The Beat Hotel

Paris nineteen fifty-six, number nine rue Git le Coeur
Word is out and everybody's beating on the door
Madame Rachou will let you in, just smile and ring the bell
Welcome to Nirvana at the Beat Hotel

The sweet smell of Pernod, a Gauloise cigarette
It's a cosmic congregation but you ain't seen nothing yet
It's an open invitation, an existential clientele
All looking for Nirvana at the Beat Hotel

They looked for it in New York City and San Francisco Bay
They looked for it in bebop jazz and it blew them all away
They tried out every avenue and then said "What the hell,
We'll look for it in Paris at the Beat Hotel"

Burroughs came up from Tangiers, Ginsberg from New York
Kerouac came up from Italy and slept out in the park
Gregory Corso came and went and where he's at no one can tell
He's still looking for Nirvana at the Beat Hotel

Take me to your leader, take me to the man
Someone has got the answer, someone's got the perfect plan
If you're looking in the alleys, if you're looking in the bars
You'll find us in the gutter, looking at the stars

This ragged band of poets, Christians, Buddhists, Jews
A new Beat generation searching for the Muse
Some found it in the arms of a mystic mademoiselle
Looking for Nirvana at the Beat Hotel

The rooms count up to forty-one, but you can sleep out in the hall
For a few centimes you can get a drink and write your poems on the wall
And the ********* mixes with the Tukish toilet smell
It's all part of Nirvana at the Beat Hotel

Alex Campbell strums an old guitar someone picked up in Spain
Ginsberg's howling poetry and Kerouac's drunk again
The rent is overdue there must be something they can sell
Maybe they can sell Nirvana at the Beat Hotel

Someone's taking photographs, Janine takes off her clothes
Marlene's meditating and concentrating on her toes
Jasmine hides in room sixteen and curls up in her shell
She's communing with Nirvana at the Beat Hotel

Take me to your leader, take me to the man
Someone has got the answer, someone's got the perfect plan
If you're looking in the alleys, if you're looking in the bars
You'll find us in the gutter, looking at the stars

They did it for the journey and not for getting there
Fame is in a whisper when you pay the taxi fare
It's just this side of heaven and a long, long way from hell
It's somewhere in Nirvana at the Beat Hotel

Nothing lasts forever, and forever's in a rhyme
It's a Buddha-like connection and everybody has their time
If you want to drink the water you've got to dig into the well
And maybe then you'll find Nirvana at the Beat Hotel

It was over by nineteen sixty-three and everyone had gone
But they'd opened up the road and the revolution was getting won
And when the poems were painted over and they rang the final bell
It was goodbye to Nirvana at the Beat Hotel

The myth is stronger than the truth, and the truth can sometimes lie
To see it all for what it was you need an uncorrupted eye
Was the journey worth it, only time will tell
Still looking for Nirvana, at the Beat Hotel

Take me to your leader, take me to the man
Someone has got the answer, someone's got the perfect plan
If you're looking in the alleys, if you're looking in the bars
You'll find us in the gutter, looking at the stars

Looking at the stars
We're looking at the stars