Debora Curry
English Dept - Administrative Assistant
Email: debora.curry@gcccd.edu
Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8am to 10am and 2pm to 4pm - email Debora for link for her Zoom Office hours
WRITING CREDITS:
Lester Bangs and Peter Laughner
[spoken] One-two-three-four. Do a riff, do a riff. Do it.
[sung] Well, baby, come on out for my treats.
Looks like a cocoanut woman[1] with knees [needs?]
shining in the middle of the sky.
All I could say was, "Bye bye."
'Cause I was on my way to the drugstore[2] to feel a little bit of heaven.
Oh, she looks so good.
You know, those kids, they would back in my home.
That's how the flies would spread in my bed.
So, where was I? What was the tragedy that set me on the way
to the drugstore, to feel a little bit of heaven?
Sh*t, why did I want that kind of heaven?
Was on my way to the drugstore
to fill up a little bit of heaven.
I was on my way to the drugstore
to fill up a little bit of heaven.
On my way to the drugstore
to fill up a little bit of heaven.
But I stay out of trouble.
I ain't got no angel, instead
I got a pack of demons.
What a surprise, oh, baby, baby, baby,
on my birthday, ain't no angel eyes
gleaming way back at me, sayin'
"Hon', hon', oh, baby, baby,
now, time to fly."
No, it won't stay the same, ain't
no ways and no wise. Nothin's the same.
And I walk on out. I reject it flat.
I walk straight on, goin' on down
to find my angel eyes.
She don't f*ck or make no disguise.
She's a little bit of heaven.
On my way to the drugstore
to fill up a little bit of heaven.
I was on my way to the drugstore
to fill up a little bit of heaven.
On my way to the drugstore
to fill up a little bit of heaven.
[Babble]
Sometimes when we're lying in bed
to fill up a little bit of heaven.
Sometimes when we're lying in bed
to fill up a little bit of heaven.
Repeat.
Do you feel like a king?
No, I don't feel nothing at all sometimes.
Yeah, me neither.
[Ad libbed; random chatter, more babble]
[spoken] Wait a second. SHUT UP! Wait a second.
[sung] Standing on a corner, I flagged a cab down
I told him, wanted a ride to the other side of town.
He said, "I know. I gotta fill up this paper,"
He said, "I know where you're going
and what you're going there for."
I said, I wanna get this feeling of heaven,
I wanna get this fill of heaven.
I can't, I can't break this veil and get to heaven.
He said, "You can't get across another time.
You've got to break up the veil of heaven.
You've got to pick up the veil of heaven.
You've got to break up that veil of heaven.
Now, I know where you want to be
'cause I wanted to be there since I was so young.
Break up that veil of heaven, got to
break it up, break it up, break it up, break it up.
Stick it, stick it, stick it in the tongue.
Stick it, stick it, stick it in the tongue.
Stick it, stick it. Wanna get out of this
dirt of heaven,
dirt of heaven.
Sure look good . . . .
APPEARS ON
The Creem Office Sessions bootleg cassette, MP3 disc
Track §7
WFMU (1975-1976), New Jersey; MP3 disc (2007)
SOURCES
Transcription by Lester Bangs Archive management, 2013.
ABOUT THE LYRICS:
This improvisational track comes from the Creem Office Sessions with Peter Laughner, recorded circa 1976. As with other tracks in the recording, Bangs is not solely responsible for the invention of the lyrics, and in the second half of the song Peter Laughner takes the wheel. The result—all subliminally ignited by Bangs's mention of angels and demons—is a "taxi to heaven" journey that seems oddly predictive of the end of Alex Cox's 1986 biopic, Syd and Nancy, about the Sex Pistols' frontman. In the closing lines, Laughner meets his Joseph Campbell harbinger archetype who consents to take him across the "veil of heaven" to find his bliss. On June 22, 1977, Peter Laughner died from pancreatitis resulting from prolonged drug and alcohol abuse.
[1] cocoanut woman: a likely reference to "King of Calypso" Harry Belefonte, whose song, "Cocoanut Woman," appeared on the 1957 RCA Victor album, Belafonte Sings of the Caribbean
[2] It's commonly known that Lester had a pet relationship with a cough syrup called Romilar, which evened his temper and mellowed his mood. ‘‘Romilar is the ultimate street drug,’’ he once wrote, "…Because every street has a drugstore on it, and every drugstore has a shelf loaded with [it]." (Source: Let it Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs) It should come as little surprise, then, that drugstores and pharmacies would turn up in his lyrics as dispensaries of relief, in all its varied forms.
Lester Bangs died on April 30, 1982. Many since this day have presumptuously explained Lester's death as a suicide or as a recreational drug overdose. These are fictions. The official report of his autopsy determined Lester's death as an accidental overdose caused by an interaction of Nyquil, Darvon and Valium, which he took to treat the flu. A toxicology report would specifically note that dextromethorphan, the main ingredient of Romilar, was NOT present. (Source: DeRogatis, Jim. "Lester Bangs's Last Interview." Perfect Sound Forever November 1999.)
Debora Curry
English Dept - Administrative Assistant
Email: debora.curry@gcccd.edu
Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8am to 10am and 2pm to 4pm - email Debora for link for her Zoom Office hours
8800 Grossmont College Drive
El Cajon, California 92020
619-644-7000
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