PYNCHON CYCLE

Intro

Cheap sax, bad gin
Everybody falling in
Laugh too loud, sleep too late
Love comes wearing roller skates

Verse 1

We were holy in the diner
We were broke behind the eyes
We had theories about nothing
We had pockets full of lies

Rachel had a fast car
Benny had a grin
Paola sang in doorways
Where the night came stumbling in

Pre-Chorus

No one had a future
No one had a clue
So we called it freedom
Like the young and ruined do

Chorus

We are the whole sick crew
Dancing in the blue
Waiting for a sign
From a god we never knew

We are the whole sick crew
Laughing till we’re through
If the city wants a fever
We can give it one or two

Verse 2

There were parties in apartments
With the windows painted shut
There were poets in the bathtub
There were prophets in the rut

Someone tuned a broken trumpet
Someone stole a kiss
Someone found a little meaning
And immediately ruined it

Pre-Chorus 2

No one said forever
No one said be true
We were only trying
To be anyone but who

Chorus

We are the whole sick crew
Dancing in the blue
Waiting for a signal
From a wire nobody knew

We are the whole sick crew
Laughing till we’re through
If the city wants a fever
We can give it one or two

Bridge

Snap the fingers
Kill the light
Call the morning impolite

Bless the bottle
Curse the rent
Spend the money
Heaven sent

Every heart here
Has a crack
Every joke here
Jokes you back

Every face in
This room knows
Nothing grows
But still it grows

Verse 3

By sunrise we were quieter
By noon we were ashamed
By evening we were legends
With nobody to blame

The city kept on breathing
Through its dirty golden teeth
And we mistook the choking
For a kind of underneath

Final Chorus

We are the whole sick crew
Dancing in the blue
Making little religions
Out of everything we lose

We are the whole sick crew
Beautiful and used
If the city wants a fever
Honey, let it choose

Outro

Cheap sax, bad gin
Everybody falling in
Laugh too loud, sleep too late
Love comes wearing roller skates

Love comes wearing roller skates
Love comes wearing roller skates
And crashes through the gate

Intro

Stand-up bass in a rented room
Bongos talking to a crooked moon
Neon saints in a cocktail glass
Everybody says she just walked past

Verse 1

I saw her first in a harbor town
With a cigarette and a foreign name
She had one eye made of winter
And one hand full of flame

She spoke in several alphabets
But never said a thing
She wore a dress like midnight
And a mechanical ring

Pre-Chorus

Was she a woman
Was she a street
Was she the sound of history
Learning how to cheat

Chorus

V. is not a woman
V. is not a name
V. is just the wound
Where the century became

V. is not a lover
V. is not a saint
She’s the shape the truth makes
When it learns to faint

Verse 2

There were sailors in the alley
There were scholars in the bar
There were spies beneath the jukebox
Counting every falling star

Someone said she came from Malta
Someone swore she died in Rome
Someone kissed her broken shoulder
And forgot the way back home

Pre-Chorus 2

Was she a country
Was she a crime
Was she the girl in the photograph
Escaping every time

Chorus

V. is not a woman
V. is not a name
V. is just the wound
Where the century became

V. is not a lover
V. is not a saint
She’s the shape the truth makes
When it learns to faint

Bridge

Follow her down
Follow her through
Follow the rumor
Till the rumor follows you

Ask every mirror
Pay every priest
Buy every map
Of the beautiful disease

But every answer
Takes off its skin
And underneath it
There she is again

Final Chorus

V. is not a woman
V. is not a name
V. is the dirty alphabet
Spelling out the flame

V. is not a lover
V. is not a saint
She’s the face of the machine
When the machine learns paint

Outro

Stand-up bass in a rented room
Bongos talking to a crooked moon
Neon saints in a cocktail glass
Everybody says she just walked past

Just walked past
Just walked past
Or maybe never was

Intro

Spy-guitar, brushed snare
Smoke gets married to the air
A man in linen writes it down
V. was seen in every town

Verse 1

Stencil had a suitcase
Full of names that didn’t fit
Every clue became a costume
Every candle counterfeit

He followed her through postcards
Through cafés, wars, hotels
Through the perfume of old empires
And the ringing of dead bells

Pre-Chorus

The more he found
The less he knew
The line he chased
Became a noose

Chorus

Stencil’s fever
Burns in the file
Every woman is a cipher
Every country is a smile

Stencil’s fever
Bright and obscene
He keeps looking for the human
In the gears of the machine

Verse 2

There was V. in a mirror
There was V. in a wound
There was V. in the music
Of a badly tuned saloon

There was V. in the harbor
There was V. in the wires
There was V. in the sermon
Of the fashionable liars

Pre-Chorus 2

History winked
And changed its dress
He called it pattern
She called it yes

Chorus

Stencil’s fever
Burns in the file
Every woman is a cipher
Every country is a smile

Stencil’s fever
Bright and obscene
He keeps looking for the human
In the gears of the machine

Bridge

Ask the colonel
Ask the nun
Ask the sailor
Ask the gun

Ask the dancer
Ask the clerk
Ask the shadow
After work

Every witness
Wants a fee
Every answer
Signs with V.

And when the archive
Starts to sing
You can hear
The metal thing

Final Chorus

Stencil’s fever
Burns in the file
Every lover is a border
Every kiss becomes a trial

Stencil’s fever
Cold and clean
He keeps looking for the human
In the gears of the machine

Stencil’s fever
No release
He mistook the missing person
For a masterpiece

Outro

Spy-guitar, brushed snare
Smoke gets married to the air
A man in linen writes it down
V. was seen in every town

Every town
Every wound
Every room
Every ruin
V. was there
V. was gone
V. goes on

Intro

Mandolin trembles, trumpet bends
Old world waltz with criminal friends
Salt on the table, blood in the wine
Malta smiles and sharpens the line

Verse 1

The harbor had a holy smell
Of oranges and rust
A soldier kissed a postcard
Then turned it into dust

There were candles in the windows
There were whispers in the square
There were women dressed in mourning
With artillery in their hair

Pre-Chorus

Every island has a secret
Every chapel has a door
Every empire comes to kneel
Then asks for more

Chorus

Malta with a knife in her smile
Dancing on the edge of the sea
She says, “Love is only history
Trying to look like me”

Malta with a knife in her smile
Bless the wound and ring the bell
If heaven has a harbor
Then the ships are bound for hell

Verse 2

V. was seen in lace and fever
V. was seen in polished stone
V. was seen beside a cannon
Talking softly to a bone

She had pearls beneath her eyelids
She had gears below her skin
When she laughed, the pigeons scattered
Like a telegram of sin

Pre-Chorus 2

Was she saint or ammunition
Was she bride or colony
Was she only what the powerful
Need beauty to be

Chorus

Malta with a knife in her smile
Dancing on the edge of the sea
She says, “Love is only history
Trying to look like me”

Malta with a knife in her smile
Bless the wound and ring the bell
If heaven has a harbor
Then the ships are bound for hell

Bridge

Paint her gold
Name her pure
Lock the gate
Call it cure

Take her pulse
Count the fleet
Kiss the ground
Burn the street

Every prayer
Has a tax
Every flag
Has a wax

Every statue
Starts to bleed
When the tourists
Learn to read

Final Chorus

Malta with a knife in her smile
Laughing in the cannon smoke
She says, “Truth is just a costume
That forgot it was a joke”

Malta with a knife in her smile
Hold the lantern, hide the shell
If heaven has a harbor
Then the ships are bound for hell

Outro

Mandolin trembles, trumpet bends
Old world waltz with criminal friends
Salt on the table, blood in the wine
Malta smiles
Malta smiles
And sharpens the line

Intro

Music-box piano, needle thin
Clockwork clicking under skin
Lounge band dying in the dark
Porcelain girl, mechanical heart

Verse 1

She sat beneath the chandelier
With a crack across her face
Every gentleman admired
How beautifully she broke in place

Her wrists were full of tiny springs
Her eyes were painted blue
She had the stillness of a doll
That knows too much of you

Pre-Chorus

They called her perfect
They called her art
They never asked
Who wound the heart

Chorus

Porcelain girl, mechanical heart
Who took the body and called it smart
Who taught the wound to play its part
Porcelain girl, mechanical heart

Porcelain girl, mechanical heart
Smile for the century, fall apart
Beauty is easy when no one starts
Asking who broke the heart

Verse 2

V. was there in velvet gloves
V. was there in dental gold
V. was there when every human thing
Was measured, filed, and sold

They polished up the evidence
They dressed the bruise in lace
They said the future loves a girl
Who disappears with grace

Pre-Chorus 2

The doctor smiled
The colonel bowed
The room applauded
Not too loud

Chorus

Porcelain girl, mechanical heart
Who took the body and called it smart
Who taught the wound to play its part
Porcelain girl, mechanical heart

Porcelain girl, mechanical heart
Smile for the century, fall apart
Beauty is easy when no one starts
Asking who broke the heart

Bridge

Turn the key
Lower the light
Teach the doll
To sleep upright

Oil the jaw
Paint the tear
Make her say
“I volunteered, dear”

Bless the gear
Bless the seam
Bless the man
Who owns the dream

But somewhere under
Chrome and pearl
There was once
A breathing girl

Final Chorus

Porcelain girl, mechanical heart
Who took the body and called it art
Who hid the murder inside the chart
Porcelain girl, mechanical heart

Porcelain girl, mechanical heart
Smile for the century, fall apart
Beauty is easy when no one starts
Asking who broke the heart

Outro

Music-box piano, needle thin
Clockwork clicking under skin
Lounge band dying in the dark
Porcelain girl
Porcelain girl
Mechanical heart

Intro

One note organ, subway hum
V. on the wall where the rain runs from
Bottlecap moon, cigarette dawn
The letter stays when the girl is gone

Verse 1

There’s a mark on every doorway
There’s a scratch behind the bar
There’s a letter in the gutter
There’s a woman in the scar

I followed it through winter
I followed it through gin
I followed it through every room
That wouldn’t let me in

Pre-Chorus

A name becomes a rumor
A rumor becomes a street
A street becomes a body
You are too afraid to meet

Chorus

It’s an alphabet wound
It’s a beautiful bruise
It’s the shape of what you wanted
When it learned how to refuse

It’s an alphabet wound
It’s a city in a sign
It’s the girl you never found
Becoming every line

Verse 2

There were boys with broken theories
There were girls with burning shoes
There were saints in dirty diners
There were prophets selling news

The jukebox had a fever
The payphone had a name
Every quarter that I dropped in
Came back spelling flame

Pre-Chorus 2

A kiss becomes a border
A border becomes a war
A war becomes a mirror
Asking what you came here for

Chorus

It’s an alphabet wound
It’s a beautiful bruise
It’s the shape of what you wanted
When it learned how to refuse

It’s an alphabet wound
It’s a city in a sign
It’s the girl you never found
Becoming every line

Bridge

V. for vanished
V. for vain
V. for velvet
V. for vein

V. for voltage
V. for vice
V. for virgin
V. for knife

V. for vessel
V. for void
V. for every human thing
The century destroyed

Final Chorus

It’s an alphabet wound
It’s a beautiful bruise
It’s the shape of what you worshipped
When it turned and worshipped you

It’s an alphabet wound
It’s a city in a sign
It’s the girl you never found
Becoming every line

Outro

One note organ, subway hum
V. on the wall where the rain runs from
Bottlecap moon, cigarette dawn
The letter stays
The letter stays
When the girl is gone

Intro

Ragtime piano with a crooked grin
Brass band coughing through a paper-thin sky
Theremin ghost on a telephone wire
Everybody waves as the airships rise

Verse 1

We were clean in our uniforms
White as milk, white as lies
With a compass full of sermons
And a telescope for eyes

Below us, all the smokestacks
Signed their names in coal
Every factory was praying
For another human soul

Pre-Chorus

Light came in divided
Blue, gold, violet, red
Somebody called it science
Somebody counted the dead

Chorus

Oh, the boys above the weather
Never hear the hammers ring
They only see the sunrise
On the bright side of everything

Oh, the boys above the border
With the anthem in their teeth
Flying over all the trouble
Growing teeth beneath

Verse 2

There were maps that kept on changing
There were flags that learned to bleed
There were gentlemen with ledgers
Selling heaven by the deed

In the carnival of progress
Every miracle had strings
Every angel had investors
Every bird had iron wings

Pre-Chorus 2

We looked down through the lenses
Till the world began to bend
A city became a cipher
A brother became a trend

Chorus

Oh, the boys above the weather
Never hear the mothers sing
They only see the sunrise
On the bright side of everything

Oh, the boys above the border
With the future underneath
Flying over all the trouble
Growing teeth beneath

Bridge

Crank the handle
Strike the match
Wind the coil
Close the hatch

Bless the engine
Name the flame
Paint a number
Lose the name

If the light is too beautiful
Turn around, turn around
There are shadows taking attendance
In every burning town

Final Chorus

Oh, the boys above the weather
Finally hear the wires sing
But the song is not an anthem
It is rust inside a wing

Oh, the boys above the border
See the morning split its seam
And the bright side of the century
Is a fever dream

Outro

Ragtime piano loses a tooth
Brass band falls down laughing
Theremin ghost says tell the truth
But the sky keeps passing
The sky keeps passing
The sky keeps passing through

Intro

Klezmer clarinet, Balkan brass
Boots on boards and broken glass
Somebody laughs, somebody screams
Molly, bring the kerosene

Verse 1

Down where the daylight comes in sick
Through a crack in the company wall
We punch our names into the dark
And wait for the mountain to fall

The foreman wears a golden watch
The priest wears a patient face
The banker’s got a velvet cough
And a pistol full of grace

Pre-Chorus

We were born in the engine room
Raised on bread and steam
Taught to kiss the iron hand
And call the bruises dreams

Chorus

Molly, bring the kerosene
The choir’s gone dry and the bells won’t ring
Molly, bring the kerosene
We’re gonna teach these shadows to sing

Dance on the payroll
Spit in the machine
If they want a quiet century
Molly, bring the kerosene

Verse 2

There’s a fiddle in the alleyway
Playing faster than the law
There’s a widow with a red scarf
And a knife inside her shawl

The soldiers at the station
Keep their rifles polished bright
But the children know the marching songs
That start a fire at night

Pre-Chorus 2

Every poster says tomorrow
Every mouth says wait
Every gentleman says order
With his boot against the gate

Chorus

Molly, bring the kerosene
The choir’s gone dry and the bells won’t ring
Molly, bring the kerosene
We’re gonna teach these shadows to sing

Dance on the payroll
Spit in the machine
If they want a quiet century
Molly, bring the kerosene

Bridge

The brass goes wild
The drum goes dumb
The saint gets drunk
The police dogs come

The moon’s in debt
The stars are late
The judge is asleep
At the factory gate

No kings in heaven
No gods in stock
No peace in the pocket
Of the company clock

Verse 3

By morning they’ll call us animals
By noon they’ll call us dead
By evening they’ll print a cleaner truth
For the respectable to read

But tonight we are a furnace
With a human name and face
Tonight the street is breathing
Like a fist inside a glove

Final Chorus

Molly, bring the kerosene
The choir’s gone dry and the bells won’t ring
Molly, bring the kerosene
We’re gonna teach these shadows to sing

Dance on the payroll
Spit in the machine
If they want a quiet century
Molly, bring the kerosene

Molly, bring the kerosene
Not for death and not for fame
Just to see, for half a second
Who is standing in the flame

Outro

Klezmer crying, brass gone mean
Boots in blood and tambourine
Somebody laughs, somebody screams
Molly, bring the kerosene
Molly, bring the kerosene
Molly, bring the kerosene

Intro

Tin-can trumpet, boy-scout drum
Clouds roll over, here they come
Bright white gloves and polished shoes
Flying with the morning news

Verse 1

We were boys above the weather
With our collars clean and high
We had maps of every border
But no reason to ask why

Captain smiled like Sunday
Said the world was wide and good
But the smoke below the skyline
Wrote a language that we understood

Pre-Chorus

Every cloud had a sponsor
Every star had a price
Every miracle of altitude
Came with loaded dice

Chorus

The Chums of Chance are falling
Not falling from the sky
Falling from the story
That taught them how to fly

The Chums of Chance are falling
Through the bright electric blue
If the future waves politely
Check what it’s hiding from you

Verse 2

We saw miners in the mountains
We saw soldiers in the snow
We saw bankers buying railroads
Where the little rivers go

There were children at the fences
There were widows at the trains
There were gentlemen explaining
Why the profit justified the chains

Pre-Chorus 2

Every lens made us holy
Every lens made them small
Till a boy looked down too long
And saw himself in all

Chorus

The Chums of Chance are falling
Not falling from the sky
Falling from the picture
Where the flags are always high

The Chums of Chance are falling
Through the bright electric blue
If the future smiles too sweetly
It is selling something to you

Bridge

Cut the engine
Dim the lamp
Read the telegram
From the camp

Bless the compass
Break the glass
Ask the captain
Who we pass

If the answer
Comes in gold
Hold it close
And feel how cold

If the sunrise
Hurts your eyes
Maybe daylight
Learned to lie

Final Chorus

The Chums of Chance are falling
But not the way they said
Falling into history
With its helmet full of lead

The Chums of Chance are falling
Through the bright electric blue
And the sky that raised them kindly
Has been lying to them too

Outro

Tin-can trumpet, boy-scout drum
Clouds roll over, here they come
White gloves stained and polished shoes
Flying through the morning news

The Chums of Chance are falling
The Chums of Chance are falling
The Chums of Chance are falling through

Intro

Accordion breath and a matchstick choir
Press-room ink and basement fire
Boots on stairs at seventeen
The anarchist’s daughter feeds the machine

Verse 1

She was born behind a print shop
Where the walls were never dry
With the smell of ink and coffee
And a red flag asking why

Her mother rolled the cigarettes
Her father set the type
Every letter had a heartbeat
Every headline held a knife

Pre-Chorus

They said wait for the century
They said history needs time
She said history is hungry
And it eats while standing in line

Chorus

The anarchist’s daughter
With a bomb in her song
Knows the law is only music
When the rich can sing along

The anarchist’s daughter
With a match in her teeth
Says, “If heaven has a factory
Then hell is underneath”

Verse 2

She loved a boy from the rail yards
With coal dust in his hair
He could make a fiddle weep
Like a saint losing a dare

They danced behind the union hall
Where the brass band lost its tune
And the moon looked like a coin
That the bosses dropped too soon

Pre-Chorus 2

He said, “Love, we could leave this”
She said, “Leave it to whom?”
Then she kissed him like a warning
In the newspaper gloom

Chorus

The anarchist’s daughter
With a bomb in her song
Knows the law is only scripture
When the judges get it wrong

The anarchist’s daughter
With a match in her teeth
Says, “If heaven has a factory
Then hell is underneath”

Bridge

Fold the leaflet
Hide the name
Light the candle
Curse the game

Turn the handle
Oil the press
Print the hunger
Print the yes

Bread for the children
Fire for the gate
Love for the living
Rage for the state

If they call her
Daughter of sin
Ask who built
The house she’s in

Verse 3

By dawn the streets were singing
By noon the horses came
By night the papers called it
A regrettable flame

But somewhere in the gutter
Where the broken bottles gleam
A girl kept one red leaflet
Like a passport from a dream

Final Chorus

The anarchist’s daughter
With a bomb in her song
Knows the future is a doorway
But the hallway’s long

The anarchist’s daughter
With a match in her teeth
Says, “If heaven has a factory
Then hell is underneath”

The anarchist’s daughter
Doesn’t vanish when they shoot
She becomes the little rhythm
In a marching worker’s boot

Outro

Accordion breath and a matchstick choir
Press-room ink and basement fire
Boots on stairs at seventeen
The anarchist’s daughter
The anarchist’s daughter
Still feeds the machine

Intro

Choir of glass, brass of rain
Split the light and count the pain
Seven colors in a jar
Tell me which one bought the war

Verse 1

The preacher brought a prism
To the pulpit Sunday night
Said, “Children, here is proof
That God can multiply the light”

The scientist was smiling
With a notebook on his knee
Said, “Nothing here is holy
But the angle and degree”

Pre-Chorus

But the miners saw the spectrum
In the oil upon the stream
And the bankers saw a market
In the manufacture of a dream

Chorus

Sing the prism gospel
Every color tells a lie
When the light goes through the system
Something human has to die

Sing the prism gospel
Bless the beam and bend the knee
If they teach you how to see it
Ask them what you cannot see

Verse 2

There were rainbows in the windows
There were rifles in the shed
There were children drawing comets
Over every soldier’s bed

A woman in the doorway
Held a lantern to her chest
Said, “The light that makes you visible
Is the light that loves you less”

Pre-Chorus 2

Every shadow has a witness
Every witness has a fee
Every truth becomes a mirror
For the empire’s vanity

Chorus

Sing the prism gospel
Every color tells a lie
When the light goes through the system
Something human has to die

Sing the prism gospel
Bless the beam and bend the knee
If they teach you how to see it
Ask them what you cannot see

Bridge

Red for the wound
Blue for the law
Green for the money
White for the jaw

Gold for the saint
Black for the mine
Violet for lovers
Who ran out of time

Turn it once
Turn it twice
Light is sugar
Light is ice

Turn it three
Turn it four
Light is never
Only light anymore

Final Chorus

Sing the prism gospel
Till the stained glass starts to crack
Till the angels in the windows
Ask for all their feathers back

Sing the prism gospel
Let the broken colors bleed
If the day is getting brighter
It may not be what we need

Outro

Choir of glass, brass of rain
Split the light and count the pain
Seven colors in a jar
Tell me which one bought the war

Tell me which one bought the war
Tell me which one bought the war
Tell me which one bought the war

Intro

Banana peel moon on a breakfast plate
Cabaret band came an hour too late
Coffee black as a bunker wall
Everybody laughs when the ceiling falls

Verse 1

Morning came in yellow
With a joke behind its back
A little fruit, a little sugar
On a table full of flak

The kitchen smelled like thunder
But the butter wouldn’t melt
There were angels in the pantry
Checking what the soldiers felt

Pre-Chorus

Before the siren
Before the sound
Before the city
Touched the ground

Somebody grinned
Somebody prayed
Somebody ate
What fear had made

Chorus

Banana breakfast
Sweet little doom
Sunshine dancing
In a rented room

Banana breakfast
Laugh while you can
The war has learned to whistle
Like a vaudeville man

Verse 2

There were peelings on the windowsill
There were numbers on the wall
There were rumors in the marmalade
That wouldn’t spread at all

A colonel kissed his coffee cup
A clerk misplaced the sky
A girl sang “Hallelujah”
To a bomb that hadn’t learned to fly

Pre-Chorus 2

If the morning
Looks too bright
Check the shadow
Under the light

If the sugar
Tastes like fear
Someone engineered
The atmosphere

Chorus

Banana breakfast
Sweet little doom
Sunshine dancing
In a rented room

Banana breakfast
Laugh while you can
The war has learned to whistle
Like a vaudeville man

Bridge

Slice it thin
Serve it neat
Hide the tremor
Under sweet

Peel the day
Find the fuse
Read the paper
Choose your bruise

Bless the stove
Bless the chair
Bless the fruit
Still sitting there

When the blast
Arrives too late
Breakfast waits
On the plate

Final Chorus

Banana breakfast
Sweet little doom
Yellow ghost in a burning room

Banana breakfast
Laugh while you can
The century slips
On the peel in its hand

Banana breakfast
Bright little lie
The rocket is born
Where the lullabies die

Outro

Banana peel moon on a breakfast plate
Cabaret band came an hour too late
Coffee black as a bunker wall
Everybody laughs
Everybody laughs
When the ceiling falls

Intro

Tap the spoon on the silver plate
Ring the bell and watch them wait
Bassoon cough, kettle drum
Here it comes, here it comes

Verse 1

They taught the dogs to dream in numbers
They taught the boys to march in lines
They taught the girls to love the uniform
And call it a sign of the times

In a clinic painted ivory
With a window facing east
A doctor hums a little hymn
For the animal and beast

Pre-Chorus

Bell rings
Mouth sings
Hand moves
Chain swings

Light flashes
Skin knows
Mind leaves
Body goes

Chorus

This is Pavlov’s orchestra
Everybody plays their part
One for the hunger
Two for the heart

This is Pavlov’s orchestra
Dance until the wires show
If you think you chose the rhythm
That’s the first thing they stole

Verse 2

There’s a soldier in a bedroom
There’s a priest inside a chart
There’s a lover made of reflex
There’s a nation made of parts

All the brass is getting brighter
All the drums are getting thin
All the conductors are smiling
With the metronome within

Pre-Chorus 2

Bell rings
Blood learns
Light bends
Paper burns

Name gone
Face blurred
Want speaks
Without a word

Chorus

This is Pavlov’s orchestra
Everybody plays their part
One for the hunger
Two for the heart

This is Pavlov’s orchestra
Dance until the wires show
If you think you chose the rhythm
That’s the first thing they stole

Bridge

Who put the sugar in the wound?
Who put the music in the cage?
Who put the rocket in the nursery rhyme?
Who put the weather on the stage?

The professor has a halo
The general has a grin
The patient has a number
And the number lets them in

Final Chorus

This is Pavlov’s orchestra
Everybody knows the tune
Clap when the ceiling opens
Bow to the falling moon

This is Pavlov’s orchestra
No one leaves the show
If you think you chose the ending
That’s the last thing they stole

Outro

Tap the spoon on the silver plate
Ring the bell and watch them wait
Bassoon cough, kettle drum
Here it comes
Here it comes
Here it comes

Intro

Static on the ballroom wire
Banana moon, electric choir
Somebody laughs behind the flame
The rocket knows your name

Verse 1

In the city after midnight
Every window holds its breath
There’s a sweetness in the siren
There’s a perfume on the death

Men in coats are drawing curves
On a blackboard full of rain
They can chart the arc of heaven
But they can’t explain the pain

Pre-Chorus

First you hear the whistle
Then you count the years
Then the sky arrives before the sound
And rearranges fear

Chorus

The rocket knows your name
The rocket knows your bed
It kisses through the ceiling
And flowers in your head

The rocket knows your hunger
The rocket knows your shame
Before you ever hear it coming
The rocket knows your name

Verse 2

There are angels in the paperwork
There are devils in the code
There are children selling cigarettes
On a phosphorus road

Every map is nervous
Every officer is clean
Every prayer is classified
By a singing machine

Pre-Chorus 2

If desire is a signal
If the body is a wire
Who is tuning all our sleeping
To the frequency of fire?

Chorus

The rocket knows your name
The rocket knows your bed
It kisses through the ceiling
And flowers in your head

The rocket knows your hunger
The rocket knows your shame
Before you ever hear it coming
The rocket knows your name

Bridge

Draw the parabola
Bless the fuse
Measure the miracle
Hide the bruise

Paint it silver
Call it flight
Sell the morning
Bomb the night

Every empire dreams in altitude
Every scientist kneels to speed
Every broken century whispers
More, more, more than we need

Final Chorus

The rocket knows your name
The rocket knows your bed
It blooms above the city
Like a saint with no head

The rocket knows your hunger
The rocket knows your shame
And when the sky comes falling
It signs it with your name

Outro

Static on the ballroom wire
Banana moon, electric choir
Somebody laughs behind the flame
The rocket knows
The rocket knows
The rocket knows your name

Intro

Rusty trombone, blackout gin
Dogs in the alley where the saints have been
Bootleg bread and a stolen coat
Zone song stuck in a dead man’s throat

Verse 1

After the maps were burned
After the flags grew thin
After the generals packed their teeth
And mailed the victory in

We woke up in the Zone
Where the streets had lost their names
And every little market
Sold a different kind of flame

Pre-Chorus

No one owns tomorrow
No one trusts the past
Everyone is trading
For a thing that will not last

Chorus

Sing the Zone song
In the ash and the snow
Where the broken armies go
When there’s nowhere left to go

Sing the Zone song
With a pocket full of wire
Everybody wants a future
Everybody needs a fire

Verse 2

There were soldiers selling chocolate
There were children selling teeth
There were priests with empty pockets
And a pistol underneath

A woman with a suitcase
Full of photographs and soap
Said, “I used to have a country
Now I have a way to cope”

Pre-Chorus 2

If you have a cigarette
You can buy a little truth
If you have a uniform
You can sell your ruined youth

Chorus

Sing the Zone song
In the ash and the snow
Where the broken armies go
When there’s nowhere left to go

Sing the Zone song
With a pocket full of wire
Everybody wants a future
Everybody needs a fire

Bridge

Trade me bread
I’ll trade you names
Trade me boots
I’ll trade you blame

Trade me God
I’ll trade you maps
Trade me sleep
I’ll trade you traps

There’s a rocket
In the rumor
There’s a lover
In the wire

There’s a nation
In the gutter
Trying to remember
Its desire

Verse 3

By midnight all the radios
Were speaking in the rain
By morning every melody
Had learned another name

And somewhere past the checkpoints
Where the snow began to glow
A boy was drawing rockets
On the wall of a chateau

Final Chorus

Sing the Zone song
In the ash and the snow
Where the broken empires go
When there’s nowhere left to go

Sing the Zone song
With a pocket full of wire
Everybody wants a future
Everybody needs a fire

Sing the Zone song
Till the black market choir
Finds a tune that can survive
The mathematics of desire

Outro

Rusty trombone, blackout gin
Dogs in the alley where the saints have been
Bootleg bread and a stolen coat
Zone song stuck
Zone song stuck
In a dead man’s throat

Intro

Funeral organ, wedding bell
White dress burning where the moonlight fell
Choir boys whisper, soldiers hide
Here comes the white rocket bride

Verse 1

They dressed her up in silver
They laid her on the rail
They kissed her nose with numbers
And blessed her burning veil

The engineers were tender
The generals were pleased
The priests were there for pictures
With their hands behind the trees

Pre-Chorus

She never had a mother
She never had a name
But every man who built her
Called her beautiful and tame

Chorus

Here comes the white rocket bride
Rising with her eyes shut wide
Married to the open sky
Falling where the children lie

Here comes the white rocket bride
Holy metal, hollow side
If she kisses you tonight
Do not ask who made the light

Verse 2

In the chapel of the bunker
With a fuel-stained wedding train
She was promised to the future
She was promised to the flame

There were flowers made of paper
There were vows in carbon ink
There was laughter in the ceiling
There was no one left to think

Pre-Chorus 2

They called it aspiration
They called it human flight
But the bride had no direction
Except the appetite of night

Chorus

Here comes the white rocket bride
Rising with her eyes shut wide
Married to the open sky
Falling where the children lie

Here comes the white rocket bride
Holy metal, hollow side
If she kisses you tonight
Do not ask who made the light

Bridge

Something old
The empire’s grin
Something new
The fire within

Something borrowed
Human breath
Something blue
The bride of death

Lift the veil
Read the code
Kiss the fuse
Bless the road

Throw the rice
Count the dead
Paint the morning
Rocket red

Final Chorus

Here comes the white rocket bride
No more groom and no more guide
Only gravity inside
Only gravity inside

Here comes the white rocket bride
All the heavens open wide
If she kisses you tonight
Do not call it light

Here comes the white rocket bride
Beautiful enough to hide
Every hand that tied the knot
Every name the altar forgot

Outro

Funeral organ, wedding bell
White dress burning where the moonlight fell
Choir boys whisper, soldiers hide
Here comes the white rocket bride

Here comes the white rocket bride
Here comes the white rocket bride
No one survives the bride

Intro

Slow cabaret, broken choir
Smoke climbs up from the funeral pyre
A drunk trombone forgets the key
Gravity is singing me

Verse 1

There’s a rainbow over Europe
But it isn’t made of rain
It’s a curve of burning metal
It’s a sermon made of pain

From the bunker to the bedroom
From the factory to the stars
Every dream of leaving earth
Comes back wearing scars

Pre-Chorus

Up is only borrowed
Down is always due
Every angel has a landing place
Every miracle falls through

Chorus

It’s a rainbow made of gravity
A beautiful mistake
It rises like salvation
Then descends for heaven’s sake

It’s a rainbow made of gravity
A promise with a blade
The higher that they send it
The deeper we are made

Verse 2

There are children in the cinema
Watching cowboys in the dust
There are businessmen in basements
Turning prophecy to trust

There are lovers under blankets
There are spies inside the walls
There are songs that turn to static
When the final curtain falls

Pre-Chorus 2

History is laughing
With a mouth of gold and tar
Saying, “Look how far you’ve traveled
To become what you are.”

Chorus

It’s a rainbow made of gravity
A beautiful mistake
It rises like salvation
Then descends for heaven’s sake

It’s a rainbow made of gravity
A promise with a blade
The higher that they send it
The deeper we are made

Bridge

No saints in the circuit
No soul in the steel
No mercy in the mathematics
No wound that will not feel

No future without appetite
No empire without song
No machine without a lullaby
To prove the child was wrong

So kiss the falling century
Laugh until it splits
Hold your little candle
To the rocket’s lips

Final Chorus

It’s a rainbow made of gravity
A halo over bone
A ladder into outer space
That brings the darkness home

It’s a rainbow made of gravity
A joke the heavens played
The higher that they send it
The deeper we are made

Outro

Slow cabaret, broken choir
Smoke climbs up from the funeral pyre
The moon looks sick, the stars agree
Gravity is singing me

Gravity is singing me
Gravity is singing me
Gravity is singing
Gravity is singing
Gravity is singing me