Smells like autumn, smells like leaves
You don't know that you'll rust and not belong so much
And then get left alone
Suck it up, take a ride and take a walk
And don't you know that old folks' homes smell so much like my own.
The hotcha girls at the palisades
Dime store keets, pretty birds, pretty mouths.
Mama's little truck stop rose, her dancy feet her happy laugh.
We were dropping dimes on the ponies in the cul-de-sac,
Casting shadows throwing sparks.
We left our teeth marks on the barrel of the gun,
The clipper ship across your chest.
Turns out the pony only had one trick, a wink for the truck stop boys.
They learned it all from the Polaroids.
Smells like autumn smells like leaves,
You don't know that you'll rust and not belong so much
And then get left alone.
Suck it up, take a ride and take a walk
And don't you know that old folks' homes smell so much like my own.
Time blends light, paint's all peeling, wait outside, take four rights.
The hotcha girls in the palisades
Dime store keets, pretty birds, pretty mouths.
Glass eyes and the wooden teeth,
The engine's rusting in deep deep sleep, it waits.
The mail came from miles away, the postal man is always late,
And we wait and we wait.
Tight lipped with a big ol' mouth,
The government workers all headed south while it rained.
Glassy eyes and wooden teeth, the engine rusted in deep deep sleep
It waits, and it waits, to awake.



Lyrics submitted by ShootTheMessenger

Track duration: 04:59

"Hotcha Girls" as written by Isaac Brock

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Hotcha Girls song meanings
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35 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:This song talks about an entire life but is almost completely about the cycle of growing old and how life is a series of events that inevitably lead to death and birth. song starts with "Smells like autumn smells like leaves you don't know that you'll rust and not belong so much and then get left alone." autumn is the season of decay before winter which is classically a symbol of death....he's getting old. This middle of the song reminesces of life and simplified its experience. And i feel as if the last part of the song is about making a child. especially how it speaks of official workers heading south for the rain while the engine is rusted in deep sleep and at the end it awakes.

    Flag drock608on April 14, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this is such a beautiful song, really.
    Flag driveon July 19, 2010   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:i think the song is about all the little things we do to make life better for ourselves and for those we love. we try and try, but these things are so little that noone else sees them, and so finally we die, feeling unaccomplished, and noone else ever sees it
    Flag jswjswon May 20, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:to me, this song is all about being alone and the empty feeling but the knowledge you gain from it all. feeling distant from the world/everyone around you.. while you're just waiting to rediscover yourself and your happiness, a new kind.
    Flag melissafdson September 09, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this song makes me nostalgic. maybe sad in some ways. it's beautiful... it take me back to this one memory when we were driving down the dirt road trashed... and maybe possibly it was playing on the stereo.

    i'm only 19 and yet i'm living in my past. what a waste.

    (:
    Flag thereisnothereon August 09, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:this song is so pure and so gentle the first few times you hear it. the simplicity and quiet perfection of the melody itself reminds me every time of summer, regardless of the time of year. i never could understand the lyrics and the daunting, melancholy meaning the song really has intensifies every part of the song for me.
    as other people said, this is quite possibly the best song in the entire world.
    Flag eliebelleon August 16, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:"take four rights"
    and see what happens..

    haha issac fucks with my mind
    Flag The_Reynoldson March 03, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I would like to add that dropping dimes on the ponies may be a vague reference to alcohol. The story is great and timeless. Anyone else think isaac failed at his attempts at a clever anagram to disguise Ugly Casanova (in order to dodge interview, retain creative interest in his music or hide from the police) ...and said fuck it...lets just call him edgar graham...ana gram...get it?
    Flag StockinBrockon May 02, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:someone said something about edgar graham being a hoax and that is true. isaac invented him in an attempt to avoid interviews. it didn't work
    Flag willlliwon January 23, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:As others say, I'd agree it's about growing old and being ignored by the younger generations, losing family and friends as you age, etc. The part about waiting for mail, rusted engine, glassy eyes and wooden teeth seems to allude to old people holding out for some long awaited letter from a loved one, or some important news that will allow them to pass on peacefully after having read it.

    As for the hotcha girls, tempting as it is to say that they're women to be lusted after, the term dimestore keets (i.e. parakeets) seems to belittle the appearance of said women, and makes them sound more homely. The part about ponies in the cul de sac seems both a direct reference to an old, miniature carousel ride as well as these homely hotcha girls that are society's rejects, poor girls prostituting themselves to scratch out a living. The only attractive "trick" they know to get customers is a "wink for the truckstop boys."

    As for the teethmarks on the barrel of the gun, instead of suicide, I see it as fighting tooth and nail for life, meeting the opposition (old age, etc.) head on as their potential demise is jammed in their mouths, but refusing to give in and fighting past it.

    The government workers...something about their big mouths that they'll normally shoot off at anybody, but they've got em shut this time, either because they're withholding something important from someone, or because they just fucked some shit up and aren't going to reveal it.

    Orth from Holopaw loves that clippership reference, he uses it in some Holopaw tracks. And can I just say that all the guys in this project and their respective bands (MM, Califone, Holopaw, Sin Ropas, Rex, etc.) are fuckin genius. Isaac, and the other guys, but Isaac especially is a crazy musical poet with the spirit of Steinbeck in him. His ravings, especially the drunken ones, are as funny as his lyrics are witty and stuffed full of dazzling dry humor.
    Flag straightmobbinakon January 13, 2007   Link

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