Cattle and the Creeping Things

Biblical references, drug addiction, and mental illness typically don't go hand in hand. But I know some of these people. Maybe you do, too. And even if you don't, isn't it breathtaking that a guy can write brutal rock 'n roll songs like this? Something tells me you won't ever hear this covered on American Idol.

They got to the part with the cattle and the creeping things
They said I'm pretty sure we've heard this one before
Don't it all end up in some revelation
With 4 guys on horses, and violent red visions famine and death and pestilence and war
I'm pretty sure I heard this one before.
You in the corner with a good looking drifter
Two cups of coffee and ten packs of sugar
I heard Gideon saw you in Denver
He said you're contagious
Silly rabbit, tripping is for teenagers
Murder is for murderers
And hard drugs are for bartenders
I think I might have mentioned that before

He's got the pages in his pockets that he ripped out of the Bible from his bedstand in the motel
He likes the part where the traders get chased out from the temple
I guess I heard about original sin
I heard the dude blamed the chick
I heard the chick blamed the snake
I heard they were naked when they got busted
I heard things ain't been the same since
You on the streets with a tendency to preach to the choir
Wired for sound and down with whatever
I heard Gideon did you in Denver

She's got a cross around her neck that she ripped off from a schoolgirl in the subway on a visit to the city
She likes how it looks on her chest with three open buttons
She likes the part where one brother kills the other
She has to wonder if the the world ever will recover
Because Cain and Abel seem to still be causing trouble

She said: I was seeing double for 3 straight days after I got born again
It felt strange but it was nice and peaceful
It really pleased me to be around so many people
Of course half were just visions
But half of them were friends from going through the program with me
Later on we did some sexy things
Took a couple photographs and carved them into wood reliefs
But that's enough about me
Tell me how you got down here into Ybor City
He said: I got through the part about the exodus
Up to then I only knew it was a movement of the people
But if small town cops are like swarms of flies and if blackened foil is like boils and hail
Then I'm pretty sure we've been thru this before
And it seemed like a simple place to score
Then some old lady came to the door and said
McKenzie Phillips doesn't live here anymore
-- The Hold Steady, "Cattle and the Creeping Things"