Nick Cave : Dig, Lazarus, Dig

E

A

G

Dig yourself, Lazarus

E

A

G

Dig yourself, Lazarus

E

A

G

Dig yourself, Lazarus

B

Dig yourself back in that hole

E

A

G

Larry made his nest up in the autumn branches Built from nothing but high hopes and thin air Collected up some baby blasted mothers They took their chances and for a while They lived quite happily up there He came from New York City, man But he couldn't take the pace He thought it was like a dog eat dog world But he went to San Francisco Spent a year in outer space With a sweet little San Franciscan girl I can hear my mother wailing And a whole lot of scraping of chairs

C

I don't know what it is

D

A

But there's definitely something going on upstairs Dig yourself, Lazarus Dig yourself, Lazarus Dig yourself, Lazarus Dig yourself back in that hole (I want you to dig!) (I want you to dig!) Yeah, New York City, he had to get out of there And San Francisco, well, I don't know And then to LA, where he spent about a day He thought even the pale sky-stars were smart enough to keep well away from LA Meanwhile Larry made up names for the ladies Like Ms Boo and Ms Quick He stockpiled weapons and took pot shots in the air He feasted on their lovely bodies like a lunatic And wrapped himself up in their soft yellow hair I can hear chants and incantations And some guy is mentioning me in his prayers I don't know what it is But there's definitely something going on upstairs Dig yourself, Lazarus Dig yourself, Lazarus Dig yourself, Lazarus Dig yourself, back in that hole (I want you to dig!) (I want you to dig!) (I want you to dig!) Well New York City, man, San Francisco, LA, I don't know But Larry grew increasing neurotic and obscene I mean: he, he never asked to be raised up from the tomb I mean no one ever actually asked him to forsake his dreams Anyway, to cut a long story short Fame finally found him Mirrors became his torturers Cameras snapped him at every chance The women all went back to their homes and their husbands Secret smiles in the corners of their mouths He ended up, like so many of them do, back in the streets of New York City In a soup queue, a dope fiend, a slave Then prison, then the mad house, then the grave Oh poor Larry! But what do we really know of the dead And who actually cares? Well I don't know what it is But there's definitely something going on upstairs Dig yourself, Lazarus Dig yourself, Lazarus Dig yourself, Lazarus Dig yourself, back in that hole (I want you to dig!) (I want you to dig!) (I want you to dig!)

Capo:

I

G

A

B

Little Janie, she wakes up from a dream A gun like a jawbone down the waistband of her jeans, oh yeah Mr Sandman, he can recite today's lesson in his sleep He says there oughta be some kind of law against me going down the street And little Janie pipes up and she says, she says

C#

E

B

We're gonna have a real cool time tonight Yeah, tonight All right

G

A

B

Down the back of Janie's jeans she had the jawbone of an ass Mr Sandman, he runs around the corner Trying to head her off at the pass He sticks his head over the fence and yells something way too fast It's today's lesson, yeah, something about the corruption of the working class Little Janie wakes up on the floor and she says

C#

E

B

We're gonna have a real cool time tonight Come on

G

A

B

Janie says we're all such a crush of want half-mad with loss We are violated in our sleep and we weep and we toss and we turn and we burn We are hypnotised we are cross-eyed we are pimped we are bitched We are told such monstrous lies Janie wakes up and she says

C#

E

B

We're gonna have a real cool time tonight

G

A

B

Mr Sandman, he has a certain appetite for Janie in repose He digs her pretty knees and that she is completely naked underneath all her clothes He likes to congregate around the intersection of Janie's jeans, yeah Mr Sandman the inseminator he opens her up like a love letter and enters her dreams Little Janie wakes up and she says

C#

E

B

We're gonna have a real good time tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight

C#

E

B

We're gonna have a real good time

C#

E

B

Come on, come on, come on

C#

E

B

We're gonna have a real good time

Em

When I came up from out of the meat-locker

C

The city was gone

Em

The sky was full of lights

C

The snow provides a silent cover

Em

In moonland

C

Under the stars

Em

C

Under the snow

Em

And I followed this car

C

And I followed that car Through the sand

Em

Through the snow I turn on the radio

C

I listen to the DJ

Em

And it must feel nice

C

It must feel nice to know

Am

Bm

That somebody needs you

C

D

Em

And everything moves slow Under the stars Under the ash Through the sand And the night drifts in The snow provides a silent cover And I'm not your favourite lover I turn on the radio And it must feel nice Well, very very nice to know That somebody needs you And the chilly wind blows Under the snow Under the stars The whispering DJ On the radio The whispering DJ On the radio I'm not your favourite lover I'm not your favourite lover And it must feel nice To leave no trace (No trace at all) But somebody needs you And that somebody is me Under the stars Under the snow Your eyes were closed You were playing with the buttons on your coat In the back of that car In moonland Under the stars In moonland I followed that car

Sapped and stupid I lie upon the stones and I swoons The darling little dandelions have done their thing And changed from suns into moons Dragons roam the shopping malls I hear they're gonna eat our guts If I had the strength, I might pick up my sword And make some attempt to resist Get ready to shield yourself Grab your sap and your heaters Get ready to shield yourself On the night of the lotus eaters Mmm, don't you love me baby Mmm, and don't you love my baby anymore They gilded my scales, they fish-bowled me And they toured me round the old aquariums They come in their hordes to tap at the glass The philistines and the barbarians I like floating here, it's nice They've hung seaweed around my hips And I do the hula for the hungry ones And the lames all throw me tips Get ready to shield yourself Grab your sap and your heaters Get ready to shield yourself On the night of the lotus eaters Mmm, don't you love my baby Mmm, and don't you love me my baby anymore Get ready to shield yourself From our catastrophic leaders Get ready to shield yourself Grab your sap and your heaters On the night of the lotus eaters Now hit the streets! Now hit the streets!

G

Dm

C

G

Dm

C

Am

Albert he goes west he crossed the vast indifferent deserts of Arizona Oh yeah

G

Dm

C

G

Dm

C

Am

He had a psychotic episode on a dude ranch that involved a bottle of ammonia

G

Dm

C

G

Dm

C

Am

Henry he went south and lost his way deep in the weeping forests of Le Vulva

G

Dm

C

G

Dm

C

He grew so wan he grew so sick he ended up in a bungalow sucking a revolver

Dm

C

The light upon your rainy streets offers many reflections

Dm

C

I wont be hold responsible for my actions

G

Dm

C

G

Dm

C

Am

Bobby he goes north then he goes east then over to New Hampshire

G

Dm

C

G

Dm

C

Bobby is a cautious man he walked into a Concord dive to drink a beer

Dm

C

Mmm, do you wanna dance? Yeah do you wanna move?

Dm

C

Yeah do you wanna dance? Do you wanna groove?

Dm

C

I said this world is full of endless abstractions

Dm

C

I wont be held responsible for my actions

G

Dm

C

G

Dm

C

Am

Me I ain't going anywhere just sit and watch the sun come up I like it here

G

Dm

C

G

Dm

C

I watch the people go ticking past go hey hey hey you know I gotta say I like it here

Dm

C

All right

G

Dm

C

G

Dm

C

Am

Sha la-la-la sha la-la-la sha la-la-la-la-la-la

G

Dm

C

G

Dm

C

Am

Sha-la-la-la sha la-la-la sha la-la-la-la-la-la

Dm

What we once thought we had we didn't And what we have now will never be that way again

C

Dm

So we call upon the author to explain

D

Our myxomatoid kids spraddle the streets, we've shunned them from the greasy grind The poor little things, they look so sad and old as they mount us from behind I ask them to desist and to refrain And then we call upon the author to explain Rosary clutched in his hand, he died with tubes up his nose And a cabal of angels with finger cymbals chanted his name in code We shook our fists at the punishing rain And we call upon the author to explain He said everything is messed up around here, everything is banal and jejune There is a planetary conspiracy against the likes of you and me In this idiot constituency of the moon, well, he knew exactly who to blame And we call upon the author to explain Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix! Prolix! Prolix! Nothing a pair of scissors can't fix! Well, I go guru-ing down the street, young people gather round my feet Ask me things, but I don't know where to start They ignite the power-trail straight to my father's heart And once again, I call upon the author to explain Who is this great burdensome slavering dog-thing that mediocres my every thought? I feel like a vacuum cleaner, a complete sucker, it's fucked up and he is a fucker But what an enormous and encyclopaedic brain I call upon the author to explain Oh rampant discrimination, mass poverty, third world debt, infectious disease Global inequality and deepening socio-economic divisions, well, it does in your brain And we call upon the author to explain Now hang on, my friend Doug is tapping on the window (Hey Doug, how you been?) Brings me back a book on holocaust poetry complete with pictures Then tells me to get ready for the rain And we call upon the author to explain I say prolix! Prolix! Something a pair of scissors can fix Bukowski was a jerk! Berryman was best! He wrote like wet papier mache, went the Hemingway weirdly on wings and with maximum pain We call upon the author to explain Down in my bolt-hole I see they've published another volume of unreconstructed rubbish "The waves, the waves were soldiers moving" Well, thank you, thank you, thank you and again I call upon the author to explain Yeah, I call upon the author to explain I call upon the author to explain Yeah, we call upon the author to explain Prolix! Prolix! There's nothing a pair of scissors can't fix!

|

Am

| ... |

F

|

Dm

|

Am

|

x2

Am

I'm so far away from you

F

Pacing up and down my room

Dm

Am

Does Jesus only love a man who loses? I turn on the radio There's some cat on the saxophone Laying down a litany of excuses There's mad-house longing in my baby's eyes She rubs the lamp between her thighs And hopes the genie comes out singing She lives in some forgotten song And moves like she is zombie-strong Breathes steady as the pendulum keeps swinging |

C

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G

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Am

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F

Am

You better hold on to yourself |

C

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G

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Am

| Well, cities rust and fall to ruin Factories close and cars go cruisin' In around the borders of her vision She says ooh As Jesus makes the flowers grow All around the scene of her collision

C

G

Am

You know I would, yes, I would

F

Am

I would hold on to yourself |

F

|

Dm

|

Am

| In the middle of the night I try my best to chase outside The phantoms and the ghosts and fairy-girls On a thousand and one nights like these She mutters open sesame and Ali Baba and his forty thieves Launch her off the face of the world

C

G

Am

You know one day I'll come back

F

Am

And I'll hold on to yourself

F

Dm

Am

Mmm, to yourself

F

Dm

Am

I'll hold on to yourself Ooh baby, I'm a thousand miles away And I just don't know what to say 'Cause Jesus only loves a man who bruises But darling, we can clearly see It's all life and fire and lunacy And excuses and excuses and excuses

C

G

Am

Well, you know if I could, I would, yeah I would lie right down

F

Am

And I'd hold on to yourself

G

Am

Yeah, I would lie right down

F

Am

And I would hold on to yourself

G

Am

One day I'll come back to you

F

Am

And I'd hold on to yourself

G

Am

Yeah, I'm gonna come back, gonna lie down

F

Am

And I'd hold on to yourself, yeah, to yourself

Em

Well, you lost a foe

Em

And you found a friend

C

Am

Lie down here and be my girl I'm back now, baby, that man He won't be coming round here again Lie down here and be my girl I'm trying to tread careful, baby You're as brittle as a wishbone of a bird Lie down here and be my girl We've been scribbled in the margins Of a story that is patently absurd Lie down here and be my girl

G

Let it all come down Yeah, tonight

Am

F

Am

F

Shine

Em

C

Am

Let it all come down It's a matter of some urgency Oh darling can't you see, I can't hold back the tide Lie down here and be my girl And stop your frantic little fingers trying to collect The years that pour from the hole in my side Lie down here and be my girl Don't worry, baby, this old snake Banging at your door Lie down here and be my girl (has got a few skins left to shed) You look so good You look so good Lie down here and be my girl (and the rest is better left unsaid) Let it all come down Yeah, tonight Shine Let it all come down One day I'll buy a factory I'll assemble you on a production line Lie down here and be my girl I'll build a million of you, baby And every single one of them will be mine Lie down here and be my girl I will fill the house with you Stack you up in every room Lie down here and be my girl (we'll have a real good time) But right now I'm sitting here On my own, going out of my mind Lie down here and be my girl Let it all come down Yeah, tonight Shine Tonight You look so good (tonight)

Capo:

III

|

Em

|

Em

|

Em

|

Em

|

Em

I stepped out of the St. James Hotel

Em

I left you behind curled up like a child

Bm

Bm7

A change is gonna come

Em

As the door whispered shut I walked on down the high-windowed hall You lay sleeping on the unmade bed The weatherman on the television in the St. James Hotel Said that the rains are gonna come And I stepped out on the streets, all sparkling clean with the early morning dew

C

D

Maybe it was you or maybe it was me?

Am

Em

You came on like a punch in the heart

C

D

Lying there with the light on your hair

B7

Like a Jesus of the moon

Em

A Jesus of the planets and the stars Well, I kept thinking about what the weatherman said And if the voices of the living can be heard by the dead Well, the day is gonna come when we find out in some kind of way I take a little comfort from that now and then 'Cause people often talk about being scared of change But for me I'm more afraid of things staying the same 'Cause the game is never won By standing in any one place for too long Maybe it was you or maybe it was me? There's a chord in you that I could not find to strike You lying there with all the light in your hair Like a Jesus of the moon A Jesus of the planets and the stars

Instrumental verse

I see the many girls walking down the empty streets Maybe once or twice one of them smiles at me You can't blame anyone For saying hello I say hey, I say hello, I say hello Will it be me or will it be you? One must stay and one depart You lying there in the St. James Hotel bed Like a Jesus of the moon A Jesus of the planets and the stars I say hello, hello, hello

Em

G

Em

Hold that chrysalis in your palm, see it split and change

Em

G

Em

It won't do you any harm, it's just trying to rearrange

Em

G

C

It was born to live a day, now it flies up from your hand

C

Em

It's beautiful, it's the one they call your ever-loving man Wolves have carried your babies away, oh your kids drip from their teeth The nights are long and the day is bitter cold beyond belief You spread yourself like a penitent upon the mad vibrating sand And through your teeth arrange to meet your midnight man

A

Em

G

Everybody's coming round to my place

A

Em

G

Everybody's coming round to my place

A

Everybody's coming round, oh baby, don't you see

A

Em

Everybody wanna be your midnight man Don't disturb me as I sleep, treat me gently when I wake Don't disturb me when I sleep even though your body aches And even though your body aches to serve at his command Between the wars she still adores her ever-loving man Close your eyes, sleep in him, dream of your lost sons and daughters Me, I'll raise up the dorsal fin, and glide up and down the waters I'll glide up and down the waters, then I'll walk upon the land And call the out, the ones who doubt your midnight man Everybody's coming round to my place Everybody's coming round to my place Everybody's coming round, oh baby, don't you see Everybody wants to be your midnight man It's early in the morning and I don't know what to do It's early in the morning and I can't believe it's true It's early in the morning and it's happening again I called you once, I called you twice, ain't I your midnight man? Everybody's coming round to my place Everybody's coming round to my place Everybody's coming round, oh baby, don't you see Everybody wants to be your midnight man

Em

F

G

F

Em

Everybody's coming round Everybody's coming round Everybody's coming round To be your midnight man To be your midnight man

Em

F

G

F

Em

F

Bb

I walk into the corner of my room, see my friends in high places I don't know which is which and whom is whom, they've stolen each other's faces Janet is there with her high-hatting hair full of bedroom feathers Janet is known to make dead men groan in any kind of weathers I crawl over to her, I say hey baby, I say hey Janet You are the one, you are the sun and I'm your dutiful planet But she ain't down with any of that, she's heard that shit before I say ah ha, oh yeah, you're right, 'cause I see Betty X standing by the door

F

Bb

With more news from nowhere

F

Bb

More news from nowhere

G

C

And it's getting strange in here

G

C

Bb

(

F

) Yeah, it gets stranger every year

F

Bb

More news from nowhere

F

Bb

More news from nowhere Now, Betty X is like Betty Y minus that fatal chromosome Her hair is like the wine dark sea, on which sailors come home I say hey baby, I say hey Betty X (I lean close up to her throat) This light you're carrying is like a lamp, hanging from a distant boat It is my light, said Betty X, Betty X says this light ain't yours And so much wind blew through her words that I went rolling down the hall For more news from nowhere More news from nowhere And it's getting strange in here Yeah, it gets stranger every year More news from nowhere More news from nowhere I turn another corner, I go down a corridor and I see this guy He must be about 100 foot tall and he only has one eye He asks me for my autograph, I write nobody and then I wrap myself up in my woolly coat and blind him with my pen 'Cause someone must have put something in my drink, everything getting strange looking Half the people had turned into squealing pigs, the other half were cooking Let me out of here, I cried, and I went pushing past And I saw miss Polly singing with some girls, I cried strap me to the mast For more news from nowhere More news from nowhere And it's getting strange in here Yeah, it gets stranger every year More news from nowhere More news from nowhere Then a black girl with no clothes on, she danced across the room We charted the progress of the planets around that boogie woogie moon I called her my nubian princess, I gave her some sweet-back bad-ass jive I spent the next seven years between her legs pining for my wife But by and by it all went wrong, I felt all washed-up on the shore She stared down at me from up in the storm as I sobbed upon the floor For more news from nowhere More news from nowhere And don't it make you feel alone? Don't it make you wanna get right-on home? More news from nowhere More news from nowhere Here comes Alina with two black eyes, she's given herself a transfusion She's filled herself with panda blood to avoid all the confusion I said the sun rises and falls with you, and various things about love But a rising violence in me cut all my circuits off Well, Alina, she starts screaming, her cheeks are full of psychotropic leaves Her extinction was nearly absolute when she turned her back on me For more news from nowhere More news from nowhere And it's getting strange in here Yeah, it gets stranger every year More news from nowhere More news from nowhere I bumped bang crash into Deanna hanging pretty in the door frame All the horrors which have befallen me, well, Deanna is to blame Every time I see you, babe, you make me feel so all alone And I wept my face into her dress long after she'd gone home With more news from nowhere More news from nowhere And don't it make you feel alone? Don't it make you wanna get right back home? More news from nowhere More news from nowhere Don't it make you feel so sad, don't the blood rush to your feet To think that everything you do today, tomorrow is obsolete? Technology and women and little children too Don't it make you feel blue? Don't it make you feel blue? For more news from nowhere More news from nowhere And don't it make you feel alone? Don't it make you wanna get right back home? More news from nowhere More news from nowhere Well, I've gotta say Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

Nick Cave : Dig, Lazarus, Dig
2008

Dig, Lazarus, Dig

Today's Lesson

Moonland

Night Of The Lotus Eaters

Albert Goes West

We Call Upon The Author To Explain

Hold Onto Yourself

Lie Down Here (And Be My Girl)

Jesus Of The Moon

Midnight Man

More News From Nowhere

Nick Cave : Dig, Lazarus, Dig 2008

Dig, Lazarus, Dig

Today's Lesson

Moonland

Night Of The Lotus Eaters

Albert Goes West

We Call Upon The Author To Explain

Hold Onto Yourself

Lie Down Here (And Be My Girl)

Jesus Of The Moon

Midnight Man

More News From Nowhere

Nick Cave : Dig, Lazarus, Dig
2008