Lyrics file for We Shall All Be Healed


Slow West Vultures

Breaking the signal So it's totally unreadable Drinking the dregs Eating the utterly inedible We do what we do All for you All dressed up Black hat and white cane Slowly the circling the drain Ready for the future Ready for the world about to come Shooting the sequel before the treatment's even finished Sanding numbers off the monojects As our slight returns diminish We are what we are Get in the goddamn car Smiling faces flawlessly rehearsed We are sleek and beautiful We are cursed Ready for the future Ready for the world about to come

Palmcorder Yajna

Holt Boulevard Between Gary and White Hooked up with some friends at the Travelodge Set ourselves up for the night Carpenter ants in the dresser Flies in the screen It will be too late by the time we learn What these cryptic symbols mean And I dreamt of a house Haunted by all you tweakers with your hands out And the headstones climbed up the hills And the headstones climbed up the hills Send somebody out for soda Comb through the carpet for clues Reflective tape on our sweatpants Big holes in our shoes Every couple minutes someone says he can't stand it any more Laugh lines on our faces Scale maps of the ocean floor And I dreamt of a camera Pointing out from inside the televsion And the aperture yawning and blinking And the headstones climbed up the hills If anybody comes to see me Tell 'em they just missed me by a minute If anybody comes in to our room while we're asleep I hope they incinerate everybody in it And I dreamt of a factory Where they manufactured what I needed Using shiny new machines And the headstones climbed up the hills

Linda Blair Was Born Innocent

Gentle hum of the old machines Here we come scrubbed and scoured Patches on our jeans When the drone sounds In the cool night wind We pick up the call Kick all the traces in Hungry for love Ready to drown So tie down the sails We're going downtown Great big drain on the power grid You may not like Tate's methods But you've got to admit She's a real nice kid We walk light Down the wires Higher than weather baloons Empty hearts on fire Hungry for love Ready to drown So tie down the sails tonight We're going downtown

Letter From Belgium

Martin calls to say he's sending old electrical equipment That's good we can always use some more electrical equipment In the cold clear light of day down here Everyone's a monster That's cool with all of us We've been past the point of help since early April Susan and her notebook Freehand drawings of Lon Chaney Blueprints for geodesic domes Recipies for cake Yeah we're all here Chewing our tongues off Waiting for the fever to break When we walk out in the sunlight we tell every we know it hurts our eyes When the real reason we don't like it is that it makes us wonder if we're dying And Martin's found an old trunk full of stage makeup in the basement And he's sending it along We can always use more makeup Yeah more creams and powders And Carrie's got the feeling That the people next door Will close in like a wolf pack Should we make one small mistake Yeah we're all here Chewing our tongues off Waiting for the fever to break

The Young Thousands

Boats ease into the harbor bearing real suspicious cargo And the sunlight on the water Sets a switch off in your brain The things that you've got coming will consume you There's someone waiting out there in an alley with a chain The ghosts that haunt your building are prepared to take on substance And the dull pain that you live with isn't getting any duller There's a closet full of almost-pristine videotape Documenting sordid little scenes in living color Here they come The young thousands Here they come The young thousands You drive east from the ocean with both hands tied on the wheel And you go past Garden Grove As the pleasure index rises The things that you've got coming will do things that you're afraid to There is someone waiting out there with a mouthful of surprises The ghosts that haunt your building have been learning how to breathe They scan the hallways nightly vainly searching for a sign There must be diamonds somewhere in a place that stinks this bad There are brighter things than diamonds coming down the line Here they come The young thousands Here they come The young thousands

Your Belgian Things

The men were here to get your Belgian things They'll store them for you in an airplane hangar There's guys in biohazard suits Mud kicking on their rubber boots They've come to keep your pretty things from danger The men were here to get your Belgian things They'll spend the whole day hauling them downstairs I shot a roll of thirty-two exposures My camera groans beneath the weight it bears I can see you in my sleep Playing the points for all you're worth Walking gingerly across the bruised earth The men were here to get your Belgian things They waltzed right through the door and went flourescent Their boots were black and shiny and your treasures gleamed like stars Bones from deep down in the fertile crescent The arteries are clogging in the mainframe There's too much information in the pipes I saw the mess you left up in the east bedroom A tiger's never gonna change its stripes I guess I guess but Jesus what a mess One way in and no way out The men were here to get your Belgian things And only I was here to see them do it I wish you had a number where you are It's hard with no one here to help me through it I can see you in my sleep Playing the points for all you're worth Walking gingerly across the bruised earth

Mole

I came to see you up there in intensive care They had handcuffed you to your bed There were tubes going into you and out from you Bright white gauze bandages at your head I am a mole Sticking his head above the surface of the earth I am a mole Sticking his head above the surface of the earth And they said "Lights out" And it was lights out And they gave you your medication I know what you want and you know what I want Information Information I am a mole Sticking his head above the surface of the earth I am a mole Sticking his head above the surface of the earth Out in the desert we'll have no worries Out in the desert just you and me I came to see you up there in intensive care Out in the desert we'll live carefree I am a mole Sticking his head above the surface of the earth I am a mole Sticking his head above the surface of the earth

Home Again Garden Grove

Wipe down the windshields and roll down the windows Let's go where the jackals are breeding Wrap this bandanna around your head Don't let anyone see that you're bleeding Fire up the scanner and keep your eyes on it Don't speak unless someone speaks to you Hands in your pockets and sun on your face The warm love of God coursing through you Home again Home again Garden Grove Garden Grove I can remember when we were in high school Our dreams were like fugitive warlords Plotting triumphant returns to the city Keeping Tec-9's tucked under the floorboards Ah Now we are practical men of the world We tether our dreams to the turf And cruise down these alleys for honey to feed them Jellyfish riding the surf Shoving our heads straight into the guts of the stove Home again Garden Grove Garden Grove

All Up The Seething Coast

I eat a couple Milky Ways for breakfast I take my coffee light and sweet Show up for dinner when you tell me to I heap the sugar high and white on everything I eat Carry an apple in my pocket I write reminders on my skin Clip meaningless pictures from old magazines I tape them to the walls It's a bad place I'm in And nothing you can say or do will stop me And a thousand dead friends can't stop me I go back to places I remember See what's been going on without me Stare down the strangers at the bus stop Pretend they've been gossiping about me White sugar by the spoonful Canteloupes and grapes and watermelons I force it down like it was medicine Anybody asks you tell 'em what you want to tell 'em But the best you've got is powerless against me All your little schemes break when they come crashing up against me Ahh

Quito

When I receive the blessing I've got coming I'm going to raise an ice-cold glass of water And toast the living and the dead who've gone before me And my head will throb like an old wound reopening When I get off the bus down there my children They all are going to greet me at the station Like gypsies they will dance around me And the choral droning sound their voices make will saturate the evening When I get off the wheel I'm going to stop And make amends to everyone I've wounded And when I wave my magic wand Those few who've slipped the surly bonds will rise like salmon at the spawning

Cotton

This song is for the rats Who hurled themselves in to the ocean When they saw that the explosives in the cargo hold Were just about to blow This song is for the soil That's toxic clear down to the bedrock Where no thing of consequence can grow Drop your seeds there Let them go Let them all go Let 'em all go This song is for the people Who tell their families that they're sorry For things they can't and won't feel sorry for And once there was a desk And now it's in a storage locker somewhere And this song is for the stick pins and the cottons I left in the top drawer Let 'em all go Let 'em all go I wanna sing one for the cars That are right now headed silent down the highway And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give I saw you waiting by the roadside You didn't know that I was watching Now you know Let it all go Let 'em all go Let it all go

Against Pollution

When I worked down at the liquor store Guy with a shotgun came raging through the place Muscled his way behind the counter I shot him in the face This morning I went down to the Catholic Church 'Cause something just came over me Forty-five minutes in the pews Praying the rosary When the last days come We shall see visions More vivid than sunsets Brighter than stars We will recognize each other And see ourselves for the first time The way we really are Decorative grating on my window Gets a little rustier every year I don't know how the metal gets rusty When it never rains here A year or so ago I worked at a liquor store And a guy came in Tried to kill me so I shot him in the face I would do it again I would do it again When the last days come We shall see visions More vivid than sunsets Brighter than stars We will recognize each other And see ourselves for the first time The way we really are

Pigs That Ran Straightaway Into The Water, Triumph Of

[spoken:] The story of the pigs who ran straightaway into the water and their great triumph You're gonna send me back to where I came from Please don't send me back to where I came from Let me go where the white magnolias grow You're gonna fit me for that orange jumpsuit Please don't fit me for that orange jumpsuit Let me ride where the dragonflies glide Yeah but you're going to do what you wanna do No matter what I ask of you You think you hold the high hand I've got my doubts I come from Chino where the asphalt sprouts Big bus headed southeast from the courthouse But I'm not headed southeast from the courthouse Let some mysterious chunk of space debris Puncture the roof and set me free And even if I have to go to Claremont Well I guess I'll just have to go to Claremont Let me go Let me lie low Yeah but you're going to do what you wanna do No matter what I ask of you And you send your dark messengers to tempt me I come from Chino so all your threats are empty
thanks to brian eck for transcribing this