Club Down

Turn the lights off, they done shut the club down
Shut the club down, shut the, shut the club down
Turn the lights off, they done shut the club down
Shut the club down, shut the, shut the club down

The schoolyard reeks of sewage, broken pipes, broken promise
The thin man staggers lucid for this time of night
Drying vomit dangles from the beard, step, mumble, shuffle, trip
But the trajectory is clear, he's headed for the covered steps
Tut, tut, it looks like rain
He remembers A.A. milne each time the sky is this kind of grey
That or his favorite film, Gene Kelly
Leaping Technicolor through the fray and feeling glorious
The story is an allegory for his days, but night is coming now

Vials snap, aluminum sounds
Fibers slap as drops descend on tall cans
It's all hands on deck to chase the pain away
Dealers rockin' parkas with plenty pockets for product
The money, horrors, the logic and babies holler from colic
The symphony is tectonic, it shifts as the Earth is settlin'
Precious metals are mined
And a million minds have been meddlin' with time

In the hopes of getting a golden noose for the neck
Golden goose from a fairy tale, shittin' Fabergé eggs
Here snitches shit bricks, then quick to talk Pig Latin
That black dart too slick for that kid tappin' a window
While lookin' over his shoulder, stop lookin' over your shoulder
You're never caught from behind as long as you keep movin' forward
They long for the sleep like they mortal, these zombies
But they got this portal in their minds

And the molecules get rewired every trip they takin' through time
And they trippin' nightly, the blacks of the eyes igniting
The pits in the backyard biting, the cats in the trashcan fighting
The feeling of guns pealing like bells in a telltale reeling
Of bodies losing they feeling and falling down and the ceiling
Is black from the smoke that's rising, the scent is just so enticing
Descent is a small price for the right to live out your vices, now

Turn the lights off, they done shut the club down
Shut the club down, shut the, shut the club down
And every night after the club it goes down
Plenty, plenty, mo' rounds, bodies, bodies on the ground
On Broadway or Main Street they all stumble out
To a dozen pairs of hands pullin' bottles from they mouths
Hotties hardly walk now, everybody passed out
In the backseat of the taxi, so they never heard a sound

It's the city and the city and you only see one
And it all looked pretty when it all begun
But the shit has got to balance on the barrel of a gun
All the money in the world ain't gonna stop none of
That gangsta shit, that gangsta shit
The whole world lovin' that gangsta shit
Can't change this shit, it's dangerous
But it really ain't nuttin' to a gangsta

Bitch, what you know about that? Don't act like a newbie
New D boys get jacked, what you need is a New Jack Swing
And a new truly discerning taste for the base, like a foodie
Harmony's cruelly high when it's on his step
Stepped on dope is a safety net
And the dope fiends cry but they don't regret
Everyone get high, go out till they

Turn the lights off, they done shut the club down
Shut the club down, shut the, shut the club down
Why you fightin' all the shit that make the world go 'round?
World go 'round, world, world go 'round
Turn the lights off, they done shut the club down
Shut the club down, shut the, shut the club down
Turn the lights off, they done shut the club down
Shut the club down, shut the, shut the club down

It's the city and the city and you only see one
And it all looked pretty when it all begun
But the shit has got to balance on the barrel of a gun
All the money in the world ain't gonna stop none of
That gangsta shit, that gangsta shit
The whole world lovin' that gangsta shit
Can't change this shit, it's dangerous
But it really ain't nuttin' to a gangsta

Got the twenties and the fifties wrapped up under all the ones
Two for twenty, five for fifty, you could move a couple tons
You could put it in the blood or you could put it in the lungs
But, whatever you cough up, remember that it all begun with
That gangsta shit, that gangsta shit
The whole world lovin' that gangsta shit
Can't change this shit, it's dangerous
But it really ain't nuttin' to a gangsta