Pere Ubu Lyrics
Pennsylvania
(1998)

Woolie Bullie

There's a diner out on Route 322 in western Pennsylvania
I spent my life there one afternoon
I can't get that stretch of road out of my head
I hear it when I'm taking a shower or reading the paper
I'd look up and see it across the valley
They tore down the Starlighter down at the end of the road
and built a big Day's Inn that blocks the view
But I know that road's still there
I can feel it wherever I go
whatever I'm doing
and it knows that I'm still here
and it's waiting.

We are abandoned
Liars own the words
All the pictures in all the museums in the world are just a shell and pea game
played by the clever people to bilk the rubes
Reality is defined by the needs of the media
History is rewritten faster than it can happen
Culture is a weapon that's used against us
Culture is a swampland of superstition, ignorance and abuse
Geography is a language they can't screw up
The land and what we add to it cannot lie
It's also like a mirror
Reflected we see ourselves
Or we choose to turn away
Watch it.

Down by the river I shot my baby
By the rivers of Babylon
I wept when I remembered you oh Zion
Take me to the river
Wash me in the water
Watch me now
Watch me.

Writers: Herman - Jones - Mehlman - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
©1998 Ubu Projex.

Highwaterville

Between Vegas and Los Angeles
the world and his brother too
they're down on their knees howling at the moon.

Between Hell and Highwaterville
somebody's calling something, saying
You want but you never will.

Between Here and Somewhere Far
there's a person you know
floating face down at the bottom of a jar.

Where you going?

Writers: Herman - Jones - Mehlman - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
©1998 Ubu Projex.

SAD.TXT

One day I will be your man
One day I will be the best that you can do
Time will catch up to you
like it caught me too.

Frozen broken by light in two
My, how my world slows to a stop each night without you
One day will you unfreeze me?
Will you unfreeze my life where it is stuck to you?

Writers: Herman - Jones - Mehlman - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
©1998 Ubu Projex.

Urban Lifestyle

Somewhere out there the bars are open
Somewhere out there the night is calling
Somewhere out there good times are rolling.

It's summer in the streets.

Somewhere out there the stars are on fire
Somewhere out there rats are in motion
Somewhere out there people are laughing.

It's summer in the streets.

Somewhere out there the dogs are all barking
Somewhere out there there's blind people parking
Somewhere out there the beer it is flowing.

It's summer.

Writers: Herman - Jones - Mehlman - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
©1998 Ubu Projex.

Silent Spring

Follow me into town
You don't know where we're going
That's where we're going.

Follow me as far as this
That's all you need to know
That's where we're going.

Writers: Herman - Jones - Mehlman - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
©1998 Ubu Projex.

Muddy Waters

After they've taken everything that we might have owned
After they've stolen the thing that we have loved
then they say, It's just not enough.

Like Muddy Waters to a recalcitrant guitar player
with a hand like a fist, pins him to the wall
looks him in the eye says, Boy you must go.

Fire is like a mirror
We were standing there rocking on our heels
watching the heart of the flames
Smoke is like a door
Through it you never come back to me

I was standing on the outside inside looking out
I was seeing someone that's too far away.

I was standing on the inside looking out
looking at the outside
I was asking myself,
Why do I delay any longer?

Writers: Herman - Jones - Mehlman - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
©1998 Ubu Projex.

Drive

Drive to the sun
past the brittle bones of a moon-like world
It's a big country and a sun-scarred land
and the wind howls through a winter of lies.

It's a long way back
down a road that everybody knows
It's empty now and my eyes are framed in the rear view
Does the desperation show?

Drive to the sun, he said
through a look that looks from far away
We've trailed our dreams behind us for days
like paper shredded by the force of our passing.

It's a lonely road
when tomorrow has got no home in yesterday
All the day goes rushing west
The thing is so near words catch in my throat and I can't explain.

East is east but West is best
Your golden arms I fear to test.

I know a road they say is the loneliest highway in the world
Have you seen it?
It's as relentless as the arrow of time
and it's just as unforgiving.

Drive to the sun, he said, into the vanishing point
Across a dry sea bed of cobalt blue
a tin can rusted and salt-encrusted lips
we face a mirror.

We will never know what it was
that has been lost from here
We will never know what it is
All we can know is what we have lost instead you and I.

Drive to the sun, he said
as yet another ghost town casino forms through the shimmering heat
Think of all that existential claptrap
that litters the days of our lives.

Writers: Herman - Jones - Mehlman - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
©1998 Ubu Projex.

Indiangiver

It oughta be a crime
Don't reckon it is
I think it's a sin
I'm pretty sure
Now, to promise your love
Then to take it back again
Man, what man are you?

Writers: Herman - Jones - Mehlman - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
©1998 Ubu Projex.

Monday Morning

In the hard-edged town
the form that the light takes
is like a trickle down
Some things it can filter out
softens the faces of the angry men
who still walk around
in the harvest night of a suitcase town.

I fear the pace of change
I fear the face of change
Something in the air tastes of strange enough
Everybody must go
Everybody must swear an oath to leave
I heard it on the radio
That's how I know.

Writers: Herman - Jones - Mehlman - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
©1998 Ubu Projex.

Perfume

We pulled off the highway
Drove down Main Street
Found a one-pump
where we gassed and asked where the food was
Just like we knew we'd been expected all along.

Lawyer had an office on the second floor
Reached it from the outside up the stairs
side of the wall
Just past there I looked down the street
and saw where the town disappeared into the high plains
I knew that somewhere out there
is a valley filled with frozen clouds
Dust hangs in the air like it is perfume
and no one is waiting
Is someone here who knows me?

I meant to write down the name of the town
I don't remember the highway we took to get to it
or where we went afterwards
I do remember the frozen quality of the hours we stayed there
I remember the waitress and what Tom had to eat
I remember the faces of the other customers
like they was my own family
I remember that just over the horizon there was a valley
that was filled with frozen clouds
where dust hangs in the air like it was perfume.

Is there someone here who knows me?

Writers: Herman - Jones - Mehlman - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
©1998 Ubu Projex.

Fly's Eye

Maybe it's in the moonlight
or maybe it's in the headlights
but the driver of the car's still your Man In The Moon
The guy at his side was your brother Bill
They was howling at the world from the top of a hill.

Tonight I can see them in your eyes
like I saw it in a dream
Baby, you better come inside
cause the driver of the car's still the Man In The Moon
The guy at his side is your brother Bill.

They was howling at the world
In a fly's eye.

In the halo of the evening
where the kitchen meets the nighttime
At the screen who is it standing there?
Hey baby, you're letting all the bugs in.

Writers: Herman - Jones - Mehlman - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
©1998 Ubu Projex.

Wheelhouse

Have you ever felt
like a one-horse town has come your way?
Came to stay?
In a wheelhouse big gears are grinding.

Have you ever crossed a threshing room floor?
When the dust hangs in the air?
Have you ever thought that you might be the clown?
When the light hangs in the dust?

In a center ring across a hot floor
no one knows who you used to be
Or where you've been or what you've done
or the things that you've felt.

In a wheelhouse great big gears are grinding
Big gears grind.

Writers: Herman - Jones - Mehlman - Temple - Thomas - Wheeler
©1998 Ubu Projex.

Pere Ubu Lyrics Pennsylvania (1998)