I want to be your absolute ultimate
Want to be your only one now
Feel the rays come up from your sulkiness
Feel the rays you radiate now

Sweet and plain,
Unsignable name
That rings in my mind now
That strums me like a string
Chime, unsingable name
Over everything.

Beware the thrum of hearts in your presence and
Watch the breeze that snaps at you now
All the dogs that bark from the fences and
Everything is wanting for you

Smirk on the face and fists in the clenches and
Make the radiator blow now
Crack the planks and shatter the lenses and
Mix the salt, the sugar, and flour

Slushing, sleeting through the blue gloom
Some long bell's lonely ring
Chime, unsingable name
Over everything

I want to see the mountains in silhouette
Want to split for Singapore now
Want to see the mystery trees
Want to hear the womanly sound.

I want to see the mystery trees.
I want to hear the womanly sound.



Lyrics submitted by tallgrl45

Track duration: 04:17

"Unsingable Name" as written by Mike Doughty

Lyrics © CHRYSALIS MUSIC GROUP

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Unsingable Name song meanings
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13 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:Mike Doughty talks about this in his memoir The Book of Drugs:

    A girl with an unsingable name sent me an e-mail out of the blue, saying she was on a high school field hockey team with the assistant of a woman who worked at a music magazine, and that she loved my music. Her name was a melodious string of vowels. Just looking at the e-mail, I decided that a girl with that name just be beautiful.

    The book never says what her name was, but they got involved in a several-month relationship based on heroin and self-loathing.

    Incidentally, he talks about the "$300 worth of dope I was sniffing daily." Probably the inspiration for his song $300.
    Flag frey78on April 30, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The "Unsingable Name" is YHWH, which one cannot pronounce in Jewish tradition.
    Flag mayhapson July 04, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Python is right. The girl's name is (phonetically) Mar-is-lay-sis. I think it's spelt marisleysis but don't quote me. You try finding something to rhyme with marisleysis....
    Flag m00n1on January 25, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I agree with matthew on this one. It seems its a forbidden thing. The happy tone of the song might reflect that he loves her so much and she is so beautiful that even though he cant have her its ok because he knows she is there.
    Flag Jtcypheron April 26, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:since he says its plain i think that its just unsingable because he doesn't want to say it. maybe he doesn't want this girl to know or maybe he isn't allowed to like her because of some other social complication like a friends girl or something
    Flag matthewconteon August 29, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I'm with the Python on this one. Doughty is notorious for writing songs about very simple and everyday subjects, in a very complex and rich way. "Sunkeneyed Girl" and "Janine" come to mind.

    IMO - this is just a love letter to a girl with a name that either doesn't rhyme with anything, or is (plain and simply) un-singable.
    Flag joedrums8aon August 11, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I always thought it was unsingable because her name didn't rhyme with anything.
    Flag ThePythonon March 06, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I say the unsingable name is "jane." That would make it "sweet jane" like the velvet underground song and "Plain Jane." Plus it fits the rhyme scheme. It's a mono-syballic word that you could say rings or chimes like a bell or like a guitar string. The third verse are all calamities, brilliantly thought up and poetic calamities, which gives us "calamity Jane" as well. I thought this song was amazing even before I realized it was a riddle.
    Flag ~Doyleon November 13, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Elegant and sweet. (:
    Flag sjj92on August 12, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I know what he I means. I really do want to see the mountains in silhouette.
    Flag ZidaneTribalon October 16, 2006   Link

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