River wild and river free
Past rocks and stones
Flowers and trees
Take my true love
To wait for eternity
To fail.
I am spirit
She is flesh,
For good and bad
Both there is no rest,
Tied to the masthead
On winding road home.
I tell you the only way is
You got to break your
Body down.
You've got to break that
Body down.
Soften her with bottles
Of rum,
Platters of Saint Pedro
Before the sun
Shoots his ray gun
And calls that boat
Back into harbor.
Green fairy nights,
Sugar cube delights;
Eat temptation
Before you turn
Out the lights . . .
Tenderize the mind
So the soul can run
Oh you got to break
Your body down
You got to break
Your body down
Smash yourself into
The wall,
Break out of jail
Bend all the rules,
Free the saints from
The dusty halls -
Give them back
Their thumbs
And forearm bones!
Oh you got to break your body down
Joan will tell you you got to break
That body down
. . .
and
Set yourself up on the fire,
Make yourself a funeral pyre!
You are a log, a tinder stick
For Love’s loving rose bud prick,
And everything you ever learnt
Is holding you back from the
Gold you earnt;
Forehead ashes sweeten,
Lick your thumb
The world doesn’t turn it runs
When you learn how to
Break that body down.
You got to break that body down!
Acid bath pinned to the mast
Vines entwine on foreheads past
Stones and rocks on the river bed
Seaweed child goes to your head
But I watch you break your body down
No shame in breaking that sweet body down!
You sweat and shake,
Your bitten lip betrays the ache.
You reduce the flesh to a fire break!
You sugar the pot just enough to take
A taste of the bitter draught.
Blood and fire.
Earth and rain.
Broken bodies feel no pain
When you take the mystic reins
And break your body down
Break your body down
Lamb so sweet taste the flesh
On a hill where the lions rest
And the eagles fly you into their nests
Missing limbs turn into sacred hymns
I’d give it all just to win
The gold I found in this honied town
The rest of it is but the frown of a clown
Who learnt to
Break the body down
Break the body down
Break
That
Body
Down.
