Lyrics Black Gold - Rufus Wainwright, Van Dyke Parks

Black Gold

I had seen the captain drinking
When he took that stinking cargo out
Without a doubt he went too far
I don’t know what he was thinking
But he will take us out to sea
Eighty thousand metric tons of crude
A crew of twenty-one
Just ajar her screws in motion
War pounding through the ocean
All the stars rotating in their canopy
Rolling in the hold
Time would now unfold
To this black gold
Back and forth
In time for every swell
The heavens fixed
Upon our last farewell
Then she hit the water with a shudder
It had got her
As she went down
What’s up? says
Heard to utter was the captain in his cups
In my gut I know we all are doomed
She broke up
A hemmorage of oil gushed
A rage abroil from the soiled foil of her hull
And she was pulled beneath
The waves into her grave down in the gloom
My heart is still in pain
Bounding on the main
All this black gold
My mandolin will tell her how I feel
An agony of ebony and steel
What great balls of fire felt for miles around
A river spelt an ess of oil slithering
To leave your blackened
It is not romantic in the morning
And never mind come hithering
Slick stick on the shore
Seaside panic scores of frantic birds
Yet antic as they slog through all
It augurs as an ecologic nightmare to be sure
Black gold hades
High command
Black gold nature’s
Upper hand
All this black gold
With ladies in mercedes on the strand
The tar upon her car and in the sand
I’m the way the resurrection
I’d say on him reflecting
With what we’re doing here
For sure he’d want to
Down the deepest trenches
As their cadavers hold palaver
And the gravity of their endeavors
Christ
I’m not sure he’d feel secure
Lead us clear out of this dark
Man is stewing in his stench
Cleverly converts them into shark
My heart is still in pain
Bounding on the main
All this black gold
My mandolin will tell her how I feel
An agony of ebony and steel