"Stick a fork in their ass and turn them over, they're done"

Here is a very genius poem song by New York's Lou Reed. Lou is one of my favourite music artist's ever. He is up there with Bob Dylan. He never tried to be nice. He just tried to be himself in all the gory details. His music is totally candid. He socks it to you.

This track, "Last Great American Whale" from the "New York" album is rare and wonderful modern poetry.



They say he didn't have an enemy
his was a greatness to behold
He was the last surviving progeny
the last one on this side of the world

He measured a half mile from tip to tail
silver and black with powerful fins
They say he could split a mountain in two
that's how we got the Grand Canyon

Last great American whale
last great American whale
Last great American whale
last great American whale

Some say they saw him at the Great Lakes
some say they saw him off of Florida
My mother said she saw him in Chinatown
but you can't always trust your mother

Off the Carolinas the sun shines brightly in the day
the lighthouse glows ghostly there at night
The chief of a local tribe had killed a racist mayor's son
and he'd been on death row since 1958

The mayor's kid was a rowdy pig
spit on Indians and lots worse
The old chief buried a hatchet in his head
life compared to death for him seemed worse

The tribal brothers gathered in the lighthouse to sing
and tried to conjure up a storm or rain
The harbor parted, the great whale sprang full up
and caused a hugh tidal wave

The wave crushed the jail and freed the chief
the tribe let out a roar
The whites were drowned, the browns and reds set free
but sadly one thing more

Some local yokel member of the NRA
kept a bazooka in his living room
And thinking he had the chief in his sight
blew the whale's brains out with a lead harpoon

Last great American whale
last great American whale
Last great American whale
last great American whale

Well Americans don't care for much of anything
land and water the least
And animal life is low on the totem pole
with human life not worth more than infected yeast

Americans don't care too much for beauty
they'll # in a river, dump battery acid in a stream
They'll watch dead rats wash up on the beach
and complain if they can't swim

They say things are done for the majority
don't believe half of what you see and none of what you hear
It's like what my painter friend Donald said to me
"Stick a fork in their ass and turn them over, they're done"

I don't understand why your culture is so destructive and violent when you have so much compared to practically every other nation on earth. You are spoilt brats who will get your comeuppance if you don't change your ways. It's a shame that a nation that brings so much good creativity is so abusive of itself, its own land and sometimes even...the rest of the world.

Wake up, Fat Man! Time to face the music.

a reply to: Revolution9

Here, I'll take another SHOT AT YOU with another Lou reed Silver Bullet:



Wow, what a slaughter! I've never in all my reading of history come upon a more violent society. You really made the grade, Major Tom. Blacks be killing blacks. Blacks be killing whites. Whites be killing blacks and whites be killing whites. Americans be slaughtering Americans. Something really bad has happened to you, it's obvious.

These shootings are ultimate self expression of nihilism for life. Waste, black bin bagged corpses who only yesterday were laughing, dancing singing and today lie ice cold in the morgue.



Rue Morgue! Viva Las Vegas!

a reply to: Revolution9

Especially pertinent, the last four stanzas. As ever true today as then.

Another time, another mass shooting fostered this...

Robert's got a quick hand
He'll look around the room
He won't tell you his plan
He's got a rolled cigarette
Hanging out his mouth
He's a cowboy kid

Yeah he found a six-shooter gun
In his dad's closet, in the box of fun things
I don't even know what
But he's coming for you, yeah he'scoming for you

[Chorus x2:]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You better run, better run, faster than my bullet

Daddy works a long day
He be cominghome late, and he's coming home late
And he's bringing me a surprise
'Cause dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice

I've waited for a long time
Yeah the sleight of my hand is now a quick-pull trigger
I reason with my cigarette
Then say, "Your hair's on fire, you must've lost your wits, yeah?"

[Chorus x2:]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You better run, better run, faster than my bullet

Run, run, run, run, ru-ru-ru-run, run, run
Ru-ru-ru-run, run, run, run
Ru-ru-ru-run, run, run, run, run, run

[Chorus x4:]
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You better run, better run, faster than my

a reply to: Revolution9

Corporate peep show
Reap what you sow
Pole sliding writhing
Ecstatic hedonism
Poison poised self choreagraphed
Smokescreens for signals
Raging oblivion selfish child
Mass murder "Here's your order".

MAE 2017

This one was done in the wake of another lunatic, Son of Sam ...

If you could see my mind, if you really look deep, then maybe you'll find
That somewhere there will be a place, hidden behind my comedian face

You will find somewhere there's a house, and inside that house there's a room
Locked in the room in the corner you see
A voice is waiting for me, to set it free, I got the key, I got the key

Voices, I hear voices

In my head the voice is waiting, waiting for me to set it free
I locked it inside my imagination, but I'm the one who's got the combination
Some people didn't like what the voice did say
So I took the voice and I locked it away, I got the key, I got the key

Voices, I hear voices, voices, I hear voices

Don't look back, look straight ahead, don't turn away, then the voice it said
Don't look back, yesterday's gone, don't turn away, you can take it on

Voices, I hear voices, voices, I hear voices

Don't look back, look straight ahead, don't turn away, then the voice it said
Don't look back, yesterday's gone, don't turn away, you can take it on

Don't look back, look straight ahead, don't turn away, then the voice it said
Don't look back, yesterday's gone, don't turn away, you can take it on

Don't look back, look straight ahead, don't turn away, then the voice it said
Don't look back, yesterday's gone, don't turn away, you can take it on

Voices, voices, voices, voices - don't look back

Talking Heads...

The Doors, "Riders on the Storm"--

Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house we're born
Into this world we're thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor on a loan
Riders on the storm

There's a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin' like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If ya give this man a ride
Sweet family will die
Killer on the road, yeah

Girl ya gotta love your man
Girl ya gotta love your man
Take him by the hand
Make him understand
The world on you depends
Our lives will never end
Gotta love your man, yeah

Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house we're born
Into this world we're thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor on a loan

Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm

Pink Floyd, "One Of These Days" (I'm gong to cut you into little pieces)

a reply to: Revolution9

"with human life not worth more than infected yeast "

Life is like Sanskrit read to a pony.
...Lou Reed

a reply to: Revolution9
Thanks for the reminder !
Brilliant album, totally overlooked and pretty under-rated
Great wordsmith, arranger, every thing ...

Too many stand outs,
"im sick of you", "Bus load of faith"
30 years ago !!!
;(

If any, ahem, younger people don't know the album,
this is a goodie: great story, great hook, saturated axe ...
one track of many

cheers again for the memories OP




There's blacks with knives and whites with clubs
Fighting in howard beach
There's no such thing as human rights
When you walk the n.y.streets
A cop was shot in the head by a 10 years old kid
Named buddah in central park last week
The fathers and daughters are lined up by the coffins
By the statue of bigotry, hey

You better hold on
Something's happening here
You better hold on
Well I meet you in tompkins square

The dopers sent a message to the cops last weekend
They shot him in the car where he sat
And eleanor bumpers and michael stewart
Must have appreciated that
There's a rampaging rage rising up like a plague
Of bloody vials washing up on the beach
It'll take more than the angels or iron mike tyson
To heal this bloody breach, hey, hey

You better hold on
Something's happening here
You better hold on
I'm gonna meet you in tompkins square

A junkie ran down a lady a pregnant dancer
She'll never dance but the baby was saved

He shot up some china white and nodded out at the wheel
And he doesn't remember a thing
They shot that old lady 'cause they thought she was a witness to
A crime she didn't even see
Whose home is the home of the brave
By the statue of bigotry, hey

You better hold on
Something's happening here
You better hold on
Meet you in tompkins square

You got a black .38 and a gravity knife
You still have to ride the train
There's the smelly essence of n.y. down there
But you ain't no bernard goetz, ah
There's no mafia lawyer to fight in your corner
For that 15 minutes of fame
The have and the have nots are bleeding in the tub
That's new york's future not mine, oh

You better hold on
Something's happening here
You better hold on
You better, something's happening here
Hold on, ooohhh, babe