Favorite Terry Taylor Lines

[Josh]

If you're a fan of musician Terry Taylor, you're almost certainly a fan of his witty lyricism.

I thought I'd start a thread of your favorite lines from Terry Taylor lyrics.

A couple "rules"- keep the snippets at one or two stanzas maximum (don't want whole song lyrics here), be sure to bold them so they stand out, and cite the song title and album.

For quick access to Terry Taylor lyrics, take this link: www.danielamos.com/

I've got so many favorite lines, it's hard to know where to start, but I'll just jump in and update from time to time. I'd like to hear from you other Terry fans as well.

An ode to televangelists:

Your satellite can reach that Eskimo
He buys a suit and tie
Re-styles his hair like girls in Tupelo
And sings "Sweet Bye And Bye"

-Return of the Beat Menace, Darn Floor Big Bite

[mikerand]

She's warning all her children of the horrors of rock'n roll

Song: Autographs for the Sick
Album: Doppelganger
(Can anyone tell me what the song is about?)

[Josh]

They've got a lot of good ditties on the subject of rock and roll, eh?

Good question. Maybe it's explained in the notes on the Alarma chronciles set. I'll take a look.

Next up:

Your long year
Ran right by here
Just another short day to me
So how have you been
In your beautiful skin (my immortal friend)
Did you solve all life's mysteries
In your long year?

-Your Long Year, Mr. Buechner's Dream

So true for those of us who have kids.

[ryan]

I really appreciate his vivid imagery of the 1950s in "The Glory Road" from Songs of the Heart.


The ice cream stands and the salty truck stops
Hum Dingers and the auto graves
Coca Cola and the no-tell motels
Barber shops and Burma shaves

We'll beat the dust storms
Comin' over the farmlands
Got a grease monkey tunin' up the Pontiac
We imagine pickin' up soldiers
Comin' home for Christmas
With Steinbeck, and Guthrie, and Kerouac

We've explored the patchwork of Americana
The curios and the burger plates
We got a blessing from the Queen of the Highway,
Paid attention to a sign that said "Jesus Saves"

I imagine what it was like to live in "conformist" America riding down Route 66. Everything in the world kinda seems okay.

[ryan]

I also gotta love Taylor's sarcastic message about Christian hypocracy in "Constance of the Universe" from Bibleland.

See that bum, give him some cash
See that dope, gotta give him a stash
See that soul, give him the Word
See that jerk, gotta give him the bird

See the rock band, give em a deal
See those legs, go on give em a feel
Now, see that gun, give it a try
See that truth, gotta give it a lie

It's quite challenging, but also pretty funny.

[Josh]

Yeah, Constance of the Universe hearkens back in some ways to Knee Jerk, doesn't it?:

i know the music you'll make
i know what prayer you'll pray
i know how you'll vote
the same tie and coat
know why you'd like to blow me away

knee jerk
do the knee jerk baby
knee jerk
do the knee jerk now

everything is automatic
predictable devoid of action
i like the role
of spoiling the show
predicting your psychotic reaction

Knee Jerk, from Outdoor Elvis

Okay, how about this. Just rolls off the tongue!

i had a bad experience with the c.i.a.
no they wouldn't let me show her my feminine side
she got busted undercover for the f.bi.i.
she was concealing all her glory and her masculine pride
it's a covert operation and we're d.o.a.
on regulated doses of love's cyanide

-I Had a Bad Experience with the CIA and Now I'm Gonna Show You My Feminine Side, Zoom Daddy

I love this song.

[ryan]

I am not familiar with Knee Jerk. I have yet to hear the whole Outdoor Elvis album.

I do like the "I Had a Bad Experience with the CIA and Now I'm Gonna Show You My Feminine Side" track. Always one of my favorites when I put in Zoom Daddy (which is quite often). I find myself singing along. Problem is...I am not entirely sure what the song is about other than love being difficult to grasp. For that matter, I am not so sure about "Mr. Sharky" either.

[Josh]

Yeah, I think I Had A Bad Experience is about the viscitudes of love- good and bad.

Mr. Sharky- I think that's about the nature of addiction or sin and what it takes to overcome it.

Which leads me to:

now sharky makes a slight adjustment to his aqua-green toupee
then flosses up all his bloody gums and teeth
and all the while he's laughing at my naivete and folly
cos' man, you know, that's just the nature of the beast
now all this time my harpoon is concealed, it's loaded up and ready
the net's overhead, and there's a mickey in his drink
yeah, they think they've fooled me with all their pig-latin shop talk
i smile and sign the papers with some disappearing ink

oh and....

sharky casually asks me if i like to surf

[ryan]

Brilliant lyrics! Crazy, for sure, but brilliant! Zoom Daddy showcases some of Taylor's best moments (IMO).

[Josh]

Yep.

I'm breaking my own rule here and I'm going to post this whole song because how could I possibly choose one verse?

The Golden Girl of the Golden West

she's a pistol packin' mama and a bleach blond surfer queen
a highfalutin' filly and an adolescent's fling
she was born at sutter's mill and killed up on the silver screen
she opens up her golden gate and offers us a dream na na na na na na...

she's a powder snow bunny and a painted desert rat
an avocado model in a boysenberry hat
she's our buffed and sprangled banner, she's our sedentary fat
she's hungry cold and homeless, and she's luxury's lap

chorus
she's the golden girl of the golden west
a lipo-sucking diva with a saline chest
she's the golden girl of the golden west
a fashion island floozy in a skin tight dress
she's the golden girl...

one man's blessing and another man's curse
she's an economic engine with her gears thrown in reverse
she's a double beef burger called "the double patty hearse"
she's a napa valley vineyard selling toast and liver worse

na na na na na na...

she's a corporation raider on the sports bar beat
a giant dodging forty-niner with two athletes feet
she's a warrior and an angel and a ram in heat
she's a drunken clipper captain with a silicon leak

chorus

na na na na na na...

she's a bleeding heart madonna with a big electric chair
an earth shaking quaker with a fundamental flair
there's a method to her madness and a charismatic air
an orthodoxly logic in that presbytery stare

so come all you huddled masses, all you yo-yosemite sams
make a wish and pitch a penny off the mighty hoover dam
yeah and leave it all to beaver and start packin' up the van
take the california aqueduct on down to disneyland



-from the album Zoom Daddy (Swirling Eddies)

Lyrical brilliance!!!!

[ryan]

Ah, the contradictions that ARE the sometimes great state of California.

This whole album is excellent. Quickly becoming my favorite Terry Taylor project!

[Josh]

"The face of St. Paul in this butt-roast
Assures me that I'm going up to heaven
The anti-christ does laundry on the east coast
I doubted the most, did not believe in all that 'til

I picked up the vanishing hitchiker
Who was an angel
I heard him say
"Stop telling lies"
Then he went away...."

Urban Legends, Outdoor Elvis



again, genius!

[Josh]

Some favorite lines from the Swirling Eddies' latest album (The Midget, the Speck, and the Molecule)

"alternative crab-meat makes me one happy man"

-Snow in a Can, The Midget.....

"i’m breathing inferential air
into every line i spare
the warblers croon
i’m making room
for each wobbling little prayer"

-Tremolo, The Midget....

"i’m a troubled midget now"

-The Midget, the Speck, and the Molecule

That last line makes me think of my son every time

[Josh]

You've got no time to read a mystery
You're not inclined to waste the energy
And wrap your mind around a paradox
Or bear the thought
Of my liberty

from Easy for You, Mr. Buechner's Dream

[Josh]

"Proud fathers cursing the fates,
Then speaking in tongues"

-Buffalo Hills, Motorcycle