1.Quay Cur
I had a locket
A little silver charm
Given to me so to keep me out of harm
Canvasing the quay side trying to earn my keep
A killick tore it off my neck and threw it in the deep
And now I'll never, never, never feel like I am safe again
And now I'll never, never, never feel like I am safe again
And now I'll never, never, never feel like I am safe again
Up to the quarantine, late night aboard
Try to raise our fees but we get what they afford
Busy work below deck according to form
Waiting for the clear to leave but then comes up a storm
We hid beneath the barrels of blubber hoping that the rain had
passed
But when the wind kept up the rats cut down the rigging off the
mast
And then the rust chewed through the anchor chain and out to sea
we're cast
The clouds dried and cracked
It was calm and in fact
The ship had been towed
By sea Dyaks towed
So we're sold Kolaba
And sent, I let out a sob
A cry oh no it's disaster
T-Ranter Bay Madagascar.
Great gulps of Greek fire get us in
Sling sticks at the stockade Fort Dauphin
A guardsman gave a griffin said grease my duke
Down by the chimney and out through the fluke
A looby, a lordant, a lagerhead, lozel
A lungio lathback made me a proposal
Straight sail, top mast, astrolabe prospected
Down in his dry dock erected infected
Mocked up with silk strings and taffeta tricked
With nails out of driftwood already iron sicked
Now spy out the glass at whatever missteps me
Aand the press gang warrant's signed Sir Edward Pepsi
Course it wasn't long till I caught the croup
Dawding on the drizzy deck of my majesty's sloop
If only the helmsman would turn from his whip staff
With my azimuth compass I'd go by the hectograph
Up to the whaling fleet in Gilbert sound
Then back in the hull when we come around
With one hundred seals and two polar bears
Nearly in the harbor without any cares
But then
A looby, a lordant, a lagerhead, lozel
A lungio lathback made me a proposal
Straight sail, top mast, astrolabe prospected
Down in his dry dock erected infected
Mocked up with silk strings and taffeta tricked
With nails out of driftwood already iron sicked
Now spy out the glass at whatever missteps me
And the press gang warrant's signed Sir Edward Pepsi
Half-hour sandglass
Seven saker round shot
Ice for the moonshine
And chichsaneg
Canyglow, canyglow, canyglow don't say nugo
Tie tight my sugnacoon
In comes the tucktodo
Aba in aob aginyoh.
Look awennye
Get out my sawygmeg
Yliaout, yliaout
Weave us on shore
Unuiche quoysah
Maconmeg
And I gave a sasobneg.
Canyglow, canyglow, canyglow don't say nugo
Tie tight my sugnacoon
In comes the tucktodo
Aba in aob aginyoh. Half hour sandglass
Seven saker round shot
Ice for the moonshine
And 'chichsaneg'
Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me, don't say no
Tie tight my coat
In comes the fog
Fallen down in the sea, go fetch
Look yonder
Get out my knife
I mean no harm, I mean no harm
Weave us on shore
Give it, give it to me
Will you have
And I gave a bracelet
Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me, don't say no
Tie tight my coat
In comes the fog
Fallen down in the sea, go fetch
And now we live by muskles, water weeds with small relief in
store
And all the sick men in the Galean were then put upon the shore
And on the twenty second we didn't see our general any more.
Down came our trestle-trees, no pitch tar or nails
Fore shrouds break no rope we trust
Only shift of sails
Drink my Rosa Solis, struck suddenly ahull
Yield ourselves we spoomed, my sinews stiff
My eyes were dull
And as we pass the equinoctial only five of us could stand
And while the capsten without sheets or tacks by all of us was
manned
And on the eleventh day of June ran in at Barehaven to land
And now I'll never, never, never feel like I am safe again
And now I'll never, never, never feel like I am safe again
And now I'll never, never, never feel like I am safe again
2.Straight Street
Tea time at Damascus computer cafe,
I'm looking busy and staring off the other way
Leverkusen, Juventus; Leeds vs. Valencia
I'm over-hearing all their nonsense in extensia
They're talking too tough for me to inspect
So I have a smell who seems the best to connect
I pick my clique and set to go to work
But the only thing they care about is to whom to play the Turk
So I walked up the length
Of the street they call Straight
Cursing myself
'Cause I got there too late
I traded an expired credit card for two cupfulls of water
They had a dirty beany baby so for good luck I bought her
I rented a Hyundai with two flats and no windshield
No speedometer and a handbrake that squealed
When the sun came up I couldn't put down the visor
So I put on my hat and a question to my local advisor
Whose trucks are those that parked up by the town
But he only would mumble with his eyes pointed down
So I walked up the length
Of the street they call Straight
Cursing myself
'Cause I got there too late
My boss the head of sales for Western Asia
Said you'll get fired if your opposite from Nokia plays ya
If he beats you for the battle of hearts and minds
Tells 'em we use pig by-products in our designs
So when I saw my rival's smile didn't get diminished
No one had to tell me I knew that we were Finnished
You boys from Ericsson better get in the back seat
'Cause your phones are getting stoned over on that straight
street
So I walked up the length
Of the street they call Straight
Cursing myself
'Cause I got there too late
So I went to Georgia looking at spas and convents
Tried to make myself the broker for selling off the contents.
At the big change clinic my friends said don't be a cynic
You should work in Baku this is watcha gotta do.
Call a contact in Texas talk to 'em in their Lexus
On their hands-free device and don't be too nice.
But in my teleconference with Houston
They told me I wasn't any use to 'em.
So I walked up the length
Of the street they call Straight
Cursing myself
'Cause I got there too late
Tea time at Damascus computer cafe
I'm looking busy and staring off the other way
Arsenal, Inter; Madrid vs. Valencia
I'm over-hearing all their nonsense in extensia
They're talking too tough for me to inspect
So I have a smell who seems the best to connect
I pick my clique and set to go to work
But the only thing they care about is to whom to play the Turk
So I walked up the length
Of the street they call Straight
Cursing myself
'Cause I got there too late
3.Blueberry Boat
Pontoon put-put with the tape on ten
Dixie cup pink wine in the Labor Day sunshine
I'm sliding the sunfish up through the wakes
Coming up too quick, making mistakes
Quiet climb the chrome ladder in the front
While they're all yawning, under the awning
Astro turf green hot to the touch
Sneak open the cooler, they've got too much
Past Taipei, through the Taiwan straits
We sailed on in, me and my mates
It was my first time running my own ship
But my buddies didn't care they didn't give me no lip
So many times we've been side by side
But I never carried a load with so much pride
You see I'm from Grand Rapids and up my way
We grow the best blueberries in the U.S. of A.
And when we pull into old H.K.
The little markets'll have something special next day
At dawn I had a scotch and made them switch off the porn
'Cause there's nothing that's dirty about the ocean in the morn
The radar said nothing and nothing crossed my mind
When they came starboard side up from behind
Down below deck sip the south island sec
Think when last put in port, I was sorting the sort
And then a girl caught my eye, as she was waving goodbye
Tell me my dear, I said warm and sincere, who do you know on the
ship
And then she curled up her lip
I don't know no one there yet, but just wait, see what you get
Pop the top and drink your drop we'll never go home
Curse and cry and why oh why we'll never go home
We'll never go home
The radar said nothing and nothing crossed my mind
When they came starboard side up from behind
I never saw them coming even though it was light
They beat two of my men simply out of spite
And then they came back to the helm, kicked me over and said
Do what we say or we'll kill you and your men
I looked back at those pirates with their beady little eyes
I gathered my courage and I could see their surprise
When I said, Go ahead you could cut my throat
But you ain't never getting the cargo of my blueberry boat
It's sad and it's cold at the bottom of the sea
But at least I got my blueberries with me
4.Chris Michaels
Later at lunch with the taco lettuce crunch crunch
She sets herself apart the bunch
How bad does she seem
She makes me wanna scream
On the phone with the West Glen Ellen rest home
Talking up a tattle tome
How bad does she seem
She makes me wanna scream
My mom is gonna babysit tonight
Did you hear Melinda got into a fight
You whore you bitch, she said, well then it serves her right
Talking all mad you know she really isn't being sad
Her baby daddy's name is Tad
How bad does she seem
She makes me wanna scream
Well yesterday you know she didn't none of that to say
She queen-bee turned and walked away
How bad does she seem
She makes me wanna scream
Then boyfriend calls her up on the other line
She tells him sweetie sweetie sweetie mine
but he spaces out and thinks to himself all the time
My baby's got a stick stuck out her beak
My baby takes a drink out of the leak
My baby's got a blue-green sweater
And a nest down by the creek
Plume bloom bloom blaby bloom
Cheep cheep beep bee-bee beep
Where did you for lunchtime go
Did Kevin and Jenny show
Do you wanna go out tonight
No
Plume bloom bloom blaby bloom
Cheep cheep beep bee-bee beep
Remember that girl down the end
She was my friend
But just now she's angry came up
And said You're so so stup'
It's all disrup'
You're blah blah, this this ,that so now sh'up
You messed it up.
Remember that girlfriend of Al's
Well we were pals
Today she was angry came up
And said You're so so stup'
It's all disrup'
You're blah blah this this that so now sh'up
You messed me up
Then Tony of the Franklin Park hockey club
Went to Gunzo's and bought a goalie glove.
Jessica was 'posed to meet him back on Mannheim
Kitchen back door by all the grease and grime
Was a little bird at my window
Said that he's been messing round
He's working up the courage so to leave you
He's getting ready to say he doesn't love you
Well Tony took it all in stride
Said don't be silly but wondered who had spied
Jessica was driving down Wolf Road
Roll up the windows, baby, talk in code
I'm the little bird at your back door
Said your true love's let you down
I'm the little bird through your chimney
Said he's been running round
He's working up the courage so to leave you
He's getting ready to say he don't love you
Then she bumped into purses stole a credit card
Writing Chris Michaels, no it wasn't hard
Number five terminal with a yogurt cup
Reading a young miss as she slurps it up
Nasty message when he don't pick up
Layover Aden watch the local news
99 and humid, oh the Red Sea blues
Landing at Delhi take a third class train
Umbrella vendor in the autumn rain
Then the cops come by and ask your name
With his chillum and chillum-chee
The cazee sentences me
So now go where you're supposed to be
And give up your Devi Desi
I's paraded on through the choke
When my leg irons broke
And my bicycle wheel spoke
The Bombay army's no joke
On the top of an Aracan Dam
Started our picnic then Bam
My Devi 'n me had to scram
Quick down to Madras a'lamb
Thought as a tindal that I could blend
As I got to pretend
From laziness, the gang defend
pick up your pick axe and rend
Fasten your seatbelt and take hold of my arm
That's what she said before setting off my alarm
Baby gotta go baby gotta go
I know
She's gonna go
I know
She's gonna go
Down in Columbo girl whatever you want
But the surf and cobras, tigers all taunt
Baby gotta go baby gotta go
I know
She's gonna go
I know
She's gonna go
5.Paw Paw Tree
At last when the choice was neither／nor
Bottom of the bay we're set ashore
Went into town beg what we lack
Two hundred stripes on horseback
Wearing my yellow coat
Rope tied around my throat
Great green wax candle unlit
Silence! And then the sentence spit
I'm sitting up in my paw paw tree
Wait they make mango mush out of me
Pick axe I can't stay
Silver mines all day
Cut down the weedwood
And think that I just could
I'm sitting up in my paw paw tree
Wait they make mango mush out of me
Tied down with brown twine
Up past the tree line
Up by I hope where
The King of Spain don't care
I'm sitting up in my paw paw tree
Wait they make mango mush out of me
6.My Dog Was Lost But Now He's Found
I kicked my dog
I was mean to him before
I guess that's why he walked out my door
I really wish I could see him some more
I looked under the mats and I asked all the cats
I went to the vet have you heard anything yet
My dog was lost but now he's found
My dog was lost but now he's found
I went to the bar and they said not so far
I went to the gym have you taken a walk with him
My dog was lost but now he's found
My dog was lost but now he's found
I went to the run but they were having too much fun
I put up a flyer and gossiped the town cryer
My dog was lost but now he's found
My dog was lost but now he's found
I stood on the corner and called up the coroner
I emailed the station and told 'em my location
My dog was lost but now he's found
My dog was lost but now he's found
I went to the DQ cause I thought I might see you
I went to the Super K have you seen any recent stray
My dog was lost but now he's found
My dog was lost but now he's found
I went down to the market where tied up you used to bark at
Went where you got adopted felt so bad I nearly dropped dead
My dog was lost but now he's found
My dog was lost but now he's found
I put a mortgage on my lease and went to the police
I bribed my way on the system cause I really, really missed him
My dog was lost but now he's found
My dog was lost but now he's found
I finally went to ground gave some pence to the pound
I finally went to ground gave some pence to the pound
My dog was lost but now he's found
My dog was lost but now he's found
I went to the church that Wednesday night
The guest preacher said I bark but I don't bite
I saw my dog, but he'd seen the light
My dog was lost but now he's found
7.Mason City
Came a card marked Mason City
From my forwarder
Shut the door, don't let my dad see
Read aloud, Dear sir
Understanding you account an upright gentlemen
Aetna Life agreed and lent
By the way, my fee is two point six percent
Write again the Riceville widow
S-A-S-E
I would guess they'll be turned out though
I'll still make my plea
If the Dunlay heirs cannot be seen to care
Then the Banker's Trust will surely think it fair
To not give extensions, as they musn't dare
Write Des Moines on several matters
And I near anoint
Ladle thick the pleasant flatters
And then comes the point
Mr. Nelson wouldn't like to hear it said
As he's too proud, so I do it in his stead
He shall need an extension, so it read
Take the Oregon Short Line to Salt Lake
Take the Pere Marquette, take the Michigan Central
To West Madison for Christ's sake
Forgemen, Molders, Blacksmiths, Boilermakers
None on the make
Up for shade on Crumb Hill
Get something to make my hands still
But now, wait
How are you my nabs
Little tender footed crabs
Meet my knuckle duster
You geeched that gazoon's gow
Tried to break into the bow
Go wipe your nose
I'm just hanging out with some noler knockums
Just passing time waiting till my stack comes
Prussian who got jackered
My snapper till your knockered
Get on the snam
The chivman wants your chip
Better dummy up then go dip
You're out of turn
I learned that the lowest form of life is the buffer nabber
Even worse than the dicer stabber
8.Chief Inspector Blancheflower
I wanted to be a typewriter mender when I grew up
But things didn't work out so, sleep
Late in the morning, climb up Mt. Olympia and replace a Return
But I didn't get enough good grades
My uncle Peter had the Parthenon Business Machine Remediation
outfit
And right there, on the shop floor
Hundreds of electric-selectrics, all messed up
But I didn't get enough good grades
I had a dexadrine hyperactivity selective
Attend to relevant
Information tempo taken in told to
Mechanism coping concept
Put my head down crumple my paper
Sent to look at the future-job folder-binders
I got distracted by the graphs
In the resource room Mrs. Petorsky re-enforced me
Raisins from her zip-lock bag
And free time after my target behavior I was positive about
Tickets, tangibles, chips and stars
Now playing I'm In My Own Little House
Tickets, tangibles, chips and stars
I had a dexadrine hyperactivity selective
Attend to relevant
Information tempo taken in told to
Mechanism coping concept
Put my head down crumple my paper
After school I was sitting in the sitting room
Looking out at the pavers in their bright orange vests
Holding up the slow-go diamond plastic piece of wood
And I knew that I'd never be any good
And never wear a hard-hat and do things like that
So I joined the police force
Damp in Dumbarton dip about the fourteen of May
The publican dropped me a line thought there had been foul play
The farmer up the hill came in with his knife
He mumbled something darkly about his young wife
Riding up on the postcoach I thrummed on my notebook
The wind was up, I held on my hat. I do up my coat, look
The farmer stumbled past holding his gun
He mumbled something darkly about his young son
About your wife, sir
What about her
Pray, where is she
Nowhere you'll see
Locked him up in the store room of Mrs. McVeigh's Inn
Take tea up in the manor Sir Robert Grayson
The farmer through the window came in with his sword
He mumbled out of breath, forgive me my Lord
And after that rustic imposition I took a deposition
I shared a Woodpecker cider with a local fratricider
Who told me all this stuff and more
Well I rode up to Springfield on my motorcycle
And I's gonna stay with my younger brother Michael
Mom's oxycontoins and the Amstel Light
But I noticed I was doing most of the talking that night
So I got both remotes and turned off the DVD
And said Michael is there something that you need to say to me
Well I don't know how to tell you
You can tell me anything that you want 'cept I started seeing
Jenny
I started seeing Jenny
My Jenny
And he looked down at the floor
You know damn well she ain't your Jenny no more
And I said, Get her on the phone
Don't you think it's a little late
No, I don't think it's a little late
But I went out the room cause I knew I'd better wait
So I went down to her dad's bakery and she said
I'm gonna go outside take a break smoke a cigarette
I'm still surprised at how mad you get
Well what'd you expect
That you wouldn't try to wreck your little brother's happiness
And I said, Listen to you
I know what you're trying to do
And what whould that be
Mess with Michael's head as some kind of revenge back at me
So I drove up to Springfield in my wife's new car
And went and had a drink at my buddy's old bar
9.Spaniolated
I was eighteen years old, just a research volunteer
I walked home from the TCBY each night with no fear
One particular starry eleven o'clock, I went down by the water
An old man with a burlap bag said, How you doin' my daughter
He put me the hole of his old rusty crawler
And fed me three pills a day to keep me from getting taller
Learned me the rosary and made me pray to Santiago
I wish I wish I was back in Chicago
Up the river to Seville I was rowing and strumming
On my portable guitar my fair lady a humming
The pain, the pain, in Spain falls mainly on me
The pain, the pain, in Spain falls mainly on me
10.1917
Going down Morgan with Janko, Jerko, and Jerry
We downed our Pils, and over at the South Shore, they sipped
their sherry
I opened my Kaiserized speller to learn what they know
Nurse killers, annexers-executioners, waouh!
Hey Slavonians, be ye mindful
That our 'tis tongue dies never
The happy Hun Felsch sure likes his blond beer
And I like his doubles so much I might even cheer
Last year he had enough and got fixed on the cardinal
Who'd pardon all
The riff-raff and all their sinister ways and halfs and he
laughs
Over on fifty-sixth, and he's got the arsenic on his left White
Sock
And he sees the chicken stock in a big black pot
And he pours in the lot, but what ruined or saved the day
Was that the soup then turned gray, and a hundred higher-ups
came
Back safe from the hospital to keep getting wafers from
Mundelein
But now the Gigantics are getting the tar taken out of their
pine
By my hero Red Faber and I'm ready to get rapprochement with my
neighbor
As part of the healthy back and forth
But not if he's from up north.
So I ask Dad, Why can't we ever win, ever win, once
Go ask Dad, why you can't ever win, ever win, once
11.Birdie Brain
I hate the steam train that whistles woozy my bird brain
That sends my spaniel insane
And I'll stop riding sidesaddle if they don't stop the clickity
clattle
I'll jump in the undertow penguin paddle and drown in my wedding
gown
I've been told the Bronx River stream on moonlit nights is meant
To seem like the Rhone in a glacier icy dream but then in a poof
t's sulfur steam
I hate the aeroplane that nearly misses my birdie brain
That terrifies my terrier insane
And I'll stop riding sidesaddle if they don't stop the clickity
clattle
I'll jump in the undertow penguin paddle and drown in my wedding
gown
I was drinking by the Des Plaines River when the naught of night
Served for making me shiver and me the squirrels would hold
hands
And quiver cause that damnable diesel never fails to deliver
I hate the livery cars that have my bird brain seeing stars
That drive my Doberman to drink in bars
And I'll stop riding side saddle if they don't stop the clickity
clattle
I'll jump in the undertow penguin paddle and drown in my wedding
gown
I hate the steam train that whistles woozy my bird brain
That sends my spaniel insane
And I'll stop riding side saddle if they don't stop the clickity
clattle
I'll jump in the undertow penguin paddle and drown in my
dressing gown
12.Turning Round
Catamaran Man
You're my cousin
You're my blood
You're ten feet tall
And tan from the sun
After sailing all day
You sleep in your car
Throw the cushions on the floor
And listen to the sweet sweet dub
Roll a fag just for fun
And dream of the waves
And your sails turning round
13.Wolf Notes
Pick up your trumpet
Your plastic pretend trumpet
Blow me your horn today
Pick up your tambourine
Your Fisher Price my first tambourine
Jingle and jangle today
Plug in your keyboard
Your symphonic sound samba Samsung
Pick out a tune today
Turn off your radio
Shut away your stereo
Put away your disc-man
And play me a tune today
I rub the peg-paste and the chalk in
Scrape and the wolf-notes start to grrr
I did a donkey's back with fixed frog
And I martellato the slur
Through an open wound you watch the guts go
Cut cross the cat line, thick and thin
All overspun and resigned-up a slow stick trills me, trills me
She varnished all around her F-holes
Blue tape take aim, but the arms are too low
Legato look and sawing detache
But you want to bust your bow
Bow down and wipe off, snap the case closed
Madame Professor says 'Well done'
But an electric stroboscopic frequency meter'd say otherwise
I scratch harmonicas in half-position
I pinch my e-string rat-a-tat
I double stop on any open string
Screw my G on up to B-flat
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