Lions in the street and roaming
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Dogs in heat, rabid, foaming
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A beast caged in the heart of a city
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The body of his mother
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Rotting in the summer ground
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He fled the town
|
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He went down South and crossed the border
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Left the chaos and disorder
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Back there over his shoulder
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One morning he awoke in a green hotel
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With a strange creature groaning beside him
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Sweat oozed from its shiny skin
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Is everybody in?
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The ceremony is about to begin
|
|
Wake up!
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You can't remember where it was
|
Has this dream stopped?
|
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The snake was pale gold
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Glazed & shrunken
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We were afraid to touch it
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The sheets were hot dead prisons
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Now, run to the mirror in the bathroom
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Look!
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I can't live thru each slow century of her moving
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I let my cheek slide down
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The cool smooth tile
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Feel the good cold stinging blood
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The smooth hissing snakes of rain...
|
|
Once I had a little game
|
I liked to crawl back into my brain
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I think you know the game I mean
|
I mean the game called 'go insane'
|
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Now you should try this little game
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Just close your eyes forget your name
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Forget the world, forget the people
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And we'll erect a different steeple
|
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This little game is fun to do
|
Just close your eyes, no way to lose
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And I'm right there, I'm going too
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Release control, we're breaking through
|
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Way back deep into the brain
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Back where there's never any pain
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And the rain falls gently on the town
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And in the labyrinth of streams
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Beneath, the quiet unearthly presence of
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Nervous hill dwellers in the gentle hills around
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Reptiles abounding
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Fossils, caves, cool air heights
|
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Each house repeats a mold
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Windows rolled
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Beast car locked in against morning
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All now sleeping
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Rugs silent, mirrors vacant
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Dust blind under the beds of lawful couples
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Wound in sheets
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And daughters, smug
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With semen eyes in their nipples
|
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Wait
|
There's been a slaughter here
|
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(Don't stop to speak or look around
|
Your gloves & fan are on the ground
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We're getting out of town
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We're going on the run
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And you're the one I want to come)
|
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Not to touch the earth
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Not to see the sun
|
Nothing left to do, but
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Run, run, run
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Let's run
|
|
House upon the hill
|
Moon is lying still
|
Shadows of the trees
|
Witnessing the wild breeze
|
Come on baby, run with me
|
Let's run
|
|
Run with me
|
Run with me
|
Run with me
|
Let's run
|
|
The mansion is warm, at the top of the hill
|
Rich are the rooms and the comforts there
|
Red are the arms of luxuriant chairs
|
And you won't know a thing till you get inside
|
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Dead president's corpse in the driver's car
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The engine runs on glue and tar
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Come on along, we're not going very far
|
To the East to meet the Czar
|
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Some outlaws lived by the side of a lake
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The minister's daughter's in love with the snake
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Who lives in a well by the side of the road
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Wake up, girl! We're almost home
|
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We shall see the gates by morning
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We shall be inside by evening
|
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Sun, sun, sun
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Burn, burn, burn
|
Soon, soon, soon
|
Moon, moon, moon
|
I will get you
|
Soon!
|
Soon!
|
Soon!
|
|
Let the carnival bells ring
|
Let the serpent sing
|
Let everything
|
|
We came down
|
The rivers & highways
|
We came down from
|
Forests & falls
|
|
We came down from
|
Carson & Springfield
|
We came down from
|
Phoenix enthralled
|
& I can tell you
|
The names of the Kingdom
|
I can tell you
|
The things that you know
|
Listening for a fistful of silence
|
Climbing valleys into the shade
|
|
"I am the Lizard King
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I can do anything
|
I can make the earth stop in its tracks
|
I made the blue cars go away
|
|
For seven years I dwelt
|
In the loose palace of exile
|
Playing strange games
|
With the girls of the island
|
|
Now I have come again
|
To the land of the fair, & the strong, & the wise
|
|
Brothers & sisters of the pale forest
|
O children of Night
|
Who among you will run with the hunt?
|
|
Now Night arrives with her purple legion
|
Retire now to your tents & to your dreams
|
Tomorrow we enter the town of my birth
|
I want to be ready"
|
|
-----------------
|
| The Celebration Of The Lizard (Live At Madison Square Garden, New York, 1970) |
