babelogue is a spoken piece poetry slam monologue from Patti Smith's EASTER LP. It starts out over crowd noise, but by the end Jimmy Iovine is slowly increasing the mix for the intro into Rock & Roll Nigger. By the time Patti hits the last word in babelogue it's exactly the right time for the first line to Rock & Roll Nigger - a great segue by the producer.

Lyrics are reproduced as I hear them after repeated listenings.

Babelogue

well, I don't fuck much with the past, but I fuck plenty with the future
over the skin of silk are scars from the splinters of stadium walls I've caressed
a stage is like each bolt of white, like a, like the life of Helen, it's my pleasure
I would measure the success of a night by the way, by the way I,
by the amount of piss and seed I could exude all over the columns that nestled the P.A.
some nights I'd surprise everybody by skipping off with a skirt of green net
sewed over with flat metallic circles which dazzled and flashed
the lights were violet and white

I had an ornamental veil, but I couldn't bear to use it.
when my hair was cropped, I craved covering
but now that my hair itself is a veil and the scalp - inside is a scalp of a
crazy
and sleepy
Comanche
lies beneath this netting of skin

I wake up
I am lying peacefully
I am lying peacefully and my knees are open to the sun
I desire him
and he is absolutely ready to seize me

In heart I'm a Moslem; in heart I'm an American
in heart I'm a Moslem, in heart I'm an American artist
and I have no guilt
I seek pleasure
I seek nerves under your skin
The narrow archway, the layers, the scroll of ancient letters
We worship the flaw, the belly, the belly
the mole on the belly of an exquisite whore
who spared the child and spoiled the rod
I have not sold myself to God.

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