[00:00.2]Beat Hotel - Allan Taylor
[00:22.75]Paris nineteen fifty-six
[00:24.73]Number nine rue Git le Coeur
[00:28.1]Word is out and everybody's beating on the door
[00:32.39]Madame Rachou will let you in
[00:34.77]Just smile and ring the bell
[00:37.59]Welcome to Nirvana at the Beat hotel
[00:47.67]The sweet smell of Pernod
[00:49.79]A Gauloise cigarette
[00:51.95]It's a cosmic congregation but you ain't seen nothing yet
[00:56.99]It's an open invitation
[00:59.06]An existential clientele
[01:01.91]All looking for Nirvana at the Beat hotel
[01:11.87]They looked for it in New York City and San Francisco Bay
[01:16.53]They looked for in bebop jazz and it blew them all away
[01:21.37]They tried out every avenue and then said
[01:24.88]What the hell
[01:26.24]We'll look for it in Paris at the Beat hotel
[01:36.25]Burroughs came up from Tangiers
[01:38.64]Ginsberg from New York
[01:40.880005]Kerouac came up from Italy
[01:43.270004]And slept out in the park
[01:45.84]Gregory Corso came and went
[01:47.69]And where he's at no one can tell
[01:50.119995]He's still looking for Nirvana at the Beat hotel
[02:00.4]Take me to your leader
[02:02.75]Take me to the man
[02:04.75]Someone has got the answer
[02:06.92]Someone's got the perfect plan
[02:09.55]If you're looking in the alleys
[02:11.87]If you're looking in the bars
[02:14.25]You'll find us in the gutter
[02:18.25]Looking at the stars
[02:28.67]This ragged band of poets Christians Buddhists Jews
[02:33.6]A new beat generation searching for the Muse
[02:38.18]Some found it in the arms of a mystic mademoiselle
[02:43.0]Looking for Nirvana at the Beat hotel
[02:52.82]The rooms count up to forty-one
[02:54.88]But you can sleep out in the hall
[02:57.25]For a few centimes you can get
[02:58.98]A drink and write your poems on the wall
[03:01.98]And the marijuana mixes with the Tukish toilet smell
[03:06.95]It's all part of Nirvana at the Beat hotel
[03:16.47]Alex Campbell strums an old guitar someone picked up in Spain
[03:21.18]Ginsberg's howling poetry and Kerouac's drunk again
[03:26.25]The rent is overdue there must be something they can sell
[03:31.02]Maybe they can sell Nirvana at the Beat hotel
[03:40.57]Someone's taking photographs
[03:42.97]Janine takes off her clothes
[03:45.34]Marlene's meditating and concentrating on her toes
[03:50.02]Jasmine hides in room sixteen and curls up in her shell
[03:54.23]She's communing with Nirvana at the Beat hotel
[04:04.25]Take me to your leader
[04:06.57]Take me to the man
[04:08.64]Someone has got the answer someone's got the perfect plan
[04:13.2]If you're looking in the alleys
[04:15.47]If you're looking in the bars
[04:17.89]You'll find us in the gutter
[04:21.81]Looking at the stars
[04:32.14]They did it for the journey and not for getting there
[04:36.69]Fame is in a whisper when you pay the taxi fare
[04:41.47]It's just this side of
[04:42.88]Heaven and a long long way from hell
[04:46.31]It's somewhere in Nirvana at the Beat hotel
[04:55.79]Nothing lasts forever and forever's in a rhyme
[05:00.29]It's a Buddha-like connection
[05:02.2]And everybody has their time
[05:04.78]If you want to drink the
[05:05.96]Water you've got to dig into the well
[05:09.56]Maybe then you'll find Nirvana at the Beat hotel
[05:19.01]It was over by nineteen sixty-three and everyone had gone
[05:23.77]But they'd opened up the road and the revolution was getting won
[05:28.42]When the poems were painted over and they rang the final bell
[05:33.4]It was goodbye to Nirvana at the Beat hotel
[05:43.0]The myth is stronger than the truth
[05:45.01]And truth can sometimes lie
[05:47.28]To see it all for what
[05:48.38]It was you need an uncorrupted eye
[05:52.31]Was the journey worth it
[05:54.74]Only time will tell
[05:56.53]Still looking for Nirvana
[06:00.09]At the Beat hotel
[06:06.27]Take me to your leader
[06:08.52]Take me to the man
[06:10.49]Someone has got the answer
[06:12.64]Someone's got the perfect plan
[06:15.12]If you're looking in the alleys
[06:17.35]If you're looking in the bars
[06:19.74]You'll find us in the gutter
[06:23.65]Looking at the stars
[06:28.37]Looking at the stars
[06:32.9]We're looking at the stars