The Hold Steady - Cattle and the Creeping Things Lyrics

They got to the part with the cattle and the creeping things
Said "I'm pretty sure we've heard this one before"
And don't it all end up in some revelation
With four guys on horses and violent red visions
Famine and death and pestilence and war?
I'm pretty sure I heard this one before

Well, 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 bed stand 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 dudes blamed the chick
I heard the chick blamed the snake
And I heard they were naked when they got busted
And 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 world ever will recover
'Cause Cain and Abel seem to still be causing trouble

She said I was seeing double for three straight days
After I got born again
It felt strange but it was nice and peaceful
And it really pleased me to be around so many people
Of course, half of them were visions
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

Hey, but that's enough about me
Come on, tell me how you got down here into Ybor City

He said I got to the part about the exodus
And up to then I only knew it was a movement of the people
But if small town cops are like swarms of flies
And blackened foil is like boils and hail
I'm pretty sure I've been through this before

It seemed like a simple place to score
And it seemed like a simple place to score
It seemed like a simple place to score
Then some old lady came to the door
Said McKenzie Phillips doesn't live here anymore