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 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
　　
　　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 marijuana 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
　　
　　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
　　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
　　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 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
　　
　　Chorus:
　　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