a thick cloud caught a piper cub's tail
the match struck blue on a railroad rail
the old puff horse was just pulling through
and a man wore a peg leg forever
i'm on the bum where the hoboes run
the air breaks with filthy chatter
oh i don't care there's no place there
i don't think it matters
my skin is blazing through
and my clothes in tatters
and the railroad looks
like a 'y' up the hill of ladders
one shoe fell on the gravel
one stick poked down
gray of age fell down on a pair of ears
an eagle shined through my hole watch pocket
a gingham girl, baby girl, passed me by in tears
a jack rabbit raised his folded ears
a beautiful sagebrush jack rabbit
and an oriole sang like an orange
his breast full of worms
and his tail clawed the evening like a hammer
his wings took to air like a bomber
and my rain can caught me a cup of water
when i got into town
odd jobs mam and your horse i'll fodder
i'm the roundhouse man
i once was your father
a little up the road a wooden candy stripe barber pole
and above it read a sign: 'painless parker'
licorice twisted around under a fly
and a youngster cocked her eye
god, before me - if i'm not crazy - is my daughter
come little one with your little old dimpled fingers
gimme one and i'll buy you a cherry phosphate
take you down to the foaming brine and water
and show you the wooden tits
on the goddess with the pole out full sail
that tempted away your peg legged father
i was shanghaied by a high hat beaver mustache man
and his pirate friend
i woke up in vomit and beer in a banana bin
and a soft lass with brown skin
bore me seven babies with snapping black eyes
and beautiful ebony skin
and here it is i'm with you my daughter
thirty years away can make a seaman's eyes
a roundhouse man's eyes flow out water
salt water

wild life along with my wife
i'm going up on the mountain for the rest of my life
before they take my life
before they take my wild life
before they take my wife
they got my mother's father
and run down all my kin
folks, i know i'm next
wild life along with my wife
i'm going up on the mountain for the rest of my life
before they take my wild life
before they take my wife, wife
before they take my wife
wild life [6x]
i'm going up on the mountain along with my wife
find me a cave and talk them bears into taking me in
wild life along with my wife
wild life
it's a man's best friend
wild life along with my wife
[repeating of parts]

[spoken:]
voice one: here you would have a famous version of 'she's too much for my mirror'. note the clever slate.
voice two: 'she's too much for my, or anybody's mirror', number two.
voice one: told you...

she's too much for my mirror
she almost makes me lose it
the way she abused it makes me never want to use it
well, mend your heart and mind your soul

old chicago, she's a woman
that makes a young man a bum
she howls like the wind
make my heart grow cold
make me long for that little red fum

she makes things fly and she makes things roll
she got me way over here and i'm hungry and cold
i remember my mother told me i ought to be choosey
that was way back when i thought she was my friend
now i find out she's a floosey

i remember the butterflies and the sweet smell of corn
and the bubbling fish in that little pond
oooh! lousey! [2x]
how i long for you [2x]
she's too much for my mirror
that little floosey, oh, how i fear her
oooh! lousey

[spoken:]
shit, i don't know how did that harmony get in there?

strawwood claw rattling my jaw
i can't call it using
it's just something soothing
feather times a feather
morning time to thaw
hobo chang ba [2x]
hobo chang ba, o [2x]
standing still is losing
[repeating of parts]
stand to gain my ground
lay to rest the law
the ocean is my mother
and the freight train is my paw
hobo chang ba [2x], hobo chang ba, o
the rails i ride are rusting
the new sunrise [is] my trusting
[repeating of parts]
hobo chang ba, ooh, hobo chang ba, hobo

[spoken:]
frank zappa: you're ready?...
someone: one, two, three, four...
frank zappa: here we go....

master master, this is recorded thru a fly's ear
and you have to have a fly's eye to see it
it's the thing that's going to make
captain beefheart and his magic band fat
frank, it's the big hit! it's the blimp!
it's the blimp, frank! it's the blimp!

when i see you floating down the gutter
i'll give you a bottle of wine
put me on the white hook
back in the fat rack
shad rack ee shack
the something hoop [2x]
the blimp [2x]
the drazy hoops [2x]
they're camp [2x]
tits, tits, the blimp, the blimp
the mother ship [2x]
the brothers hid under their hood
from the blimp, the blimp
children stop your nursing unless you are rendering fun
the mother ship, the mother ship's the one
the blimp [2x]
the tapes a trip it's a trailing tail
it's traipsing along behind the blimp, the blimp
the nose has a crimp
the nose is limp, the blimp
it blows the air, the snoot isn't fair
look up in the sky there's a dirigible there
the drazy hoops whir
you can see them just as they were
all the people stir
and the girls' knees tremble
and run and wave their hands
and run their hands over the blimp, the blimp
daughter, don't you dare
oh, momma, who cares
it's the blimp! it's the blimp

[conversation:]
don van vliet (captain beefheart:) that's it.... hello?
frank zappa: hello.
don van vliet: did you get it?
frank zappa: sure did. it's beautiful. (laughs.)
someone else: i think that we have enough on the tape to, er, just to use that as this for the album.
frank zappa: okay, i'm not listening to that bag now. i gotta go back to that --

the black paper between a mirror breaks my heart
the moon frayed through dark velvet lightly apart
steal softly through sunshine, steal softly through snow
the wild goose flies from winter, breaks my heart that i can't go
energy flies through a field and the sun softly melts a nothing wheel
steal softly through sunshine, steal softly through snow
the black paper between a mirror breaks my heart that i can't go
the swan their feathers don't grow - they're spun
they live two hundred years of love - they're one
breaks my heart to see them cross the sun
grain grows rainbows up straw hill
breaks my heart to see the highway cross the hills
man has lived a million years and still he kills
[repeating of parts]

pappy with the khaki sweatband
bowed goat potbellied barnyard
that only he noticed
the old fart was smart
the old gold cloth madonna
dancing to the fiddle and saw
he ran down behind the knoll
and slipped on his wooden fishhead
the mouth worked and snapped all the bees

back to the bungalow
momma was flattening lard
with her red enamelled rolling pin
when the fishhead broke the window
rubber eye erect and precisely detailed
airholes from which breath should come
is now closely fit
with the chatter of the old fart inside

an assortment of observations took place:
momma licked her lips like a cat
pecked the ground like a rooster
pivoted like a duck
her stockings down caught dust and doughballs
she cracked her mouth glazed caught one eyelash
rubbed her hands on her gorgeous gingham
her hand grasped sticky metal intricate latchwork
open to the room a smell cold mixed with bologna
rubber bands crumpled wax paper bonnets
fat goose legs and special jellies
ignited by the warmth of the room
the old fart smelled this through his important breather holes
cleverly he dialled from within
from the outside we observed
that the nose of the wooden mask
where the holes had just been a moment ago
was now smooth amazingly blended camouflaged in
with the very intricate rainbow trout replica

the old fart inside was now breathing freely
from his perfume bottle atomizer air bulb invention
his excited eyes from within the dark interior glazed
watered in appreciation of his thoughtful preparation

[spoken:]
oh man, that's so heavy.

i cry, but i can't buy your veteran's day poppy
it don't get me high, it can only make me cry
it can never grow another son
like the one who warmed me my days
after rain and warmed my breath
my life's blood screaming empty, she cries
it don't get me high, it can only make me cry
your veteran's day poppy