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Cabaret Casino Waterloo

from Shame on the Sun by Pascal Dennis

/

lyrics

Verse (A1): Crazy years, profiteers, New York City 1981
Detectives running heroin, only law the barrel of a gun
Everything was burning, garbage rotting in the heat
Peep shows on the boulevards, children in the street

Verse (A2):
Crazy years, crazy fears, ambulances wailing in the dark
Time Square was a sewer, muggers in the subway and the park
Belleville overflowing, a deadly new disease
Skeletons on gurneys, the Village on its knees
And we had a front row view at the Cabaret Casino Waterloo

B Section (B1): Augustine, Cajun queen, MC in satin leotards
She had a shine and could divine your fortune in the Tarot cards
Her Celtic cross, could reach across boundaries of space & time
Though she rarely crossed that line, she rarely crossed that line.

B Section (B2):
Salome, from San Jose, knew the curse of cocaine
She bore the scar of Escobar, demon king of Medellin
She prayed each day to Santa Fe de San Francisco e los santos
She loved Jesus e los cantos de la libertad,
E de la hamabilidad (kindness)

Verse (A3): Crazy years, racketeers, Diamond Jack was king of cocaine
His palace was the Waterloo where politician’s knelt to kiss his ring
He loved exotic animals, admired the Marquis de Sade
He strode the halls of influence like an Olympian god

Verse (A4): Crazy days, castaways, Diamond Jack was New York’s albatross
Somehow she still protected him. It troubled her and left her at a loss.
Was it love among the ruins, lechery and crime?
Was she trying to turn the chaos and misery into wine?
She often misconstrued her motivations at the Waterloo.

B Section (B3): Wheel of Fate, Judgement Day, the Lovers and the Knight of Wands.
Reaching ‘cross the great beyond, she dealt the final card
The cards foretold what would unfold: a burning shore and overdue rewards
Our sorry checkerboard...Augustine turned up the Queen of Swords.

Verse (A5): Crazy times, pantomimes, a bloody final movement to the dance.
Augustine was singing, Salome stared as in a trance
Diamond Jack lay dying, a bullet in his brain
The fire started in the boiler room, nobody could explain

Verse (A6): Crazy days, castaways, Salome and Augustine alone
They watched the building burning, remembering the scent of Jack’s cologne

Was there life among the ruins and along the river shore?
Tonight was an inferno, tomorrow an open door
At the ringing final chord, burning embers and the Queen of Swords
And the moon came into view above the ashes of the Cabaret Casino Waterloo

credits

from Shame on the Sun, released April 18, 2023
Notes:
Celtic Cross: A Tarot card spread used to gain insight on the near future or on a specific problem or situation
Queen of Swords meaning: quick-witted, intensely perceptive, subtle, one who has savoured great happiness but knows the anxiety of misfortune and reversal; woman of sadness, widow; loneliness, absence, privation, mourning, separation

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Pascal Dennis Toronto, Ontario

Making classic songs with a modern twist.

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