Henry’s Dream
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
1992 ReleasedUpvote Your Favorite Album Today!
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Digging into Henry’s Dream - what's your favorite track or standout moment? 🤘
1
Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry
05 : 55
2
I Had a Dream, Joe
03 : 42
3
Straight to You
04 : 34
4
Brother, My Cup Is Empty
03 : 02
5
Christina the Astonishing
04 : 51
6
When I First Came to Town
05 : 21
7
John Finn’s Wife
05 : 13
8
Loom of the Land
05 : 07
9
Jack the Ripper
03 : 45
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Track Lyrics
Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry Lyrics
[Verse 1]
I went out walking the other day
The heat hung wet around my neck
My head, it rung with screams and groans
From the night I spent amongst her bones
And I passed beside the mission house
Where that mad old buzzard, the reverend
Shrieked and flapped about life after you're dead
Well, I thought about my friend Michel
How they rolled him in linoleum and they shot him in the neck
A bloody halo like a think-bubble a-circling his head
And I bellowed at the firmament
Looks like the rains are here to stay
And the rain pissed down upon me and it washed me all away
[Chorus 1]
Saying, Papa won't leave you, Henry
Papa won't leave you, boy
Papa won't leave you, Henry
Papa won't leave you, boy
Well, the road is long and the road is hard
And many fall by the side
But Papa won't leave you, Henry
So there ain't no need to cry
[Post-Chorus]
And I went on down the road
(He went on down the road)
Oh yeah, I went on down the road
(He went on down the road)
[Verse 2]
Well, the moon it looked exhausted
Like something you should pity
Spent an age spotted above
The sizzling wires of the city
Well, it reminded me of her face
And her bleached and hungry eyes
Her hair was like a curtain falling open with the laughter
And closing with the lies
And the ghost of her still lingers on
Though she's passed through me and is gone
Well, the slum dogs, they are barking
The rain children on the streets
And the tears that we will weep today will all be washed away
By the tears that we will weep, we'll weep again tomorrow
[Chorus 1]
Papa won't leave you, Henry
Papa won't leave you, boy
Papa won't leave you, Henry
Papa won't leave you, boy
Well, the road is long and the road is hard
And many fall by the side
Well Papa won't leave you, Henry
So there ain't no need to cry
[Post-Chorus]
And I went on down the road
(He went on down the road)
Oh yeah, I went on down the road
(He went on down the road)
[Verse 3]
And I came upon a little house, a little house upon a hill
And I entered through and the curtain hissed
Into the house with its blood-red bowels
Where wet-lipped women with greasy fists
Crawled the ceilings and the walls
And they filled me full of drink
And they led me round the rooms
Naked and cold and grinning
Until everything went black and I came down spinning
I awoke so drunk and full of rage that I could hardly speak
A fag in a whalebone corset draping his dick across my cheek
Well, it's into the shame and it's into the guilt
And it's into the fucking fray
And the walls ran red around me, a warm arterial spray
[Chorus 2]
Saying, Papa won't leave you, Henry
Papa won't leave you, boy
Papa won't leave you, Henry
Papa won't leave you, boy
Well, the night is dark and the night is deep
And its jaws are open wide
Yeah well, Papa won't leave you, Henry
So there ain't no need to cry
[Post-Chorus]
And I went on down the road
(He went on down the road)
Oh yeah,I went on down the road
(He went on down the road)
Yeah, woah, woah (woah, woah, woah, woah)
[Verse 4]
It's the rainy season where I'm living
Death comes leaping out of every doorway
Wasting you for money
For your clothes and for your nothing
Entire towns being washed away
Favelas exploding on inflammable spillways
And the lynch-mobs, death squads
Babies being born without brains
The mad heats and the relentless rains
Well, if you stick your arm into that hole
It comes out sheared off to the bone
And with her kisses bubbling on my lips
I swiped the rain and nearly missed
And then I went on down the road
(He went on down the road)
[Chorus 1]
Papa won't leave you, Henry
Papa won't leave you, boy
Papa won't leave you, Henry
Papa won't leave you, boy
Well, the road is long and the road is hard
And many fall by the side
Well then, Papa won't leave you, Henry
So there ain't no need to cry
[Refrain]
And I went on down the road
(He went on down the road)
Oh yeah, I went on down the road
(He went on down the road)
[Outro]
Yeah, bent Beneath my heavy load
(Under his heavy load)
Yeah, I went on down the road
Oh woah ,woah (woah, woah)
Oh woah ,woah (woah, woah)
Yeah, woah ,woah (woah, woah)
And I went on down that road
Straight to You Lyrics
[Verse 1]
All the towers of ivory are crumbling
And the swallows have sharpened their beaks
This is the time of our great undoing
This is the time that I'll come running
[Chorus 1]
Straight to you, for I am captured
Straight to you, for I am captured
One more time
[Verse 2]
Now the light in our window is fading
The candle gutters on the ledge
Well now, sorrow, it comes a-stealing
And I'll cry, girl, but I'll come a-running
[Chorus 2]
Straight to you, for I am captured
Straight to you, for I am captured
Once again
[Verse 3]
Gone are the days of rainbows
And gone are the nights of swinging from the stars
For the sea will swallow up the mountains
And the sky will throw thunder-bolts and sparks
[Chorus 3]
Straight at you, but I'll come a-running
Straight to you, but I'll come a-running
One more time
[Verse 4]
Now heaven has denied us its kingdom
And the saints, they're all drunk, howling at the moon
And the chariots of angels are colliding
Well, I'll run, babe, but I'll come running
[Chorus 1]
Straight to you, for I am captured
Straight to you, for I am captured
One more time
Christina the Astonishing Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Christina the Astonishing lived a long, long time ago
She was stricken with a seizure at the age of twenty-two
They took her body in a coffin to a tiny church in Liege
Where she sprang up from the coffin just after the Agnus Dei
She soared up to the rafters, perched on a beam up there
Cried, "The stink of human sin, the stink of human sin
The stink is more than I can bear"
[Chorus]
And I said oh, oh
Oh, oh
[Verse 2]
Christina the Astonishing was the most astonishing of all
She prayed balanced on a hurdle or curled up into a ball
She fled to remote places, climbed towers and trees and walls
To escape the stench of corruption, the stench of human corruption
Into an oven she did crawl
[Chorus]
And I said oh, oh
Oh, oh
[Verse 3]
Christina the Astonishing behaved in a terrifying way
She would run wildly through the streets, jump in the Meuse and swim away
Christina the Astonishing behaved in terrifying manner
Died at the age of seventy-four, died at the age of seventy-four
In the Convent of St. Anna
[Chorus]
And I said oh, oh
Oh, oh
John Finn’s Wife Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Well, the night was deep and the night was dark
And I was at the old dancehall on the edge of town
Some big ceremony was going down
Well, dancers writhed and squirmed and then
Came apart and then writhed again
Like squirming flies on a pin
In the heat and in the din, in the heat and in the din
And I fell to thinking about brand new wife of mad John Finn
[Verse 2]
Well, a midnight came and a clock did strike
And in she came, did John Finn's wife
With legs like scissors and butcher's knives
Tattooed breasts and flaming eyes
And a crimson carnation in her teeth
Carving her way through the dance floor
And I'm standing over by the bandstand
Every eye gaping on John Finn's wife
Every eye gaping on John Finn's wife
[Verse 3]
Now, John Finn's wife was something of a mystery
In a town where to share a sworn secret was a solemn duty
I had brass knuckles and a bolo knife
Over near the bandstand with John Finn's wife
She got perfumed breasts and raven hair
Sprinkled with wedding confettis
And a gang of garrotters were all giving me stares
Armed, as they were, with machetes
Well, the night through the window was full of lights
A winking and a watching at John Finns' wife
A winking and a watching at John Finns' wife
[Verse 4]
Well, next came the cops, all out on the town
But it don't look like no trouble there
As they head for the bar in their lumpy suits
I slip my hand between the thighs of John Finn's wife
They seemed to yawn awake, her thighs
It was a warm and very ferocious night
And the moon was full of blood and light
And my eyes grew small and my eyes grew tight
And I plotted in the ear of John Finns' wife
[Verse 5]
Enter John Finn in his shrunken suit
With his quick black eyes and black cheroot
With his filed-down teeth and a hobnail boot
His fists full of pistols in his pockets
Aiming at me and aiming at his wife
The band fall silent, all fearing for their lives
With fear in my guts like tangled twine
'Cause all I got is brass knuckles and a bolo knife
And mad John Finn's wife is all
And the three of us, we walk out of the hall
[Verse 6]
Now the night bore down upon us all
You could hear the crickets in the thickets call
Guns did flare and guns did bawl
And I planted my bolo knife in the neck of mad John Finn
I took his wretched life
Now I'm over near the bandstand
Every hand moving on John Finn's wife
Every hand moving on John Finn's wife
[Outro]
And John Finn's wife took all the flowers down
From her hair and threw them on the ground
And the flies did hum and the flies did buzz around
Poor John Finn lying dead upon the ground
Lying dead upon the ground
Loom of the Land Lyrics
[Verse 1]
It was the dirty end of winter along the loom of the land
When I walked with sweet Sally, hand upon hand
And the wind, it bit bitter for a boy of no means
With no shoes on his feet and a knife in his jeans
Along the loom of the land, the mission bells pealed
From the tower at Saint Mary's down to Reprobate Fields
And I saw that the world was all blessed and bright
And Sally breathed softly in the majestic night
[Chorus]
Oh baby, please don't cry
And try to keep
Your little head upon my shoulder
Now go to sleep
[Verse 3]
Well, the elms and the poplars were all turning their backs
Past the rumbling station, we followed the tracks
We found an untrodden path and followed it down
The moon in the sky like a dislodged crown
And my hands, they burned in the folds of her coat
Breathing milky white air from deep in her throat
[Chorus]
Oh baby please don't cry
And try to keep
Your little head upon my shoulder
Now go to sleep
[Verse 3]
I told Sally in whispers, I'll never bring you harm
Her breast, it was small and warm in my palm
I told her the moon was a magical thing
It shone gold in the winter and silver in spring
And we walked and walked across the endless sands
Just me and my Sally along the loom of the land
[Chorus]
Oh baby, please don't cry
And try to keep
Your little head upon my shoulder
Now try to sleep
[Outro]
Oh baby, please don't cry
And don't you weep
Lay your head upon my shoulder
Now try to sleep