what i did it never seemed enough
He said i was lazy, i said i was young
He said, how many songs did you write
I'd written zero, i'd lied and said, ten

You won't be young forever
You should have written fifteen
It's work

You ought to make things big
People like it that way
And the songs with the dirty words
Make sure your record them that way

Andy liked to stir up trouble
He was funny that way
He said, it's just work

Andy sat down to talk one day
He said decide what you want
Do you want to expand your parameters
Or play museums like some dilettante

I fired him on the spot
He got red and called me a rat
It was the worst word that he could think of
And i've never seen him like that
It's work
I thought he said it's just work

Andy said a lot of things
I stored them all away in my head
Sometimes when i can't decide what i should do
I think what would andy have said

He'd probably say you think too much
That's 'cause there's work that you don't want to do
It's work
The most important thing is work
It's work
The most important thing is work

Starlight open wide
Starlight open up you door
This is new york calling
With movies on the street
Movies with real people
What you get is what you see
Starlight open wide
Andy's cecil b. demille

Come on l.a. give us a call
We've got superstars who talk
They'll do anything at all
Ingrid, viva, little joe
Baby jane, and eddie s.
But you better call us soon
Before we talk ourselves to death

Starlight open wide
Everybody is a star
Split screen 8 hour movies
We've got color, we've got sound
Won't you recognize us
We're everything you hate
Andy loves old hollywood movies
He'll scare you hypocrites to death

You know that shooting up's for real
That person who's screaming
That's the way he really feels
We're all improvising
Five movies in a week
If hollywood doesn't call us
We'll be sick

Starlight open wide
Do to movies what you did to art
Can you see beauty in ugliness
Or is it playing in the dirt
There are stars out on the new york streets
We want to capture them on film
But if no one wants to see 'em
We'll make another and another

Starlight let us in that magic room
We've all dreamt of hollywood
It can't happen too soon
Won't you give us a million dollars the rent is due
And will give you 2 movies and a painting
Starlight open wide

It was a very cold clear fall night
I had a terrible dream
Billy name and brigid were playing under my stair case
On the second floor about two o'clock in the morning

I woke up
Because amos and archie had started barking
That made me very angry
Because i wasn't feeling well and i told them
I was very cross the real me
That they just better remember
What happened to sam the bad cat
That was left at home and got sick and went pussy heaven

It was a very cold clear fall night
Some snowflakes were falling
Gee, it was so beautiful
And so i went to get my camera to take some pictures
And then i was taking the pictures
But the exposure thing wasn't right
And i was going to call fred or gerry
To find out how to get set it
I was too late
And then i remembered they were still probably at dinner
And anyway
I felt really bad and didn't want to talk to anybody
But the snowflakes were so beautiful and real looking
And i really wanted to hold them
And that's when i heard the voices
From down the hall near the stairs
So i got a flashlight
And i was scared and i went out into the hallway
There's been all kinds of troubles
Lately in the neighborhood
And someone's got to bring home the bacon and anyway
There were brigid and billy playing

And under the stair case
Was a little meadow sort of like the park at 23rd street
Where all the young kids go and play frisbee
Gee, that must be fun
Maybe we should do an article on that in the magazine
But they'll just tell me i'm stupid and it won't sell
But i'll just hold my ground this time, i mean
It's my magazine, isn't it?

So i was thinking that as the snowflakes fell
And i heard those voices having so much fun
Gee, it would be so great to have some fun
So i called billy
But either he didn't hear me or he didn't want to answer
Which was so strange
Because
Even if i don't like reunions i've always loved billy
I'm so glad he's working
I mean it's different than ondine
He keeps touring with those movies
And he doesn't even pay us and the film
I mean the film's just going to disintegrate and then what
I mean he's so normal off of drugs
I just don't get it

And then i saw john cale
He's been looking really great
He's been coming by the office to exercise with me
Ronnie said i have a muscle
But he's been really mean since he went to aa
I mean what does it mean
When you give up drinking and then you're still so mean
He says i'm being lazy but i'm not
I'm just can't find any ideas
I mean i'm just not
Let's face it
Going to get any ideas up at the office

And seeing john made me think of the velvets
And i had been thinking about them
When i was on st. marks place
Going to that new gallery those sweet new kids have opened
But the thought i was old
And then i saw the old dom
The old club where we did our first shows
It was so great
And i don't understand about that velvet's first album
I mean i did the cover
I was the producer
And i always see it repackaged
And i've never gotten a penny from it
How could that be
I should call henry
But it was good seeing john
I did a cover for him
But i did in black and white and he change it to color
It would have been worth more if he'd left it my way
But you can never tell any body anything i've leaned that

I tried calling again to billy and john
They wouldn't recognize me it was like i wasn't there
Why won't they let me in

And then i saw lou
I'm so mad at him
Lou reed got married and didn't invite me
I mean is it because he thought i'd bring too many people
I don't get it
Could have at least called
I mean he's doing so great
Why doesn't he call me?
I saw him at the mtv show
And he was one row away and he didn't even say hello
I don't get it
You know i hate lou
I really do
He won't even hire us for his videos
And i was proud of him

I was so scared today
There was blood leaking thought my shirt
From those old scars from being shot
And the corset i wear to keep my insides in was hurting
And i did three sets of fifteen pushups
And four sets of ten setups
But then my insides hurt
And i saw drops of blood on my shirt and i remember
The doctors saying i was dead
And then later they had to take blood out of my hand
'couse they ran out or veins
But then
All this thinking was making me an old grouch
And you can't do anything anyway so
If they wouldn't let me play with them in my own dream
I was just going to have to make another
And another
And another
Gee, wouldn't it be funny if i died in this dream
Before i could make another one up

And nobody called

And nobody came

You've got the money, i've got the time
You want your freedom, make your freedom mine
'cause i've got the style it takes
And money is all that it takes

You've got connections, i've got the art
You like attention and i like your looks
And i have the style it takes
And you know the people it takes

Why don't you sit right over there
We'll do a movie portrait
I'll turn the camera on
And i won't even be there
A portrait that moves, you look great i think

I'll put the empire state building on your wall
For 24 hours glowing on your wall
Watch the sun rise above it in your room
Wallpaper art, a great view

I've got a brillo box and i say it's art
It's the same one you can buy at any supermarket
'cause i've got the style it takes
And you've got the people it takes

This is a rock group called the velvet underground
I show movies on them, do you like their sound
'cause they have a style that grates
And i have art to make

Let's do a movie here next week
We don't have sound but you're so great
You don't have to speak

You've got the style it takes, kiss
You've got the style it takes, eat
You've got the style it takes, couch
You've got the style it takes, kiss

Train entering the city
I lost myself and never came back
Took a trip around the world and never came back
Black silhouettes, crisscrossed tracks, never came back

Forever changed
Forever changed

You might think i'm frivolous, uncaring and cold
You might think i'm empty, depends on your point of view
Society andy who paints and records them
The high and the low, never turn back

Forever changed
Forever changed
Forever changed
Forever changed

Got to get to the city, get a job
Got to get some work to see me through
My old life's behind, i see it receding
My life's disappearing, disappearing from view

Hong kong and i was changed
Burma, thailand and i was changed
A few good friends to see me through
Henry and brigid to see me through
Only art to see me through
Only heart to see me through
My old life's disappearing, disappearing from view

Forever changed
Forever changed
I was forever changed