Day and Night

M. C. Escher

Day and Night

Day and Night

Day and night . . . the shadows move too slowly

From dark to light she promised she could know me

Remember when . . . I watched her on the stairway

She was drinkin' wine . . . and she told me what the stars say . . .

Some destinies, they should not be delivered . . .

But in her eyes I saw a thousand reasons

Day and night

I feel her skin . . . it's thin and white as pressed milk

I closed my eyes and she vanished just like burnt silk

And what remains was like some fallen thunder

And my lips were chained; they were filled with empty wonder

But the stars tell lies, it blinds the only warning

And when darkness dies, there's nothing left but morning . . .

Just day and night

Day and night . . . the shadows start to scatter

When touched by light . . . each promise made is shattered

And even when the question find the answer

But even then, they're something like a dancer

But even then, they're something like a dancer

Like day and night . . . dark to light

I move from day to night

~ Jim Carroll Band ~

(No More) Luxuries

Gustav Klimt

Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer

(No More) Luxuries

Your uncle's scandals shook the house of lords

Your daddy's squeezed out as Chairman of the Board

No more doctors write you no more 'scripts

No more intercontinental trips

No more luxuries

No more luxuries

No more crystal pistols up your nose

The dry cleaner wants money on the clothes

The Rolls Royce, my dear . . . need it be said?

If I were you I would think "Mo-Ped"

No more luxury . . .

No more luxuries

And all you are left with is me

Left with me

Left with me

No more luxuries

You gotta do it in a whole new way

But I'm gonna make a vow to stay

We gotta eat it off the floor a while

You don't even have a phone to dial

Do it in a whole new way,

Honey, that's the price we pay

Your necklaces have turned to centipedes

They slowly crawled away . . .

And the bar is empty and there ain't no waiter

The ice all melts in the refrigerator

The dead meat drips

On the asparagus tips

There's no more luxuries

You're left with me

No more, no more

There's no more luxuries

That article on you in Interview

It was dropped for a feature on Monaco's Zoo

Calvin called, he wants his hand-made vest

And it's snip snip to your American Express

No more luxuries

No more luxuries

And all you are left with is me

Just me, mon cheri

No more lunching out at "21"

What you get now comes inside a bun

"C'est la vie," the color TV

That's gone too, but I'll stay with you

~ Jim Carroll Band ~

Nothing is True

Andy Warhol

Marilyn Monroe

Nothing is True

You get nothin’ back for all you’ve saved

Just eternity in a spacious grave

She said, nothing is true, everything is permitted

Things just go from bad to worse

Starts like a kiss and ends like a curse

But nothing’s true, she said everything is permitted

She got jewels on her tongue to time the stars

She drives all morning in unmarked cars

But nothing’s true, it is all permitted

She got these special tools just to keep things tight

They robbed her eyes long ago of light

But nothing’s true, she told me it’s all permitted

She got inscrutable poise and nihilist charms

She gets her sleep through tubes in her arm

She said nothing is true, she said everything is permitted

She nods on graves, the marble’s cold and white,

Her dreams surround the sun like a satellite

She said nothin’ is true, she told me it’s all permitted

The spiders milk her thigh, it does not phase her

She cleans her skin with a krypton laser

Nothing is true, everything is permitted

She got heels so high, she got a gown so thin

Her eyes stop the whip before it tames her sin

She says nothin’ is true, everything is permitted

Until they perfect the techniques to clone

You all better remember you’re all alone

Because nothing is true, she said everything is permitted

~ Jim Carroll Band ~

People Who Died

Andy Warhol

Suicide

People Who Died

Teddy sniffing glue, he was 12 years old

Fell from the roof on East Two-nine

Cathy was 11 when she pulled the plug

On 26 reds and a bottle of wine

Bobby got leukemia, 14 years old

He looked like 65 when he died

He was a friend of mine

Those are people who died, died

They were all my friends, and they died

G-berg and Georgie let their gimmicks go rotten

So they died of hepatitis in upper Manhattan

Sly in Vietnam took a bullet in the head

Bobby OD'd on Drano on the night that he was wed

They were two more friends of mine

Two more friends that died

Those are people who died, died

They were all my friends, and they died

Mary took a dry dive from a hotel room

Bobby hung himself from a cell in the tombs

Judy jumped in front of a subway train

Eddie got slit in the jugular vein

And Eddie, I miss you more than all the others

And I salute you brother

Those are people who died, died

They were all my friends, and they died

Herbie pushed Tony from the Boys' Club roof

Tony thought that his rage was just some goof

But Herbie sure gave Tony some bitchen proof

"Hey," Herbie said, "Tony, can you fly?"

But Tony couldn't fly, Tony died

Those are people who died, died

They were all my friends, and they died

Brian got busted on a narco rap

He beat the rap by rattin' on some bikers

He said, "Hey, I know it's dangerous, but it sure beats Riker's"

But the next day he got offed by the very same bikers

Those are people who died, died

They were all my friends, and they died

~ Jim Carroll Band ~