Anita Lane Lyrics

Lyrics by Anita Lane, through 1995 or so.

Thanks to Emme and others. (If you care to be listed, please let me know.)

Table of Contents

Blume

Chrysantemum
    For you I am a chrysantemum
    Supernova, urgent star

Astera Compositae
    For you I'll be a dandelion
    a thousand flowerettes in the sky
    Or just a drop in the ocean

    If you know my name
    don't speak it out
    it holds a power - as before

Lilacea
    A lily of the valley
    a flower of saron

Helianthus annus
    For you I even be a sunflower
    Do you hear my enlightening laughter?
    another reason to cut off an ear

    You know my name, do you not?
    don't say it
    For it is sacred, immovable - frozen

Rosa, Anemone et Nymphea alba
    I'll even be a waterlily
    a marygold, a rose
    or a little thistle

Euphorbia
    a blue dahlia, a black tulip
    that's where opinions differ
    the scholars disagree

    My name, should you know it
    remains unspeakable
    and is spoken - malediction

----
(Lane, Bargeld /Unruh, Chung, Hacke, Bargeld, Einheit)
Released on 'Dirty Pearl'

Return to Top

Dead Joe

Oh-ho-ho-ho Dead Joe
Welcome to the car smash
Dead Joe
Junk sculpture turning back to junk Dead Joe
Oh joe nooooo! it's christmas time Joe
it's christmas time now for you and all the little
bells are hanging 2X2 the holly and the nativity
oh speak to me Joe speak to me Joe speak to me Joe
oh-oh-oh-ho
Dee---e---e--e--e-e-ad Joe
welcome to the car crash
you can't tell the boys from the girls anymore
oh-ho-ho
Dead Joe, the end.

----
(The Birthday Party - 'Junkyard', 4AD 1982)
Transcribed by Lehn Fitzgerald (and here stolen from Cave Inn).
The lyric was written by Nick Cave and Anita Lane

Return to Top

Dead Song, A

This is True
Mister nothing said forever said
I can sing
Hit it! Make it a dead one
with words like
blood, soldier mother
O.K. O.k.
I want to sleep before the end
which is impolite
Hit It! Make it a dead one
If nothing crops up
I'll give you a ring
you can sing the end
o.k o.k.
then I could get
all the little animals out of my room
Hit it! With a broom
O.k O.k
Put them in a big white sack
no visitors came
hit it! With words like.....
Thou shalt not
The end

----
(The Birthday Party - 'Prayers On Fire', 4AD 1981)
Transcribed by Lehn Fitzgerald (and here stolen from Cave Inn).
The lyric was written by Nick Cave and Anita Lane

Return to Top

From Her To Eternity

Ah wanna tell ya 'bout a girl
You kno, she lives in Apt. 29
Why... that's the one right up top a mine
Ah start to cry, Ah start to cry

O ah hear her walkin
Walkin barefoot cross the floor-boards
All thru this lonesome night
And ah hear her crying too.
Hot-tears come splashin on down
Leaking thru the cracks,
Down upon my face, ah catch'em in my mouth!
Walk'n'cry Walk'n'cry-y!!!

From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!

Ah read her diary on her sheets
Scrutinizin every lil piece of dirt
Tore out a page'n'stufft it inside my shirt
Fled outa the window,
And shinning it down the vine
Outa her night-mare, and back into mine
Mine! O Mine!

From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!
Cry! Cry! CRY!

She's wearing them bloo-stockens, ah bet!
and standin like this with my ear to the ceiling
Listen ah kno it must sound absurd
but ah can hear the most melancholy sound
ah ever heard!
Walk'n'cry! Kneel'n'cry-y!

From her to eternity!
From her to eternity!

O tell me why? Why? Why?
Why the ceiling still shakes?
Why the fixtures turn to serpants snakes?

This desire to possess her is a wound
and its naggin at me like a shrew
but, ah kno, that to possess her
Is, therefore, not to desire her.

O o o then ya kno, that lil girl would just have to go!
Go! Go-o-o! From her to eternity!

----
(Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - 'From Her To Eternity', Mute Records 1984)
Anita Lane was credited for co-writing the lyric, but it's unclear what exactly her input really was.

Return to Top

Fullness Of His Coming, The

His boots are snapping twigs
He's got big boots on
I can hear the earth he's crushing
He's got big boots on
It's the fullness of his coming
Splitting up the concrete
The earth quakes
Splitting up the concrete
The earth quakes and waits
I lifted up God's dress
Punched him and got in
I lifted up God's tiny dress
And punched him again
He's stomping down
He's breaking down
He's breaking down Berlin's back fence
Oh how I fall
Oh how full
It's the fullness of his coming
And he's only coming for me

----
(Lane/Cave)
Released on 'Dirty Pearl'

Return to Top

Groovy Guru, The

Oh firefly
Stay by me
So I may see
Where I may tread
Who knows where
By the light of others
I may be led

The man was wild and thirsty
He asked her for a dollar
They're good words she said
But I am empty of them
This new kind of madness is a gift
She was looking for the groovy guru

A rock man climbed out of her TV
He said the animals think I am a poet
She washed his face
And kicked him in the teeth
And she said "Yeah"

He's like Plato on death she said
As her touching eye flamed upon the stove
She was cooking for the groovy guru

All her selves collide
She's on a downward slide
"El Greco is that you?"
There's someone at her side
He is dressed in his Sunday best
His coat is red
And his breeches are blue
And there's a hole where his tail comes through
She was looking for the groovy guru

In Hell girl's sit around
With their legs open and everybody laughs
You've got to crawl
Baby doll
To find
The groovy guru
If you want to find the groovy guru

----
(Lane/Harvey)
Released on 'Dirty Pearl'

Return to Top

I'm A Believer

I'm a believer
I fell down in sorrows garden
Wet night flowers
Red and black
Push me up
They can't give me up
They taste my touch
I tell them baby
I call them baby baby baby
They are crushed
Stars spit down
They try to hammer me underground
There is a black rainbow astride
This hallowed ground
Black rainbow
I pull it down
I pull it down
This nervous night
Swallows the eye
I drown my hands
I lay them down
The fools
Seduction tools
Let you go
Into the sun
The earth tightens
The dirt delivers me
I believe
I'm a believer baby
I believe you
Brought me
Undone

Don't push me away
Don't give me away
Believe in me

Thank you

----
(Lane/Lane, Cave)
Released on 'Dirty Sings', Re-released on 'Dirty Pearl'

Return to Top

If I Should Die

If I should die
Before I wake
Please dear friend
My soul to take
And if my eyes in freeze
Embrace an unkind
Vision of you
Lock tight my lids
With your lips fast kiss
If you made her heart beat faster
Steal from her just one throb
Open my vein
That corridor
That sewer

And whisper down the same
First your breath
Then your name
One fine breath
In that cold red nest
That should rob
That chamber
Of its horror
But if I in silence
You cannot trust
To have that word
Rest in my blood's dust
Throw the part away
Then I shall not name you

And if my mouth should open
And I say
I love you
Put your fingers to my lips
And push the soul
Back in the hole
Take my hair
Bind tight your eyes and ears
And as you take your leave
So too take tight
Her warm hand
For she cannot hear me say
Stay

----
(Lane/Adamson)
Released on 'Dirty Sings', Re-released on 'Dirty Pearl'

Return to Top

Jesus Almost Got Me

There's a keyhole in my can of beer
And there's an eye behind it
Sizing me up and sizing me down
My hangover's becoming a thorny crown
And dawn is coming over me

Love is cruel
Love is truly absurd
Jesus almost got me
I don't know how many prayers he overheard

There's no relief in the garden
The morning birds are like nerves
The hand of the man that stilled the water
The hand that calmed the sea
Is pouring a drink for me

Love is cruel
Love is truly absurd
Jesus almost got me
I don't know how many prayers he overheard

----
(Lane/Harvey)
Released on 'Dirty Pearl'

Return to Top

Kiss Me Black

Now they put the stink on us
stuffed us fulla incubus
choc-o-block with sucubus
never more than fuck to us
c'mon and kiss me black

----
(The Birthday Party - 'Junkyard', 4AD 1982)
Transcribed by Lehn Fitzgerald (and here stolen from Cave Inn).

Return to Top

Lost In Music

We're lost in music
Caught in a trap
There's no turning back
We're lost in music

We're lost in music
I feel so alive
I quit my 9 to 5
We're lost in music

Have you ever seen
Some people who's everything
Fits the girl with their mind
Responsibility, to me, it's a tragedy
I'll get a job some other time

I wanna join a band,
Play in front of crazy fans
Yes, call that temptation
Give me the melody
That's all that I'll ever need
The music is my salvation

We're lost in music
Caught in a trap
There's no turning back
We're lost in music

We're lost in music
I feel so alive
I quit my 9 to 5
We're lost in music

In the spotlight
the band gets so very tight
each and every nite
it's their vanity
To me it's my sanity
I could never survive

Some people ask me
What are ya gonna be?
Whay don't you go get a job?
All that I can say
I won't give up my music
I mean not now, later (...)

We're lost in music
Caught in a trap
There's no turning back
We're lost in music

We're lost in music
I feel so alive
I quit my 9 to 5
We're lost in music

We're lost in music
Caught in a trap
There's no turning back
We're lost in music

We're lost in music
I feel so alive
I quit my 9 to 5
We're lost in music

We're lost in music
Caught in a trap
There's no turning back
We're lost in music

We're lost in music...
(fade)

----
(Edwards/Rogers - Warner Chappel Music ltd.)
Originally Performed by Sister Sledge
Transcribed by Ross (http://www.bad-seed.org/) (and Tor-Erik Ulriksborg)
Released on 'Dirty Sings'

Return to Top

Picture Of Mary

Old man where have you been?
"Oh I was strange back when I was waiting"
And he stares
Out the window
And he shines
And the moon shines
And someone's sun shines
Somewhere
"I used to feel saved when I brushed my mothers hair"
"Now I'm found"
"This picture of Mary"
Old man what are you afraid of?
"Seeing. People seeing"
Well what do you believe in
"Seeing. People seeing"
People seeing
My picture
Of Mary
"Don't be alarmed"
Madness is just a voice
And he described
A beautiful world
In the dust
On the window ledge
With the edge
Of his picture
Of Mary
And he stares
And he shines
And the moon shines
And someone's sun shines
Somewhere.

----
(Lane/Bargeld)
Released on 'Dirty Pearl'

Return to Top

Prison In The Desert, A

[Howling, whispers and moans]

----
(Vocals by Lane, Music by Cave/Bargeld/Harvey)
Released on the soundtrack to 'Ghosts of the Civil Dead'

Return to Top

Sexual Healing

Heal me, my darling
Heal me, my darling
Oh, baby, let's make love tonight
Baby, my heart is like an oven
I need some lovin'
And baby, I can't hold much longer
It's getting stronger and stronger
And when I get that feeling
I want sexual healing
Sexual healing, oh baby
Makes me feel so fine
Helps to relieve my mind
Sexual healing is good for me
Sexual healing is something that's good for me
Whenever blue tear drops are falling
And my emotional stability is leaving me
There is something I can do
I can get on the telephone and call you up, baby
Darling, I know you'll be there to relieve me
The love you give to me will free me
If you don't know the things you're dealing
I can tell you, darling, that it's sexual healing
Get up, get up, get up, get up, let's make love tonight
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, because you do it right
Baby, I got sick this morning
A sea was storming inside of me
Baby I think I'm capsizing
The waves are rising and rising
And when I get that feeling
I want sexual healing
Sexual healing is good for me
Makes me feel so fine, it's such a rush
Helps to relieve my mind, and it's good for us
Sexual healing, it's good for me
Sexual healing is something that's good for me
Come take control, just grab a hold
Of my body and mind, and soon we'll be making it, honey
You're my medicine, open up and let me in
Oh, darling, you're so great
I can't wait to operate
Let's make love tonight, because you do it right

Sexual healing, oh
Sexual healing, m-m
Makes me feel so fine
Helps to relieve my mind
Sexual healing
Sexual healing

Heal me, my darling,
Feel me, my darling,

----
(Gaye/Brown/Ritz - EMI Songs ltd.)
Originally performed by Marvin Gaye
Transcribed by Tor-Erik Ulriksborg

Return to Top

Stories Of Your Dreams

In the early morning night
You stumble on in fright
Crying in a doorway
Like it's a righteous haunting
You recite your life
And stories of your dreams
And stories of your lovers
And stories of your kisses
And stories of your dreams
What far flung embrace
Did you wander from
What unseen disgrace calls you on
What sleep abandoned
Brought you to this place
With this talk of bended knees
And stories of your dreams
And stories of your lovers
And stories of your kisses
And stories of your dreams

----
(Lane/Hacke)
Released on 'Dirty Pearl'

Return to Top

Stranger Than Kindness

Stranger than kindness
Bottled light from hotels
Spilling everything
Wet hand from the volcano
Sobers your skin
Stranger than Kindness
You caress yourself
And grind my soft cold bones below
Your map of desire
Burned in your flesh
Even a fool can come
A strange lit stair
And find a rope hanging there
Stranger than kindness

Keys rain like heaven's hair
There is no home there is no bread
We sit at the gate and scratch
The gaunt fruit of passion
Dies in the light
Stranger than kindness

Your sleeping hands journey
They loiter
Stranger than kindness
You hold me so carelessly close
Tell me I'm dirty
Stranger than kindness

----
(Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - 'Your Funeral, My Trial', Mute Records 1986)
The lyric was written by Anita Lane.

Return to Top

Subterranean World (How Long....?)

How long have we known each other now?
Five, ten years
And I guess we've changed
And we'd run into each other in the subterranean world

With the extras in their fright wigs and fins
On their way from funkhole to dugout
And one night would keel into another
And there would never seem to be a day

And hey you used to say
You were polishing up
On your survival tactics (techniques)
For the end of the world
And you, you used to dig your beak
Into my ear saying: "nothing"
Like a secret

How long have we known each other now?
Fifteen, twenty years maybe
And certainly we've changed
And we'd run into each other in the subterranean world

And before I knew you or before we met
Oh yes, way before then I was itching in the cradle
Making my way toward the slime pits
And the sludge traps
Looking for love
And the bushy brats turned out from
The western burgs
Minced in the powdermills
Noctambulating around nowheresville
And some were so desperate to sleep
The only retreat was the sad dormitory
Yes, one would go for a rest (or a test?)

How long have we known each other now?
Up to thirty years I guess
And maybe we have changed
And didn't we see each other in the subterranean world?

And you, did you already have your headress? -Hmm, yes
I used to dress up like a girl
And how did you ever make it back home?
I'd leave a trail of pearls
Did you ever see a doctor - or a priest?
Oh yeah - a priest
Do you remember the guy with the sign
"The end is nigh"?
That was me (do you remember what was written on the back?)

And do you rememer the guy with a boxfull of wind?
Or maybe it was a cassette
I don't really
I don't know either - or was it me?

How long have we known each other now?
I've never seen you in my life!
Forty years?
How long have we known each other now?
Sixty, seventy, eighty years
I've never seen you in my life
And I hope we've changed
And we've never seen each other in the subterranean life

----
(Lane, Bargeld/Arbeit, Dreher, Lingk, Wydler)
Released on 'Dirty Pearl'

Return to Top

Sugar In A Hurricane

The whispers cut like hard rain
Like sugar in a hurricane
Like tears from a gun
All blood and sun
Well the holes from your pretty swords
I fill them up with hush
Hush words
And I hum
Shut your wings little flower
Shut your wings
Little flower

And fearing no-one
He said
"Bow unto me"
But no-one could hear him
So great was the grinding and gnashing of wings
Shut your wings little flower
Shut your wings

----
(Lane/Beale, Harvey)
Released on 'Dirty Sings', Re-released on 'Dirty Pearl'

Return to Top

Truck Love

Truck love! Right here!
Truck love! Right now!
Bewitched by pure power. That's truck love!
In the gully of your choice. Truck love!
Jam-up on a leaping tree. Head on! Head first!
And God came down and talked to me
And I dammn nearly wept.
Tears rolling down the dash! Tears rolling down the dash!
We can't stop the monster rolling
We can't stop the monster rolling
We can't stop the monster rolling
We can't stop the monster rolling
Rise to power! Rise to power!
Rise to power! Rise to power!
You stare bright like gold
Eye-spot interference all across the fucking road.
Burn my eyes! Burn my eyes! Baybeeeeee!
My hands are shaking when I'm touching ya
My hands are shaking when I'm touching ya
They keep shaking when I ain't
They keep shaking when I ain't

Truck love! Truck love!
Pit-stop lovers!
Right now and the now is right!
This higway is done bent on killing us
Testing every nerve that we possess between us.
The face of Christ is leaping from the storm
The face of Christ is leaping from the storm
You tend to get religious on these runs.
Rise to power! Rise to power!
Rise to power! Rise to power!
Divine power has gone crawled into this tank
Every metal muscle flexed and puping at the crank.
Pumping at my axis. Rendering me sexless.
Mega-tons of muscle kicking dust across Texas.
Truck love! Out on the city limits
Drive straight into the eye of the next town we hit
Gun it once for the hillbillys
Just to make them shit.

Fuck love! This is truck love!
Fuck love! This is truck love!
The dolls on the grill are caked in bloody bug guts
The dolls on the grill are caked in bloody bug guts
Truck love! Truck love!
Rise to power! Rise to power!
The dolls on the grill are caked in bloody bug guts
The dolls on the grill are caked in bloody bug guts
Truck love! Truck love!
There are things burning in the desert
Rise to power! Rise to power!
There are things burning in the desert
Rise to power! Rise to power!
There are things burning in the desert

----
(Lane, Cave)
Transcribed by Mark Brown (and here stolen from Cave Inn).

Return to Top

World's A Girl, The

You said the world's a girl
And I'm taking her apart
And when I cried you said
Beggar girl laugh
When my protests went wild
You brushed me aside
Like the finger of a child
When I closed my eyes
You took me from the pedestal
Down to the abyss
My soul was but consumed
I thought you were inspired
But you were just possessed

Now I have moved on
Your face is nearly gone
But your words hold me still
Silence to my will

----
(Lane/Harvey)
Released on 'Dirty Pearl'

Return to Top

----**----

Return to the Lyrics and Chords page.