Patti Smith : Peace And Noise

If you believe all your hope is gone Down the drain of your humankind The time has arrived, you'll be waiting here As I was in a snow white shroud Waiting underground There by the ridge be a gathering Beneath the pilgrim moon where we shall await The beat of your feet hammering the earth Where the great ones tremble in their snow white shrouds Waiting underground If you seek the kingdom come, come along Waiting by the ridge there'll be a gathering Beneath the pilgrim moon where the river thunders Oh there we shall await The beat of your feet hammering the earth And as the earth resounds where the great ones tremble And your humankind becomes as one And then we will arise In our snow white shrouds When we'll be as one But until that day we will just await In our snow white shrouds Waiting underground In our snow white shrouds Waiting underground Waiting underground

Whirl Away

Hello friend I've come a-calling Passively stationed Active patrol Sliding in at high noon like some reluctant sheriff Not want to get involved in it all Who stands guard for each other Why must we guard anything at all Anything at all From the earth's four corners the people are calling Forming equations but the questions are hard All men are brothers killing each other And mother earth is wringing in wonder Who stands guard for each other Why must we guard anything at all Anything at all Whirl away now Whirl away now Whirl away now Whirl away There's a cross on the road There's a great mill turning Some seeking answers Some born to dancers You can hold on the blade and turn around forever Be flung into space into another kind of grace Who stands guard for each other Why must we guard anything at all Anything at all Whirl away now Whirl away now Whirl away now Whirl away Whirl away now Whirl away now Whirl away now Whirl away

Some giveth their hand Some giveth their land Some giveth their life You lay in the fields of grain The staff of life all around you But yet you, you will cut someone down for their possessions Some material thing And our children are being blown away like wishes in the wind For the sake of their coat Or the colors of their coat Or the color of their skin Or the name on their shoes And the mother cries "Why they taken my son?" And the father wonders "Are they taking my boy?" He extended his hand He gave them his land He gave them his bread He gave them his heart Said hello friend Hello friend Hello friend Hello friend Hello friend

1959

Listen to my story, got two tales to tell One of fallen glory, one of vanity The world's roof was raging, but we were looking fine 'Cause we built that thing and it grew wings In nineteen fifty-nine Wisdom was a teapot, pouring from above Desolation angels served it up with love Ignitin' strife like every form of light Then moved by bold design Slid in that thing and it grew wings In nineteen fifty-nine It was blood, shining in the Sun First: Freedom! Speeding the American claim Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom! China was the tempest and madness overflowed The Lama was a young man And he watched his world in flames Taking Glory down by the edge of clouds It was a cryin' shame Another lost horizon, Tibet the fallen star Wisdom and compassion crushed, in the land of Shangri-La But in the land of the Impala, honey Well, we were lookin' Fine 'Cause we built that thing and it grew wings In nineteen fifty-nine 'Cause we built that thing and it grew wings In nineteen fifty-nine It was the best of times, it's the worst of times In 1959, 1959, 1959, 1959, 1959, 1959, 1959 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times In nineteen fifty-nine

Spell

Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! Holy! The world is holy! The soul is holy! The skin is holy! The nose is holy! The tongue and cock and hand and asshole holy! Everything is holy! Everybody's holy! Everywhere is holy! Everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an angel! The bum's as holy as the seraphim! The madman is holy as you, my soul, are holy! The typewriter is holy, the poem is holy, the voice is holy! The hearers are holy, the ecstasy is holy! Holy Peter, holy Allen, holy Solomon, holy Lucien Holy Kerouac, holy Huncke, holy Burroughs, holy Cassady Holy the unknown buggered and suffering beggars Holy the hideous human angels! Holy my mother in the insane asylum! Holy the cocks of the grandfathers of Kansas! Holy the groaning saxophone! Holy the bop apocalypse! Holy the jazz bands marijuana hipsters peace and junk and drums! Holy the solitudes of skyscrapers and pavements! Holy the cafeterias filled with the millions! Holy the mysterious rivers of tears under the streets! Holy the lone juggernaut! Holy the vast lamb of the middle class! Holy the crazy shepherds of rebellion Who digs Los Angeles IS Los Angeles! Holy New York Holy San Francisco Holy Peoria and Seattle Holy Paris Holy Tangiers Holy Moscow, Holy Istanbul! Holy time in eternity holy eternity in time Holy the clocks in space holy the fourth dimension Holy the fifth international Holy the Angel in Moloch! Holy the sea holy the desert holy the railroad Holy the locomotive Holy the visions Holy the hallucinations Holy the miracles Holy the eyeball Holy the abyss! Holy forgiveness! Mercy! Charity! Faith! Holy! Ours! Bodies! Suffering! Magnanimity! Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul!

Don't Say Nothing

Capo:

III

Lower the thing the skin of a cat Skin it to the left just laying there No other thing is luck like that And you set it said it said nothing Went to the party very discouraged I watched the litter pile like a wall I looked at the river just couldn't forgive it It was laden with all kinds of shit

Still I admit that I didn't say nothing

I turned my back walked away

Got to face the fact that I didn't say nothing Everyone was dancing I stood over in the corner I was listening they were saying this and saying that And putting this one down but nothing was delivered Nothing good was coming I just stood there I couldn't believe it but I didn't say nothing I walked the floor then I looked away Got to face the fact that I didn't say nothing

How long, how long will we make do?

Maybe it's time to break on through Gonna lift my skirts gonna straighten up Gonna get well I'm gonna do something Gonna face the fact gonna give it back And I'm gonna do something Won't hold my tongue Won't hold the thought Won't hold the card Well I'm gonna do something Oh my brain I got to complain You can refrain but I'm gonna do something How long, how long will we make do? Maybe it's time to break on through Out in the desert I saw that old cat skinned I saw it floating in the river I saw and no one seemed to mind They sat there they sat there watching the sun I saw it float away and I watched the buildings crumble Like dust in the hand and we watched the sun Spread its wings and fly away And in the mountains a cry echoes Don't say nothing Don't say nothing no Don't say nothing no

Dead City

This dead city longs to be This dead city longs to be free Seven screaming horses Melt down in the sun Building scenes on empty dreams And smoking them one by one This dead city longs to be This dead city longs to be living Is it any wonder there's squalor in the sun With their broken schemes and their lotteries They never get nowhere Is it any wonder they're spitting at the sun God's parasites in abandoned sites And they never have much fun If I was a blind man Would you see for me Or would you confuse The nature of my blues And refuse a hand to me Is it any wonder crying in the sun Is it any wonder I'm crying in the sun Well I built my dreams on your empty scenes Now I'm burning them one by one This damn city this dead city Immortal city Motor city Success city Longs to be Longs to be Free Free Free

Blue Poles

Mother as I write the sun dissolves Blood life streaming cross my hand And these words, these words Hope dashed immortal hope Hope streaking the canvas sky Blue poles infinitely winding, as I write, as I write Blue poles infinitely winding, as I write, as I write We joined the long caravan Hungry dreaming going west Just for work just to get a job And we never got lucky We just forged on And the dust the endless dust Like a plague it covered everything Hal fell with the fever And mother I did what I could Blue poles infinitely winding, as I write, as I write Blue poles infinitely winding, as I write, as I write We prayed we prayed for rain I never wanted to see the sun again All my dresses you made by hand We left behind on the road Hal died in my arms We buried him by the river Blue poles infinitely winding, as I write, as I write Blue poles infinitely winding, as I write, as I write

Death Singing

In the straw-colored light In light rapidly changing On a life rapidly fading Have you seen death singing? Have you seen death singing? With a throat smooth as a lamb Yet dry as a branch not snapping He throws back his head And he does not sing a thing mournful Have you seen death singing? Have you seen death singing? Have you seen death singing? In the straw-colored light He sings a black embrace And white opals swimming In a child's leather purse Have you seen death swimming? Have you seen death swimming? With a throat smooth as a lamb Yet dry as a branch not snapping He throws back his head And he does not sing a thing mournful Have you seen death singing? Have you seen death singing? Have you seen death singing? In the straw-colored light He sings of youth enraged And the burning of Atlanta And these viral times And May ribbons streaming And straw-colored curls a-turning A mother's vain delight And woe to the sun And woe to the young Another hearse is drawn Have you seen death singing? In the straw-colored light

Memento Mori

The fans were whirlin' Like the blades of a 'copter Liftin' into the skies above some foreign land Soaked with the bodies of so many friends Johnny waved He was on his way home He waved goodbye to his comrades in arms And all the twisted things he'd seen He waved goodbye And the blades hit something Maybe just Fate, but the blades hit The 'copter went up in flames And Johnny never went marchin' home Johnny never went marchin' home They took his name And they carved it on a slab of marble With several thousand other names All the fallen idols The apples of their mother's eye Just another name Meanwhile back on that burning shore Johnny's comrades stood speechless They looked with disbelieving eyes As those bits of metal and the embers The embers of his eyes Fanned out into the air Black dust Flames Oh Johnny! some day they'll make a movie about you And in the making of that movie Some mad apocalypse It will become even stranger than the simple act Just a boy going up up up Just a boy going up In flames in the smoke Just another life Just another breath And who'll remember Oh eternity now As eternal as a sheet of marble Eternal as a slab on a green hill And your name And all your fallen brothers And all the ones not cut All the ones remembered only in the hearts A mother a father a brother a sister a lover a son a daughter Shall not shall not fade shall not fade Your ancestors salute you And the gods of your ancestors salute you Having having been formed by the minds of your ancestors The gods of your ancestors salute you Having been formed by your ancestors The gods of your ancestors salute you They draw you in, they draw you through They draw, they draw you through that golden door Mornin' boy We remember you We conceived of you We conceived of your breath We conceived of the whole human race And we conceived it to be a beautiful thing Like a tulip bending in the wind Sometimes it comes back to us In the form of a handful of dust Comes back in the form of a smitten child Our raped daughters, ah the broken bones Souls cleaved from hearts They come back to us And our hands are filled with their rotting tissues But we turn not our backs We press our lips Into their cancer into the dust into the remains of each one And that love is there and will greet you, will greet you Mornin' boy It's eternal love Well here, go ahead, run through that flame Aw man, running through your mind You took a cat, you took a life, you took it by the tail And you swirled it around your head And you thrashed it, you smashed the life out of it And you knew that it would be your own But you wanted to feel, you wanted to feel it die Because you know you would feel your own You would feel your own But you're remembered! You're remembered! You're remembered DEAD! You're remembered DEAD! You're remembered DEAD! We remember We remember We remember Everything Everything

Last Call

In a mansion high the young man stood Ready to join his companions good Outside the scent of magnolia blossoms Down streets of gold the children were racing Just another wandering soul Adrift among the stars Just another human heart Led, led away He put his shoes on and he laid down Outside the clouds were swiftly gathering He drained his cup and his stirred the mixture And he closed his eyes as his conscience whispered Just another wandering soul Adrift among the stars Just another human heart Led, led away Misgivings unspoken he joined his companions His face covered over in a mansion high Outside the children gazed in wonder At the quickening sky then slowly disbanded Thirty-nine wandering souls Adrift among the stars Thirty-nine human hearts Led, led away His burning skin cooled by angels Swallowing sorrows excretion It's all excretion Felled by his hand of the mind of another man Who makes the decisions Lends no provisions for mere eternal rides Learning of course every alien force Even Christ yearns to be To possess the skin And bone the blood of man Who tends the flock who breaks the bread Who makes his own choices Won't listen to voices Accept no false teachers False preachers, good deeders With their hands out stretched To be filled with your money Your mind, your heart, your imagination Sympathy, empathy Acknowledge all man as fellow creation But don't follow him Don't be led away