Pere Ubu Lyrics
Carnival of Souls
(2014)
Golden Surf II
I have a mapI make inside my head
A map only shows you what you already must know
Where shall we go?
Where shall we go?
Into Dark Light.
Into Dark Light
The neon buzzing
Moon buzzing
A firefly mothman buzzing
A firefly mothman
Buzzing.
There oughta be a plan for the night
A plan that involves speed light and you
by my side
And you by my side
In your eyes I see the stars
of a thousand headlamps.
It's time to go.
Writers: Dowdall - Mehlman - Moliné - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
© 2014 Fire Songs, under license from Ubu Projex
Drag the River
Moon is where the dead people goAll my friends everyone I know
Moonfaced doom-struck.
Time is a river
and honey I am your diving duck
Your fool.
Moon is where dead people go
All my friends and everyone I know
Everyone I know.
Moonfaced, doom-struck
Time is the river
and honey I am your diving duck.
Writers: Boon - Dowdall - Mehlman - Moliné - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
© 2014 Fire Songs, under license from Ubu Projex
Visions of the Moon
[French translation]I live on the moon
I live in a box on the moon
My friends watch me from far below
We dream
We dream
Miles away.
Sun never to set
Moon never to rise
Miles away
I live on a moon
I live in a house
that I wander through.
I fear
the day will come
from miles away
My world I say
This is my world I say
Miles away.
Where will it go?
Where will it go?
I live on the moon
I live in a box on the moon
My friends watch me
from far below.
We dream
Miles away.
Writers: Boon - Mehlman - Moliné - Temple - Thomas
© 2014 Fire Songs, under license from Ubu Projex
Dr Faustus
An old manSits on the porch of his shotgun shack
out on Route 322 south of Meadville.
He sees you but you don't see him
May be speeding past sixty miles an hour
He can see you.
Hhe can see your hopes and dreams and fears
trailing behind
Like scraps of paper that have been torn from a map.
I am damned
To almost see what could have been
To almost know what should have been.
I am free
No dignity remains to remind me of the man I used to be
Sorrow hangs on me like a baggy suit of clothes.
Writers: Boon - Dowdall - Mehlman - Moliné - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
© 2014 Fire Songs, under license from Ubu Projex
Bus Station
I'm at The Greyhound at 12th & PayneIt's all I need to know
It's all the same
All my friends gather too
It's a show.
Somewhere near somewhere far
somewhere down the street -
it's a local bar
Nothing new it's ever old
My fingers spread - how I feel the freaking cold.
I put a spell on you because you're mine
It's not so hard to do
I walk the line
Nothing is free says Abilene
I pay the price again and again and again.
Writers: Boon - Dowdall - Mehlman - Moliné - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
© 2014 Fire Songs, under license from Ubu Projex
Road to Utah
[French translation]Follow the moon
Drive under the sea
Fiction is swallowing me
I say Here I am
The sea is gone
Tide is pulling me on
Is pulling me on.
I hear 15 monkeys with carnival eyes
My head is full of spies
Nothing to show for
Nothing to choose
I follow the clues
I follow the clues.
The dark is a fiction that is swallowing me
I say Here I am but the sea is gone
It's a trumped up tide that is pulling me on
I got nothing to show for and nothing to choose
I've got badly written lines and I'm following cues
I hear 15 monkeys and I want to cry
It's a dime store story with a Fortean twist.
Writers: Boon - Dowdall - Mehlman - Moliné - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
© 2014 Fire Songs, under license from Ubu Projex
Carnival
The monkey is looseinside my head
His eyes are green
The coat he wears is red
On the days that he talks to me
this is what he has said
Hang on Hang on.
Ninety-six tears will burn your cheeks
Ninety-six tears is gonna stain your breast
You say that you love me
Monkey knows best
You say you love me
Monkey knows it's a test
Hang on brother hang on.
If you feed the monkey
the monkey will say I love you too
If you feed the monkey
the monkey will reward you
If you feed the monkey.
You say you love me
I say What will you do for me?
You say you love me
I say OK what will you do?
Will you feed the monkey?
Will you feed the monkey?
Writers: Boon - Dowdall - Mehlman - Moliné - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
© 2014 Fire Songs, under license from Ubu Projex
Irene
Goodnight IreneYou are the prettiest thing
that I have ever seen
Irene.
I'd see the sunlight is in your eyes
but I know
the moon is on your mind
Irene.
I put a spell on you
because you're mine
I put a spell on you
Irene.
You will say you love me
and I will say
It's all gonna go wrong
It's not going to turn out very well at all.
Goodnight Irene
I will see you
often in my dream
Irene.
Writers: Boon - Dowdall - Mehlman - Moliné - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
© 2014 Fire Songs, under license from Ubu Projex
Brother Ray
Brother Ray is calling from a phone booth
out in the desert
Before he left he said I'm going to work a deal in heaven
That's what he said
You can see I was a bit worried.
Next thing I get a phone call
He says There's holy water mist rising from over the orange groves
There's halos appearing over the lampposts
In the sky the stars are coming all undone
He says the Greyhound's leaving and he's gotta go and he hangs up.
Just like that.
Next morning I get a postcard
On the front a picture of Soda Mountain in the moonlight
Soda Mountain in the Moonlight
On the back he's written Yeah yeah yeah
What do you think?
He's going to work a deal in heaven.
I want to climb up Soda Mountain
I want to live on Soda Mountain
One day you will see me
I will wave to you
I will wave to you.
I'll build a life on Soda Mountain
I'll take a wife on Soda Mountain
She will love me
She will love me too
People are strange on Soda Mountain
The stories change on Soda Mountain
Shall I tell one to you
concerning Mr Broady and his soot-black companions?
They shoveled on the coal
They set the whistle screaming
Falling down the mountain on Soda Mountain
Making up the time spent on Soda Mountain.
When they found me in the wreck
my hand was on the throttle
I'd died inside the steam
whilst stolen by a scheme
I died inside the rain on Soda Mountain.
All you ladies take a warning
Be good unto your man lest he's lost unto that mountain
He will wave to you
He will wave to you from Soda Mountain.
Writers: Boon - Dowdall - Mehlman - Moliné - Thomas
© 2014 Fire Songs, under license from Ubu Projex
French Translations
Visions de la Lune (translation by Camille Dontsurf)Je vis sur la lune
Je vis dans une boîte sur la lune
Mes amis me regardent d'en bas au loin
Nous rêvons
Nous rêvons
A des kilomètres.
Le soleil ne se couche jamais
La lune ne se lève jamais
A des kilomètres
Je vis sur une lune
Je vis dans une maison
dans laquelle j'erre.
Oh, je crains
que le jour vienne
de très loin.
Mon monde, dis-je
C'est mon monde, dis-je
A des kilomètres.
Où va t'il ?
Où va t'il ?
Je vis sur la lune
Je vis dans une boîte sur la lune
Mes amis me regardent
d'en bas au loin.
Nous rêvons
Nous rêvons
A des kilomètres
A des kilomètres.
La Route vers l'Utah (translation by Dontsurf Family and Facebook community
Je suis la lune
Je conduis sous la mer
La fiction m’avale
Je dis « Me voilà »
La mer n’est plus là
La marée m’emporte
M’emporte
J’entends 15 singes avec des yeux de carnaval
Ma tête est pleine d’espions
Rien à prouver
Rien à choisir
Alors je suis les indices
Je suis les indices
L’obscurité est une fiction qui m’avale
Je dis « Me voilà mais la mer n’est plus là »
C’est une marée imaginée qui m’emporte
Je n’ai rien à prouver et rien à choisir
J’ai un texte mal écrit et je suis des signes
J’entends 15 singes et j’ai envie de crier
« C’est un roman de gare avec un coup de théâtre Fortéen »
Je dis « Hey ! »
