Magic And Loss

Produced by Lou Reed and Mike Rathke

Words and music by Lou Reed ( except for "Power and glory" "Magic and loss" " Dreamin " "Gassed and Stoked " where the music was co-authored with Mike Rathke )

Dorita 1:07 ; What's Good 3:22 ; Power And Glory 4:23 ; Magican 6:23 ; Sword Of Damocles 3:42 ; Goodby Mass 4:25 ; Cremation 2:54 ; Dreamin' 5:07 ; No Chance 3:15 ; Warrior King 4:27 ; Harry's Circumcision 5:28 ; Gassed And Stoked 4:18 ; Power And Glory Part Two 2:57 ; Magic And Loss 6:39

Dorita - The Spirit

What's Good - The Thesis

Life's like a mayonnaise soda

And life's like space without room

And life's like bacon and ice cream

That's what life's like without you

Life's like forever becoming

But life's forever dealing in hurt

Now life's like death without living

That's what life's like without you

Life's like Scanskrit read to a pony

I see you in my mind's eye strangling on your tongue

What's good is knowing such devotion

I've been around -- I know what makes things run

What good os seeing eye chocolate

What good's a computerized nose

And what good was cancer in April

Why no good -- no good at all

What good's a war without killing

What good is rain that falls up

What good's a disease that won't hurt you

Why no good, I guess, no good at all

What good are these thoughts that I'm thinking

It must be better not to be thinking at all

A styrofoam lover with emotions of concrete

No not much, not much at all

What's good is life without living

What good's this lion that barks

You loved a life others throw away nightly

It's not fair, not fair at all

What's good?

Life's good --

But not fair at all

Power And Glory - The Situation

I was visited by The Power and The Glory

I was visited by a majestic hymn

Great bolts of lightning

lightning up the sky

Electricity flowing through my veins

I was captured by a larger moment

I was seized by divinity's hor breath

Gorged like a lion on experience

Powerful from life

I wanted all of it --

Not some of it

I saw a man turn into a bird

I saw a bird turn into a tiger

I saw a man hang from a cliff by the tips of his toes

in the jungles of the Amazon

I saw a man put a red hot needle through his eye

turn into a crow and fly through the trees

swallows hot coals and breathe out flames

and I wanted this to happen to me

We saw the moon vanish into his pocket

We saw the stars disappear from sight

We saw him walk across water into the sun

while bathed in eternal light

We spewed out questions waiting vor answers

creating legends, religions and myths

Books, stories, movies and plays

all trying to explain this

I saw a great man turn into a little child

The cancer reduced him to dust

His voice growing weak as he fought for his life

with a bravery few men know

I saw isotopes introduced into his lungs

trying to stop the cancerous spread

And it made me think of Leda and The Swan

and gold being made from lead

The same power that burned Hiroshima

causing three legged babies and death

Shrunk to the size of a nickel

to help him regain his breath

And I was struck by The Power and The Glory

I was visited by a majestic Him

Great bolts of lightning lighting up the sky

as the radiation flowed through him

He wanted all of it

Not some of it

Magican - Internally

Magician Magician take me upon your wings

and ... gently roll the clouds away

I'm sorry so sorry I have no incantations

only words to help sweep me away

I want some magic to sweep me away

I want some magic to sweep me away

I want to count to five

turn around and find myself gone

Fly through the storm

and wake up in the calm

Release me from the body

from this bulk that moves beside me

Let me leave this body far away

I'm sick of looking at me

I hate this painful body

that disease has slowly worm away

Magician take my spirit

inside I'm young and vital

Inside I'm alive please take me away

So many things to do -- it's too early

For my life to be ending

For this body to simply rot away

I want some magic to keep me alive

I want a miricle ... I don't want to die

I'm afraid that if I go to sleep I'll never wake

I'll no longer exist

I'll close my eyes and disappear

and float into the mist

Somebody ... please hear me

my hand can't hold a cup of coffee

My fingers are weak -- things just fall away

Inside I'm young and pretty

Too many things unfinished

My very breath taken away

Doctor you're no magician -- and I am no believer

I need more than faith ... can give me now

I want to believe in miricles -- not just belief in numbers

I need some magic to take me away

I want some magic to sweep me away

Visit on this starlit night

replace the stars the moon the light -- the sun's gone

Fly me through this storm

and wake up in the calm ...

I fly right through this storm

and ... I ... Wake ... Up ... In ... The ... Calm

Sword Of Damocles - Externally

I see The Sword of Damocles is right above your head

They're trying a new treatment to get you out of bed

But radiation kills both bad and good

it can not differentiate

So to cure you they must kill you

The Sword of Damocles hangs above your head

Now I have seen lots of peoples die

from car crashes or drugs

Last night on 33rd st. I saw a kid get hit by a bus

Bus this drawn out torture over which part of you lives

is very hard to take

To cure you they must kill you

The Sword of Damocles above your head

That mix of morphine and dexedrine

we use it on the street

It kills the pain and keeps you up

your very soul to keep

But this guessing game has its own rules

the good don't always win

and might makes right

The Sword of Damocles

is hanging above your head

It seems everything's done that must be done

from over here though things don't seem fair

But there are things that we can't know

maybe there's something over there

Some other world that we don't know about

I know you hate that mystic shit

It's just another way of seeing

The Sword of Damocles above your head

Goodby Mass - In A Chapel Bodily Termination

Sitting on a hard chair try to sit straight

Sitting on a hard chair this moment won't wait

Listening to the speakers they're talking about you

Look at all the people all the people you know

Sitting with my back straight it becomes hard to hear

Some people are crying it becomes hard to hear

I don't think you'd have liked it you would have made a joke

You would have made it easier you'd say

"tomorrow I'm smoke"

Sitting on a hard chair how far we have come

Trying hard to listen to your friends who have come

Some of them are famous and some are just like me

Trying hard to listen trying hard to see

Sitting in a hard chair it's over time to stand

Some people are crying I turn to grab your hand

It's your daughter saying thank you

You, you would have made a joke

"Isn't this something ," you say, "tomorrow I'm smoke"

Cremation - Ashes To Ashes

Well the coal black sea waits for me me me

The coal black sea waits forever

The waves hit the shore

Crying more more more

But the coal black sea waits forever

The tornados come up the coast they run

Hurricanes rip the sky forever

Through the weathers change

the sea remains the same

The coal black sea waits forever

There are ashes split through collective guilt

People rest at sea forever

Since they burnt you up

Collect you in a cup

For you the coal black sea has no terror

Will your ashes float like some foreign boat

or will they sink absorbed forever

Will the Atlastic Coast

have its final boast

Nothing else contained you ever

Now the coal black sea waits for me me me

The coal black sea waits forever

When I leave this joint

at some further point

The same coal black sea will it be waiting

Dreamin' - Escape

If I close my eyes I see your face and I'm not without you

If I trying hard and concentrate I can still hear you speak

I picture myself in your room by the chair

you're smoking a cigarette

If I close my eyes I can see your face you're saying

" I missed you"

Dreamin' -- I'm always dreamin'

If I close my eyes I can smell your perfume you look and say

" Hi baby"

If I close my eyes pictures from China still hang from the wall

I hear the dog bark I turned and say, "what were you saying?"

I pictured you in the red chair inside the pale room

You sat in your chair with a tube in your arm --

you were so skinny

You were still making jokes I don't know what drugs

they had you on

You said, " I guess this is not the time for long term investments"

You were always laughing but you never laughing at me

They say in the end the pain was so bad that you

were screaming

Now you were no saint but you deserved better than that

From the corner I watch them moving things

from your apartment

But I can picture you red chair and pale room inside my head

If I close my eyes I see your face and I'm not without you

If I try hard and concentrate I can gear your voice saying

"Who better than you"

If I close my eyes I can't believe that I'm here without you

Inside your pale room your empty red chair and my head

Dreamin' , I'm always dreamin'

No Chance - Regret

It must be nice to be steady, it must be nice to be firm

It must be nice never to move off the mark

It must be nice to be dependable and never let anyone down

It must be great to be all the things you're not

It must be great to be all the things that I'm not

I see you in the hospital your humor is intact

I'm embarrassed by the strength I seem to lack

If I was in your shoes

so strange that I'm not

I'd fold up in a minute and a half

and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye

It must be nice to be normal it must be nice to be cold

It must be nice not to have to go oh up or down

But me I'm all emotional no matter how I try

you're gone and I'm still here alive

and I didn't get a chance to say goodbye

No -- I didn't get a chance to say goodbye

There are things we say we wish we knew and in fact we never do

But I'd wish I'd known that you were going to die

Then I wouldn't feel so stupid, such a fool that I didn't call

And I didn't get a chance to say goodbye

I didn't get a chance to say goodbye

No there's no logic to this -- who's picked to stay or go

If you think too hard it only makes you mad

But your sopimism made me think you really had it beat

So I didn't get a chance to say goodbye

I didn't get a chance to say goodbye

Warrior King - Revenge

I wish I was the warrior king in every language that I speak

Lord over all that I survey and all that I see I keep

Power omnipresent undiminished uncontrolled

with a message violent fury at the center of my soul

I wish I was a warrior king inscrutable benign

with a faceless charging power always at my command

Footsteps so heavy that the world shakes

My rage instilling fear

Yet cautious firm but fair and good

The perfect Warrior King

I wish I installed angles in every subject's house

Agents of my goodness no one would be without

A steak on every plate a car for every house

and if you ever crossed me

I'd have your eyes put out

You don't exist without me without me you don't exist

And if logic won't convinced you then there's always this

I'm bigger, smarter, stronger, tough

yet sensitive and kind

And though I could crush you like a bug

it will never cross my mind

It wouldn't cross my mind to your neck

or rip out your vicious tongue

it wouldn't cross my mind to snap your leg like a twig

or squash you like some slug

You are a violent messenger

and I'm not above your taunts

And if you hit me you know I'll kill you

because I'm the Warrior King

Harry's Circumcision - Reverie Gone Astray

Looking in the mirror Harry didn't like what he saw

The cheeks of his mother the eyes of his father

As each day crashed around him the future stood revealed

He was turning into his parents

The final disappointment

Stepping out of the shower Harry stared at himself

His hairline receding the slight overbite

He picked up the razor to begin his shaving

and thought oh I wish I was different

I wish I was stronger I wish I was thinner

I wish I didn't have this nose

These ears that stick out remind me of mu father

and I don't want to be reminded at all

The final disappointment

Harry looked into the mirror thinking of Vincent Van Gogh

and with a quick swipe lopped off his nose

And happy with that he made a slice where his chin was

He's always wanted a dimple

The end of all illusion

Then peering down straight between his legs

Harry thought of the range of possibilities

A new face a new life no memories of the past

and slit his throat from ear to ear

Harry woke up with a cough the stitches made his wince

A doctor smiled at him from somewhere across the room

Son we saved your life but you 'll never look the same

And when he heard that, Harry had to laugh

Although it hurt Harry had to laugh

The final disappoinment

Gassed And Stoked - Loss

Well, you covered your tracks

and now I can't see you

You have your ashed scattered at sea

There's no grave to visit no tombstone to look at

You were in the NY Times obituary

There's no record no tape no book no movie

Some photographs and some memories

Sometime I dial your photo number by mistake

and this is what I hear

This is no longer a working number baby

Please redial your call

This is no longer a working number

Your party doesn't live here anymore

This is no longer a working number

if you still require help

Stay on the line and an operator

will try to bail you out

I knew I should have seen you that Thursday

I knew I shouldn't left

But you sounded so good your spirits so up

I thought I'd see you next week

I say over and over if I had half a brain

if I had half a brain in my head

I wouldn't sit here dialing a wrong number

and listening to what some recording said

I knew I should have written, written things down

I always say I'll never forget

Who can forget a one-eye pilot

Who's a concert pianist

A painter a poet songwriter supreme

My friends are blending in my head

They're melting into one great spirit

and that spirit isn't dead

Now I may not remember everything that you said

But I remember all the sings you've done

And not a day goes by not an hour

when I don't try to be like you

You were gassed, stoked and rarin' to go

and you were that way all the time

So I guess you know why I'm laughing at myselves

every time I dial the wrong line

This is no longer a working number baby

Power And Glory Part Two - Magic Transformation

... with a bravery stronger than lust

Great bolts of lightning shooting up his veins

Magic And Loss - The Summation

When you pass through the fire

you pass through humble

You pass through a maze of self doubt

When you pass through humble

the lights can blind you

Some people never figure that out

You pass through arrogance you pass through hurt

You pass through an ever present past

and it's best not to wait for luck to save you

Pass through the fire to the light

As you pass through the fire

your right hand waving

there are things you have to throw out

That caustic dread inside your head

will never help you out

You have to be very strong

'cause you'll start from zero

over and over again

And as the somke clears

there's an all consuming fire

lying straight ahead

They say no one person can do it all

but you want to in your head

But you can't be Joyce

so what is left instead

You're stuck with yourself

and a rage that can hurt you

You have to start at the beginning again

And just this moment

This wonderful fire started up again

When you pass through humble

when you pass through sickly

When you pass through

I'm better than you all

When you pass through

anger and self deprecation

and have the strength to acknowledge it all

When the past makes you laugh

and you can savor the magic

that let you survive your own war

You find that that fire is passion

and there's a door up ahead not a wall

As you pass through fire as you pass through fire

trying to remember its name

When you pass through fire licking at your lips

you cannot remain the same

And if the building' burning

move towards that door

but don't put the flames out

There's a bit of magic in everything

and then some loss to even things out

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