Copyright Mark E Smith and don't you forget it.
Transcription by Pete Conkerton (a harmless drudge) who welcomes comments and/or corrections, care of Rich.
Historical Notes
Albino Luciani, who became Pope John Paul I, was born in Belluno, northern Italy, on 17th October 1912. His roots were working class and he remained a lifelong socialist, though opposed to communism. He studied at the seminary in Belluno, and became Bishop of Vittorio Veneto in December 1958, Patriarch of Venice in 1966, a Cardinal in 1973 and Pope on 27th August 1978. Taking as his motto Humilitas, he professed to be a man of the people, lacking the learning and wisdom cf his predecessors. He took a close interest in social and moral problems, particularly in the Third World. However he remained conservative in church matters, insisting on the ultimate authority of the Papacy. One of his peculiarities was writing open letters to various historical figures, including Dickens, Mark Twain, Christopher Marlowe (author of Doctor Faustus), G.K. Chesterton and Christ. During his 33 days as Pope he displayed a number of eccentricities, criticising both capitalism and Marxism and hinting at a series of reforms for the Vatican establishment, which he saw as corrupt. He was found dead in his bed at 5.30am on 29th September 1978. The cause of death was certified as a massive heart attack the previous night. No autopsy was carried out. The conspiracy theories surrounding his death mainly centre on the lack of autopsy, and the supposition that he made enemies with his plans for reform. The Curia (Papal court), the Vatican Bank and the Freemasons have all been implicated as possible assassins.
Transcription Notes
I've used two tapes, one undated & one from 19/12/86. They're both broadly the same, though MES & Leigh Bowery tend to ad-lib a bit - I've tried to include the fullest sense. (The track 'Typewriter' on 'The Post-Nearly Man' is also an excerpt from the stage show, but not on either of my tapes.) Never having seen the stage show, and not having access to a dramatis personae, I've had to guess at most of the proper names. There's also a few gaps where there's obviously something visual going on. Punctuation is largely a matter of taste. I've tried to keep the rhythms of the dialogue, but where some sentences begin and end is often problematical. As to the great Guest Informant enigma, I'm no wiser than anyone. For what it's worth, I reckon the last two words are 'statecog analyst' and the first tends to vary. In the immortal phrase, have a bleedin' guess. My comments throughout are in italics.
MES MONOLOGUE OVER INTRO MUSIC: Europe 1870. The first Vatican council meets
and guarantees an infallible Pope. Spain gang is in disarray and top gang
France is recovering from a fight it could not finish. Meanwhile in
Alsace-Lorraine state, F. Nietzsche hospital orderly manages Turks and Prussians
- Turks! - encouraged by the manipulating British gangs to play a bigger
part than realised in the forthcoming shoot-out scenario.
(Franco-Prussian war, 1870, led to the formation of the Third Republic
in France and the establishment of the German Empire. Nietzsche was Professor
at Basle University, on the border of Switzerland and Alsace-Lorraine)
-----
DKTR. FAUSTUS (*)
Doktor Faustus, horseshoes splacking, swallows hay-cart, carthorse
Hay box of a peasant blocking his path
Faustus, power showing, spits out hay-cart, carthorse
At the gates of the town of Anholt (**)
Had your chances, had your chance
Had your chances, had your chance
Doktor Faustus at the court of the Count
Made fruits exotic, pleasure-licious
Appear behind curtains in winter
Faustus at the court of the decadent Count
Made animals from sun-lands appear in the sparse gartens
Had your chances, had your chance
Had your chances, had your chance
Doctor Faustus horseshoes clacking swallows hay-cart carthorse
Hay-box of the peasant blocking his path
He had to leave
He had to leave his drinking student friends
Had 'to leave his student friends
Had your chances, you've had your chance
Cast the blood silhouette through the ceiling sky
Cast the blood silhouette through the ceiling sky
Had your chances, you've had your chance
Had your chances, had your' chance
(* Doctor Faustus was a legendary 15th century German necromancer,
immortalised in Christopher Marlowe's 1604 play)
(** mid-Germany)
------
TWO VOICES: JOHN PAUL (JP1) & UNIDENTIFIED MALE (M2)
JP1: A pretence to be calm but at the back of my mind there was a goal. The poor people would exclaim 'rejoice'. Would I change? But I was never like that.
M2: Opus Dei, Opus Dei (And assorted other Latin mutterings)
JP1: At the back of the mind o:f this young priest about to be ordained was the feeling of a chapter's end. I was getting lost for some reason. Now I look back and I knew the route as well as I know the back of my hand.
M2: Opus Del, Opus Dei. Devil get ready. It is over. Wheen I'm a priest the new ordained the people exclaim 'Riddler'.
-----
MES: Rome Rome Rome Rome August 78
Rome Rome Rome Rome 78 August
-----
LUCIANI (MES & guitar only - very garbled. This song only appears in the 'Luciani' show, to my knowledge)
Happiness for the common folk
If they cast away the Vatican yoke
The rumour's here today
Luciani today hey hey
See a pope with a pretty smile
His times will endure
If [...] has his way
Luciani today hey hey
Rose a vision in the city
[ .... ]
Luciani's here to stay
Luciani today hey hey
Happiness for the common folk
[...] goodbye to the Vatican yoke
Luciani today hey hey
All the bishops in excelsis
Look down on the human plain
They exclaimed
It's Luciani again hey hey
See a pope with a pretty smile
It's time to rejoice
If [...] has his way Luciani today hey hey
Rose a vision in the city
It's time to rejoice
Goodbye to the blighted yoke
The rumour's had its day
Luciani today hey hey
Luciani today hey hey
Luciani's here to stay
Luciani's here to stay
Luciani today hey hey
Luciani today hey hey
-----
MES: Hey connoisseurs, jaded, here is a man who is right up your street. Forty years have passed. Not aged much, has he? A cocky shrouded man. No longer the Mussolini grey and black photo, no, this man has adapted his energies to the new Europe, a Europe whose citizens though superficially alike, slipping around the dulux grey shopping malls in their light grey suits, pale pink ties, slyly still dabble in amusements of Balkanesque proportions.
-----
CONVERSATION: ANTONIOSI? (A) & OTHER MALE VOICE (M)
K: Antoniosi.
A: Yeah, come in.
M: What news regarding the elections? I relish our allies' distorted reflections. Antok.
A: Announced 7.18 pm first message Sunday 27th will meet Dubliner conquest SW American effort all fellow fighters appreciate the results in Rome. Black Florence.
K: An open ended transmission via here. Don't fob me, Antok. A big day over the sea. His compatriot Bishop Gorilla in there with Albino.
A: Nothing. Mendoza would like a conversation regarding your wares and as a favour will supply you with full information if requested on the Jew terrorists who have he claims just passed Valdivia (*) southbound.
M: Senile idiot. Well, I suppose it has come to this. The interest on loans to our old German comrades in steel. Well, there are no other amusements at home for a while anyway with our two [...] united. With Pope Al Massim el residente.
A: Monday 11 a.m. Rosario airbase (**) contact projectiles French for 300% rumoured near certain buildup. Prices proportionate. Immediate commencement.
K: Buenos Aires. Only the stupid twatting English could be so blinkered.
Reply, Definite price per rocket with 80% commission plus P2 standard. Reply
to the horse eater regarding the Nimrod expedition. Quote respondez let our
Israel friends capture the old goat if they want him. Ne concierne. Ne concierne,
we are not worried. As if, as if. (laughs)
(* mid-Chile. ** North coast of Brazil.)
-----
MARK'LL SINK US excerpt
-----
CONVERSATION: LEIGH BOWERY (LB) & CARDINAL FILO? (CF)
LB: Don't speak too loud. I know everything that goes on in this Vatican, every single little thing including what the nuns call you - Gorilla - I've got a few names for them as well. We gotta be extra special, people will be listening. We cannot be too careful. I'm gonna tell you something Cardinal Filo so keep your ears open, but that aside I've got some friends in Chicago, yeah yeah come on, rob everybody then skip to some mythical state over the border. Well I'm not going CB.
CF: During my objective absolutions and reflections it occurred to me that all men commit evil.
LB: Oh really?
CF: In the most pleasant and idyllic atmosphere.
LB: Well throw the dog a bone.
CF: Our faith acknowledges this. You bishops merely confirm this with your refusal to travel.
LB: Yeah yeah.
CF: Others here resident excitedly monitor and fear the most recent change.
LB: Do they now?
CF: They say yes to quote in spiral circles narrowing faster which he approaching seems to want.
LB: Well what a load of rubbish. That creases me - ha ha ha. That's the funniest thing I ever heard, That Kraut stuff ha ha ha. Anyway that's the most absurd [...] I ever heard. Creases me right up. If I had the energy I'd laugh even louder. Anyway I was in the middle of a [mezzici], you know a conference
CF: Si, si.
LB: Hmm. Up on all the Italian words, I see. Anyway, in the middle of this [mezzici] with Calvi I had the whole thing nicely wrapped up in my affectionate palm when a call comes through, and who do you think it was? His Holiness - His Holiness requests the breakdown of the distribution of alms to the poor of Valencia and Roma. Who cares about them poor people? I sure don't, Well I ask you, I was dragged back my friend from the fine distillation of two months' work with that crooked bastard Calvi to pore over the wine allowances for some Fiat rejects who suddenly caught holy glimpsing this lean sheep molester elect, our new Pope, on the front of the Daily Roma. I ask you, the communists back home would've sent the cops round but I'd like to do a few things as well. Anyway, tell me one thing. Who is this guy - maybe Jimmy Stewart?
CF: His instruction to me was to visit certain [non-baptismal] parts of Rome. He is merely bourgeois, my friend.
LB: So you take instructions from him, do you? I see.
-----
MARK'LL SINK US excerpt
-----
CONVERSATION: HOLY MOTHER (HM) & SISTER MONAMICI? (SM)
HM: Well, since you have not been with us very long, Sister Monanici, I shall give you the benefit of watching me with His Holiness.
SM: He looks like a provincial.
HM: He's; a man of the soil - a people's Pope. Do you know, at 32 he went straight through a windshield?
SM: I do hope his scars have healed.
HM: But he is frugal and wise. I was at a factory with him today, something never done before by the Holy Father. Not to denigrate his predecessors of course, dear sister.
SM: Pardon me Holy Mother, but this is the modern age. Surely the Church should follow computer trails.
HM: Dear sister, did your teachings never mention the camel and the needle?
SM: The Bible I find hard going. I prefer East Coast theology.
HE: Religious science and technology. Not to denigrate his predecessors of course, dear sister, oh no. You may be seeing a revolution here. He is the quiet one.
SM: Ah, but he's interested in civilised advances. The Church owns a large percentage of land in other countries.
HM: You know, the way you talk, I shall have to transfer you to Bishop Marcincus's account departnsnt.
SM: The Gorilla! oh!
HM: Maybe you could touch his bald head. (laughs)
SM: Went clear through a windshield. Do tractors have them?
-----
JP1: I feel my bones hold knowledge that will bring my ending. Ambrose Bierce defined religion as a goodly tree in which all the foul birds of the air have made their nests. My new role renders me morbid, my eyes are like two television screens, continually open, but in the morning I am living again, and I find therapy in the people. My energies should and will go to the expression of my inner thoughts, Fear apparent is mostly spent.
-----
RADIO BROADCAST: ANNOUNCER (A) & JP1
A: This is Vatican Radio, 6 o'clock on the 28th of September. Holy See. Pope John Paul the First today belied his image as the people's Pope.
JP1: Around us there is continual movement, people talking, newspapers, radio and television.
A: It began with His Holiness pointing out the frivolous distractions of daily life.
JP1: As priests we must say "I am a priest of the lord. I must have a little silence for my soul. I distance myself from you to be with my God more."
A: He suggested priests ignore the false god of modernisation and think of themselves as superior to the world around them.
JP1: It is wrong to believe that where Lenin is, there is Jerusalem, but between church salvation and the human situation there is some coincidence.
A: His Holiness then went on to denounce liberation theology.
JP1: In Rome I shall [...] with the good subjects but will not fear to exercise the rights of authority over the wicked ones.
A: Looking over to the Vatican officials and employees of library and bank, His Holiness almost imploringly asked for their aid in his mission.
-----
HAF FOUND BORMANN excerpt
-----
JIMMY? MONOLOGUE (J) INTERRUPTED BY BRIX (BES) & FEMALE (F)
I: Once I was having this idea that the Sudanese Intelligence Corps was the career for my deceptions, skills and talents. [Multi] and [Subtle]. [Multi] and [Subtle]. I remember them. Europe's most unpopular comedy team. Treaties for grains and now look at me. Aztec impersonator cum bouncer versus zero clientele. Mouldy alliances for Soviet T54 tanks. Buy petrol yourself, Russian twats. After all this sifting and malarking over dear fleshy cameras, to end up here in this godforsaken jungle watching over this rancid sack of diet pitsner. Yes, I am talking to you, Martin Bormann, you putz. You moss on the sheeps eyes of Mohammed's disowned cousin one thousand removed.
BES & F: (screams)
F: That's enough. Too long have I been lax with dormant Nazi swine.
BES: Permission to magazine these crap Czech Austrian gold [slutters]?
-----
HAF FOUND BORMANN (Brix vocal)
Red out 2SW185 rocking horse
This is [...] 3600 leader copy
Nimrod expedition reports
Haf found Bormann
Captured resistance was in the form of two false Aztecs
In fact Sudanese agents
We have eliminated
Equipped with spears containing modern razors
Arsenal with shells M14 issue
Captured
Confiscated
Nimrod is vindicated in the highest
Haf found Bormann
Captured
Vials of stupid serum
Refer galley
Refer Paraguay
Refer Vatican
Refer P2
Great glory to God
Haf found Bermann
Nimrod is vindicated in the highest
18 degrees [...]
Nimrod reports
Haf found Bormann
North north west [...]
Haf found Bormann
Advise
Transmission ends
-----
BES: So, Jimmy, my South American African friend. Who pays for all this?
J: I am so scared, yet my aura is panache.
F: He's in need of a test.
BES: Red ants in his gash. Watch this [...] script.
J: I love my existence as it is, so I will swap my spell for these.
F: The jungle has addled his desert mind.
BES: And mescal screwed his nomad wits.
J: I repeat, I will tell only in return for guaranteed life.
F: This should be interesting. It's a deal.
J: My programme master in Khartoum, his fingerclick word was digital. Have you a watch or something with computer chip?
F: Cartier of course, Switzerland, Grenoble.
J: The chant of [Bazdad] I now recall. Turn the appliance to the north east. Utter after me, I be.
ALL: Digital.
-----
(indecipherable robot-type voice monologue)
BSA - BSA - BSA - BSA - BSA
-----
HAF FOUND BORMANN excerpt
-----
INTERVAL
-----
ROBOT VOICE: BSA- BSA
MALE VOICE MONOLOGUE ('Typewriter'): You knew a friend of my brother-in-law's worked in a regeneration station - telex department Ithink- anyway it was too near something so they ran away exiled in a yellow car - the rear view mirror became a credit card - all it reflected was the eyes of those inside and the eyes of those in the car behind -they knew it was wrong for them to be abroad and it was three hours before word got out regarding their polluted cars - the vehicle became a molten colour and of a material yet to be discovered - mesmerising to the occupants - with the properties of steel yet supple - it's tough luck on those that they happen across but then who gives a toss - the boss forgot to check the seals on the hatches- next layby they'll grasp some sleep by matches.
-----
SLEEP DEBT SNATCHES excerpt
-----
MALE VOICE MONOLOGUE: A reveller spacecraft crammed with four infiltrated near Mars by large abundant caterpillars full and wriggling with blind translucent round suckers and tall hairs about my size. The back of the ship drops off. I throw some of them out the rocket exhausts. Passengers are screaming. Sides crammed in. I squeeze these leech wondrous thingies out the porthole. Ship speeding.
-----
SLEEP DEBT SNATCHES excerpt
-----
MES MONOLOGUE: Saw Jerry Lee Lewis - cheap grey suit - red washed out tie
- waist deep in mud - circular dead forehead line - blonde hair parted left
side. I know he cannot die, it's something to do with the plastic yellow
shine on the tablets he took which made his insides half mechanised - given
all operation block - it's rough. It. was the day after Fluke Night. We
eventually ended up in a guest house accommodation centre that you find
occasionally somewhere in the middle of England and nowhere else - here's
why. It was owned by a large betting shop chain, Ladbrokes Incorporated in
fact, nothing to do with Lashco Incorporated. On checking in and getting
in the lift and looking at the key I noticed it had three numbers on it.
The numbers were 3350, 353 and 303. On getting %o the third floor I found
out that 3350 did not exist. In fact may I digress a moment. I had a dream
the other night actually where I sort of appeared in this Christmas card.
The scene was like a Typhoo double decker, Victorian. The streets were covered
with snow and I said 'Where are you going?' and he said 'I'm the editor and
I'm taking my staff to see their annual Disney treat at the local picture
house'. On getting to 353, put the key in the door. A moan emerged. Somehow
I knew it was just a woman in bed with a black wig on, I dont know why I
knew that. I walked a bit on and got to 303, put the key in the door there,
and all the lights in the corridor went out. Negotiating corridor, came across
a playing card advertisement, street size, neon. Just by chance I went to
363 and with a deft twist the door opened. Looking out of the front window
there was a landscape, sinister, green. Going into the bathroom looking out
that window, was greeted with a view of Tudor, real Tudor buildings
Not just Tudor, real Tudor.
Tudor, real Tudor.
Mistive, depressive.
Tudor, real Tudor ape.
Tudor, real Tudor ape.
Tudor, real Tudor
-----.
MALE VOICE: Disappeared, snatched back. The noon lounge held a reception fur normals. I've been waiting, always around. A long time coming by my form sheet. It's time to do some replacing.
-----
SLEEP DEBT SNATCHES excerpt
-----
MALE VOICE: There'll be no flights to the Greek islands in the nuclear sumner.
We must ensure that the Citizens English Party To Include Coloureds is elected,
and it'll be on these ten points:
2. Home rule.
3. Wales to retain independence.
4, Army and Civil Service to stay as it stands.
5. Increased co-operation with Europe and planned withdrawal from the EEC
in fifty year.
7. British Rail staff to be trebled at least.
8. A slow breakdown of the brain (cough) drain.
9 and l0. Fully adapt the computer sheet witchcraft of big D. These points
will ensure that the C.E.P.T.I.C.
VOICE OVER: Ceptic party
MALE VOICE: Will soon run this country properly and adversely.
MALE VOICE (Gradually speeding up & becoming unintelligible): Notice they left 6 out and 1 didn't one notice these things tend to pass you by you people are so stupid you stand there completely unindependent and ignorant of the African struggle of the Sudanese people government redevisement of check when you reject information you will not receive from me socialist...
-----
CHANT: Conscription - construction - consumption - condumpkin - cack for
brains - eighteen millions.
Conscription - construction - consumption - condumpkin - cack for brains
- eighteen millions.
Conscription - construction - consumption - condumpkin - cack for brains
- eighteen millions.
Conscription - construction - consumption - condumpkin - cack for brains
- eighteen millions.
FEMALE VOICE: Next day in the noon lounge the norms held a fiesta. Escapees en masse from textbook finish. They sniff as they are walked past. Always around a long time coming. Regular generation standard occupation imperative. Years twenty. Craft dormant. But who'd even become guest informant.
-----
GUEST INFORMANT (This is more or less a generic version. Have a bleedin'
guess)
BSA - BSA - BSA - BSA
I followed the colonel to the cheap hotel,
I tapped the beds
I wired the phones as well,
Colonel Boggs Maroley was his mantle
I had not counted on
Guest Informant, guest informant
I've been split on
I've been touted on,
I had not counted on
Guest Informant
In the burning scorch of another Sunday half over
The miserable Scottish hotel
The back garden
Resembled a Genesis or Marillion, 1974 LP cover
All the hotel staff had been dismissed
It was me, the Hoover, and the OAPs
Asked: Could he turn killer?
Thought: could I kill him?
Pondered: Or is he itinerant?
But I guess he's just a cog analyst
Guest informant, guest informant
Bastard statecog analyst.
I could not comprehend
I could not understand
Had not counted on
I had not counted all
Guest informant
I've been split on by a first-grade moron
And I had not counted on
I had not counted on
Guest informant
I've been let down, by a first-grade moron
And I could not comprehend
Had not counted on
Guest informant, guest informant
Bastard Statecog analyst
-----
MES OVER SLEEP DEBT SNATCHES excerpt: Now we go back to the employees of Lashco Incorporated, who gratefully confide in us their worst dream memoirs.
FEMALE MONOLOGUE: Hello, my name's Gall Howard. Not what I seem. Through glass pictures holding coffee stains I walk to work for Mister squat beige pants, don't know why. Don't know why I just don't exit, resign. I enter the house, bow down, cut through the guest house that doubles as coffee shop, off lino, up carpet. Fellow workers turn away in envy and hatred. I just don't get this. This nightmare unfolds in five unit snatches. The part time work force, how did I catch it? At a loss to know if awake or dreaming, and I try to recall. Observe tragic clouds. My ears are ringing. The earth is made up of terylene patches. My name is Jill Howard.
-----
SLEEP DEBT SNATCHES excerpt
-----
CONVERSATION: MES, FEMALE (F), HENRY MERKIN? (HM)
MES: Anyway supposedly she had loads of jobs she didn't want or like but she did turn up for them every day. On finally leaving at the end of the day she'd forget where she lived. She went through about seven to ten flats in about six months.
F: Can you try and remember her name or have you got what she had? (laughs.)
MES: She completely disappeared off the face of the earth. The only address I've got is where 80% of her salary went. It's Lashco Inc. U.S. Got a PO box in Coventry.
F: Well if you do remember her name ring this number, cause interesting people are my forte.
HM: Excuse me Mister [Toller] I phoned your agent. What is he, mad? A being divided by five?
MES: Divided by five.
HM: I'm Henry Merkin from [Coracon] University.
MES: Where's that?
HM: Oh it's just over the border from Vancouver. I edit New Technological Scrutiny and Culture magazine, It's pretty big. Hi, hi Miss [Femlin]. I talked to you last June about your hesitancy nullification course.
F: Uh huh.
MES: You told me you were an antique dealer.
F: Oh erm that's because I didn't want you to be in awe of me.
MES: I was excited for I see the sniper.
F: Sorry.
HM: About your C.S.S.A. theory of sleep snatches.
MES: It was a long time ago. I was eating a lot of takeaway food at the time, suffering from basement depression syndrome, I was living in Ladbroke Grove. It was a bit like a papal cell y'know.
HM: What do you think of my interview technique? I'm more of a creative writer really.
MES: Bringing some batteries for the tape recorder is a very useful tip.
HM: That book, 'Blindfold'.
MES: You've got 'the wrong man, that was [Dee Toyner]. I'll see you now, I have to go now. Ta ta.
F: Bye. Anyway it all started when my little sister nearly drowned. She fell in a rock pool. I became obsessed with split line apprehension. I tried to act but the stupendour...
HM: How do you spell 'apprehension'?
F: I think it has two 'P's, Anyway I became obsessed with split line apprehension but the stupendour of that fear taste drove my senses skybound, and snatch was the feeling to which I am now addicted. Anyway my liquid fixation is due to my useless swimming instructor.
VOICE OFF: [...] I really need a G and T.
F: I think it's in the other room at the back. Anyway my liquid fixation is due to my useless swirmming instructor I think ....
FEMALE INTERRUPTION: Put a fucking sock in it. Is Senorita [Hartwit], here for the big FT appointment. Here I am for to see the big king cog. Hello honey, Only B.S.D.A. creamed the payoff from me. My toughness legendary. Second only to big D nowadays. The boys I run, slick death. I tell you my boys are sick of gringo clients, I should pay them grave insurance.
-----
CONVERSATION: TWO MALE VOICES (M1 & M2)
Ml: Rest up, enjoy, Your stay in Europe's affecting you, huh? Don't hang your guilt bag around my neck, huh? As if, as if. When I kill, Ikill my type but they...
M2: Is it [...] or is it sundown already?
Ml: Hey you, you gotta get worked up. More, more worked up, more worked up, and don't let nobody stand in your way. The disadvantaged he embraces. Okay. On my way here to US I stop and catch a plane. In act one they had me [Litogelli] as a fascist. I ask you, I admit I seized Stalingrad, it was that or death. Il Duce was a fat fraud, but Uncle Joe - thirty million talked. Then they had me and Antoniosi in '78. Well, it's accurate. Scene two - those Israeli kids never did make it back, but they make the Arab talk. Three is set in some hypnotic timeless purgatory of prime office space using one of his phony company names, Lashco Incorporated, and fabulous as it may seem my friends, that scene is the nearest to the truth. Now, I remember those times like this...
-----
MARK'LL SINK US excerpt
-----
CONVERSATION: LEIGH BOWERY (LB) & MALE VOICE (M)
M: Boo, boo.
LB: You really scared me. You nearly gave me a heart attack. I nearly crapped myself. Give me a chance to get my breath back. Anyway now that you're here, the telex - you got it?
M: M-A-Y-B-E
LB: I get it - code, right? - M-A-Y- maybe?! Oh come on, give me a break why don't you? Have you got any idea what things are like? The press is on my back, these boys: could write us off in the next two hours. They got the New York City D.A. to issue a warrant, Why don't you even listen to me when I'm talking? Honestly things have never been worse ever. You have to deal with these guys and what do you get? I'd like to get somes of these press guys alone for just two minutes. Not like the Chicago newspaper board.
M: Ah the Chicago newspaper board, with all its solid democratic appeals.
LB: Exactly the way I feel about them. We had an agreement with these guys.
M: Yes, to write what they are told. The writing is big and bold, big and bold.
LB: Okay, calm down.
K: So how are things my friend? Not so good, eh? So when did His Newness go away?
LB: He went away - hey just wait one minute, you ain't supposed to know nothing about that.
K: You would not have arranged this meeting otherwise, my jungle book-keeper.
LB: Oh, aren't you the smarty pants?
K: His Holiness is on a visit to the dead centre of Rome perhaps?
LB: Perhaps and perhaps not. What I'm more interested in is the telex and you ought to remember that my interest is for me. Listen to this. One day the steel glove will be on the other hand and you never should forget that.
M: I would not comment on that.
LB: Well thank you very much, thanks a lot. I'll bend down and pick it up. No big strain with me.
-----
MARK'LL SINK US excerpt
-----
NARRATOR VOICE: Big Dave Cody, distant relation of Wild Bill, eating grapes. Even we are in abeyance here. Pray attention. Aberrant Dave if we may call him that. Lower arm as headrest. Cardinal Cody. Cardinal Cujo in majestic excelsis. What words can transmute this aura as his cold legend? Horrible Cody senior. We interrupt his great - trivial to him - ponderings and reflections.
JP1: Okay..okay...yeah, tomorrow...our thoughts are with you too...yeah...right. The second name. Guiseppe. Out, out. Eight, nine, yes. Hah. A blind man and a thief. I can tell his excuse will be bad eyesight, that and his usual mistakes. They think me [...]. Guiseppe, international Vatican Bank courier with two convictions for possession of explosives. Twelve, thirteen, Unlucky for you, oh fat one. Satan has clipped your legs and strung your eyelashes to a gibbering neon tube of all the numbers the world knows. We could can his dormant flesh and export it to Wall Street. They'd monitor the index of Vatican luncheon meat. Where is Sister Vincente with the bloody wine? Fifteen, sixteen X.S.S. Dear dear, it's not easy being a Pope, This new world oaf telexes us an invoice for his mediocre womanising. Out out out.
FEMALE: Your refreshment, Holiness. Your second bottle if you remember.
JP1: My father would spit that amount out before noon, dear sister. [...] often require subtle inclinations if we are to tolerate their similes. You, you, you and you, the transaction gangsters. Your [...] Fiat will come in handy when the Interpol agents pick up your odour. Out, out, swindlers of odd pennies given in faith. What next, pay confession booths? The last twelve. This is the most difficult. Only through my senses can I justify these removals. Their aura is of confidence yet their eyes and mouths communicate only a stimulated ego, revealed slightly by their treatment of servants, waiters and suchlike inside and a chilling abruptness. They are conscious merely of instant position on a [...]. Their objection in my presence reduces my spirits to an aura like that of an open gift box of continued assurance. A trifle penance necessary to leave them time to think of nothing.
F: John Paul, go to bed now please. They say sleep can provide all that the angels cannot [disguise].
JPI: Or cure. Sometimes fear evaporates in sleep but sometimes along with anger and metal.
F: There will be other days, other evenings, other nights like this.
JPI: If only it were that simple. If only that were not the case. Goodnight dear sister, and may God bless you.
F: Goodnight Holiness. Bags under eyes or on arms do not the Lord's route make apparent.
-----
SLEEP DEBT SNATCHES (over intro to 'Living Too Late')
Out of the air sometimes from blissful sleep
Snap right up shake your leg
Pivot your head
Take an easy breath
Think how great God's golden assurance is
In setbacks and great success
Got bad dreams through sleep debt
Make a mark on your head
While your body and legs take a rightful rest
You're left to deal with hell's dispatches
Look over the mind kids, close the hatches
Here are some sleep debt snatches
LIVING TOO LATE (Not very clear. I've used the Lyric Parade version by and large, while keeping the structure of the 'Luciani' version.)
Try to wash the black off my face but its in grate
I'm living too late
Crows feet are ingrained on my face
I'm living too late
I'm living too late
I'm sleepless in control spleen
A grade eight family must have stump tripod in their genes
I'm living too late
In my dreams
I saw through the trees
Over poison river locks
Fork treacherous ravine
But still my heart is rock
I finally go through old parasite gate
But there's a 24 hour clock watch
I'm living too late
I'm living too late
Once conversation was my favourite while
But now I'm in denial
Words dumb
Maybe I'm living too long
I'm living too late
The daylight
I see trouble in the street
Fearing catastrophe to meet
Walk down the devil's boulevard
But still my heart is hard
They say that souls are evil black
But I know they're wrong
I'm living too long
I'm living too late
I'm super sad sleep sad
Lens cracked vision hard
Living too long
Living too long
-----
HEY LUCIANI
I said hey Luciani
The future's here today
I said hey Luciani
A Pope of three three days
They made out you were an ultra nut
And had no time for your Christianity
You paid with your life for their treachery
And the future's here today
The future's here to stay
Luciani
I said hey Luciani
Jesus has gone away
I said hey Luciani
Meet the Church Bank S.A.
They said you were of peasant stock
And one day the Curia murdered you
Your hermeneutics are through
And on that fruited plain
The corporate bishops graze
Exit church of poverty
Exit church cf pain
And the future's here today
And the future's here to stay
Luciani
I said hey Luciani
I said hey Luciani
I said hey Luciani
A pop star in your cell
I said hey Luciani
A Polish son of hell
You were the first John Paul I
How is it your christianity's gone
Can you see it from your gyave
The TV snowstorm on top
The brass holy grail
Imitation for sale
The future's here today
Luciani
Luciani
And all the cowls are black
On an inquisition rack
And the future's here today
Hey Luciani
Luciani
-----
MES MONOLOGUE: All this is mere conjecture for this was the time of the computer
and rogue sharecropper. [...] engaged in rackets more terrible and far beyond
anything Interpol and [...] could offer and their resources. [...] a shoot
out in cable hell. Cables and satellite dish cannot be interrogated and sent
to Rikers, Alcatraz or recycled chip dartboard. The anonymous crimes committed
by the reasonably incompetent in the yet uncharted grey area are unaccountable
to any one or thing that today operates.
This is part three of the doomsday payoff, also known as the doomsday payoff
triad, a combination historical of eldritch fallacy [ .... ] cinders and
technology stretching over the burning coals of three average human lifetimes.
-----
NEWS ANNOUNCER (occasionally lost in outro music):
The Italian magazine Expresso says the version about the Bulgarian involvement in the attempt on the life of the Pope is obviously cooked up. Those are the headlines, now the news in full.
The Italian magazine Expresso has said the version about the Bulgarian involvement in the attempt on the life of the Pope was clearly concocted. This was the conclusion made by the magazine following the results of an interrogation by Italian judge [Martella] of an agent of Western special services Francesco [Vicenze] in Rome. [Vicenze] acknowledged that the so-called Bulgarian affair was a pure fabrication and was [ .... ]. Earlier the provocative nature of the charges against Bulgarian citizens was exposed by a [..] Mafioso special services or just provocation..