The Mountain Goats Album

baseball season will be starting soon.
but we have no baseball team here.
i've got a house right on the river.
i can see arkansas from where i am.

the dogs are gathered.
and the birds are chattering
and the sun is setting on memphis.
and the sun is setting on memphis.

medicine bottle collection on the window sill
shakes when the cars go past on interstate fifty-five
you are standing above me.
you've washed your face with that apricot scrub again.
i'm glad i'm alive
and your skin is warming up.
and my skin is warming up.
and the sun is setting on memphis.
and the sun is setting on memphis.

the wind from the north, flattens the yellow corn.
you come into the house, with your dress torn.

i can see you now, as through a screen.
a smile on your face, your fingers dripping kerosene

your hair hangs down, over me.
your hair casts a shadow to cover me.

i can see you now, as through a screen.
a smile on your face, your fingers dripping kerosene

the wind from the north, cools me.
the wind from the north, doesn't fool me.

i can see you now, as through a screen.
a smile on your face, your fingers dripping kerosene

i am the dry meat that fills the mouth
i am the fire that burns without wood
i am evil forest, kill a man on the day that his life seems sweetest to him

i did not come to play hand ball
i did not come to play hand ball

a knocking sound it woke me up,
but my legs were feeling weak.
i stared up at the ceiling and i saw you at the window.
but my mouth wouldn't let me speak.

chorus:
i know you.
you're the one i spent three seasons trying to pretend
that i never knew.

something pulled me off the bed.
and the same thing moved the muscles in my legs.
i moved towards you voice, and my body got so light,
i could've walked on eggs right then and not broken a one of them.

(chorus)x4

the street lights gave off an yellow glow
on the holly and the mistletoe
you could feel the rain, coming down.
and quiet starlight, hardened the ground.
till the street shone like a diamond

look sister, here comes a new genuine disaster.
clip-clop up the street,
see the rain, feel the sleet, yeah.

the cold air, unpredictable weather,
ten or twenty of us, huddled together,
hearing the braying, growing louder
snowflakes falling fine white powder.

here come, the new kings
the hooves clack and the metal sings
clip-clop up the street
see the rain, feel the sleet, yeah

when we meet on neutral ground,
i can't belive how good you look.
and the thoughts that race around my mind,
fill a long unreadable book and

i can feel the waves,
i can sense the continents eroding,
you say you know why i called you here,
but you couldn't have any way of knowing, so
that's not true.
that's a mean thing to say.
that's a damnable lie.
that's a damnable lie.

looking at you, and i don't know
what it is i see
and i know you're changing, almost indetectably.

and i see a ship off the shore
and i imagine it sinking.
and you smile and you say that you know
what it is that i'm thinking.
that's not true.
that's a rotten thing to say.
that's a damnable lie.
that's a damnable lie

hang me out to dry.
they're gonna hang me out to dry.
i don't really care.
i don't really care.
i got special shoes.
i got special shoes.

they're gonna fill me full of holes.
they're gonna fill me full of holes.
i don't give a rat's ass.
i don't give a rat's ass you rat bastards.
i got special shoes on.
i got special shoes on.
yeah

the world's overrun with new shades of green,
and the dandelions come up like recurring dreams
and the swallows give up their fragile little songs
in the new world

and i know you're only watching out for yourself,
and i know i'm not to take it real personal-like
and i know you only want what's best for everybody.
i know you only want what's best for everybody.

but you better be nice, or the easter bunny's
gonna strike you name out of the
little red book with the silver hinges on it
that he carries.

they've implemented a new system on the
exhaust lines of the buses
and now the air is fresh and sweet and clean when they pass by.
and the bright sun shines down on our fair city,
and young cats play on people's front lawns.

and the time is coming.
and the time is coming.
and i can feel the time coming.
and i know that you can feel the time coming, yourself.

and the easter bunny's coming,
and god knows i'd hate for you to miss it.
and it's gonna be so nice.
when the easter bunny comes.
and it's gonna be so nice.
when the easter bunny comes.
and it's gonna be so nice.
when the easter bunny comes.
and it's gonna be so nice.
when the easter bunny comes

the summer crawled by indetectably.
and then i saw you looking down to me.
and your earrings sparkled in the noon-day sun,
and though it's very true that i love everyone,
with every ounce of energy left in me,
i love you especially because

i saw you, coming through
the screen door on the second floor,
up on the balcony.

it was hard to even see you at all,
because the air was thick with alcohol
so i kept on rubbing my eyes,
for all the good it did me,
for all the immeasurable good it did me,
let the years come and take away my memory,
i will not forget the shock that ran through me when,

i saw you, coming through
the screen door on the second floor,
up on the balcony

in january i took a short walk
down to the broadway bridge
two and a half blocks
when you scrape the ice away
you can read the bridge dedication
i can feel the cold air coming in through my teeth
i saw the bridge
i saw the water underneath
that's a whole lotta water
that's a whole lotta water

i took out the key that i'd forgotten the function of
twisted it from the keyring as the bridge loomed above
i hammered it against the ice
i hammered it against the ice

cool air falls through the venetian blinds and
the planets in the heavens are perfectly aligned
i take in my surroundings
i memorize them all
the scuff marks on the stone floor,
the powder burns on the eastern wall

there's a monkey in the basement
how did the monkey get there?
there's a monkey in the basement
where did the monkey come from?
where did the monkey come from?
where did the monkey come from?

the animal noises you used to make
the andalusian coral snake
all hail when standing beside this room
and the heavy hot rains and the sonic boom

there's a monkey in the basement
where did the monkey come from?
there's a monkey in the basement
how did the monkey get there?
how did the monkey get there?
how did the monkey get there?

the first thing that happened was the river overflowed
the water running through the streets and was sweet and cold
i knelt by the water like a doe by a stream
punch-drunk, snowblind, as though the whole thing were a bad dream

and then love pulled out the heavy artillery
kypris took the horses by the bit for the morning ride
i count my blessings, but you can only be expected to count so high
when love cuts the strings

i smeared myself with pennyroyal to keep the hounds at bay
you poked your head out of an alley half a block away
and i recognized you, though i'm not sure how
and the air turned red around you
as a dull chill came down over me

and then love summoned up the infantry
and the green-eyed goddess got ready for all out war
and i'd count my blessings,
but i don't even know what the word blessing means
when love cuts the strings
yeah!

i had a thousand good questions
i was gonna ask you when you finally came by
but now that you're really here
there's only one question that comes to my mind.

and that question being:
what's with all the portuguese water dogs?
i'd like to repeat the question.
what's with all the portuguese water dogs?

the light hit the rings
glimmering on his fingers
the light came down
and his hands hit the keys
it utterly wasted me in sweden
the horns punched the air
the aftermath fell around everywhere
i saw the spotlight land on his rings
and i'd had just about enough losing things
in sweden in nineteen sixty-two
quite some distance from you

the rain didn't come for one calendar year
so when the man with the sunflower seeds in his hand came here
we sent him away, we sent him away

the rain didn't come for twelve months more
so when the man with the seed catalogs darkened our door
we sent him away (4x)

and i know you're waiting for the ironic ending
and i know you're waiting for the punchline
and i know you're waiting for the rain to come by
so am i (4x)

[No lyrics]

you've come back from yosemite
you brought an aromatic cedar bookmark for me
and a brand new stuffed bear
it's summertime, you've cut your hair
and i am leaving you, and i am sorry

you come in through the back door
why're you coming in like that, smiling for?
i've got something i need to tell you
i can feel your smile burning through
and i am leaving you, and i am sorry

a neighboring clan went on the attack
and stole all the giant coco-yams from the barn out back
i will make them pay for taking my yams away

i carved out little figurines of thieves
burned a palmful of red dust from the medicine bag
broke a kola nut in half, i hate half of it myself
sat back and watched the evening drag
i will make them regret that they haven't brought my yams back yet

the new rose floating on water in the old plain bowl
the white clouds on night sky
they way they just roll on by made me think of you
and the religious cult of flesh disillusion you've committed yourself to
alagemo, alagemo

the night crawlers poking their little slimy heads through the dirt
made me think of you again
made me think of you a third time
i don't know where you've gone
but i hear your voice droning on
alagemo, alagemo

how have we come to be mere mirrors to annihilation?
whom do we aspire to reflect our people's death?
for whose entertainment shall we sing our agony?
one hopes that the destroyers aspiring to extinguish us
will suffer conciliatory remorse at the sight of their own fantastic success
the last imbecile that dreams such dreams is dead
killed by the saviors of his dreams

how have we come to be mere mirrors to annihilation?

lay out on the patio, dreaming (2x)
and the chinese rifles sounded in the evening air
i heard them popping off everywhere

i lay out on the patio, on the chaise lounge
i lay out on the patio, and i let my hand rest against the hot redwood frame
and the chinese rifles sounded again
could not stomach their acumen

felt sick, felt good
the heat burns, old wood
muscles in my arms pump like machines
the jericho palm tree is plush and green

bright sun, the new day
i felt sick in a good way
felt the fever climb when you came down
all the way across town

and you brought me a plate of sweet potatoes

sun fading overhead
the sunset, bright red
your green eyes, your smooth walk
fresh tomato, celery stalk, you cook
pot of pari basmati rice
i felt good, you looked nice
you stood like galatea, over me
fried garlic, kim chee
and you brought me a plate of sweet potatoes

on the morning you went away
the air was humid and the sky was gray

i had boiled peanuts for breakfast from cairo, georgia

the air was wet, my face was wetter
the pink flowers along the western window made me feel better
i turned the air conditioner on
found the note on scented stationary - you were long gone

i had boiled peanuts for breakfast from cairo, georgia

i popped the top off of the aluminum can
let the brine slide down my fingers, man
it was warm, it was warm on my skin
but i felt the cold blast looming on in

i had boiled peanuts for breakfast from cairo, georgia