From:
Marah : Let's Cut the Crap and Hook up Later on Tonight
I figured the first post ought to clarify/refer to the title of the blog.
So here are the lyrics to one of the 5 greatest songs ever written. This is not hyperbole, nor is it a biased appraisal, influenced by some sort of emotional connection or moment in life. I objectively and dispassionately declare that "Formula, Cola, Dollar Draft" is a triumph of a rock song, a spectacular bittersweet marriage of Dickensian tribulation and folk-punk abandon. No less a musical arbiter than Nick Hornby has said as much, and I wholly agree with that beautiful, bald limey. The song never really even ends, it just ascends up to the aether with all the other Platonic solids. It's every night you've ever walked alone with nothing to protect you but your cigarette. It's the beauty from high school who was never your girlfriend but you saw her each day in the same place at the same time and you were still never prepared for just how gorgeous she was. It's your life, it's his life, it's Shakespeare, it's Dylan, it's Marah.
There was a time when I didn't talk
I'd look away, or I'd shrug it off.
Tune it out or turn it off,
Or say something short and soft.
Out of school I took a J-O-B
Makin' buttons in a factory,
Thinking what does life got in for me?
And I didn't wanna know.
In a city full of double deals,
My boss would yawn and roll back on his heels
Like anyone could cop a feel of lady luck.
I was made with my brother Bill
Drinking Muskie Moons on top of Laurel Hill.
It's funny now I'd cheek a poison pill to sober up.
And no two-bit claim of I'm all right
Is gonna turn around and make it right,
So I'm fishing in my pocket for a light
And I'm standin' on the corner on a Saturday night.
I seen pigeons flap their filthy wings
To a freezing sunset in the west,
Rain shit down from their haunted perch
In the bells above St. Someone's church.
The Sexton drinks and dreams in bed,
One eye in a line of light.
When startled by a ghost he screams
His dead wife's name into the night;
Which echoes down a cobbled hall
Bounces off a gray stone floor
Fired down a line of stairs
Where it's silenced by a door
Beyond which I am leaning, leaning
Watching cars and dreaming
As steam rose 'round my body
Like my soul up to the stars.
I guess the devil's had his way with Townes
Now that Willie is in the ground,
And I guess, I guess the devil made me this
When he gave me no one I can't resist.
I got the bill today
Wrote back I moved away
They called me up to say
They know that I'm still here.
So on the 5th day of the 5th month
At 5 o'clock in the dawn
I rolled myself in a T-O-P
And jumped out on Highway One
With a 400 engine hot as a cremation coffin
And a tailgate bangin' like an airplane wing
I was rollin' on the highway
Doing it my way
Whistling "Someday" and singing this song.....
Go listen to the song. Download it. Buy the album. This ain't no damn ad, don't worry. This is just something that in twenty years you can give to your kid and say, "A few of us knew what good music was, even when nobody else had a clue."
Marah : Let's Cut the Crap and Hook up Later on Tonight
