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

LA River

[[ A list/sequence/geography song - based on an old police photo (1955) of a man's body lying under an LA bridge, plus the route of the LA River down to the Pacific. The blood flows under the bridges and people gather under the bridges. The last part is the healing, coming together from the atoms up. ]]

on a concrete bed

between concrete walls

what's left of a river
shines in the sun

on a concrete bed

between concrete walls

what's left of a man

stares into the sun

if ever a man

ever had any blood

it has all run away

down the LA River

under the bridges of Chinatown

under the bridges of Boyle Heights

under the bridges of Vernon

under the bridges of Bell Gardens

under the bridges of South Gate

under the bridges of Compton

under the bridges of Long Beach

under the bridges and into the bay

cool water comes down from the mountains 

cool water comes down from the clouds 

filling the river - hydrogen oxygen hydrogen

clinging together - hydrogen oxygen hydrogen

You can know nothing

[[ This started from two episodes in Ryszard Kapuściński, The Shadow of the Sun, and his description of how there is little in the way of twilight in Africa -- it is light and then BANG it is dark, and then, twelve hours later, BANG, it is light again. But I have let something of the ambiguous and possible hints of the metaphysical or epistemological creep into it. ]]

You can know nothing

before and after.

On the way to Kumase,

our bus stops somewhere.

A woman gathers to herself her children.

She rests her bowl upon her head

and walks into the trees.

You can know nothing

before and after.

When the sun comes up,

there is no prelude to rising.

This is the old adventure.

On the Serengeti,

our truck has a flat.

Lions rest round shreds of antelope.

They watch us half an hour, then rise

and walk into the grass.

You can know nothing

before and after.

When the sun goes down,

it is gone.

This is the old adventure.

climb the dark stairs

what's this bubbling 

up in my blood?

what's steaming

under the hood?

mother in the garden

fire in the kitchen 

mother in the garden

fire again

put down the pony 

frogs in the basement

neighbors on the party line

frogs in the well

lights in the drive

blue, red, and turning 

mother in the garden

something is burning

under the car at night

holding a torch for father

smell of spilled gasoline

orange of cigarette

smoke up the chimney

the game on teevee

twisting the aerial

pictures of snow

caught in the thunder

running in the rain 

wet camera jolting 

and jolting and jolting 

stories to 

sleep on

the dark and 

the bells

Nancy, Sikes,

Silver, Kim,

shipwrecked and 

kidnapped

and

climb the dark stairs

tempest and midsummer

salt and vinegar

the Russians in winter

alone in the woods

under the car at night

holding a torch for father

smell of spilled gasoline

orange of cigarette

mother in the garden

fire in the kitchen 

mother in the garden

fire again

stories to sleep on

climb the dark stairs

she will turn the moon around

one touch, she will turn your wine to vinegar
one touch, she will wither the crop in your field
one touch, she will tumble the fruit from your trees

a woman like her (a woman like her), she will turn the moon around
a woman like her (a woman like her), she will turn the moon around

one look, she will smoke the image in your mirror
one look, she will dull the edge of your razor
one look, she will crumble your iron and brass

a woman like her (a woman like her), she will turn the moon around
a woman like her (a woman like her), she will turn the moon around

do not let her
draw the water
from your well

she will drive
the bees from your hive

a woman like her cannot cross a running stream
a woman like her will cause your horse to miscarry
a woman like her will drown your boat in a storm

a woman like her (a woman like her), she will turn the moon around
a woman like her (a woman like her), she will turn the moon around


[[ See the Golden Bough. http://www.bartleby.com/196/149.html ]]

skin me alive

skin me a live animal

what I want is to wear its camouflage
what I want is to wear its fur
what I want is to hear it screaming
while I purr

skin me a live animal

what I want is more juice in the vein
what I want is more smoke in the lung
what I want is to wear the animal
skin and fuck

skin me a live animal

take me to Vienna, you fool, and immediately
take me while a shop girl looks me in the eye
take me to the dead end of some other century
take me exactly to midnight, then leave me to die

[[ 

1. With obvious play on "skin me a live animal" and "skin me alive, animal". 

2. The narrator possibly is not a native speaker and may have fallen out of a time machine. She is louche, one-eyed, absinthed. 

3. I don't know why any of this. I think someone wants back to fin de siècle Vienna. Someone with a lust for blood and a lust for lust. And one clouded eye? 

]]

the seclusion of girls

first sign of blood
the girl must run

the girl must not touch the ground
the girl must not feel the sun
the girl must not be seen by men

first sign of blood
the girl must run

she must run (run to the river)
she must hide (hide in the long grass)
she must run (run to the river)
she must hide (hide in the long grass)
the girl must run

first sign of blood
the girl must run

she must
live in the
house of the
heartless

she must
live in the
darkened
house

first sign of sun
this curs-ed girl
become a skeleton

first sign of blood
the girl must run

[[ This one is straight out of The Golden Bough. http://www.bartleby.com/196/149.html and today's news ]]

plasma

[[ solid>liquid>gas>plasma ]]

I go 

from state to state

(from state to state)

I look 

I look for you

(looking for you)

|: You  excite my atoms :|

I lose 

I lose my balance

(I lose my valence)

I fume 

then just as soon

I freeze

I'm stone

then in your hands

I liquefy

I tell myself it's just a phase 

transition

Tonight 

(I drive)

Tonight 

(I am driven)

Tonight 

(I am driving away the night)

Tonight 

(I may be back)

Tomorrow 

(for sure)

Tomorrow 

(at your door)

Tomorrow is at your door today

|: You are in the blood :|