[[ 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
