I am tall and I am thin
Of an enviable hight
And I've been known to be quite handsome
In a certain angle and in certain light

Well I entered into O'Malley's
Said, 'O'Malley, I have a thirst'
O'Malley merely smiled at me,
Said, 'You wouldn't be the first'

I knocked on the bar and pointed
To a bottle on the shelf
And as O'Malley poured me out a drink
I sniffed and crossed myself

My hand decided that the time was nigh
And for a moment it slipped from view
And when it returned, it fairly burned
With confidence anew

Well the thunder from my steely fist
Made all the glasses jangle
When I shot him, I was so handsome
It was the light, it was the angle

'Neighbours!' I cried, 'Friends!' I screamed,
I banged my fist upon the bar,
'I bear no [bad word] against you!
And my [bad word] felt long and hard!'

'I am the man for which no God waits
But for which the whole world yearns
I'm marked by darkness and by blood
And one thousand powder-burns'

Well, you know those fish with the swollen lips
That clean the ocean floor
When I looked at poor old O'Malley's wife
That's exactly what I saw

I jammed the barrel under her chin
And her face looked raw and vicious
Her head it landed in the sink
With all the dirty dishes

Her little daughter Siobhan
Pulled beers from dusk till down
And amongst the townfolk she was a bit of a joke
But she pulled the best beer in town

I swooped magnificent upon her
As she sat shivering in her grief
Like the Madonna painted on the church-house wall
In whale's blood and banana leaf

Her throat it [bad word] in my fist
And I spun heroically around
To see Caffrey rising from his seat
I shot that mother [bad word] down

'I have no free will', I sang
As I flew about the murder
Mrs. Richard Holmes, she screamed
You really should have heard her

I sang and I laughed, I howled and I wept
I panted like a pup
I blew a hole in Mrs. Richard Holmes
And her husband stupidly stood up

As he screamed, 'You are an evil man'
And I paused a while to wonder
'If I have no free will then how can I
Be morally culpable, I wonder'

I shot Richard Holmes in the stomach
And gingerly he sat down
And he whispered weirdly, 'No offense'
And then lay upon the ground

'None taken', I replied to him
To which he gave a little cough
With blazing wings I neatly aimed
And blew his [bad word] off

I've lived in this town for thirty years
And to no-one I am a stranger
And I put new bullets in my gun
Chamber upon chamber

And I turned my gun on the bird-like Mr. Brookes
I thought of Saint Francis and his sparrows
And as I shot down the youthful Richardson
It was St. Sebastian I thought of, and his arrows

I said, 'I want to introduce myself
And I am glad that all you came'
And I leapt upon the bar
And shouted out my name

Well Jerry Bellows, he hugged his stool
Closed his eyes and [bad word] and laughed
And with an ashtray as big as a [bad word] really big brick
I split his head in half

His blood spilled across the bar
Like a steaming scarlet brook
And I knelt at it's edge on the counter
Wiped the tears away and looked

Well, the light in there was blinding
Full of God and ghosts of [bad word] I smiled at Henry Davenport
Who made an attempt to move

Well, from the position I was standing
The strangest thing I ever saw
The bullet entered through the top of his chest
And blew his bowels out on the floor

Well I floated down the counter
Showing no remorse
I shot a hole in Kathleen Carpenter
Recently divorced
 [bad word] /www [bad word] ~nick_cave/lyrics/omalleys_bar-36497.htm