"Stranger in Paradise" genre: Bluegrass
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	This eerie, country-sounding story of a person's reconciliation to worldly imperfection and compromise pays homage to classics of the genre such as 'Bully of the Town'.
	MP3.com CD: Decalogue - buy it! CD: Decalogue   Label: CD on Demand
	Story Behind the Song This is about where the descent begins. The narrator is perplexed. Something has changed but its hard to tell what. The things that have previously seemed good are tainted; there is a strong need to make sense of it. The first thing in this situation is to define the enemy. Then at least things become clearer. As you close with him you start to get to know him better. His motivation, why is he doing these things? The awful part is when you realise how closely you are mirroring his moves. Which is the chicken and which the egg? Its getting harder to tell. What is the most galling is that the rest of the world seems to enjoy this villain. Your childhood sweetheart, whom you could not but assume would come round eventually starts wearing make-up and staying out late. Is she with this man? She is never at home when you call. And how come hes got so much money? Your friends, who agree about his essential badness behind his back, can be seen shaking his hand and making deals. Hes carving up land, selling it back to those whom he bought it from at a profit. He actively encourages drug-taking, to which you can respond theyll get their come-uppance. But what if they dont? What if theyre having a better time and they live longer? When the narrator comes out of this song he is a changed man, and this not necessarily for the better. Idealism has been replaced by pragmatism, hes doing deals too. Theres no such thing as clean money. But at least he understands himself a little. Lyrics There's a stranger here in paradise, He's got a long and furry tail I saw his cloven hoofprints by the beach Where there's manna bread on sale And now there's rampant competition Where once we had fair play You should have seen the look on Cain's young face When he blew his brother away And I can smell the putrefaction in the orchard Yes I can see the look of fear in old men's eyes And I hear mothers crying to their children Who is this stranger here in Paradise? There's a stranger here in Paradise But he's playing hard to get I've been searching for him far and wide But I've never found him yet Now I see traces of that stranger's spoor As I go from town to town You know I see his trace on every face That greets me with a frown And all the little girls are offering their innocence To this stranger who corrupts them with his lies He works with powder and with paint on their appearance Who is this stranger here in Paradise? There's a stranger here in paradise And walls rise up at his command That he might keep his lowland sheep And his stolen contraband While round him ashes turn to ashes And dust returns to dust You know he builds his world from stainless steel While ours is filled with rust And all his architects and planners are designing What the engineers must build into the price While the likes of you and I are left to wonder Who is this stranger here in paradise? There's a stranger here in paradise He's got a pitbull and a gun And you will never get away from him No matter how you run And all the dwarfs that walk around with him Have got ears as sharp as nails When a girl got caught for whispering They tied her to the rails And at their belt they carry bags of magic powder And if you sniff some it can make you feel so nice It makes you wonder if you have just been dreaming When you heard about that stranger in paradise There was a stranger here in paradise Until I got to know him well And now he's gone and told me everything I must know to live in Hell You'll no more catch me getting wistful Than see me take off to the moon For the days when I saw Eden's shores From my hot air balloon He's reconciling need and greed and man's employment I'm going to help this man to sell what he supplies His only market is yours and mine enjoyment Maybe that's the only stranger here in paradise

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