11/3/65   Can't Come Down   1/7/66

[Revised version uploaded by Alex Allan - alex@acsa.demon.co.uk]

[see notes at end]


I'm flying down deserted streets             (1)
Wrapped in mother's winding sheets           (2)
Asbestos boots on flaming feet 
Dreaming of forbidden treats,
When uniforms on nighttime beats 
Ask me where I'm going and what I eat.
I answer them with a voice so sweet,

I can't come down, it's plain to see.
I can't come down, I've been set free.
Who you are and what you do don't make no difference to me.

Well someone trying to tell me where it's at,
And how I do this and why I do that,
With secret smiles like a Chesire cat,
And leather wings like a vampire bat,         (3)
I fly away to my cold water flat 
And eat my way through a bowl of fat,         (4)
And I say to the man with the funny hat,

They say I've begun to lose my grip,
My hold on reality is starting to slip,
They tell me to got off this trip,
They say its like a sinking ship,
Life's sweet wine's too warm to sip,           (5)
And if I drink I'll surely flip, 
I'll just say as I take a nip,

So as I dream of forgotten seas                (6)
And granite walls and redwood trees,
And of the eye that only sees 
Endless mirrors and infinite me's,
About the winter's coming freeze 
This afterthought I say with ease,
To all of you who make your fees.


**notes**
(1) I'm sure it's 'deserted streets' not 'desert streets'
    - part of a nice surrealist image
(2) 'Winding sheets' as in what you get buried in
(3) I hear 'leather wings' not 'little wings', though it's not clear
(4) 'Through a bowl of fat' not 'to a bone of fat'
(5) 'Life's sweet wine' makes much better sense
(6) I'm pretty sure it's 'forgotten seas' not 'cotton seas'
    - though I see that the DeadBase lyric section has a reference
    to 'cotton' from this song.

Do mail me with any additional comments/corrections