TastyTrack

I smelled the rose and I touched its velvet eye
And I raised my hand just to feel it in the sky
But I don’t feel love
Its a long walk home
Through the naked trees as they’re bending in the falling snow

You lit a fire and I watched the embers glow
Like a melting sun, like a spark dark long ago
And it feels like home
But it never was
And we burn it down just to feel the scars of love.
And we burn it down just to feel the scars of love.

I smelled the rose and I touched its velvet eye
And I raised my hand just to feel it in the sky
But I don’t feel love
Its a long walk home
Through the naked trees as they’re bending in the falling snow.
And we burn it down just to feel the scars of love.
We burn it down.

Ray finally clammed up on the night of the big storm when the lights went out.
Next day they found him down in the basement with his tongue cut out.

CHORUS
Gangster love, gangster love

The boss accepted Ray’s talkative nature but he drew the line at love
When Ray recited Shelley and Byron then he’d had enough.

CHORUS

He walked around like a one-eyed king
With a gun and diamond ring
Then he fell in love with a southern belle

She was born in Amarillo
Kept her dog on a satin pillow
If she loved Ray she hid it well

One day she left him, and all the note said was “Goodbye”

CHORUS

Ray finally clammed up on the night of the big storm when the lights went out

CHORUS

When she got on the bus, the gap-toothed girl sat next to the Monkey King.
They rode from Rockport to Boston while lightning shocked the sky.
When she fell asleep she had a dream
She saw the Monkey King born from a stone, in a poppy field
With a tiger at his feet
And his fingers poked the sky and made the rain.

When she woke up from her dream the gap-toothed girl looked at the Monkey King
He ate a peach and smiled to himself, then fell asleep
The peach pit fell from his open hand, into her lap
When she swallowed it whole she turned into a star, a second sun.
The new lover of the King
Until the day he disappeared and her tears became the snow.

The fog crawled in
And a boat’s on fire
Birch Reddy jumped overboard
And swam for the shore
The smoke was thick as tar
“You can’t see heaven, and hell’s not far”
Said Reverend Miller, at the parish door.

Birch Reddy’s lobster boat,
Burned out, black as a tire.
When the sheriff rowed out
There was nothing left to see
But the transom sinking slow
You could read her name like blood on a bone
He said, “I guess that’s the end of the Brenda Lee”.

Sheriff Eggers was
A God-fearing man
Afraid of nothing else
Except his wife’s rump roast.
But then as he rowed to shore
He had a terrible fright and he rowed no more
He thought he saw Birch Reddy’s ghost.

The sheriff coughed
And said, “who’s there?”.
Birch Reddy, pale as a curtain,
Waved like a willow tree.
He didn’t know he was dead.
“Poor Dot Miller”, was all he said.
And Sheriff Eggers watched him leave.

With dinner set
And chairs pulled in
Dot Miller bowed her head
As Reverend Miller prayed:
“Forgive us father, for our sins,”
“Keep the devil out and the angels in”
“And may every kindness be repaid”.

It was then she knew
What he’d done.
The good shepherd of his flock
Had put the black sheep down.
“Forgive me father for my sins”
Dot said as the blade slid in.
And then she cried for the lover drowned.

Sheriff Eggers rang the bell
Dot stood and opened the door
The Reverend didn’t get up.
Ever again.
Like the pork chop on his plate,
It was by the knife that he met his fate.
And every kindness was repaid.