What we once thought, we had, we didn't
And what we have now, will never be that way again
So we call upon the author to explain!

Now myxomatoid kids spraddle the streets
We've shunned them from the greasy-grind
The poor little things, they look so sad & old
As they mount us from behind
I ask them to desist and to refrain
The we call upon the author to explain!

Rosary clutched in his hand
He died with tubes up his nose
And a cabal of angels with, with finger cymbals
Chanted his name in code
We shook our fists at the punishing rain
And we called upon the author to explain!

He said "everything is messed up round here, everything is banal
And jejune ,there is a planetary conspiracy
Against the likes of you and me
In this idiot constituency of the moon"
Well, he knew exactly who to blame
And we call upon the author to explain!

PROLIX! PROLIX! NOTHING A PAIR OF SCISSORS CAN'T FIX!

I go guruing down the street
And young people gather round my feet
Ask me things - but I don't know where to start
They ignite the powder-trails straight to my father's heart
And once again, I call upon the author to explain
And we call upon the author to explain

Well who is this great, burdensome, slavering dog-thing that mediocres my every though?
I feel like a vacuum cleaner!
A complete sucker!
It's fucked up and he is a fucker!
But what an enormous and encyclopedic brain!
I call upon the author to explain!
And we call upon the author to explain

O rampant discrimination, mass poverty, third world debt
Infectious disease, global inequality and deepening socio-economic divisions
Well it does in your brain
We call upon the author to explain!

Now hang on! my friend Doug is tapping on the window
Hey Doug, how you been?
Brings me a book on holocaust poetry
Complete with pictures
Then tells me to get ready for the rain
And we call upon the author to explain!

PROLIX! PROLIX! SOMETHING A PAIR OF SCISSORS CAN FIX!

Bukowski was a jerk! Berryman was best!
He wrote like wet paper mache
But he went the Hemming-way
Weirdly on wings and with maximum pain
We call upon the author to explain!
I call upon the author to explain

Down in my bolt hole I see they've published
Another volume of unreconstructed rubbish
"the waves, the waves were soldiers moving"
Thank you! thank you! thank you! & again!
I call upon the author to explain
I call upon the author to explain
I call upon the author to explain
We call upon the author to explain

PROLIX! PROLIX! SOMETHING A PAIR OF SCISSORS CAN FIX!

Writer : WARREN ELLIS, NICK CAVE
Copyright : Lyrics © WINDSWEPT HOLDINGS LLC