A Cry for Help

I'm a sucker for horns anyway, but this song by the Decemberists is wonderfully infectious. Made me rush right out and get the album Picaresque (hooray for vocabulary rock. See also Pavement and Bad Religion), which I'm getting into between TV shows and hive-painting. Good stuff.

The question I have is why haven't Mike or Nightwing told us about these guys yet? Anyway, in the rich Cry for Help tradition of reprinting the words to songs with topical lyrics:

Sixteen Military wives,
thirty-two softly focused, brightly colored eyes.
Staring at the natural tan
Of thirty-two gently clenching, wrinkled, little hands
Seventeen company men,
Out of which only twelve will make it back again.
Sargeant sends a letter to
Five military wives as tears drip down
From ten little eyes

Cheer them on to their rivals
Because America can and America can't say no
And America does if America says it's so.
And the anchor person on TV goes:
"La di da di da"

Fifteen celebrity minds,
Leading their fifteen sordid, wretched, checkered lives.
Will they find the solution in time,
Using their fifteen crispy, moderate-liberal minds?
Eighteen Academy chairs,
Out of which only seven really even care.
Doling out a garland to five celebrity minds,
they're humbly taken by surprise.

Cheer them on to their rivals
Because America can and America can't say no
And America does if America says it's so.
And the anchor person on TV goes:
"La di da di da di diddy diddy da.
La di da di da di diddy diddy da."

Fourteen cannibal kings,
Wondering blithely what the dinner bell will bring.
Fifteen celebrity minds
Served on a leafy bed of sixteen military wives.

And the anchorperson on TV goes la di da di da.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 12th, 2005 at 11:43 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.