From Ecstasy (2000) by Lou Reed

Paranoia Key of E (Reed) - 4:28

How come you say you will and then you won't
You change your mind and then you say you don't
The mystery is why I play the goat
The mystery you call love

Sometimes you're like an eagle strong like a rock
Other times it seems you get unlocked
And all your worst fears come tumbling out
Into the street, into the snow

I remember when you had a dream
Everything was what it seemed to be
But now nightmares replace everything
And everything you see is wrong

You said we'd meet but you're two hours late
You said you thought someone had picked your gate
So you hid and were afraid to wait
Seeing shadows in the snow
Seeing shadows in the snow

Now your friend Godfrey is a perfect choice
One minute down next time rejoice, he seems -
- To have found the perfect voice
Paranoia key of E

Let's say everything he says is true
You love me but I cheat on you
And in my bedroom is a female zoo
Worse then Clinton in prime time

I swear to you I'm not with Jill or Joyce
Or Cyd or Sherry or Darlene or worse
I'm not kissing you while inside I curse
Paranoia key of E

Let's play a game the next time we meet, ah
I'll be the hands and you be the feet
And together we will keep the beat
To paranoia key of E

Now, you know mania's in the key of B
Psychosis in the key of C
Let's hope that we're not meant to be
In paranoia key of E

Anorexia is in G flat
And F is anything I've left out
Dyslexia, kleptomania and vertigo
Patricide A, matricide D the same schizos

Paranoia key of E

Let's have a coda in the key of K
Something that only we can play
Maybe we'll light up like a hundred K
Paranoia out of key

Paranoia key of E
Paranoia key of E

Anorexia, dyslexia
Kleptomania, patricide A, matricide D, vertigo, schizos

Paranoia key of E, paranoia
Paranoia, paranoia, paranoia key of E
Paranoia, paranoia, paranoia key of E

Mystic Child (Reed) - 5:01

It was only the time of the newly born dead
With wispy cobwebs in your head
The polar moon looked out instead
Goin' wild

Liquor shifting through the brain
The manic depressive goes insane
Goin' wild
Goin' wild

Desperate anger hits the streets
By the foul smelling river by the meat market
Goin' wild
Mystic child

Goin' wild
Mystic child

In the winter with frozen toes
Looking out the big windows
To fly
Goin' wild

Situation X out of control
My eyes half opened like a mole
Who smiles
Goin' wild

Who smiles
Goin' wild

In the mystic morning where the river meets
The hurdy-gurdy of the hip-hop beat
5 a.m. the viscous street

Oh, wild
Goin' wild

Out the window like a flash
Fallin' through a rooftop crash
Blind
Goin' wild

Sick and misty like a pup by the curb
He's throwin' up
Wild
Like a child

Goin' wild
Like a child

If he can't have all that relates
To testify that he is great
He'll cut someone with a broken plate
Stand upon the subway grate

And smile
Goin' wild
Goin' wild
With a smile

Holy morning
Sun is up and someone
Here has lost his cups

The dawn is tattered all cut up
Goin' wild
Like a mystic child

Like a mystic child

Sunday morning looking down from the rooftop
Goin' wild with a smile
Mystic child

Top of the world he's got it made
Rings are gold, braids are jade
Jumped to the street, he's got it made
Goodbye, child

Goodbye, child
Mystic child
Goin' wild
Like a mystic child

Goodbye
Goodbye
Goin' wild, ah
Goin' wild
Like a mystic child
Holy morning
Sun is up and someone
Going wild
Like a mystic, like a mystic, like a mystic -
- Child
Goin'-goin', goin'-goin' wild
Like a mystic child
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh
Jumped to the street

Mad (Reed) - 4:29

Mad, you just make me mad
I hate your silent breathing in the night
Sad, you make me sad
When I juxtapose your features I get sad

I know I shouldn't had someone else in our bed
But I was so tired, I was so tired
Who would think you'd find a bobby pin
It just makes me mad, makes me mad
It just makes me, makes me -

- Mad

Glad, when I'm gone you're glad
That overwhelming tension dissipates
Oh, tad, you think I'm a baby
Nobody likes to here Why don't you grow up at dawn

I know I shouldn't had someone else in our bed
But I was so tired, so tired
Who would think you'd find a bobby pin
It makes me mad, makes me mad
Don't you know it just makes me -

- Mad
It just makes me mad

Dumb, you're dumb as my thumb
In the wistful morning you throw a coffee cup at my head
Scum, you said I'm scum
What a very lovely, feminine thing to do

Bark, why don't you just bark
Sit, come, stay are the perfect words meant for you
Ah, ass, you says I'm an ass
You better call 911 'cause I'm gonna hold you tight

I know I shouldn't had someone else in our bed
But I was so tired, so tired
You said you're out of town for the night
And I believed in you, I believed you
And I was so tired, it makes me so mad
It makes me so -

- Mad
It makes me so mad
It just makes me mad
It makes me mad
It makes me mad
It makes me mad
It makes me mad
It makes me mad, ah
Dumb

Ecstasy (Reed) - 4:25

They call you ecstasy
Nothing ever sticks to you
Not velcro, not scotch tape
Not my arms dipped in glue

Not if I wrap myself in nylon
A piece of duct tape down my back
Love pierced the arrow with the twelve
And I can't get you back

Ah, ecstasy
Ecstasy
Ah, ecstasy

Across the streets an old Ford, they took off its wheels
The engine is gone
In its seat sits a box
With a note that says, Goodbye Charlie, thanks a lot

I see a child through a window with a bib
And I think of us and what we almost did
The Hudson rocketing with light
The ships pass the statue of liberty at night

They call it ecstasy, ah
Ecstasy
Ecstasy, ah
Ecstasy

Some men call me St. Ivory
Some call me St. Maurice
I'm smooth as alabaster
With white veins runnin' through my cheeks

A big stud through my eyebrow
A scar on my arm that says, Domain
I put it over the tattoo
That contained your name

They called you ecstasy, ecstasy
Ecstasy
They call you ecstasy, ecstasy
Ecstasy

The moon passing through a cloud
A body facing up is floating towards a crowd
And I think of a time and what I couldn't do
I couldn't hold you close, I couldn't, I couldn't become you

They call you ecstasy, I can't hold you down
I can't hold you up
I feel like that car that I saw today, no radio
No engine, no hood

I'm going to the cafe, I hope they've got music
And I hope that they can play
But if we have to part
I'll have a new scar right over my heart
I'll call it ecstasy

Oh, ecstasy, ecstasy
Ecstasy
Ecstasy, ecstasy
Ecstasy

Modern Dance (Reed) - 4:09

Maybe I should go and live in Amsterdam
In a side street in a big canal
Spend my evenings in the Van Gogh Museum
What a dream, Van Gogh Museum

Maybe its time to see Tangiers
A different life-style some different fears
And maybe I should be Edinburgh
In a kilt in Edinburgh

Doin' a modern dance
Doin' a modern dance

Or maybe I should get a farm in Southern France
Where the winds are wispy and the villagers dance
And you and I we'd sleep beneath a moon
Moon in June and sleep till noon

And maybe you and I could fall in love
Regain the spirit that we once had
You'd let me hold you and touch the night
That shines so bright, so bright with fright

Doin' a modern dance
Doin' a modern dance

Shit, maybe I could go to Yucatan
Where women are women, a man's a man
Ah, no one confused, ever loses place
With their place in the human race

Maybe I'm not cut out for city life
The smell of exhaust, the smell of strife
And maybe you don't wanna be a wife
It's not a life being a wife

Doin' a modern dance
Doin' a modern dance

So maybe I should go to Tanganyika
Where the rivers run, down mountains tall and steep
Or go to India to study chants
And lose romance to a mantra's dance

I need a guru, I need some law
Explain to me the things we saw
Why it always comes to this
It's all downhill after the first kiss

Maybe I should move to Rotterdam
Maybe move to Amsterdam
I should move to Ireland, Italy, Spain
Afghanistan where there is no rain

Or maybe I should just learn a modern dance
Where roles are shifting the modern dance
You never touch you don't know who you're with
This week, this month, this time of year
This week, this month, this time of year

Doin' a modern dance
You don't know who you're with modern dance
I should move to Pakistan, go to Afghanistan
Dance, you don't know who you're with
Dance, you don't know who you're with
Modern dance
And maybe you don't wanna be a wife
It's not life being a wife
Doin' a modern dance
You never touch you don't know who you're with
Dance, modern dance
The roles are shifting dance
You never touch you don't know who you're with
Dance, modern dance
Maybe you don't wanna be a wife

Tatters (Reed) - 5:55

Some couples live in harmony
Some do not
Some couples yell and scream
Some do not

But what you said was something
That I can't forget
It echoes in my head
Like a bullet made of lead

Some people yell and scream
And some do not
Some people sacrifice their lives
And some do not

Some people wait for sleep
To take them away
While others read books endlessly
Hoping problems will go away

I know you're hoping everything
Works out
Neither one of us is
The type who shouts

You sleep in the bedroom
While I pace up and down the hall
Our baby stares at both of us
Wondering which one of us to call

I guess it's true that not
Every match burns bright
I guess it's true
Not all that I say is right

But what you said still bounces
Around in my head
Who thought this could happen to us
When we first went to bed

I'm told in the end
That none of this matters
All couples have troubles
And none of this matters

But what you said
Still echoes in my head
And I'm still in the hallway
Downstairs sleeping alone instead

I know you don't care
But here's my last thought
Not that it matters
But here's the last thing I thought

Our little thing is lying
Here in tatters
And you my dear
Don't have any manners

Sad to leave this way
To leave it all in tatters
Saddening to leave this way
To leave it all in tatters
I suppose that we all could say
That nothing of it matters
Still it's sad
To see everything in tatters

Future Farmers of America (Reed) - 3:01

Born on a farm in a transatlantic moonlight
Split like a cord of wood my family broke up
Sold like a piece of steer, a piece of meat, a cow
A breathing piece of shit

Picked for my age, for my strength and make up
Called for I was tall, I was big, I could hold up
A tree or a piece of steel I could do
What my fat owner can't

Ah, future farmers of America
Future farmers of America
Future farmers of America

Ah
I'm always watching the way his wife looks me over
I have a sex twice as big as her husband's
If I wasn't so large, so strong, so pale
I'd disappear under a bush

Colorless men and ladies of the world unite
Kill your master with one cut of your knife
Kill them during sex, kill them during talk
Kill them whenever you can

Future farmers of America
Future farmers of America
Future farmers of America

These -
- stupid black owners are foreigners to affairs of the heart
Look at me, I'll never own land that I work on
Every one of us here shares a surname
This father must die

I was born on the dark cusp of twilight
My father was dark, my mother was light
Look at me, I'm strong
I could crush him in my fist

Ah
I could crush him in my
I could crush him in my
I could crush him in my fist

I could crush him in my
I could crush him in my
I could crush him in my fist

Future farmers of America
I could crush him in my fist
Future farmers of America
I could crush him in my fist
Future farmers of America
I could crush him in my fist

Turning Time Around - 4:21

She says What do you call love
Well I call it Harry
Oh, please I'm being serious
What do you call love

Well I don't call it family and I don't call it lust
And as we all know marriage isn't a must
And I suppose in the end, it's a matter of trust
If I had to, I'd call love time

She says What do you call love
Can't you be more specific
What do you call love
Is it more than the heart's hieroglyphic

Not for me, time has no meaning, no future, no past
And when you're in love, you don't have to ask
There's never enough time to hold love in your grasp
Turning time around

Turning time around
That is what love is
Turning time around
Yes, that is what love is

My time is your time when you're in love
And time is what you never have enough of
You can't see or hold it, it's exactly like love

Turning time around
Turning time around
Turning time around
Turning time around
Turning time around
Well I gotta have it
I gotta-gotta-gotta have it

Turning, turning time around
Gotta have it, turning time around
Turning, turning time around
Turning time around

White Prism (Reed) - 4:00

There's a white prism with phony jism
Spread across its face
And the soulful convicts forever interred
Lose the smile across their faces
The smile that registered hopes or dreams
Has proven just a waste

And I'm the indentured servant
Forever in his place
And I'm the indentured servant
Forever in his place

I wish I built a cabinet
Of shiny bolts and wood
Secret draws and hiding places
Sculpted out of wood
Secret places, secret lies
In a desk lying alone

Secret letter written to you
To be read when you're alone
Secret letter written to you
To be read when you're alone

It says, I'm your indentured servant
I can no longer pretend
That I'm a lover or an equal
I'm not even a friend
I'm not good enough to serve you
I'm not good enough to stay

So it is that I beseech you
To please turn me away
So it is that I beseech you
To please turn me away

Turn me away
Turn me away
Turn me away

I'm asking you to let me go
It hurts me when you're sad
And I can not do better than this
Which must surely make you mad
I'd be better off in your cabinet
Or in a prison made of cloth

Crouched beneath your dress I come
Shooting little spurts
Crouched beneath your dress I come
Shooting little spurts

I'm your indentured servant
But even I have pride
In what I make or say or do
Although I've lots to hide
I hide from freedom and I hide from you
'cause you've found me out

I belong in prison beneath your legs
In a cabinet that I've built
Beneath a candle in a secret drawer
In a prison by a moat

I'm your indentured servant
And I'm asking you to leave
Me outside this prison cell
Where only you can breathe
I-I-I, I'm your indentured servant
But I'm asking you for this

Please release me from this love
And do it with a kiss
I'm your indentured servant
I'm the one you'll miss

Do it with a kiss
Do it with a kiss
Do it with a kiss
I'm the one you'll miss

Rock Minuet (Reed) - 6:56

Paralyzed by hatred and a piss ugly soul
If he murdered his father, he thought he'd become whole
While listening at night to an old radio
Where they danced to the rock minuet

In the gay bars in the back of the bar
He consummated hatred on a cold sawdust floor
While the jukebox played backbeats, he sniffed coke off a jar
While they danced to a rock minuet

School was a waste, he was meant for the street
But school was the only way, the army could be beat
The two whores sucked his nipples 'til he came on their feet
As they danced to the rock minuet

He dreamt that his father was sunk to his knees
His leather belt tied so tight that it was hard to breathe
And the studs from his jacket were as cold as a breeze
As he danced to a rock minuet

He pictured the bedroom where he heard the first cry
His mother on all fours, ah, with his father behind
And her yell hurt so much, he had wished he'd gone blind
And rocked to a rock minuet

In the back of the warehouse were a couple of guys
They had tied someone up and sewn up their eyes
And he got so excited he came on his thighs
When they danced to the rock minuet

On Avenue B, someone cruised him one night
He took him in an alley and then pulled a knife
And thought of his father as he cut his windpipe
And finally danced to the rock minuet

In the curse of the alley, the thrill of the street
On the bitter cold docks where the outlaws all meet
In euphoria drug in euphoria heat
You could dance to the rock minuet

In the thrill of the needle and anonymous sex
You could dance to the rock minuet

So when you dance hard, slow dancing
When you dance hard, slow dancing
When you dance hard, slow dancing
When you dance to the rock minuet

Baton Rouge (Reed) - 4:54

When I think of you baton rouge
I think of a mariachi band
I think of sixteen and a crisp green football field
I think of a girl I never had

When I think of you baton rouge
I think of a back seat in a car
Windows are foggy and so are we
As the police asked for our I.D.

So helpless
So helpless

Ooohhh, so helpless
Ooohhh, so helpless
Ooohhh, so helpless
So helpless

Well I once had a car lost it in a divorce
The judge was a woman of course
She said give her the car and the house and your taste
Or else I set the trial date

So now when I think of you baton rouge
And the deep southern belles with their touch
I wonder where love ends and hate starts to blush
In the fields in the swamps in the rush

In the terra-cotta cobwebs of your mind
When did you start seeing me as a spider spinning web
Of malicious intent and you as poor, poor me
At the fire at the joint, this disinterred and broken mount
In the bedroom in the house where we were unmarried

So helpless, so helpless
So helpless
So helpless, so helpless
So helpless

When was I the villa in your heart
Putting the brake on your start
You slapped my face and cried and screamed
That's what marriage came to mean
The bitterest ending of a dream

You wanted children and I did not
Was that what it was all about
You might get a laugh when you hear me shout
You might get a laugh when you hear me shout
I wish I had


So helpless, so helpless
So helpless
So helpless, so helpless
So helpless

Sometimes when I think of baton rouge
I see us with two and a half strapping sons
One and a half flushed daughters preparing to marry
And two fat grandsons I can barely carry

Daddy, uncle, family gathered there for grace
A dog in a barbecue pit goes up in space
The dream recedes in the morning with a bad aftertaste
And I'm back in the big city worn from the race of the chase
What a waste

So thanks for the card the announcement of child
And I must say you and Sam look great
Your daughter's gleaming in that -
- white wedding dress with pride
Sad to say I could never bring that to you that wide smile

So I try not to think of baton rouge
Or of a, of a, of a mariachi band
Or of sixteen and a crisp green football field
And the girl, and the girl I never had

So helpless, so helpless
So helpless
So helpless, so helpless
So helpless

Like a Possum (Reed) - 18:03

Good morning, it's possum day
Feel like a possum in every way
Like a possum

Possum whiskers, possum face
Possum breath and a possum taste
Ooohhh, like a possum

Possum tales, possum eyes
Possum bones, possum thighs
Oh, like a possum

Possum shots, possum runs
Possum sleeps to possum drums
Calm as an angel

Good morning, it's possum day
I feel like a possum in every way
Like a possum

Wake up with a possum smile
Look at me, look at this smile
Like a possum

Things are all right, don't worry about this
My mind's amiss, I've lost the kiss

My smile is leaden, my gait is rubber
And I say as one possum to another like a possum
Calm as an angel

The only thing I hope to never see
Is another possum in this tree
Playing possum

Just like a possum

I got a hole in my heart the size of a truck
It won't be filled by a one-night fuck

Slurping and squeezing ain't it just my luck
Got a hole in my heart the size of a truck
The size of a truck

The devil tried to fill me up but my down was high
As the sky is up, ah
Ain't that just my luck
Calm as an angel

Smoking crack with a downtown flirt
Shooting and coming 'til it hurts
Calm, calm, ah, calm
Calm as an angel

They're mating like apes in the zoo
Ah, one for me and one for you
Wouldn't it just be lovely

Another useless night in bed, ah, ah
By the Hudson River, the roller-bladers giving head
Used condoms float on the river edge's head

Wouldn't it be lovely
Wouldn't it be lovely

I got a hole in my heart the size of a truck
It won't be filled by one-night fuck
Like a possum
Like a possum

Ahhh
Calm as an angel

You know me I like to dance a lot
With different selves who cancel out
One another
I'm the only one left standing

One likes muscles, oil and dirt
And the other likes the women with the butt that hurts
Like a possum

Devil tried to fill me up
But my down was high as the sky is up
Calm as an angel

I got a hole in my heart the size of a truck
And it won't be filled by a one-night fuck
Like a possum

You know me I like to drink a lot
And carry on
Don't know which self will show up, ah
Over the 5 a.m. sun, -

- The moon is shining
Over the docks shining
Ooohhh, calm as an angel

Girls in the market know what I'm about
They pinch their nipples and they lift their skirts, ah
With a pierced tongue licking below a stained T-shirt

Look at this smile

My mind's amiss

Smoking crack with a downtown flirt
Shooting and coming 'til it hurts
Calm, calm

Sitting on a curb I throw a rock
At the passing meat market trucks
It's just my luck
I'm the only one left standing

Now you know me I like to drink a lot, ah
Only one left standing

The girls in the market know what I'm about
They pinch their nipples and they lift their skirts
Licking below a stained T-shirt
Calm as an angel

Smoking crack with a downtown flirt
Shooting and coming baby 'til it hurts
Wouldn't it be, wouldn't it be

Wouldn't it be love
Wouldn't it be lovely
Calm as an angel

Got a hole in my heart the size of a truck
It won't be filled by one-night fuck

Ain't it just my luck
I got a hole in my heart the size of a truck

Another useless night in bed
Walk down the Hudson River getting head
Calm, calm, calm, calm, calm as an angel

Don't know why baby, I'm still here strong
And fearless in the outside air
I'm the only one left standing

I'm the only one
The only one
The only one left standing

I'm the only one
I'm the only one
Left standing
Calm as an angel

I'm the only one
I'm the only one, the only one
Left standing
Calm as an angel

Shooting an coming 'til it hurts
O'holy morning

Calm as an angel

Rouge - 1:01

Instrumental

Big Sky - 6:32

Big sky, big sky holding up the sun
Big sky, big sky holding up the moon
Big sky holding down the sea
But it can't hold us down anymore

Big sky holding up the stars
Big sky holding Venus and Mars
Big sky catch you in a jar
But it can't hold us down anymore

Big sky, big enormous place
Big wind blow all over the place
Big storm wrecking havoc and waste
But it can't hold us down anymore

Ooohhh, big goals, big ambitious goals
Big talk, talking till I fold
Big wind talking through torrential love
But it can't hold us down anymore

Big sin, big sin, big original sin
Paradise where I've never been
Big snake break the skin
But you can't hold us down anymore

A big house holds a family
A big room it holds you and me
It's a big mess and baby makes three
But you can't hold us down anymore

Big news, they're out of their heads
Big-big-big news, let's fuck them instead
There's a big joke, did they think we were monks
But they can't hold us down anymore

A big doll, big enormous eyes
Big love holds you in a vise
A big man who cut them down to size
They can't hold us down anymore

Big sky, big sky holding up the sun
Big sky holding, holding up the moon
Big sky holding down the sea
But it can't hold us down anymore

Oh, big doll, big enormous eyes
Big love holds you in a vise
A big man who cut them down to size, ah
They can't hold us down anymore

Oh-oh, big sky
Big sky
Big sky
Ah, can't hold us down anymore