This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Sometimes red curtains fall
Before the act has headed for the wings
As on that night disaster crawled out from the stalls...
Suddenly the dark, the thickest Stygian dark
Pressing on all sides with vertigo
Running from the quickest in the sickest abyss
My spirit's lifted by an angel of woe
A dredged up dreadful past
Drags discordant thoughts my way
Unforgiven and driven to despair
I sense the mordant wraith Azazel
Standing there
Now the vision simmers
I spy a distant gleam
Racing ever closer
Through this persistent dream
And by its welcome glimmer
Writhing into sight
The brutish groping nightmares
That hide beside the light
Then a roar
And a voice like a pride of lions
Thunders from the maw
In a blackened mass
The creatures flee
Screaming bloody murder as
A shining gateway opens for me
Death, the great adventure
At the peril of my soul
I welcome death, the great avenger
Spared this awful realm
Where those who stalk the living haunt the murk
Untethered pleasures keep them tied to flawed
Humana
I'm floating upward still, to where the tunnel mouth reveals
Two Manitcores that ward an ebon door
I muster that resolve, as the luminance dissolves
And I am thrust headlong before their venomous jaws
I am in darkness again
But here accursedness is vastly deeper
Unforgiven and given to torment
I am nothing
Grotesque, grotesque, bereft of judgment
This abyss, a voice
Where stripped of all but Self
One must wish to be destroyed
To pass on somewhere else
Beyond this pit of wicked shouts
Madness and fallacies
Aeons I failed to rail my doubts
Before fear left love saving me
Then a roar
And a voice like the clash of Titans
Thunders from the maw
In a seething mass
The horrors flee
Screaming bloody murder as
A shrouded sky opens immensely
Listen!
What Eden shall arise
Abundant from the cliffs that stunt Hell's repundant cries?
A view of breathtaking beauty
Unveils, as the sun disperses
Perversities
Death, the great adventure
For the glory of my soul
I welcome death, the great avenger
The damaged man revies
With dawning truth, this morning suits
The world I left abruptly
In exaltation, I find myself alive
Near-death to steer a life long-led corruptly
The sweet silver chord that keeps me moored
I know that heaven sent her
From the cold to hold her face again
I rose from death, the great adventure
Before the act has headed for the wings
As on that night disaster crawled out from the stalls...
Suddenly the dark, the thickest Stygian dark
Pressing on all sides with vertigo
Running from the quickest in the sickest abyss
My spirit's lifted by an angel of woe
A dredged up dreadful past
Drags discordant thoughts my way
Unforgiven and driven to despair
I sense the mordant wraith Azazel
Standing there
Now the vision simmers
I spy a distant gleam
Racing ever closer
Through this persistent dream
And by its welcome glimmer
Writhing into sight
The brutish groping nightmares
That hide beside the light
Then a roar
And a voice like a pride of lions
Thunders from the maw
In a blackened mass
The creatures flee
Screaming bloody murder as
A shining gateway opens for me
Death, the great adventure
At the peril of my soul
I welcome death, the great avenger
Spared this awful realm
Where those who stalk the living haunt the murk
Untethered pleasures keep them tied to flawed
Humana
I'm floating upward still, to where the tunnel mouth reveals
Two Manitcores that ward an ebon door
I muster that resolve, as the luminance dissolves
And I am thrust headlong before their venomous jaws
I am in darkness again
But here accursedness is vastly deeper
Unforgiven and given to torment
I am nothing
Grotesque, grotesque, bereft of judgment
This abyss, a voice
Where stripped of all but Self
One must wish to be destroyed
To pass on somewhere else
Beyond this pit of wicked shouts
Madness and fallacies
Aeons I failed to rail my doubts
Before fear left love saving me
Then a roar
And a voice like the clash of Titans
Thunders from the maw
In a seething mass
The horrors flee
Screaming bloody murder as
A shrouded sky opens immensely
Listen!
What Eden shall arise
Abundant from the cliffs that stunt Hell's repundant cries?
A view of breathtaking beauty
Unveils, as the sun disperses
Perversities
Death, the great adventure
For the glory of my soul
I welcome death, the great avenger
The damaged man revies
With dawning truth, this morning suits
The world I left abruptly
In exaltation, I find myself alive
Near-death to steer a life long-led corruptly
The sweet silver chord that keeps me moored
I know that heaven sent her
From the cold to hold her face again
I rose from death, the great adventure
Lyrics submitted by 1023394
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