A Box for Black Paul

Nick Cave and the bad seeds

Who'll build a box for Black Paul?
 Ah'm enquirin on behalf of his soul
 Ah'd be beholdin to ya all
 For a lil information, just a little indication
 Just who'll 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 f*cken lot right up in smoke
 Ain't there nuthin sacred anymore
 Won't someone will build a box for Black Paul?
 And their shootin off his guns



and their shootin off their mouths
 saying 'F*ck with us ... and die!'
 'F*ck with us ... and die!'
 (Let's see that rat of fear go scuttle in their skulls)
 'Cover that eye! Cover that frozen eye!'

Black-puppet, in a heap up against the stoning-wall
 Black-puppet, go to sleep, ma-ma won't scold ya anymore

Armies of ants, wade up the lil red streams
 they're headin for the mother-pool
 O lord, it's cruel! O man it's hot! O man it's hot and
 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 jes cum to git dah facks!'
 'We jes cum to git dah facks!'
 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...
 And here is the pile of stones!
 and for each one planted, God only knows,
 a blood-rose grown...
 These are the true Demon-Flowers!
 These are the true Demon-Flowers!
 Stand back everyone! Blood-black everyone!

Who'll build a box for Black Paul?
 Who'll carry it up the hill?

'Not I', said the widow, adjusting her veil
 'Ah will not drive the nail
 Or cart his puppet-body home,
 For ah done that one hundred times before,
 Yeah! ah done that one hundred times or more,
 And why should ah dress his wounds?
 When he has wounded my dress, nightly,
 Right across the floor'

Who'll build a box for Black Paul?
 Who'll carry it up the hill?
 Who'll bury it in the black-soil?
 And from the woods and the thickets
 Come the ghosts of his victims
 'We love you!'
 'Ah love you!'
 'and this will not hurt a bit,
 Outta my eyes was your rise to full glory
 Spring up from the corp of life
 We'll go up, up, up, up, up into Death
 up, up, up, up, inhale its breath
 O yes, Death favours those that favor Death'

Here is the stone, and this is the inscription it bare:
 'Below Lies Black Paul, Under The Upper...
 But Above and Beyond The Surface-Flat-Fall There.'

And all the angels come on down,
 And all you men and women crowd around
 And all the old widows weeping into their skirts
 And all the lil gals and the lil Boys
 And the scribes with their pens poised
 All the hullaballoo, all the norse
 All the hullaballoo, all the noise
 All the hullaballoo, all of the noise
 clears his throat of black blood
 singin Black Paul like a lonely boy...

We-e-e-ll, ah have cried one thousand tears
 Ah've cried a thousand tears, its true
 And the next stormy night you know,
 That ah'm still cryin them for you

Well, ah had a gal she was so sweet,
 Red dress, and long red hair hangin down
 And heaven yes ain't heaven
 Without that lil girl hangin around

Well, ya know ah've beenn a bad-man
 and Lord knows ah done some good things too
 But ah confess, my soul will never rest
 Until you've, until you've build
 Until you've built a box for my gal, too.
 my gal, too
 my gal, too