The Best Of The Early

They Might Be Giants The Best Of The Early Lyrics
1.She Was A Hotel Detective

She's got her ear to the walls and she's tappin' the calls
If you've got a secret boy, forget about it, 'cause she's a

Hotel detective
My little
Hotel detective
Yeah she's a
Hotel detective
Why don't you check her out

Well the bellhop is funky
The dumbwaiter's a monkey
If there's a knock at the door, boy, forget about it, 'cause
she's a

Hotel detective
My little
Hotel detective
Yeah
Hotel detective
Cone on and check her out

She says she likes my face
She says she owns the place
Forget about it, 'cause she's a

Hotel detective
My little
Hotel detective
Come on her
Hotel detective
Why don't you check her out

Hotel detective
Come on and swing with me
Hotel detective
From the top of a tree
Hotel detective
And make me feel like a bee
Hotel detective
That's where i want to know you


2.Ana Ng

Make a hole with a gun perpendicular
To the name of this town in a desk-top globe
Exit wound in a foreign nation
Showing the home of the one this was written for
My apartment looks upside down from there
Water spirals the wrong way out the sink
And her voice is a backwards record
It's like a whirlpool and it never ends

Ana ng and i are getting old
And we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic
presence
Listen ana hear my words
They're the ones you would think i would say if there was a me
for you

All alone at the '64 world's fair
Eighty dolls yelling 'small girl after all'
Who was at the dupont pavilion?
Why was the bench still warm? who had been there?
Or the time when the storm tangled up the wire
To the horn on the pole at the bus depot
And in the back of the edge of hearing
These are the words the voice was repeating:

Ana ng and i are getting old
And we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic
presence
Listen ana hear my words
They're the ones you would think i would say if there was a me
for you

When i was driving once i saw this painted on a bridge:
'i don't want the world, i just want your half'

They don't need me here, and i know you're there (don't need me)
Where the world goes by like the humid air (world goes by)
And it sticks like a broken record
Everything sticks like a broken record
Everything sticks until it goes away (it goes home)
And the truth is, we don't know anything (don't know)

Ana ng and i are getting old
And we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic
presence
Listen ana hear my words
They're the ones you would think i would say if there was a me
for you

Ana ng and i are getting old
And we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic
presence
Listen ana hear my words
They're the ones you would think i would say if there was a me
for you

Ana ng and i are getting old
And we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic
presence
Listen ana hear my words
They're the ones you would think i would say if there was a me
for you


3.Cowtown

I'm going down to cowtown
The cow's a friend to me
Lives beneath the ocean and that's where i will be
Beneath the waves, the waves
And that's where i will be
I'm gonna see the cow beneath the sea

The yellow roosevelt avenue leaf overturned
The ardor of arboreality is an adventure we have spurned, we've
spurned
A new leaf overturned
It's a new leaf overturned

And so i'm going down to cowtown
The cow's a friend to me
Lives beneath the ocean and that's where i will be
Beneath the waves, the waves
And that's where i will be
I'm gonna see the cow beneath the sea

We yearn to swim for home, but our only home is bone
How sleepless is the egg knowing that which throws the stone
Foresees the bone, the bone
Our only home is bone
Our only home is bone

And so i'm going down to cowtown
The cow's a friend to me
Lives beneath the ocean and that's where i will be
Beneath the waves, the waves
And that's where i will be
I'm gonna see the cow beneath the sea

Yes i'm going down to cowtown
The cow's a friend to me
Lives beneath the ocean and that's where i will be
Beneath the waves, the waves
And that's where i will be
I'm gonna see the cow beneath the sea
Yes i'm gonna see (i'm gonna see)
The cow (the cow)
Beneath the sea


4.Don't Let's Start

Don't don't don't let's start
This is the worst part
Could believe for all the world
That you're my precious little girl
But don't don't don't let's start
I've got a weak heart
And i don't get around how you get around

When you are alone you are the cat, you are the phone
You are an animal
The words i'm singing now
Mean nothing more than meow to an animal
Wake up and smell the cat food in your bank account
But don't try to stop the tail that wags the hound

D, world destruction
Over and overture
N, do i need
Apostrophe t, need this torture?

Don't don't don't let's start
This is the worst part
Could believe for all the world
That you're my precious little girl
But don't don't don't let's start
I've got a weak heart
And i don't get around how you get around

No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is
beautiful
Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful
They want what they're not and i wish they would stop saying,
Deputy dog dog a ding dang depadepa
Deputy dog dog a ding dang depadepa

D, world destruction
Over and overture
N, do i need
Apostrophe t, need this torture?

Don't don't don't let's start
This is the worst part
Could believe for all the world
That you're my precious little girl
But don't don't don't let's start
I've got a weak heart
And i don't get around how you get around

I don't want to live in this world anymore
I don't want to live in this world

Don't don't don't let's start
This is the worst part
Could believe for all the world
That you're my precious little girl
But don't don't don't let's start
I've got a weak heart
And i don't get around how you get around


5.Everything Right Is Wrong Again

Everything right is wrong again
Just like in the long long trailer
All the dishes got broken and the car kept driving
And nobody would stop to save her

Wake me when it's over, touch my face
Tell me every word has been erased
Don't you want to know the reason
Why the cupboard's not appealing
Don't you get the feeling that

Everything that's right is wrong again
You're a weasel overcome with dinge
Weasel overcome but not before the damage done
The healing doesn't stop the feeling

Everything right is wrong again
Just like in the long long trailer
All the dishes got broken and the car kept driving
And nobody would stop to save her

And now the song is over now
And now the song is over now
And now the song is over now
The song is over now

Everything right is wrong again
Every movement false, every four is waltz again
Every five and dime's been gained and spent
Tell me that you like my float upstream
Draw the line dividing laugh and scream
You know everything that i know so i know
You've heard the voice that makes the silent noise
That says that

Everything that's right is wrong again
You're a weasel overcome with dinge
Weasel overcome but not before the damage done
The healing doesn't stop the feeling

Everything right is wrong again
Just like in the long long trailer
All the dishes got broken and the car kept driving
And nobody would stop to save her

And now the song is over now
And now the song is over now
And now the song is over now
The song is over now


6.Hide Away Folk Family

Hide away folk family
Or else someone's gonna get ya (someone's gonna get ya)
Someone's gonna get ya
Hide away folk family
Better hide away
Better hide away

Tippy-toe to the front door, mother,
'cause there's a guy with a long, long fuse
And the one thing you can't hide is all the fear you feel inside
As the fuse is spelling out these words

Hide away folk family
Or else someone's gonna get ya (someone's gonna get ya)
Someone's gonna get ya
Hide away folk family
Better hide away
Better hide away

Tippy-toe to the flat-bed, father,
Because they're pouring out our gasoline
And sadly the cross-eyed bear's been put to sleep behind the
stairs
And his shoes are laced with irony

Hide away folk family
Or else someone's gonna get ya (someone's gonna get ya)
Someone's gonna get ya
Hide away folk family
Better hide away
Better hide away

Hello. this is leslie down with the daily home astrology report.
Taurus: contemplate domestic turmoil.
Aquarius: abandon hope for future plans.

Hide away folk family
Or else someone's gonna get ya (someone's gonna get ya)
Someone's gonna get ya
Hide away folk family
Better hide away
Better hide away (hide away)

Hide away (folk family) folk family (or else someone's gonna get
ya)
Someone's gonna get ya
Hide away
Hide away


7.Purple Toupee

I remember the year i went to camp
I heard about some lady named selma and some blacks
Somebody put their fingers in the president's ears
It wasn't too much later they came out with johnson's wax
I remember the book depository where they crowned the king of
cuba
Now that's all i can think of, but i'm sure there's something
else
Way down inside me i can feel it coming back

Purple toupee will show the way when summer brings you down
(purple toupee when summer brings you down)
Purple toupee and gold lame will turn your brain around
(purple toupee and gold lame)

Chinese people were fighting in the park
We tried to help them fight, no one appreciated that
Martin x was mad when they outlawed bell bottoms
Ten years later they were sharing the same cell
I shouted out, 'free the expo '67'
Till they stepped on my hair, and they told me i was fat
Now i'm very big, i'm a big important man
And the only thing that's different is underneath my hat

Purple toupee will show the way when summer brings you down
(purple toupee when summer brings you down)
Purple toupee and gold lame will turn your brain around
(purple toupee and gold lame)

Purple toupee is here to stay after the hair has gone away
The purple brigade is marching from the grave

We're on some kind of mission
We have an obligation
We have to wear toupees


8.Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head

As your body floats down third street
With the burn-smell factory closing up
Yes it's sad to say you will romanticize
All the things you've known before
It was not not not so great
It was not not not so great
And as you take a bath in that beaten path
There's a pounding at the door
Well it's a mighty zombie talking of some love and posterity
He says 'the good old days never say good-bye
If you keep this in your mind:
You need some lo-lo-loving arms
You need some lo-lo-loving arms'
And as you fall from grace the only words you say are

Put your hand inside the puppet head
Put your hand inside the puppet head
Put your hand inside
Put your hand inside
Put your hand inside the puppet head

Ads up in the subway are the work of someone
Trying to please their boss
And though the guy's a pig we all know what he wants
Is just to please somebody else
If the pu-pu-puppet head
Was only bu-bu-busted in
It would be a better thing for everyone involved
And we wouldn't have to cry

Put your hand inside the puppet head
Put your hand inside the puppet head
Put your hand inside
Put your hand inside
Put your hand inside the puppet head

Memo to myself: do the dumb things i gotta do
Touch the puppet head

Quit my job down at the carwash
Didn't have to write no-one a good-bye note
That said, 'the check's in the mail, and
I'll see you in church, and don't you ever change'
If the pu-pu-puppet head
Was only bu-bu-busted in
I'll see you after school

Put your hand inside the puppet head
Put your hand inside the puppet head
Put your hand inside
Put your hand inside
Put your hand inside the puppet head

Put your hand inside the puppet head
Put your hand inside the puppet head
Put your hand inside
Put your hand inside
Put your hand inside the puppet head


9.We're The Replacements

Hi, we're the replacements (hi)
Hi, we're the replacements (hi)
Hi, we're the replacements (hi)
And we're playing in a rock'n'roll band (we're playing in a
rock'n'roll band)
We're having a good time (we're)
We're having a good time (we're)
We're having a good time (we're)
Rock'n'rollin' 'til the break of dawn (rock'n'rollin' 'til the
break of dawn)

Hey, where's tommy? someone find tommy
We're out on the road
Moving equipment, where's the equipment
Soon we're going home

Then we'll have a party (then)
Then we'll have a party (then)
Then we'll have a party (then)
Rock'n'rollin' 'til the break of dawn (rock'n'rollin' 'til the
break of dawn)
Hi, we're the replacements (hi)
Hi, we're the replacements (hi)
Hi, we're the replacements (hi)
And we're playing in a rock'n'roll band (we're playing in a
rock'n'roll band)

I don't wanna!
Hi
Hi
Hi
We're playing in a rock'n'roll band
We're
We're
We're
Rock'n'rollin' 'til the break of dawn


10.Youth Culture Killed My Dog

Youth culture (youth culture)
Youth culture (youth culture)
Youth culture (youth culture)
Youth culture (youth culture)

Youth culture killed my dog
And i don't think it's fair (i don't think it's fair)
And his suicide can be justified
By the tastemakers, how they cried and cried and so

Bacharach and david used to write his favorite songs
Never, never, never would he worry, he'd just run and fetch the
ball
But the night lights and my dog's life aren't exactly one and
the same

Youth culture killed my dog
And i don't think it's fair (i don't think it's fair)
And the judgement made in the city of hate
Just broke his spirit so

Bacharach and david used to write his favorite songs
Never, never, never would he worry, he'd just run and fetch the
ball
But the hiphop and the white funk just blew away my puppy's mind

I don't understand what you did to my dog
And i don't understand what you did to my dog
I don't understand what you did to my dog
I don't understand what you did to my dog

Youth culture killed my dog (youth culture killed my dog)
And i don't think it's fair (i don't think it's fair)
And his suicide can be justified
By the tastemakers, how they cried and cried and so

Youth culture (youth culture)
Youth culture (youth culture)
Broke his spirit so (broke his spirit so)
Broke his spirit so
Youth culture (youth culture)
(youth culture)
Youth culture (youth culture)
(youth culture)
Broke his spirit so (broke his spirit so)
Broke his spirit so