david bowie
baal's hymn
Whilst his mother's womb contained the growing Baal Even then the sky was waiting quiet and pale Naked, young, immensely marvellous Like Baal loved it, when he came to us That same sky remained with him in joy and care Even when Baal slept peaceful and unaware At night a lilac sky, a drunken Baal Turning pious as the sky grows pale So through hospital, cathedral, whiskey bar Baal kept moving onwards and just let things go When Baal's tired, boys, Baal cannot fall far He will have his sky down there below When the sinners congregate in shame together Baal lay naked, revelling in their distress Only sky, a sky that will go on forever Formed a blanket for his nakedness And that lusty girl, the world, who'll laughing yield To the men who'll stand the pressure of her thighs Sometimes gave him love-bites, such as can't be healed Baal survived it, he just used his eyes And when Baal saw lots of corpses scattered round He felt twice the thrill, despite the lack of room "Space enough" said Baal, "then I'll thicken the ground Space enough within this woman's womb" Any vice for Baal has got its useful side It's the man who practices it, he can't abide Vices have their point, once you see it as such Stick to two for one will be too much Slackness, softness are the sort of things to shun Nothing could be harder than the quest for fun Lots of strength is needed and experience too Swollen bellies can embarrass you Under gloomy stars and this poor veil of tears Baal will graze a pasture till it disappears Once it's been digested to the forest's teeth Baal trod singing for a well earned sleep Baal can spot the vultures in the stormy sky As they wait up there to see if Baal will die Sometimes Baal pretends he's dead, but vultures swoop Baal in silence dines on vulture-soup When the dark womb drags him down to its prize What's the world still mean to Baal, he's overfed So much sky is lurking still behind his eyes He'll just have enough sky when he's dead Once the Earth's dark womb engulfed the rotting Baal Even then the sky was up there, quiet and pale Naked, young, immensely marvellous.