Track Listing:
Click on a song title for lyrics.
Top of page
Grotto of Miracles
Come on fuck
Let's go downtown
Got your credit report today
Said what dear daughter
Or faithless son
Would treat their father this way?
Throw you out
In the street
It's time to compete
In this darkened room
A slant-eyed glace
Shows the fineness of your breed
Look at him
A crawling worm
Guts are all filled with dirt
Yeah lookit there
Another worm
I'll crush him with a glance and a smirk
Yeah I'm the giant
Yeah I'm so smug
I'm free to stomp and burn
But it's a hollow victory
I'll sing and dance
It's nothing I've properly earned
Those swinging fool
Gets his chance
Started up on the dance floor
?
His only partner
Sleazy two-bit whore
?
By falling down
Earned your right to choose
Now the only chance
To be accepted
Is with the other Jews
Top of page
Cotton Girl
How the hell you been
I know it's getting late
Remember that long night in your car
Remember I grabbed you in the bar and
Baby don't pretend
Don't try to set me straight again
Remember that French kiss on the pier
I need you more just than once a year
I been talking about confusion
I been talking about what's moving
I can't think of a reason to be nice
With a full head of steam into the night
Just forget I said
That you should hesitate
You know I'm all ripped up
I can't let it out
Don't smile your smile at me now yeah
I been talking about confusion
I been talking about what's moving
I can't think of a reason to deny it
So with a full head of steam into the night
Don't try to extricate yourself
You know I never like to fight it out
With a full head of steam and don't wait
For my ship to come in
Don't even try to stay cool
Cause I won't be on it
And that fire fire is fills me up again
I wanna know
Is she still my silly little friend
Is she still my
Cotton girl
Top of page
Yen + Janet Forever
I'm sorry that I left you there
Your pretty hands were picking sand out of your hair
And i'm sorry that they went so far
Didn't end up coming back
I'm sorry about the way that i ran
I'm sorry that i ended up the way that i am
And i'm sorry about the way that i lied
Didn't end up coming back
I'm sorry that it rained all night
Letters that your sisters wore were strung too tight
And i'm sorry that your world went grey
Didn't end up coming back
Top of page
Oh How We Laughed
Now I know what you meant when you said you're my only
[? in a dimmer light comically? ]
Now I know what you meant when you said you're my only
It's over
Got a little busy there
so I cut it in half
Now I know what you meant when you said
Nothing ever lasts
Touched a little cancer there
So I cut it in half
Now I know what you meant when you said
Nothing ever lasts
It's over
Quite [over/only]
Whenever you say weakness
Whenever you say weakness
Whenever you say weakness
Empty line
Now I know what you meant when you said
You would never leave
Now I know what you meant when you said
You're mine
Know you're not alone
I know you're not alone
I know you're not alone
I know you're not alone
It's over
Quite over
Quite over
It's over
Quite over
Top of page
The Cigarette Lighters
If I could see what angels see
I'd [sooner] crack my eyes
[Cataract glaze across the big sky]
If I could go where angels go
[I'd slide across the floor]
[And sneak in like a splinter] under your door
Breaking in the summer sun
[Where they whirred/were they worried] about me
Don't say a word about me
When the summer's done
Don't wait
If I could walk where angels walk
[I'd cut out before the wine]
Get a couple down before I get mine
I could take what angels take
[I'd take it to my back]
Never saw life collapsing like that
[Breaking in the winner's cup]
[Where] they whirl about me
Witness full of self-control
Don't say a word about me
When the summer's done
Don't wait
If I could wear what angels wear
[I'd tear it] limb to limb
[Playing "california"] when she comes in
If I could see what angels see
I'd [sooner] crack my eyes
Cataract [glaze across the big sky]
Were they worred about me
When the summer's done
Don't wait
Top of page
Couldn't You Wait?
Couldn't you wait
For some time to elapse
Check it before the trap was set
And it collapsed like a
Big net grass green rug screen wait
Did you test the water with a big toe dip
Don't put all your trust in that triple-timing bitch
Could you elaborate
On how you tempt fate
Couldn't you wait
Couldn't you wait
To go on your foggy trips
You were in the corner doing back flips
I saw sweat on the wheelchair grips slip
Couldn't you wait
You never cooked up your medicine then
Said the aspirin made your thick blood thin
Every dinner was a capricorn a crown of thorns
Couldn't you wait
Yeah couldn't you wait
You were funny to a fault
Went too heavy on the salt
Can you stand up straight
While I illuminate a few of your flaws
I thought you said you would never get your teeth capped
How would you like to get your face slapped
Did it hurt to take the time to make the new girl happy as a clam
In a pair of tight 501s
Is your fresh-faced neighbor any fun at all
Do you still go off
Like a gun that's gotten stuck on stun
That's permanently stalled
Do you still think you're god
Is your first day on the job even over yet
Is the summertime in heaven grand
Is it fifty-nine past the eleven hand
Oh couldn't you wait
For the midnight train at least
All these seagulls are insane beasts
The taste of trouble's in my mouth
It's like a candy cane
Couldn't you wait
Until the thought had passed
That our love would never last
How could you devastate
Someone you claim not to hate
And couldn't you have waited
Couldn't you have waited
Couldn't you have waited
Couldn't you wait
Top of page
A Tunnel
When you breathe
It's stolen air
Your petty theft
Nothing's there
World away
Underground
A secret life
Is calling me
World away
Underground
A secret life
Is calling me
When we talk
It's surgery
Sleeping crime
Of enemy
World away
Underground
A secret life
Is calling me
World away
Underground
A secret life
Is calling me
Top of page
Written on the Wind
Look out
Look up
Don't walk around too much alone at night
Don't talk to strangers
Don't take for granted those you met once before
And her name is written on the wind
Stay out
Drink up
You save a place for your dead friends again
Don't take for granted those you once knew well
Oh and her name is written on the wind
She got it in the sky
She got it on the ground
She got it in the street out in the street
Stay out
Stay up
Don't take for granted those you once loved
And her name is written on
And his name is written on the wind
He got it superstar
hit the top
of an eye chart
Took it all
Back in a cold dark corner of an empty house
On a cold dark April night
Top of page
Wild in My Day
There is nothing but hate
That registers on your face
And you laugh as if something was funny
You are one with the earth by the right of your birth
It's all worth about nothing plus nothing
I know you been holding back
I know you been holding back again
All the hearts that you trumped
They sit there bloody and plump
When they swell it ain't too easy to lift them up
When that river runs dry
Will you stop getting high again
because it's bad for your system
Oh when you play that game
The rich people like to play
I know you been holding back
I know you been holding back again
Everything that you said
Reverberates in my head
We were wild
We were wild
You could make a cop cry
The way you twist on the line
It's not nice to be toying with children
When you walk that way
It ain't fair
I know you been holding back again
I know you been holding back again
I know
I know
I know you been holding back again again
Top of page
Bloody Eyes
If you've never been in the ring
It's nowhere you want to go
If you open up there
They will swallow you whole
I went to get pushed around
To see the people spilling out
I bet the champ's holding up bloody eyes right now
He knows the dream is a lie
Shot through the wrong end of the sky
and my old djinn remembers what I did
When I gave up my overtures
And let you know for sure that I won't let go
Right now
Things are looking up baby
Don't look back behind you
That's my best advice
Because no matter what you find
Bloody eyes are always looking back
Bloody eyes are always looking back
Looking
*****
ALBUM: Libertine
by Silkworm
(C) 1994 El Recordo, Ltd.
ELR01
Joel Phelps - guitar, vocals on 4,5,6,8
Andy Cohen - guitar, vocals on 1,2
Tim Midgett - bass, vocals on 3,7,9,10,11
Michael Dahlquist - drums
Lyrics transcribed February 1995 by Brian Eck <eck@eskimo.com>
Thanks also to the following for the help:
Jeff Breeze <jbreeze@bigcat.missouri.edu>
Franklin Bruno <BRUNO@humnet.ucla.edu>
Liz Clayton <lclayton@umich.edu>
Ben Goldberg <BEGOLDBERG@vaxsar.vassar.edu>
Mike Hibarger <mhibarge@chipcom.com>
Michael Troutman <thivai@m-net.arbornet.org>
Jim Stone <stoneji@scan.si.edu>
Last updated 4/12/98.