Released: June 30, 1992
Songwriter: Kim Thayil Chris Cornell Matt Cameron
Producer: Soundgarden Terry Date
[Verse 1]:
Lying like needles on forest earth
Euphoric rush trees bend to pray for us
I'm sputtering like cold machines
Late for the birth ritual
Ritual, ritual, ritual
[Verse 2]:
You can drive my tail to watch the circus
A birth ritual, a birth of idiots
Now I woke up blessed and good strives for heartache
Marked for the death ritual
Ritual, ritual
[Chorus]:
As you start the song and face this garden
I light a cigarette before the execution
Now you see your crime for every miracle
Add another drug at every birth ritual
[Verse 3]:
I took the drug to make me stay
And now everything dies in shyness
The snake retreats, admits defeat
And waits for the birth ritual
Ritual, ritual
[Chorus]
[Bridge]:
Shining light
Child's highs
Mark his sides
Bright until the newness wears off
[Chorus]
[Outro]
Ritual, ritual, ritual
Lying like needles on forest earth
Euphoric rush trees bend to pray for us
I'm sputtering like cold machines
Late for the birth ritual
Ritual, ritual, ritual
[Verse 2]:
You can drive my tail to watch the circus
A birth ritual, a birth of idiots
Now I woke up blessed and good strives for heartache
Marked for the death ritual
Ritual, ritual
[Chorus]:
As you start the song and face this garden
I light a cigarette before the execution
Now you see your crime for every miracle
Add another drug at every birth ritual
[Verse 3]:
I took the drug to make me stay
And now everything dies in shyness
The snake retreats, admits defeat
And waits for the birth ritual
Ritual, ritual
[Chorus]
[Bridge]:
Shining light
Child's highs
Mark his sides
Bright until the newness wears off
[Chorus]
[Outro]
Ritual, ritual, ritual
Telephantasm
- Black Hole Sun
- Fopp
- Birth Ritual
- The Telephantasm
- Fell on Black Days (Video Version)
- Get on the Snake (Live)
- All Your Lies (’86 Version)
- Flower (BBC Session)
- Room a Thousand Years Wide (Single Version)
- Jesus Christ Pose (Live In Sturgis, South Dakota - 1993)
- Pretty Noose (Live On ’SNL’)
- Hunted Down
- Big Dumb Sex
- Beyond The Wheel
- Rusty Cage
- Black Rain
- Hands All Over
- Outshined
- Slaves & Bulldozers
- My Wave
- Superunknown
- Spoonman
- Dusty
- Burden in My Hand
- Blow Up the Outside World (MTV Live ‘N’ Loud)
- Singles (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1992)
- My Wave (1994)
- Telephantasm (2010)
- Echo of Miles: Originals (2014)
- Black Hole Sun
- Fell on Black Days
- The Day I Tried to Live
- Spoonman
- Outshined
- 4th of July
- Burden in My Hand
- Rusty Cage
- Blow Up the Outside World
- Like Suicide
- Pretty Noose
- Jesus Christ Pose
- Slaves & Bulldozers
- Mailman
- Superunknown
- Let Me Drown
- My Wave
- Head Down
- Limo Wreck
- Searching with My Good Eye Closed
- Hands All Over
- Big Dumb Sex
- Live to Rise
- Room a Thousand Years Wide