Race to the Bottom

Sliding along by the Seine, it's May Day
This song's in my head once again
It's a long way down to the bottom we've been racing

Coughing my lungs up on Rue des Irlandais
Becoming a risk to myself
It's a long way down to the bottom and we're racing

The radio silence and the anarchists
Are gathering names, dates and lists for burning
It's a long way down to the bottom
That we've been racing

Oh, how you move me, but truly
Oh, how you set my heart aglow

I'm shadowing in with the crowds unnoticed
Somebody painted an X on my back
It's a long way down to the bottom
And we're racing

Piss on the streets after dark in Paris
Even on dear Joan of Arc, she knows
It's a long way down to the bottom
And we've been racing

Even the gods as they gaze down on us
Know that there's no one to be saved among us
They keep turning away
Turning away
We're singing along with the righteous people
The bullets will rain down from the mosques and steeples
They keep turning away
Turning away

A taste for the wine and a woman's forgiveness
Her man's in decline; oh, it's a nasty business
It's a long way down to the bottom that we've been racing

Our blood is no thicker than this water, my brother
You'll find out soon, one way or the other
It's a long way down to the bottom
That we've been racing

Even the clouds that send the rains down on us
See a horizon that goes way beyond us
They keep drifting away, drifting away
While down in the dark in the tick tock alleys
Time's running out and there's still bills to tally
We keep chipping away, chipping away

Sliding along with the bouquinistes
Baldwin and Brecht and the distance between us
It's a long way down to the bottom
That we've been racing

I'm rising up strong like a snake that's charmed
A handsome Parisienne on my arm
It's a long way down to the bottom
That we've been racing