The Carny
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

And no-one saw the carny go

And the weeks flew by

Until they moved on the show

Leaving his caravan behind

It was parked out on the south east ridge

And as the company crossed the bridge

With the first rain filling the bone-dry river bed

It shone, just so, upon the edge

Away, away, we're sad, they said

Dog-boy, atlas, half-man, the geeks, the hired hands

There was not one among them that did not cast an eye behind

In the hope that the carny would return to his own kind

And the carny had a horse, all skin and bone

A bow-backed nag, that he named Sorrow

How it is buried in a shallow grave

In the then parched meadow

And the dwarves were given the task of digging the ditch

And laying the nag's carcass in the ground

And boss Bellini, waving his smoking pistol around

saying The nag is dead meat

We caint afford to carry dead weight

The whole company standing about

Not making a sound

And turning to dwarves perched on the enclosure gate

The boss says Bury this lump of crow bait

And then the rain came

Everybody running for their wagons

Tying all the canvas flaps down

The mangy cats crowling in ther cages

The bird-girl flapping and squawking around

The whole valley reeking of wet beast

Wet beast and rotten hay

Freak and brute creation

Packed up and on their way

The three dwarves peering from their wagon's hind

Moses says to Noah We shoulda dugga deepa one

Their grizzled faces like dying moons

Still dirty from the digging done

And as the company passed from the valley

Into a higher ground

The rain beat on the ridge and on the meadow

And on the mound

Until nothing was left, nothing at all

Except the body of Sorrow

That rose in time

To float upon the surface of the eaten soil

And a murder of crows did circle round

First one, then the others flapping blackly down

And the carny's van still sat upon the edge

Tilting slowly as the firm ground turned to sludge

And the rain it hammered down

And no-one saw the carny go

I say it's funny how things go


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Lyrics by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

  (Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?   Ain't Gonna Rain Anymore   Albert Goes West   And No More Shall We Part   Anthrocene   As I Sat Sadly By Her Side   Black Hair   Breathless   Brompton Oratory   Crow Jane   Death Is Not The End   Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!   Distant Sky   Do You Love Me?   Do You Love Me? (Part 2)   Do You Love Me? Pt2   Everything Must Converge   Far From Me   Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow   Finishing Jubilee Street   Gates To The Garden   Girl in Amber   God Is In The House   Good Good Day   Green Eyes   Hallelujah   Henry Lee   Higgs Boson Blues   Hold On To Yourself   I Let Love In   I Need You   Idiot Prayer   Into My Arms   Jangling Jack   Jesus Alone   Jesus Of The Moon   Jubilee Street   Jubilee Street (Live from Sydney Opera House)   Lay Me Low   Lie Down Here (& Be My Girl)   Lime Tree Arbour   Little Ghost Song   Love Letter   Lovely Creature   Loverman   Magneto   Mermaids   Midnight Man   Moonland   More News From Nowhere   Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds   Night Of The Lotus Eaters   Nobody's Baby Now   O Children   O'Malley's Bar   Oh My Lord   Push The Sky Away   Red Right Hand   Rings of Saturn   Saint Huck   Ship Song   Shoot Me Down   Skeleton Tree   Song Of Joy   Stagger Lee   Sugar, Sugar, Sugar   Sweetheart Come   Swing Low   The Curse Of Millhaven   The Kindness Of Strangers   The Sorrowful Wife   There Is A Kingdom   Thirsty Dog   Today's Lesson   Water's Edge   We Call Upon The Author   We Came Along This Road   We Know Who U R   We No Who U R   We Real Cool   West Counrty Girl   Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere?   Where The Wild Roses Grow   Wide Lovely Eyes

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