The Fog Electric
Rooms Behind
the Sun

Neon rattlesnake
Neon rattlesnake
Under the floor
Behind the paint

Neon rattlesnake
Neon rattlesnake
Don't move too fast
Don't make it wait

She lives upstairs from the laundry fire
With black boots on and a copper wire
Says she hears the city hiss
Through a little red radio kiss

She keeps moons in a paper sack
Paints her name on a mirror crack
When she smiles the streetlights blink
When she laughs the stairways sink

Neon rattlesnake
Under my bed

Neon rattlesnake
Inside my head

Neon rattlesnake
Counting my bones

Neon rattlesnake
Won't leave me alone

There's blue chalk on the kitchen floor
There's no lock on the second door
There's a flower in a coffee tin
There's a room where the walls begin

She says, boy, don't follow me
Past the corner by the pharmacy
There are people with silver eyes
Selling pieces of the sky

Neon rattlesnake
Under my bed

Neon rattlesnake
Inside my head

Neon rattlesnake
Counting my bones

Neon rattlesnake
Won't leave me alone

No peace sign
No white dove

Just streetlight fever
And a bad kind of love

No front door
No last name

Just a little green fire
In a picture frame

Now the windows hum at night
Now the hallway bends to the right
Now my shadow won't behave
Now my sleep has learned to wave

If you hear that radio cry
Don't look low and don't look high
Just turn around and count to ten
But the snake will call again

Neon rattlesnake
Under my bed

Neon rattlesnake
Inside my head

Neon rattlesnake
Counting my bones

Neon rattlesnake
Won't leave me alone

Who's got the bite?

Neon

Who's got the night?

Neon

Who's got the fever?

Neon

Who's gonna leave her?

No one
No one
No one

Black tambourine
Black tambourine

Shake it once
Shake it twice

Black tambourine
On a Sunday night

I saw Lucy by the market
With a suitcase full of string
She said Sunday lost its halo
Now the church bells never ring

She had red dust on her jacket
She had rain inside her shoes
She said everybody's dancing
But nobody gets to choose

And the boys in the alley
Were painting their eyes

And the girls on the corner
Were selling blue skies

And the man with the trumpet
Had swallowed the sun

And the black tambourine said
Run, run, run

Black tambourine Sunday
Shake my bones awake

Black tambourine Sunday
How much light can you take?

Black tambourine Sunday
Beat that crooked time

Black tambourine Sunday
Your shadow looks like mine

There was thunder in the basement
There was sugar in the street
There were saints behind the jukebox
With no sandals on their feet

Someone passed around a flower
Someone passed around a lie
Someone wrote my name in silver
On a little paper sky

And the room started leaning
To the left of the moon

And the organ kept crying
Like a ghost in June

And the drummer hit the ceiling
And the singer lost his tongue

And the black tambourine said
Young, young, young

Black tambourine Sunday
Shake my bones awake

Black tambourine Sunday
How much light can you take?

Black tambourine Sunday
Beat that crooked time

Black tambourine Sunday
Your shadow looks like mine

Black
Black

Tambourine

Black
Black

Tambourine

Shake
Shake

Tambourine

Break
Break

Everything

I went down to the corner
Where the sidewalk turned soft

I saw a preacher in a purple coat
With both his hands held aloft

He said, son, don't trust the morning
It only borrows the light

Then he laughed into the gutter
And vanished out of sight

So shake it for the lost ones
Shake it for the found

Shake it for the people
Who sleep beneath the sound

Shake it for the city
Shake it for the sea

Shake it for the Sunday
That swallowed you and me

Black tambourine Sunday
Shake my bones awake

Black tambourine Sunday
How much light can you take?

Black tambourine Sunday
Beat that crooked time

Black tambourine Sunday
Your shadow looks like mine

Shake it black
Shake it blue

Shake it till the sky falls through

Shake it red
Shake it green

Shake it for the tambourine

Black tambourine
Black tambourine

Sunday comes
But not for me

Black tambourine
Black tambourine

Sunday comes
But not for me

At the end of Fillmore
Past the last clean window
There is a house with no number

Everybody knows it
Nobody goes there twice

I saw candles in the curtains
Though the rooms were dark and bare
I heard laughter in the hallway
But there wasn't no one there

There were coats without their shoulders
There were shoes without their feet
There were names carved in the ceiling
There were flowers in the heat

Don't knock
Don't wait

The house knows
When you're late

Don't speak
Don't run

The door opens
For everyone

There was a girl beside the staircase
With a ribbon round her eyes
She said, I used to live in morning
Now I sleep beneath July

She gave me tea that tasted silver
She gave me bread that tasted blue
Then she pointed through the wallpaper
And said, that room belongs to you

The floor began to breathe
The lamps began to bend
The walls were full of weather
The clock forgot to end

Someone sang my birthday
In a language made of smoke
Someone wore my old face
Someone laughed each time I spoke

Don't knock
Don't wait

The house knows
When you're late

Don't speak
Don't run

The door opens
For everyone

In the kitchen stood a mirror
In the mirror stood the sea
In the sea there was a doorway
And the doorway looked like me

I could hear the city fading
I could hear the traffic drown
I could hear the flowers talking
As the stairs went further down

At the end of Fillmore
At the end of Fillmore
At the end of Fillmore
We go down

At the end of Fillmore
At the end of Fillmore
At the end of Fillmore
No way out

The room is turning
The roof is red
The flowers are sleeping
Under the bed

At the end of Fillmore
At the end of Fillmore
At the end of Fillmore
We go down

Down on Velvet Alley
The lights don't shine

A black cat laughs
At a broken sign

Jenny wore bells on a second-hand coat
Kept bad news in a paper boat
She said, don't look west when the sun goes red
There's a little green man living under your bed

I had dust on my collar
Smoke in my shoes
Three bent nickels
And nothing to lose

The boys were chewing flowers
The girls were counting rain

Somebody hit the organ
And the wall shook again

Velvet Alley
Pull me down

Velvet Alley
Spin me round

Velvet Alley
Don't let go

Where the strange ones
Go, go, go

There's a shop with no windows and a painted door
Selling old dreams for a dollar-four
A man in stripes with a purple cane
Said, son, you'll never be clean again

He had rings on his fingers
Ink on his tongue
Sang one note
And the whole room swung

Velvet Alley
Pull me down

Velvet Alley
Spin me round

Velvet Alley
Don't let go

Where the strange ones
Go, go, go

By the payphone near the liquor store
I heard my own voice from the night before
It said, turn back now, but I turned instead
To the girl with the bells and the ribbon-red

She said, keep walking
Don't ask why

Some doors open
When the moon gets high

No white light
No golden road

Just a fuzz box screaming
And a heavy load

No soft dream
No holy sign

Just a cracked-up city
On borrowed time

Velvet Alley
Pull me down

Velvet Alley
Spin me round

Velvet Alley
Don't let go

Where the strange ones
Go, go, go

Velvet Alley
Shake my name

Velvet Alley
Feed the flame

Velvet Alley
Now I know

Where the strange ones
Go, go, go

Down by the alley
Down by the sound

Everybody's laughing
But nobody's found

Kick that drum
Make that organ cry

Velvet Alley
Till the morning dies