It’s a Wonderful Life
June 2001
[Apple Music / iTunes]-
I am
The only one
Can ride that horse
Th’ yonder
I’m full of bees
Who died at sea
It’s a wonderful life
It’s a wonderful life
I wore
A rooster’s blood
When it flew
Like doves
I’m a bog
Of poison frogs
It’s a wonderful life
It’s a wonderful life
I’m the dog that ate
Your birthday cake
It’s a wonderful life
It’s a wonderful life
It’s a wonderful life -
Good morning my child
Stay with me a while
You not got any place to be
Won’t you sit a spell with me?
You’ve got diamonds for eyes
It’s time for you to rise
And evaporate in the sun
Sometimes it can weigh a ton
Keep all your crows away
Hold skinny wolves at bay
In silver piles of smiles
May all your days be gold my child
A necklace of leaves
The spirits in their trees
And drown all the clocks ’til there’s none
Little Indian in the sun
Keep all your crows away
Hold skinny wolves at bay
In silver piles of smiles
May all your days be gold my child
Good morning my child
Stay with me a while
And evaporate in the sun
Sometimes it can weigh a ton
Keep all your crows away
Hold skinny wolves at bay
In silver piles of smiles
May all your days be gold my child
May all your days be gold my child
May all your days be gold my child
May all your days be gold my child -
I got sunburn waiting for the jets to land
Circus people with hairy little hands
Can it boys and strike up the army band
I got sunburn waiting for the jets
How do you feel?
How do you feel?
I can’t seem to see through solid marble eyes
Fiery pianos wash up on a foggy coast
Squeaky old organs have given up the ghost
Fire them up and kill the piano birds
There’s creaky old organs burning on the coast
How do you feel?
How do you feel?
I can’t seem to breathe with rusted metal heart
I can’t seem to see through solid marble eyes -
Can you feel the wind
of Venus on your skin?
Can you taste the crush
of a sunset’s dying blush?
Stars will always hang
in summer’s bleeding fangs
Can you feel the rings
of Saturn on your finger?
Can you taste the ghosts
who shed their creaking hosts?
But seas forever boil
Trees will turn to soil
Stars will always hang
In summer’s bleeding fangs
But seas forever boil
Trees will turn to soil -
Of horses wet
With melted ice
They would not heed
My advice
And burdened limbs
Of its weight
To break and rot
A whispered fate
Please
Doctor please
A remedy
In a bloody sea
To breach the hive
And smoke the bees
You can be my friend
You can be my dog
You can be my light
You can be my fog
Please
Doctor please
The witches will return
To their sticky tree knots
I will feel the sun
I will feel the sun
I will feel the sun
Coming down
I wish I had
A horse’s head
A tiger’s heart
An apple bed -
The toothless kiss of skeletons
And summer hail
I’m the king of nails
I drink my liquor from the palm
of a child who spoke in tongues
And smelled like sun
Keep all your leaves
And ghosts in the bees
To sink or to shine
The nails are all mine
And blood was rushing up the stairs
I shut my eyes and killed the cock
When the sun came knocking
Oh to taste the salty oil
Of your chest and on your eyes
When the sting is on the rise
Sleep in the fire
With snakes I have sired
To sink or to shine
The nails are all mine
I drink my liquor from the palm
of a child who smelled like sun
who spoke in tongues
The toothless kiss of skeletons
in summer hail
I’m the king of nails
Keep all your leaves
Ghosts in the bees
To sink or to shine
The nails are all mine
Sleep in the fire
With snakes I have sired
To sink or to shine
The nails are all mine -
I will return here one day
And dig up my boats from the clay
I buried nails and strings and hair
And an old tooth I believe was a bear’s
I held my hand in the fire
It burned me down to the wires
Bloodsuckers hide beneath my bed
In black fumes of sleep so gently bled
I slept with a cat on my breast
Slowing my heart, stealing my breath
At sunrise the monkeys will fly
And leave me with pennies in my eyes
I will return here one day
And dig up my boats from the clay
I buried nails and string and hair
And that old tooth I believe was a bear’s
At sunrise the monkeys will fly
And leave me with pennies in my eyes -
(Lyrics by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan)
Well she’s as mean as a needle
Don’t get too close to the heater
She’s like a mean shop keeper
Who got an extra gun
She about six foot four
And she’s a wrecking ball
Now go ahead and kiss her
She brought the bad weather with her
She got you coming through the dog door
She got you coming through the dog door
Now pigs get fat
Hogs get slaughtered
You ought to walk away
Well you can’t but you ought to
Climb the rickety stairs
She got the long black hair
But don’t sit there
Electricity chair
She got you coming through the dog door
She got you coming through the dog door
Pitchfork
Crowbar
Claw hammer
Hot tar
She’s got ruin in her name
But she can make it rain
She’s a small town jail
And you’re starving in the belly of a whale
She got you coming through the dog door
She got you coming through the dog door
Pitchfork
Crowbar
Claw hammer
Hot tar -
Is your jewelry still lost in the sand?
Out on the coast or rushed into the brine?
You left your rings on the shoreline
So you wouldn’t lose ‘em swimming in the shallows
And plastic shovels of sweaty children far from home
On vacation not unlike your very own
And Captain Howdy lit upon my shoulder
And he left me with sulphur and rooms full of headaches
I fell in with snakes in the poisoned ranks of strangers
Please send me more yellow birds for the dim interior
Will my pony recognize my voice in hell?
Will he still be blind or do they go by smell?
Will you promise me not to rest me out at sea?
But on a fiery riverboat that’s rickety?
I’ll never find my pony along the roiling swells
A muddy river or a lake could do me well
With hints of amber sundowns and muted thunderstorms
And sunken barge’s horns with their cold and rusty bells -
(Lyrics by Mark Linkous and Vic Chesnutt)
Did you save your wisdom teeth?
Did you burn your Christmas tree?
He got dragged by a donkey
Through the dirt and the myrtle
But he was once a little fat baby
Did you lose your fatty in the bath?
Did you make the city slickers laugh?
He got dragged by a donkey
Through the glass and the myrtle
But he was once a little fat baby
Did you burn your wisdom teeth?
Did you save your Christmas tree?
He got dragged by a donkey
Through the switches and the myrtle
But he was once a little fat baby -
I pulled my heart out
On a mountain high
I left it in the sun
But it would not die
Are you devil’s new?
Or are you a spy?
I drag ‘em by a chain
Up to a mountain high -
With rocks in my dress
And smoke in my hair
I walked into a lake
To get some sleep down in there
Won’t you come to comfort me?
Won’t you come to comfort me?
With minnows in my belly
And ink in my veins
The breath robbin’ lightning
Was making diamonds of rain
Won’t you come to comfort me?
Won’t you come to comfort me?
I dreamed I was born on a mountain
On the moon where nothing grows or ever rots
I dreamed that I had me a daughter
Who was magnificent as a horse
Won’t you come to comfort me? -
The sound of your voice
Rose graves of cats
The pounding of your steps
Woke caves of bats
Babies on the sun
Babies on the sun
Your first burning breath
Was a symphony
And a ship full of horses
Was going down at sea
Babies on the sun
Babies on the sun
Babies on the sun
Babies on the sun
On the sun
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