Laurie Anderson - The Soul Is a Bird lyrics

In 1984, as part of the press for
The tour I was doing in Japan
I was asked to go to Bali and speak about
The future with the prince of Ubud now
The idea was that
I would represent the Western world
The prince, the Southern world
And the Japanese press representative
Would represent whatever
Was left the conversations would be published
In a large book scheduled for release
One year after the concert tour

Now, as press, this didn't really seem like
A great way to advertise concerts
But it sounded like fun anyway

And I stayed at the palace in
One of the former king's
Harem houses each of the king's
Wives had had her own
House guarded by a pair of animals
A bear and a fox, for example by the time I
Got there, years later
The menagerie had dwindled a bit: my house
Was guarded by two tropical fish

Bali was extremely hot in the afternoons
And the conversations with the
Prince drifted along
Randomly from topic to topic the prince was
A bon vivant, trained in Paris
And he spoke excellent English and
When he wasn't in
The palace he was out on the bumpy back
Roads racing cars so we talked about cars
A subject i know absolutely nothing about
And I felt that as
Far as representing the Western
World was going
I was failing pretty dismally

Then, on the second night
The prince served an elaborate
Feast of Balinese dishes
At the end of the meal, the
Conversation slowed to a halt
And after a few minutes of silence he asked:
"Would you like to see the
Cremation tapes of my father?"
The tapes were several hours long
And were a record of the elaborate
Three-month ceremony shot by the BBC
When the king died the whole country went to
Work building an enormous funeral
Pyre for him after months of preparation
During which time the corpse
Continues to reside in the living room
They hoisted the body to the top of
This rickety, extremely flammable structure
And lit a match the delicate tower
Crumbled almost immediately
And the king's body fell to
The ground with a sickening thud suddenly
Everyone began to cheer

Later, I learned that the Balinese
Believe that the soul
Is a bird, and that when the body falls
It shakes the bird loose and gives it a
Head start on it's way to heaven