The sea goat casts Aquarian runes through beads of mirrored tears, Suave pirates words of apricot crawl out of your veneer Anoint your eyes with Midas' oil and make it still appear Alladin's lamp is glowing bright transmuting panacea; To fill your souls with sugared holes. "Oh can't you hear" sang the sea goat "the nonsense makes me numb." "It's near it's clear" sang the sea goat "we live to overcome, The madman's voice and his nowhere choice, The pain that drains like an endless day of rain."
The sea goat reads the flight of birds and writes upon the sand; Gold waterfalls of autumn wheat slip through a pointing hand Whose fingers stiff with sentences still beckon to the band To play the "Best Foot Forward March" and deafen all the land. With hollow words, it's so absurd! "Take your stand" sang the sea goat "the night goes on and on." "Unwrap your plans" sang the sea goat "tell everyone you've gone To touch the earth and to see the birth The smile, the style down an unspun mile of life."
It fills the air! It fills the air! The song of the sea goat shaking in the domes The song of the sea goat as endlessly he roams, Between the sunset's crimson veil On smooth grey streets where the drunkard spins his tale.
The sea goat sips and hurls his glass along the smoke-filled road Where shuttered snakes of brakeless trains run aching with their load Of spring-eyed, tonguetied, wooldyed lads who kiss the L-shaped goad Which soon will smear their uniforms with blood, whitewash & woad. Damn iron minded, gold braid blinded, officers and gentlemen! "God!" sang the sea goat "is always on both sides." "Change" sang the sea goat "is constant as the tides "And this play" sang the sea goat "is strangely synthesised When your part of a cast where the first comes last Where the east goes west and the sun is burning out
And your part of a cast . . . . . ."
◆Under the Sky
Smile at the smiling man Tear in your eye Dance in the morning sun Under the sky.
High in the hawthorne tree Bee and butterfly Seek fortune in the leaves Under the sky.
Follow the road that winds up to the sky, There's no reason do not wonder why.
Dappled green summer glades Where swallows fly And laughing children play Under the sky.
Smile at the smiling man Tear in your eye Love in the morning sun Under the sky.
Follow the road that winds up to the sky, There's no reason do not wonder why.
Soft on a mossy bank Silently lie Everything's everything Under the sky.
Everything's everything under the sky . .
◆Will it be you (Will you stay by me)
Who'll give me comfort when the moon rides in the pines Who'll be my pillow when the bitter north wind whines Who'll lie beside me as the evening fire declines Will it be you, will you stay by me?
Who'll give me shelter from the wolves of discontent Who'll be my silence till the grumbling storm is spent Who'll shine my armour for the next day's tournament Will it be you, will you stay by me?
Or should I look for another Or spend my days in a cave or on a shelf With only life as my brother And find my way by myself?
Who'll bring me water when my engine overheats Who'll bring me ointment when the highway frets my feet From disappointment's showers where can I retreat Can I come to you, will you stay by me?
Or should I look for another Or spend my days in a cave or on a shelf With only life as my brother And find my way by myself?
Who'll give me comfort when the moon rides in the pines Who'll be my pillow when the bitter north wind whines Who'll lie beside me as the evening fire declines Will it be you, will you stay by me, will you stay by me Will you stay by me, will you stay by me? Oh of course you will.
◆Wholefood Boogie
I want to bite a rosy apple That's not painted waxed or DDT'd. I'd dig a plate of russian buckwheat With a steaming sauce of sesame seed. Just cook me miso soup for breakfast Throw your fishy fingers back in the sea 'Cos I'm a funky macro-eater life is sweeter Eating naturally.
I've got no taste for stricken chicken From an ultraviolet prison cell. I couldn't face your shaving cream cake Or your test tube flavoured caramel. Don't serve me "BOILA BAGGA DINNA" When I've shown you what I eat is me And I'm a weird organic diner life is finer Eating naturally.
Whole food that's what I need A bowl of grain, the taste of seed, Whole food every day to live the natural funky way.
You're so acute about pollution Have you ever really looked at your food It's sickly, sweetened, poisoned, flavoured, Coloured, processed . . . . . God! if only you knew That there's a funky way of eating Keeps you randy, dandy, happy and free Go on, go score yourself a banquet Straight from nature, not from some factory.
Whole food etc. etc.
◆Still
Still I wonder how it is to be a stream, From a dark well constant flowing, Winding seawards over ancient mossy wheels Yet feel no need of knowing? Still I wonder how it is to be a tree, Circled servant to the seasons, Only drink on sky and rake the winter wind And need no seal of reasons?
Still I wonder why I wonder why I'm here All my words just the shaft of my flail As I race o'er this beautiful sphere Like a dog who his chasing his . . . Tailors and tinkers, princes and Incas, Sailors and sinkers, before me and like me . . .
Still I wonder how it is to be a bird, Singing each dawns sweet effusions; Flying far away when all the world has stirred Yet seek no vain conclusions . . . . . .
Still I wonder if I passed some time ago As a bird, or a stream, or a tree? To mount up high you first must sink down low Like the changeable tides of the Caesars and Pharoahs, prophets and heroes, Poets and hobos, before me and after me all the Painters and dancers, mountainside chancers, Merchants and gamblers, bankers and ramblers, Winners and losers, angels and boozers, Beatles and Bolans, raindrops and oceans, Kings, pawns and deacons, fainthearts and beacons, Caesars and Pharoahs . . . . . .
◆Envelopes of Yesterday
I feel like a rusty key I don't fit any door You stole my cloudy castles but you didn't say what for. You said I didn't have the eyes to paint out in the street Without a standard martyr's hat and neon sloganned feet. To eat, it seems, I needed you for crumbs your need was me. We cheered and passed the sanguine flask till the ice man made me see At five o'clock you could never wash your printer's stain away; So I count you lost and your words I've tossed In the bleary envelopes of yesterday.
I feel like a tumbling kite there's no hand on my reel. I dived aboard your star-bright ship to find you'd left the wheel To hunt some upstart passengers who had gambled with their fare Then trumpeted the hull with holes and laughing gone by air. Whilst most of us who stayed aboard slipped brandy to the crew John Purser locked his iron box and pointed at the queue. Still working out the price of time no echoes will we lay; So I've burnt the till and I've thrown the bills In the weary envelopes of yesterday.
I need to suck the breasts of time and freeze her milk in ink To juggle cruets full of dreams and balance on the brink. Don't blame me if my smoke and steam obscured your rutted track, I only meant to startle you not offer you my back To ride upon and overload with your jars of unbaked clay. You can find your guide to the pulpit ride in the dreary envelopes of yesterday.
I'm upside down I'm an empty town my eyes are full of ghost Of dusty windowed certainty and spider-webbed almost. I love, I hate this rock and roll the ladies and the lights Ate all my flowers long ago but the roots came through all right. Whilst now my toast is the crossroads post, I hear just out of sight, That the Black Pick's found his Chaldean lamp After years in a concentration camp. But I fear he's still out on the ice With his bagpipe mouth and his cup of crimson speiss.
Still, I've fulfilled a host of dreams for that I'll cry hurray But it won't be long till I cast this song In the jet-edged envelopes......
◆The Piper
Beneath the tinsel twilight skies A changeling child with cinnamon eyes Wends his way to a secret glade and plays his pipe in a serenade.
In and out of the spectral trees Between the starlight burnished leaves, He strolls the speckled toadstool way to join th elfin court in play. The brown owl hoots upon the oak The foxes howl and the green frogs croak As through the wood to a marvelous moon He blows the notes of an elfin tune.
Towards the moss-weed bridge he goes Where burble-pebble water flows, Across the meadow up the hill And on the wind I hear him still . . .
◆A House of Hopes and Dreams
Across the floor lie broken bowls of pride Unlatch the door and scratch holes in the night She'll be there someday, tides turn, winds change You know, Oh you know.
A house of hopes and dreams I built one too Drunk on gypsy violins like you Ran naked through the flames and burnt like you.
Unbuttoned times when two laid down as one Eyes on eyes where catherine wheels spun. Now every stale day is a haywire highway Alone, so alone.
A house of hopes and dreams I built one too Danced upon the tables just like you Swam the sea of dreams and drowned like you.
The cave of tears you choked and almost cried Emotions horse's roped and staked inside. Never could show her but somehow hoped to know her Again, again, again to build A house of hopes and dreams upon a pack of painted cards; To build a house of hopes and dreams with bricks of loaded dice; To build a house of hopes and dreams with roulette wheels for stairs; To build a house of hopes and dreams Secured and bound with love, With love, with love, with love, with love Build strong and sure with love . . . . . .
◆The Night People
Blue neon clock fingers sneaking past the stars Extinguish the last fuse of day. Through black rain-wet streets rush bleary-eyed cars Stuffed with revellers drunk and blas・
In Soho stained waiters bang dustbins around, Commissionaires yawn into tweed, As empty and echo hose yesterday down The night people slide inbetween.
Sallow dudes with spotlight eyes Pour laughter sauce on ice. Velvet dolls with brandied smiles Lean close with mouths of dice. The tunnel band plays studded drums And spits electric spears As the dancers kick like marionettes Through the smokescreen atmospheres. Dance on pale harlequins of night Lest you scratch your gilded fears.
The paint peeling tea stall by Charing Cross bridge Attracts lonely moths to its lamps. In corners of archways on a benches oak ridge Lie newspapered wine-softened tramps; Pushed on by policemen and queueing for soup Evading the world's outstretched glove, But one pain they share with the jewelled ghost troupe Both searching for some kind of love.
Gargoyles chewing on dead cigars Stack chips in crystal halls. Sequinned starlets scent their breasts Till the single finger calls. Rhinestoned strippers strut and peel For the cochineal stockade. The gangster roars his crew applauds At the punter's fun parade; All worshiping the jaws of night Where the piper is never paid. Champagned freaks in denim shirts Snort energy in spoons. Laughing girls ask zodiac signs But their eyes sing lonely tunes. It's four o'clock the wine is flat The coffee has long gone cold,
The rustlers pay their last respects Then drive away blindfold . . . . . . Dead the hollow dreams of night Turn grey dissolve . . . .dissolve . . .
Leaves dervish dance on the coiled wind of dawn Whisper . . . . The curtain lifts . . . . Day News vans and lorries with oranges roar From Fleet Street to Ealing Broadway. The first bus with charladies stops in the Strand Milk vans and post vans cruise by. At Euston commuters, shop girls and striped suiters, Are jostling and milling, cars hooting, brakes shrilling . . . . . .