The idea of this song is just picturing a scary old church in an old abandoned part of town and what would go on there. Drunks and vagrants and lots of good tom waitsy stuff. I just started with the line "Hail Mary Ooh la la" and this is what came out.
The Gospel Mall
In a babylon alley behind an old bank
On midnight when the titanic sank
Two old drunks set up shop
With a ten dollar loan from a traffic cop
A place where blood is changed to wine
Bottled up and sold for a dime
The temple for tramps to cry and repent
And get baptized for twenty five cents
Hail Mary - Ooh la la
Angel choir sings blah blah blah
Blah to the chief – Peter and Paul
Pray and shop at the gospel mall
Hoo now boy watch that preacher
Reading a psalm through a crackly speaker
Bless the poor and bless the meek
Bless the circus and bless the freak
Pass the dusting offering plate
There's holy water in the sewer grate
And dripping under my Cadillac
Is oil to anoint your broken back
Yes Hail Mary - Ooh la la
Angel choir sings blah blah blah
Blah to the chief – Peter and Paul
Pray and shop at the gospel mall
Tell me son do you wanna get saved?
Get your heavenly application fee waved?
Sign up now for a limited time
Nine easy payments of nine ninety nine
Hail Mary - Ooh la la
Angel choir sings blah blah blah
Blah to the chief – Peter and Paul
Pray and shop at the gospel mall
My suggestion for the first verse:
In an alley of Babylon next to an old bank
On the same night that the Titanic sank
Two old drunks founded a new church
Out of desperation from their own fruitless search
That's my interpretation of the formation of this church from what you said in your explanation of the origin of the song.
It has similarities to the origin of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous with the exception of the blatant cynicism.
(No, I am not a member. :P I don't have a problem drinking. :wink: )
It's the rock that gives the stream its music . . . and the stream that gives the rock its roll.
Thanks for the input Ken. Your version is definitely more specific, but I definitely want to keep the seedier feel. I don't think they started this church out of desperation and they definitely weren't searching for anything other than maybe a couple bucks. The kind of old drunks that would be searching for something are the congregation not the pastors here.
Dave,
I wish I had some suggestion on how to improve on this
but it works just right for me.
What I will say is:
Yeah, Tom Waits. Definitely Tom Waits. Sounds like Tom Waits to me.
Good Job
John
