The celebration of the lizard

Данная запись сделана на нью-йоркском концерте "Felt Forum" 18 января 1970 года. Комментарий Джима: "Здесь рассказывается о компании молодых людей, которым надоело место, где они живут, и то, что с ними происходит. Они собрались вместе и удалились в пустыню, чтобы жить отдельно от всех. Каждую ночь они зажигают костёр, собираются вокруг него...поют песни и обсуждают, что происходит, где они находятся в этом раскладе вещей и всё такое"
Вообще впервые о существовании поэтического цикла "The Celebration Of The Lizard" узнали зрители, удачно выбравшие день для посещения концерта группы, а также те, кто купил альбом "Waiting For The Sun" и нашел на развороте его текст. Всем остальным пришлось ждать выхода концертника Absolutely Live.

Lions in the street and roaming
Dogs in heat, rabid, foaming
beast caged in the heart of a city
The body of his mother
Rotting in the summer ground
He fled the town

He went down South and crossed the border
Left the chaos and disorder
Back there over his shoulder

One morning he awoke in a green hotel
With a strange creature groaning beside him
Sweat oozed from its shiny skin

Is everybody in?
The ceremony is about to begin

Wake up!
You can't remember where it was
Had this dream stopped?

The snake was pale gold
Glazed and shrunken
We were afraid to touch it
The sheets were hot dead prisons
And she was beside me
Old, she's not, young
Her dark red hair
Her white soft skin

Now, run to the mirror in the bathroom
Look!
I can't live thru each slow century of her moving
I let my cheek slide down
The cool smooth tile
Feel the good cold stinging blood
The smooth hissing snakes of rain . . .

Once I had, a little game
I liked to crawl back into my brain
I think you know the game I mean
I mean the game called 'go insane'

Now you should try this little game
Just close your eyes forget your name
Forget the world forget the people
And we'll erect a different steeple

This little game is fun to do
Just close your eyes no way to lose
And I'm right there I'm going too
Release control we're breaking thru

Way back deep into the brain
Back where there's never any pain
And the rain falls gently on the town
And over the heads of all of us
And in the labyrinth of streams
Beneath, the quiet unearthly presence of
Nervous hill dwellers in the gentle hills around
Reptiles abounding
Fossils, caves, cool air heights

Each house repeats a mold
Windows rolled
Beast car locked in against morning
All now sleeping
Rugs silent, mirrors vacant
Dust blind under the beds of lawful couples
Wound in sheets
And daughters, smug
With [bad word] eyes in their nipples

Wait
There's been a slaughter here

(Don't stop to speak or look around
Your gloves and fan are on the ground
We're getting out of town
We're going on the run
And you're the one I want to come)

(Далее Not To Touch The Earth)

Let the carnival bells ring
Let the serpent sing
Let everything

We came down
The rivers and highways
We came down from
Forests and falls

We came down from
Carson and Springfield
We came down from
Phoenix enthralled
And I can tell you
The names of the Kingdom
I can tell you
The things that you know
Listening for a fistful of silence
Climbing valleys into the shade

For seven years I dwelt
In the loose palace of exile
Playing strange games
With the girls of the island

Now I have come again
To the land of the fair, and the strong, and the wise

Brothers and sisters of the pale forest
O Children of Night
Who among you will run with the hunt?

Now Night arrives with her purple legion
Retire now to your tents and to your dreams
Tomorrow we enter the town of my birth
I want to be ready