It began when they come took me from my home

And put me in Dead Row,

Of which I am nearly wholly innocent, you know.

And I'll say it again

I..am..not..afraid..to..die.

I began to warm and chill

To objects and their fields,

A ragged cup, a twisted mop

The face of Jesus in my soup

Those sinister dinner meals

The meal trolley's wicked wheels

A hooked bone rising from my food

All things either good or ungood.

And the mercy seat is waiting

And I think my head is burning

And in a way I'm yearning

To be done with all this measuring of truth.

An eye for an eye

A tooth for a tooth

And anyway I told the truth

And I'm not afraid to die.

Interpret signs and catalogue

A blackened tooth, a scarlet fog.

The walls are bad. Black. Bottom kind.

They are sick breath at my hind

They are sick breath at my hind

They are sick breath at my hind

They are sick breath gathering at my hind

I hear stories from the chamber

How Christ was born into a manger

And like some ragged stranger

Died upon the cross

And might I say it seems so fitting in its way

He was a carpenter by trade

Or at least that's what I'm told

Like my good hand I

tatooed E.V.I.L. across it's brother's fist

That filthy five! They did nothing to challenge or resist.

In Heaven His throne is made of gold

The ark of his Testament is stowed

A throne from which I'm told

All history does unfold.

Down here it's made of wood and wire

And my body is on fire

And God is never far away.

Into the mercy seat I climb

My head is shaved, my head is wired

And like a moth that tries

To enter the bright eye

I go shuffling out of life

Just to hide in death awhile

And anyway I never lied.

My kill-hand is called E.V.I.L.

Wears a wedding band that's G.O.O.D.

`Tis a long-suffering shackle

Collaring all that rebel blood.

And the mercy seat is waiting

And I think my head is burning

And in a way I'm yearning

To be done with all this measuring of truth.

An eye for an eye

And a tooth for a tooth

And anyway I told the truth

And I'm not afraid to die.

And the mercy seat is burning

And I think my head is glowing

And in a way I'm hoping

To be done with all this weighing up of truth.

An eye for an eye

And a tooth for a tooth

And I've got nothing left to lose

And I'm not afraid to die.

And the mercy seat is glowing

And I think my head is smoking

And in a way I'm hoping

To be done with all this looks of disbelief.

An eye for an eye

And a tooth for a tooth

And anyway there was no proof

Nor a motive why.

And the mercy seat is smoking

And I think my head is melting

And in a way I'm helping

To be done with all this twisted of the truth.

A lie for a lie

And a truth for a truth

And I've got nothing left to lose

And I'm not afraid to die.

And the mercy seat is melting

And I think my blood is boiling

And in a way I'm spoiling

All the fun with all this truth and consequence.

An eye for an eye

And a truth for a truth

And anyway I told the truth

And I'm not afraid to die.

And the mercy seat is waiting

And I think my head is burning

And in a way I'm yearning

To be done with all this measuring of proof.

A life for a life

And a truth for a truth

And anyway there was no proof

But I'm not afraid to tell a lie.

And the mercy seat is waiting

And I think my head is burning

And in a way I'm yearning

To be done with all this measuring of truth.

An eye for an eye

And a truth for a truth

And anyway I told the truth

But I'm afraid I told a lie.

O My O My

What a wretched life

I was born on the day

That my poor mother died

I was cut from her belly

With a stanley knife

My daddy did a jig

With the drunk midwife

Who's that younder all in flames

Dragging behind him a sack of chains

Who's that younder all in flames

Up jumped the Devil and he staked his claim

O poor heart

I was doomed from the start

Doomed to play

The villians part

I was the baddest Johnny

In the apple cart

My blood was blacker

Than the of a dead nun's heart

Who's that milling on the courthouse steps

Nailing my face to the hitching fence

Who's that milling on the courthouse steps

Up jumped the Devil and off he crept

O no O no

Where could I go

With my hump of trouble

And my sack of woe

To the digs and deserts of Mexico

Where my neck was safe from the lynching rope

Who's that younder laughing at me

Like I was the brunt of some hilarity

Who's that younder laughing at me

Up jumped the Devil 1, 2, 3

Ha-Ha Ha Ha

How lucky we were

We hit the cathouse

And sampled their whares

We got as drunk

As a couple of Czars

One night I spat out

My lucky stars

Who's that dancing on the jailhouse roof

Stamping on the ramping with a cloven hoof

Who's that dancing on the jailhouse roof

Up jumped the Devil and said "Here is your man and I got a proof"

O no don't go O no

O slow down Joe

The righteous part

I straight as an arrow

Take a walk

And you'll find it too narrow

Too narrow for the likes of me

Who's that hanging from the gallow tree

His eyes are hollow but he looks like me

Who's that swinging from the gallow tree

Up jumped the Devil and took my soul from me

Down we go Down we go Down we go

The Devil and me Down we go down down down

Hell fire and flames Down we go Down we go

To Eternity Down we go We go down down down

Down we go we go down down down

Down we go the Devil and me to Eternity

We go down down down down down ad inferno

O Deanna!

O DEANNA

Sweet Deanna!

O DEANNA

You know you are my friend, yeah

O DEANNA

And I ain't down here for your money

I ain't down here for your love

I ain't down here for your love or money

I'm down here for your soul

No carpet on the floor

And the winding cloth holds many moths

Around your Ku Klux furniture

I cum of death-head in your frock

We discuss the murder plan

We discuss murder and the murder act

Murder takes the wheel of your Cadillac

And death climbs in the back

O DEANNA

This is a car

O DEANNA

This is a gun

O DEANNA

And this a day number one

O DEANNA

Our little crimeworn histories

Black and smoking christmas trees

And honey, it ain't mystery

Why you're a mystery to me

We will eat out of their pantries

And their parlours

Ashy leaving in their beds

And we'll unload into their heads

On this mean season

This little angel that I squeezin'

She ain't been mean to me

O DEANNA

O Deanna!

O DEANNA

You are my friend and my partner

O DEANNA

On this house on the hill

O DEANNA

And I ain't down here for your money

I ain't down here for your love

I ain't down here for your love or money

I'm down here for your soul

O DEANNA

I am a-knocking

O DEANNA

With my toolbox and my stocking

O DEANNA

And I'll meet you on the corner

O DEANNA

Yes, you point it like a finger

O DEANNA

And squeeze its little thing

O DEANNA

Feel its kick, hear its bang

And let no worry about its issue

Don't worry about where its been

and don't worry about where it hits

Cause it just ain't yours to sin

O DEANNA

No it just ain't your to sin

O DEANNA

Sweet Deanna

O DEANNA

And we ain't getting any younger

O DEANNA

And I don't intend gettin' any older

O DEANNA

The sun a hump at my shoulder

O DEANNA

O Deanna!

O DEANNA

Sweet Deanna

O DEANNA

And I ain't down here for your money

I ain't down here for your love

I ain't down here for your love of money

I'm down here for your soul

It is morning

She is yawning

As she walks about the room

Her hair falls down her breast

She is naked and it is June

Standing at the window

I wonder if she knows that I can see

Watching Alice rise year after year

Up in her palace, she's captive there

Alice's body

Is golden brown

Her hair hangs down

As she stoops to conquer me

First she pulls her stocking on

And then the church bell chimes

Alice climbes into her uniform

The zippers on the side

Watching Alice dressing in her room

It's so depressing, it's cruel

Watching Alice dressing in her room

It's so depressing, it's true

I stood in the water

In the middle month of winter

My camel skin was torture

I was in a state of nature

The wind, sir, it was wicked

I was so alone

Just as I predicted

My followers were gone

And I cried `Mercy'

Have mercy upon me

And I got down on my knees

Thrown into a dungeon

Bread and water was my portion

Faith - my only weapon

To rest the devil's legion

The speak-hole would slide open

A viper's voice would plead

Thick with innuendo

Syphilis and Greed

And she cried `Mercy'

Have mercy upon me

And I told her to get down on her knees

In a garden full of roses

My hands, tied behind me

My cousin was working miracles

I wondered if he'd find me

The moon was turned toward me

Like a platter made of gold

My death, it almost bored me

So often was it told

And I cried `Mercy'

I cried mercy on me

Cryind `Mercy'

Have mercy on me

You better run You better run

You better run to the City of Refuge

You better run You better run

You better run to the City of Refuge

You stand before your maker

In a state of shame

Bacause your robes are covered in mud

While your kneel at the feet

Of a woman of the street

The gutters will run with blood

They will run with blood!

You better run, you better run

You better run to the City of Refuge

You better run, you better run

You better run to the City of Refuge

In the days of madness

My brother, my sister

When you're dragged toward the Hell-mouth

You will beg at the end

But there ain't gonna be one, friend

For the grave will spew you out

It will spew you out!

You better run, you better run

You better run to the City of Refuge

You better run, you better run

You better run to the City of Refuge

You'll be working in the darkness

Against your fellow man

And you'll find you're called to come forth

So you'll scrub and you'll scrub

But the trouble is, bud

The blood it won't wash off

No, it won't come off!

You better run, you better run

You better run to the City of Refuge

You better run, you better run

You better run and run and run

You better run to the City of Refuge

Lover, lover, goodbye

So slowly goes the night

I trace the print of your body with my hand

Like the map of some forbidden land

I trace the ghosts of your bones

With my trembling hand

Dark is my night

But darker is my day yeah

I must've been blind

Out of my mind

Not to read the warning signs

How goes it?

It goes lonely

Goes slowly

So slowly goes the night

Ten lonely days, ten lonely nights

I watch the moon get flayed anew

Until the moom becomes the skinning tool

I send the skins of my sins out to cover and comfort you

I know of a Heaven

And honey I know of a Hell yeah

I hang my head

In my bed

And remember what you said

"One evening, I'm leaving"

And I laughed and checked her breathing

And said darling

Go slowly through the knight

O baby, I feel the heal of time

I wake to find you sitting here

Cutting tangels out of your hair

Singing a song that's all wrong

Hey, but that's alright, I don't care

O darling forgive me

For all the misery yeah

I embrace an empty space

And your laughing song it fades

Where goes it?

It goes some place

Where it's lonely

And black as the night

Come back, darling and put things right

I hang my head and cry cry cry

Darling, all night I try

To cease on a reason for this mad mad season

The nights, they are so long now

I can't remember it being light

Call it sleep, call it death, call it what you like

But only sleep, dear

Only sleep brings you back to life yeah

I hang my head

I toss and I sweat

I never never can forget

How goes it?

I'm going, but slowly slowly going

And we both know that it's gonna be alright

But it ain't you who has to cry cry cry

Ten lonely days, ten lonely nights

Since you left my side side side

Monday's got one too

Sunday's got a slave

Monday's got one too

Our sufferings are countless

Our pleasures are motley few

Spend all day digging my grave

Now go get Sunday's slave

Tuesday sleeps in a stable

Wednesday's in a chains

Tuesday gathers up the crumbs under the table

Wednesday dare not complain

My heart has collapsed on the tracks of a run-a-way train

Just whisper his name

And here comes Sunday's slave

The hands in the stable are willing and able to pay

If you feel at a loss, man, just who is the boss-man

Ask the blood of one of its bad days

For his nerve is to serve but the sevice is a mockery

He insists that he piss in your fist

But he still takes the money anyway

The master's a bastard

But don't tell Sunday's slave

Thursday's angered the master

O.K. so Friday's gonna pay

Thursday's angered the master

Yeah, so Friday's gonna pay

One night on the rack and he's back saddling up Saturday

You can only whisper his name

But not on Sundays

Never on Sundays

O Not on Sunday's slave

That man is bad

The road he drives you down

O sugar its a drag

That road it twists

That road is crossed

Its down that road

A lot of little girls go lost

Sugar Sugar Sugar

Keep on driving on

Until the City of right

Becomes the City of wrong

That stretch is long

You'll sleep and slide

That stretch will find you

Gagged and tied

The hunter lies

In a lowly ditch

His eyes they sting

And his fingers twitch

You'll be his queen for the night

But the morning you'll wake

With the Lords and high ladies

Of the bottom of the lake

Sugar sugar sugar

That man is wild

And sugar, you know

That you're merely a child

He will laugh

And hang your sheets to see

The tokens of your virginity

Sugar sugar sugar

Honey you're so sweet

And beside you baby

Nothing can complete

Sugar sugar sugar

Honey your so sweet

But beside you baby

A bad man sleeps

You better pray baby

Pray baby, pray baby

You better pray

You better pray, baby

Pray, baby, pray baby

You better pray baby

Sugar sugar sugar

That man is bad

And that's the bottom baby

Coming right up ahead

You can smell his fear

You can smell his love

As he wipes his mouth

On your altar cloth

Sugar sugar sugar

Try to understand

I'm an angel of God

I'm your guardian

He smells you innocence

And like a dog he comes

And like all the dogs he is

I shut him down

Sugar sugar sugar

I can't explain

Must I kill that cocksucker

Everyday

You better pray baby, pray baby, pray baby

You better pray your daddy he ain't far away

You better pray baby pray baby pray baby

You better pray your daddy's come to take you away

You better pray baby, pray baby, pray baby

You better pray o tender prey baby tender prey

You better pray tender pray baby tender prey

One morn I awakened

A new sun was shining

The sky was a Kingdom

All covered in blood

The moon and the stars

Where the troops that lay conquered

Like fruit left to wither

Poor spiritual food

And the spears of bright sun

All brave with it conquest

Did hover unearthly

In banners of fire

I kneit in the garden

Awash with the dawning

And a voice came so brightly

I covered my eyes

Thank you for giving

This bright new morning

So steeped seemed the evening

In darkness and blood

There'll be no sadness

There'll be no sorrow

There'll be no road too narrow

There'll be a new day

And it's today

For us