Paul/Tommy lyrical interface

[troublkepnyerhedup]

In Tommy's song "Someday" there's a "cracks in the drapes" line that caught my ear ... just like the "crack in the drapes" from "Can't Hardly Wait." Now I'm looking harder at the Tommy song, thinking it could be about Paul and the Mats days and stuff.

SOMEDAY - Tommy Stinson

You've got a close eye on the world outside
From the inside of your cage
You're staring through the cracks in the drapes for a key
With a midget on your back goin blind and mean
How much could you ask for
How much would you ask for

Something of use will come
Of these worn out shoes
Something of use will come
Of these painful dues

The bastard's wearing the dresses now
He bitches no one calls him by his name
My baby she's got the blues
Another rapist grows into his running shoes
How much could you ask for
How much would you ask for

Dear god can't you just leave me alone
Said the martyr to the thief
There's not enough room in this reflection for two
And now one of us is gonna have to leave in peace
Someday something of use will come
Of these dried up tears
Something of use will come
Of the blood and the blues if we waste another year
It's always someday

You lift yourself from the gutter to the grave
They'll fax you your last rites
Well maybe I said everything is all right
Well they're just not unbearable

Yet how much would you
Ask for how much could you ask for
Someday something of use will come
Of these lives that we choose
Someday something of use will come
Of the blood and the blues of this wasted youth
Something of use will come.

CAN'T HARDLY WAIT (3:02)

I'll write you a letter tomorrow
Tonight I can't hold a pen
Someone's got a stamp that I can borrow
I promise not to blow the address again

Lights that flash in the evening,
Through a crack in the drapes

Jesus rides beside me
He never buys any smokes
Hurry up, hurry up, ain't you had enough of this stuff
Ashtray floors, dirty clothes, and filthy jokes

See you're high and lonesome
Try and try and try

Lights that flash in the evening,
Through a hole in the drapes
I'll be home when I'm sleeping
I can't hardly wait

I can't wait. Hardly wait.

[kgp]

Yep, kinda' looks like it. I always want, one of these days, to pick through VGH for lyrical disses, like Chris Mars naming his album 75% Less Fat.

[Veets]

Tommy's song "Something's Wrong":

Came here feelin blue
In an old hat and painted shoes
Thought I'd see what's goin down
I saw the Ghost dancin with some clown

Replacements' "Talent Show":
In my waxed up hair and my painted shoes
A Got an offer that you might refuse


Something's Wrong also conjures up thoughts of Rock 'n Roll Ghost and Lay it Down Clown, but that might be a stretch. Only so many words in the English language.

[Veets]

Think the "midget on your back" is a reference to MasterBlaster from Mad Max Beyond Thunderome? ;-)

[gravy]

kgp said:

Yep, kinda' looks like it. I always want, one of these days, to pick through VGH for lyrical disses, like Chris Mars naming his album 75% Less Fat.

I remember on the 14 Songs tour, at least when I saw him, he changed the lyric in Alex Chilton to "and if were from mars, Fuck Mars!"

Popular Creeps & Ego Maniac are also Mars songs about
Tommy & Paul.

[shoplifter]

I forget which Perfect song it is on "7 Days", but I swear I hear Tommy singing:

"How many ways can you LEARN TO FAIL
Count all the ways that I've blazed the trail."

It's on a bridge/breakdown...

[landshark]

troublkepnyerhedup said:

Dear god can't you just leave me alone
Said the martyr to the thief
There's not enough room in this reflection for two
And now one of us is gonna have to leave in peace

This Tommy lyric sounds like a cop from Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower."

[troublkepnyerhedup]

landshark said:

This Tommy lyric sounds like a cop from Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower."

He did say in an interview he's been listening to Dylan every morning, or he was when he was writing or recording VGH.

[SnowCover]

Did Westerberg write No Matter What You Say? Because both No Matter What You Say and Motivation have the line about choking on the grape vine.

[mdelirious]

MrTambourineBoy said:

Did Westerberg write No Matter What You Say? Because both No Matter What You Say and Motivation have the line about choking on the grape vine.

Shooting Dirty Pool has a line about choking on the grapevine, too, doesn't it?

[SnowCover]

mdelirious said:

Shooting Dirty Pool has a line about choking on the grapevine, too, doesn't it?

Yeah it does, I forgot about that.

[cellarfullofnoise]

This is more of a Westerberg/BOB Stinson interface, but ...

You're falling down a stairwell
Calling farewell anyone
- Whatever Makes You Happy

any chance that's related to Bob's nickname for PW, Fall Downstairberg?