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As I lay me down to fall asleep
With my demons dying and my pilot light weak
I curse the last six months I been hiding behind a mustache, yeah
And to those last ten years I been howling a paper moon: fuck you
This goes out to all my underdone, under-tongue, lung long frontmen
(This is what the ghost of someone's dad says)
And all us earth growths, some planted
And some pulled
(Shut up and put your money where your mouth is)
Shine a flashlight in a hat box and spin
An empty oyster shell and celebrate the hollows
This goes out to dirty dancing, cursing, backmasking,
backslidden pastor's kids
(From behind bars it's not so hard to see he's risen)
And all us earth growths, some planted
And some pulled
(But nobody finds God and then goes to prison)
In Berlin I saw two men fuck in a dark corner of a basketball court
Just the slight jingle of pocket change pulsing
In the tourist part I lost fifty Euros
To the guy with the walnut shells and the marbles
It really pissed me off, so oh
I thought I'd go back to get my money but all my homies warned me
Oh no, those gypsies probably got knives
This goes out to all my under brewed, double-duped, two times true fools
(Stuck faking a phone call or texting for company)
And all us earth grows, I'm planted
That's some pull
(Like a married uncle at a family function)
I got them shaky gums and a couple of loose tooths
Now tell me, what should I do, my god
The clock's always stuck telling 11:11, or 3:32
This goes out to all my underdone, other-tongued, lung long frontmen
(Even just Joanna Newsom’s left hand)
And all us earth growths, some planted
And some pulled
(I bet could beat the pants in bass off your best man)
This goes out to all my underdone, other-tongued, lung long frontmen
(This is what the ghost of someone's dad says)
And all us earth growths
Doing the croak like it ain't no joke
In a crowded room project a debonair aloof impermanence
Be shrouded loosely in an air of indeterminates
With my demons dying and my pilot light weak
I curse the last six months I been hiding behind a mustache, yeah
And to those last ten years I been howling a paper moon: fuck you
This goes out to all my underdone, under-tongue, lung long frontmen
(This is what the ghost of someone's dad says)
And all us earth growths, some planted
And some pulled
(Shut up and put your money where your mouth is)
Shine a flashlight in a hat box and spin
An empty oyster shell and celebrate the hollows
This goes out to dirty dancing, cursing, backmasking,
backslidden pastor's kids
(From behind bars it's not so hard to see he's risen)
And all us earth growths, some planted
And some pulled
(But nobody finds God and then goes to prison)
In Berlin I saw two men fuck in a dark corner of a basketball court
Just the slight jingle of pocket change pulsing
In the tourist part I lost fifty Euros
To the guy with the walnut shells and the marbles
It really pissed me off, so oh
I thought I'd go back to get my money but all my homies warned me
Oh no, those gypsies probably got knives
This goes out to all my under brewed, double-duped, two times true fools
(Stuck faking a phone call or texting for company)
And all us earth grows, I'm planted
That's some pull
(Like a married uncle at a family function)
I got them shaky gums and a couple of loose tooths
Now tell me, what should I do, my god
The clock's always stuck telling 11:11, or 3:32
This goes out to all my underdone, other-tongued, lung long frontmen
(Even just Joanna Newsom’s left hand)
And all us earth growths, some planted
And some pulled
(I bet could beat the pants in bass off your best man)
This goes out to all my underdone, other-tongued, lung long frontmen
(This is what the ghost of someone's dad says)
And all us earth growths
Doing the croak like it ain't no joke
In a crowded room project a debonair aloof impermanence
Be shrouded loosely in an air of indeterminates
Lyrics submitted by ericaface
Track duration: 03:55
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"This goes out to all my underdone, under-tongue, lung long frontmen" talking about all the people who are untalented, and "frontmen" is directly talking about basically top 20 artist.
"This goes out to dirty dancing, cursing, backmasking,
backslidden pastor's kids
(From behind bars it's not so hard to see he's risen)
And all us earth growths, some planted
And some pulled
(But nobody finds God and then goes to prison)" This verse is talking about how they try to be fake and say they are religious people, but yet they go to prision for doing stupid unholy stuff.
"(Even just Joanna Newsom’s left hand)
(I bet could beat the pants in bass off your best man)" hes giving props to Joanna Newsom while saying that she can outplay any dumb "hot" bass player or any guitar player for that matter.
at one point he says "put your money where your mouth is" acknowledging that they have money, but hes challenging their talent.
Yoni Wolf is a fucking genius. enough said.
And all us Earth grows *some planted, some pulled
The clock's always stuck telling 11:11, or 3:32
this is a reference to verse of king james bible
11:11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
3:32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies
can literally mean the sound of the two men in the Berlin basketball court
but it can also be figurative or a metaphor for
"it's no big deal"
Like, just the slightest decimal of the denomination
you adhere to (despising homosexuals)
It's just pocket change to accept them. Let it go.
(parallels to the 'wall' in Berlin, but then I'm reading WAY too into it.)
as pertaining to the phrase "pilot light weak"
(I think. Makes sense.)
The "underdone, under-tongue, lung long frontmen" are singers with big lungs but no tongues, loud mouthed rockers with nothing truthful to say ( and that includes Joanna Newsom's filthy left hand, which has been hiding not admitting it's indiscretions).
Yoni feels he too has been gutless, his moustache a form of hiding, his very Wolf-ness wasting it's time howling at a "paper" moon, rather than the burning fiery moon of total truth.
"The Hollows" are the parts of us we humans (aka children of the earth or "earth growths") don't like to fess up about. Yoni says "Shine a flashlight" in your dark "hat box" and "celebrate the hollow" truths of the universal human experience.
Yoni's tale of being a gutless chump, fleeced by and fearful of "gypsies," is an example of how to wallow in the truth of hollow human exprerience. Truth, Yoni believes, will set us free, not posing BS, no matter how well sung.
an empty oyster shell and celebrate the hollows"
This sounds like a pregnancy scare... she thinks she pregnant but she's not sure.
She goes to the doctor get's her shit checked out.
And they're happy because there's an empty oyster shell(vag.) and that calls for a celebration.
"In a crowded room project a debonair aloof impermanence
be shrouded loosely in an air of indeterminates."
As all of Yoni's songs are, this song is vaguely autobiographical, at least to whatever extent the character he portrays on his album is derived from his real personality. However, what he says here speaks volumes: He projects aloof impermanence, and shrouds himself loosely in indeterminable things.
In other words: Yoni's lyrics largely represent highly visual phrases and snippets of poetry from scraps of paper and notebooks, sometimes loosely tied together, and sometimes intentionally obscured through phrases which have excellent aesthetic consonance.
Not everything here can be deciphered, guys, because it doesn't all make sense.
"As I lay me down to fall asleep
with my demons dying and my pilot light weak
I curse the last six months I been hiding behind a mustache, yeah
and to those last ten years I been howling a paper moon: fuck you"
Just a diary snippet of some sort - Yoni's trying to fall asleep, he feels as if his "inner flame" or willpower, represented by the pilot light, is growing weaker. It's a bleak sentiment. He curses the fact that he's been wearing a mustache for the past six months. It's not a Hitler reference, guys, it's pretty easy to figure out. Yoni wishes he hadn't been wearing a mustache for the past half a year. What does it mean that he's been "howling a paper moon?" I can't say for sure, other than it seems it would be in reference to his musical career up to this point. "Paper Moon" is famously a movie about a con man. Could he be cursing what he now sees as insincerity in his work?
In the chorus, he doesn't proclaim anything so esoteric as some of you might like to think. He dedicates the song, essentially, to the entire human race, but especially to miscreant and seedy characters such as the examples he gives. It's like The Decemberists "Come Join the Youth and Beauty Brigade - we're calling all the light loafers, the bored bench-warmers." He calls on several specific groups to refer to a single idea of a whole.
He then goes on to tell a presumably autobiographical story about his trip to Berlin, which he represents through rather unpleasant imagery. Okay...there you have it. It's not so complex, guys. Yoni's poetry is fascinating in the choices he makes and the images he paints, but it's all rather abstract and obtuse semi-autobiographical stuff. It's not about gangs or neo-nazis.
"That's easy, that's very easy for me. This is a little weird for me to say; I don't think I've ever said this to the press. I've been figure skating since I was a little kid. My parents put me in lessons when I was six years old, and I've been doing it every since. It's not like I'm that good at this point, but when I was 16, I actually tried out for the Olympics. I placed 332nd. I can't say that things went so well for me, but that's something... 332nd, that's something [laughs]."
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