Here’s a great song that’s completely new to me… I happened upon it while reading another song blog, I Wanna Live With a Musician. I find that I agree with this blogger’s taste a lot of the time, so when he goes on and on about a song the way he did about this one, I take notice.
Turns out Andrew Bird is a Chicago-based violinist (and whistler, according to his Web site) who has put out quite a few well-received albums. I haven’t listened to any of his work other than this song but this certainly makes me want to. So many artists, so little time.
Here are the marvelously cryptic lyrics:
swapping your blood with formaldehyde?
monsters?
whiskey-plied voices cried fratricide!
jesus don’t you know that you could’ve died
(you should’ve died)
with the monsters that talk, monsters that walk the earth
and she’s got red lipstick and a bright pair of shoes
and she’s got knee high socks, what to cover a bruise
she’s got an old death kit she’s been meaning to use
she’s got blood in her eyes, in her eyes for you
she’s got blood in her eyes for you
certain fads, stripes and plaids, singles ads
they run you hot and cold like a rheostat, I mean a thermostat
so you bite on a towel
hope it won’t hurt too bad
my dewy-eyed Disney bride, what has tried
swapping your blood with formaldehyde?
what monsters that talk, monsters that walk the earth
and she says I like long walks and sci-fi movies
if you’re six foot tall and east coast bred
some lonely night we can get together
and I’m gonna tie your wrists with leather
and drill a tiny hole into your head
Meet Me In Montauk 
The man looks like he has been incacerated for killing his family. Perhaps he wrote this song while in prison?:)
Creepy…. You certainly have eclectic taste. I guess we can count on you to keep it interesting.
This is the musical relative of Synecdoche, New York. I haven’t tranferred all the lines, but I’m not immediately seeing any palindromes. What am I missing? (Do like the violin, though)
Real or fake, by the way. What gives?
Not sure where the palindromes come in, as there don’t seem to be any among the lyrics. Just a title, I guess.
“Just a title” – puhleeze. You can’t call your song “Fake Palindromes” without intending something, can you? Maybe he is making some symbolic observation of the world, the need to see that things have some order. I don’t know. There’s got to be something there.
A couple of interesting thoughts on the song here:
http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858533917/
Thanks for the link. A bunch of interesting notions there, but I especially like (agree with 🙂 what “miffed” had to say. That works with the text and with the title. I find it a bit odd how many people are so unabashedly in love with a song that is slightly disturbing on so many levels, but I certainly understand why it captures their attention.
What a load of old tosh. This “song” means one thing and, one thing only: Andrew Bird is a Class A Attention Seeker. That is all