O'Malley's Bar lyrics

I am tall and I am thin

Of an enviable height

And I've been known to be quite handsome

In a certain angle and a certain light

Well I entered into O'Malley's

I said, "O'Malley I have a thirst"

O'Malley merely smiled at me

Said "You wouldn't be the first"

I knocked on the bar and pointed

To a bottle on the shelf

And as O'Malley poured me out a drink

I sniffed and crossed myself

My hand decided that the time was nigh

And for a moment it slipped from view

When it returned, it fairly burned

With confidence anew

Well the thunder from my steely fist

Made all the glasses jangle

When I shot him, I was so handsome

It was the light, it was the angle

Huh! Hmm...

"Neighbours!" I cried, "Friends!" I screamed

I banged my fists upon the bar

"I bear no grudge against you!"

And my dick felt long and hard

"I am the man for which no God waits

But for which the whole world yearns

And I'm marked by darkness and by blood

And by a thousand powder-burns"

Well, you know those fish with the swollen lips

That clean the ocean floor

When I looked at poor old O'Malley's wife

Well that's exactly what I saw

I jammed the barrel under her chin

And her face looked raw and vicious

Her head it landed in the sink

With all the dirty dishes

And her little daughter Siobhan

Pulled beers from dusk till down

And amongst the town folk she was a bit of a joke

But she pulled the best beer in town

Well I swooped magnificent upon her

As she sat shivering in her grief

Like the Madonna painted on the church-house wall

In whale's blood and banana leaf

Her throat crumbled in my hands

And I spun heroically around

To see Caffrey rising from his seat

I shot that mother fucker down

Mmm... Yeah, yeah, yeah...

"I have no free will", I sang

And I flew about the murder

Mrs. Richard Holmes, she screamed —

You really should have heard her

Well, I sang and I laughed, I howled and I wept,

I panted like a pup

I blew a hole in Mrs. Richard Holmes

And her husband stupidly stood up

As he screamed, "You are an evil man!"

And I paused a while to wonder

"If I have no free will then how can I

Be morally culpable?" I wonder

I shot Richard Holmes in the stomach

Gingerly he sat down

And he whispered weirdly, "No offence"

And then lay upon the ground

"None taken", I replied to him

To which he gave a little cough

And with blazing wings I neatly aimed

Blew his head completely off

I've lived in this town for thirty years

To no-one I am a stranger

And I put new bullets in my gun

Chamber upon chamber

And I turned my gun on the bird-like Mr. Brooks

I thought of Saint Francis and his sparrows

And as I shot down the youthful Richardson

It was Sebastian I thought of, and his arrows

Hmm mmm yeah

Yeah! Listen, listen...

I said, "I want to introduce myself

And I am glad that all you came"

And I leapt upon the bar

And I shouted down my name

Well Jerry Bellows, he hugged his stool

Closed his eyes and shrugged and laughed

And with an ashtray big as a fucking really big brick

I split his skull in half

His blood spilled across the bar

Like a steaming scarlet brook

And then I knelt there at its edge on the counter

Wiped the tears away and looked

Well, the light in there it was blinding

Full of God and ghosts and truth

And I smiled at Henry Davenport

Who made no attempt to move

Well, from the position I was standing

The strangest thing I ever saw

The bullet entered through the top of his chest

And blew his bowels out on the floor

And I floated down the counter,

Showing no remorse

I shot a hole in Kathleen Carpenter

— recently divorced

But remorse I felt, remorse I had

It clung to every thing

From the raven hair upon my head

To the feathers on my wings

Then I squeezed my hand in its fraudulent claw

With its golden hairless chest

And I glided through the bodies

And killed the fat man, Vincent West

Who sat quietly in his chair

A man become a child

And I raised the gun up to his head

Executioner-style

He made no attempt to resist

So fat and dull and lazy

"Did you know that I live in your street?" I said

And he looked at me like I was crazy

"Oh", he said, "I had no idea"

And he grew as quiet as a mouse

Well the roar of the pistol when it went off

Near blew the hat right off the house

Hmm uh hmm uh hmm uh

Yeah, peah

Hmm mmm ha ah...

Well, I caught my eye in the mirror

And gave it a long and loving inspection

"There stands some kind of man", I roared

And then did in the reflection

My hair combed back like a raven's wing

My muscles hard and tight

And curling from the business end of my gun

Was a query-mark of cordite

Well I spun to the left, I spun to the right,

I spun to the left again

"Fear me! Fear me! Fear me!"

But no one did cause they were dead

Huh! Hmm

Oh oh yeah! Hmm!

Mmm hmmm mmm hmmm yeah

And then there were the police sirens wailing and

And then a bull-horn squelched and blared

"Drop your weapons and come out

With your hands held in the air"

Well, I checked the chamber of my gun

Saw I had one final bullet left

My hand, it looked almost human

As I raised it bravely to my head

"Drop your weapon and come on out!

Keep your hands above your head!"

I had one one long hard think about dying

And did exactly what they said

There must have been fifty cops out there

In a circle round O'Malley's bar

"Don't shoot", I cried, "I'm a man unarmed!"

So they put me in their car

And they sped me away from that terrible scene

And I glanced out of the window

Saw O'Malley's bar, saw the cops and the cars

And I started counting on my fingers

Aaaaah one aaaaaah two aaaaaaah three aaaaaah

Mmmmmmm O'Malley's bar

Mmmmmmm O'Malley's bar

Mmmmmmm O'Malley's bar...

• Artist:Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
• Album:Murder Ballads (1996)