The Handsome Family - Milk And Scissors Mon, 27 Mar 2000 15:05:02 +0200 "Gunnar Hedlund" "Hans Settler" Thanks to Gunnar! @ARTIST: The Handsome Family @ALBUM: Milk And Scissors 1. Lake Geneva 2. Winnebago Skeletons 3. Drunk By Noon 4. The House Carpenter 5. The Dutch Boy 6. The King Who Wouldn't Smile 7. Emily Shore 1819-1839 8. 3-Legged Dog 9. #1 Country Song 10. Amelia Earheart vs. The Dancing Bear 11. Tin Foil 12. Puddin' Fingers @SONG: Lake Geneva you are crouched before the fire in a state park by the highway and through the heavy pine trees ten-ton trucks go groaning by like the screams of your aunt Barbara who went crazy in the 70's wrote poems to Jimmy Carter but forgot to feed her kids but it's the first time you're together since he got out of the hospital raccoons in the darkness drag of your hot dogs bun but you're happy just to lie there in a plastic tent from Wal-Mart like sticks and fallen dead leaves to feed the fire of the world because which is more important to comfort an old woman or see visions of the heavens in the stumps of fallen trees Albert Einstein trembled when he saw that time was water seeping through the rafters to put out this burning world next morning you're at Waffle House toast and eggs and hash browns truckers chain-smoke Camels over plastic cups of juice and you remember how he cried when they strapped him to the stretcher convinced his arms were burning with electricity from heaven you remember how he told you that black holes were like Jesus and the crucifix was a battery that filled the air with fire @SONG: Winnebago Skeletons there's a fish in my stomach a thousand years old can't swim a full circle the water's too cold burnt out cars in my fingers conveyour belt flow right angels and steam whistles nothing can grow a bigantlered deer steeping into the road a beautiful woman with her head in the stove the skyscrapers crumble heavy with rats the wind's full of beer cans and whiffle ball bats the endless sea of traffic lights never make a sound like Ben Franklin's electric kite crashing to the ground and the Winnebago skeletons beneath this bancrupt town this fish in my stomach wears a full length mink but his teeth float in sherry in a jar by the sink he's the withered remains of Rin Tin Tin taking his new Cadillac out for a spin the endless sea of traffic lights never make a sound like Ben Franklin's electric kite crashing to the ground and the Winnebago skeletons beneath this bancrupt town @SONG: Drunk By Noon there once was a poodle who thought he was a cowboy but he lived in a cage the size of his thumb and though his white horse was a box of toothpicks he galloped around until hit by a car and sometimes I flap my arms like a hummingbird just to remind myself I'll never fly sometimes I burn my arms with cigarettes just to pretend I won't scream when I die and if my life was as long as the moon's I'd still be jealous of the sun if my life lasted only one day I'd still be drunk by noon and sometimes I can't wait to come down with cancer at least then I'll get to watch TV all day and on my deathbed I'll get all the answers even if all my questions are taken away if my life was as long as the moon's I'd still be jealous of the sun if my life lasted only one day I'd still be drunk by noon I'd still be drunk by noon @SONG: The House Carpenter well met, well met said an old true love well met, well met said he I'm just returning from the salt, salt sea and it's all for the love of thee come in, come in, my old true love and have a seat with me it's been three-fourths of a long, long year since together we have been well I can't come in or I can't sit down for I haven't but a moment's time they say you're married to a house carpenter and your heart will never be mine that's odd, could've married a king's daugther dear I'm sure she'd of married me but I have forsaken her crowns of gold all for the love of thee so will you forsaken your house carpenter and come and go with me I'll take you were the grass grows green on the banks of the deep blue sea she picked up her little babe and kisses gave it three says stay right here my darling little babe and keep your poppa company well they hadn't been on ship for about two weeks I'm sure it was not three when his true love sat down and began to weep and mourn most bitterly says are you weepin' for my silver or my gold says are you weepin' for my store or are you weepin' for that house carpenter whose face you'll never see no more no I'm not weepin' for your silver or your gold or neither for your store I am weepin' for my darling little baby whose face I'll never see no more well they hadn't been on ship for about three weeks I'm sure it was not four when they sprung a leak in the bottom of the ship and it sunk for to rise no more @SONG: The Dutch Boy my heart it goes out to that poor little dutch boy who stopped a great flood with the tip of his thumb through parades and medals he felt no joy and took to his bed with a bottle of rum the queen she arrives in her motorcade to give the good dutch boy a commemorative pen but he watched as the milkmaids all withered and grayed and he knew that the waters must rise again because the world is made up of milk and scissors milk and scissors in a spiraling chain milk and scissors like cheap squirting flower milk and scissors like worms when it rain @SONG The King Who Wouldn't Smile there was a king who wouldn't smile sat on the toilet reading The Trial his dogs chased their tails 'round and 'round midget cars arrived stuffed with clowns who served him quail eggs on toast like a fish at the bottom of a pail like a cricket swallowed by a whale like a chipmunk who chewed off his tail the king who wouldn't smile there was a king who never laughed fell in love with two-headed calf tattoed his arm with the ace of spades filled his bath with razor blades but the grass made fun of his shoes like a fish at the bottom of a pail like a cricket swallowed by a whale like a chipmunk who chewed off his tail the king who wouldn't smile there was a king who cried and cried mice crawled in his shoes to die he cried so much that herds of deer gathered to lick his salty tears so the king crawled under his bed like a fish at the bottom of a pail like a cricket swallowed by a whale like a chipmunk who chewed off his tail the king who wouldn't smile @SONG: Emily Shore 1819-1839 she'd been coughing up blood since the dogwoods bloomed seventeen that spring and confined to her room at night her heart pounded against her chest death, like a bird was building its nest and so on the last day of her short life Emily called for her fathers penknife she sawed at her head till the floor pooled with hair and braided a watch chain for father to wear she'd laughed at the graveyard on one sip of wine and kept a pet duck till the cat crushed its spine but waltzing one night in a red velvet dress she noticed a whistling down in her chest and so on the last day of her short life Emily called for her fathers penknife she sawed at her head till the floor pooled with hair and braided a watch chain for mother to wear propped up on pillows she watched the snow fall trying to picture an end to it all by spring there'd be picnics and merry-go-rounds but she'd be nothing but bones in the ground and so on the last day of her short life Emily called for her fathers penknife she sawed at her head till the floor pooled with hair and braided a watch chain for father to wear @SONG: 3-Legged Dog like a three-legged dog you've called in sick sure there's seconds of pleasure but so many moments of pain and you can't snap your fingers and you don't talk so straight you want to be loved but you probably can't make it anyway now the ground is cold, the ground is cold and there's no fire around, ther's no fire around an absence of fire and you're just cold and I've seen this dog in my sleep he chases my father too when he dreams between the sheets but we all think it's time for you to quit take a last swig of that cabernet but I tell you my friend I won't forget you and the world's not clean, and the worlds not clean but they get mad when you're dirty, get dirty if you've handled some food you better wash up like a three-legged dog you got three feet you can't walk fast or fuck but you still get in heat you can't wag your ears or flap your tail but I still see you wandering down by the wishing well when the ground was young, when the ground was young and the caves were cold you've stayed out all night and you're just too old @SONG: #1 Country Song I remember the day my little brother brought you 'round I even recall the color of your dress deep blue like the evening sky, I was captured, I confess I didn't think you'd treat me like you did the rest but now darling I feel I'm going out of my mind can't last another day without you I wish my foolish heart could go find somebody new but I just can't stop loving you I remember the night you told me I was the one those loving words and the promises we made but before the night was done I'd find out you were just having fun and from the start you never planned to stay now darling I feel I'm going out of my mind can't last another day without you I wish my foolish heart could go find somebody new but I just can't stop loving you no I just can't stop loving you @SONG: Amelia Earheart Vs. The Dancing Bear Amelia, Amelia Earheart after her plane was torn apart and bursting through the trees she remembered picking lemons with William Randolph Hearst and how a spinning plane propeller turned liquid in the sun and as the cockpit burned her hair filled with sparks but when the glass exploded in everything went dark Amelia, Amelia Earheart after her plane was torn apart and bursting through the trees she remembered sipping consommé with William Howard Taft and a boy with perfect skin who smelled like mustard gas and as the cockpit burned she couldn't help but smile recalling a dancing bear she'd seen as a child @SONG: Tin Foil late New Year's Eve, paper hat on your head it's hard to believe you'll ever be dead but that dream where you're falling you've had since you're five is a bird on your shoulder who whispers goodbye what is moving will be still what has been gathered will diperse what has been built up will collapse all your dreams fulfilled evil knievel shot up from dead grass I loved him better each time he crashed Liza Minelli spent a month in her bed certain that skylab would fall on her head what is moving will be still what has been gathered will diperse what has been built up will collapse all your dreams fulfilled one night I dreamed that I dug my own grave and climbed down inside to patiently wait down in the ground I breathed the warm air and blackbirds flew down to nest in my hair what is moving will be still what has been gathered will diperse what has been built up will collapse all your dreams fulfilled