Nederst På Karl Johan [English translation]

They're taking footage of the gang war

they're selling fake ID's

sunbeds are filled with Northsea workers

and a TV crew is on the scene

here comes the gender equality yenta

They propped her up quite high

She has one hand chained to the line dancer

the other one in her underwear

and the riot police are loitering

with blood on their teeth

While my lady and I, look at the world tonight

Down from Karl Johann Street. (1)

The blue-eyed girl looks so pretty

She said everything with her crooked smile

With both hands in her back pockets

Synnove Svaboe-Style (2)

Here comes the little Prince, with his theatrics

saying "I know that you are mine"

and someone says "You see it wrong, my friend

go get lost"

And the only sound in the street

after the ambulance has disappeared

is the blue-white cop walking his turf

Down on Karl Johann Street

the full moon tries to hide itself

And the stars sparkle so nicely

Futurist Johan Galtung (3)

Is already shuddering in his boots

And except for Cain and Abel

???????????????????????? (3b)

Everyone is busy making love

or they just sit and wait for the rain

And the good samaritan

Is getting dressed, getting ready

For tonight's big Circus

Down on Karl Johann Street

(INTERLUDE)

Synnove Solbakken stands by the roadside (4)

I've been so scared for her

She looks as old as Mother Theresa

But only turned twenty-two yesterday

She thinks death is so romantic

She wears a kevlar vest against HIV

Her profession is her religion

Her sin is the disdain for life

And even if her gaze is turned

Against the rainbow that is on fire

she's taking a lot of time to stare

Down on Karl Johann Street

Jostein Gaarder, dressed up as Egon Olsen

With a suitcase full of 'seventh sense'

Passed by here, about an hour ago

With Dynamite-Harry, his friend

He looks so abominably like a virgin

And there he's borrowing himself a cigarette

He started to sniff the exhaust pipes

And to read the alphabet out loud

Yes, now you hardly notice him

But he was famous once

For playing the electric dulcimer

Down on Karl Johann Street

(INTERLUDE)

Along the street they put up torches

getting ready for the festivities

Andersen in Shoemaker-Street

comes dressed up as a priest

They fed the little Lord with a teaspoon

To make him feel so big

Before they murdered him with self-confidence

and poisoned them with words

And Andersen shouted at a skinny girl

???????????????????????

And the little Lord got a fine for just walking

Down on Karl Johann Street

Doctor Apeberg has gathered his world

In a plastic hockey jockstrap made from plastic

but all his sexless patients

Try to break up the bricks of tea

And his nurse, and westside-loser

Distribute the bag with impure flour

And a business card with the smallprint

"May God rest his soul"

And they all play the recorder

You can hear every single neighbor

If you lean out and carefully listen

Down on Karl Johann Street

(INTERLUDE)

At midnight, the street workers arrive

with the control committee

To round up everyone

More competent than themselves

They lead them to the factory

There's a heart-attack-machine

fastened to their shoulders

And after that, the gasoline

Poured down from Oslo town hall

By the board members of Storebrand (7)

To make sure that noone can escape

Down to Karl Johan Street

May god bless Draugen oil field (8)

A Scandinavian Star ferry about to leave

And everyone is shouting

What side are you fighting for ?

And Claes Gill and Arnulf Overland (9a)(9b)

Are fighting it out, on the captain's bridge

While the door guards hand out anemones (10)

And the ship's orchestra laughed

And from the window facing the sea

We see the mermaid under water

And noone needs to think too much

Down on Karl Johann Street

Yeah, I got your letter yesterday

Then I broke the key to my door

???????????????????????????

Was this some kind of irony ?

All the people that you mentioned

Yes, I know them, and I miss them now

I had to give them new faces

And I had to give them new names

But right now I have a hard time reading

So stop sending me letters, please

because we already ran out of stamps

Down on Karl Johann Street

• Artist:Åge Aleksandersen