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A home removed, a life resumed right here
The Priest and the Rosary,
The book and the bond between he and me has long since broken
A boy who’s grown, too short to see,
A tale unfolds, too tall to be
A life once lived behind closed doors, the irony of the pensive whore
Touch, taste, feel it ripping me down
A reprise, two times, the dime, burn it to the ground
The inquiry of Ms. Terri,
The expiry of misery,
The table turns the sun long,
The river bed, and he’s alone
The object of affection,
Conflicted by convictions of indecency, sorority,
Corrupted by impropriety
The cavalier, she hopes of him,
In dissonance with experience,
A boy who grows, with knife in hand,
To fend for her, becomes a man
But she plays fake affection, and carefully lacks objection
To her gentleman caller's twisted desires
Touch, taste, feel it ripping me down.
A reprise, two times, the dime, burn it to the ground.
We dance around the room,
My love, I’ll carry you,
And I’ll teach you how to treat
That Leading lady that you'll meet
We dance around the truth,
My dear, I lie for you,
But when I lie down,
I’m simply lying to them too
The Priest and the Rosary,
The book and the bond between he and me has long since broken
A boy who’s grown, too short to see,
A tale unfolds, too tall to be
A life once lived behind closed doors, the irony of the pensive whore
Touch, taste, feel it ripping me down
A reprise, two times, the dime, burn it to the ground
The inquiry of Ms. Terri,
The expiry of misery,
The table turns the sun long,
The river bed, and he’s alone
The object of affection,
Conflicted by convictions of indecency, sorority,
Corrupted by impropriety
The cavalier, she hopes of him,
In dissonance with experience,
A boy who grows, with knife in hand,
To fend for her, becomes a man
But she plays fake affection, and carefully lacks objection
To her gentleman caller's twisted desires
Touch, taste, feel it ripping me down.
A reprise, two times, the dime, burn it to the ground.
We dance around the room,
My love, I’ll carry you,
And I’ll teach you how to treat
That Leading lady that you'll meet
We dance around the truth,
My dear, I lie for you,
But when I lie down,
I’m simply lying to them too
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Mainly because in "Life and Death" the lyrics in the second verse are as follows, "One of these days he will learn to love again." I only thought of that because of "When we dance it looks just like fire." but this has nothing to do with the son and his mother here. Idk, just rambling.
"Reprise" meaning repetition in song / and a payment of annuity being that she is a whore. Casey Crascenzo has a promiscuous vernacular.
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A hope removed, a life resumed right here. The Priest and the Rosary, the buck and the bond between me and me has long since broken. A boy who's grown too short to see; A tale unfolds, too tall to be. A life once lived behind closed doors, the irony of a pensive heart.
Touch, taste, feel it ripping me down. Reprise, two times. The Dime, burn it to the ground.
The inquiry of Ms. Terri, the expiry of misery. The table turns the sun long the river bed and he's alone. The object of affection, conflicted by convictions of indecency. Sorority corrupted by impropriety. The cavalier she holds of him, in dissonance with experience. A boy who grows with knife in hand to fend for her, becomes a man. But she plays fake affection, and carefully lacks objection to a gentleman caller's twisted desires.
Touch, taste, feel it ripping me down. Reprise, two times. The Dime, burn it to the ground.
We dance around the room, my love, I'll carry you. I'll teach you how to treat that leading lady that you'll meet. We dance around the truth, my dear, I lie for you. But when I lie down, I'm simply lying to them too.
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The main lyrics that need explaining are the "tale too tall to be", as in a tall tale, so absurd it can't be true. Also the Dime is a brothel that plays key parts in the storyline of the album and other songs. These are the official lyrics.
A hope (or home) removed, a life resumed right here.
First off, this song suggests loneliness. She is looking at her life in depression. She is further off in the future, much after city escape remembering, perhaps regretting her actions.
And the Priest and the Rosary, the buck and the bond between me and you has long since broken.
First she is referring to a prayer she recalls and that jerk off priest. (the prayer has a lotta significance I feel, but im not catholic and don’t care to research a prayer). This is paralleled with the buck (currency/male figure/deer [oh yeah casey]) and bond (currency/connection/sex [oh yeah casey]). Then there is this relationship cut off, which may be with the father. Did she intentionally conceive because she loved him dear, but was torn by money and the priest? Or was it the priest? (someone talked about the smiling swine brother, I feel that is really intuitive and may be true, but probably not).
A boy who�s grown, too short to see, a table unfolds, too tall to see.
Grown short, haha, so the boy is innocent and boyish. Cool. It’s a “a tale unfolds too tall to be” if you ask me. Maybe she is sitting at a table or something (its mentioned later). But I think it’s her recognizing how this tale unfolding before her as her boy is growing (looking like the father and reminding her of her past) is so wild.
A life once lived behind closed doors, the irony of a pensive heart.
Past life, sex is awk. Irony of a pensive heart? I love you casey. PUN: “pen” in “pensive”, he’s writing this, writing a heart. When in reality, the heart is a fickle object that isn’t so easy to predict. Not to mention, this is Ms. Terri’s depression, her heart (or perhaps her flesh) desires some sort of man, but thought weighs her down. Thought for her son, plus thought revealing the truth of this life. Ms. Terri is truly growing up!
Touch, taste, feel it ripping me down. A reprise, two times, that time, burn it to the ground.
(two times? Other son… hm…meant to kill him but didn’t? hm…food for thought) she is overwhelmed by her past life basically. I can’t really get this part though..
The euchre(?) of mystery, the expiry of misery, the table turns, the sun long, the river bed, and he�s alone.
“New degree/future read of mystery” maybe. Haha , not euchre. It’s something to do with the future and how long the misery will last. I love this part, haha I feel he is bringing meteorology into the discussion but that’s just me. Anyways, this part has a lotta meanings, nothing too literal I think. “table turns the son/sun along/long the river bed and he’s alone”. Few things. Shes angry, flippin tables. Wakes up son in the bed. Or life is moving along and he is alone, she worries for his future. Or life is playing out in some sort of cycle and she is seeing what stage he is in. Just combine all of those.
The object of affection, conflicted by convictions of indecency, sorority, corrupted by impropriety.
The rapidity of speech here really gets into her thoughts. She was the object of affection now he is. She misses the friendship and affection of before. But again! The pensive heart: she recalls the joys, but then remembers the “indecency”, then “impropriety” and all that stuff.
The cavalier, she holds of him, in dissonance with experience, a boy who grows, with knife in hand, to fend for her, becomes a man.
Now, it’s really getting MANtagy, who is the cavalier? Her son, or the father? That’s the point. She is seeing similarities. Boy’s growing and she “hopes of him”, the cavalier. Is that another man she wants in her life, but must give her attention to this inexperienced (love that) boy? Yeah probably.
But she plays fake affection, and carefully lacks subjection, to a gentleman (processed?) twisted desires.
(ooooh incest??? Hope not), maybe she doesn’t always love him, and that is her dilemma, should she have let him be taken away (kinda reminiscent of moses if you ask me). “carefully lacks subjection” this does two things I think. Perhaps there is another man here, who she uses as a father figure for the Boy as he grows. But she knows this “gentleman (prowler) twisted desires” is just that, a prowler. When she lacks subjection, I feel like she is resisting the urge to belong to him, or put him in power. Something like that, it is unclear.
Touch, taste, feel it ripping me down. A reprise, two times, that time, burn it to the ground.
Lolz he says “reprise two times”, two times.
We dance around the room, my love Ill carry you, and Ill teach you how to “change that leading lady cabaret” We dance around the truth, my dear I lie for you, but when I lie down, Im simply lying to them too.
Plenty of phun in this part. When you hear that last part of music, just think of girls dancing the cancan, that’ll help I think. She is putting up a ruse for the sake of her son! She has the opportunity to do good! It’s great. She also talks about the “leading lady” and she teaches him how to deal with a “leading lady” (leading later to, ms. Leading). This last lyric is one of the most important lyrics in the whole story and there is too much to talk about.
"A hope removed, a life resumed right here. And the Priest and the Rosary, the book and the bond between me and me has long since broken. A boy who's grown, too short to see, a tale unfolds, too tall to see. A life once lived behind closed doors, the irony of a pensive heart."
This line starts out talking about his mother's failed escape from the brothel in City Escape. He is taken back to the city where he is raised ignorant to the plans that she's made for him. And It's pretty ironic what shows up for him in Act: II so i guess that sums up the last line.
"Touch, taste, feel it ripping me down. A reprise, two times, the dime, burn it to the ground."
The chorus basically shows Ms.Terri's disdain for the brothel. Everything about it is disgusting to her and she would much prefer if it weren't standing.
"The inquiry of Ms.Terri, the expiry of misery, the table turns, the sun long, the river bed, and he's alone. The object of affection, conflicted by convictions of indecency, sorority, corrupted by impropriety. The cavalier, she holds of him, in dissonance with experience, a boy who grows, with knife in hand, to fend for her, becomes a man. But she plays fake affection, and carefully lacks subjection, to the gentleman callers twisted desires."
What I get here is that working at a brothel isn't all that it's cracked up to be, so she's going to use this boy she's treating like her son to takee down the brothel for her because, again, she's a caniving whore. (I don't understand how people get anyything but "the inquiry of Ms.Terri" in the beginning. it is the name of the song after all.)
"Touch, taste, feel it ripping me down. A reprise, two times, that time, burn it to the ground.
"We dance around the room, my love I'll carry you, and I'll teach you how to treat that Leading Lady you'll meet. We dance around the truth, my dear I lie for you, but when I lie down, I'm simply lying to them too. "
Is that some foreshadowing I see in the first line? Of course it is. Ms. Leading before we were wondering about the meaning all things regarding her. Wow, Ms.Terri seems to have it all planned out at this point. She obviously has no intention of telling him the truth and will keep up her fake feelings for him and obviously she's faking orgasms...or she doesn't give a damn about her clients.
She's gone right back to what she left behind; The Dime.
"... the bond between me and me has long since been broken..."
The two separate lives (the life she wanted and the life she can't escape) can never meet each other because they are so terribly different.
"A boy who's grown too short to see..."
The child is old enough to see what's going on around him, but isn't comprehensive enough to understand what it is that he sees. Also, "The Fire" that remains after the flame has gone is the boy; a love child, and the reason Ms Terri didn't kill herself.
"A life once lived behind close doors..."
She no longer hides her profession from her son.
"Touch, taste, feel it ripping me down..."
Obviously with a client.
"That Dime, burn it to the ground"
Afterwards, she confides in her son, telling him that one day, they will be completely free of The Dime; even at the expense of making no Dime to come back to--again...
"The inquiry of Ms Terri, the expiry of misery, the table turns the sun along, the riverbed and he's alone"
Upon closer inspection of Ms Terri, she's happy, relatively. Sure, some days are better than others, but it's better than being dead and leaving her son alone.
"The object of affection, conflicted by convictions of indecency, sorority, corrupted by impropriety."
She loves her son, but is conflicted by her apparent need to stay in order to provide for him, even at the expense of risking his social well-being.
This is actually a specific situation where a caller is freaked out by the boy's presence and becomes violent toward Ms Terri.
"The cavalier she hopes of him..."
She hopes the caller won't care...
"... in dissonance with experience..."
... even though experience tells her that this will go sour.
"A boy who grows--with knife in hand,"
Her son watches--with his weapon of choice...
"... to fend for her--becomes a man."
...ready to defend his mother--and now understands what it is that his mother does.
"But she plays fake affection and carefully lacks objection to the gentleman caller's twisted desire."
She calms him down and acquiesces to his "twisted desires" (whatever they might be) with a willing purr.
"We dance around the room. 'My love, I'll carry you, and I'll teach you how to treat that Leading lady you'll marry.'"
After the altercation, she dances with her son and lets him know that she'll always take care of him. Then, she lets him know that you should never treat a woman the way she was just treated.
"We dance around the truth. 'My dear, I lie for you. But, when I lie down, I'm simply lying to them, too.'"
Her son asks her about her profession. She knows he understands what's going on. But, she still plays coy, and lets him know that she's lying to him for his own good.
...
But...
I could be wrong.