Work, Not Play Lyrics - Jim Carroll

The bell rings . . . 

It's a decade past my decadence 

My beast wears rings and he's waiting 

In the shadows of my hesitations, my silent 

Hesitations . . . Each image is so clear; 

It seems I have no hands 

The gestures of the air confuse all my demands 

And the beast hears the bell; he comes 

Out of the shadows. He rips apart the shadows . . . 

And he says: 

"This is work and not play" 

And he says: 

"There's always more than one way . . . 

This is work not play" 

Refrain: 

I see the ghosts of my childhood . . . 

Dressed in blue, they trail me in the night 

They drive these cars with real upholstery 

They trail me until . . . here comes the night 

She was standing, standing on the balcony 

Her black, black eyes folded over her eyelids 

Like sheets on motel beds . . . 

She must be eatin' reds 

This place is filled with mirrors 

It echoes what she said 

And she said: 

"I need a judgement day"And she said: 

"I know there's more than one way, 

But I want my judgement day . . ." 

Repeat Refrain 

To sleep without dreams 

So distant from the mirror 

Imitating clarity, disguising 

All the terror . . . I heard a thousand bells 

From a thousand old cathedrals 

They rang . . . I haven't heard them since 

A decade past my decadence 

The beast hears the bell 

I'm cursed to be a singer 

A singer of the flames 

A thinker of a fire 

And a son without a name