BEATLE BONES AND
SMOKIN' STONES
album lyrics
BAT CHAIN PULLER
* reconstruction of a long hidden album: recorded in 1976, but released in 2012
* many songs re-recorded for later albums by other line ups
study the discography
intended SIDE ONE
BAT CHAIN PULLER
shiny beast (bat chain puller) 1978
bat chain puller
[several repeats]
a chain with yellow lights that glistens like oil beads
on its slick smooth trunk
that trails behind on tracks and thumps
a wing hangs limp and retrieves
bat chain puller puller puller
bulbs shoot from its snoot and vanish into darkness
it whistles like a root snatched from dry earth
sod bust and rakes with grey dust claws
announces its coming in the morning
this train with grey tubes that houses people's
very thoughts and belongings
[several repeats]
this train with grey tubes that houses people's thoughts
their very remains and belongings
a grey cloth patch caught with four threads
and the hollow wind of its stacks
ripples felt fades and grey sparks clacks
lunge into cushion thickets
pumpkins span the hills with orange crayola patches
green inflated trees balloon up into marshmallow soot
that walks away in faulty circles caught in grey blisters
with twinkling lights and green sashes
drawn by rubber dolphins with gold yawning mouths
that blister and break in agony
and zones of rust
they gild gold sawdust into dust
[several repeats]
[several repeats]
a chain with yellow lights that glistens like oil beads
on its slick smooth trunk
that trails behind on tracks and thumps
a wing hangs limp and retrieves
bat chain puller puller puller
bulbs shoot from its snoot and vanish into darkness
it whistles like a root snatched from dry earth
sod bust and rakes with grey dust claws
announces its coming in the morning
this train with grey tubes that houses people's
very thoughts and belongings
[several repeats]
this train with grey tubes that houses people's thoughts
their very remains and belongings
a grey cloth patch caught with four threads
and the hollow wind of its stacks
ripples felt fades and grey sparks clacks
lunge into cushion thickets
pumpkins span the hills with orange crayola patches
green inflated trees balloon up into marshmallow soot
that walks away in faulty circles caught in grey blisters
with twinkling lights and green sashes
drawn by rubber dolphins with gold yawning mouths
that blister and break in agony
and zones of rust
they gild gold sawdust into dust
[several repeats]
SEAM CROOKED SAM
the mule kicked off a new one
and the stockings ran up seam crooked sam
bandana frock stuffed with smoke
and ears out flopped like bowling pins
hog troughs hocked and wallered in cool mud bins
and patent leather hooves
split in twos
rooms for rent down at ben's
frendsa danced in a frenzy
choked a juke bird with froth glass ferns
and turpentine urns her sawdust daily keep
and whiskey creeps down her neck naked front
and red leatherette
peen button set where her fanny sweat
raised her wrist-a-fan and a mouse coughed cotton
through a screen door cracked sand
rooms rent only to friends
hat rack hotel
architecture tincture of red arkies
pinched the southern belle
and splayed his cracked nail hand
grey fedora - snappy band
and the camel walls yellow like damp dead chickens
beak down the hard wood floor
and the music - o, the music
harp man blew his best lung white shirt
his feet worked like a monkey out the door
and dora robbed a baby through a dark bebop
licorice lenses fogged in hot sorrow
through the floorboards at the general store
your foods still in the hot hand oven
apple pie cooked through a seed bruised stem eye
sticky in the window of momma frame broke
rope bell dingling
'children, i won't call you once more'
and the stockings ran up seam crooked sam
bandana frock stuffed with smoke
and ears out flopped like bowling pins
hog troughs hocked and wallered in cool mud bins
and patent leather hooves
split in twos
rooms for rent down at ben's
frendsa danced in a frenzy
choked a juke bird with froth glass ferns
and turpentine urns her sawdust daily keep
and whiskey creeps down her neck naked front
and red leatherette
peen button set where her fanny sweat
raised her wrist-a-fan and a mouse coughed cotton
through a screen door cracked sand
rooms rent only to friends
hat rack hotel
architecture tincture of red arkies
pinched the southern belle
and splayed his cracked nail hand
grey fedora - snappy band
and the camel walls yellow like damp dead chickens
beak down the hard wood floor
and the music - o, the music
harp man blew his best lung white shirt
his feet worked like a monkey out the door
and dora robbed a baby through a dark bebop
licorice lenses fogged in hot sorrow
through the floorboards at the general store
your foods still in the hot hand oven
apple pie cooked through a seed bruised stem eye
sticky in the window of momma frame broke
rope bell dingling
'children, i won't call you once more'
***
HARRY IRENE
shiny beast (bat chain
puller) 1978
harry irene
were a couple that lived in the green
harry irene
were a couple that ran a canteen
ran a canteen [2x]
two people harry and irene like you've never seen
the floor was made of oak, the door was smokey grey
their tuna sandwiches would turn the dark into day
they sold wine like turpentine to painters
they took to social life like props to aviators
[repeating of parts]
took harry for all of his green and irene
harry was left holding an empty canteen
and by the way folks, it was dusty not harry
what does this mean? [2x]
what's the meaning of this?
poor harry, i guess
***
were a couple that lived in the green
harry irene
were a couple that ran a canteen
ran a canteen [2x]
two people harry and irene like you've never seen
the floor was made of oak, the door was smokey grey
their tuna sandwiches would turn the dark into day
they sold wine like turpentine to painters
they took to social life like props to aviators
[repeating of parts]
took harry for all of his green and irene
harry was left holding an empty canteen
and by the way folks, it was dusty not harry
what does this mean? [2x]
what's the meaning of this?
poor harry, i guess
***
81 POOP HATCH spoken
words
ice cream for crow
1982
my eyes are burnt and bleeding and all that looks like a monkey on a silver bar... big poop hatch with a cotton hatch, hatch holes that the light shows in and the light shows out... and the little red fence... and the wire and the wood... and the barbs and the berries... the tires and the bottles and the car-upon-rims... and the heat swims on its fenders, and the dust collects, and the rust of autumn surrenders into gold... trumpet poop on the ground with peanuts, its bell was blocking an ant's vision... and the mice played in its airholes and valves... a ladybug crawled off its mouthpiece standing out red andblacked its wings and blew off to a flower... its hum heard just above the ground... black dots were hung in what turned out to be an olive tree that originally held a tree house full of a building with one small window... birds and broken glass and tiny bits of newspaper... 'my sun is free from my window,' said the god the green dabbers... rice wires mouse tins and milk muffins... cereal and stone... matches and masks and mace and clubs... and splintered shaft light intrigues a cricket on a dust jeweled penlet... cobwebs collect down plaster run into a hole and find collected glass that drinks the reflection of midday afternoon midway between telegraph lines... a silver wing - a cloud - a rumbling of a cloud... a crowd of various violins strum from next door through my wall into my ear obviously artificial... neighbors laugh through sandwiches... harlem babies, their stomachs explode into roars... their eyes shiny with starvation... spreckled hula dance on my phonograph... my door rattles windy... sand wears my rug shoe and taps on the unheard finish of an hourglass i cannot hear... a typical musician's nest of thoughts filtered through dust speakers... 'why don't you go home? oh blobby, are you great,' exclaims two lips in some jumbled rock and roll tune and wears a spot i cannot scratch... the surface of a friend... this high bookafriend laid on me... on the couch relaxing in the corner behind a still life pond with plenty of bugs and lily pads slurred in mud banks and boulders tin cans and raisins warped by thought... strain on the spoon like a wheat check - check bif - cotton popping out of his sleeve... poop hatch open, big poop hatch with a cotton hatch - hatch holes - got to pick up the horns... but the head won't move until it walks
***
FLAVOR BUD LIVING
doc at the radar station
1980
an
instrumental,
so no lyrics
BRICKBATS
doc at the radar station
1980
brickbats
fly my fireplace
upside down i see them in the fire
they squeak and roast there
wings leap across the floor
fold up the wall shadows
the window curtain ghost froze my heart
and dust my throat
my mind caught by the corner
gradually decides it's safe
becomes a bat itself
flexes its little claws
tests its leather wings with loud hollow pops
around the room threatening to dash its brains
somehow at the last minute retreats
and becomes a natural glue that holds fast
and slow and every other motion
making the night more interesting
becomes a cold liquid breeze
that freezes and thaws and pours
the surroundings full as no breath can be taken
it drowns and relives
to see the black turn into yellow
and the yellow into black
***
upside down i see them in the fire
they squeak and roast there
wings leap across the floor
fold up the wall shadows
the window curtain ghost froze my heart
and dust my throat
my mind caught by the corner
gradually decides it's safe
becomes a bat itself
flexes its little claws
tests its leather wings with loud hollow pops
around the room threatening to dash its brains
somehow at the last minute retreats
and becomes a natural glue that holds fast
and slow and every other motion
making the night more interesting
becomes a cold liquid breeze
that freezes and thaws and pours
the surroundings full as no breath can be taken
it drowns and relives
to see the black turn into yellow
and the yellow into black
***
THE FLOPPY BOOT STOMP
shiny beast (bat chain puller) 1978
the floppy
boot stomped down onto the ground
the farmer screamed and blew the sky off the mountains
eye sockets looked down onto chestbone meadows
and the sun dropped down and the moon ran off
his heels and elbows pale as chalk
and all the comets collided and blew to dust
for fear they would be seen
and the sky turned white in the middle of the night [2x]
and the big floppy boot stomped down onto the ground
and the red violin took the bow for to do the hoodoo hoe-down [2x]
the farmer jumped in a circle and flung his chalk right down
do-si-do the devil sure showed and he broke off his horns
and fiddled him down the road through the fork
and the farmer's floppy boot stomped down
red tail squirmed and the hot leg kicked
and the fire leaped and licked
[repeat of last two sentences]
and when the boot came up the fire went out
and hell was just an ice cube melting off onto the ground
the bow caught down for to do the hoodoo hoe-down
and the bow caught down for to do the hoodoo the devil hoe-down [2x]
through the fork huddled in the hollows
standing at the crossroads
was that bunged-up bandaged broken bum
that fell into the wrong circle
he had a sore red tail that once went red
now was pale fee-fo-fi-fum
he was summoned up from hell, booted down a spell
by a square dancing farmer [2x] well
that old bum was sticking out his thumb
when the farmer drew up and said: 'listen son'
- and the horse compared his hooves -
'if you fall in my circle again
i'll tan your red hide and dance you on your tail
and pitch you from now and now' [2x]
and the hot leg kicked and the fire leaped and licked
[several repeats]
the farmer screamed and blew the sky off the mountains
eye sockets looked down onto chestbone meadows
and the sun dropped down and the moon ran off
his heels and elbows pale as chalk
and all the comets collided and blew to dust
for fear they would be seen
and the sky turned white in the middle of the night [2x]
and the big floppy boot stomped down onto the ground
and the red violin took the bow for to do the hoodoo hoe-down [2x]
the farmer jumped in a circle and flung his chalk right down
do-si-do the devil sure showed and he broke off his horns
and fiddled him down the road through the fork
and the farmer's floppy boot stomped down
red tail squirmed and the hot leg kicked
and the fire leaped and licked
[repeat of last two sentences]
and when the boot came up the fire went out
and hell was just an ice cube melting off onto the ground
the bow caught down for to do the hoodoo hoe-down
and the bow caught down for to do the hoodoo the devil hoe-down [2x]
through the fork huddled in the hollows
standing at the crossroads
was that bunged-up bandaged broken bum
that fell into the wrong circle
he had a sore red tail that once went red
now was pale fee-fo-fi-fum
he was summoned up from hell, booted down a spell
by a square dancing farmer [2x] well
that old bum was sticking out his thumb
when the farmer drew up and said: 'listen son'
- and the horse compared his hooves -
'if you fall in my circle again
i'll tan your red hide and dance you on your tail
and pitch you from now and now' [2x]
and the hot leg kicked and the fire leaped and licked
[several repeats]
***
A CARROT IS AS CLOSE
AS A RABBIT GETS TO A DIAMOND
doc at the radar station
1980
an
instrumental,
so no lyrics
OWED T' ALEX aka CARSON CITY
shiny beast (bat chain
puller) 1978
lyrics
co-written with herb
bermann
stupid heart,
cupid heart,
where will you go from here?
magnetic ring, magnetic draw,
ahhh, what [have] you got me into?
eye of a wolf, chrome claw,
leaving you now, i'll write you, ma
taking a putt up to carson city
well, if you hear me howling - well, hell
sitting pretty, tasting nitty gritty
putting on in to carson city
sparks, tattoos, two tats, and a toot
helmets, crosses, and a patch to boot
engine hot, pipes burn white
glad i'm not... home tonight
five miles back i took a spill
thought i almost paid my bill
making my putt to carson city
party time with the jones by name,
ahhh, it's a shame - say it's a pity
gotta putt out of carson city
ahhh [several times]
where will you go from here?
magnetic ring, magnetic draw,
ahhh, what [have] you got me into?
eye of a wolf, chrome claw,
leaving you now, i'll write you, ma
taking a putt up to carson city
well, if you hear me howling - well, hell
sitting pretty, tasting nitty gritty
putting on in to carson city
sparks, tattoos, two tats, and a toot
helmets, crosses, and a patch to boot
engine hot, pipes burn white
glad i'm not... home tonight
five miles back i took a spill
thought i almost paid my bill
making my putt to carson city
party time with the jones by name,
ahhh, it's a shame - say it's a pity
gotta putt out of carson city
ahhh [several times]
ODD JOBS
original
version released on grow
fins 1999
the rug ripped up in cloth popcorn
balls
the walls an old candy striped sack
in the corner wrinkled black and white
a table held up by legs
the peeled back red enameled mouth of linoleum screamed
at the pasteboard door
a knob rolled off in some corner sticky
a curtain blew into a sink
dead flies and newspapers
charred fire brown wings and toast
hobo ain't been around for some time
the gate danced without its paint on
odd jobs is written on
spiders were the window's eyes
the sun made them look silver
the little girl from in back of the clothesline
cast a shadow like a crow
its beak spoke open
why doesn't odd jobs come around anymore
he used to ride his form-a-heap bike
and his basket was a whole candy store
he used to make x's from door to door
all the women and the young girls around here
ask why old jobs don't come on home
and the gate without its paint on
danced and creaked and moaned
here he comes peddling up on his form-a-heap bike
a bag of skin and bones
spokes were scraping two rust fenders
the walls an old candy striped sack
in the corner wrinkled black and white
a table held up by legs
the peeled back red enameled mouth of linoleum screamed
at the pasteboard door
a knob rolled off in some corner sticky
a curtain blew into a sink
dead flies and newspapers
charred fire brown wings and toast
hobo ain't been around for some time
the gate danced without its paint on
odd jobs is written on
spiders were the window's eyes
the sun made them look silver
the little girl from in back of the clothesline
cast a shadow like a crow
its beak spoke open
why doesn't odd jobs come around anymore
he used to ride his form-a-heap bike
and his basket was a whole candy store
he used to make x's from door to door
all the women and the young girls around here
ask why old jobs don't come on home
and the gate without its paint on
danced and creaked and moaned
here he comes peddling up on his form-a-heap bike
a bag of skin and bones
spokes were scraping two rust fenders
presented as
a poem in book SKELETON BREATH, SCORPION
BLUSH (1987)
THE THOUSANDTH AND
TENTH DAY OF THE HUMAN TOTEM POLE
ice cream for crow
1982
the thousandth
and tenth day of the human totem pole
the morning was distemper grey
of the thousandth and tenth day of the human totem pole
the man at the bottom was smiling
he had just finished his breakfast smiling
it hadn't rained or manured for over two hours
the man at the top was starving
the pole was a horrible looking thing
with all of those eyes and ears
and waving hands for balance
there was no way to get a [heli]copter in close
so everybody was starving together
the man at the top had long ago given up
but didn't have nerve enough to climb down
at night the pole would talk to itself
and the chatter wasn't too good
obviously the pole didn't like itself
it wanted to walk
it was the summer and it was hot
and balance wouldn't permit
a skinning to undergarments
it was an integrated pole
it was taking on a reddish brown cast
exercise on the pole was isometric
kind of a flex and then balance
then the eyes would roll together
the ears wiggle, hands balance
there was a gurgling and googling heard
a tenth of the way up the pole
approaching was a small child
with a statue of liberty doll
the morning was distemper grey
of the thousandth and tenth day of the human totem pole
the man at the bottom was smiling
he had just finished his breakfast smiling
it hadn't rained or manured for over two hours
the man at the top was starving
the pole was a horrible looking thing
with all of those eyes and ears
and waving hands for balance
there was no way to get a [heli]copter in close
so everybody was starving together
the man at the top had long ago given up
but didn't have nerve enough to climb down
at night the pole would talk to itself
and the chatter wasn't too good
obviously the pole didn't like itself
it wanted to walk
it was the summer and it was hot
and balance wouldn't permit
a skinning to undergarments
it was an integrated pole
it was taking on a reddish brown cast
exercise on the pole was isometric
kind of a flex and then balance
then the eyes would roll together
the ears wiggle, hands balance
there was a gurgling and googling heard
a tenth of the way up the pole
approaching was a small child
with a statue of liberty doll
APES-MA spoken words
shiny beast (bat chain
puller) 1978
apes-ma, apes-ma
your cage is too dirty, apes-ma
remember when you were young, apes-ma?
and you used to break out of your cage?
well you know that you're not
strong enough to do that anymore now
and apes-ma, the little girl that
named you years ago has died now
and you're older, apes-ma
remember when she named you
and it was in the paper, apes-ma?
apes-ma, apes-ma
you're eating too much
and going to the bathroom too much, apes-ma
and apes-ma,
your cage isn't getting any bigger, apes-ma
your cage is too dirty, apes-ma
remember when you were young, apes-ma?
and you used to break out of your cage?
well you know that you're not
strong enough to do that anymore now
and apes-ma, the little girl that
named you years ago has died now
and you're older, apes-ma
remember when she named you
and it was in the paper, apes-ma?
apes-ma, apes-ma
you're eating too much
and going to the bathroom too much, apes-ma
and apes-ma,
your cage isn't getting any bigger, apes-ma
***
ceedee BONUS TRACK (outtake)
CANDLE MAMBO
shiny beast (bat chain
puller) 1978
candle shy
candle weep
fly hot candle leap
candle roll
unfold and ball
candle large
candle small
your threads of fire are burning up
your feathers of fire are winning night
and turning light [2x]
light deepest night for me
and steer for me
spin and spin then and then
when i'm dancing with my love
the shadows flicker up above
up above the shadows do the candle mambo
candle roll
unfold and ball
candle blur
candle whir
candle her [2x]
while your lights are spinning around
your feathers of fire are winning night
and turning light [2x]
candle crack
candle break
correct the night's mistake
[repeating of parts]
candle weep
fly hot candle leap
candle roll
unfold and ball
candle large
candle small
your threads of fire are burning up
your feathers of fire are winning night
and turning light [2x]
light deepest night for me
and steer for me
spin and spin then and then
when i'm dancing with my love
the shadows flicker up above
up above the shadows do the candle mambo
candle roll
unfold and ball
candle blur
candle whir
candle her [2x]
while your lights are spinning around
your feathers of fire are winning night
and turning light [2x]
candle crack
candle break
correct the night's mistake
[repeating of parts]
***
click clack back to other lyrics,
return to the power station
or search
on
captain
beefheart electricity
as felt by teejo
^