"Noel's Lament" is the fifth song featured in Ride the Cyclone, as Noel's song.
Lyrics[]
Noel [speaking]:
In my life, I was Noel Gruber who worked at Taco Bell in Uranium City, Saskatchewan. But in my dreams, I played a different role. I was Monique Gibeau, in post. . . war. . . France. . .
A hooker with a heart of black charcoal
I write poems to burn by firelight
Drink champagne and guzzle gin
Good girls call me "the town bicycle"
Don't knock it 'til you've tried my life of sin
Oh, Claude, my pimp knows, never mess with me
Last prick who did that faded quick to black
Oh, I have no idea where to find him, officers
But if you do, please mention that I'd like to have returned the pretty knife
That I stuck
Ten
Times
In
His
Back!
For I sing songs until the break of dawn
I embrace a new man every night
My life's one never-ending carnival
Noel/Choir:
A whirl of boozy-floozy flashing light!
Noel:
I want to be
That fucked up girl
[Instrumental]
Noel:
He said, "I think I am in love with you."
I've heard that lie a million times before
Oh, tonight I give in to the fantasy
Take love when you can, when you're a whore
For I sing songs until the break of dawn
I embrace a new man every night
My life's one never-ending carnival
A whirl of boozy-floozy flashing light
I want to be that fucked up girl
So now I sell my love for opium
In some rat-infested Chinese dive
At night I burn myself with cigarettes
Just to somehow prove I'm still alive
Eight months later, I catch typhoid flu
Kicked out, I see the ugly light of day
Dying in an ally, a priest kneels down to me--
Ricky [as a priest, French accent]:
My child, do you have any final words to the Lord you'd like to say?
Noel [as Monique, French accent]:
Oui. Tell Him that, like Him, I choose to burn out, rather than fade away!
Noel:
For I sing songs until the break of dawn
I embrace a new man every night
My life's one never-ending carnival
A whirl of boozy-floozy flashing light
For I sing songs until the break of dawn
I embrace a new man every night
My life's one never-ending carnival
A whirl of boozy-floozy flashing light
I want to be that fucked up girl
I wanna be that fucked up. . .
[Ad-libbing & riffling]
Girl. . .
Ocean/Constance:
Broken heart, a flask of gin
Tattooed with a safety pin
Teeth all stained with nicotine
Running nylons, shattered dreams
Super crusty, holy terror
Wild eyes and black mascara
Broken heart, a flask of gin
Tattooed with a safety pin
Teeth all stained with nicotine
Running nylons, shattered dreams
Super crusty, holy terror
Wild eyes and black mascara
Noel:
If I could have just one dream. . .
Ocean/Constance:
If he could have just one dream. . .
Noel:
I'd be that fucked up girl!
Misha/Ricky:
Hey!
Trivia[]
- This song was originally called "Fucked Up Girl".
- This was one of the very first Ride the Cyclone songs.
- This song had a lyric about Monique having a child and selling her for money but was cut after 2015.
- A clean version of Noel's Lament is on the cast album.
- In 2008-2013 productions, this song went first instead of "Play to Win"/"What The World Needs".
- In 2008 productions, the speed and pacing of the song were different, with people even stating that they had over 5 versions of the song at one point.
- "Noel's Lament" is actually not a lament, but a ballad. Contrary to this, "The Ballad of Jane Doe" is not a ballad, but a lament.
- Noel, as Monique, and Mischa, as one of her many lovers, kiss during this song.
- After the song ends, Constance points out that she liked the part when the two boys, or Monique and her lover, kiss. Mischa say that it is normal for two men to kiss, but according to him, it doesn’t normally happen in heels.