A Box for Black Paul (2009 Remaster)

Who'll build a box for Black Paul?

I'm enquirin' on behalf of his soul

I'd be beholdin' to y'all

For a little information, just a little indication

Just who will dig the hole?

When ya done ransackin' his room

Grabbin' any damn thing that shines

Throw the scraps down on the street

Like all his books and his notes

All his books and his notes and all the junk that he wrote

The whole fuckin' lot right up in smoke

Ain't there nothing sacred anymore

Won't someone build a box for Black Paul?

And their shootin' off his guns

And their shootin' off their mouths

Saying, "Fuck with us and die

Fuck with us and die"

Let's see that rat of fear go scuttle in their skulls

"Cover that eye, cover that frozen eye"

Black Paul

Black-puppetin' a heap up against the stoning-wall

Black puppet, go to sleep

Mama won't scold ya anymore

Armies of ants wade up the little red streams

They're headin' for the mother-pool

Oh, Lord, it's cruel, oh, man, it's hot, oh, man, it's hot

And some of them ants, they just climb to the spot

Who threw the first stone at black Paul?

"Don't ask us", say the critics and the hacks

The pen-pushers and the quacks

"We just come to get the facts, we just come to get the facts"

Oh, Lord, oh

Hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey-hey

Here is the hammer that built the scaffold

And built the box

Here is the shovel that dug the hole

In this ground of rocks

Oh, and here is the pile of stones

And for each one planted

God only knows, a blood-rose grown

And listen

These are the true demon-flowers

These are the true demon-flowers

Stand back, everyone; blood-black everyone

Blood-black

Stand back

Who'll build a box for Black Paul?

Who'll carry it up the hill?

"Not I", I said the widow, adjusting her veil

"I will not drive the nail

Or cart his puppet-body home

For I done that one hundred times before

Oh, yes, at least one hundred times or more

And why should I dress his wounds?

When he has wounded my dress nightly

Right across the floor"

Oh, who'll build a box for Black Paul?

And who'll, who'll carry it up the hill?

Now, who'll bury him in the black soil?

From the woods and the thickets

Come the ghosts of his victims

"We love you!

I love you!"

"And this won't hurt a bit

Out of my eyes was your rise to full, to full glory

Spring up from the crope of life

Spring up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up into death

Up, up, up, up, up, up, inhale its breath

Oh, yes, death favours those that favour death

Oh

Here is the stone and here is the inscription it bear

"Below lies Black Paul under the upper

But above and beyond the surface-flat-fall there."

And-and-and-and all the angels come on down

And all you men and women crowd around

And the old widows weeping into their skirts

And all the little gals and the little boys

And the scribes with their pens poised

All the hullaballoo, all the noise

All the hullaballoo, all the noise

All of the hullaballoo, all of the noise

Clears his throat of black blood

Black Paul singin' like a lonely boy

Well, I have cried one thousand tears

I've cried a thousand tears, it's true

And the next stormy night, you know

That I'm still cryin' them for you

And I had a gal, she was so sweet

Red dress, long and red hair hangin' down

And Heaven just ain't Heaven

Without that little girl hangin' around

Well, I laugh, you know I've been a bad man

But Lord knows I've done some good things, too

But I confess, my soul will never rest

Until you've, until you've built

Until you've built a box for my gal, too

My gal, too

My gal, too