Lyrics for Oh Sister as interpreted by mrtrout

Oh Sister Lyrics
Oh sister, don't be afraid of me
I won't be nailing you down in the nursery
Just like the rest of them did
With those watery, wandering fingers that slipped
That were supposed to be glorious and fine

Oh sister, won't you believe in me
I only wanted to be hard on the family
Here with you now in this silly infirmary
Your mother makes frantic and drunk calls
From Germany all of the time

Oh sister, sweet brown and beulahery
And milk from your blisters on your grandmother's jewelry
There in the parlor all naked in front of me
Watching the lights from the cracks
Making archery animal designs

Rose Wallace Goldaline just moves her mouth over anything
Fleshy free and flowering with oranges out in the open
But don't you waste your sins again
She don't need you or won't fuck your friends
And you, you're American, so important boiling over
To prove that she must still exist
She moves herself about her fist
And never ever gave a shit
About all those words you're wasting again
Some pretty bright and bubbly wondrous dream
You'd like to kill and claim
And claim her as your own
But don't you worry
All those dainty and dirty emotions
Just go away and fade out on their own
Sister, now that we're grieving
Our fingers will falter
Our lungs will be leaking
All over each other and without even speaking
We'll know that it's over and smile and go greeting
Whatever comes next

And oh sister
You're getting married with some angry twister
That you'll have to carry home
Drunk every evening from the cemetery
And if he makes it back half alive you can
Bury him under your sheets
And oh sister
Now that you're leaving
I cannot imagine there is any meaning
Forgetting you ever could once
Had the feeling that made you keep on
And pretend you were breathing of all of this world
In an age of empty rings
I don't want to feel the thing
I don't even want to know
And Rose Wallace Goldaline
Don't you ever die on me
All the way it goes

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TheKingOfCarrotFlowers
02-05-2010

Rated 0 
Godaline refers to a story where two Siamese twins are stranded in Siberia and find a large ravenous creature, possibly a bear. Knowing they could never make it out, they willingly surrender to the creature and are willingly consumed.

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bernadettesalem
08-20-2008

Rated -1 
The songs about a little girl who was molested in the nursery.

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kconheady
04-07-2008

Rated 0 
i always got the impression that his sister had lived an awful life. whenever i heard the first stanza, i always thought that he was talking about his little sister being taken advantage of ("wandering fingers").

like, his parents were supposed to be the ones taking care of her, and protecting her from evils ("supposed to be glorious and fine") when they were actually the ones causing the evil.

and that's why he would want to be "hard on the family" (because they abused her)

and now, because she's had a fucked up childhood, she gets married to a deadbeat drunkard, because she's never had a normal relationship.

i dunno, maybe i'm reading into this wrong.

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ellibean
01-12-2008

Rated 0 
beulah is also a female named from the Hebrew word meaing "married"

which may or may not be significant but since the song makes mulitple references to his messed up family dynamics, i decided to throw it out there.

but anyway, this song is freaking amazing

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Graceinfalling
01-04-2008

Rated 0 
I love how some of the lines are used in his other songs. And I just woke up, so there is no way I'm to begin figuring this out, but Mangun is epic.

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bombazinedoll
07-12-2007

Rated 0 
Actually, the vinyl comes with the story to be read with when listening to the record and after two headed boy there are lyrics from this song (not sung on the album but written into the story)
Anyways, so this song would come after two headed boy

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sanspaper
10-26-2006

Rated 0 
Beulah is also the name of a street in Athens, Ga, where Jeff wrote much of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. The actual writing took place in a house on Grady St., but Beulah St. is near it I think.

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SnareRushJunkie
07-02-2006

Rated 0 
Beulah is the land of Israel in the Bible. According to dictionary.com, it's also the land of peace in Pilgrim's Progress and it can mean to be married. Finally, Beulah is also a band that's part of the Elephant 6 collective.

How any of that relates... I am way too tired to even begin figuring out a Jeff Mangum song at the moment.

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skyballs
06-17-2006

Rated 0 
does anybody know what "beulahery" means?

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Stormx
04-10-2006

Rated 0 
And also, this is wrong:

this silly infirmary
should be
the zillionzth infirmary

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Stormx
04-10-2006

Rated 0 
Goldaline was actually another song, you can find it onto some of the original boots.

Its now tagged onto the end of Oh Comely in most versions.

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nichie
03-31-2006

Rated 0 
in one version that i have, this verse appears between the 2nd and 3rd verses:


Oh sister, sweet brown and comely,
I will be milking with you making fun of me
Now that my moods are not what they used to be
There has been no one alive laying next to me
For such a long time

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backwashmyhair
03-21-2006

Rated 0 
in the first stanza where it says "fingers that were supposed to be glorious and fine", i'm sure we can all relate to that since it's like jumping into some fancy advertisement but finding the experience "watery and slipping" instead---and if a nursery is like that, it's a big deal.

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Lu Stubbs
03-20-2006

Rated 0 
In the "Aeroplane" Liner notes the lines
"Oh Sister, now that we're grieving
Our fingers will falter
Our lungs will be leaking
All over each other and without even speaking
We'll know that it's over and smile and go greeting
Whatever comes next"

After Two Headed Boy, ,and before "Holland" since "Two Headed Boy" and "The Fool" run together Im assuming it was to go after the fool and be a prequel to Oh, Comely

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Eelsrule
01-13-2006

Rated 0 
Why did he have to go and dissappear from the music scene? He apparently had so much more to say than what got heard...

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SnareRushJunkie
12-21-2005

Rated 0 
It may also be related to Communist Daughter, which contains the lines

Proves that she must still exist
She moves herself about her fist

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All_almost
01-11-2005

Rated 0 
Goldaline refers to a story of two twins who were stranded in Siberia. I don't know if it's a true story or just something Jeff made up. I can't really find anything more.

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backstab
06-06-2004

Rated 0 
I'm hooked on this song.

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Abex22
05-09-2004

Rated 0 
heehee who is goldaline? sooooo anybody else think this was a meant to be sequel or prequel to oh comely? i mean id figure its too obvious

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ataraxia37
06-24-2003

Rated 0 
wha! too many of the same. more goldeline. who is goldaline?

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