Zombie Falsetto

At the edge of a rusted backwoods dream
He soaked his voice in kerosene
Lay back with the moon through a wolfhound screen
Shut his eyes and lit the match
She scraped the blood from her guitar strings
With the splintered shadow of a nameless thing
The wraith took her hand and she began to sing
Of an itch she could never quite scratch

I want the rolling thunder and the bottleneck sky
I want the knife on the corner and the steel string slide
Tin cup, rattlesnake, blind in one eye
I want the moonshine nightmare and the gods to cry

The ocean broke upon a scarlet dawn
Whiskey-blind panther wrapping up his song
Smoke-shattered voice howling 'Everything's gone wrong!'
But man, that old tomcat can sing
She dropped her coin into a dried up well
A child of sadness and the wizard's spell
As the sparrows gathered and the darkness fell
On an angel with one broken wing

I want the rusted brandy and the diamond tooth grin
I want the axe head sharpened and the cows brought in
Wrought-iron gateway to an alley made of sin
I want the secrets of the ancients and the witches to win

Blistered martyr in a flaming skirt
Staked her cross into a pile of dirt
One last sign as the world lay burnt
Saying "All Who Would Seek Me - BEWARE!"
The madman wept for the blood he'd spilt
As the Nothing crept across the world he'd built
And the Devil danced on broken stilts
At Hell's County Fair

I want the witches' ladder and the cobblestone march
I want the fire on the hillside and the pyre in the swamp
Zombie Falsetto and a skeleton stomp
I want the Carnival of Shadows and the madrigal romp

When the general public has no use for your face
The carnival barker he can show you your place
If you follow the voices and abandon the race
There's a party down here in the slums
We're gonna rip that harp like a crosscut saw
Slap that voice til the melody's raw
Race that bass to a dragstrip draw
And bang them fuckin' drums

I want the haunted boxcar and the railroad earth
I want the stewbums' racket and a graveyard's worth
Garbage can lid in a back alley church
I want to watch it all burn from the Gargoyle's Perch