My Own Version of You

All through the summers, into January

I've been visiting mosques and monasteries

Looking for the necessary body parts

Limbs and livers and brains and hearts

I'll bring someone to life, is what I wanna do

I'm gonna create my own version of you

Well, it must be the winter of my discontent

I wish you'd've taken me with you wherever you went

They talk all night and they talk all day

But not for a minute, do I believe anything they say

I'm gon' bring someone to life, someone I've never seen

You know what I mean, you know exactly what I mean

I'll take the scar-faced Pacino and the Godfather vandal

Mix it up and attack, and get a robot commander

If I do it all right and put the head on straight

I'll be saved by the creature that I create

I'll get blood from a cactus, gunpowder from ice

I don't gamble with cards and I don't shoot no dice

Can you look in my face with your sightless eyes?

Can you cross your heart and hope to die?

I'll bring someone to life, someone for real

Someone who feels the way that I feel

I study Sanskrit and Arabic to improve my mind

I wanna do things for the benefit of all my my kind

I say to the willow tree, "Don't wait for me"

I'm saying the hell with all things that used to be

Well, I'm get into trouble, then I hit the wall

No place to turn, no place at all

I'll pick a number between a-one and two

And I ask myself, "What would Julius Caesar do?"

I'll bring someone to life in more ways than one

Don't matter how long it takes, it'll be done when it's done

I'm gon' make you play the piano like Leon Russell

Like Liberace, like St. John the Apostle

I'll play every number that I can play

I'll see you maybe on Judgment Day

After midnight, if you still wanna meet

I'll be in Black Horse Tavern on Armageddon Street

Two doors down, not that far a walk

I'll hear your footsteps, you won't have to knock

I'll bring someone to life, balance the scales

I'm not gonna get involved in any insignificant details

You can bring it to St. Peter

You can bring it to Jerome

You can bring it all the way over

Bring it all the way home

Bring it to the corner where the children play

You can bring it to me on a silver tray

I'll bring someone to life, spare no expense

Do it with decency and common sense

Can you tell me what it means, to be or not to be?

You won't get away with fooling me

Can you help me walk that good land mile?

Can you give me the blessings of your smile?

I'll bring someone to life, use all of my powers

Do it in the dark in the wee, small hours

I can see the history of the whole human race

It's all right there, it's carved into your face

Should I break it all down? Should I fall on my knees?

Is there light at the end of the tunnel, can you tell me please?

Stand over there by the cypress tree

Where the Trojan women and children were sold into slavery

Long before the first Crusade

Way back before England or America were made

Step right into the burning hell

Where some of the best-known enemies of mankind dwell

Mr. Freud with his dreams, Mr. Marx with his ax

See the raw hide lash rip the skin from their backs

Got the right spirit, you can feel it you can hear it

You've got what they call the immortal spirit

You can feel it all night, you can feel it in the morn

It creeps in your body, the day you were born

One strike of lightning is all that I need

And a blast of electricity that runs at top speed

Shimmy your ribs, I'll stick in the knife

Gonna jump-start my creation to life

I wanna bring someone to life, turn back the years

Do it with laughter and do it with tears