Total playing time : 38:24
©95 Raw Power is a division of Castle Communications PLC
1. STILL NOT BLACK ENOUGH 4:02
2. SOMEBODY TO LOVE 2:51
3. BLACK FOREVER 3:17
4. SCARED TO DEATH 5:02
5. GOODBYE AMERICA 4:48
6. KEEP HOLDING ON 4:04
7. ROCK AND ROLL TO DEATH 3:45
8. BREATHE 3:45
9. I CAN¹T 3:08
10. NO WAY OUT OF HERE 3:39
Produced by Blackie Lawless
All titles, words & music by Blackie Lawless, except track
two written by Darby Slick (from Cleerence Clearwater Revival)
Published by Zomba Music Publishers Ltd
Except track two published by Copperpenny Music Publishing/Rondor Music (London)
Ltd
P1995 Sanctury Management Productions Ltd
Under exclusive license from Castle Communications PLC
©1995 Sanctuary Management Productions Ltd
W.A.S.P. is :
Blackie Lawless - Lead & background vocals, lead, rhythm, bass & acoustic
guitars, electric sitar, piano, organ & synthesizers
Frankie Banali - Drums
Bob Kulick - Lead guitar
Stet Howland - Additional percussion (on ³Scared to death²)
Mark Josephson - Electric violin
Tracey Whitney & K.C. Calloway - Background vocals
Engineered & mixed by Mikey Davies
Production manager : Russel ³The punch monster² Wallace
Assistant Engineers : Chris Hashem & Mark Humphries
Mastered by Andy Van Dette at Master Disk
Album Design by Kosh
Layout by Hugh Gilmour @ Castle Communications PLC
Managed by Merck Mercuriadis, Rod Smallwood & Andy Taylor
Typin' job done by Pierre-Jean Fontaine. September 10 1995.
I haven¹t an Internet address, but you can write to me at :
Pierre-Jean Fontaine
Avenue Bel Horizon 48
B-1341 Ottignies
Belgium
W.A.S.P. fans are unique in the sense that they appear to be, for whatever
reason, willing to allow me to take them on a life long journey. You are interested
in taking a walk through my mind on a regular basis, as I am with you, and
you better believe that I am keenly aware that this very special relationship
exists.
Although I do not consider this a ³conceptual² record, there are some common threads that run throughout the piece. This record picks up where the ³Crimson Idol² left off. I had stated on numerous occasions that the ³Crimson Idol² had taken me on a bizarre journey, one that I wasn¹t sure I wanted to repeat any time soon. But the journey goes on. Not one of a suicidal icon, but of myself, and when I look back on that record I see far more similarities between Jonathan and myself than I would have ever allowed myself to believe at the time I wrote it. Naive as it may sound, it¹s true. I was hiding behind Jonathan, because I didn¹t want to admit it to myself, much less the rest of the world.
When I finished ³Crimson² I was crazy as a ³Shit house rat². I hid it pretty pretty well from everyone, but the experience of making that record all but put me away, indefinitely ! Dealing with the demons of one¹s past is not always a pleasant thing to contend with. It wasn¹t until the tour was over and I could see that night after night, not only at the shows, but ever more so afterwards when I would talk to many of you and you would go into detail how that record not only affected your life but was your life, I realised that I was in the same boat with many of you, and when the tour was over, I came back to L.A. I was standing on the balgony of my hotel room. It was about 3 a.m. and I swear, it was like every face and every conversation I had from that tour where people had poured their hearts out to me came crashing down on me. It was like I was completely surrounded and all the voices crying out at me all at once. I stood there and cried and screamed at the top of my lungs, something I had not done since my mothere died 15 years ago. I felt like an animal in a trap, wailing from his agony (I later realised that¹s exactly what I was) with no way to get out. I don¹t remember much after that.
Born out of that experience was new insight into myself. As the song ³I can¹t² (recorded for these new sessions) states, ³I¹m one bizarre motherfucker². I am truly the strangest person I know. (If you don¹t believe me, just ask anyone who knows me well). On one hand, I have this very gentle nature, which enables me to write songs like ³Breathe², ³Forever free² and things like that, but ... There¹s another side of me. Angry, pissed off, but moreover than that, extremely dark and moody and as black as the ace of spades. I used to tell people when they asked ³How did you get the name Blackie ?². It was because of my hair, but looking back, I think I chose it because it best describes the dominant side of me.
Trying to be inside me (or around me) is sometimes very tough (ask above mentioned people) Œcause I ain¹t no day at the beach !
I am a very ³angry songwriter², which is to say, I write best when I¹m angry about something (or someone : see ³Chainsaw Charlie², ³Ballcrusher², etc.) andout of the aforementioned experience comes ³Still not black enough², etc. The nighmares of a lifetime have surfaces in the last few years and though I don¹t always like what I see, this is how I deal with it.
What the fuck makes me tick ? I don¹t know, I¹m still searching.
B.L.
@SONG: STILL NOT BLACK ENOUGH
Paint a shadow on my heart
In shades of ebony
Paint the sun out of the sky
That rains over me
Black sun rain on me
I need, one, blacksun
Rain on me, rain on me
Tie me to my blackness there
Where I¹m ever free
Taken to the dark edges of
My wicked memories
Pain my soul in indigo, and ebony for me
No colour seen in my eyes, none in my eyes
I¹m naked in my misery
Emotions stripped to bone
I see inside the heart of me
It¹s still not black enough for me
No colours in the heart of me
No colour run in my veins
I hold the black to my breast
It bleeds over me
I can¹t go on, till I get off
For me it¹s still not black enough
With darkness come, my fear is seen
My fear is real, my fear is me.
@SONG: SOMEBODY TO LOVE
When the truth is found to be lies
You know the joy within you dies
Don¹t you want somebody to love ?
Don¹t you want somebody to love ?
Wouldn¹t you love somebody to love ?
You better find someone to love
Find somebody to love
Find somebody to love
Find somebody to love
When the dawn is rose they are dead,
Yes, and you¹re mine, you¹re so full of red
Your eyes, I say your eyes may look like his,
Yeah, but in your head, baby,
I¹m afraid you don¹t know
Where it is.
Tears are running,
Running along down your breast
And your friends, baby,
They treat you lik a guest.
@SONG: BLACK FOREVER
There¹s red in my head
But I don¹t want it
The blues were swarming
There¹s in my soul
Shadows over me and
The only colours I can paint my soul
I want black and don¹t fade away
I want it black forever
Inside of me, all I wanna see¹s
The colours in my head
I¹m in black, the only way
And made it black forever
Go inside and go inside and
Never come back out again
Don¹t colourize me
ŒCause I don¹t want it
The ravens taken over my soul
The only thing I want is
The only way I wanna go
The reds were my head, the blues were my soul
Swirl in my mind, never let go
Blind my eyes, with a cold embrace
I¹ll lay my veil all across my face
Everyone I used to know
Sees me strange, sees me bold
Everything I used to hold
Will fade away my soul
No confessions, and no regrets
I¹ll paint the black all across my chest
Gimme darkness, and gimme rest
Gimme blackness, or gimme death
@SONG: SCARED TO DEATH
Grit your teeth, and listen for the gun
Get in the runners block and kneel
And run the human race
That decadent decathlon and
Let the games begin for real
Stop scaring me - It¹s bedlam in paradise
Stop I can¹t see - Nowhere I can¹t hide
Scared to run, this monstrous
Marathon of fear
I run the races with a dark horse to win
Across a finish line of fear
I swim a sea of skin, afraid to drown in flesh
X-Generations revolutions here
Scared to have sex - I don¹t wanna die
Scared I¹ll be next - I¹m scared for my life
Dying to live, but there ain¹t no way
Outta here alive - All we¹re all scared there¹s
Nowhere to run - I¹m scared to death
Nowhere to hide - Scared I¹ll be next
Oh - Stop, stop, stop, stop
Nowhere to run - I¹m scared to death
Nowhere to hide - Scared i¹ll be next
Oh - Stop, stop, stop, stop
Am I a prisoner of the universe ?
Is destiny fixed among the stars ?
Should I cry or laugh ?
All I know is that
The best time to laugh
Is anytime you can
Life¹s one big party - Thrown here by god
We all get invitations - If we want them or, not
It¹s all truth or dare and nothin gis fair, no, no, no
We¹re all scared there¹s
Oh, it¹s the decade of fear
No way out of here, no, no, no
No, no, no - No, no, no - No, no, no
Oh scream in my ears
Oh stop what I hear, no, no, no
No, no, no - No, no, no - No, no, no
@SONG: GOODBYE AMERICA
I¹m politcally incorrect
And damn proud of it
I love my country,
But I¹m scared to death of it¹s government
Ya believe what you read,
ŒCause it¹s all that we give ya
Coz all of history is written by winners
I¹m engaged in a frenzy
Of mass self-destruction
I feed upon your famine to fuel my corruption
I¹m wholeselling hatred
And international incest
To carnivorous hyenas in a global theft feast
I¹ve mastered the arts of death
And foreign nations genocide
And those who turn on me
Commit national suicide
I¹m the queen of the global dream
And I rule a declining nation
I sit and watch all the violent screams
From the throne of your desperation
I killed them all and I stole their land
Enslaved the blacks and slaughtered the red man
In god we trusted and I gave birth
To would be kings to rule the earth
I have more pigs than I have tits to feed
I embrace the world¹s phoney leaders
And hold the sucklings to my breast
And I¹d fool ya all as I¹d feed ya
I¹ll prop ya up, then strike ya down
And lick your blood up from your ground
Humpty-fuckin¹-dumpty
My empire¹s falling down
Breakdown goodbye America
So long the music¹s died
Freedom last hero¹s wasted
I made you, I¹ll break you
Breakdown goodbye America
It¹s all gone, kiss it goodbye
There on bloody bended knee¹s where
My nation died
@SONG: KEEP HOLDING ON
Your sad eyes, never told me
No paradise, here for the lonely
But I hold on, half a heart here in my hands
Been so long, would you know me
Who¹s holding you, who¹s gonna hold me
If you want me, then I¹ll be your man
And I keep holding on
Holding on till you come back to me
And I keep holding on
Holding on till you run to me
Can you take me to heaven
Show me the way, Œcause I¹m no angel
I am lost and
Can I hold you one more time
I guess me holding you was holding you down
Will I have your memory
Or will your memory have me
I don¹t know, only time
Knows if I¹ll ever know peace of mine
Only time knows if you¹re mine, knows if you¹re
Mine
And I keep holding on
Holding on till you come back to me
And I keep holding on
Holding on till you run to me
All I can hold is a shadow of a heart that¹s gone
And left me shattered
I¹m lost and
Can I hold you one more time
I guess me holding you
Was holding you down
I guess me holding you
Was holding you down
I guess me holding you
Was holding you down
@SONG: ROCK AND ROLL TO DEATH
Thunder pounding my brains in
A six string rock and roll razor
Nobody gonna save me
The whole world drives me crazy
I hate work, I hate school
I got a case of the rock¹s dead blues
Friday night I¹ll be raging
Midnight gonna be wasted
Friday I¹m raising
Hell, i¹m gonna be wasted
Time to party, raise a glass
Tell everybody to kiss my ass
Let me go - Dead or rock, dead or rock
Dead or rock, dead or rock
If rock and roll dies
I¹ll take my last breath
Rock and roll to death
Dead or rock, dead or rock, dead or rock
Pass the bullets pleasure dead or orck
Find me a grave, help me dig it
If rock¹s dead then bury me with it
Dead or rock, dead or rock, dead or rock,
Pass the bullets please dead or rock
To death do us part to my last breath
Give me rock or gimme death
@SONG: BREATHE
You don¹t have to hear my heart beat
All you need is to look into my eyes
All tell me, I¹m the one your heart needs
I¹m the only one you run to in the night
Oh- let me, burn the words forever mine
Across your heart, across your mind
Take your hands and feel my heart beat
Come and let me feel it in your eyes
All you have to do is touch me
Oh - And lay your flame across my fire
Oh - Let me spread your wings and come inside
And take your heart and make you mine
Come and lay down your heart on me
All that I wanna feel is
Breathe in me
Lay down your heart on me
Feel you inside of me
Breathe on me
Come and take me on, take me down
Oh, take me all, all the way
There¹s only one way
Only one thing I need, all I need
Take me way down
Come and lay down on me
@SONG: I CAN¹T
I can¹t laugh
I can¹t cry
I can¹t see inside of me
Don¹t know the reason why
I ain¹t straight
And I ain¹t high
I¹m the ugly in between
Can¹t live and can¹t die
I wanna scream
And I can¹t win
My life¹s a living soundtrack
For a human horror film
I can¹t feel
And I can¹t love
My mama never showed me how
I never was enough
I can¹t laugh
And I can¹t smile
I¹ll sacrifice my aged elders
To show me how to die
I can¹t love
And I can¹t feel
And my mother never loved me
Deep down she hated me
I can¹t fuck
I can¹t feel
I am one bizarre motherfucker
What the fuck¹s inside of me
I¹ll kill the beast
So to free my soul
And smash the mirrors
That won¹t let me go
Oh, if there¹s a smile that y see
It¹s only the clockwork orange that¹s in me
I curse the darkness impassioned plea
And tear the heart out and watch me bleed
I¹ll sacrifice my blood for free
To satisfy the vengeance that¹s in me
And bury the mirror that¹s inside of me
@SONG: NO WAY OUT OF HERE
I went away for whole lot of days
And stripped the soul right outlaw me
Lead away in a crimson haze
The red was rain over me
There ain¹t no way outta here
I try to scream, I can¹t even speak
Why am I the only one
I can¹t get out and I can¹t go on
There ain¹t no way outta here
Forever red and I¹m never free
Climb the walls, I can¹t hold on
I can¹t go back and I can¹t go on
There were faces in the dark and
In me I could not see
The mirror cracked in amillion pieces
And so did I Œcause Johnny¹s me
I¹ll fade forever black away
I¹ll give all my tomorrows for just one good today
I¹m numb to feel, don¹t know what¹s real
The ghosts is killing me