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Credits

PERFORMING ARTISTS
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Performer
Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Vocals
Blixa Bargeld
Blixa Bargeld
Guitar
Mick Harvey
Mick Harvey
Organ
Thomas Wydler
Thomas Wydler
Drums
COMPOSITION & LYRICS
Nick Cave
Nick Cave
Composer
PRODUCTION & ENGINEERING
Tony Cohen
Tony Cohen
Producer
Flood
Flood
Producer

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
And no one saw the Carny go
The weeks flew by
Until they moving on the show
Leaving his caravan behind
It was parked out on the southeast ridge
And as the company crossed the bridge
With the first rain filling the bone dry riverbed
It shone, just so, upon the edge
Away, away, we're sad to say
[Verse 2]
Dog-boy, Atlas, Mandrake, the geeks, the hired hands
There was not one among them
That did not cast an eye behind
In the hope that the Carny
Would return to his own kind
[Verse 3]
The Carny left behind a horse so skin and bone
That he'd named Sorrow
And it was a shallow, unmarked grave
That that old nag was laid
In the then parched meadow
[Verse 4]
And it was the dwarves that were given the task of digging the ditch
And laying the nag's carcass in the ground
While boss Bellini, waved his smoking pistol 'round
Saying "the nag was dead meat"
"We can't afford to carry dead weight"
While the whole company standing about
Not making a sound
And turning to the dwarves perched on the enclosure gate
The boss says "bury this lump of crow bait"
[Verse 5]
And the rain came hammering down
Everybody running for their wagons
Tying all the canvas flaps down
The mangy cats growling in their cages
The bird-girl flapping and squawking around
The whole valley reeking of wet beast
Wet beast and rotten, sodden hay
Freak and brute creation
All packed up and on their way
[Verse 6]
The three dwarves peering from their wagon's hind
Mosses says to Noah "shoulda dug a deepa one"
Their grizzled faces like dying moons
Still dirty from the digging done
[Verse 7]
And Charlie goes to the three saying
"I guess the Carny ain't gonna show"
And they were silent for a spell
Wishing they'd done a better job of burying Sorrow
[Verse 8]
And the company passed from the valley
Into higher ground
The rain beat on the ridge and on the meadow
And on the mound
[Verse 9]
Until nothing was left, nothing at all
Except the body of Sorrow
That rose in time
To float upon the surface of the eaten soil
[Verse 10]
And a murder of crows did circle 'round
First one, then the others
Flapping blackly down
[Verse 11]
And the Carny's van still sat upon the edge
Tilting slowly as the firm ground turned to sludge
[Verse 12]
And the rain, it hammered down
And the rain, it hammered down
And the rain, it hammered down
And the rain, it hammered down
[Verse 13]
And no one saw the Carny go
No one saw the Carny go
No one saw the Carny go
I say, it's funny how things go
Written by: Nick Cave
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