We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Damn Poets

by Kings Of Last Night

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Click "Buy Now" to download "Damn Poets" for $4, or more if you wish.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $4 USD  or more

     

  • Buy Disc

1.
Hello DJ 02:23
Hello DJ, could you play a simple song Man, these drivetime jokes leave me stuck in a jam We all try to hit the post, sometimes we talk on the ramp Me, I’m a first-time caller with a lot to confess To a graveyard shift call-in host who is hardly impressed Hello DJ, could you play a simpler song Hello DJ, and make us believe we all belong Here’s to a bitter shock jock who’s been stuck in denial Since he caught a breath of dead air somewhere left of the dial Me, I’m a long-time listener with some axes to grind But even when you let me down I never left you behind So backsell me, just for tonight Hello DJ, could you play an even simpler song Hello DJ, to make us believe we all belong For a long time now I’ve been stuck on the top Of the hour and there is no news to report It’s a long way to Brussels without a song in your mind So payola ayatollahs push the fader up high Hello DJ, could you play us the simplest song Hello DJ, trick us into believing that we all belong Hello DJ, tell me it’s gonna be alright Even if only for tonight
2.
I’m not saying it was a simpler life Just that we didn’t have the manual We were inherently justified And we styled ourselves invincible Hanging at the back of a darkened hall All alcohol, all adrenaline The wisest of DJs starts up a new song And the cymbals come crashing in And you run to the dancefloor Exercise the right Run to the dancefloor Dance with all your might Run to the dancefloor State a case for the finer things in life Such as which of the girls is dating whom Excuse yourself from the pool table When familiar guitars light up the room And you run to the dancefloor You know she’s watching you Run to the dancefloor You know she likes it Run to the dancefloor Give me A minor seventh chords Rusty violins And a singer who sincerely seeks the truth If everything else fades in mist At least you can say that you were there And you run to the dancefloor The party never stops Run to the dancefloor Dance until you drop Run to the dancefloor
3.
Miss Belgium 02:37
She speaks two languages at once Not counting German, but who does I’ve invented senseless words that I’m sure she understands All I’ll say is, it glides for me She is Miss Belgium She knows all the coolest bands She is Miss Belgium Slaying giants and severing hands I am the last great useless work I am the old news of these times But she evokes the mystery without which the world wouldn’t exist And I’ve been meaning to crack all week Sleep thrice more and I shall wake They call her Miss Belgium Mistress of endless compromise Her name is Miss Belgium Red devils burning in her eyes She invented the bakelite saxophone Pretender to the waffle iron throne She paints big girls in her spare time A southern neighbour in her prime When I get confused, I hail Gambrinus’ muse All hail Gambrinus’ muse And her name is Miss Belgium For fun she draws absurdist cartoons Oh, Miss Belgium Ten thousand thundering typhoons They call her Miss Belgium She knows the Marseillaise by heart Miss Belgium Of apple blossoms smells her art Oh Miss Belgium, let’s not ever be apart Oh Belgium, don’t break my heart
4.
Golden Ratio 03:37
You just want an excuse to dance Any cheap reason will do Who am I to disagree? I've tried to find the pattern Golden ratio of song Composed melodic algorithms To find what I've been doing wrong But no one listens to the lyrics Søren Kierkegaard in drag And every victory is pyrrhic But this one's surely in the bag I finally understand You just want an excuse to dance Any cheap reason will do Who am I to disagree? You just want an excuse to dance How could I deny it to you When there's two of you and me We all want to be the poet Lifting hearts across the globe Strolling minstrels inchoate Caressing all kinds of frontal lobes So you string some words together And stir in a pounding beat Then you wonder as to whether It will move hearts as well as feet I finally understand You just want an excuse to dance Any old reason will do Who am I to get in between? You just want an excuse to dance Well, if the music's moving you How could I even disagree You just want an excuse to dance Any good reason will do Who am I to say you're wrong? You just want an excuse to dance Well that makes two of me and you I was on your side all along Well here is your excuse to dance We've found an excuse to dance Who needs an excuse to dance When you've got every other song
5.
This town has answered seven of my questions And then opened forty-nine I could submerge into the Hudson And then resurface on the Rhine I don’t see how Waverley Place Can intersect with itself I must be on the crosstown fault line Of the city’s continental shelf I do not know the sound Of one hand clapping in the woods Shoe-tying 101 I have barely understood Even with my eyes wide open I can hardly tell the day from night But I know Manhattan is an island Tonight Could someone tell me where I’m going I just came here on a whim These legs have carried me forever Now they’re turning into phantom limbs Explain how we go from strolling Around Tompkins Square Park To an untimely demise In the courtyard of St. Mark’s Asked for the colour of the sky I will surely throw a blank Where the self goes when it dies Do not ask this mortal man Ask me to square a circle And I’ll say “Pi multiplied by height” But I know Manhattan is an island Tonight My hands are going too now I’m slouching closer to the ground Is it something I have eaten What if I’ll never be found Now I’m on the back of mother’s bike And my foot got stuck in the spokes Strange how the mind turns inward When you’re about to croak The names of my closest friends I have all but forgot Ask me if ignorance is bliss And you’ll be enlightened on the spot Quiz me on the twelve apostles And I will guess one or two right But I know Manhattan is an island Tonight All I know is Manhattan is an island Tonight
6.
Today I'm sliding doing a slippery slope, and it's delicious Today I heed nobody's sage advice Today is a hot car and a song that irks nobody Today we figure nothing out Except for a study I've been making of your hair Let's go somewhere it won't matter where we went, you know I want to Taste the salt of summer on your lips I'm tired of wasting time on these bipolar magnet antics Let's just see for how long we can kiss Everyone's getting a toothache from All the sugar in this song But I really don't give a damn Give me some more of that light sweet crude Tomorrow we'll sit down and make a list of all our failings Tomorrow we'll have grievances to air Tomorrow we'll grow tired of the chaise-longue hurly-burly Tomorrow we'll have figured nothing out But today we make everything appear in Super 8 You'll berate me for my lack of plans and I'll say it's living for today But as your foot becomes a flag I can't complain about today
7.
Retro 03:14
Remember when we weren’t yet philosophers You’d just sit in the back of the car Watching the sunlight’s flicker making movies through the trees Fashion victims congregate for counselling Heavy hearts of yesteryear Prepare to be lifted, crackle, drop the needle in the groove Retro’s coming back in style Sooner or later I will be on time For retro Is coming back in style All my friends are asking, “Why so serious?” I just laugh and say I use my Irony sincerely (yours truly) And I swear That I’m certain By the greener green apples on the shower curtain I do believe What’s the sin in wanting to feel a little lighter?
8.
Then I’m becoming a part of the scene Then I’ll be coming apart at the seams Seems like everyone’s on a different quest than I I’ve stopped complaining long ago But it was plain all along I know To solve it you don’t need a private eye Trench coat, deerstalker hat, I think I’ve wasted my money Throw out my magnifying glass, because it’s elementary It’s an open and shut case of the blues I see new opportunities In the girl with the porn star teeth If in three days I’m not back: avenge my life I want to make new traditions and rules But now I’d trade in the breaking news For an hour of quiet, watching Countryfile Moustache curling upward and a turnip pocket watch No one buys your disguise when you’re lacking in panache
9.
I’ve got some things that need figuring out Like, what are you doing the first Friday in June? To rectify, I thought my heart had died And I buried it too soon Tell me are you getting tired Of all the games we’re playing Are you also getting tied up In all the words you’re saying The people here are strange Let’s escape together into our little world Where we’ll make for stormy weather I’ve been losing myself in the dire and grim Humming drab and doleful odes At long last, some keen spirit has woken Waiting for you to explode, oh Tell me are you getting tired Of all the games we’re playing Are you also getting tied up In all the words you’re saying The people here are strange Let’s escape together into our little world Where we’ll make for stormy weather And lose ourselves In ordinary things Suddenly I am looking forward To pizzas on sofas On Sunday afternoons And fights over presents for Friends I’ve yet to meet We’ll have nicknames for everything And songs to claim as ours Until the walls all start closing in Tell me are you getting tired Of all the games we’re playing Are you also getting tied up In all the words you’re saying The people here are strange Let’s escape together into our little world Where we’ll make for stormy weather And we’ll have some fun With ordinary things
10.
I’ve been between a rock and a hard place But now I’ve chiseled my way out From beneath all the wailing voices I put in my backpack and carry around Now I’m an unrestricted free agent In the land of a thousand balconies With a stack of coupons for free fresh starts Only valid when it’s the last thing you need I’m in a haunted supermarket Where shelves conspire against my name In a haunted supermarket With a check-out line that stretches to the grave So what could I do but abandon it all For a satanist mother of two With a big bed in which to sleep away Wednesdays And a cupboard full of chocolate buns And so I’m sorry that I ran You were better than I deserved In truth I was a petty little man With the whole world left to learn Now I’m in a haunted supermarket Where items randomly appear in your cart There’s a thousand different newspapers And only one greeting card If you get bored in Oklahoma You can go to Tulsa for the weekend But I’m in a haunted supermarket Where the aisles never reach any end All of the reverse vending machines Who knows whatever lurks behind If I find out I’m going to send you a card That says “Get well soon”: it’s all I could find Did I mention I was sorry You know I will always be your slave But I’m stuck in a haunted supermarket With a check-out line that stretches to the grave

about

Buy the Book with Lyrics and Photographs:
www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2134919

credits

released June 3, 2011

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Kings Of Last Night Den Haag, Netherlands

contact / help

Contact Kings Of Last Night

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Kings Of Last Night, you may also like: