Beneath the Southern Cross (with video)
Beneath the Southern Cross
Written by Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye
Oh
to be
not anyone
gone
this maze of being
skin
oh
to cry
not any cry
so mournful that
the dove just laughs
the steadfast gasps
oh
to owe
not anyone
nothing
to be
not here
but here
forsaking
equatorial bliss
who walked through
the callow mist
dressed in scraps
who walked
the curve of the world
whose bone scraped
whose flesh unfurled
who grieves not
anyone gone
to greet lame
the inspired sky
amazed to stumble
where gods get lost
beneath
the southern cross
Gloria
Gloria
Written by Van Morrison and Covered by Patti Smith (Lyrics below are from Smith's radically altered cover version)
Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine
meltin' in a pot of thieves
wild card up my sleeve
thick heart of stone
my sins my own
they belong to me, me
people say "beware!"
but I don't care
the words are just
rules and regulations to me, me
I-I walk in a room, you know I look so proud
I'm movin' in this here atmosphere, well, anything's allowed
and I go to this here party and I just get bored
until I look out the window, see a sweet young thing
humpin' on the parking meter, leanin' on the parking meter
oh, she looks so good, oh, she looks so fine
and I got this crazy feeling and then I'm gonna ah-ah make her mine
ooh I'll put my spell on her
here she comes
walkin' down the street
here she comes
comin' through my door
here she comes
crawlin' up my stair
here she comes
waltzin' through the hall
in a pretty red dress
and oh, she looks so good, oh, she looks so fine
and I got this crazy feeling that I'm gonna ah-ah make her mine
and then I hear this knockin' on my door
hear this knockin' on my door
and I look up into the big tower clock
and say, "oh my God here's midnight!"
and my baby is walkin' through the door
leanin' on my couch she whispers to me and I take the big plunge
and oh, she was so good and oh, she was so fine
and I'm gonna tell the world that I just ah-ah made her mine
and I said darling, tell me your name, she told me her name
she whispered to me, she told me her name
and her name is, and her name is, and her name is, and her name is G-L-O-R-I-A
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria
I was at the stadium
There were twenty thousand girls called their names out to me
Marie and Ruth but to tell you the truth
I didn't hear them I didn't see
I let my eyes rise to the big tower clock
and I heard those bells chimin' in my heart
going ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong.
ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong
counting the time, then you came to my room
and you whispered to me and we took the big plunge
and oh. you were so good, oh, you were so fine
and I gotta tell the world that I make her mine make her mine
make her mine make her mine make her mine make her mine
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria,
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria
and the tower bells chime, "ding dong" they chime
they're singing, "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine."
Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A,
Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A, G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria,
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria,
G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria G-L-O-R-I-A Gloria
Related Link: Smith has famously covered a number of songs reinterpreting them and adding her own poetry and experience to the performance including Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Prince's "When Doves Cry" and Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My Life," among others. Listen to Smith talk about her songwriting in this 2008 BBC podcast from a series on songwriting featuring Leonard Cohen, Nile Rodgers and Patti Smith.
Grateful (with video)
In this exclusive video, Patti Smith performs "Grateful" on October 20, 2009, at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York City.
Grateful
Written by Patti Smith
Ours is just another skin
That simply slips away
You can rise above it
It will shed easily
It all will come out fine
I've learned it line by line
One common wire
One silver thread
All that you desire
Rolls on ahead
Like a ship in a bottle
Held up to the sun
Sails ain't going nowhere
You can count every one
Until it crashes unto the
earth
And simply slips away
You can hide in the open
Or just disappear
Ours is just a craving
And a twist of the wrist
Will undo the stopper
With abrupt tenderness
Die little sparrow
And awake
Singing
It all will come out fine
I've learned it line by line
One common wire
One silver thread
All that you desire
Rolls on ahead
Memento Mori
Memento Mori
Written by Patti Smith
the fans were whirlin'
like the blades of a 'copter
liftin' into the skies above some foreign land
soaked with the bodies of so many friends.
Johnny waved
he was on his way home
he waved goodbye to his comrades in arms,
and all the twisted things he'd seen.
he waved goodbye
and the blades hit
something
maybe just Fate, but the blades hit
the 'copter went up in flames
and Johnny never went marchin' home
Johnny never went marchin' home
they took his name
and they carved it on a slab of marble
with several thousand other names
all the fallen idols
the apples of their mother's eye
just another name
meanwhile
back on that burning shore
Johnny's comrades stood speechless
they looked with uh-uh-uh-uh disbelieving eyes
as those bits of metal and the embers
the embers of his eyes
fanned out into the air
black dust
flames
oh Johnny! some day they'll make a movie about you
and in the making of that movie
some mad apocalypse
it will become even stranger than the simple act
just a boy going up up up
just a boy going up
in flames in the smoke
just another life
just another breath
and who'll remember
oh eternity now
as eternal as a sheet of marble
eternal as a slab on a green hill
and your name
and all your fallen brothers
and all the ones not cut
all the ones remembered only in the hearts
a mother a father a brother a sister a lover a son a daughter
shall not shall not fade shall not fade
your ancestors salute you
and the gods of your ancestors salute you
having having been formed by the minds of your ancestors
the gods of your ancestors salute you
having been formed by your ancestors
the gods of your ancestors salute you
they draw you in they draw you through
they draw they draw you through that golden door
mornin' boy [come on in boy]
we remember you
we conceived of you
we conceived of your breath
we conceived of the whole human race
and we conceived it to be a beautiful thing
like a tulip bending in the wind
sometimes it comes back to us
in the form of a handful of dust
comes back in the form of a smitten child
our raped daughters, ah the broken bones
souls cleaved from hearts
they come back to us
and our hands are filled with their rotting tissues
but we turn not our backs
we press our lips
into their cancer into the dust into the remains of each one
and that love is there and will greet you, will greet you
mornin' boy [come on in boy]
it's eternal love
well here, go ahead, run through that flame
awww man, running through your mind
you took a cat, you took a life, you took it by the tail
and you swirled it around your head
and you thrashed it, you smashed the life out of it
and you knew that it would be your own
but you wanted to feel, you wanted to feel it die
because you know you would feel your own
you would feel your own
but you're remembered!
you're remembered!
you're remembered DEAD!
you're remembered DEAD!
you're remembered DEAD!
we remember
we remember
we remember
everything
everything
My Blakean Year
My Blakean Year
Written by Patti Smith
In my Blakean year I was so disposed
Toward a mission yet unclear Advancing pole by pole
Fortune breathed into my ear Mouthed a simple ode
One road is paved in gold One road is just a road
In my Blakean year Such a woeful schism
The pain of our existence Was not as I envisioned
Boots that trudged from track to track Worn down to the sole
One road is paved in gold One road is just a road
Boots that tramped from track to track Worn down to the sole
One road was paved in gold One road was just a road
In my Blakean year Temptation but a hiss
Just a shallow spear Robed in cowardice
Brace yourself for bitter flack For a life sublime
A labyrinth of riches Never shall unwind
The threads that bind the pilgrim's sack Are stitched into the Blakean back
So throw off your stupid cloak Embrace all that you fear
For joy shall conquer all despair In my Blakean year
So throw off your stupid cloak Embrace all that you fear
For joy shall conquer all despair In my Blakean year
People Have the Power
People Have the Power
Written by Patti Smith
I was dreaming in my dreaming
of an aspect bright and fair
and my sleeping it was broken
but my dream it lingered near
in the form of shining valleys
where the pure air recognized
and my senses newly opened
I awakened to the cry
that the people / have the power
to redeem / the work of fools
upon the meek / the graces shower
it's decreed / the people rule
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
Vengeful aspects became suspect
and bending low as if to hear
and the armies ceased advancing
because the people had their ear
and the shepherds and the soldiers
lay beneath the stars
exchanging visions
and laying arms
to waste / in the dust
in the form of / shining valleys
where the pure air / recognized
and my senses / newly opened
I awakened / to the cry
Refrain
Where there were deserts
I saw fountains
like cream the waters rise
and we strolled there together
with none to laugh or criticize
and the leopard
and the lamb
lay together truly bound
I was hoping in my hoping
to recall what I had found
I was dreaming in my dreaming
god knows / a purer view
as I surrender to my sleeping
I commit my dream to you
Refrain
The power to dream / to rule
to wrestle the world from fools
it's decreed the people rule
it's decreed the people rule
LISTEN
I believe everything we dream
can come to pass through our union
we can turn the world around
we can turn the earth's revolution
we have the power
People have the power...
Radio Baghdad
Radio Baghdad
Written by Oliver Tompkins Ray and Patti Smith
Suffer not Your neighbor's affliction
Suffer not Your neighbor's paralysis
But extend your hand Extend your hand
Lest you vanish in the city And be but a trace
Just a vanished ghost And your legacy
All the things you knew Science, mathematics, thought
Severely weakened Like irrigation systems
In the tired veins forming From the Tigris and Euphrates
In the realm of peace All the world revolved
All the world revolved Around a perfect circle
City of Baghdad City of scholars
Empirical humble Center of the world
City in ashes City of Baghdad
City of Baghdad Abrasive aloof
Oh, in Mesopotamia Aloofness ran deep
Deep in the veins of the great rivers
That form the base Of Eden
And the tree The tree of knowledge
Held up its arms To the sky
All the branches of knowledge All the branches of knowledge
Cradling Cradling
Civilization In the realm of peace
All the world revolved Around a perfect circle
Oh Baghdad Center of the world
City of ashes With its great mosques
Erupting from the mouth of god Rising from the ashes like
a speckled bird Splayed against the mosaic sky
Oh, clouds around We created the zero
But we mean nothing to you You would believe
That we are just some mystical tale We are just a swollen belly
That gave birth to Sinbad, Scheherazade We gave birth
Oh, oh, to the zero The perfect number
We invented the zero And we mean nothing to you
Our children run through the streets
And you sent your flames Your shooting stars
Shock and awe Shock and awe
Like some, some Imagined warrior production
Twenty-first century No chivalry involved
No Bushido
Oh, the code of the West Long gone
Never been Where does it lie?
You came, you came Through the west
Annihilated a people And you come to us
But we are older than you You come you wanna
You wanna come and rob the cradle
Of civilization And you read yet you read
You read Genesis You read of the tree
You read of the tree Beget by god
That raised its branches into the sky Every branch of knowledge
Of the cradle of civilization
Of the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates
Oh, in Mesopotamia Aloofness ran deep
The face of Eve turning What sky did she see
What garden beneath her feet The one you drill
You drill Pulling the blood of the earth
Little droplets of oil for bracelets Little jewels
Sapphires You make bracelets
Round your own world We are weeping tears
Rubies We offer them to you
We are just Your Arabian nightmare
We invented the zero But we mean nothing to you
Your Arabian nightmare
City of stars City of scholarship
Science City of ideas
City of light City
City of ashes That the great Caliph
Walked through His naked feet formed a circle
And they built a city A perfect city of Baghdad
In the realm of peace And all the world revolved
And they invented And they mean nothing to you
Nothing to you Nothing
Go to sleep Go to sleep my child
Go to sleep And I'll sing you a lullaby
A lullaby for our city A lullaby of Baghdad
Go to sleep Sleep my child
Sleep Sleep...
Run Run...
You sent your lights Your bombs
You sent them down on our city Shock and awe
Like some crazy t.v. show
They're robbing the cradle of civilization
They're robbing the cradle of civilization
They're robbing the cradle of civilization
Suffer not The paralysis of your neighbor
Suffer not But extend your hand
The Jackson Song
The Jackson Song
Written by Patti Smith
Little blue dreamer go to sleep
Let's close our eyes and call the deep
slumbering land that just begins
When day is done and little dreamers spin
First take my hand now let it go
Little blue boy you're on your own
Little blue wings as those feet fly
Little blue shoes that walk across the sky
May your path be your own
But I'm with you
And each day you'll grow
He'll be there too
And someday when you go
We'll follow you
As you go, as you go
Little blue star that offers light
Little blue bird that offers flight
Little blue path where those feet fall
Little blue dreamer won't you dream it all
Refrain
And in your travels you will see
Warrior wings remember Daddy
And if a mama bird you see
Folding her wings will you remember me
As you go, as you go
As you go, as you go
Related Link: Listen to Smith talk about her songwriting in this 2008 BBC podcast from a series on songwriting featuring Leonard Cohen, Nile Rodgers and Patti Smith.