Playlist Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

nick cave & the bad seeds - o children

Pass me that lovely little gun
My dear, my darting one
The cleaners are coming, one by one
You don't even want to let them start

They are knocking now upon your door
They measure the room, they know the score
They're mopping up the butcher's floor
Of your broken little hearts

O children

Forgive us now for what we've done
It started out as a bit of fun
Here, take these before we run away
The keys to the gulag

O children
Lift up your voice, lift up your voice
Children
Rejoice, rejoice

Here comes Frank and poor old Jim
They're gathering round with all my friends
We're older now, the light is dim
And you are only just beginning

O children

We have the answer to all your fears
It's short, it's simple, it's crystal clear
It's round about, it's somewhere here
Lost amongst our winnings

O children
Lift up your voice, lift up your voice
Children
Rejoice, rejoice

The cleaners have done their job on you
They're hip to it, man, they're in the groove
They've hosed you down, you're good as new
They're lining up to inspect you

O children

Poor old Jim's white as a ghost
He's found the answer that was lost
We're all weeping now, weeping because
There ain't nothing we can do to protect you

O children
Lift up your voice, lift up your voice
Children
Rejoice, rejoice

Hey! Little train, we are all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We're happy, Ma, we're having fun
And the train ain't even left the station

Hey, little train! Wait for me!
I once was blind but now I see!
Have you left a seat for me?
Is that such a strech of imagination

Hey, little train! Wait for me
I was held in chains but now I'm free
I'm hanging in there, don't you see
In this process of elimination

Hey! Little train, we are all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We're happy, Ma, we're having fun
It's beyond my wildest expectation

Hey! Little train, we are all jumping on
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We're happy, Ma, we're having fun
And the train ain't even left the station

nick cave & the bad seeds - red right hand

Take a little walk to the edge of town
Now spread your wings and fly
Don't the lights of the city look so damn pretty
When you're flying so high?
It's hard to know 'bout the down-below
The streets, babe, are swimming deep in blood
It seems
To make a grown man cry

You really wanna know what's wrong with this land?
Just scratch your head with your red right hand

You see, everyone's a liar, babe, and that's the truth
I said everyone's a liar, baby, and I got the proof
You got a new boy, you feel you're in with a chance
You think you're in his arms but you're in his hands
But still he seems so cute and true and groovy

But get that boy up on the stand
And watch him raise his red right hand

Move your hips, babe, move your thighs
Use your lips, babe, conceal his prize
He's tracing a tiny finger down your spine
He's leaving behind a thin red line
Oh, don't get so sad when it all comes down so heavy

A low wind moans across this land
As he rakes at your chest with his red right hand

I'm talking 'bout blood, babe
It's in your veins
Your mummy and daddy
They've got the same
You're under the mirror, day after day
You see a pretty face crumbling away
As you become your mum and daddy

Scream once, scream twice, now scream again
And cover that face with your red right hand

nick cave & the bad seeds - viviane

These lyrics were taken from an edition of The Witness, the Official fan newsletter.

Viviane
I will love you till the last nail has been driven in

Viviane
Till we disappear hand in hand into oblivian (sic)

Oh Viviane
I will love you until the void delivers us from this world we're living in

Oh oh Viviane
I love you until the ghost of your smile grows faint and withering

Viviane
You are my heroin, my aspirin, my insulin

Viviane
The winds of change are blowing and I am shivering....

(...the rest (if indeed there is any more) is obscured.)

nick cave & the bad seeds - song of joy

Have mercy on me, sir
Allow me to impose on you
I have no place to stay
And my bones are cold right through
I will tell you a story
Of a man and his family
And I swear that it is true

Ten years ago I met a girl named Joy
She was a sweet and happy thing
Her eyes were bright blue jewels
And we were married in the spring
I had no idea what happiness and little love could bring
Or what life had in store
But all things move toward their end
All things move toward their their end
On that you can be sure

La la la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la la

Then one morning I awoke to find her weeping
And for many days to follow
She grew so sad and lonely
Became Joy in name only
Within her breast there launched an unnamed sorrow
And a dark and grim force set sail
* Farewell happy fields *
* Where joy forever dwells *
* Hail horrors hail *

Was it an act of contrition or some awful premonition
As if she saw into the heart of her final blood-soaked night
Those lunatic eyes, that hungry kitchen knife
Ah, I see sir, that I have your attention!
Well, could it be?
How often I've asked that question
Well, then in quick succession
We had babies, one, two, three

We called them Hilda, Hattie and Holly
They were their mother's children
Their eyes were bright blue jewels
And they were quiet as a mouse
There was no laughter in the house
No, not from Hilda, Hattie or Holly
"No wonder", people said, "poor mother Joy's so melancholy"
Well, one night there came a visitor to our little home
I was visiting a sick friend
I was a doctor then
Joy and the girls were on their own

La la la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la la

Joy had been bound with electrical tape
In her mouth a gag
She'd been stabbed repeatedly
And stuffed into a sleeping bag
In their very cots my girls were robbed of their lives
Method of murder much the same as my wife's
Method of murder much the same as my wife's
It was midnight when I arrived home
Said to the police on the telephone
Someone's taken four innocent lives

They never caught the man
He's still on the loose
It seems he has done many many more
Quotes John Milton on the walls in the victim's blood
The police are investigating at tremendous cost
In my house he wrote * "his red right hand" *
That, I'm told is from Paradise Lost
The wind round here gets wicked cold
But my story is nearly told
I fear the morning will bring quite a frost

And so I've left my home
I drift from land to land
I am upon your step and you are a family man
Outside the vultures wheel
The wolves howl, the serpents hiss
And to extend this small favour, friend
Would be the sum of earthly bliss
Do you reckon me a friend?
* The sun to me is dark *
* And silent as the moon *
Do you, sir, have a room?
Are you beckoning me in?

La la la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la la

nick cave & the bad seeds - a box for black paul

Who'll build a box for Black Paul?
Ah'm enquirin on behalf of his soul
Ah'd be beholdin to ya all
For a lil information, just a little indication
Just who'll dig the hole?
When ya done ransackin' his room
grabbin any damn thing that shines,
throw the scraps down on the street
Like all his books and his notes.
All his books and his notes and
All the junk that he wrote
the whole fucken lot right up in smoke
Ain't there nuthin sacred anymore
Won't someone will build a box for Black Paul?
And their shootin off his guns
and their shootin off their mouths
saying 'Fuck with us ... and die!'
'Fuck with us ... and die!'
(Let's see that rat of fear go scuttle in their skulls)
'Cover that eye! Cover that frozen eye!'

Black-puppet, in a heap up against the stoning-wall
Black-puppet, go to sleep, ma-ma won't scold ya anymore

Armies of ants, wade up the lil red streams
they're headin for the mother-pool
O lord, it's cruel! O man it's hot! O man it's hot and
And some of them ants they just climb to the spot
Who threw the first stone at Black Paul?

'Don't ask us', say the critics and the hacks
The pen-pushers and the quacks
'We jes cum to git dah facks!'
'We jes cum to git dah facks!'
Hey, hey, hey, hey...

Here is the hammer, that built the scaffold,
and built the box...
Here is the shovel, that dug the hole,
in this ground of rocks...
And here is the pile of stones!
and for each one planted, God only knows,
a blood-rose grown...
These are the true Demon-Flowers!
These are the true Demon-Flowers!
Stand back everyone! Blood-black everyone!

Who'll build a box for Black Paul?
Who'll carry it up the hill?

'Not I', said the widow, adjusting her veil
'Ah will not drive the nail
Or cart his puppet-body home,
For ah done that one hundred times before,
Yeah! ah done that one hundred times or more,
And why should ah dress his wounds?
When he has wounded my dress, nightly,
Right across the floor'

Who'll build a box for Black Paul?
Who'll carry it up the hill?
Who'll bury it in the black-soil?
And from the woods and the thickets
Come the ghosts of his victims
'We love you!'
'Ah love you!'
'and this will not hurt a bit,
Outta my eyes was your rise to full glory Spring up from the corp(??) of life we'll go up, up, up, up, up into Death
up, up, up, up, inhale its breath
O yes, Death favours those that favor Death'

Here is the stone, and this is the inscription it bare:
'Below Lies Black Paul, Under The Upper...
But Above and Beyond The Surface-Flat-Fall There.'

And all the angels come on down,
And all you men and women crowd around
And all the old widows weeping into their skirts
And all the lil gals and the lil Boys
And the scribes with their pens poised
All the hullaballoo, all the norse
All the hullaballoo, all the noise
All the hullaballoo, all of the noise
clears his throat of black blood
singin Black Paul like a lonely boy...

We-e-e-ll, ah have cried one thousand tears
Ah've cried a thousand tears, its true
And the next stormy night you know,
That ah'm still cryin them for you

Well, ah had a gal she was so sweet,
Red dress, and long red hair hangin down
And heaven yes ain't heaven
Without that lil girl hangin around

Well, ya know ah've beenn a bad-man
and Lord knows ah done some good things too
But ah confess, my soul will never rest
Until you've, until you've build
Until you've built a box for my gal, too.
my gal, too
my gal, too

nick cave & the bad seeds - ain t gonna rain anymore

Once there came a storm in the form of a girl
It blew to pieces my snug little world
And sometimes I swear I can still hear her howl
Down through the wreckage and the ruins

And it ain't gonna rain anymore
Now my baby's gone
And it ain't gonna rain anymore
Now my baby's gone

Now the stom has passed over me
I'm left to drift on a dead calm sea
And watch her forever through the cracks in the beams
Nailed across the doorways of the bedrooms of my dreams

Now I have no one to hold
Now I am all alone again
It ain't too hot and it ain't too cold
And there is no sign of rain

And it ain't gonna rain anymore
Now my baby's gone, yeah
And it ain't gonna rain anymore
Now my baby's gone, yeah
And I'm on my own

She ain't coming back no more
She ain't coming back no more
She ain't coming back no more
Say what you will, I don't care

nick cave & the bad seeds - higgs boson blues

Can't remember anything at all
Flame trees line the streets
Can't remember anything at all
But I'm driving my car down to Geneva

I've been sitting in my basement patio
Aye, it was hot
Up above, girls walk past, the roses all in bloom
Have you ever heard about the Higgs Boson blues
I'm goin' down to Geneva baby, gonna teach it to you

Who cares, who cares what the future brings?
Black road long and I drove and drove
I came upon a crossroad
The night was hot and black
I see Robert Johnson,
With a ten dollar guitar strapped to his back,
Lookin' for a tune

Well here comes Lucifer,
With his canon law,
And a hundred black babies runnin' from his genocidal jaw
He got the real killer groove
Robert Johnson and the devil man
Don't know who's gonna rip off who

Driving my car, flame trees on fire
Sitting and singin' the Higgs Boson blues,
I'm tired, I'm lookin' for a spot to drop
All the clocks have stopped in Memphis now
In the Lorraine Motel, it's hot, it's hot
That's why they call it the Hot Spot
I take a room with a view
Hear a man preaching in a language
that's completely new, yea
Making the hot cocks in the flophouse bleed
While the cleaning ladies sob into their mops
And a bellhop hops and bops
A shot rings out to a spiritual groove
Everybody bleeding to that Higgs Boson Blues

If I die tonight, bury me
In my favorite yellow patent leather shoes
With a mummified cat and a cone-like hat
That the caliphate forced on the Jews
Can you feel my heartbeat?
Can you feel my heartbeat?

Hannah Montana does the African Savannah
As the simulated rainy season begins
She curses the queue at the Zulus
And moves on to Amazonia
And cries with the dolphins
Mama ate the pygmy
The pygmy ate the monkey
The monkey has a gift that he is sending back to you
Look here comes the missionary
With his smallpox and flu
He's saving them savages
With his Higgs Boson Blues
I'm driving my car down to Geneva
I'm driving my car down to Geneva

Oh let the damn day break
The rainy days always make me sad
Miley Cyrus floats in a swimming pool in Toluca Lake
And you're the best girl I've ever had
Can't remember anything at all

nick cave & the bad seeds - we no who u r

Tree don't care what a little bird sings
We go down with the due in the morning light
The tree don't know what the little bird brings
We go down with the due in the morning
And we breathe, in it
There is no need to forgive
Breathe, in it, there is no need to forgive
(again)

The trees will stand like leading hands
We go down with the due in the morning light
The trees all stand like leading hands
We go down with the due in the morning light
And we breathe it in
There is no need to forgive
Breathe it in, there is no need to forgive
(again)

The trees will burn with blackened hands
We return with the light of the evening
The trees will burn blackened hands
Nowhere to rest, with nowhere to land

And we know who you are
And we know where you live
And we know there's no need to forgive

And we know who you are
And we know where you live
And we know there's no need to forgive

And we know who you are
And we know where you live
And we know there's no need to forgive

And we know who you are
And we know where you live
And we know there's no need to forgive again

nick cave & the bad seeds - where the wild roses grow

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
As 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

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?"

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 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
As I kissed her goodbye, I said, "All beauty must die"
And lent down and planted a rose between her teeth

nick cave & the bad seeds - finishing jubilee street

Oh oh oh

I just finished writing "Jubilee Street"
I lay down on my bed and fell into a deep sleep
When I awoke,
I believed I'd taken a bride called Mary Stanford
And I flew into a frenzy searching high and low
Because in my dream, the girl was very young
Oh I said, hey little girl where do you hide?
You draw the lightning from the sky

Ohh all of this and her dark hair
And all of this and her dark hair, Lord
Oh see that girl coming on down
Coming on down, coming on down
See that girl coming on down
Coming on down, coming on down

Last night your shadows scampered up the wall
It flies and leaped like a black spider between your legs
And cried, my children my children
They are lost to us

All of this and her dark hair, oh no
All of this and her dark hair, oh Lord
See that girl coming on down
Coming on down, coming on down
See that girl coming on down
Coming on down, coming on down
See that girl coming on down
Coming on down, coming on down
See that girl coming on down
Coming on down, coming on down

nick cave & the bad seeds - we real cool

Who took your measurements?
From your toes to the top of your head
Yea, you know
Who bought you clothes and new shoes
And wrote you a book you never read
Yea, you know

Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
On the far side of the morning,
Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
Now I hope you're listening, are you?

Who was it you called the good shepherd,
Rounding up the kids for their meal
Who chased your shadow running out behind
Clinging to your high flying heels
Your high flying, high flying, high flying heels

Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
On the far side of the morning, who was it
Yeah you know, we real cool
And I hope you're listening too

Who measured the distance from the planets
Right down to your big blue spinning world
And heartbeats and tears and nervous laughter
Spilling down all over you, girl

Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
And the world keeps on turning
Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
And I hope you're listening, are you?

Sirius is 8.6 light years away
Arcturas is 37
The past is the past and it's here to stay
Wikipedia's heaven
When you don't want to remember, you know
On the far side of the morning
Who was it, yea you know, we real cool
And I hope you hear me, and you'll call
Yeah, we real cool
Yeah, we real, real cool

nick cave & the bad seeds - lightning bolts

Two lightning bolts were delivered to my room
They were gifts from Zeus
I rock the bolts in a basinet of a pine
People as me how I am
I say I'm alright.
I'm fine!

I push the lightning bolts in a pram
Till the sun goes down & it gets dark
And the girls of Jubilee Street hang out their windows
And they wave & ask me how I am tonight
I say I'm good.
I'm alright!
In Athens all the youths
are crying from the gas

I'm bu the hotel pool working on a tan
People come up and ask me who I am
I say "if you don't know, don't ask"
Zeus laughs
But it's the gas
He asks me how I am
I said "Zeus, don't ask"

My lightning bolts are jolts of joy
They are joy boy from Zeus
I feed them porridge
in the booster seats of knowledge
And in the cradle of democracy
The pigeons are wearing gas masks
My lightning bolts play in the elevators
They slide down the hotel banister
And Zeus throws a gas canister
And it spins around the pool
As pigeons wearing respirators
steal the lightning bolts
Zeus wants them back

O my bolts of joy!
O my darling little boys!
They are lost to us!
And pepole
They are never coming back
At night I watch them sleep
And cry years of tears

And it's not the gas
People ask me how we are
We are, I say,
Mostly lost.

nick cave & the bad seeds - wide lovely eyes

You wave at the sky with wide lovely eyes
Waves and waves of love go by
And through the garden with your secret key
Down the tunnel that leads to the sea
Step on the beach beneath the iron skies
You wave and wave your wide lovely eyes
Crystal waves and waves of love
You wave and say goodbye

Your dress sides with your wide lovely strides
And all along the street lately the stories are bound
They've dismantled the fun fair
And they've shut down the rides
They've hung the mermaids from the streetlights by their hair
And with wide lovely eyes you wave at the sky
And near the high window watching the ride
The waves of blue and the waves of love
You wave and say goodbye

The night expands, I am expanding
I watch your hands like butterflies landing
All among the myths and the legends we create
And all the laughing stories we tell our friends
Close the windows, clear up the mess
It's getting late, it's darker and closer to the end

Through the tunnel and down the sea
And on the pebble beach releases you entire
And arrange your shoes side by side
You wave and wave with wide lovely eyes
Distant waves and waves of distant love
You wave and say goodbye

nick cave & the bad seeds - push the sky away

I was right
I was right
Oh, the sun, the sun
The sun is rising from the field

I've got a feeling
I just can't shake
I've got a feeling
That just won't go away

You've got to just
Keep on pushing
Keep on pushing
Push the sky away

And if your friends think
That you should do it different
And if they think
That you should do it the same

You've got to just
Keep on pushing
Keep on pushing
Push the sky away

And if you're feeling
You've got everything you came for
If you got everything
And you don't want no more

You've got to just
Keep on pushing
Keep on pushing
Push the sky away

And some people
Say it's just rock'n roll
Oh, but it gets you
Right down to your soul

You've got to just
Keep on pushing
Keep on pushing
Push the sky away

nick cave & the bad seeds - needle boy

At the turn of the century I did many things to protect myself
I did many things to protect myself
I made myself a needle-boy
And i Hid him in the closet
And I made myself a money-man
And I hid him underneath the mattress
I made myself a spider-child

And I put him in a matchbox
And I forged myself a golden statuette
And I wrapped him in a hello magazine
And I hid im in a wall safe
And finally I made myself a spade-girl
And I put her in a garden shed

All to protect myself, you see
From the demon that was coming from the East
Or from the west
Then I sat on the rooftop and I waited
And when at last the demon came
From the East or from the West
And awoke me from my sleep
And awoke me to a particular point of view
And the needle-boy stuck him in the eye
And the money-man chocked him with coins
The spider-child bit him on the ankle
And the statuette crashed crashed down upon his head
And the spade-girl
buried him underneath the house

And I danced on the rooftops
And I danced on the rooftops
And I danced to the western world
And I danced to the western world

nick cave & the bad seeds