Another sultry night of dreamless sleep
These four, poor walls seep with sweat
A chameleon darts, it's the shade of this cheap plaster
There are no creature comforts left to get
And I know why the cage bird roars
And a monkey God moans
And we're clutching at straws

And all that we could ever hope for
All that we could ever hope for
All that we could ever hope for
Is almost eaten by the long pig now

It's so lush and so rank here in this English swamp
And sanctuary? Sanctuary is hard to find
Ever since the sky fell foul of delinquent chemistry
And what holds us together began to unbind
And I know why we tore up the trust
The long pig is human but he's no friend to us.

And all that we could ever hope for
All that we could ever hope for
All that we could ever hope for
Is almost eaten by the long pig now

A mosquito drills at the well of your blood
The shed skin of a moccassin snake
And the radio, faint, with primitive surf music
Saying 'Please feed the world, again, for pity's sake'
And I know why the rooster crows
He's mourning the night and the coming of snows

And all that we could ever hope for
All that we could ever hope for
All that we could ever hope for
Is almost eaten by the long pig now

We're in for dirty weather blame the long pig, now
   

 
She was jolted by joy, surprised by serenity
She was secretly pleased how easy salvation can be
New truths for old, come in from the cold
Her mother's in the kitchen when the door slammed
And a daughter's gone missing, gone looking for shelter
She'll find it at the foot of a better, a better
A better helter skelter

A stretch outside, a seer needs to travel in style
Now stretch right out and help him help you tune in your dial
He's holding out hope, a ticket to utope
You need to get your energy unjammed
The spirit is a river, we're living on the delta
And someone's getting soaked on a better, a better
A better helter skelter

One of those days when everything falls away
and you go looking for a system or a sign to help slow the decay
There's always a friend who got it on oath
About a man in a role talking personal growth
Do you take up his chant, or look underneath
Is he whispering a mantra, or lying through his teeth

It's the primitive scream of a family that's tearing apart
Maybe it's never that good but home's still the home of the heart
She'll be seeing you again, but don't go in the den
Because Renées in there getting deprogrammed
She should have looked harder at the hand he dealt her
Broken at the foot of a better, a better
A better helter skelter
 

The cross of St. George
The crosses of Patrick and Andrew
Which corner is yours?
What long line of bull did they hand you?
Where every corner has an angle
From every angle hangs a web
But don't get dragged inside, yeah
Don't be sport for spiders
This is what the old sweat said
He said, they're gonna make you

King for day
Forgotten by morning
King for a day
Until the papers start yawning
Like the gulf that you just fell into
They won't hand you a single grain of sand
That you can cling to
King for a day - you king you

The cross of St. George
The crosses, the crescent, the eagle
It's all for the cause
Desperate to make it seem legal
Where every soldier is the lawyer
The witness, the jury, the judge and the priest
Camouflaged in a lynch-law suit
He's got an order here to execute
And Tommy Boy? Well he gets one day at least

King for day
Forgotten by morning
King for a day
Until the papers start yawning
Like the gulf that you just fell into
They won't hand you a single grain of sand
That you can cling to
King for a day - you king you

King for a day and what will he rule?
King for a day in the kingdom of the fool …
 

 
I think in the year of the refugee
Or maybe it was the year of the child or the aged
I sat with Tomas in a bar he was drinking with a women there
I asked him 'Tell me all about your younger rebel days'

Well the way this women was there you could see she wasn't messing
Thomas wasn't missing much of that
He said, 'You know this is such a small corner of the world we have here'
Somedays we thought we could conquer all

Then the so cold wind from the north comes blowing bitter to the south
Then the so cold wind from the north comes blowing bitter to the south
It takes the fruit out of the earth, it takes the food out of the mouth
The so cold wind from the north comes blowing bitter to the south
Bitter to the south

'We are the world' was on the juke-box in the corner
There was a faded turtle poster up in Spanish on the wall
Tomas said, 'Pretty beads and charity is all that they afford us
Well ain't invited to the feast but end up paying for it all'

Then the so cold wind from the north comes blowing bitter to the south
Then the so cold wind from the north comes blowing bitter to the south
It takes the fruit out of the earth, it takes the food out of the mouth
The so cold wind from the north comes blowing bitter to the south
Bitter to the south

There ain't no year for the refuge
There ain't no year for the child
There ain't no year for the aged
There ain't no year for the refuge
There's just these years of the debt

But my lover and I, still we go where life leads us
Send a message to your masters
Tell them 'Nothing's over yet'

Then the so cold wind from the north comes blowing bitter to the south
Then the so cold wind from the north comes blowing bitter to the south
It takes the fruit out of the earth, it takes the food out of the mouth
The so cold wind from the north comes blowing bitter to the south
Bitter to the south
 

 
Here comes Phil Ochs shovel on his shoulder
Trailing a hoe along the Ho Chi Minh trail
But the trail is on Bleeker Street
And Phil's on his uppers
It's the mid-nineteen seventies and its not looking too good
For a man with a mission and a man with a passion
When you run out of fashion
And it don't come crawling back

Here comes Phil Ochs, he's got a chip on his shoulder
They can't cut his jacket to cover it up
When one war is over but ten are beginning
And the movement's gone missing because they all just moved away
Oh they moved into property, they moved off into futures
They moved into ads, and that's as sad as it can get

Run, run, run from Phil,
Phil's on a three-day drunk
He's up on his high horse, he's staggering and sauced
Run, run, run from Phil,
Phil's on a three-day drunk
But he wasn't alone when he stumbled off course

Here comes Phil Ochs, devil on his shoulder
Carrying his guitar and the weight of the world
But if there's a place for the millionaires,
then there's space for the troubadour
And while there's a space, there's always a chance out there
That a melody lingers, and we keep getting singers
Who've got more on their minds
Than the latest Dow Jones share …
 

We've reviewed your case
Memorised your face, and
The way you see your place
You want to leave more than a trace
You want to leave more than a trace
Of you behind …

You've got your skinny pride
Your under-fed ideas
But you say you're set to sweat to build your pale democracy
What you earn you burn, the sacrificial
Notes go up in smoke
Ah, but when it clears, with bread to spare and roses too and we'll be free

More than a trace
You want to make a mark
However small and shallow
In the shadow and the dark
More than a trace
More than a …

You keep your ticket stub
You check your hat and cloak
Beyond the balcony there's sure be another John Wilkes Booth
He's got a forty-five, its hidden deep
Inside a riding coat
Either blue or grey, how d'you like the play the victim?
The victim's always truth
   

 
She slapped her teacher in the face
She was radical that way
So they called her 'Poison Grace'
But she chased the name away
And she left here for the silk road
The route set out, out in sand
In her own hand, she took off with a caravan …

Everyday the desert grows
In every way the desert knows
It swallows roads and rivers whole
And all our hopes and manifestos
And all the while the desert throws
The gauntlet down to Romeos
To soften, soothe or else enclose
The hardened heart of the desert rose

She took in wed-lock on the way
Aaah, but it didn't last
It came to dead-lock in a single day
And she got out fast
There was still light in her night sky
The last she had, all the snags
And her glad rags, stowed into her saddlebags …

Everyday the desert grows
In every way the desert knows
It swallows roads and rivers whole
And all our hopes and manifestos
And all the while the desert throws
The gauntlet down to Romeos
To soften, soothe or else enclose
The hardened heart of the desert rose

But that was then and this is now
And that was Chelsea, anyhow
It's all the shifting of the dunes
Different faces - but the same old honeymoons

And where's the Montague now?
He's just he mouthpiece for the head of sales

Oh where's the Montague now? Lost,
Along the dusty trail
 

 
We made Contention City
On the last night of a storm
Searching for the truth that money brings
We found lodging in the shadows
But they didn't promise rest
As hope sank to the floor on weary wings

We walked on glided splinters
As we scuffed the street for work
And we got by on the mission's cheaper brand
Til our dreams were filled with waking
And our hands with engine parts
As our hearts decayed like debris in the sand

They can't tear your face from my mind
They can't tear your face from my mind
They can't tear your face from my mind
Not even with eternity to try

My home's contention city
Where the master's minds are fixed
On thinking of the money they can save
Like a cat-walk without guard rails
That sent you into space,
I felt like firing shots above your grave

They can't tear your face from my mind
They can't tear your face from my mind
They can't tear your face from my mind
Not even with eternity to try

The city limits are another kind of the town
The lambs are starving and the horses all gone down
The track where even truth gave up the ghost

Not for all the tears in China
Not for all the useless gold
All the nights we ached for heat
And made a virtue of the cold
All the faces blurred by needing
All the stairs we couldn't climb
I won't lose your name or face
There's no rope as long as time
 

Why is it birds for me
That always bring bad news
I see them in my dreams
And another day's accused
Of filling up with set-backs
Crises and regret
But in this swamp, amnesia
Oh, you I won't forget
You I won't forget

Oh, in a field, my field of sight
I caught a moving bird
And while we ate beneath the vines
You spoke its native word
You gave that bird a name for me
Then released it into flight
I will not forget the hoopoe
I won't forget that night
I will not forget that night

Way back when birds were fish
And all God's creatures swam
Who would see a virus traced
Into the diagram
That learned to swim in seas of blood
That hugged the body shore
The viral tide that ebbed with you
Then turns for claiming more
Turns for claiming more
 

 
Well the church just caught fire
But it look like no one notice
The padre screaming down the wire
Get a ladder! Get the hoses!
Gonna use up all the water
That got set apart by Moses
The church just caught fire
See the flame leap up like roses
Holy smoke!

And it singe the thief and it burn the liar
And it melt down pain and consume desire
Holy smoke! Church on fire!

The church just caught fire
You can see it from your window
People look up at the spire
While they're going to a go-go
And the ashes spill down
Like the snow that fell on Fresno
The church just caught fire
Going 'Boom' like a volcano
Holy smoke!

And it singe the thief and it burn the liar
And it melt down pain and consume desire
Holy smoke! Church on fire!

When you gonna learn, learn, learn
That we gonna burn, burn, burn

The church just caught fire
And it might not spare the members
And there goes Judas I
Hoping no one here remembers
There's no safety in a kiss
From your Junes to your Novembers
The church just caught fire
Don't go sifting through the embers
Holy smoke!

And it singe the thief and it burn the liar
And it melt down pain and consume desire
Holy smoke! Church on fire!
 

Still I said, 'Tell me about it'
She said, 'You wouldn't stand a chance'
Not even if Gene and Fred together called
And said 'Please teach us how to dance'
Not even if Jean Paul and Simone de Beauvoir
Turned around to say that
'Thinking if for the birds now amigos, get on your knees
We're coming down to pray'
Coming down to pray -
That love will save
And that the world will keep its promise
Coming down to pray
That harmony can be restored
With all that the fall took from us

But I said, "Tell me about it'
And she said, 'We both already know'
That this God stays in his heaven
While sinners come and go
But there's this one faint hope we cling to
That the worst of us will pay
But don't look for help to history
It's coming down, it's coming down
It's coming down to pray
Coming down to pray -
 

The coloured glass, the piles of stones
The clicking beads like dialing tones
The incense scent in smokeless zones
The noise, the praise, the fevered moans …

It's like a miracle
A miracle we've come this far
It's like a miracle
Miracle and then some more …
From the manger to the abattoir

It's miraculous that we've all lasted
Deserted, starved, unfed and fasted
You left us hungry, unsustained -
We planted grain
But it just rained, it rained and rained and rained

The unmade road, the son of Cain
The fallen women raised again
The ranters, shakers we cal sane
The pious souls of Bloemfontein

It's like a miracle
A miracle we've come this far
It's like a miracle
Miracle and then some more …
From the manger to the abattoir

The mitre hat, the shepherds' crook
The true belivers you forsook
The carnivals, the bloody book
The lamb hangs butchered from a hook
 

You've got to have faith, have faith
But faith won't sit with reason
Careful what you write,
what you write
because it's open season
And nobody's teasing …

There is a book I'd like to read
It got burned for 'profanity'
There is a thought I'd like to have
But they've arrested 'sanity'

You've got to have faith, have faith
But faith won't sit with reason
Careful what you think,
what you think
because it might be treason
Spiritual treason

But what spirit can contemplate
The murder of a writer as a truly just fate?
While the children of the prophet are bussed to school
In streets painted white
Power! White Power!
White Rule!

They set a ladder against the clouds
They need to reach much higher
But still no mortal hand should play
With messianic fire

You've got to have faith, have faith
But faith won't sit with reason
Be care what you do,
what you do
because it might be treason,
And nobody's teasing …

And faith won't sit with reason