Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire

(album: For The Roses - 1972)

Cold Blue Steel out of money
One eye for the beat police
Sweet Fire calling
"You can't deny me
Now you know what you need"
Underneath the jungle gym
Hollow-grey-fire-escape-thief
Looking for Sweet Fire
Shadow of Lady Release

"Come with me
I know the way" she says
"It's down, down, down the dark ladder
Do you want to contact somebody first?
Leave someone a letter?
You can come now
Or you can come later"

A wristwatch, a ring, a downstairs screamer
Edgy black cracks of the sky
"Pincushionprick
Fix this poor bad dreamer!"
"Money" cold shadows reply
Pawnshops crisscrossed and padlocked
Corridors spit on prayers and pleas
Sparks fly up from Sweet Fire
Black soot of Lady Release

"Come with me
I know the way" she says
"It's down, down, down the dark ladder
Do you want to contact somebody first?
Does it really matter
You can come now
Or you can come later?"

Red water in the bathroom sink
Fever and the scum brown bowl
Blue Steel still begging
But it's indistinct
Someone's HI-Fi drumming Jelly Roll
Concrete concentration camp
Bashing in veins for peace
Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire
Fall into Lady Release

"Come with me
I know the way" she says
"It's down, down, down the dark ladder
Do you want to contact somebody first?
I mean what does it really matter?
You're going to come now
Or you're going to come later"