Hey there now young Wholly, sing along
Quote the scriptures, keep them guessing
Which pit you crawled from.
Just defy it, just deny it, was it fun?
Your time has come-
What have you done? What have you done?
That's when the insults start to sting
You can't remember anything
The chorus chime in, the Greek chorus,
The machine of god singing.
It's the poison that it measures brings illuminating vision
It's the knowing with a wink that we expect in Southern women
It's the wolf that knows which root to dig to save itself
It's the octopus that crawled back to the sea.
That's when the insults start to sting
You can't remember anything
The chorus chime in, the Greek chorus,
The machine of god ring!
Hey.....
Hammered shooting plywood in the backyard
Laughing 'cause the racket makes the blackbirds sing
Write the holy terror, suck the marrow from the bone - singe
Your own wings burning books, you got the chorus and the ring
That's when the insults start to sting
You can't remember anything
The chorus chime in, the Greek chorus
The machine sings.
That's when the insults start to ring
You can't remember anything
The chorus chime in the Greek chorus
The machine sings.
That's when the calibration brittle as a stick gets you the gold ring
And the tar museum Che Guevera wink, gold ring.
Gold ring.
Sing, sing, sing, sing.
(Lyrics are copyright R.E.M. unless otherwise stated as a cover version, in which case copyright is owned by that artist.)
