Night Circus is concept album. The story concerns the manipulation of reality and eventual destruction of civilization by supernatural forces. (Not the devil or the antichrist, but angry spirits of murdered and lost souls- victims of genocide, wars, intolerance, apathy.) A young man is chosen to act as a focal point for these forces, and invested by them with enough psychic power to cause chaos, disease, and eventually to manipulate electronic systems from a distance in order to cause a nuclear catastrophe. Civilization is almost completely wiped out. The young man is transformed into a sort of wandering supernatural monitor, and when necessary, an exterminator . He is sent to places where humanity has survived, and if these places are full of violence and chaos, he is ordered to wipe them out. He has become immortal and is doomed to wander and destroy, forever.
Original Cassette cover art
All songs/lyrics c 1980-1985, 1987 by Greg Segal. All rights reserved. Written June 1980- August 1985.
Recorded May 1984- August 1985.
Recording Engineer and producer: Kenny Ryman
Mix engineered and produced by GS, June 1-4, 1987
GS: vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, effects, 4 and 8-string basses, organs (Roland, Hammond and internal), bowed device, drums and percussion.
Kenny Ryman: electric piano, loops, collected sounds, backing vocals (choir), patience.
M. Segal and Marilyn Moon rounded out the choir.
Dedication: To Kenny Ryman, without whom this recording would not have been possible; and to Vincent Crane, who was to the soul of rock music what Poe was to the soul of literature.
They will not be forgotten.
The lyrics and recording information given here may be of particular interest to anyone who managed to tape Night Circus in its entirety off KXLU when it was aired.
Night Circus contains some of my earliest work- including my first poem and second complete song. Subsequently there are things here, especially some of the lyrics, that really reflect the author's age. (These were written primarily between my 16th and 19th years. And before you decide that I couldn't possibly have done good work at that age, check out the art gallery on this site, featuring work done mostly between the ages of 13 and 15.) It is my hope that Night Circus holds up, as a whole, much like some of my favorite low budget horror films might- short on refinement but long on imagination and atmosphere.
illustrations: GS
photos: Marilyn Moon
see more in the NIGHT CIRCUS GALLERY
Droplets of rain on a windshield Shining like diamonds in the artificial light of a street lamp The way the streets look at night only minutes after rain The way the shadows fall during a summer sunset Sunset in an unknown place The twilight of a dream..... G.S., 6/15/76
The ghosts of genocides past
Scream their defiance at the world
that stood and watched
They do not die so easy
The unjustly murdered scream for their revenge
I hear them in my nightmares
I see them in the street at dusk
I feel their cold dead fingers on the back of my neck
When the winter winds blow
I taste their blood in my wine
I smell the stench of their long dead shells
Wafting down the winter wind
And screaming.....
Indians
Christians
Blacks
Armenians
Moslems
Aztecs
Jews
All peoples
Leaves of the same tree
Do not die so easy
And they watch NOW
G.S., '83
Here, in this place,
Dream pasts and realities collide with the grey present
And stare in wonder at the possibility of seismic future.
Walls black with yesterday's visions
Rooms rich with special, personal scents.
Circles forming,
Cycles repeating,
In an endless confusion,
Time through time,
Past through present
To past again.
In one way I have found a center.
In all ways I have found a riddle.
Why I am and what this place is, I don't really know.
And I'm still waiting.
G.S., 6/ /80
The love that's strong in the wake of disaster
Soon fades in the warm light of morning
The beauty disappears and the mind clears
Lines get harsh
And people get ugly once more.
I saw your face before what we thought would be oblivion.
Futuristic, Apocalyptic,
The background holds meaning.
And as we waited for the final flash
Ugly selfishness vanished and we loved each other,
Clung close, waiting for the flash:
But it never came.
We drifted apart
And you grew uglier,
And I decayed from the inside out.
We wandered with each other for a while,
Aimlessly
Roaming the morning city:
grimy
busy
utterly doomed.
Then we saw the doctors,
you wouldn't tell me what was wrong neither would they;
you seemed to hate me Why is my old friend here
why are you foaming at the mouth and convulsing, him too
The doctors glare at me they pull you both
forcefully into
the inner office door
Never to return?
Adrenaline surging I stumble swiftly down the
plush gold carpet staircase thin walls
As I walk along the city street,
Trying to find my way home and thinking I remember it,
I pass an office building another old friend of mine,
A teacher (nice lady, fond memories) is working at.
It seems like another hospital waiting room.
I rest my elbows on the counter.
She's glad to see me,
but sniffling a lot and her eyes water.
She's got some kind of bug that's going around.
Says everyone else does too.
G.S., 6/ /80
He of the sea-rat's beard
Eagle eye and scale claw
Testimony of a farewell to men
Anchors away boy, anchors away.
Dark sea night and brine green tide
Vampire running water's bride
Carnival Ferris wheel lights the way,
Lights the way.
Her white dress wet with sea-tears shines,
Blows pale and cotton in the moonlight;
Running water bars the way,
Shocks and convulses with cascade of change.
Their love on dust of dead time dines,
Grows long in shadows on floors of night.
Fading by the light of day...white lite repulses...
vanish into smoke
And oblivion unknown
Until the night returns
With longing, and tears,
And visions of a loved one,
Far away.
See the water run,
Changing,
Rearranging grains of sand,
Never bringing in the tide.
Her white dress wet with sea-tears shines,
Blows pale and cotton after midnight;
The sea-rat groans and shakes
As cursed warmth flows from his eyes.
The ocean winds blow cold
And ripple time across the moonlit waves;
These lost from times of old
Are only new ones born in modern graves;
A union killed by circumstance,
The sea-rat and the sailor's daughter;
Two vampires trapped on distant shores
Share only tears
And running water.
G.S., '83
In my mind I see
Black sunsets
Falling on the fields
In my mind I see
Eternities
And dream cities of everlasting night.
In my mind I see
Scattered starfire
Blazing distantly in the twilight sky.
In my heart I feel
The loneliness of death
And the nights that lie beyond.
In my mind I see
Bright visions of darkness
That dwells within my very soul
Consuming darkness
Inhabiting my origin,
Devouring me whole.
I feel as if I'm turning into everything I hate.
I will not accept this monstrosity
and take it as my fate.
I'm getting what I always wanted,
But the darkness is undaunted;
I'm so busy fighting to keep my mind in one piece
That what I once sought for comfort
is no longer a release.
I tried to believe I'd been making something
out of nothing,
Creating monsters out of thin air;
But they continue to haunt me
And flaunt me as a symbol of their power:
"Once his own, now he is ours".
Playing games within the context of time,
They continue to program and re-arrange my mind,
Until I've become the horrors I once dreamt of.
They play with my destiny,
Try to re-route the path I've chosen to take in life;
I seek freedom from hatred, competition and strife,
Incredible beauty and sanity and order.
I live insecure, for I live on the border
Between this world and the next
In the land where every nightmare comes true.
Watch well where you wander, for next time
It may be you.
In my mind I see black sunsets
Falling on the fields;
In my mind I see eternities
And dream cities of everlasting night;
In my mind I see scattered starfire
Blazing distantly in the twilight sky;
In my heart I feel the loneliness of death
And the nights that lie beyond.
G.S. 6/3/81
In urban chaos
We hide in the shadows
Wasted lives stretch behind us
We hide in the streets
Traveling sideshow
The black hound watches
From the carnival grounds
As dusk falls
The rabid and the lonely
For what do we thirst
Perhaps for the void
We knew before birth
Beneath the cold sky
No trace of warmth left
Wonder why
Maybe it was never there
Alleys of cold rest
Newspaper bedsheets
The insane and the outcasts
Sleep where they can
Beware of the lone ones
For we are the deadly
Unloved for too long
We wait for our dance
Show us your bad side
We'll show you your graveside
Show us your love
And you might have a chance
But beneath the cold sky
No trace of warmth left
Wonder why
Maybe it was never there
Joined forces and built our power
Almost ten years time ago
Roamed the land to find disciples
Pulled from gutters, broken homes
No one knows just where he came from
Sent to lead this ragged band
The carnival is just a cover
A refuge for the legions of the damned
Churchgoers praying
Fill the indifference
With meaningless insights
Of word and sound
Praying for something
To make life worthwhile
Praying for peace
But no answer comes
Still the world spirals
Continues the pain
Apathy rising
Who cares why
Out in the cold sky
No trace of warmth left
Wonder why
Maybe it was never there
G.S., mid-December, '83
A rolling of tympanies
From out of the darkness
Flashes from the outer realms
Reveal the prince of Erebus
Royalty of the dark
Silent night
Lay claim to the rotting grandeur
Born in the new day of timeless light
Proof of ignorance
Unnatural wastelands, unasked for but paid for
In full, down the line
Don't ask by who, it's been buried
In the dark gray morning
A bell sounds
As the prince of Erebus is revealed
Not as foe but as avenger
A reminder of the days before
A clown in a suit of darkness
The darkness beyond the door
He who has kept the score
And keeps a lone vigil on a silent midnight hill
Waiting.
G.S., '83 I HOLD THE WORLD FOR RANSOM I hold the world for ransom
Within my brain lies great cataclysm
For universes lie hidden in the brain cells
And a single mind could burn this universe out.
I hear your wretched minds screaming non-stop
And if you don't shut up then the bombs will drop
Look me in the eyes
As my mind sets the world on fire
Burning in my heart is an everlasting funeral pyre
Your ignorance and hatred towards me
just feed the flames
You can't hurt me anymore,
not one of you, I know your games
Call me a freak
Call me a liar
And I will laugh when your world is on fire.
I hold the world for ransom- leave me alone or die
I hold the world for ransom- leave me alone I cry
I hold the world for ransom- leave me alone or die
I hold the world for ransom.
G.S., 8/15/81
Flying over twisted concrete
Drifting through the night's blue mist
Standing by the gates of midnight
Rainswept streets that hold death's kiss
Torn from dreams, this barren landscape
Mutant saviors roam the night
Flesh and blood and energy
Plagued with guilt, minds numbed with fright
The Night Circus has come to town
They want your life and soul
The Night Circus, nowhere to hide
They want to devour you whole
Old bad dreams are new bad reality
Old bad dreams are new bad reality
I have wandered here while dreaming
Feeling changed when I awoke
Flaming sunsets, barren midnights
Drifting through the blacklight smoke
Dead nights carry a strange freedom
Awe inspiring, fill the soul
Search the night for Eldorado
Find instead a gaping hole
The Night Circus has come to town
They want your life and soul
The Night Circus, nowhere to hide
They want to devour you whole
They're going to devour you whole
G.S., 8/12/80
Time goes on
Great cities fall
Decay falls over all
The world a shade of gray
The transients now hold sway
"Traveling through dark dimensions
Racing through the timeless night
Slowing down to one world only
City is within my sight....."
Time is gone
Great cities rust
Tall towers thick with dust
The weeds have overgrown
Now anywhere is home
"City is a barren wasteland
Echoing with empty halls
No one waits for my arrival
Nothing seems alive at all....."
The curtain crumbled in her hand as she pulled it aside.
Gray light shot in through the broken panes.
Down at the end of the empty street stood a man in black.
Their eyes met.
She ran.
Through endless corridors of murky gray.....
Sound began to reach her ears.....
She was approaching the center of the tower.
Open doors filled with leering faceless hoards
beckoned her to join the fun.....
The screams got closer.....
The corridor ended, followed by the floor.
She stopped at the edge and looked four floors down
At the swirling mass of filth encrusted humanity
that remained.
They crawled on each other like crabs in a bucket.
But they sought no escape. They liked it here.
She made her way to the remains of the staircase,
Which hung in crooked tatters from the edge of the floor.
In many places, no stairs remained;
In other places, the stairs were blocked off
by walls of garbage,
Packed so tight against the ceiling
that they had to be crawled under.
At last she reached the lobby.
She stepped over two transients
screwing on the floor in front of the staircase
and edged her way around the rest of them.
The screams down here were deafening.
Unable to stand them,
She ran for the lobby doors,
Tripping over a transient
who had been cut to death with a razor.
She stared into his passive, lifeless eyes.
Realizing she was acting foolishly, she got up
And walked safely into the stale night air.
She was safe.
Time is gone
Great cities rust
Tall towers thick with dust
And to this deadly hive
A watcher now arrives
His reasons unknown.
A Watcher. Born alone.
She meets him, they walk together...
She asks him where he came from...
Turns his head and smiles (but briefly)...
Says, "Somewhere out on the dawn".
And they walked far into the night.
She showed him the abandoned theater,
Where once great plays were performed,
And music rang out into the waiting ears of the audience.
They entered.
Garbage and debris filled the stage
Where once watchers spoke to their kind
And all the statements of current condition
And all the truth left in human relations
What emotion was left at the hour of the fall
Lay in the dust of the abandoned hall.
"Ain't it neat?", she asked him.
He held her, and sensing just what it was she liked,
He threw her to the floor.
They made lust on the empty stage
Their cries like the music, so long ago.
"Take me with you", she sighed to him gently.
"Take me somewhere where I can belong.
I don't know what I'm doing here, really.
Somehow even reality's wrong."
He looked down at her and chose to feel something.....
Things inside...dead for thousands of years.
He looked longer and saw she was crying
So he held her head and wiped off her tears.
"You've got to see the place I'm staying in.
If you could see it then you'd know why I cry.
You've got to take me out, get me away!
If I stay there too long, I'm going to die."
And so he told her that he would take her
She wouldn't know that it could never come true
He hadn't let her know just what he was
And he still wasn't sure what he had come there to do.
They slowly walked towards the doors
Which had been broken so long ago
When from somewhere a gang appeared
And blocked the way in grim tableau.
Gang:
"What we got here?"
"Don't know. Looks like fun."
"Hey, what you doin' round here anyway?"
"We're gonna poke out your eyes and skullfuck you, bitch!"
"No, no, man. She gotta see what we do to him first!"
The Watcher spoke.
"Do yourselves a favor. Leave."
The gang laughed and advanced on the couple.
She wanted to run, but he waited, and watched.
Just a few of his thoughts in a few of their minds
And they turned on each other,
killing just their own kind.
Switchblades, hammers and hacksaws
Metal met flesh and bare bone.
He turned from the gore, which was part of his job
So long ago he had learned not to feel.
She fell on the floor and laughed at the mob.
So long ago he'd learned nothing was real.
"What makes you laugh?" he wondered aloud.
She rolled in the blood that flooded the aisle.
"Cocksuckers!" she howled, "It serves them right!"
Her laughter gave way to a jubilant smile.
He saw what she was and couldn't help but feel sorry;
Her lunatic world had left its mark.
Children raised in disease cannot help but be sickly;
Children raised in the night learn to live in the dark.
Suddenly, a voice in his head cried
"THE CITY MUST DIE!"
(His orders, coming through at last.)
A thousand times the voice had screamed
A thousand cities burned to ash.
"LET NOTHING LIVE THAT WALKS ERECT.
RAZE ALL THE TOWERS TO THE GROUND.
BE CAREFUL NOT TO LEAVE A TRACE.
THIS TIME MAKE SURE THAT NOTHING'S FOUND."
"Listen to me", he said to her,
"I've just discovered why I'm here."
She looked up from the brains and blood
and suddenly she tasted fear.
Something about him had changed.
She looked into his eyes and saw
the end of everything she'd ever known.
He turned from her and walked out into the night.
She didn't follow.
She heard explosions, screams,
sounds unlike anything she'd ever heard.
Years without fear caught up to her
and she lived them all in one night.
When the first rays of light
appeared through the broken doors,
She cautiously exited the theater.
Everything was gone.
No buildings.
No people.
Barren ground stretched onward into the horizon.
The Watcher appeared behind her.
"I thought I owed you an explanation", he said.
"I'm a Watcher; I'm part of you.
I'm not different. I'm in everything you do.
Your own people called me.
I'm their death wish personified.
I'm also your fear; and these must be gratified.
I'm the witness to every society's fall;
I must see all the things that revolt and appall.
Doomed to wander, always out on call;
For I inhabit the vision of all.
Nothing hides from me, nothing is safe
Though you have your illusion of privacy.
All wishes are granted by yourselves, not by fate;
You know all there is, but you don't choose to see."
"Elsewhere on this planet are inhabited places.
Walk east until you find a town
Where you can wear some other faces;
It's there that you can settle down.
Your life is forever your decision.
Goodbye."
She reached out to touch him but found the air instead.
She and the theater stood alone.
The Watcher was gone.
And the Watcher still waits
Somewhere out on the dawn
A ubiquitous, timeless, drifting pawn
Still watching those who refuse to see
That their actions reveal their destinies.
To the lone surveyors of distant sights
To the wandering transients, out on the night
To the lost and the fallen
Those deceased and unknown
To those who serve neither the black or white thrones
To the killers repentant, denied of release
To those born out of time
Denied of the feast
The Game will continue
Forever and on
The Watcher still waits
Somewhere out on the dawn.
G.S., '81-'83
As the misty curtains of sleep dissolve
And yield to some autumnal morning,
The dreams that passed before
Will stay with you as a kind of warning.
The remembrance of eternal nights of emptiness
Now haunts your days
The feel of death is in your soul
It cannot leave
It will always stay.
For those who've glimpsed some other world
Through dreams or visions or genocide
There still remains a lifetime's wait
Before the last and final ride.