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Towers Open Fire

from TOWERS OPEN FIRE by TOWERS OPEN FIRE

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about

The song we took our band-name from. The title is a quote from William S. Burroughs, and the song is a tribute to this extraordinary person.

lyrics

TOWERS OPEN FIRE

I once saw Jim Morrison perform; he was never the Lizard King
He was far too pretty and vulnerable to be such a reptilian thing
The real Lizard King was a writer with a typewriter of fire
Relentless curiosity, unquenchable desire.
‘Kill the language virus’, he said, ‘Towers open fire!’

The Beats are in the Beat Hotel and leading shabby lives
There’s petty crime and heroin and rent boys, guns and knives
The squares don’t dig this crazy scene, man,
But needs must when the devil drives.

They’re cutting-up their poetry, they’re cutting-up their prose
They’re making-out with Arab boys; well, that’s the way it goes.
And see that pile of empty morphine ampoules,
How it grows and grows and grows.

Now William’s got his pistols out, a terrifying sight;
Skeletal in his banker’s suit, a face of deathly white.
He’s gonna shoot them big black automatics
And he’s gonna shoot ‘em right.

Young men overdose
See the boys expire
Even William would confess
Trying to change your consciousness
Can get you in a real mess
Can get you in a real mess
‘But nothing succeeds like excess’,
Towers Open Fire!

William’s packed his valise and he’s traveling down to hell
But he comes back, repeatedly, and he has tales to tell.
He tells his hellish stories right,
So we don’t have to make that dreadful trip as well.

He’s got the whole of Western civilization in his sights.
The great American post-war Dream; he’s got that bang to rights
He’s waging total war on all
Of those controlling mental Parasites.

Would we have had the Sixties, and the Beatles and the Stones
Without the Lizard King, without that drug-crazed bag of bones?
To shock and scare us out of
All our safe and comfortable Interzones.

The old celebrity
He’s preaching to the choir.
The hipsters call him Uncle Bill
He lectures with an iron will
He still has missions to fulfil
He still has missions to fulfil
‘C’mon babe, you know the drill’
Towers Open Fire!

credits

from TOWERS OPEN FIRE, released June 12, 2020
BRAKEMAN / SMITH (Brakeman - Music: Smith - Lyrics)
Brakeman - Guitars
Smith - Vocals
Gerry Barnett - Cello

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about

JUDGE SMITH image

JUDGE SMITH Glastonbury, UK

Judge Smith co-founded the band Van der Graaf Generator in 1967 with Peter Hammill, & has since been involved in many music projects as writer, composer or performer. He has written stage musicals, classical & rock libretti, songs for television & a book on Life after Death; directed a prize-winning short film, & released fourteen CDs & two DVDs. He was born in 1948 & lives near Glastonbury, UK. ... more

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