Vic Chesnutt - Left to his Own Devices

 

 

Deadline

Deadline, it aint moving
Deadline, stiff as a board
Deadline, ending is soon
But I gotta get something done done done, done done done soon.

Deadline, under pressure
Deadline, it's gonna snap
Deadline, serious semester
And I gotta get something done done done, done done done soon.

Deadline, down to the wire
Deadline, it's bumming me out
Deadline, I'm oughta retire
But I gotta get something done done done, done done done soon.

 

Very Friendly Lighthouses

I hope that you are through and
You knew what you were doing
You proved what you were proving
And it was sort of soothing to see
I couldn't say that it was new to me
Guess you could say it but yours grew on me,
I venture not a purer thing you'd ever really want to even see.

Motorboating through our lives
Only gradually gaining rudimentary navigational skills
And even sometimes offended by very friendly lighthouses
Very friendly lighthouses

You've really got your groove on!
You even donned a fru-fru-frock!
But now that you have moved on I'll process priceless memories.
I should've seen that you were stewing
I was absent when you blew in,
by the time I knew it, it was already in full fabulous swing

Motorboating through our lives
Only gradually gaining rudimentary navigational skills
And even sometimes offended by very friendly lighthouses
Very friendly lighthouses

Here's hoping that you grew some,
You'd think that it would do something!
You certainly were gruesomely before I went away.

Motorboating through our lives
Only gradually gaining rudimentary navigational skills
And even sometimes offended by very friendly lighthouses
Very friendly lighthouses

 

Fish

Not the way it used to be, but it was never a perfect deal.
Fish outta water is all you need
Internal combustion is bustin my balls, taking my eyesight away.
Throwing darts at a dartboard, slinging slobber across a hall.
Opening a leather-man? To wrench out an inner demon.

Double dutch bus is coming down the street, stopping at the homes of all your enemies
Double dutch bus is coming down the street, stopping at the homes of all your enemies
Double dutch bus is coming down the street, stopping at the homes of all your enemies

And the spotlight is hot, and it'll burn your fingers!
And dry rot can get under trapeze swings.
Hollow as a plaster thing, sitting on a radiator.
And toxic as a brass ring.

Soft sung I'll be fascinating, the loquacious waitress made us leave.
Daddy needs no more grief,
Little darling fell off the roof.
Oh jack snapped into sharper focus, slicing myopic fungus away.

Double dutch ...

And the spotlight is hot and it'll burn your fingers!
And dry rot will get under trapeze swings.

 

12 Johnnies

One johnny went to the newlywed school.
One Johnny did el mic andry
One Johnny went to the ice cream shop, to have a fit in the pantry.
Go Johnny go, go Johnny go.

One Johnny went in the factory flame
One Johnny did all his laundry
One hippie Johnny, rented a ball
Blew out what was his Johnny?
Go johnny go, go johnny go

One Johnny did just what he would do
One Johnny did some of everything
One Johnny did some dead little man
Who just stepped foot in his driveway
Go Johnny go, go johnny go

One Johnny was a foxy little number
One Johnny he was a shy one.
One Johnny he grew nectarines,
Decided today just to bite one
Go Johnny go, go Johnny go.

 

Wounded Prince

Wounded prince, where's your daddy?
He's out watching the fat lady sing
Did you break your leg? Did you bloody your nose?
The cameras are here, to watch your blue blood flow
Your mother's being poked by some bloke in the Bahamas

Wounded prince, where's your grandma?
The tourists are watching the changing of the diapers
Wounded prince, wrapped in swaddling scandal,
How much yellow press can your blue blood handle?
Your mother's being poked by some bloke in the Bahamas

Money money, the richest boy in the world
Money money, you aint being spoiled
Your mother's being poked by some bloke in the Bahamas

Wounded prince, the doctors are giving a press conference,
The cameras are gathered for a portrait of your sarcophagus Wounded prince, no you aint dead yet!
You fell off that pony and made the stock market sweat
Your mother's being poked by some bloke in the Bahamas

Money money, the richest boy in the world
Money money, no you aint being spoiled
Your mother's being poked by some bloke in the Bahamas.

 

We Should be so Brave

We should be so brave:
You're always pulling for the underdog
I know you're always pulling for me
You are a champion of the shattered
I know you're always so supportive of me
You're so intrigued by the oddities
I always piqued your curiosity
You're always for the unfortunates

I know you're always right there for me
I don't need to look in the mirror to know just where I sit in the scheme of things
I don't need a doctor's exam to tell me why I can fly
Your liberal life is like social work
I know you'll always socialize with me
You're one to stick up for the downtrodden
I know you're always in there fighting for me
I don't need to look in the mirror to know just where I sit in the scheme of things
I don't need a doctor's exam to tell me why I can fly.

Bless his little heart, he's doing the best that he can
Such an inspiration to us all,
We should be so brave

 

Cash

Do your math!
Eat your clams!
I always hated the L.A. Rams.
Climb up on the roof,
To watch the police
As a shadow wanders across your room.

Get the wind back
I want a paper towel
Wishing you was Roseanne Cash and I was Roger Crowell.

Prune your trees, groom your shrubs,
Pounding pictures in a labored pose
Conspiracy to keep me under wraps
I signed the document, well I guess my ass is grass.

Stoke a candle
Thumb through a book
An autobiography of an infamous crook.

 

In Amongst the Millions

It was the languid years, duels were fought so that bastards in the end died with honors.
It was an epoch so unlike the one that we got cause people can't die anymore.
I should've been buried long ago, but they electric shocked me though.
I oughtta be pushing up the pine straw cause people can't die anymore.
I'm embalmed! I'm a mummy! I got herbs and spices in my stomach.
I should be a dirty piece of solid red ground, but because of some cure they found,
I'm still around, in amongst the millions, cause people can't die anymore.
I'm embalmed, I'm a mummy, I got herbs and spices in my stomach.
I should be a dirty piece of solid red ground, but because of some cure they found
I'm still around, in amongst the millions, cause people can't die anymore

 

Hermitage

Sitting here resting my bones
Fanning my affliction
Wishing I had a few clones
To act as stand in

But here at the hermitage
I am privileged
With solitude, and self-cooked food
And crying time, and quirks of mind
(repeat)

Chesnutt's chewing his nails
The Zen of self-mutilation
Forgetting all that life entails
Sinking in a silly stagnation

But here at the hermitage
I am privileged
With solitude, and self-cooked food
And crying time, and quirks of mind

Caper, if you flaunt it then you want/got to stop in the Caper

 

Thought YOu Were My Friend

Thought you were my friend, but you are my foe
Took my trust and crushed it
Simple thing
Put my trust in you
Ya busted my balls

Thought you were my friend, but you are my foe
Thought you were my friend, but you are my foe

Behind your pleasantly stupid act
lies, intentions cold and black

Thought you were my friend, but you are my foe
Thought you were my friend, but you are my foe

 

My Last Act

Fill the basin with my hands
your strong shoulders in my head
soft soap splashing on the rim
I keep wishing I was him
Cobweb fluttering 12 feet up
above the basin where I finally scrub
Hands swept away with soap and fingernails
Dirty imagined intimate details
I go to the garage where on the wall
1010 daddy long legs crawl

A crazy notion tracks through my mind
an electrical shudder shoots up and down my spine
I run to the kitchen grab a pot and lid
And I rush to the garage before I knew what I did
I was raking the gentle spiders into that pot
Then I was sitting at the kitchen table feeling so cold and so hot

In a moment I move to get a cereal bowl
Then I'm back at the table and before I know
What exactly I had done, I pulled the legs off every one
Now the little round buttons out in front of me
Are lookin like a bowl of black eyed peas
In the top, poured it into the cuisinart
I reached in the cupboard and I grabbed a lid
Of Tequila and I pour that in, push the button and it starts to chop
[My heart can hardly contain my thumping heart]
My last act on this earth will be to chug a lug a mixture and hope for the worst

 

Distortion

Everybody lies
What's the big deal?
It's impossible to know what is and isn't sealed
Faith is the lies we tell and tell ourselves
Life is the lies we tell everybody else

History is a daisy chain of lies
Humans love distortion
Public record is a poetic device
Blown way out of all proportion

[Spoken:]
I look at the color red, and say 'red'.
Everyone else looks at the color and says 'reddish'
We all say I don't believe it til I see it,
But so much happens between light in the eye and assimilation of that data in the consciousness.
A symbol beam bending, or .. Or experienced anomalies
Or electrical distortion along the optic nerve.
But more mysterious are the magnetic osmotics
Sloshing around inside the hi-falutin grey filter switchboard that is brain.

Miles of rough road!
Vital baggage is tossled gore, tossed off the truck
Everyone sees it in a certain way, everyone knows it as only they can know it,
and everyone has things that only they can see
Understanding breaks down,
Gulfs in agreement develop
Fall on greek terms, crumble
We all define the stuffs and stages of our worlds with terse tags and populist generalities.
We all know a rose, is sometimes a rose
But what fucking color is it? what fucking color is it
Everybody fibs, myths are entertained
Delusions are encouraged and/or covertly ingrained
Faith is the lies we tell and tell ourselves
Life is the lies we tell everybody else
Common knowledge is a daisy chain of lies
Humans love distortion
Civilization is costume revery, culture by coercion
Everybody lies

 

Squeak

The wall came down, yes I saw it [?]
The reporter is a new age junkie, keeps his needles in a pyramid
Camera on his shoulder and chips on the pavement
A hundred german dollars, well don't that just about pay my rent
Yes I am weak, outlook is bleak yes I'm on stage come and listen to squeak
Yes I'm on stage come listen to squeak.
Well the picture is flickering
A surge of some kind
If you shake that thing more than 3 times you're liable to go blind
Pretty shoes and a sparkly hat
Eyeballing crass commercialism, well I couldn't live like that
I am weak, outlook is bleak yes I'm on stage come listen to squeak
Yes I'm on stage come listen to squeak
The picture is flickering, a surge of some kind
If you shake that thing more than 3 times you're likely to go blind!
Allies, enemies, summits to climb!
Warsaw pacts, remaking maps, yes it's all pink on the inside!
Yes I am weak, outlook is bleak yes I'm on stage come listen to squeak
Yes I'm on stage come listen to squeak

 

Look at Me

Yeah, look at me in my thirties
Ploughing forth, unsteady and unsturdy but
I'm still alive, I'm still alive, I win a prize
I'm still alive
Yeah look at me, pushing forty
Suiting up for another sortie and
I'm still alive, I'm still alive, I win a prize
I'm still alive, I'm still alive, I win a prize
I'm still alive
It may not be pretty my life up to here,
But something bold and beautiful occurred, I'm not interred
You look at me as a tragic figure
One frivolous moment, I beg to differ cause
I'm still alive, I'm still alive, I win a prize, I'm still alive
It may not be pretty my life up to here, but something bold and beautiful occurred,
I'm not interred