Lost In the Flood (Live at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK - November 1975)

The ragamuffin gunner is returnin' home
Like a hungry runaway
Walks through town all alone
"He must be from the fort" he hears the high school girl say
His countryside's burnin' with wolfman fairies
Dressed in drag for homicide
They hit and run, plead sanctuary
'Neath a holy stone they hide
Breakin' beams and crosses
Makin' the midnight connections
As the sisters run bald through church halls, pregnant
Pleadin' immaculate conceptions
And everybody's wrecked on Main Street
From drinkin' unholy blood
And sticker smiles sweet and gunner breathes deep
His ankles caked in mud
The sticker says: "Hey, gunner man that's quicksand"
"That's quicksand that ain't mud"
"Have you thrown your senses to the war"
"Or did you lose them in the flood?"

That pure american brother
Dull-eyed and empty faced
He races Sundays in Jersey
In a Chevy super eight
He rides 'er low on the hip, on the side he's got 'Bound for Glory'
In red, white and blue flash paint
He leans on the hood telling racing stories
The kids call him 'Jimmy the Saint'

And the blaze and noise boy, he's gunnin' that bitch
Loaded to blastin' point
He rides head first into a hurricane
And disappear into a point
To there's nothing left but blood where the body fell
That is, nothing left that you could sell
Just junk all across the horizon
A real highwayman's farewell

And someone said: "Hey, kid, you think that's oil?"
"Man, that ain't oil, that's blood"
I wonder what he was thinking when he hits that storm
Or was he just lost in the flood?

Eight Avenue sailors in satin shirts
Whisper in the air
Some storefront incarnation of Maria
She's puttin' on me the stare
And Bronx's best apostle stands
With his hand on his own hardware
Everything stops, you hear five quick shots
The cops come up for air

And now the whiz-bang gang from uptown
They're shootin' up the street
That cat from the Bronx starts lettin' loose
But gets blown right off his feet
Some kid comes blastin' around the corner
But a cop puts him right away
He lays on the street, holding his leg, screamin' something in Spanish
Still breathing when I walked away

And someone said: "Hey man, did you see that?"
"His body hit the street with such a beautiful thud"
I wonder what the dude was sayin'
Or was he just lost in the flood?
"Hey man, did you see that?"
"That cats are sure messed up"
I wonder what they were gettin' into
Or were they just lost in the flood?