[Intro – wind, a distant church bell tolls twelve strokes, then an impossible thirteenth, the surf guitar hook riff kicks in with the full groove] [Verse 1 – funky bass and syncopated drums, voice cool, sly and expressive, dead serious] I walk the wall behind the church as black as a well at night The baker's wife spits twice The preacher holds his Bible tight The children throw their chestnuts The old men curse my name And every mother tells her child "Black cat? Turn back the way you came" [Pre-Chorus – stop-time, band hits on every line] Twelve is for the living Twelve is nice and round But when the clock strikes thirteen You'd better not be found [Chorus – full blast, handclaps, baritone sax honks, gang vocals shout "Bad luck!"] Call me bad luck (Bad luck!) Throw your salt and run I cross your path, you turn around Before the bell is done Call me bad luck (Bad luck!) Say it to my face You'll never know what waited Just beyond the gate [Verse 2 – groove drops to bass, drums and vibraphone, tension building] Tonight the bell forgot to stop And fog rolled down the lane A little witch in a paper hat Kept walking all the same Something in the fog said "Come" In her own mother's voice So I tore across her path And I didn't give her a choice [Pre-Chorus 2 – stop-time, band hits on every line] She screamed and ran for home Her mother slammed the door And now she tells the whole school What black cats are for [Chorus – full blast, handclaps, gang vocals] Call me bad luck (Bad luck!) Throw your salt and run I cross your path, you turn around Before the bell is done Call me bad luck (Bad luck!) Say it to my face You'll never know what waited Just beyond the gate [Guitar Solo – 8 bars, surf guitar solo with fast tremolo picking and seasick whammy dives in cavernous spring reverb, then the krar answers in a short duel, masenqo meows like a black cat, theremin swoops] [Bridge – kebero drums alone, voice low and intimate, wounded pride under the dry wit] Nine lives, they say I gave them away One to the baker's boy who followed a light away One to the man who prays the night his name was called One to a little witch In a paper hat That's eight gone, one to go And not one thank-you for that [Final Chorus – the band slams back in a semitone up, full blast, biggest gang vocals] Call me bad luck (Bad luck!) Throw your salt and run I've got one life left And bell thirteen has rung Call me bad luck (Bad luck!) Say it to my face You'll never know what waited Just beyond the gate [False ending – everything stops, silence, a vibraslap rattles, the groove erupts again] Bad luck! (Bad luck!) Black cat! (Turn back!) Bad luck! (Bad luck!) Black cat! (Turn back!) [End – one faint church bell]
