Bill Callahan - Apocalypse Paroles / Lyrics

01. Drover

The real people went away
But I'll find a better way, someday
Leaving only me and my dreams
My cattle and a resonator

I drove all the beast down right under your nose
Lumbering footloose power
The bull and the rose
Don't touch them don't try to hurt them
My cattle

I drove them by the crops and thought the crops were lost
I consoled myself with rudimentary thoughts
And I set my watch against the city clock
It was way off

Yet one thing about this wild, wild country
It takes a strong, strong
It breaks a strong, strong mind
Yeah one thing about this wild, wild country
It takes a strong, strong
It breaks a strong, strong mind

And anything less, anything less
Makes me feel like I'm wasting my time

But the pain and frustration, is not mine
It belongs to the cattle, through the valley

And when my cattle turns on me
I was knocked back flat
I was knocked out cold for one clack of the train track
Then I rose a colossal hand buried, buried in sand
I rose like a drover
For I am in the end the drover
A drover by trade
When my cattle turns on me
I am a drover, double fold

My cattle bears it all the way for me and everyone
One, one, one, one, one, one ...

Yeah one thing about this wild, wild country
It takes a strong, strong
It breaks a strong, strong mind
And anything less, anything less
Makes me feel like I'm wasting my time

02. Baby breath

There grows a weed, looks like a flower
Looks like baby's breath on a mirror

My girl and I rushed atop the altar
The sacrifice was made
It was not easy undertaking
The roots gripped soft like a living grave

Oh young girl at the wedding
Baby's breath in her hair
A crowning lace above her face
That will last a day
Before it turns to hay

Good plans are made by hand
I'd cut a clearing in the land
And for a little bed
For her to cry comfortable in

And each day I looked out on the lawn
And I wondered what all was gone
Until I saw it was lucky old me
How could I run without losing anything?
How could I run without becoming lean?
It was agreed, it was agreed
It was me tearing out the baby's breath

Oh I am a helpless man, so help me
I'm on my knees gardening
It was not a weed, it was a flower
My baby's gone, oh where has my baby gone?
And she was not a weed, she was a flower

And now I know you must reap what you sow, or sing

03. America!

America! America! America! America!
You are so grand and gold, golden
Oh I wish I was deep in America tonight

America! America!
I watch David Letterman in Australia
Oh America!
You are so grand and gold, golden
I wish I was on the next flight to America

Captain Kristofferson
Buck Sergeant Newbury
Leatherneck Jones
Sergeant Cash
What an army, what an air force, what a marines
America!
I never served for my country
America! America!

Afghanistan, Vietnam, Iran, Native American
America!
Well everyone's allowed a past they don't care to mention
America! America!

Well it's hard to rouse a hog in delta
And it can get tense around the Bible belt
America! America!

All the lucky suckle teat
While the strong pig knuckle meat
Ain't enough teat, ain't enough teat, ain't enough teat
Ain't enough teat, ain't enough teat, ain't enough to eat
In America
America! America!
In America

 

04. Universal Applicant

Without work's calving increments
Or love's coltish punch
What would I be?
An animalis isthmus
Beyond the sea

Oh bees only swarm when they're looking for a home
So I followed them
I found the bees nest in the buffalo's chest
I drank their honey, that milk
I've seen this taste cased in almost every face
That's working to see it in all
And this kidnaps me

Tied up in a boat and kicked off to sea
In tight baby binding technique
My arm chews through the swaddling slings
There's a flare gun in my hand
I point it straight and point it high
To the universe it applies

It lit things up in lavender
Where I'd been was my goal
I saw the calf
I saw the bees
I saw the buffalo and the colt
Well I'm sure they all laughed at me
At me so low in my boat

The flare burnt and fell
The boat burnt as well

And the punk
And the lunk
And the drunk
And the skunk
And the hunk
And the monk in me
All sunk
Sunk, sunk, sunk, sunk, sunk

05. Riding for the feeling

It's never easy to say goodbye
To the faces
So rarely do we see another one
So close and so long

I asked the room if I'd said enough
No one really answered
They just said, "Don't go, don't go"
Well all this leaving is neverending

I kept hoping for one more question
Or for someone to say,
"Who do you think you are?"
So I could tell them

With intensity, the drop evaporates by law
In conclusion, leaving is easy
When you've got some place you need to be
I'm giving up this gig for another season

With the TV on mute
I'm listening back to the tapes
On the hotel bed
My my my apocalypse

I realized I had said very little about ways or wheels
Or riding for the feeling
Riding for the feeling
Is the fastest way to reach the shore

On water or land
Riding for the feeling

What if I had stood there at the end
And said again and again and again and again and again
An answer to every question
Riding for the feeling

Would that have been a suitable goodbye?

06. Free’s

I'm standing in a field
A field of questions
As far as the eye can see
Is this what it means to be free?
Or is this what it means to belong to the free?

To be free in bad times
And good
To belong to being derided for things I don't believe
And lauded for things I did not do

If this is what it means to be free
Then I'm free and I belong to the free
And the free
They belong to me

07. One fine Morning

One fine morning
I'm gonna ride out
Yeah one fine morning
I'm gonna ride out

Just me and a skeleton crew
We're gonna ride out in a country kind of silence
We're gonna ride out in a country silence

Yeah one fine morning
Yeah it's all coming back to me now
My apocalypse, my apocalypse
The curtain rose and burned
In the morning sun
Yeah the curtain rose and burned
In the morning sun

And the mountains
And the mountains bowed down
In the morning sun
Like a ballet of the heart
Yeah the mountains bowed down
Like a ballet
In the morning sun

And the baby and we all lay in state
Yeah the baby and we all lay in state
And I say "Hey no more drovering"
I say "Hey no more drovering"

When the earth turns cold
And the earth turns black
Will I feel you riding on my back?
Yeah when the earth turns cold
And the earth turns black
Will I feel you riding on my back?

And for I am a part of the row
Yeah I am a part of the row
The hardest part
The hardest part

My apocalypse
DC 4 5 0
DC 4 5 0