My favorite okkervil river song

i wish i knew where to find this song. the lyrics are magical.

I think this song was given to the 'Comes With A Smile' zine as a live version and became part of the included CD. This song apparently developed into Black Sheep Boy #4, which can be found on the Black Sheep Boy Appendix EP and has slightly different lyrics.

It's not actually a live version. It's definitely studio, but, as Will says in the following link, it's rough. It definitely developed into Black Sheep Boy #4, but I like the early version of Disfigured Cowboy, too. The story of Disfigured Cowboy: http://jound.com/okkervil/disfiguredcowboystory.html.

Maybe Totoro had a different, live version, but I transcribed lyrics myself, which are a bit different:

Disfigured cowboy, mirror in pieces, hold the receiver, trace the police station line to my number. Number my reasons for this paranoia, for these accusations. My fear of the numbers, paired off like lovers and added together so I can’t remember my name or my nation. Disfigured cowboy, go back to Alabama. You’ve gone out of your head. Get in your battered Mustang, and the back seat will be your bed. Disfigured cowboy, pale denim phantom, if I could just piece together the ransom, I would buy back the youth that clung tight to your temples. It was chased from his bedroom and chased from his candles.
My fear of the numbers, paired off like lovers and added together so I can’t remember my face or my station. Disfigured cowboy, the floor just won’t support you. You hover through the room. Get in your battered Mustang, and the back seat will be your tomb. Well, I rode into Buffalo, and I found a hotel room. And I tried to escape you, but the phone line wouldn’t go through. I looked in the mirror, and I saw you, cowboy, staring out, didn’t recognize your eyes, your mouth, or any other words that come tumbling out. Oh, I thought you were my friend, the cowboy in the mirror, the cowboy that was dead.
Now, don’t come any nearer. Oh, I thought you were my hero. Now I’m begging you, go back into the shadows, the black beside my bed. Pull your features back together. Smash the mirror and you’re dead.