Tom Rapp/Pearls Before Swine
Lyrics
The original albums:
"One Nation Underground"
"Balaklava"
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"One Nation Underground"
"Balaklava"
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One Nation Underground
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Where have you been to?
Where did you go?
Did you follow the summer out
When the winter pushed its face in the snow?
Or have you come by again
To die again?
Try again another time
Did you follow the Crystal Swan?
Did
you see yourself
Deep inside the Velvet Pond?
Or have you come by again
To die
again?
Try again another time
Did you find that the Universe
Doesn't
care at all?
Did you find that if you don't care
This whole wrong world will fall?
Or
have you come by again
To die again?
Try again another time
Did you ever capture
All those jewels
in the sky?
Did you find that the world outside
Is all inside your mind?
Or have you
come by again
To die again
Try again another time
"(Oh Dear) Miss Morse"
By Tom Rapp
Oh Dear, Miss Morse,
I want
you,
Oh yes, I do,
I want you.
This may strike you
Odd-i-ly
But I want you
Bodily
Don't blame me dear,
Blame
McLuhan
His media
Were your ruin
Chorus:
Dit Dit Dah Dit
Dit Dit Dah
Dah Dit Dah Dit
Dah Dit Dah
Drop out with me
And just live your
life
Behind your eyes
Your own
skies
Your own tomorrows
Just be yourself
And no one can
step
Inside your mind
From
behind
If you just walk out
They made the rules
And they laid
it
On us all
Don't you
fall
'Cause then they own you
They're using you
To kill all the
echoes still
Around
From the
sound
Of calendars crumbling
They made the bomb
Would they drop
it
On us all?
Great and
small.
But must we follow
Don't you worry girl
Don't you worry
The whole world's in
Too big a hurry
Drop out with me.
All along the cold gross canal
The
grey-walled dwarf
Leaps high
Dwelling dark victorious
Silent with a cry
On the ledge
The leper walks
Soft-pawed
Cold
Lean and crisp
Telling jokes the old
Jew
told
Laughing with a lisp
At the door
I stand and sense
Each picture in its frame
Seeking
out
In each glance
The
hunchback
With my name
The past
Is broken like an
hourglass
And the scattered sand
Of circumstance
Is
blinding
Me to you
The rain
Is whispering to my window
pane
And drawing
Crazy
patterns
On the blind
Your face
Is invading the portals of
my eyes
And drawing
Crazy
patterns
On my mind
Who created mist
Created your
smile
And who created rainbows
Created you
My mind
Is all entwined
In fragrant fields of flowers
And the
scent
Puts me outside my mind
The past
The rain
Your face, mist and rainbows
Flowers
And the rain
Are you
The wind winds the platform
Blows
through your suit creases
You want us
To crucify the enemy for
Jesus
With your
chamber-of-commerce soul
You talk of war so bold
God is on our side, but
He's lost in your wallet-fold
And the widows a-sighing
The children
a-crying
The screams of the dying
Say you are lying, Uncle John
You pull out your Sunday God
And hold
him up so proud
And say he is with us
To the Applauding crowd
But the burn-blackened
place
The shredded disfigured face
Don't say that God is Love
They say that you are Hate
And the widows a-sighing
The children
a-crying
The screams of the dying
Say you are lying, Uncle John
You stand up on the platform
With the
flag wrapped all around you
And tell us that the Bible
says
To fight for it we're bound to
But the Red's for the blood we lose
The White's
for the gauze they use
To cover burned-out blackened
men
The rest is for the bodies numb and Blue
And the widows a-sighing
The children
a-crying
The screams of the dying
Say you are lying, Uncle John
"I Shall Not Care"
By
Tom Rapp and Sara Teasdale
When I am dead
And over me bright
April
Shakes out her rain-drenched hair
Though you should lean
Above me
broken-hearted
I shall not care
Words that were not said
Songs that
were not sung
Tears that were not shed
Deeds that were not done
I was not
I was
I am not
I do not care
Words that were not said
Songs that
were not sung
Tears that were not shed
Deeds that were not done
I shall have peace
As leafy trees are
peaceful
When rain bends down the bow
And I shall be
More
silent and
cold-hearted
Than you are now
Balaklava
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"Translucent Carriages"
By Tom Rapp
The translucent carriages
Drawing
morning in
Dawn inside their pockets
Like a whisper on the wind
The soft touch of your words
Has been
betrayed like love grown old
Or the silhouettes of
children
Crying somewhere in the cold
The ancient night is coming back
The
light is fading out
The tree is hid in shadow
In a fog of useless doubt
Go away go away
The imperative is
drawn
All your symbols are shattered
All your sacred words are
gone
The caravans are leaving
For the dawn
of nothing
Lepers carry roses
To Jerusalem
In peace
Sons bury their
fathers
In war
Fathers bury their sons
Love is silent
At the edge of the
universe
Waiting
To come in
Jesus raised the dead
But who
Will raise the living
Every time I see you passing by
I have
to wonder why
Images of April
Summer in th
air
April in your hair
All is gone
I remember
Days inside your
mind
The brave new mirror I would find
All is gone
The sea has left the sand
The sun has
left the land
As helpless as my empty hand
All is gone
You are sunlight
In another
dawn
A voice inside another song
All is gone
There was a man came to our town
He
wore a suit of red
He memorized with secret eyes
That he hid away in his head
There was a man came to our town
He
wore a suit of red
He memorized with secret eyes
That he hid away in his head
I saw the world
Spinning like a
toy
Hate seems so small
Compared to it all
So why don't you
do joy
Hate is a chain
It all comes back
again
Everything you do
Returns at last to you
So why don't
you do love
Why must you stand
Holding your own
hand
Why won't you see me
Why won't you help me
Why won't
you love me
You know that your guardian angel is dead, you have said
You say in the world is not a safe world to be
For all of your trying and all of your crying it seems
It's raining outside/umbrellas are harder to find
All of the pain in the world is outside your bed
In the shapes of phantom men tapping your window with rhythms
of dread
And all of the silver rosaries hung on the
door
Will not drive them alway/they are going to stay
You say that the sky people don't even ask you your name
If it's you or another, it doesn't matter, to them it's all
the same
But we live suspended in each other's
mind
A bullet-proof sanctuary cathedral of eyes
That I offer you/that I offer you
You're trapped in a world of angels who no longer care
In the space where his hand was, my hand is reaching out for
you there
Love is the weapon left after the fall
It may not seem like much but girl that's all there is
Girl/I love you
The halo morning has dissolved
The day
is gone
And nothing's solved
For you
The sand castles are merely sand
The
sea has crawled back
From your hand
Too soon
In fields where Susan sings
The
leopard brings
Yesterday
In upon a string
And all your dead rainbows
Begin to
stain
The lace on your raincoat
So leave the blind
Roses behind
You
Orpheus takes you by the hand
Leads
you into another land
Land without shade
Where trees are made
For you, Teresius
Will try to
find
A monument
To the death of eyes
So leave the blind
Roses behind
You
If you knew tomorrow was
Just
yesterday
Hiding behind a mask
What would you ask?
What
could you ask?
Alpha and Omega laugh
Behind a
glass
Sell bootstraps from a bag
Nowhere to hide
The rest
is a lie
So leave the blind
Roses behind
You
All songs © 1967 by Thomas D. Rapp - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED