Papa Won't Leave You Henry (Live) - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

I went out walking the other day

The heat hung wet around my neck

My head it rung with screams and groans

From the night I spent amongst her bones

And I past beside the mission house

Where that mad old buzzard, the reverend

Shrieked and flapped

About life after you're dead

Well, I thought about my friend, Michel

How they rolled him in linoleum

And they shot him in the neck

A bloody halo, like a think-bubble

Circling his head and I bellowed at the firmament

Looks like the rains are hear to stay

And the rain pissed down upon me

And washed me all away, saying? Papa won't leave you, Henry

Papa won't leave you, boy

Papa won't leave you, Henry

Papa won't leave you, boy?? Well, the road is long and the road is hard

And many fall by the side

But Papa won't leave you, Henry

So there ain't no need to cry?

And I went on down the road

He went on down the road

And I went on down the road

He went on down the road

Well, the moon it looked exhausted

Like something you should pity

Spent an age-spotted

Above the sizzling wires of the city

Well, it reminded me of her face

And her bleached and hungry eyes

Her hair was like a curtain

Falling open with the laughter

And closing with the lies

And the ghost of her still lingers on

Though she's passed through me

And is gone

Well, the slum dogs, they are barking

The rain children on the streets

And the tears that we will weep today

Will all be washed away

By the tears that we will weep

We'll weep again tomorrow? Papa won't leave you, Henry

Papa won't leave you, boy

Papa won't leave you, Henry

Papa won't leave you, boy

For the road is long and the road is hard

And many fall by the side, side

But Papa won't leave you, Henry

So there ain't no need to cry?

And I went on down the road

He went on down the road

Oh, yeah, I went on down the road

He went on down the road

And I came upon a little house

A little house upon a hill

And I entered through and the curtain hissed

Into the house with its blood-red bowels

Where wet-lipped women with greasy fists

Crawled the ceilings and the walls

And they filled me full of drink

And they led me round the rooms

Naked and cold and grinning

Until everything went black

And I came down spinning

I awoke so drunk and full of rage

That I could hardly speak

A fag in a whale-bone corset

Draping his dick across my cheek

Well it's into the shame

And it's into a guilt

And it's into the fucking fray

And the walls ran red around me

A warm arterial spray saying? Papa won't leave you, Henry

Papa won't leave you, boy

Papa won't leave you, Henry

Papa won't leave you, boy?? Well, the night is dark and the night is deep

And its jaws are open wide

Well Papa won't leave you, Henry

So there ain't no need to cry?

And I went on down the road

He went on down the road

Oh, yeah, I went on down the road

He went on down the road

It's the rainy season where I'm living

Death comes leaping out of every doorway

Wasting you for your money, for your clothes

And for your nothing

Entire towns being washed away

Favelas exploding on inflammable spillways

And the lynch-mobs, death squads, babies being born without brains

The mad heat and the relentless rains

Well, if you stick your arm into that hole

It comes out sheared off to the bone

And with her kisses bubbling on my lips

I swiped the rain and I nearly missed

And then I went on down the road

He went on down the road

Papa won't leave you, Henry

Papa won't leave you, boy

Papa won't leave you, Henry

Papa won't leave you, boy

Well, the road is long and the road is hard

And many fall by the side

But Papa won't leave you, Henry

So there ain't no need to cry

And I went on down the road

He went on down the road

Oh, yeah, I went on down the road

He went on down the road

Bent beneath my heavy load

Under his heavy load

Yeah, I went on down that road

He went on down the road

And I went on down that road