doctor told me

[[ standard blues form, kind of an old couple blues:

In the verses, the doctor says it looks like something's wrong with the singer's heart, brain, and blood in a literal/physical sense, and then the singer's partner says they could have told you that, with more figurative implications about the singer's heart, mind, and family/ancestry.

In the bridge, the singer checks the medicine cabinet, where you look in the mirror (examine yourself) and of course keep your medicine.

In the chorus, the singer says what all those pills are for, what they do in a literal or figurative sense.

]]

verses:

doctor told me

you've got a bad bad heart

doctor told me

you've got a bad bad heart

[[woman/baby/?]] told me

baby

I could have told you that from the start

doctor told me

nothing but trouble in your blood

doctor told me

nothing but trouble in your blood

[[woman/baby/?]] told me

baby

before you were born you were no damn good

doctor told me

there's a dark spot in your brain

doctor told me

there's a dark spot in your brain

[[woman/baby/?]] told me

baby

It's like I told you again and again

bridge:

let's check the medicine cabinet

let's check the medicine cabinet

first the mirror

then look inside

chorus:

I take

a pill

to make

my heart

beat slower

a pill

to make

my blood

run colder

a pill

to bring

me back

from the dead

I take

a pill

to make

the pres-

sure lower

a pill

to make

me one

day older

a pill

to get

[[me/her/him/you]] out

of my head