Lincoln

Artist: They Might Be Giants

1988 Restless/Bar None Records

All selections by They Might Be Giants.

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Ana Ng

Make a hole with a gun perpendicular

To the name of this town in a desk-top globe

Exit wound in a foreign nation

Showing the home of the one this was written for

My apartment looks upside down from there

Water spirals the wrong way out the sink

And her voice is a backwards record

It's llike a whirlpool, it never ends

CHORUS

Ana Ng and I are getting old

And we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic presence

Listen Ana hear my words

They're the ones you would think I would say if there was a me for you

All alone at the '64 World's Fair

Eighty dolls yelling "Small girl after all"

Who was at the Dupont Pavilion

Why was the bench still warm? Who had been there?

Or the time when the storm tangled up the wires

To the horn on the pole at the bus depot

And in the back of the edge of hearing

these are the words the voice was repeating:

CHORUS

when I was driving once I saw this painted on a bridge:

"I don't want the world, I just want your half"

They don't need me here, and I know you're there

Where the world goes by like the humid air

And it sticks like a broken record

Everything sticks until it goes away

And the truth is, we don't know anything

CHORUS

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Cowtown

CHORUS

I'm going down to Cowtown

Cow's a friend to me

Lives beneath the ocean and that's where I'll be

Beneath the waves, the waves

And that's where I'll be

I'm going to see the cow beneath the sea

The yellow Roosevelt Avenue leaf overturned

The ardor of arboreality is an adventure we have spurned, we've spurned

A new leaf overturned

It's a new leaf overturned

CHORUS

We yearn to swim for home, but our only home is bone

How sleepless in the egg knowing that which throws the stone

Foresees the bone, the bone

Our only home is bone

Our only home is bone

CHORUS

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Lie Still, Little Bottle

Lie still, little bottle, and shake my shaky hand

Black coffee's not enough for me, I need a better friend

One pill at the bottom is singing my favorite song

I know I must investigate

I hope that I can sing along

There is no time for metaphors cried the little pill to me

He said, "Life is a placebo masquerading as a simile"

I knew that pill was lying

Toogregarious, too nice

But as he walked I had to sing this twice

Lie still, little bottle

Don't twist, it ain't twistin' time

With every move you make you just disintegrate my ever-troubled mind

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Purple Toupee

I remember the year I went to camp

I heard about some Lady named Selma and some Blacks

Somebody put the fingers in the President's ears

It wasn't too much later they came out with Johnson's wax

I remember the book depositroy where they crowned the king of Cuba

That's all I can think of, but I'm sure there's something else

Way down inside me I caan hear it coming back

CHORUS

Purple toupee will show the way when summer brings you down

Purple toupee aald gold lame will turn your brain around

Chinese people were fighting in the park

We tried to help them fight, no one appreciated that

Martin X was mad when they outlawed bell bottoms

Ten years later they were sharing the same cell

I shouted out, "Free the Expo '67"

Till they stepped on my hair, and told me I was fat

Now I'm very big, I'm a big important man

The only thing that's different is underneath my hat

CHORUS

Purple toupee is here to stay after the hair has gone away

The purple brigade is marching from the grave

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Cage and Aquarium

Somebody's reading your mind

Damned if you know who it is

they're digging through all of your files

Stealing back your best ideas

You cover your windows with lead

Even keeping the pets outside

Then you hear a moment too late this sound coming over the phone

"This is the spawning of the cage and aquarium

Don't wait a moment too soon

Used to be different, now you're the same

Yawn as your plane goes down in flames

this is the spawning of the cage and aquarium

Don7t wait a moment too soon

Used to be different, now you're the same

Yawn as your plane goes down in flames"

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Where Your Eyes Don't Go

Where your eyes don7t go a filthy scarecrow waves its broomstick arms

And does a parody of each unconscious thing you do

When you turn around to look it's gone behind you

On its face it's wearing your confused expression

Where your eyes don't go a part of you is hovering

It's a nightmare that you'll never be discovering

You7re free to come aand go or talk like Kurtis Blow

But there's a pair of eyes in back of your head

Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders

What the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of

should you worry when the skullhead is in front of you

Or is it worse because it's always waiting where your eyes don't go?

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Piece of Dirt

Piece of dirt, that is all I'm standing on today

Piece of dirt, my whole world has slipped away

I would climb the highest mountain just to jump into a fountain

Or to fly, I'd fly away

A woman's voice on the radio can convince you you're in love

A woman's voice on the telephone can convince you you're alone

But I set my sails so long ago they've revoked my sailor's badge

Said I should be content and happy on this ink spot where I stand

Pice of dirt

I made it prettier today

Piece of dirt, it was that or just complain

I find myself huanted by a spooky man named me

I wishthat I could jump pout of my skin

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Mr. Me

Once a boy named Mister Me bemoaned a great regret:

"I've floundered in the misty sea, but can't abide it's mystery,

I wound up sad, you bet"

So onward go and Edward Ho into the bounding main

Enjoy the show look out below but mind the misty sea

Or end up like Mister Me

He ended up sad

He ended up sad

He ended up really, really, really sad

So take the hand of Mister Me and mister,

Make him glad to swim the Mister Misty Sea and case

The Mister Mystery that mister, made him sad

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Pencil Rain

The possible dream

Finale of seem

The moment that some call eternal that some call insane

now helmets on each head awaiting the first lead

The pageant is named the pencil rain

The infantry stands

And holds out its hands

The marshal's binoculars focus and skyward they train

They're searching the yonder blue

They look out for number two

The heraldry of the pencil rain

And now hear the roar that none can ignore

The thunderous clatter of spintering wood and lives that are claimed

And one who have witnessed all

Can think of a nobler cause than perishing in the pencil rain

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The World's Address

I know you deceived me, couldn't sleep last night

Now my tear stains on the wall reflect an ugly sight

I can see your secrets

No need to confess

Everyone looks naked when you know the world's address

CHORUS

The world's address

It's a place that's warm

A sad pun that reflects a sadder mess

I'll repeat it for those who may not have already guessed

the world's address

Life's parade of fashion just leaves me depressed

Under very garment I can see the world's address

Call the men of science and let them hear this song

tell them Albert Einstein and Copernicus were wrong

CHORUS

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I've Got a Match

Get out of the car

Put down the phone

Take off that stupid looking hat you wear

I'mgoing to die if you touch me one more time

Well I guess that I'm going to die no matter what

Love people are there

The smell of love everywhere

You think it's always sensitive and good

You think that I want to be understood

CHORUS

I've got a match

Your embrace aand my collapse

Beat up the cat if you need someone else on the mat

I put a rock in the coffee in your coffee mug

Which one of us is the one that we can't trust?

You say I think it's you but I don't agree with that

Love people are there

The smell of love everywhere

why can't you be sensitive and good

Why don't you want to be understood

CHORUS

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Santa's Beard

Once a year my friend puts on a red suit

And hangs around with me and my wife

But lately I've been feeling jealous each time she climbs on his knee

And she stands beneath the mistletoe screaming

For him to stand beneath the mistletoe screaming

Now I can't help but feeling jealous each time she climbs on his knee

Why must she climb on his knee?

CHORUS

I saw my baby wearing Santa's beard

She kissed him once and whispered in his ear

I saw my baby wearing Santa's beard

I whish he would go

He's breaking up my home

She always had this twisted side to her

But she'd never drag my name around town

But lately she's been humming cheating songs

And I don't like that fat guy around

No, I don't like that fat guy around

Thrilling Christmas, trembling fear

CHORUS

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You'll Miss Me

You'll always miss my big old body

In its prime and never shoddy,

While bloodhounds wait down in the lobby you'll eulogize my big old body

You'll miss me in effigies

lighting up your house like Xmas trees

As tears roll down below your knees

You'll miss me with effigies

Go find a man to fit my shoes

Left one's on and the right one's new

And I bought the right one just for you

Go find a man to fit my shoes

Your money talks but my genius walks

Morticians wait with a shovel and a fork

As detectives trace my hands with chalk

Your money talks but my genius walks

You'll miss me, but I'm already dead

It must be raining because a man ain't supposed to cry

But I look up and I don't see a cloud

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They'll Need a Crane

Love sees love's happiness

But happiness can't see that love is sad

Sadness is hanging there

To show love somewhere something needs a change

CHORUS

They'll need a crane, they'll need a crane

to take the house he built for her apart

To make it break it's going to take a metal ball hung from a chain

They'll need a crane, they'll need a crane

To pick the broken ruins up again

to mend her heart, to help him start to see a world apart from pain

Lad's gal is all he has

Gal's gladness hang's upon the love of lad

Some thins gal says to lad aren't meant as bad

But Cause a little pain

Don't call me at work again no no the boss still hates me

I'm just tired and I don't love you anymore

And there's a restaurant we should check out where

The other nightmare people linke to go-

I mean nice people, baby wait,

I didn't mean to say nightmare

CHORUS

Lad looks at other gals

Gal thinks Jim beam is handsomer than lad

He isn't bad

Call off the wedding band

nobody wants to hear that song again

Play that again

CHORUS

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Shoehorn with Teeth

He wants a shoehorn, the kind with teeth

People should get beat up for stating their beliefs

He wants a shoehorn, the kind with teeth

Because he knows there's no such thing

He asks a girl if they can bot sit in a chair but he doesn't get nervous

She's not really there

Tour the world in a heavy metal band

But they run out of gas

the plane can never land

What's the sense in ever thinking about the tomb

When you're much too busy returnin too the womb?

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Stand on Your Own Head

I like people, they're the ones who can't stand

I see smoke signals coming from them

They say "we are out of furniture"

Stand on your own head for a change

Give me some skin to call my own

You made my day, now you have to sleep on it

I love the world and if I have to sue for custody,

I will sue for custody

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Snowball in Hell

Avalanche or roadblock, I was a snowball in hell

Avalanche or roadblock, a jailer trapped in his cell

Money's all broke, and food's going hungry

If it wasn't for disappointment

I wouldn7t have any appointments

have a nice day, you want it when?

Have a nice day, have a nice day

Money I owe, money-iy-ay, mone I owe, money-iy-ay

CHORUS

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Kiss Me, Son of God

I built a little empire out of some crazy garbage

Called the blood of the exploited working class

But they've overcome their shyness

Now they're calling me your highness

And the world screams, "Kiss me, Son of God"

I destroyed a bond of friendship and respect

between the only people left who'd even look me in the eye

now I laugh and make a fortune

Off the same ones that I tortured

and a world screams "Kiss me, Son of God"

I look like Jesus, so they say

But Mr. Jesus is very far away

now you7re the only one here who can tell me if it's true

That you love me and I love me

I built a little empire out of some crazy garbage

Called the blood of the exploited working class

But they've overcome their shyness

Now they're calling me Your Highness

And the world screams "Kiss me, Son of God"

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DON'T BLAME ME...

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Eric Wincentsen "Greetings from the Humungous-

[email protected] The Lord Humungous!"

Glendale Community College, -The Road Warrior

Glendale, Arizona

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I DIDN'T VOTE FOR SLICK WILLY!