ACK ACK ACK ACK
(Jones/Talley)
from ANOTHER EP / NEGATIVE CAPABILITY

Johnny took his gun and Ack Ack Ack Ack
Johnny shot me down Ack Ack Ack Ack
Like this: Ack Ack Ack Ack
Like this: Ack Ack Ack Ack

All the papers crucify Johnny
All the radios shout his name
All our little children love our Johnny
Because he took his gun and Ack Ack Ack Ack

Johnny, he's my hero,
Johnny, he's my joy,
Johnny took his gun and Ack Ack Ack Ack
Johnny shot me down

(top)

ALL SEXED UP
(Jones/Johansen)
from 100 FLOWERS / 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

I've lost a lot of blood she says
lying on this bed of nails
I know when you think of me
and I know what you think

(chorus)
All sexed up
All sexed up
All sexed up
All sexed up

I ignore her agony
I want to hear you breathe
She avoids my guilty glance
and turns into a ghost

(chorus)

"Love is all," I say to her
She fucks me on the floor
No one whispered anything
No one spoke at all

(top)

BABY DEMONS
(Barker/Barrett/Jones)
from WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT

Sleep sweet baby demons
you brought your dreams to life
the ground you scorched
is now your home

You found the way
and taught us to see
oh glorious boy
who made us so incandescently free

Here's a song for your lovers
kissed and blown away
here's a song for those you left behind

Sleep damned and wretched angels
you who cursed and spat out blood
Deliver us from this life
with its tiny concerns

These vermin offspring
desolate and dear
sworn to bring down the world
to empower our souls

(top)

BEAUTIFUL AGAIN (Barker/Barrett/Jones)
from WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT

How do you find the language
for this sensation of shock?
How do you keep moving forward?
When will the feeling come back?
I thought I held an answer
but then it burned through my hand

Yes there's just too much to comprehend,
it falls from the air
(floating down to shattered earth arms open wide)
the known dimensions just can't contain
what spills from there
(sea and sky and smoke and shards of powdered glass)

I'm afraid to open my eyes --
I'd see that every flower is diseased
How I want the world to be beautiful again

Stuck in my head for a month
with the ceiling pressing down
I remember the blue blue sky
and I remember the sun

I don't dare to raise my head
I might blast the birds from out of the trees
How I need to need the world to be made whole again

I'm afraid to open my eyes --
I'd see that every flower is diseased
How I want the world to be beautiful again

(top)

BLACK HOLE
(Jones)
from ANOTHER EP & NEGATIVE CAPABILITY

Three feet of gravity -
pulling lengthwise, rip me up
Stars dissolve above
down to black below

Black hole
I've seen this all before
Black hole

Fingers clutch my head
Gouge my eyes, you want me (blind/dead)
Inside you no hope for me
In a void of complacency

(top)

BUNKERS
(Jones/Johansen)
from 100 FLOWERS & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

First you take the gun take the gun
Find yourself a target
Punch a hole through the window
Take aim and faith and heart

(chorus)
Oh, how you want to believe
how you want to accept
how you must embrace

Our houses are our armouries
closeting the bunkers in our souls
Cyanide running through our veins
the poison of passions enforced

(chorus)

We face martyrdom daily
for ideals that don't exist
And the measure of your cowardice
is the length of the shadow thrown by your cross

(chorus)

(top)

CALIFORNIA'S FALLING INTO THE OCEAN (Jones/Johansen)
from 100 FLOWERS & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

Water, death, ocean depths

Water rising rising rising
Mountains sliding sliding sliding
California's falling falling
into the ocean.

Friction, rust, salt air, lust

Passion in its final heat
Real life with its final cheat
California's falling falling
into the ocean.

Beaches, kelp, bodies, we need help

Arizona stands as the new frontier
There's nothing left of Santa Monica pier
Science fiction calling calling
California's falling falling

God kills his children
God kills his children
We are drowning
We are drowning

(top)

CARTOPHILIA
(Barker/Barrett/Jones)
from WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT

Green area equals land, blue equals ocean
Polar regions stand out in white
The projection is flat, is wrong
You take this as a kind of truth
both abstract and real

I can trace her path

She's flown the distance shown, from airport to airport
a nervous system takes her from city-center to nowhere
Now she's there and it's exactly three hours different

We see the same sliver moon

(top)

COLD
(Barrett/Jones/Johansen)
from WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT

There she was, flickering in black and white
The light burrowed into my chest, and left the room cold

The ghost woman, she lives under my house
In the dry, dusty soil, buried for dozens of years

It's not too often, I let myself go back that far
but to remember too little is to betray the heart

(top)

CONTRIBUTIONS
(Jones/Johansen)
from DRAWING FIRE & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

I crawl into your dayroom
I help you with the blinds
I creep into the darkroom
I slip in between your sheets

I'm standing in your shower
watching you make-up
I open all of your secret things
and take pictures while you sleep

I wear some of your clothing
I take food from out of your mouth
I duplicate your keys
and live parts of your life

(top)

DYSLEXIA
(Jones)
from PRESENCE OF MIND & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

I can see into the future
though I can't interpret it
Coherent events become clear to me
although the order is unsure

(chorus)
I read from right to left
I read from right to left

I was sick and I was bitter
Medicines gave way to ways
insane enough to snuff us out
I hate what they have done to us

(chorus)

(top)

FROM THE FIRE
(Jones/Johansen)
from DRAWING FIRE & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

Boy takes his hand from the fire
Scorches the earth instead
Passes "healing hands" overhead
Brittle plants lie down and die

Affecting uselessness in our world
is typical and not convincing
Those of us who live like wolves
will find no moon to bark out at

You confuse yourself so carelessly
You can melt iron and steel
If you really want to see something
Blow the clouds, blow the clouds away

(top)

FUN PIG
(Barrett/Jones/Johansen)
from WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT

A romantic encounter
ruined by the report of the gun
-- the gun in your hand
Is there no end to the attention you crave

You kicked heroin
you cut out the booze
speed is off limits
no more reefer for you

You're so extreme
I never met anyone as extreme
as you think you are

High up in the hills
in the amniosis of your hot tub
a camera crew is vying
for a shot of the dying

The last time I saw you
you were at the end of a bungie cord
tethered to a spy satellite
you said you still wanted more

(top)

HOLOGRAM
(Jones/Johansen)
from URINALS & NEGATIVE CAPABILITY

I said I needed you
You said you needed me
Mutual selfish desire
I had a hologram

Now that it's all over
I rarely see you any longer
I plug myself in
I am a hologram

(top)

I DON'T OWN MY OWN HEART
(Barrett/Jones/Johansen)
from 100 FLOWERS & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

All our lives keep droning on
keep droning on (jones)

Take it down so I can see
Real life doesn't mean much to me (johansen)

Keats rides a Harley
I don't own my own heart (barrett)

(top)

I HATE
(Barrett/Jones/Johansen)
from NEGATIVE CAPABILITY & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

I hate … (provide your own pet peeve)

(top)

I MAKE LOVE TO EVERY WOMAN ON THE FREEWAY
(Barker/Barrett/Jones)
from WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT

I see her singing to the radio
in the little blue bugs and the mighty big-rigs
Sometimes she's talking to her boss on the phone,
"I'm going to be late, I've got something important to do."

Sometimes she's moving fast, sometimes at a crawl
and her hair is different from car to car
and I think of all the things that I will do for her
to make her life a little better, to make her feel calm

I make love, I make love
I make love with every woman on the freeway

I ease the tension of a sleepless night
a hard day at the office or spousal strife
Sometimes she sighs and closes her eyes
sometimes she makes me go just a little bit faster

I make love, I make love
I make love with every woman on the freeway

(top)

I'M A BUG
(Jones)
from ANOTHER EP & NEGATIVE CAPABILITY

I'm a bug
So are you baby
I want to use my
pincers on you

I'm a bug
DDT
is my breakfast
along with tea

I'm a bug
I've got a stinger
you've got one too baby
Let's wing it

(top)

IN PRAISE OF THE FUCKED-UP GIRL
(Barker/Barrett/Jones)
from WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT

Who will comfort the fucked up girl?
Feed her wine and bread
Who will quiet the multitudes
that live under her bed?

Who will marry the fucked up girl?
Read to her impassioned verse
She speaks a thousand tongues
all of them in reverse

She will kiss you like galaxies colliding
She will cut your hair and hide it in her closet

Who will sleep with the fucked up girl?
Share her bed with porcupines
She dreams of steamshovels
A cactus grows out of her spine

(top)

LAST DAYS OF MAN ON EARTH
(Jones)
from URINALS & NEGATIVE CAPABILITY

I don't want to listen to my radio
I don't want to watch my video

Surviving USA, they say it's OK
You can hide the useless filth, they say it's alright
It's the last days of man on Earth
Last days of man on Earth

I don't want to walk on down the street
be a moving target for the tax-exempt elite

(chorus)

(top)

LET A LITTLE DARK INTO YOUR HEART
(Barrett/Jones/Johansen)
from WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT

When the sun is out on a cloudless day
and the birds are singing their song
Let a little dark come into your heart
May it warm you and keep you strong

Let a little dark come into your heart
Let a little dark come into your heart

In this perfect world, there is joy and cheer
and the misleading drug of distraction
Let a little dark come into your hear
To find answers there must be no satisfaction

Let a little dark come into your heart
Let a little dark come into your heart

There's the other side of too much focus
-- the inward calm of the soul
Let a little dark come into your heart
You need rust to bring out the gold

(top)

LET'S NOT
(Barrett/Jones/Johansen)
from DRAWING FIRE & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

If you remove contrition
from the rhythm furious
enmeshed within the claws of hate
the capacity for self-judgement

We are stumbling futily
landscape of barren flora
fury giving way to insight
insight blackening into fury

We have tried to understand
and we've resisted each other
We're confounded by our darkness
directionless and untrue

We've attained a state of grace
delineated by its absence
We have conquered our worst weakness
by giving into it

If you disagree with me . . .

(top)

OUR FALLOUT
(Jones/Johansen)
from 100 FLOWERS & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

We watch the streets
We watch the skies
We watch each other
drop like flies

Uncorrupted
as you insist
Fallout entices
twist and die

The world's an oyster
in a bed of pain
My charred limbs
are all I retain

The sword is quick
the edge is dull
Our world lies silent
twitching in heat

(top)

THE PATIENT BELIEVES
(Barker/Barrett/Jones)
from WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT

He believes that economic interest
should be the law of the land
He thinks tha manifest destiny
will guide his grasping hands
He sees a world beyond this one
this one can be blown away
He believes that I can be bought
that I will sell myself out

The patient shows signs of disorientation
The patient is disturbed -- he seems disconnected

(top)

POLTERGEISTS AT HOME
(Barrett/Jones/Johansen)
from 100 FLOWERS & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

She needs confidences
She needs motivation
She needs to "learn a trade"
She recalls a fallen idol

He needs electroshock
He needs vacation time
He needs the Diner's Club
He needs more credit

They're beyond the phase of hardship
They are poltergeists at home
They knock into furniture
as if it's out of place

(top)

PRESENCE OF MIND
(Barrett/Jones)
from PRESENCE OF MIND & 100 FLOWERS & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

She's got presence of mind
She gives the gift that counts

He's got a mind like a steel trap
He takes what he can get from her

(top)

REJECT YOURSELF
(Jones/Johansen)
from HELL COMES TO YOUR HOUSE & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

Reject yourself
Reject yourself
and your family of ideals

The muddle in your head
You're playing with
the morality of the dead

Reject yourself
Reject yourself
Built up from scratch
ideas, jerry-rigged, skeletal
tear them all down
Throw them on the pyre
Light it, burn it

Rip out your heart
Place it on the top
Rip out your heart
Place it on the top
and move to Antarctica

(top)

SALAD OF SPEECH
(Barrett/Jones)
from 100 FLOWERS & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

Listening to you
is air between rocks
Broken bones
between twin Charybdis

My voice, it is senseless
and dull with the spice,
the salad of speech,
encumbered by meaning

Our words are our guns,
shooting bullets
which miss targets
and save only us from ourselves

(top)

SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE
(Barrett/Johansen)
from NEGATIVE CAPABILITY

The time of day is not an indication of my state of mind
The weather outside is not a manifestation of what's inside

Time in me is like a vacuum in you
Lost in space without a passion or a clue

Revolving around you, dissolving into you

(Pass me a match, I think we're in Hell)

(top)

SEX
(Jones)
from SEX & NEGATIVE CAPABILITY

I feel I'm wilting
The ground is writhing
Ground-glass consolation
Addled snake

Tie me up
Knock some sense into yourself
Turn out the light
Breathe out

Put your hands
Around my throat
Pulselike tendons
Pass out

(top)

SKYGRIFTER
(Barker/Barrett/Jones)
from WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT

I see a man, he hovers over you
I see a sign, does the letter "M" mean anything to you?

He is resigned, he misses you so fiercely
He's far away, but he is looking out for you

I see a girl, I sense a great affection
She has small hands, a strong will, and a passionate nature

Though she is gone, she misses you so fiercely
She hears your prayers and is happy you are doing well

(top)

STRIP CLUB
(Jones)
from 100 FLOWERS & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

Thursday night Austin Texas strip club
bring me a scotch and soda
Waitress named Cat brings me a drink
brings me a drink a scotch and soda

(chorus)
I shouldn't feel
She made me feel

Cat gives me a smile walks away
takes the stage takes the stage
Take the stage take the stage take the stage
take my heart

(chorus)

Thursday night Austin Texas strip club
bring me a scotch and soda
Waitress named Cat bring me a drink
brings me a drink a scotch and soda
Take the stage take the stage take the stage
take my heart
Take my heart take my heart take my heart
take me home

(top)

TEACH ME TO CRAWL
(Barker/Barrett/Jones)
from WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT

Lock my soul away
Hide it in your mouth
Take hold of my spine
and rattle it to my core

The unnatural world is in full bloom

Make me weak in the knees
Teach me to crawl again
Make me…

Bring down the curtain
and open up this world
Show me tomorrow
in the atomized now

(top)

TYPICAL TZAR
(Barker/Barrett/Jones)
from WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT

It's the way that you are, you always take it too far
but never far enough
when you're in full swing, you're no typical tzar

You'll paint the day black and the night bleached-white
you're torn, trashy -- you're five-star
ooh baby, you're no typical tzar

You eat your fish raw and your meat well-done
lovesick bipolar empress
when you're having fun, you're no typical tzar

Ride the rollercoaster for the rest of your life
backwards and upside-down
do the loop-de-loop
your'e no typical tzar
you're no typical tzar
you're my not-so-typical tzar

(top)

WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT
(Barker/Barrett/Jones)
from WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT

Last night's dream seemed so real
It changed the way I think and feel
My body ached with an alien thirst
Night and day, they were reversed

I heard you call for me to stay
with every step forward I fell away
The sun broke open and split in two
Your skin caught fire, the flame burned blue

The planet heaved and my body trembled
The stars went out as time it ended
From cradle to grave from dust to dust
From cradle to grave from dust to dust

(top)

WITHOUT LIMBS
(Jones/Johansen)
from 100 FLOWERS & 100 YEARS OF PULCHRITUDE

How rich your experiences are
You have all the wealth
all our health
The world turns for you

How small the world is to you
Giza and Bombay
We were born to trample on,
without limbs

(top)