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Unreleased songs: # – F

Lyrics only — sorry!

Apologies, but I haven't had the chance to annotate all of these song yet — if you'd like to help, please email me! This page is just a placeholder so that you can read the lyrics. Full annotations and the rest will come when the page is fully annotated.

not yet annotated

Table of contents

02-75

I got your letter
And I read what it said
And I blushed with recognition
At every word you said

And you are my best friend
And I have always known you

I dreamed of your house
And I looked around
And I felt the real rain
Rolling down

And you are my best friend
And I have always known you

15–2

Those may be the most beautiful shades of red I've ever seen
Those may be the most beautiful shades of red I've ever seen
But don't be fooled
If the sun goes down on us here tonight
It's not gonna be all right anymore

None of this has anything really to do with us, that's my belief
As the desert sky throws the glowing neon into bold relief
Your mouth is open and your eyes are wide
Hold on, because it's dark outside now

The smell of roses comes thickly through the open window now
The smell of roses comes thickly through the open window now
As the darkness closes in, our bodies draw the roses in
And those may be the most beautiful shades of red I've ever seen

25

In the front seat at about four in the morning
Something came down without much warning
It was bright and shiny and real nice
And it prepared us both for the sacrifice
I know what it is, and I know what it means
But it's got wings
I know what it is, and I know what it means
But it's got wings

In the front seat, you know what I mean
That thing came down on us bright and hot and pure and clean and ready
Ready for the kill, and I'll get ready
But hold my hand, would you please hold me steady
I know what it is, and I know what it means
But it's got wings
I know what it is, and I know what it means
But it's got wings

Abandoning My Father Talking Blues

It was 9 AM when the U-Haul came
And I heard my momma call my name
My dad taught English at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
He was at work that day
It was time to go
We were moving

I was 5 years old and my sister was 3
I was wondering what'd likely become of me
My sister looked sad and I tried to be strong
It was hard just to get up and move along
We were moving

But by 5 in the afternoon we were gone
And my stepfather welcomed me with open arms
We walked right through that apartment door
I had never lived in an apartment before
It was weird

I'll probably never know what it was like that night
For my dad, but I'd wager it was pretty bad
My sister and me, we stayed up late
Talking in the dark, not feeling so great
We were moving

Out of our house
Into a two-story apartment building across town
With a swingset in a sandbox in the middle of a parking lot
And a laundry room with four glistening washing machines
And two dryers

Keep the home fires
Burning
Keep the home fires
Burning
Keep the home, home fires

Agemo's Hoops

You were breathing against my throat
Covering your laugh up with your long black overcoat
All circuits warming up

And you told me what you were going to do
And I promised to do the same thing too
And the air
The air in New England
Was pure
Poison

The car was parked out back among the trees
Your voice was getting higher by slow degrees
You were giving me directions

And you told me where I came from
Well, God bless us, every one
And the air
The air in New England
Was pure
Poison, poison, poison, poison

Alpha Chum Gatherer

Rise up real early shaking
Try to steady my hand
Make my way down to the water
Sail a half a mile from land

See where the sharks have been breeding
Out on the ocean alone
And I scrutinize the carnage
Like it was the goddamn Rosetta Stone

When I crack
That secret code
It's sure to lighten my load
Won't you come out sailing with me
Into the warmth of the afternoon

Scoop up the guts and brains
Drizzle them into a plastic bag
Watch 'em drop onto the deck
Feel the day drag

And when I get back to the car
It's like a furnace inside
And I head on down the highway
Throttle open wide

Back home in the high heat
I spill out all my presents for you
There's blood all over the floor now
What are we going to do

Won't you come out sailing with me
Into the warmth of the afternoon

Any Available Surface

I waved at you when you hit the disappearing point
Turned in for the night the next day around ten
I caught the sweet scent of your hair on my pillowcase
Felt so much in love, I felt like myself again

Someday the only thing I want to rely upon
Is any available surface that you've rested your head on

Back in the cave I traced the arc of our awakening
Shimmering down in the darkness like hidden gold
And I said my secret to myself out loud again
We may live to see miracles, if our faith can hold

Someday the only thing I want to rely upon
Is any available surface that you've rested your head on

Birthday Song: This Time Has Gone

When the sun came out this morning, I was wide awake
I stumbled on down to the kitchen and I cut myself a piece of my birthday cake
With raspberry filling in the middle
And I thought about you a little
And there was a time when you wanted me so bad
It was eating you up inside
But this time has gone away

I poured myself a tall glass of milk, it was deep and cold
And I checked my driver's license, I was 28 years old
And there was a time when you wanted me so bad
It was eating you up inside
But this time has gone away

Calcutta

Wild donkeys kicking, braying in the meadow
Made you wanna kick and bray yourself, at least you said so
And you were wild eyed, your lips were flecked with foam
'Til warm Calcutta called you home

Twin rivers flowing brought a flush into your cheek
At the spot where the trickling streams and rivers meet
The wind from off the snowcapped mountain cooled you down
'Til warm Calcutta brought you back around

I could hear the prophets yelling in the street
How your eyes were pure poison, but your skin was sweet

The Car Song

The highway's open and the sun is full
And the vinyl upholstery heats up like worsted wool
The hills roll past us, then they rear up again
Take a deep breath now and count to ten
I reach across the stick shift and I pull you near
The highway's open and it's hot in here
It's hot in here

Your skin sends all the sunlight back to hell
And you shine in the coming darkness and I guess it's just as well
That there's no one left, there's no one left at all
And then the hills behind your eyes start burning like a solid ball of licking flames
They burn red and clear
The highway's open and it's hot in here
It's hot in here

Carmen Cicero

There's power in the name
But the name's been lost for centuries
There's poison in the water
But the water tastes like honey
And we're so thirsty we don't care
Where we wake up tomorrow
We don't care
The question can hardly hold our attention

And this is a song for your young men to sing
When they run out of options
Yeah when they run out of options

There's the faith you can give or withhold
And then there's the one true faith
There's the revolution you came for
And the one you're eventually going to get
And there's a road that starts right here
And leads clear up to Saskatchewan
And I brought a full tank and a '67 Mustang

And this is a song for your young women to whistle while they're driving
At high speeds down the highway

There's wind up in the trees
There's a song on the wind
There's a message in the song
But the message is hopelessly complicated
And the words are written on water
And they disappear before you can write them down
But I, I brought the Polaroid

And this is the song
And everybody's gotta sing along
But it hasn't got a chorus
Goddamn it all

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Hey hey, la la la la

Casetino's Nursery

The mailman brought the mail by
But the devil sent the rain
The mailman brought the mail by
But the devil sent the rain
The rain tore through the streets
Tore down Los Flores Canyon again

If the leak was in the attic
Then we'd all be doomed for sure
If a leak was in the attic
Then we'd all be doomed for sure
There's a leak up in the attic
Honey, let's get out of here

Gotta keep moving, gotta keep me moving
Blues falling down like hail
Gotta keep me moving
Blues falling down like hail
The sunlight keeps to worrying me
There's a hellhound on my trail

Chilean Fire Barrel

Smell of sulfur, cloven hoof
Birds were gathering on the roof
Faint voices, scratching sounds
If this keeps up, I may never come down

By the time I snapped out of it, there was nothing left
By the time I snapped out of it, there was nothing left
By the time I snapped out of it, you were long gone
By the time I snapped out of it, you were long gone

Spinning numbers, shepherd songs
Birds singing all the time, all wrong
Aunt Margaret, cotton-eyed Joe
They swear they're my friends, but I don't think so

By the time I snapped out of it, there was nothing left
By the time I snapped out of it, there was nothing left
By the time I snapped out of it, you were long gone
By the time I snapped out of it, you were long gone

Cutter 1

I'd been living hand to mouth for a year or better
When the mailman comes and brings me your letter
And I recognize the handwriting even now
But I go ahead and open it anyhow
Yeah, and no one's been buying from my roadside stand
And I hold your letter like a cross in my hand
I'm gonna wrap up my troubles
I am gonna wrap up my troubles
I am gonna wrap up my troubles
In you

I went out into the kitchen where the light comes through
The 4-paneled window clean and bright
And it's taken me this long to realize
How much I like the way that you dot your Is
I was born in Indiana thirty years ago
I got a mean, cruel hunger down below
And I'm gonna wrap up my troubles
I am gonna wrap up my troubles
I am gonna wrap up all my troubles
In you

The Doll Song

I had seven little dolls
In a bag
And I told them my troubles
And the dolls said, nag, nag, nag, nag
It's all you ever do
Is that all you're capable of
And I said to the little dolls
You have no compassion

Baby, I'm talking to inanimate objects over you
I'm talking to inanimate objects over you

I was reading the Bible
1 Corinthians 13
Where Paul talks all about love
But I don't know what he means
Because he says that love is kind
That has not been my experience
So I set the Bible down on the kitchen table
And yelled at the Bible 'til I was no longer able

Baby, I'm talking to inanimate objects over you
I'm talking to inanimate objects over you
Yeah, I'm talking to inanimate objects over you
Yeah, I'm talking to inanimate objects over you

Down to the Ark 2 3 4

"Right. Down to the Ark."

The candidates met up in North Dakota 5
And they donned their black robes there in the chapel hall
They said a brief invocation to their cloven-hoofed prince 6
And they signed their names in blood on the vestry wall

In Christ, you know there's neither high nor low 7
And the void will claim all creatures small or bright 8
Seal up the borders or let everybody in
In the order of the serpent, 9 there'll be neither left nor right 10

And we pull down our blindfolds
Reach out for the lever in the dark
Get a sticker for our shirts as we head into the sun 11
Proudly bearing the mark 12
Headed down to the ark

The applicants went down to Oklahoma 5
And they hired an accent coach to teach them the western twang
And several post-born babies 13 learned the hard way
Vampires only kiss you when they've sharpened up their fangs
Yeah

And as Minnesota fell, so went Missouri 5
We were meeting at VFWs 14 in the snow
And we voted down the tax codes, and we voted down the war 15
So many names to choose from, just one way to go

And we pull down our blindfolds
Reach out for the lever in the dark
Get a sticker for our shirts as we head into the sun
Proudly bearing the mark
Headed down to the ark

Edvard Munch 16

Radical colors on the eastern sky
The blinding symmetry, the little white lie
Your small hand waving in the cold air
The ridges of the mountain frozen on the skyline there

When the sun came out over Norway today
I saw you going away
There was nothing good in your going
There was nothing good in your going

I cut the flowers that grew near the door
And I arranged them in the center of the floor
And the room was so empty
There were pale shadows inside

When the sun came out over Norway today
I saw you going away
There was nothing good in your going
There was nothing good in your going

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I saw the building burning down
I saw the dogs come running in two by two
I saw the feast of Saint Christopher beginning
I drew connecting lines between these things

You say I need to get some sleep
You say I need to take it easy for a while
You say I'll never learn to swim at this rate
But I'm waiting for you downstairs
And the water's rushing in on me

So I guess the wheel's been set in motion
I guess the ship, it's gone and left it's little harbor
I guess we'll wait and see what happens to us next
And I can't wait because there's rats in the walls
There are rats in the walls
There are rats in the walls
There are rats in the walls
There are rats in the walls
There are rats beneath the floorboards
Rats up in the ceiling
Rats in the walls
There are rats in the walls

Ethiopians

Window-mounted air conditioning unit
Humming like a hive
We want to send postcards to the friends we used to have
Rub their noses in the ugly fact
That we are still alive

And we play
Lover's reggae
On accordion and banjo
When the moon is high

And we lie
On the floor
Get suspicious of the people
Who've just moved in next door

The bad taste in our mouths
The twinkle in your eye
Good things never last
Bad things never die

Wind chime from Tahiti that we found down at the auction
Tolls its minor chord
And I can't think of one thing in this whole wide blessed world
That's more dangerous and frightening
Than you when you get bored

We go through
Scads of money
Don't know where it comes from
Don't know where it goes

And we stare
Out the window
See the poison flowers the neighbors grow
Sprouting up in nice neat rows

The swelling in our limbs
The twinkle in your eye
Good things never last
Bad things never die

Etiquette Song

Rain washing your memory away
Fires burning somewhere around here
Clouds forming, clouds gathering
One minute in a long, long year

You got one good reason
For doing what you're going to do
I got one thing holding me back
From doing the same thing to you

In the San Gabriels the fire ate away
Rabbitbrush and the Jimson weed
When the rain came it was like an old friend
When you came by you had just what I needed

You've got one hour left
Before something happens all right
And then rain will come down tonight

Eugene Sue

"Oh yes, you bobble <unintelligible> the top of the thirteenth. It looks like Joe Girardi."

When the sky opens wide
And the late winter rain goes wild
I don't like it
And I curse God to His face

And I say to myself
And to anyone else who will listen
Save yourselves, or hang yourselves
But I am leaving this wretched place

But when you call down curses
On the God that made you
You play hide and seek with trouble
Trouble's gonna find you too

When the ship finds land
And they throw me onto the sand
There's a guy with a rifle
Waiting there

And I say
To nobody listening, this is fine by me
And ideas fly through my mind
The sweat cakes my hair

Yeah, when you call down curses
On the God that made you
You play hide and seek with trouble
Yes, the trouble's gonna find you too

Flower Song

"Pues no hay nada más profundo
Ni más grande en este mundo
Que el cariño que te di..."

Selling new flowers
Outrageously cheap
Freshly cut daisies
Twenty five cents each
You loved me when you could keep your losses down
But winter's coming around
Now, now, now, now

The girl at the flower shop
Is kind and young
She made accurate change for me
I let the change come
You loved me when it was cheap to do so
Can you feel the cold wind blow
Now, now, now, now

Credits

Thanks very much to Riley Routh for helping out with transcribing these lyrics. And of course, thanks as always to the superlative Caliclimber, whose Flickr pages provided essential information and release details. Thanks also to Steve Brinson, who transcribed Down to the Ark and started the annotations.

Footnotes

  1. "This is a song that has two truths in it, which is up to you to ferret out... The title of this song is a term of abuse for a person from where I'm from. You may remember it from the movie Breaking Away." — University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, June 12, 1997. ↩

  2. Posting the song, John explained:

    Weekend America asked me to write a song for Super Tuesday. Who do you think about when you think about politicians? Right, me too. So I wrote this, and recorded it here, and I hope you enjoy it!

    The link in "me too" is to an image of the word "satan" stylized to look like a horned animal. Weekend America was a news and culture radio program syndicated by American Public Media, often distributed via NPR, the major public radio organization in the United States.

    Speaking more about the song in the recording available on the National Public Radio website, John states:

    My songs have never been me expressing my feelings, or very rarely; they're just, they're formal exercises, you know, and I thought that was an interesting way of putting it. Things tend to be more interesting if you take them to the extremes, I think.

    Either you're a really good political satirist and you can do something that is poking fun but at the same time not being partisan, you know, or you can't, and I wouldn't — that's just not sort of what I do. I write little emotional psychodramas. So, you know, then, once I got my hook, that I was gonna portray all the candidates as, you know, people who drink the blood of infants, that was exciting to me. Because that's sort of my political position. I mean, I will vote for the person who comes closest to what I think is right, but I don't trust, you know, or like any of them.

    ... I was trying not to say that we shouldn't bother voting. I mean, I felt that way for a long time, you know. I believe in voting for the person who's going to do the least harm, almost all of the time, you know. But I remain deeply suspicious of anybody who would seek public office.

    Mountain Goats news. Political Song for Alastair Crowley to Sing. February 3, 2008, retrieved August 1, 2016.

    Weekend America session, February 2, 2008. ↩

  3. Down to the Ark is part of the informal series of Biblical references. ↩

  4. Given that John was considering Revelation in writing the song (see below), this more likely refers to the Ark of the Covenant than Noah's Ark. The Ark of the Covenant is a chest believed to contain the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, brought down by Moses from Mount Sinai. The location and definitive existence of the Ark is unknown.

    Revelation, the final book of the Bible, is the source of much Christian eschatology. It contains an intense, surreal, violent prophecy of the apocalypse. In the book, Jesus gives the narrator a vision of cosmic war between good and evil, and describes the coming of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalpyse, followed by mass slaughter, death, and suffering. Ultimately, Jesus promises to return with an army of angels and create a new world, known as the Second Coming.

    As Revelation progresses, the Throne of God appears with a scroll covered with seven seals. The opening of the seals release the Horsemen and other forces of catastrophic destruction. Following this, seven trumpets are sounded, generating further calamities. After the seventh trumpet is sounded, the Kingdom of God is declared and the Ark of the Covenant appears:

    God's sanctuary in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His sanctuary. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings of thunder, an earthquake, and severe hail.

    Revelation 11:19, Holman Christian Standard Bible, retrieved February 24, 2022. ↩

  5. Super Tuesday is the colloquial term for the day in the United States presidential primary election process when the largest number of states vote, which normally has a dramatic effect on which candidates are able to continue running their campaigns and ultimately win their parties' nominations. In 2008, Super Tuesday, held on February 5, 2008, was larger than ever before, as 24 states held their primaries on that day. These states included North Dakota, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and Missouri, the states mentioned in this song.

    The Democratic primary was inconclusive between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, while the Republican primary helped bring former Governor Mitt Romney's campaign to an end, but allowed former Governor Mike Huckabee's campaign to continue until March, when he conceded the nomination to Senator John McCain. Ultimately, the election was won by Barack Obama. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. A cloven hoof is a hoof with two toes, as with cattle, deer, pigs, antelopes, gazelles, goats, mountain goats, and sheep. In Judaism, animals that both chew their cud and have cloven hooves are considered kosher, while others are considered unclean, or treif. Cloven hooves are often associated with Satan, due to Satan often having the body or limbs of a goat. ↩

  7. A reference to Romans 8:39:

    For I am persuaded that not even death or life,
    angels or rulers,
    things present or things to come, hostile powers,

    height or depth, or any other created thing
    will have the power to separate us
    from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

    Romans 8:38–39, Holman Christian Standard Bible, retrieved February 24, 2022. ↩

  8. Likely an allusion to All Things Bright and Beautiful, a famous hymn by Cecil Alexander, first published in 1848. The hymn opens with the lines:

    All things bright and beautiful,
    All creatures great and small,
    All things wise and wonderful,
    The Lord God made them all.

    This stanza repeats as the chorus. ↩

  9. Throughout the Bible, beginning in Genesis with Adam, Eve, the snake, and the apple, serpents are associated with Satan. In Revelation specifically, a dragon — equivalently called the ancient serpent — arises, identified with Satan, and wages war against Heaven. Michael, chief among the archangels, fights the dragon and defeats it.

    Revelation 12, Holman Christian Standard Bible, retrieved February 27, 2022. ↩

  10. In the United States, presidential elections follow a first-past-the-post voting system, meaning that the candidate with the most votes wins, even if this is a minority of the electorate, or even the voters. This has led to a two-party system, where it is nearly impossible for another party to gain political prominence. The Republican Party occupies the more right-wing and the Democratic Party occupies the more left-wing position, although true left-wing positions are essentially unrepresented.

    The left-right dichotomy dates from the French Revolution of 1789. In the National Assembly, supporters of the King sat on the right, and supporters of the Revolution sat on the left. ↩

  11. "The conceit of the chorus is going into the voting booth, and as you leave the voting place, they give you a little sticker that says, 'I voted', right. The booth is kind of dark, and you go out into the light, and I sort of liked that, sort of image from Revelations of people walking around with something on their foreheads, you know, that declares that they've declared allegiance to the Beast and so forth." — Weekend America session, February 2, 2008 ↩

  12. The infamous Mark of the Beast, a symbol or number associated with Satan. In Revelation, there are two beasts. The first beast rises from the sea, and is given power by the serpent. The second beast is depicted as a false prophet, and places a mark on those that follow it:

    And he [the Beast] requires everyone — small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark: the beast’s name or the number of his name.

    Here is wisdom: The one who has understanding must calculate the number of the beast, because it is the number of a man. His number is 666.

    Revelation 13:16–18, Holman Christian Standard Bible, retrieved February 27, 2022. ↩

  13. Likely contrasting to "unborn babies", a common way for anti-abortionists to describe a fetus. Opposition to abortion is a major mobilizing force among part of the right-wing in the United States. ↩

  14. The Veterans of Foreign Wars is an 1899 American organization formed of, as the title suggests, American military veterans who fought outside the United States. VFW halls are common in towns throughout the United States and are common sites for a variety of public events, including hosting polling stations. ↩

  15. I'm not aware of these referring to specific ballot items on Super Tuesday — if you are, please let me know, as usual! Likely these refer to opposing the Bush tax cuts, which benefited the wealthiest people in the United States, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both illegal and criminal wars by the Bush administration and continued by the Obama administration. The United States military was heavily engaged in other wars, including in Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, and elsewhere, at the time of the election in 2008. ↩

  16. Sometimes called Oslo 1888, although this is its own song. See Slattery's, Dublin, November 22, 1996. ↩