The Lamb Lies Down of Broadway - CD2

SONGS:

1. Lilywhite Lilith

He stands by a middle-aged woman, with a very pale skin who is quietly talking to herself. He discovers she is blind and asking for a guide. "What's the use of a guide if you got nowhere to go" asks Rael. "I've got somewhere to go", she replies "if you take me through the noise, I'll show you. I'm a creature of the caves and I follow the way the breezes blow."

He leads her across the room and they leave the crowd, who dismiss their departure as certain to fail.

The chamber was in confusion - all the voices shouting loud.
I could only just hear, a voice quite near say, "Please help me through the crowd"
'Said if I helped her thru' she could help me too,
but I could see that she was wholly blind.
But from he pale face and her pale skin, a moonlight shined.

Lilywhite Lilith,
She gonna take you thru' the tunnel of night
Lilywhite Lilith,
She gonna lead you right.

When through the door, the woman leads Rael down the tunnel. The light of the chamber soon fades and despite her confident step Rael ofter stumbles in the darkness.

After a long walk they arrive in what Rael judges to be a big round cave, and she speaks a second time asking him to sit down. It feels like a cold stone throne.

"Rael, sit here. They will come for you soon. Don't be afraid." And failing to explain any more she walks off. He faces his fear once again.

When I'd led her through the people, the angry noise began to grow.
She said "Let me feel the way the breezes blow, and I'll show you where to go."
So I followed her into a big round cave, she said
"They're coming for you, now don't be afraid."
Then she sat me down on a cold stone throne, carved in jade.

Lilywhite Lilith,
She gonna take you thru' the tunnel of night
Lilywhite Lilith,
She gonna lead you right.

A tunnel is lit up to the left of him, and he begins to shake. As it grows brighter, he hears a non-metallic whirring sound. The light is getting painfully bright, reflecting as white off the walls until his vision is lost in a sort of snow blindness.

She leaves me in my darkness,
I have to face, face my fear,
And the darkness closes in on me,
I can hear a whirring sound growing near.
I can see the corner of the tunnel,
Lit up by whatever's coming here.
Two golden globes float into the room
And a blaze of white light fills the air.

2. The Waiting Room

instrumental

3. Anyway

He panics, feel around for a stone and hurls it at the brightest point. The sound of breaking glass echoes around the cave. As his vision is restored he catches sight of two golden gloves about one foot in diamenter hovering away down the tunnel. When they disappear a resounding crack sears across the roof, and it collapses all around him. Our hero is trapped once again.

"This is it" he thinks, failing to move any of the fallen rocks.

All pumping's nearly over for my sweet heart,
This is the one for me,
Time to meet the chef,
O boy! running man is out of death.
Feel cold and old, it's getting hard to catch my breath.
's back to ash, 'now, you've had your flash boy'
The rocks, in time, compress
your blood to oil,
your flesh to coal,
enrich the soil,
not everybody's goal.

Anyway, they say she comes on a pale horse,
But I'm sure I hear a train.
O boy! I don't even feel no pain -
I guess I must be driving myself insane.
Damn it all! does earth plug a hole in heaven,
Or heaven plug a hole in earth - 'how wonderful to be so profound,
when everything you are is dying underground.'

There's not much spectacle for an underground creole as he walks through the gates of Sheol. "I would have preferred to have been jettisoned into a thousand pieces in space, or filled with helium and floated above a mausoleum. This is no way to pay my last subterranean homesick dues. Anyway I'm out of the hands of any pervert embalmer doing his interpretation of what I should look like, stuffing his cotton wool in my cheeks."

I feel the pull on the rope, let me off at the rainbow.
I could have been exploding in space
Different orbits for my bones
Not me, just quietly buried in stones,
Keep the deadline open with my maker!
See me stretch; for God's elastic acre
The doorbell rings and its
"Good morning Rael
So sorry you had to wait.
It won't be long, yeh!
She's very rarely late."

4. Here comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist

Exhausted by all this conjecture, our hero gets the chance in a lifetime to meet his hero: Death. Death is wearing a light disguise, he made the outfit himself. He calls it the "Supernatural Anaesthetist." Death likes meeting people and wants to travel. Death approaches Rael with his special cannister, releases a puff, and appears to walk away content into the wall.

Here comes the supernatural anaesthetist.
If he wants you to snuff it,
All he has to do is puff it
- he's such a fine dancer.

5. The Lamia

Rael touches his face to confirm that he is still alive. He writes Death off as an illusion, but notices a thick musky scent hanging in the air. He moves to the corner where the scent is stronger, discovering a crack in the rubble through which it is entering. He tries to shift the stones and eventually clears a hole large enough to crawl out of. The perfume is even stronger on the other side and he sets off to find its source, with a new-found energy.

The scent grows richer, he knows he must be near,
He finds a long passageway lit by chandelier.
Each step he takes, the perfumes change
From familiar fragance to flavours strange.
A magnificent chamber meets his eye.

He finally reaches a very ornate pink-water pool. It is lavishly decorated with gold fittings. The walls around the pool are covered with a maroon velvet up which honeysuckle is growing. From out of the mist on the water comes a series of ripples.

Inside, a long rose-water pool is shrouded by fine mist.
Stepping in the moist silence, with a warm breeze he's gently kissed.

Thinking he is quite alone,
He enters the room, as if it were his own
But ripples on the sweet pink water
Reveal some company unthought of -

Three snakelike creatures are swimming towards Rael. Each reptilian creature has the diminutive head and breasts of a beautiful woman. His horror gives way to infactuation as their soft green eyes show their welcome. The Lamia invite him to taste the sweet water and he is quick to enter the pool. As soon as he swallows some liquid, a pale blue luminescence drips off from his skin. The Lamia lick the liquid; very gently as they begin, with each new touch, he feels the need to give more and more.

Rael stands astonished doubting his sight,
Struck by beauty, gripped in fright;
Three vermilion snakes of female face
The smallest motion, filled with grace.
Muted melodies fill the echoing hall,
But there is no sign of warning in the siren's call:
"Rael, welcome, we are the Lamia of the pool.
We have been waiting for our waters to bring you cool."

Putting fear beside him, he trusts in beauty blind,
He slips into the nectar, leaving his shredded clothes behind.
"With their tongues, they test, taste and judge all that is mine.
They move in a series of caresses
That glide up and down my spine.

They knead his flesh until his bones appear to melt, and at a point at which he feels he cannot go beyond, they nibble at his body. Taking in the first drops of his blood, their eyes blacken and their bodies are shaken. Distraught with helpless passion he watches as his lovers die. In a desperate attempt to bring what is left of them into his being, he takes and eats their bodies, and struggles to leave his lovers' nest.

As they nibble the fruit of my flesh, I feel no pain,
Only a magic that a name would stain.
With the first drop of my blood in their veins
Their faces are convulsed in mortal pains.
The fairest cries, 'We all have loved you Rael'."

Each empty snakelike body floats,
Silent sorrow in empty boats.
A sickly sourness fills the room,
The bitter harvest of a dying bloom.
Looking for motion I know I will not find,
I stroke the curls now turning pale, in which I'd lain entwined
"O Lamia, your flesh that remains I will take as my food"
It is the scent of garlic that lingers on my chocolate fingers.

Looking behind me, the water turns icy blue,
The lights are dimmed and once again the stage is set for you.

6. Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats

instrumental

7. The Colony of Slippermen

The Arrival

Leaving by the same door from which he had come in, he finds some sort of freaks guetto on the other side. When they catch sight of him, the entire street of distorted figures burst into laughter. One of the colony approaches him.

Rael:

I wandered lonely as a cloud,
Till I came upon this dirty street.
I've never seen a stranger crowd;
Slubberdegullions on squeaky feet.

Continually pacing,
With nonchalant embracing,
Each orifice disgracing
And one facing me moves to say "hellay".

He is grotesque in every feature, a mixture of ugly lumps and stumps. His lips slip across his chin as he smiles in welcome and offerrs his slippery handshake.

His skin's all covered in slimy lumps.
With lips that slide across each chin.
His twisted limbs like rubber stumps
Are waved in welcome say 'Please join in.'

My grip must be flipping,
Cos his handshake keeps slipping,
My hopes keep on dipping
And his lips keep on smiling all the time.

Rael is a little disillusioned, when the Slipperman reveals that the entire colony have one-by-one been though the same glorious romantic tragedy with the same three Lamia, who regenerate themselves every time, and that now Rael shares their physical appearance and shadowy fate.

Slipperman:

"We, like you, have tasted love.
Don't be alarmed at what you see,
You yourself are just the same
As what you see in me."

Rael:

Me, like you? like that!

Slipperman:

"You better watch it son, your sentence has only just begun
You better run and join your brother John."

Amongst the contorted faces of the Slippermen, Rael recognises what is left of his brother John. They hug each other.

A visit to the Doktor

John bitterly explains that the entire life of the Slipperman is devoted to satisfying the never-ending hunger of the senses, which has been inherited from the Lamia. There is only one escape route; a dreaded visit to the notorious Doktor Dyper who will remove the source of the problems, or to put it less politely, castrate.

They discuss the deceptively-named escape for a long time and decide to go together to visit the Doktor.

Slipperman:

"You're in the colony of slippermen.
There's no who? why? what? of when?
You get out if you've got the gripe
To see, Doktor Dyper, reformed sniper - he'll whip off you
windscreenwiper."

Rael:

John and I are able
to face the Doktor and his marble table.

The Doktor

Understand Rael, that's the end of your tail.

Rael:

"Don't delay dock the dick!"
I watch his countdown timer tick...

The Raven

They survive the ordeal and are presented with the offensive weapons in sterile yellow plastic tubes, with gold chains. "People usually wear them around their necks," said the Doktor handing them over. "The operation does not necessarily exclude use of the facility again, for short periods, but of course when you want it you must provide us with considerable advance warning."

He places the number into a tube,
It's a yellow platic "shoobedoobe."
It says: "Though your fingers may tickle
You'll be safe in our pickle."

As the brothers talk themselves through their new predicament, a big black raven flies into the cave, swoops down, grabs Rael's tube right out of his hands and carries it up into the air in his beak.

Suddenly, black cloud come down from the sky.
It's a supersized black bird that sure can fly...

The raven brings on darkness and night
He flies right down, gives me one hell of a fright.
He take the tube right out of my hands
Man, I've got to find out where that black bird lands.

Rael call for John to go with him.

And he replies "I will not chase a black raven. Down here you must read and obey the omens. There's disaster where the raven flies."

"Look here John, I've got to run
I need you now, you going to come?"

He says to me:

John:

"Now can't you see
Where the raven flies there's jeopardy.

We've been cured on the couch
Now you're sick with your grouch
I'll not risk my honey pouch
Which my slouch will wear slung very low."

So once more John deserts his brother.

Rael:

He walks away and leaves me once again.
Even though I never learn,
I'd hoped he'd show just some concern.

The bird leads Rael down a narrow tunnel, he seems to be allowing him to keep at a closed distance. But as Rael thinks he might almost catch hold of the bird, the tunnel opens and finishes at an enormous subterranean ravine. Casually, the raven drops his precious load into the rushing waters at the bottom. It's enough to drive a poor boy ravin' mad.

Seeing the dangers of the steep cliff, our courageous hero stands impotent and glowers.

I'm in the agony of Slipperpain
I pray my undercarriage will sustain.
The chase is on, the pace is hot
But I'm running so very hard with everything that I've got.
He leads me down an underpass
Though it narrows, he still flies very fast,
When the tunnel stops
I catch sight of the tube, just as it drops.
I'm on top of a bank too steep to climb
I see it hit the water just in time
to watch it float away...

8. Ravine

instrumental

9. The Light Dies Down on Broadway

He follows a small path running along the top, and watches the tube bobbing up and down in the water as the fast current carries it away. However, as he walks around a corner Rael sees a sky-light above him, apparently build into the bank. Through it he can see the green grass of home, well not exactly; he can see Broadway.

As he walks along the gorge's edge,
He meets a sense of yesteryear.
A window in the bank above his head
Reveals his home amidst the streets.

Subway sounds, the sounds of complaint
The smell of acid on his gun of paint.
As it carves out anger in a blood-red band,
Destroyed tomorrow by an unknown hand;
- My home.
Is this the way out from the endless scene?
Or just an entrance to another dream?
And the light dies down on Broadway.

His heart, now a little bristly, is shaken by a surge of joy and he starts to run, arms wide open, to the way out. At this precise point in time his ears pick up a voice screaming for help. Someone is struggling in the rapids below. It's John.

But as the skylight beckons him to leave,
He hears a scream from far below.
Within the raging water, writhes the form
Of brother John, he cries for help.

He pauses for a moment remembering how his brother had abandoned him. Then the window begins to fade - it's time for action.

The gate is fading now, but open wide.
But John is drowning, I must decide
Between the freedom I had in the rat-race
Or to stay forever in this forsaken place;
Hey John!
He makes for the river and the gate is gone,
Back to the void where it came from.
And the light dies down on Broadway.

10. Riding the Scree

He rushes to the cliff and scrambles down the rocks. It takes him a long time to get down to the water, trying to keep up with the current at the same time. As he nears the water's edge he sees John losing strength.

Struggling down the slope,
There's not much hope.
I begin to try to ride the scree
but the rocks are tumbling all around me.

If I want John alive,
I've got to ditch my fear - take a dive
While I've still got my drive to survive.

Evel Knievel you got nothing on me.
Here I go!

11. In the Rapids

He dives down into the cold water. At first he is thrown onto the rocks, and pulled under the water by a fast moving channel, which takes him right past John, down river.

Moving down the water
John is drifting out of sight,
Its only at the turning point
That you find out how you fight.

In the cold, feel the cold
all around
And the rush of crashing water
Surrounds me with its sound.

Rael manages to grab a rock, pull himself to the surface and catch his breath. As John is carried past, Rael throws himself in again and catches hold of his arm. He knocks John unconscious and then locking themselves together, he rides the rapids into the slow running water, where he can swim to safety.

Striking out to reach you
I can't get through to the other side,
When you're racing in the rapids
There's only one way, that's to ride.

Taken down, taken down
by the undertow
I'm spiralled down the river bed,
My fire is burning low.
Catching hold of a rock that's firm,
I'm waiting for John to be carried past.
We hold together, hold together and shoot the rapids fast.

But as he hauls his brother's limp body onto the bank he lies him out and looks hopefully into his eyes for a sign of life. He staggers back in recoil, for staring at him with eyes wide open is not John's face - but his own.

And when the waters slow down
The dark and the deep
have no-one, no-one, no-one, no-one
no-one left to keep.
Hang on John! We're out of this at last.
Something's changed, that's not your face.
It's mine - it's mine!

12. It

Rael cannot look away from those eyes, mesmerized by his own image. In a quick movement, his consciousness darts from one face to the other, then back again, until his presence is no longer solidly contained in one or the other. In this fluid state he observes both bodies outlined in yellow and the surrounding scenery melting into a purple haze. With a sudden rush of energy up both spinal columns, their bodies, as well, finally dissolve into the haze.

All this takes place without a single sunset, without a single bell ringing and without a single blossom falling from the sky. Yet it fills everything with its mysterious intoxicating presence. It's over to you.

When it's cold, it come slow
it is warm, just watch it grow
- all around me
it is here, it is now.

Just a little bit of it can bring you up or down.
Like the supper it is cooking in your hometown.
It is chicken, it is eggs,
it is in between your legs.
It is walking on the moon,
leaving your cocoon.

It is the jigsaw, it is purple haze.
it never stays in one place, but it's not a passing phase,
it is in the singles bar, in the distance of the face
it is in between the cages, it is always in a space
it is here, it is now.

Any rock can be made to roll
if you've enough of it to pay the toll
it has no home in words or goal
not even in your favourite hole
it is hope for the dope
who rides the horse without a hoof
it is shaken not stirred;
Cocktails on the roof.

When you eat right through it you see everything alive
it is inside spirit, with enough grit to survive
if you think that it's pretentious, you've been taken for a ride.
Look across the mirror sonny, before you choose decide
it is here, it is now
it is Real, it is Rael

'cos it's only knock and knowall, but I like it...

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