Smart Flesh

The Low Anthem Smart Flesh Lyrics
1.Ghost Woman Blues

Lyricist:Jocelyn Jager Adams, Benjamin Knox Miller, Jeffrey Carl
Prystowsky

On my way home by that lonesome graveyard
On my way home by that lonesome graveyard
A ghost jumps up and says, 'Come on, be my man'

No ghost at all, someone asking for a ride
No ghost at all, someone asking for a home
She says, 'Come here, boy and take me to your room'

That young ghost woman, she keeps, she keeps me thin
That young ghost woman, she keeps, she keeps me thin
She spends all the money I make on the L and N

I ain't no lamp but my wick is burning low
I ain't no lamp but my wick is burning low
Better light me up another before I go

On my way home by that lonesome graveyard
On my way home by that lonesome graveyard
A ghost jumps up and says, 'Come on, be my man'


2.Apothecary Love

Lyricist:Jocelyn Jager Adams, Benjamin Knox Miller, Jeffrey Carl
Prystowsky

I met her down at the apothecary
Her sad, sad eyes, the burden she carried
Oh darling, try this one if you need a friend
I've got the cure for the shape that you're in

When you met me you were numb from the voice in your head
Conspiracy, delusions that your boyfriend kept fed
But I swear I want nothing, just give me your hand
I've got the cure for the shape that you're in

With her saccharin luster, she's a hard little pill
She eased me, taught my hands to be still
Just once in the morning, evening again
But she had the cure for the shape I was in

Since I met her down at the apothecary
Her sad, sad eyes, the burden she carried
Oh darling, try this one if you need a friend
I've got the cure for the shape that you're in

All delusions of grandeur, they've long left my head
As I wrote off the notion that I'd been well-bred
Firs she shot me with whiskey, then chased me with gin
Swore I was the cure for the shape she was in

Then she left me reeling with that time release feeling
By the long whisper thunder I hung from the ceiling
So if you see me down at the apothecary again
I can't find a cure for the shape that I'm in

Since I met her down at the apothecary
Her sad, sad eyes, the burden she carried
Oh darling, try this one if you need a friend
I've got the cure for the shape that you're in

I've got the cure for the shape that you're in


3.Boeing 737

Lyricist:Jocelyn Jager Adams, Benjamin Knox Miller, Jeffrey Carl
Prystowsky

I was in the air when the towers came down
In a bar on the 84th floor
I bought Philippe Petit a round
And asked what his high wire was for

He said, 'I put one foot on the wire
One foot straight into heaven
As the prophets entered boldly into the bar
On the Boeing 737, Lord, on the Boeing 737'

Hey, little bird, would you be the one
To nest beneath my Gatling gun?
There's nothing left I call my own
Come down and build me a home

I was in a bar when they rigged the towers
Trying to leave all my sins
The barmaid asked my order
And where my mind had been

I tried to recall the high wire
Philippe and his foot there in heaven
As the prophets entered boldly into the bar
On the Boeing 737, Lord, on the Boeing 737

Hey, little bird, would you be the one
To nest beneath my Gatling gun?
There's nothing left I call my own
So come down and build me a home

Hey, little bird, would you be the one
To nest beneath my Gatling gun?
There's nothing left I call my own
Come down and build me a home


4.Love And Altar


5.Matter Of Time

Lyricist:Jocelyn Jager Adams, Benjamin Knox Miller, Jeffrey Carl
Prystowsky

See me laying in the grass
Where my true love's found her past
I don't have to try, it's a matter of time
A matter of time, a matter of time

We will roll beneath the sky
In the clover and dandelion
And I don't have to try, I know she'll be mine
I know she'll be mine, it's a matter of time

See me decorate my nest
See me puffing out my chest
I hate to be so vain, it's just part of the game
Just part of the game, a matter of time

Hear me howling at the moon
In a wake of perfume
I don't have to fear, she'll pull me through the mirror
Pull me through the mirror, in a matter of time

In the grass I lay alone
See the sunset die below
And I don't make a sound, it's always circling 'round
Always circling 'round, it's a matter of time


6.Wire


7.Burn

Lyricist:Jocelyn Jager Adams, Benjamin Knox Miller, Jeffrey Carl
Prystowsky

Did I burn each last bit of myself?
Did I turn my back on the kid in myself?
And tear the oldest root in a charlatan's pursuit
And the world drifting farther away

On the run with nowhere to ride
The black angel still clings by my side
You know he's faster than any man
And the world always drifting farther away

What I told you lover, I guess that I meant
By the time that you read this I will have repented
I know I am a fool for trying to play it cruel
While you played so much kinder than I

Your memory now is the shadow to my shadow
I wind it tight like a player piano
Your skirt above your knees, I watch you press the keys
It calms the smarting flesh of the wound we have undressed

If still there's a song deep in this marrow
Who lets you draw that last shivering arrow?
What kind of smarting loon believes that he can shoot the moon?
Calm these frailing nerves, they ask to be preserved

And I was just ashamed and mute
There fumbling around for my parachute
And gliding through the rain, not a drop could leave its stain
While the world drifting farther away

Drifting farther away
Drifting farther away


8.Hey, All You Hippies!

please don't you rush me
i'm over the moon
I aint yet fit to come down

a rose is a rose
a balloon a balloon
you've got to go right now

go get a job
don't work for your father
he aint no salt of the earth
in your soft little palms
beneath the hollywood palms
you might just do well by some work

hey all you hippies you've got a bad name
ever since you left your guard down

here comes ronald reagan from the hollywood hills
don't look like he's fooling around

now you know how they feel
youre hip to the steel
strutting so bold and lose

you prey to god for luck
but the reconnaisence truck
is watching your every move

you wanted to fish
and to live off the grid
you said life should be easy and free

but just one bad actor
and his benefactors
can bring the old girl to her knees


hey all you hippies you've got a bad name
ever since you left your guard down

here comes ronald reagan from the hollywood hills
don't look like he's fooling around

do these fire work charades
and the low flying planes
stir your patriotic voice to sing

to each flickering flag
on the arlington lawn
for each pawn who has fell for his king


hey all you hippies you've got a bad name
ever since you left your guard down

here comes ronald reagan from the hollywood hills
don't look like he's fooling around

here comes ronald reagan from the hollywood hills
don't look like he's fooling around


9.I'll Take Out Your Ashes

Lyricist:Jocelyn Jager Adams, Benjamin Knox Miller, Jeffrey Carl
Prystowsky

It's a sad and guilty feeling
Since I did not take out your ashes
Whatever I was fearing
Never came to passing

It's sad and prideful feeling
Since I did not drive you to Michigan
Scrambling eggs and bacon
And you're right here in the kitchen

I've got plans and dreams
And all kinds of schemes
And now I'm beyond all repair
For time just ain't no healer
With your ashes sitting there

I know you have been counting on me
Since your sad cremation day
I've combed your Alzheimer's poetry
For all that I wished for it to say

It's a sad and guilty feeling
Since I did not take out your ashes
Whatever I was fearing
Never came to passing


10.Golden Cattle

Lyricist:Jocelyn Jager Adams, Benjamin Knox Miller, Jeffrey Carl
Prystowsky

As the blind walk the blind
Through the blackness of freedom
Who writes the songs
That we all will be singin'?

Who writes the books
When I lay my head down open?
Swore to swear myself
Into your face

As the blind walk the blind
At the border-less highway
Who holds the chains
Who bears the load?

Don't you be fooled
If my spirit's hung and broken
Stroll in the next life
Our fortunes are opened

And we're not to reach
If the sermon I have written
Stand on some sofas
Bear with our hands

And those who reach well
Will be farmed out by some industry
It herds the golden cattle
Before insecure eyes

As the blind walk the blind
Through the blackness of freedom
Who writes the songs
We all will be singin'?

Who writes the books
When I lay my head down open?
Swore to swear myself
Into your face


11.Smart Flesh

See the high wire man, there before the sun
He goes home at night, where he beats on his son
The play right in the attic, in his skylight of sun
As the cigarette on his lips

And his son beats down, on the smart smart flesh
It comes down from high, in its heavenly stand
Suggesting redemption, will be easily possessed
For less than any pound of Flesh

It's terribly important, to every man of his state
To settle the score, write the record straight
So he may free his slaves, where on the death bed he lays
Such sweet and knowing flesh

Knowing in the end, you'll be alone
For lonely death does creep
So hire yourself, a chimney maid
And smoke yourself to sleep

Among the manikin men, all dressed up and in dart
My manic depressive true love, she leaves me for lone
The rooster crawls, and daybreak is upon
As the cigarette on his lips

Saying pretty girls, go and take your time
For god only knows how you have taken mine
And seize them clear, to the ends of time
To hold the smart smart flesh

Knowing in the end, you'll be alone
For lonely death does creep
So hire yourself, a chimney maid
And smoke yourself to sleep

Now the hateful play right, it's time that he dies
Must visit the judge in a new disguise
Saying judge in your robes, oh judge so wise
There's something on your lip

In a man of his state, right before he dies
Must clear the black pages to tarnish the mind
In a bible in a bath, for mind to hide
He soak the smart smart flesh

Saying in the end, you'll be alone
For lonely death does creep
So hire yourself, a chimney maid
And smoke yourself to sleep

The unknowing tumor, is fixing his home
In a damp bed of the catacomb
As a raging war, on the high wire unfolds
She buries her teeth in the flesh

Now the world's a machine, do you know that it's true?
For the sole lover's eye laid just outside the room
He loves itself widely but what can it do
The cigarette on his lip