Well no one really wants to go into the shadow world where the rivers meet.
But you know you’ll never make it home without the guidance of Tiresias.
So you go down looking for the shadow of the one who can tell you if you’ll make it if you wander on and on.
Oh man, oh man, I heard you say
there ain’t no way you’ll ever tell.
But first you got to take it down down
into that black black hell.
A clanging bell awaits you and you’re on the other shore
Surrounded by the shadows of so many whom you knew before.
And others that you heard of through the wild-fire of their flame,
but none of them can see the flashy tears upon your face,
cause their human thoughts have perished and their blood has drained away.
So you kill the lamb who trusted you
and then you ring the dinner bell
and feed dinner to the hungry hungry ghosts
of that black black hell.
The Shanghai Trio approaches in my dreams when I try to think of you.
They clang their bells so loudly when I try to think of touching you.
They kiss my lips so sweetly when I try to think of kissing you.
They dress me up, they line me up, they tell me I’ll be leaving you.
They hypnotize me, freeze me, with the ringing of a bell,
and they lead me like a well dressed lamb into that black black hell.
Black sheep, black sheep, I will see you where the rivers meet.
Where they swirl around each other forming eddies that are deep,
where they swirl around each other where the naked ladies weep.
Where they terrify each other with the currents of a wishing well
that could carry all the wishes down down into that black black hell.
America, America, you know how I have dreamed of you.
Not just the Shanghai Trio, dear, but also me I dreamed for you.
I lay awake with half-closed eyes and dreamed for you a shining bell
that could call the lonely powers up up from that black black hell.