Lyrics Work Not Play - The Jim Carroll Band

Work Not Play

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»
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