All language subtitles for Idiot Prayer - Nick Cave Alone at Alexandra Palace

This programme contains
some strong language

Once there was a song
The song yearned to be sung

It was a spinning song
about the king of rock and roll

The king was first a young prince

The prince was the best

With his black jelly hair

He crashed onto a stage in Vegas

The king had a queen

The queen's hair was a stairway

She tended the castle garden

And in the garden planted a tree

The garden tree was a stairway

It was 15 branches high

On the top branch was a nest

Sing the high cloudy nest

In the nest, there was a bird

The bird had a wing

The wing had a feather

Spin the feather and sing the wind

The king in time died

The queen's heart broke like a vow

And the tree returned to the Earth

With the nest and the bird

But the feather spun upwards,
upwards and upwards

Spinning all the weather vanes

Spinning up over the streets

Spinning up over the crowds

Spitting up over the cities

Forever spinning

Well, this prayer is for you,
my love

Sent on the wings of a dove

Upward and upward and upward.

# They're taking me down, my friend

# They usher me off to the end

# Will I bid you adieu?

# Will I be seeing you soon?

# If what they say round here
is true

# Then we'll meet again

# Me and you

# My time is at hand, my dove

# They're going to pass me
to that room above

# Is heaven just for victims, dear?

# Where only those in pain go?

# Well, it takes two to tango

# And we'll meet again, my love

# And I know

# If you're in heaven
then you'll forgive me, dear

# Cos that's what they do up there

# If you're in hell,
what can I say?

# You probably deserved it anyway

# I guess I'm going to find out
any day

# And we'll meet again

# There'll be hell to pay

# Your face comes to me
from the depths, dear

# Your silent mouth
mouths, "Yes, dear"

# Dark red and big with blood

# They're going to shut me down,
my love

# They're going to launch me
into the stars

# Well, all things come to pass

# Glory

# Hallelujah

# This prayer is for you, my love

# Sent on the wings of a dove

# An idiot prayer of empty words

# Love, dear,
is strictly for the birds

# We each get what we deserve

# My little snow white dove

# Rest assured. #

# Down the road I look
and there runs Mary

# Hair of gold
and lips like cherries

# We go down to the river
where the willows weep

# Take a naked root for lover's seat

# That rose out of the bitten soil

# But bound to the ground
by creeping ivy coils

# Oh, Mary,
you have seduced my soul

# Forever a hostage
of your child's world

# And then I ran
my tin-cup heart along

# The prison of her ribs

# And with a toss of a curls

# That little girl goes wading in

# Rolling her dress up
past her knee

# Turning these waters into wine

# And she platted
all the willow vines

# Mary in the shallows laughing

# Over where the carp dart

# Spooked by the new shadows
that she's cast

# Across these sad waters
and across my heart. #

# Up those stone steps I climb

# Hail this joyful day's return

# Into its great shadowed vault I go

# Hail the Pentecostal morn

# The reading is from Luke 24

# Where Christ returns
to his loved ones

# I look at the stone apostles

# Think that it's all right
for some

# And I wish that I was made
of stone

# So that I would not have to see

# A beauty impossible to define

# A beauty impossible to believe

# A beauty impossible to endure

# The blood imparted in little sips

# The smell of you still on my hands

# As I bring the cup up to my lips

# And there ain't no God
up in the sky

# And there ain't no devil
beneath the sea

# That could do the job
that you did, baby

# Of bringing me to my knees

# And outside
I sit on the stone steps

# With nothing much to do

# Forlorn and exhausted

# By the absence of you. #

# Psychedelic invocations

# Of Mata Hari at the station

# I give to you

# A Java princess of Hindu birth

# A woman of flesh

# A child of the Earth

# I give to you

# The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

# Miles Davis, the black unicorn

# I give to you

# The Palaces of Montezuma

# The gardens of Akbar's Tomb

# I give to you

# The Spider Goddess
and the Needle Boy

# The slave dwarves
that they employ

# I give to you

# A custard coloured super dream

# Of Ali McGraw and Steve McQueen

# I give to you

# Come on, baby, get me
out of the cold

# And gimme, gimme, gimme
your precious love

# For me to hold

# Come on, baby, get me
out of the cold

# And gimme, gimme, gimme
your precious love

# For me to hold

# The epic of Gilgamesh

# A pretty little black A-line dress

# I'll buy it for you

# The spinal cord of JFK

# Wrapped in Marilyn Monroe's
negligee

# I'll give to you

# I want nothing in return

# Just the softest,
little breathless word

# I ask of you

# A word contained
in a grain of sand

# Can barely walk,
can't even stand

# I ask of you

# Come on, baby,
get me out of the cold

# And gimme, gimme, gimme
your precious love

# For me to hold

# Come on, baby, get me out
of the cold

# And gimme, gimme, gimme
your precious love

# For me to hold. #

# Some go on, some stay behind,
some never move at all

# Girl in amber, trapped forever,
spinning down the hole

# Let no part of her go unremembered

# Clothes across the floor

# Girl in amber longs to slumber,
shuts the bathroom door

# The phone, the phone, the phone

# It rings, the phone

# It rings no more

# The song, the song, the song
it's been since 1984

The phone, the phone, the phone,
it rings, the phone

# It rings no more

# The song, the song,
it's been spinning now since 90

# If you want to bleed, just bleed

# If you want to bleed, just bleed

# And if you want to leave,
don't breathe a word

# Just step away

# And let the world turn

# You turn, you turn, you kneel

# Lace up his shoes

# Your little blue-eyed boy

# Take him by his hand

# Go moving, spinning down the hall

# Well, I got lucky

# I got lucky and I tried again

# I knew the world,
it would stop spinning now

# Since you've been gone

# I used to think
that when you died

# You kind of wandered the world

# In a slumber till you crumbled

# Were absorbed into the Earth

# Well, I don't think that any more

# The phone, it rings no more

# The song, the song, the song
it's been since 1984

# The song, the song, the song

# It spins
and it's been spinning now

# And if you hold me, I will tell
you that you know that

# If you want to leave,
don't breathe

# And if you want to breathe,
don't leave

# But if you want to leave,
don't breathe a word

# Just step away

# And let the world turn

# The song, the song, the song,
it spins, the song

# It spins no more

# The phone, the phone,
it rings and you won't stay

# Don't touch me

# Don't touch me

# Don't touch me

# Don't touch me any more

# Any more. #

# My daddy was an astronaut

# That's what I was often taught

# My daddy went away too soon

# Now he's living on the moon

# Hang on to me, people,
we're going down

# Down among the fishes
in an absence of sound

# The presence of distance
and it's floating in time

It's lack and it's longing
and it's not very kind

# Sitting here and scratching
in this rented room

# Scratching and a-tapping
to the man in the moon

# About all the things
that I've been taught

# My daddy was an astronaut. #

# I've searched the holy books

# I've tried to unravel the mystery
of Jesus Christ, the Saviour

# I've read the poets
and the analysts

# I've searched through the books
on human behaviour

# I've travelled this world round

# Yeah, for an answer
that refused to be found

# Well, I don't know why,
and I don't know how

# But she's nobody's baby now

# I loved the then
and I guess I love her still

# Well, hers is that face I see
when that certain mood moves in

# She lives in my blood and skin

# That wild, feral stare
and her dark hair

# And her winter lips
just as cold as stone

# Yeah, I was her man

# There are some things even
love don't allow

# Well, I held her hand
but I don't hold it now

# I don't know why
and I don't know how

# But she's nobody's baby now

# This is her dress
that I love the best

# It's got blue quilted violets
all across the breast

# These are my many letters

# All torn to pieces
by a long-fingered hand

# Well, I was her cruel-hearted man

# And even though I tried
to lay her ghost down

# Yes, she's moving through me
even now

# Well, I don't know why
and I don't know how

# But she's nobody's baby now

# Yeah, she's nobody's baby now

# No, no, no

# Oh, no, no, no

# Oh, no, no, no, no, no

# No. #

# I've felt you coming, girl

# As you drew near

# I knew you'd find me

# Cos I longed you here

# You, my destiny,
is this how you'll appear?

# Wrapped in a coat
with the tears in your eyes?

# We'll take that coat, babe,
and throw it on the floor

# Are you the one
that I've been waiting for?

# As you've been moving
surely toward me

My soul has comforted
and assured me

# That in time my heart,
it will reward me

# And that all will be revealed

# I've sat and I've watched
an ice-age thaw

# Are you the one
that I've been waiting for?

# Out of sorrow
entire worlds have been built

# Out of longing
great wonders have been willed

# They're only little tears,
darling, let them spill

# And lay your head on my shoulder

# Outside my window,
the world has gone to war

# Are you the one
that I've been waiting for?

# Oh, we will know, won't we?

# The stars will explode in the sky

# But they don't, do they?

# Stars have their moment
and then they die

# There's a man who spoke wonders

# I never met him

# He said, "He who seeks finds
and who knocks will be let in"

# I think of you in motion
and just how close you are getting

# And how every little thing
anticipates you

# All down my veins

# My heart strings call

# Are you the one
that I've been waiting for?

# Are you the one
that I've been waiting for? #

HE LAUGHS

# All through the night we drove

# And the wind caught her hair

# And we parked on the beach

# In the cool evening air

# Sometimes it's better
not to say anything at all

# Your body is an anchor

# Never asked to be free

# Want to stay in the business

# Of making you happy

# Well, I'm just waiting for you

# Waiting for you

# Waiting for you

# Waiting for you

# Waiting for you

# Waiting for you

# A priest runs through the chapel

# All the calendars are turning

# As a Jesus freak on the street

# Says He is returning

# Well, sometimes a little bit
of faith can go a long, long way

# Your soul is my anchor

# Never asked to be free

# Well, sleep now, sleep now

# Take as long as you need

# Cos I'm just waiting for you

# Waiting for you

# Waiting for you

# Waiting for you

# Waiting for you

# Waiting for you

# To return

# To return

# To return. #

# I began to warm and chill

# To objects in the fields

# A ragged cup, a twisted mop

# The face of Jesus in my soup

# Those sinister dinner deals

# The meal trolley's wicked wheels

# And a hooked bone
rising from my food

# All things good or ungood

# And the mercy seat is waiting

# And I think my head is burning

# 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

Interpret sign and catalogue

# A blackened tooth,
a scarlet fog

# The walls are bad

# Black, bottom kind

# They are the sick breath
at my hind

# Now 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

# At least that's what I'm told

# My good hand

# Tattooed EVIL across
his brother's fist

# That filthy five

# Did nothing to
challenge or resist

# In heaven, His throne
is made of gold

# And 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

# My kill hand is called EVIL

# Wears a wedding band that's GOOD

# 'Tis a long-suffering shackle

# Collaring all that rebel blood

# And the mercy seat is waiting

# And I think my head is burning

# In a way I'm yearning

# To be done with all this
weighing up 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 a burning

# And I think my head
is glowing

# In a way, Hoping

# To be done with all this
weighing up 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 smoking

# And I think my head is melting

# In a way, I'm helping

# To be done with all this
twisting of the truth

# A lie for a lie

# And a truth for a truth

# And anyway,
I got nothing left to lose

# And I'm not afraid to die

# Melting

# And I think my blood is boiling

# In a way, I'm spoiling all the fun

# With all this truth
and consequence

# A lie for a lie

# And a truth for a truth

# And anyway I told the truth

# And I'm not afraid to die. #

# I look for you underneath
the damp earth

# I look for you in the night sky

# I look for you underneath
the thorn bush

# I look for you in the old city

# And in looking for you

# I lost myself

# Lost myself

# In time

# Lost myself under the damp earth

# Lost myself in the night sky

# Lost myself
underneath the thorn bush

# Lost myself in the old city

# And in losing myself

# I found myself

# Found myself in time

# Oh, when you stepped out
of the vehicle

# And attached yourself to my heart

# It was a kind of dying

# A kind of dying

# Dying of time

# And I fled from the old city

# Fled underneath the thorn bush

# Fled into the night sky

# Fled underneath the damp earth

# Where I passed through a doorway

And found you
sitting at the kitchen table

# And smiling

# That smile, that smile
that smiles

# That smile, that smile
that smiles

# That smile that smiles,
that smiles

# Smiles just in time. #

# On Jubilee Street

# There was a girl named Bee

# She had a history

# Yeah, but she's got no past

# When they shut her down

# Yeah, well, the Russians moved in

# Now, I'm too scared

# I'm too scared

# To even walk on past

# But here I come

# Up the hill

# I'm pushing my wheel of love

# I got love in my tummy

# And a tiny little pain

# And a ten-tonne catastrophe

# On a 60-pound chain

# And I'm pushing

# My wheel of love
up Jubilee Street

# Well, look at me now

# Look at me now

# Look at me now

# Look at me now

# Look at me now

# The problem was

# She had a little black book

# And my name was written
on every page

# Yeah, well, a girl's got
to make ends meet

# Especially down on Jubilee Street

# I was out of place and time

# I was over the hill

# I was out of my fucking mind

# On Jubilee Street

# These days, I go downtown

# In my tie and tails

# I got a foetus

# Yeah, on a leash

# I am alone now

# I am beyond recriminations

# The curtains are shut

# The furniture is gone

# I'm transforming

# I'm vibrating

# I am glowing

# I am flying

# Well, I'm transforming

# I'm vibrating

# Well, look at me now

# I am glowing

# I am flying

# Well, look at me now

# I'm transforming

# I'm vibrating

# Well, look at me now

# Yeah, I'm transforming

# I'm vibrating

# I am glowing

# I am flying

# Look at me now. #

# For you, dear, I was born

# For you I was raised up

# For you I've lived
and for you I will die

# For you I'm dying now

# You were my mad little lover

# In a world where everybody
fucks everybody else over

# You who are so

# Far from me

# So far from me

# Way up in some cold, neurotic sea

# Far from me

# I would talk to you
of all manner of things

# With a smile, you would reply

# Then the sun would leave
your pretty face

# And you'd retreat
from the front of your eyes

# It's good to hear
you're doing so well

# But really, can't you find
somebody else

# That you can ring and tell?

# Did you ever care for me?

# Were you ever there for me?

# So far from me

# You told me you'd stick by me

# Through the thick
and through the thin

# Those were your very words

# My fair-weather friend

# You were my brave-hearted lover

# At the first taste of trouble
went running back to mother

# So far from me

# Oh, so far from me

# Suspended in your bleak
and fishless sea

# Far from me

# Far from me

# Far from me. #

# In his boat
and through the dark he rowed

# Chained to oar and the night
and the wind that blowed

# Horribly 'round his ears

# Oh, oh, oh

# Under the bridge
and into your dreams he soars

# While you lie alone
in that idea-free sleep of yours

# That you've been sleeping now
for years

# And he wants you

# And he wants you

# And he is straight and he is true

# Oh, oh, oh, oh

# Beneath the hanging cliffs
and under the many stars where

# We will move, all amongst
your tangled hair

# And deep into the sea

# Oh, oh, oh

# You will wake and walk
and draw the blind

# And feel some presence
there behind

# And turn to see what that may be

# Well, babe, it's me

# And he wants you

# And he wants you

# He is straight and he is true

# Oh, oh, oh, oh. #

# Can't remember anything at all

# Can't remember anything at all

# Black road long
and I drove and drove

# Came upon a crossroad

# The night was hard and black

# I see Robert Johnson

# With a $10 guitar

# Strapped to his back

# Looking for a tune

# Well, here comes Lucifer
with his canon law

# And 100 black babies
running from his genocidal jaw

# He's got the real killer groove

# Robert Johnson and the devil, man

# Don't know who's going to
rip off who

# I'm driving my car

# Flame trees on fire

# Sitting and singing

# The Higgs Boson Blues

# And I'm tired, I'm tired

# And I'm looking for a spot to drop

# All the clocks have stopped
in Memphis

# In the Lorraine Motel,
it's hot, it's hot, it's hot

# That's why they call it
the hot spot

# I take a room with a view

# Hear a man preaching in a language
that's completely new

# Making the hot cots
in the flophouse bleed

# While the cleaning ladies
sob into their mops

# And the bellhop hops and bops

# Well, a shot rings out

# It's a spiritual groove

# Everybody bleeding

# To the Higgs Boson Blues

# If I die tonight

# Bury me in my favourite
yellow patent leather shoes

# And with a mummified cat

# And a cone-like hat

# That the Caliphate
forced on the Jews

# Can you feel my heart beat?

# Can you feel my heart beat?

# I'm driving my car
down to Geneva

# Well, Hannah Montana,
she does the African Savannah

# As the simulated rainy season
begins

# She curses the queue
at the zoo loos

# And moves on to Amazonia

# And cries with the dolphins

# The Mai-Mai eat the pygmy

# The pygmy eat the monkey

# The monkey has a gift
and he is sending it back to you

# And here comes the missionary

# With his small pox and flu

# Saving them savages
with his Higgs Boson Blues

# I let the damn day break

# Rainy days always make me sad

# Miley Cyrus floats in a
swimming pool in Toluca Lake

# And you're the best girl
that I've ever had

# And you're the very best girl
that I've ever had

# And you're the best girl
that I've ever had

# Bar none. #

# Stranger than kindness

# Bottled light from hotels

# Spilling everything

# Wet hand from the volcano

# Sobers your skin

# Stranger than kindness

# You caress yourself

# And grind my soft
cold bones below

# Your map of desire

# Burned in your flesh

# Even a fool can come

# A strange lit stair

# Find a rope hanging there

# Stranger than kindness

# Keys rain like heaven's hair

# There is no home

# There is no bread

# We sit at the gate and scratch

# The gaunt fruit of passion

# It dies in the light

# Stranger than kindness

# Your sleeping hands

# They journey, they loiter

# Stranger than kindness

# You hold me so carelessly close

# Tell me I'm dirty

# I'm a stranger

# I'm a stranger

# I am a stranger to

# Kindness

# Kindness

# Kindness

# Oh. #

# I don't believe
in an interventionist God

# But I know, darling, that you do

# But if I did
I would kneel down and ask Him

# Not to intervene
when it came to you

# Oh, not to touch a hair
on your head

# Leave you as you are

# And if He felt He had
to direct you

# Then direct you into my arms

# Into my arms, o Lord

# Into my arms, o Lord

# Into my arms, o Lord

# Into my arms

# And I don't believe
in the existence of angels

# But looking at you I wonder,
is that true?

# But if I did
I would summon them together

# And ask them to watch out over you

# To each burn a candle for you

# To make bright and clear your path

# And to walk like Christ
in grace and love

# And guide you into my arms

# Into my arms, o Lord

# Into my arms, o Lord

# Into my arms, o Lord

# Into my arms

# But I believe in love

# And I know that you do too

# And I believe
we can choose our path

# We can walk down the me and you

# So keep your candles burning

# Make her journey bright and pure

# That will keep returning

# Always and ever more

# Into my arms, o Lord

# Into my arms, o Lord

# Into my arms, o Lord

# Into my arms. #

# Come sail your ships around me

# And burn your bridges down

# We make a little history, baby

# Every time you come around

# Come loose your dogs upon me

# Let your hair hang down

# You are a little mystery to me

# Every time you come around here

# We talk about it all night long

# We define our moral ground

# But when I crawl into your arms

# Well, everything,
it comes tumbling down

# Come sail your ships around me

# And burn your bridges down

# We make a little history, baby

# Every time you come around here

# Your face has fallen sad now

# Yeah, for you know that
the time is nigh

# Yeah, when I must remove
your wings

# And you, you must try to fly

# Come sail your ships around me

# Burn your bridges down

# We make a little history, baby

# Every time you come around. #

# I went out walking the other day

# The wind hung wet around my neck

# My head
it rung with screams and groans

# From the night I spent
amongst her bones

# I passed beside the mission house

# Where that mad old buzzard,
the reverend

# Shrieked and flapped
about life after you're dead

# I thought about my friend, Michel

# How they rolled him in linoleum

# And they shot him in the neck

# Well, Papa won't leave you, Henry

# Papa won't leave you, boy

# Papa won't leave you, Henry

# Papa won't leave you, boy

# Well, the road is long

# And the road is hard

# And many fall by the side

# But Papa won't leave you, Henry

# And there ain't no need to cry

# And I went on down the road

# Came upon a little house

# A little house upon a hill

# I entered through
and the curtain hissed

# Into the house
with its blood-red bowels

# Where wet-lipped women
with greasy fists

# Crawl the ceilings and the walls

# And they filled me full of drink

# And they led me round the rooms

# Naked and cold and grinning

# Until everything went black

# And I came down spinning

# I awoke so drunk and full of rage

# That I could hardly speak

# A fag in whale-bone corset

# Draping his dick across my cheek

# And it's into the shame

# And it's into the guilt

# And it's into the fucking fray

# And the walls ran red around me

# A warm arterial spray

# Saying

# Papa won't leave you, Henry

# Papa won't leave you, boy

# Papa won't leave you, Henry

# Papa won't leave you, boy

# Oh, the night is dark
and the night is deep

# And its jaws are open wide

# Papa won't leave you, Henry

# There ain't no need to cry

# And I went on down the road

# It's the rainy season
where I'm living

# Death comes leaping
out every doorway

# Wasting you for money,
for your clothes

# And for your nothing

# Entire towns being washed away

# Favelas exploding
on inflammable spillways

# Lynch mobs, death squads,
babies being born with brains

# And the mad heat
and the relentless rains

# And the mad heat
and the relentless rains

# And with her kisses
bubbling on my lips

# I swiped at the rain
and I nearly missed

# Singing

# Papa won't leave you, Henry

# Papa won't leave you, boy

# Papa won't leave you, Henry

# Papa won't leave you, boy

# Well, the road is long

# And the road is hard

# And many fall by the side

# Papa won't leave you, Henry

# There ain't no need to cry

# And I went on down the road

# Yeah, I went on down the road

# Bent beneath my heavy load

# Yeah, well,
I went on down the road. #

# Last night my kisses

# Were banked in black hair

# And in my bed, my lover

# Her hair was midnight black

# All her mystery dwelled

# Within her black hair

# Her black hair framed

# A happy heart-shaped face

# To kiss her milk-white throat

# A dark curtain of black hair

# Smothered me, my lover

# With her beautiful black hair

# The smell of it is heavy

# It is charged with life

# On my fingers lingers the smell

# Of her deep black hair

# Full of all my whispered words

# Her black hair

# And wet with tears and goodbyes

# Her hair of deepest black

# All my tears cried against

# Her milk-white throat

# Hidden behind the curtain

# Of her beautiful, beautiful
black hair

# Deep as ink and black

# Black as the deepest sea

# The smell of her black hair
on my pillow

# Where her head and all its

# Black hair did rest

# Today she took a train to the West

# Today she took a train to the West

# Today she took a train to the West

# To the West. #

# If I could sail a galleon ship

# Long, lonely rider across the sky

# Seek out mysteries
while you sleep

# And treasure money cannot buy

# For you know I see you everywhere

# A servant girl, an empress

# My galleon ship will fly and fall

# Fall and fly and fly and fall

# Deep into your loveliness

# And if we rise, my love

# Before the daylight comes

# A thousand gallon ships will sail

# Ghostly around the morning sun

# For we are not alone, it seems

# So many riders in the sky

# With the winds of longing
in their sails

# Searching for the other side

# And if we rise, my love

# Oh, my darling little one

# We'll stand and watch
the galleon ships

# Circle around the morning sun. #

MUSIC ENDS