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[All of Richard Hell's 37 song lyrics 1973-2001 are available in his book Hot and Cold] Another World (Ork Records: Blank Generation e.p. vinyl, 1976, o.p.) [rerecorded for Sire/Warners: Blank Generation LP 1977; cd rerelease, 1990] Head wrapped in your hair In a box lined with silk You can't learn to talk and the air is your milk Erasing my face I want you so bad I want to be you it's futile it's sad Oh, oh baby Oh, oh baby Oh, oh baby Oh oh oh I could live with you in another world I could live with you in another world I could live with you in another world Muscle against silk Tears fall from the burn A smell of perfume In a moment you'll turn In a moment you'll turn Your face will change shape We exchange just one gift: to see like an ape Oh, oh baby Oh, oh baby Oh, oh baby Oh oh oh I could live with you in another world I could live with you in another world I could live with you in another world Oh so easy to go drawn in the vacuum At the time I'm in you I'm alone in the back room Down to the last raw My eyes open wide To collect all the scraps Ten more years and they'll cry Oh, oh baby Oh, oh baby Oh, oh baby Oh oh oh I could live with you in another world I could live with you in another world I could live with you in another world
Don't Die (music Julian & Hell, orig. demo version Shake Records: Hell Past & Present e.p. vinyl, 1980, o.p.) [rereleased on (British) Overground over19cd: Neon Boys e.p. cd, 1991] I see the passionate who killed themselves with drink Or drugs or speeding cars in order not to think They must have felt like there just nothing was to do Oh why hast thou murdered those who see the most in search of a true thrill or clue Don't die, don't die, don't die, don't die... [throughout] There's something wrong here where the best ones want to go Parker, Lautreamont, Monroe they held it just to throw The world away who were its grace before they left To choose to have a point of view oblivious that leaves the rest of us bereft There I see the piercing eyes that look through all until they see their back There where any thought will think about itself and that's the only fact There a man has left just death, delerium, and drugs, or feel the lack The air is cool today the time is drawing near My walls are white and so's my brain afloat in self-made fear A banal feeling of the sort "I ain't insane" No fate worse than to never leave yourself and it's as well the most repulsive pain The air is cool today that whistles through my ribs My skull is full of sand that dribbles down upon my bib I call out "Baby" but her face looks like a clock Tick tock, alive, triumphant victims so surprised we can't recover from the shock Me, I like a joke as much as anybody else but some are rough Yeah when the joke's on you though you're the joker too you've had enough Then though there is no one there, because there's nothing there, you call your bluff
Downtown at Dawn [recorded for Red Star: Destiny Street L.P., 1982; most recent c.d. rerelease Razor & Tie RE2081, 1995] [rerecorded for Caroline: Dim Stars cd Carol 1724-2, 1992] Down in dawntown there's a club I wanna take me to Where I can hide or slip inside the crack of dawn with you And you and you and you and you too And every ghoul and every fool and every drunken broken rule Can do the same. There's no address, the way to find the place Is slide yourself down dawntown till you start to lose your face And you, of which there ain't the slightest trace Don't care no more, we're all a whore, and now you stand inside the door Downtown at dawn where they drift to the dub Downtown at dawn where we rub to the nub Downtown at dawn at the dropout night club, dropout night club Drop out! By indolence and insolence a lover never lies Yeah only dropout disco offers love so undisguised That you just get all decivilized And coalesce, remove your dress, and think about it less and less The drop out good-for-nothings can remove from any mind The crystallizing labyrinthine love to be confined That you can best escape by dropping out And dropping in and dropping out and dropping in and out again Downtown at dawn where the drifters all go Downtown at dawn you forget all you know Downtown at dawn at the dropout disco, dropout disco By indolence and insolence, the lovers realize Yeah only dropout dancehall offers love so undisguised That you just get all decivilized And coalesce, you feel your best, and think about it less and less The dropout paratroopers can remove from any mind The crystalizing labyrinthine jail of love defined That you can best escape by dropping out And dropping in and dropping out and dropping in and out again Downtown at dawn where the fallen are tall Downtown at dawn hear the call to the ball Downtown at dawn at the dropout dancehall, dropout dancehall
Funhunt (ROIR: Funhunt, cassette tape, 1989) Checked for my cheekiest pants before I hit the door "I'd like to get approached" say what I wore They're not obsessed by just feel undressed by I'm set out on a longtime funhunt Wanna find some kinda something that I want tonight Don't like to get too aggressive, in it for the fun Weapon's a reputation--good mouth beats gun I like to speak not afraid to look weak I'm set out on a longtime funhunt Wanna find some kinda something that I want tonight Sometimes each block of the night seems like some precious box Of ancient treasure hid by secret locks that love gets keys to the rest just see through I'm set out on a longtime funhunt Wanna find some kinda something that I want tonight
The Hunter Was Drowned (ROIR: R.I.P., cassette tape, 1984) She stood across the river still calling me to come and make the kill. I dove in with hopes no one could fill and the hunter was drowned. The doe stepped from the forest smiling slight across the river in the morning light. The hunter felt his heart leap into flight but the hunter was drowned. She was so beautiful to see. The hunter thought her heart could hold the key to open up his own and set him free but the hunter was drowned and he never was found. The hunter had been searching for so long The need he had to have her was so strong. A need so strong could really not be wrong but the hunter was drowned. She stood like marble mixed with mud calling him to cross the rippling flood. He dove in to find the flood was blood and the hunter was drowned and he never was found.
The Kid with the Replaceable Head (Radar Records: vinyl single, 1978, o.p.) [rerecorded for Red Star: Destiny Street L.P., 1982; most recent c.d. rerelease Razor & Tie RE2081, 1995] Too young to drink and too smart to think Attaches on his head with the missing link He's skinny as a snake and fast as a mink But he ain't for sale unless you add the kitchen sink Look out, here he comes again They say he's dead, he's my three best friends He's so honest that the dishonest dread Meeting the kid with the replaceable head When you live on a planet the size of a town You can't get your kicks by getting around Fun's hard to find on such familiar ground So you invent it: the mental it's better than found Look out, here he comes again They say he's dead, he's my three best friends He's so honest that the dishonest dread Meeting the kid with the replaceable head He used to beat himself up till he was sick and confused Dead tired and throbbing, half crazy and bruised Till he'd be too worn out to keep being himself Now he can pick them at will from the heads on his shelf Look out, here he comes again They say he's dead, he's my three best friends He's so honest that the dishonest dread Meeting the kid with the replaceable head
Liars Beware [music Ivan Julian, appears on Sire/Warners: Blank Generation cd, 1990] Look out liars and you highlife scum who gotta keep your victims poor and dumb-- Your motives and your methods are not disguised by your silk, soap, sex, or your smiling lies. Look out here you pompous jerk Look out here I go berserk Well I guess you put me in my place but I won't forget your stupid face They gave you power cuz they knew your needs-- soprano boys get talent when you shoot your seeds. Well you laugh to hear what your best friends say-- Old man they laugh when you walk away. Look out chief ridiculous creep Look out thief you'll lose your teeth Well you got power, now there's competition and your blind side's turned to the boys with a mission. You were sixty-five when you wiggled out-- your mind all twisted and your mom all shout. I'm a man with his share of excess nice but it can't be spared for drooling lice. Look out jerk you ancient slut I can't endure Your smirking smut Well life is short so don't even try to bother waving as we pass you by.
Oh [recorded for MusicBlitz.com download, 2000] So this is where it's got to after so many tries all the nights and crimes I spent and I fought to bent and I fraught to commit, and the highs then I step outside and Oh, the sun is breaking through the clouds The sky is like the face of God And all there is to say is The day's not been all that bad I did this and that but somehow I feel restless and sad messed up and had face pressed to the mat but I step outside and Oh, the sun is breaking through the clouds The sky is like the face of God And all there is to say is So we'll lie down in flowers before we die and stare up into all those raining towers of ancient powers inscribing the sky inside our eyes and Oh, the sun is breaking through the clouds The sky is like the face of God And all there is to say is
Staring in Her Eyes [recorded for Red Star: Destiny Street L.P., 1982; most recent c.d. rerelease Razor & Tie RE2081, 1995] I used to lie in my room and just stare Frustrated eyes flipping pages of air Gaze after gaze I could see nothing there I was just a flaw in the scheme Of everything but nightmarish dreams No one could stand feeling that way for long So I chose to regard the whole world as the wrong And to make my own long assertions in song I decided I just didn't care That I'd look and I could see nothing there (but now) I lie there staring in her eyes I lie there staring in her eyes I watch her be the sight I wanted so much to see Oh let me tell you about a pleasure I've found First you surrender and stop looking around And then you get the one who you want to lie down And stare like a corpse in each's eyes Till you never want to come alive and rise (and then, but now) I lie there staring in her eyes I lie there staring in her eyes I watch her be the sight I wanted so much to see
Time (orig. demo version Shake Records: Hell Past & Present e.p. vinyl, 1980, o.p.) [rereleased on (British) Overground over19cd: Neon Boys e.p. cd, 1991] [rerecorded for Red Star: Destiny Street L.P., 1982; most recent c.d. rerelease Razor & Tie RE2081, 1995] Time and time again I knew what I was doing And time and time again I just made things worse It seems you see the most of what is really true when You're stepping into your hearse Only time can write a song that's really really real The most a man can do is say the way its playing feels And know he only knows as much as time to him reveals And when I want to write a song that says it all at once Like time sublimely silences the whys I know that if I try I'm going to take a fall at once And splatter there between my lies Only time can write a song that's really really real The most a man can do is say the way its playing feels And know he only knows as much as time to him reveals We are made of it and if we give submission Among our chances there's a chance we can choose And if we take it, by uncertainty's permission Then it's impossible to lose Only time can write a song that's really really real The most a man can do is say the way its playing feels And know he only knows as much as time to him reveals
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