Jim Carroll - Work, Not Play lyrics

The bell rings . . .

It's a decade past my decadence

My beast wears rings and he's waiting

In the shadows of my hesitations, my silent

Hesitations . . . Each image is so clear;

It seems I have no hands

The gestures of the air confuse all my demands

And the beast hears the bell; he comes

Out of the shadows. He rips apart the shadows . . .

And he says:

"This is work and not play"

And he says:

"There's always more than one way . . .

This is work not play"

Refrain:

I see the ghosts of my childhood . . .

Dressed in blue, they trail me in the night

They drive these cars with real upholstery

They trail me until . . . here comes the night

She was standing, standing on the balcony

Her black, black eyes folded over her eyelids

Like sheets on motel beds . . .

She must be eatin' reds

This place is filled with mirrors

It echoes what she said

And she said:

"I need a judgement day"And she said:

"I know there's more than one way,

But I want my judgement day . . ."

Repeat Refrain

To sleep without dreams

So distant from the mirror

Imitating clarity, disguising

All the terror . . . I heard a thousand bells

From a thousand old cathedrals

They rang . . . I haven't heard them since

A decade past my decadence

The beast hears the bell

I'm cursed to be a singer

A singer of the flames

A thinker of a fire

And a son without a name