1. |
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In the port of Amsterdam there are sailors that sing
Of the dreams that haunt them from the coasts of Amsterdam
In the Port of Amsterdam there are sailors that sleep
Like the banners that drape along the city's dull banks
In the port of Amsterdam there are sailors that die
Full of beer and cries at the first morning light
But in the port of Amsterdam there are sailors that are born
In the tiring heat of a still ocean
In the port of Amsterdam there are sailors that eat
Glistening fish, their tablecloths bleached.
They'll show you their teeth that have chewed up fortune
And hauled up the sails and swallowed the moon.
And it smells just like cunt through the heart of French fries,
That they scoop up in portions increasing in size.
Then, with a belch like a tempest they rise
Start laughing, turn away and they zip up their flies.
In the port of Amsterdam where the sailors all dance
They rub their guts on the bodies of women.
They turn and they dance like chewed up stars
To the rancid sound of an accordion waltz.
And they turn and they dance and they laugh and they lust,
'till all of a sudden the accordion bursts
Then, with sullen faces and pride in their eyes
They bring their whore to face the port light.
In the port of Amsterdam there are sailors that drink
And they drink and thy drink and they drink once again.
They'll drink to the health of the whores of Amsterdam,
Hamburg, and anywhere, in fact they'll drink to the women
Who've given their bodies and have given their virtue
For a piece of gold, and when the sailors have drunk well
They'll point their noses to the sky and blow them among the stars
And they'll piss like I cry for unfaithful loves.
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2. |
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From chrysanthemums, to chrysanthemums,
All of my friends are now departing.
From chrysanthemums, to chrysanthemums,
Death's just a footnote my Dulcinea.
From chrysanthemums, to chrysanthemums,
Other flowers may try in vain.
From chrysanthemums, to chrysanthemums,
Men can cry but women rain.
I'm here! I came!
But really would have liked just one more time
Just to drag my bones towards the sunlight
To tomorrow, to spring.
I'm here, I arrived!
But really would have liked just one more time
Just to see if the river's still flowing
And the port's just a port,
To see myself once more.
I'm here, I came,
But why my, why now, why today?
Why am I still alive?
I'm here, and of course I've arrived;
I never seem to be able to do anything
But arrive.
From chrysanthemums, to chrysanthemums,
Each time even more alone.
From chrysanthemums, to chrysanthemums,
Every time the numbers grow.
But I'm here! I came!
But what I really would have liked
Was some more time to take a lover
Like you take your train
To be alone, to be anywhere, to be content.
I'm here, I arrived,
But I guess I really would have liked
Just one more time to fill a body
With starlight and trembles, falling like ashes,
Burned from love, I'm here.
I came, I arrived,
And don't you think that you're so great;
You're not ahead of me - I guess I'm the one who's just late
I'm here, I arrived,
I never seem to be able to do anything in my life,
But arrive.
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3. |
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Before the hairless asses there was liberty,
Even the flower and the bird were free.
But now they've arrived all the plants have been put in pots
And the birds are all in cages if they're not already shot.
Because they invented prison and the condemned,
Criminal records and innocent men.
They cut their own tongues to protect the nobility
Even though they claim to act with civility,
The apes, the apes, the apes of our society.
Oh, before them there were no problems:
Bananas could be eaten any time, including Lent.
But the they arrived with their intolerance
And the God-given will to stop other people's intolerance.
For they're the ones that started the Templar crusades,
The hunt for infidels and the purchasing of slaves.
And then those who don't want to hunt are treated with hostility.
Because that's what they call civilised society,
The apes, the apes, the apes of our society.
Before them man was a prince,
Woman was a princess and love was a province
But since they've arrived the province is in drought,
The prince is a tramp and the princess sells herself.
They invented love which is a sin.
Love which is a business, the business of virgins
Where a man's worth is valued by his virility
And then they claim to act with civility!
The apes, the apes, the apes of our society.
Before them there was peace on Earth
For every ten elephants there was only one soldier
But then they arrived and the elephants have all been beaten
And the reason of the state chased away the real reasons.
They invented all the instruments of torture,
The electric chair, the Nazi gas chambers,
Bombs full of napalm and all other atrocities
And that's since they've had that 'civility'!
The apes, the apes, the apes of our society.
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4. |
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It's too easy to enter the churches
And beg for your salvation,
Face the priest who sits in the grey light
And forgives you for all that you've done.
But keep quiet, great Jacques,
What do you know of the Lord?
A hymn and maybe an icon,
You know that's nothing at all.
It's too easy when wars are over
To go out shouting that it was out last,
Bourgeois friend, I envy you
When you look straight through our graveyards.
But keep quiet, great Jacques,
What do you know about war?
Let them all weep with joy;
You were never a soldier before.
It's too easy for love to die away,
Especially when it's stretched too far.
It's too easy to weep like all men weep,
As if love were forever.
But keep quiet, great Jacques,
What do you know about love?
Some blue eyes, some blonde hair,
You don't know what you're speaking of.
But keep quiet, great Jacques,
Tell yourself at the day's end;
It's too easy to just pretend.
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5. |
Death (La Mort, 1959)
03:36
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My death waits like a maid at night,
At the swinging of the scythe,
To gather up the time that passes.
My death waits just like a princess
At the funeral of my youthfulness,
To remind me that time passes.
My death waits like Maleficent,
On the day that we wed,
To laugh at us as time passes.
But whatever lies behind death's door,
There's nothing I can do.
Angel or demon, I don't care
Because in front of that door there is you.
Death waits for me under my bed
And stops me rising once I'm dead
He counts the clock until the time passes.
Death waits for me and for my friends
Who come to see me before life ends
Who tell me about the time that passes.
Death awaits in your cold hands
That close my eyes in the circumstance
That I'm lost to the time that passes.
But whatever lies behind death's door,
There's nothing I can do.
Angel or demon, I don't care
Because in front of that door there is you.
Death awaits in the last leaves
Of the coffins that were once trees
Now nailed together by the time that passes.
Death awaits me in the lilies
That you lay on top of me
That beautify the time that passes.
Death awaits me in my bed
The sheets of oblivion over my head
That shield me from the time that passes.
But whatever lies behind death's door,
There's nothing I can do.
Angel or demon, I don't care
Because in front of that door there is you.
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6. |
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Here's where I hide whenever the wind starts to rise
And blows that old sun through the skies, I cover my eyes.
Here's where I hide from every new love that tells me they love me
Just like the last one and the one before that.
Here's where I hide, here in the darkness
Where my shadow's not so big.
It's the shadow of the kisses I planted on you in my twenties.
Tell me: is it possible to live life to the full?
Here's where I kneel, I've already dropped
From the weight of this cross that I can't seem to shake off.
Here's where I kneel, surrounded by the shiver
And the shards of glass from that old broken mirror.
Here's where I kneel, all my hopes and my dreams
Have been turned into prayers
And all my prayers have gone unanswered
Because there's nobody up there.
Tell me: is it possible to live life to the full?
Here's where I lay; here in the arms of a young love
That I offered a flower and promised forever.
Here's where I lay; here's where I'll lose my mind
Being so bored by this reflection of time.
Here's where I'll lay; and my desires won't last 'till the end of the day
In this heat that the Devil's prepared because he knows I'm defeated
Tell me: is it possible to live life to the full?
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7. |
Isabel (Isabelle, 1959)
03:35
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When Isabel dreams, the whole world stops moving
When Isabel dreams in her cradle of joy
She's so mischievous and scheming,
She's the oasis of the Sahara,
She's the golden fish of China,
And the gardens of the Alhambra.
When Isabel dreams the whole world stops moving
When Isabel dreams in her cradle of joy.
She steals the flowers and the works of art
In her subconscious games
Just to put them in her heart when she dreams.
When Isabel laughs, the whole world stops moving
When Isabel laughs in her cradle of joy,
You know that she's a little thief
And she hides out in the wilderness
That the old King he tries to keep
Under the rule of the noblesse.
When Isabel laughs the whole world stops moving
When Isabel laughs in her cradle of joy,
She steals the windows of time
And she puts them inside her heart
And opens them to paradise
Every time that she laughs.
When Isabel sings the whole world stops moving
When Isabel sings in her cradle of joy
You know she's stealing the songs
That she's heard lovers sing
The kisses that catch the heart
Like umbrellas taking wind
When Isabel sings the whole world stops moving
When Isabel sings in her cradle of joy
She steals the velvet and silk
The singer offers to the princess
Just to put them in her voice, Isabel
When she sings.
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8. |
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My heart, my love, my soul,
My sky, my fire, my gold,
My snow, my rain, my hail, my honey, my spring,
My grail.
My wheat, my land, my home,
My flame, my earth, my stone,
My night, my thirst, my bread, my dawn, my twilight,
My bed.
My sail, my wave, my guide and my self,
My blood, my strength, my fever, my health,
My song, my laugh, my wine, my joy,
My dawn, my life, my faith and my cry.
My heart, my love, my soul,
My sky, my fire, my gold,
My body, my flesh, my plea,
Here they are now you've come back to me.
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9. |
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You come of age at 20 years
When you think you're gonna starve
But when your one and only fear
Is that you'll never clean your heart.
When you bite off more than you can chew
And think you're getting a head start
But you're only just a fool
Whose greed is bigger than his heart.
But the sweet smell of Lucerne
On your body clings to you
It's the smell of lovers spurned
For the beds of little virtue.
But when you drink you tell the truth,
You've still got your youth.
You come of age at 30 years
When your stomach starts to grow
When your belly starts to show
As it nibbles at your fears.
When your eyes grow heavier
And your wrinkles start to frown
Since they know that 30 years
Is the start of the great countdown.
So you send the old ones to the cave
And put a dunce's cap on God
But it's in the evenings that you crave a little
A little fire to warm your heart.
But when you drink you tell the truth,
You regret your youth.
You come of age at 60 years
When your belly rolls around
When your belly bloats around
Since it's eaten all your fears.
When your eyes begin to fail
When your eyes are out of tears
When your sight is growing dim
Because you've burned up all your years.
All of the pains of love will show
With every woman that you see
As they fall away like snow
And you realise love's not free.
But when you drink you tell the truth,
You miss your youth.
The golden age is when you're dead
And when they put you in the ground
And when they all huddle around
The stone they've placed above your head.
When your hands protect your chest
And you're laying, facing the clouds
And you're finally put to rest
Just to appease the crying crowd.
The age of gold comes after hell
It comes after the age of wealth
When your bones are turning to dirt
In the belly of the earth.
The golden age is just the truth,
You've lost your youth.
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10. |
Dear Jacques
03:24
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Dear Jacques,
What has the world become since you've been gone?
Can you tell me, is it any different
To the days you made the Paris Olympia burn?
Your name, your face, you tore up that place
Making soldiers out of troubadours,
Dear Jacques, encore.
Dear Jacques,
Oh how you dreamed of all the innocence we've lost
All of the days of youthful mystery
And lustful wondering about childhood.
Your words, your son, you could do no wrong
But you've left me wanting more.
Dear Jacques, encore.
Dear Jacques,
Oh what a mess we've made without your guiding voice
Can't you see we've turned all of our poetry into noise?
It's such a funny time to be alive.
But when I close my eyes, I can hear your voice
And you never left me at all,
Dear Jacques, you'll sing once more.
You're in the wind that blows through Bruges
You're in the sky that surrounds you,
You're everything under this Earth,
You're the Republic and the Flemish dirt,
The minds of Kings who cannot sleep,
And the eyes of the shepherd,
But the heart of the sheep...
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11. |
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My father said:
It's the north wind that makes the sea walls creak
At Scheveningen, at Scheveningen, petit,
It's so strong we no longer know who sails the sea, the North Sea.
It's the north wind that blows through eyes of Norsemen
Young and old, young and old,
And makes the tears (from the north)
Start to rise, start to rise in their eyes.
My father said:
It's the north wind that spins the earth around Bruges,
Around Bruges kiddo.
It's the north wind that spins the earth around the towers
Of Bruges and Gand
It gave our girls the peaceful look of old towns, of old towns,
It gave our girls the fragile hair that lays like lace
On their nightgowns, on their nightgowns.
My father said:
It's the north wind that shakes the earth
At Zeebrugge, at Zebrugge, little one.
It's the north wind that shakes the earth
Between Zeebrugge and England.
And London, before the flood,
Was the tip of Bruges teasing the sea.
And now London's a part of Bruges
Lost at sea, lost at sea, lost at sea.
My father said:
It's the north wind that'll bury my body, facing the sea.
It's the north wind that'll make a captain out of me.
And the whales and the tides, I'll tame them all;
Just wait and see.
It will make me captain of those I love and the waves.
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