The Madcap Laughs

 

TERRAPIN
 
I really love you and I mean you
the star above you, crystal blue
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...
 
I wouldn't see you and I love to
I fly above you, yes I do
well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...
 
Floating, bumping, noses dodge a tooth
the fins a luminous
fangs all 'round the clown
is dark below the boulders hiding all
the sunlight's good for us
'Cause we're the fishes and all we do
the move about is all we do
well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...
 
Floating, bumping, noses dodge a tooth
the fins a luminous
fangs all 'round the clown
is dark below the boulders hiding all
the sunlight's good for us
'Cause we're the fishes and all we do
the move about is all we do
well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...
 
I really love you and I mean you
the star above you, crystal blue
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...
 
 
 
NO GOOD TRYING
 
It's no good trying to place your hand
where I can't see because I understand
that you're different from me
yes I can tell
that you can't be what you pretend
and you're rocking me backwards
and you're rocking towards the
red and yellow mane of a stallion horse.
 
It's no good trying to hold your love
where I can't see because I understand
that you're different from me
yes I can tell
that you can't be what you pretend
the caterpillar hood won't cover the head of you
know you should be home in bed.
 
It's no good holding your sequin fan
where I can't see because I understand
that you're different from me
yes I can tell
that you can't be what you pretend
yes you're spinning around and around in a car
with electric lights flashing very fast...
 
 
 
LOVE YOU
 
Honey love you, honey little,
honey funny sunny morning
love you more funny love in the skyline baby
ice-cream 'scuse me,
I've seen you looking good the other evening
 
Oh, you dig it, had to smile just an hour or so
(are) we in love like I think we be?
It Ain't a long rhyme.
It took ages to think
I think I'll hurl it in the water, baby...
 
Honey love you, honey little,
honey funny sunny morning
love you more funny love in the skyline baby
ice-cream 'scuse me,
I've seen you looking good the other evening
 
Flaking you are an nice little one
to put it all around, its just good
I like it, hey hey hey
S'pose some time that day
whoopee! swinging along over across to me
 
Honey love you, honey little,
honey funny sunny morning
love you more funny love in the skyline baby
ice-cream 'scuse me,
I've seen you looking good the other evening
 
Goodtime rocker woman we'll stray our pieces
little creepy we shine so sleepy,
so whoopee!
That's how you look...
 
Honey love you, honey little,
honey funny sunny morning
love you more funny love in the skyline baby
ice-cream 'scuse me,
I've seen you looking good the other evening
 
 
 
NO MAN'S LAND
 
You would hold your head up high
you even try
you would hold another hand:
oh understand!
They even see me under call
we under all,
we awful, awful, crawl
to hear my hour
come see me cry...
 
Just searching you even try
I can make you smile
if it's there will you go there too?
When I live I die!
They even see me under call
we under all, we awful, awful, crawl
because of you, to see me be.
 
(last verse mostly garbled....but you can pick out Tell me, Tell
me, Tell me  Yippee  and also: Heavily Spaced.  According to
legend, this verse was originally meant to be understood, but
when they f**ked it up in the studio, Syd liked it and kept it
that way...) - Psycho
 
 
 
DARK GLOBE
 
Oh where are you now
pussy willow that smiled on this leaf?
When I was alone you promised the stone from your heart
my head kissed the ground
I was half the way down, treading the sand
please, please, lift a hand
I'm only a person whose armbands beat
on his hands, hang tall
won't you miss me?
Wouldn't you miss me at all?
 
The poppy birds way
swing twigs coffee brands around
brandish her wand with a feathery tongue
my head kissed the ground
I was half the way down, treading the sand
please, please, please lift the hand
I'm only a person with Eskimo chain
I tattooed my brain all the way...
Won't you miss me?
Wouldn't you miss me at all?
 
 
 
HERE I GO
 
This is a story 'bout a girl that I knew
she didn't like my songs
and that made me feel blue
she said: "a big band is far better than you"...
 
She don't rock 'n' roll, she don't like it
she don't do the stroll, well she don't do it right
well, ev'rythings wrong and my patience was gone
when I woke one morning
and remembered this song
O-oh-oh, kinda catchy, I hoped
that she would talk to me now
and even allow me to hold her hand
and forget that old band.
 
I strolled around to her pad
her light was off and that's bad
her sister said that my girl was gone
"But come inside, boy, and play, play, play me a song!"
I said "Yeah! Here I go"
She's kinda cute; don't you know,
That after a while of seeing her smile
I knew we could make it, make it in style!?
 
So now I've got all I need
She and I are in love, we've agreed
she likes this song and my others too
so now you see my world is...
because of this tune!
What a boon this tune!
I tell you soon
We'll be lying in bed, happily wed,
and I won't think of that girl
or what she said...
 
 
 
OCTOPUS
 
Trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro'
you have no word
trip, trip to a dream dragon
hide your wings in a ghost tower
sails cackling at every plate we break
cracked by scattered needles
the little minute gong
coughs and clears his throat
madam you see before you stand
hey ho, never be still
the old original favorite grand
grasshoppers green Herbarian band
and the tune they play is "In Us Confide"
so trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro'
you have no word
Please leave us here
close our eyes to the octopus ride!
Isn't it good to be lost in the wood
isn't it bad so quiet there, in the wood
meant even less to me than I thought
with a honey plough of yellow prickly seeds
clover honey pots and mystic shining feed...
well, the madcap laughed at the man on the border
hey ho, huff the Talbot
"Cheat" he cried shouting kangaroo
it's true in their tree they cried
Please leave us here
close our eyes to the octopus ride!
The madcap laughed at the man on the border
hey ho, huff the Talbot
the winds they blew and the leaves did wag
they'll never put me in their bag
the seas will reach and always seep
so high you go, so low you creep
the wind it blows in tropical heat
the drones they throng on mossy seats
the squeaking door will always squeak
two up, two down we'll never meet
so merrily trip forgo my side
Please leave us here
close our eyes to the octopus ride!
 
 
 
GOLDEN HAIR
(These lyrics are originally from "Chamber Music" by James Joyce (1907)
 
Lean out your window, golden hair
I heard you singing in the midnight air
my book is closed, I read no more
watching the fire dance, on the floor
I've left my book, I've left my room
 
For I heard you singing through the gloom
singing and singing, a merry air
lean out the window, golden hair...
 
 
 
LONG GONE
 
She was long gone, long, long gone
she was gone, gone, the bigger they come
the larger her hand 'till no one understands
why for so long she'd been gone.
 
And I stood very still by the window sill
and I wondered for those I love still
I cried in my mind where I stand behind
the beauty of love's in her eyes...
 
She was long gone, long, long gone
she was gone, gone, the bigger they come
the larger her hand 'till no one understands
why for so long she'd been gone.
 
And I borrowed the page
from a leopard's cage
and I prowled in the evening sun's glaze
her head lifted high to the light in the sky
the opening dawn on her face...
 
She was long gone long, long gone
she was gone, gone, the bigger they come
the larger her hand 'till no one understands
why for so long she'd been gone.
 
And I stood very still by the window sill
and I wondered for those I love still
I cried in my mind where I stand behind
the beauty of love's in her eyes...
 
She was long gone, long, long gone
she was gone, gone, the bigger they come
the larger her hand 'till no one understands
why for so long she'd been gone.
 
She was long gone long, long gone.
 
 
 
SHE TOOK A LONG COLD LOOK
 
She took a long cold look at me
and smiled and gazed all over my arm
she loves to see me get down to ground
she hasn't time just to be with me
her face between all she means to be
to be extreme, just to be extreme
a broken pier on the wavy sea
she wonders why for all she wants to see...
But I got up and I stomped around
and hid the piece where the trees touch the ground...
 
The end of truth that lay out the time
spent lazing here on a painting dream
a mile or more in a foreign clime
to see farther inside of me.
 
And looking high up into the sky
I breathe as the water streams over me...
 
 
 
FEEL
 
You feel me
away far too empty, oh so alone!
I want to go home
Oh find me inside of a nocturne - the blonde
how I love you to be by my side
they wail...
the crowd on her side
she straggled the bridge by the water...
 
She misses her crawl
far ley grew
heady aside in a dell
inside an eye be the lonely one, my bride
how I leave on the waddling wheel
they flail...
a gasp shringing
a bad bell's ringing
the angel - the daughter...
 
You feel me...
 
 
 
IF IT'S IN YOU
 
Yes I'm thinking of this, yes I am
puddle town, Tom was the underground
hold you tighter so close, yes you are
please hold on to the steel rail
 
colonel with gloves
he isn't loved on 'Sundays Mail'
all the fives crock Henrietta
she's mean go-getter
gotta write her a letter.
 
Did I wink of this, I am
yum, yummy, yum, don't, yummy, yum, yom, yom...
Yes, I'm thinking of this, in steam
skeleton kissed to the steel rail
 
fleas in Pamela
chugging along with a funnel of steam
all the fives crock Henrietta
she's mean go-getter
gotta write her a letter...
 
 
 
LATE NIGHT
 
When I woke up today
and you weren't there to play
then I wanted to be with you
when you showed me your eyes
whispered love at the skies
then I wanted to stay with you
inside me I feel alone and unreal
and the way you kiss will always be
a very special thing to me...
 
When I lay still at night seeing
stars high and light
then I wanted to be with you
when the rooftops shone dark
all alone (I) saw a spark
spark of love just to stay with you
inside me I feel alone and unreal
and the way you kiss will always be
a very special thing to me...
 
If I mention your name
turn around on a chain
then the sky opens for you
when we grew very tall
when I saw you so small
then I wanted to stay with you
inside me I feel alone and unreal
and the way you kiss will always be
a very special thing to me...