David Thomas Lyrics
18 Monkeys On A Dead Man's Chest
(2004)



New Orleans Fuzz

In the Big Easy all the bugs is crazy
They are monsters in the rain
The river is in the air
There's nothing else to breath
The river flows through the air.

Blood is in my veins
And the veins are in my head
There's nothing left to find
No trails left to find
No trails left to find!

Happy Francis said to Billy Two Toes
Live free or die!

Where to turn I don't know
Says Billy For I am blind
Did somebody mention
Or did anybody say
That I was not born to feel this way?

Happy Francis said to Billy Two Toes
Live free or die!

Writers: Thomas-Moliné-Diagram
©2004 Hearpen Music


Numbers Man

I count fifteen monkeys on a dead man's chest
Pour another drink
We'll discuss the rest
It never rains that it does not pour
I bought you a ring at the Itchy Store.

I got twenty-seven people working on my soul
Seventeen miners digging for my gold
Thirteen women hanging on my back
I got a little bit of soul
I call it rock n roll.

I count them one
And I count them all
I should've run but I could not crawl
Fifteen monkeys and an open door
Matchstick box gotta hold my clothes.

Find another man who will look like me
You can nail him to the top of a Fuzzy Tree.

Writers: Thomas-Moliné-Diagram
©2004 Hearpen Music


Little Sister

Little Sister
Brother Ray is on the phone
Calling from the desert
He says The stars are falling from the sky Out here coming all apart.

Little Sister
He says the Greyhound is leaving
He's gotta go
There's lamplight halos in the orange grove
There's a holy water mist rising in the evening.

Little Sister
He says he's gone to work a deal in heaven
He says he sees Soda Mountain
In the moonlight
He says Yeah yeah yeah.

And he says I'm alright.

Writers: Thomas-Moliné-Diagram
©2004 Hearpen Music


Habeas Corpus

Mary Lou my love come down here
Watch the river flow
See which way the water goes.

I know what to do
I know what must be done
Why is it every time I think about you
that I must see a gun?
Do you know why?

In the night
Will we build our new home?
How in the dark
Will we build our new home?
How in the dark?

Maybe I will miss you
Maybe the day will be long
Maybe the darkness
Won't hide what we've done.

Mary Lou come down to the river
Mary Lou see your fate
Mary Lou will you watch me drown
Or honey will you run
Before it's too late?

And in the night will we build our new home?
And in the night will we build our new home?
And in the night will we build our new home?
How in the dark will we build our home?

When will they start to laugh
How will their pity show?
When does the confusion stop
How soon do you think
They will know?

Writers: Thomas-Moliné-Diagram
©2004 Hearpen Music


Brunswick Parking Lot

Deborah you know me too well
You're a lucky girl that way
So many years have been kind to you
Didn't we swear we'd meet again?

Wasn't it supposed to be twelve years ago
We agreed to gather at the Blue Hole?
To see the way time had changed who we were?
Surely we would know each other still.

No one knows how deep the Blue Hole goes
It's said to be a mystery that way
It's like you're looking through a veil of indigo
It's the surge of vertigo I fear and that's no mystery.

You knew me when I was younger
You knew me when I was thin
You knew me when I was handsome
Wasn't I Deborah?

Robert says they closed the Blue Hole years ago
Maybe something at the trout farm next door went weird
You never know I guess it's safe to say that you'll never know

It's funny that I never thought to ask him how
Now I'd like to know
How you can close such a deep hole
and forget it.

Deborah you know me so well
You're a lucky girl that way
Deborah you know me too well
Let's not meet again.

Writer: Thomas
©2000 Hearpen Music


Nebraska Alcohol Abuse

Neon bounced against the window
Against the glass and left a shadow
Where would a pink spider go?
How would it hide in this room?
I don't know.

It occurs to me
Funny how it seems
The longer that I stare...
Where would a pink spider go
Where would it hide in this room?

Ain't no wrecks like train wrecks
They don't make wrecks like that anymore
Honey it's something to aim for
It's something to aim for
It sure is something to aim for.

Maybe I will miss you
I don't know
But there's a foggy day in Nebraska
With an open road
And there's a town called Lodgepole.

I think I know
I think I know where I will go
A big truck shimmers and shimmies
In the mirror
At the vanishing point.

In the last minute of the first hour
That I met you
I knew this was gonna be no good
This was gonna chew me up
This was gonna spit me out.

In the last minute of the first hour
I knew.

Writers: Thomas-Moliné-Diagram
©2004 Hearpen Music


Sad Eyed Lowlands

Somebody says
I'd be lost without you
I said Who?

Somebody says
Stars are coming all undone somewhere
Because of you
I said Where?

Somebody says
The day will drag forever on
I said How?

Somebody says
I will pray for the rain to come
It will hide tears that punch like bullets from a gun
I said What?

My days will drag forevermore
Without you
I said How?

Somebody says
My heart will not be whole until then
I said When?

Somebody says
I'd be lost without you
I said Why?

Writers:Thomas-Moliné-Diagram
©2004 Hearpen Music


Golden Surf

The entire day
Like a golden surf
Hurls itself against the black rocks
Of the dark
Of the night.

There should be a plan
For the dark
A plan that involves Speed Light
And You
By my side.

Must we stay here
Or can we go?
I have a map I make
Inside my head
I have the way to go.

A map only shows what you already must know
Where shall we go?
Into the Dark Light.

The Neon
Moon and the Stars
Of a thousand headlights

The neon moon buzzing
A firefly mothman!
It's time to go.

It's time to go
Before the golden surf returns
To wash it all away.

Writers:Thomas-Moliné-Diagram
©2004 Hearpen Music


Prepare for the End

I want to go to Soda Mountain
I want to climb up Soda Mountain
I'd like to live up on Soda Mountain
Bound up in light on Soda Mountain.

One day I'll be there on Soda Mountain
One day you'll see me from Soda Mountain
I'll wave to you from Soda Mountain
and I'll wave to you.

I'll build a life there on Soda Mountain
I'll take a wife from Soda Mountain
I'll love her too on Soda Mountain
I'd love her too.

Some things are strange on Soda Mountain
I get paid to dream on Soda Mountain
I dreamt about you on Soda Mountain
I dreamt about you.

People are strange on Soda Mountain
The stories change on Soda Mountain
Shall I tell one to you?
Shall I tell one to you about Soda Mountain?

They tell a story here
Concerning Mr Brody
And his soot black companions
How they shovelled on the coal
How they set the whistle screaming.

You should see the locomotive
Rolling down the mountain
Making up the time
Spent
On Soda Mountain.

They found me in the wreck
With my hand upon the throttle
I was scalded by the steam
I died inside the rain

All you ladies take a warning
From Soda Mountain
Be good unto your man
Lest he's lost unto that mountain.

He will wave to you
From Soda Mountain
I will wave to you

I'll wave to you from Soda Mountain.

Writers:Thomas-Moliné-Diagram
©2004 Hearpen Music