Everyone A Puzzle Lover lyrics - 10000 Maniacs

Why are some men born
With minds that earn degrees
The loving cups
Gilded plaques
Grace their study walls
Hide the cracks
While their genius is turned
To works of tyranny then
Off to market to market
Go selling these

With words so fiery and persuasive
They steal cunningly
Riches no one can exceed

And why are some men born
With a fate of poverty
One firm bed
For a swollen back
Year by year
The bodies wracked while
Their obedience is had
With gradual defeat
By the pace by the pace
And the urgency

Through a muddled thought
They phrase it
God knows we're deceived
Barter for
What they need

And where they go
Disdain and jeering
For fools to call
The noble peasantry

O how it puzzles me

I pressed flat the accordion pleats
That had gathered in his cotton sleeves
While he thumbed
Yes thumbed I wouldn't say caressed

The final piece
A mountain's crest
Soon to reply assuredly

O for man aged ninety years
No words to waste on sermons
He'd be pleased to answer
Short and sincere

Girl there's a nonsense
In all these heaven measures
It's a heathen creed
So your grandma says
But better to live by...
Drink it all in before it's dry

He ended there with a rattle
Cough cough
I took away the long gone cold coffee cup
As a trail of Camel ashes fell
On the floor

Cotton Alley lyrics - 10000 Maniacs



One time
You made me cry
Be proud that I
Remember

My chin is sore
The bruise is gone
But the spot is tender

Gave my hand a sister coy
To Cotton Alley where
You did enjoy
Your wicked games
You curious boy

Tied my laces up together
When I fell
You laughed
Until your belly was sore

In the brick laid aisle behind
The five and dime store

That's how
I made you blush
But doubt if you
Remember

Were my tears genuine
Or those of a skilled
Pretender

Nothing precious
Plain to see
Don't make a fuss over me
Not loud
Not soft
But somewhere in between
Say sorry
Let it be
The word you mean

I was a little pest who
Never took a hint
Could never
Take a hint

You pinched my fingers
In a door
Tossed my coloring book in a
Rusty barrel

Pulled spiders from my hair
Fingers in the door

My favorite blue blouse
Stained on the back
Running from a berry war

Can you hear me scream
In Cotton Alley
Scream in Cotton Alley
In Cotton Alley

Daktari lyrics - 10000 Maniacs

Like a weasel in the clover
You tilt toss pop turn over
Sit down!
Tremble and weave like a moth
By flame deceived
Sit down!
Spill with your words caught up
Dance in your room
Slide like you're buttered up
Roll back the tomb
Sit down!

Bolt scuff jilt chase circle riddle
Shake in haste
Sit down!

When the thunderclouds sound
Ants scatter to high ground

My Mother The War lyrics - 10000 Maniacs

She borders the pavement
Flanks avenues
Parades pass white glove attended by
My mother the war

She'll raise a shaft
Lift a banner
Toss a rose
My mother the war

She's made every effort
To salvage the few
Bought fourteen liberty bonds
My mother the war

Mother the war

She knows every neighbor
Chats at their doors
Compare econosize electric appliances
My mother the war

Share tea and a seat
By my cradle with
My mother the war

Mother the war

Caressing the globe
Touch on his isle
She wrings hands in pensive waiting
My mother the war

Haunts her doorway
Begs her postman
Is there word for
My mother the war

Moments of distant vigil
Three years each tour
"hands of god enfold him" prayed
My mother the war

Mother the war

In bitter defiance
She's spitting the corps
She's wet a brood short league for combat
My mother the war

Well acquainted with sorrow
Left millions in grief
My mother the war

Fold
Laced
Carrion
Blood
Soaked
Robes

Mother the war

Tension Makes A Tangle lyrics - 10000 Maniacs


As frail hinges
Pivot on a case's door
Commemorative
Souvenirs from places
Containers change
With each occasion

A cellophane encased
Display of paper
Certificate
To credit years of service
A tool of central enterprises
The early hope
For permanence
The words
The rings
Consistency
The social security
A miracle is high tragedy

Thought mistaken
For a memory
Clear the dust from
Smiles in boxes
Pass a patterned wall
Recall their voices

A local post
Will list your friends
In order of
Disappearance
The lawn scattered

Tins feed birds
A portion baked for
Absent guests
And the mass edition icon
God sent comfort
Your salvation
But who grants absolution
For sins that
Never were committed

Tension makes a tangle
Of each thought
Becomes an inconvenience
Sound as it never penetrates
As servile edges
Break and
Feint

Thought mistaken
For a memory
A dress length
Assassination
A fractured family tie
Another christening

Christening
Christening
Christening

Arbor Day lyrics - 10000 Maniacs

Wide open falsehood
The clan destine truths
Rival till the end
In a series of duels
Pardon the drapery language I choose

Waltz in Vienna has taught me to use
Every tall room a fiction
Leather bound treasure books
Up to the ceiling
Gold spine upon spine

The guile and the treason
The faith and allegiance

Wide open falsehood
The clan destine truths
Rival till the end
In a series of duels
Pardon the drapery language I choose

The author grew fat to imagine
His lead pen careening
Gave voice to the scheming
An Aryan cabale to dethrone

The guile and the treason
The faith and allegiance
To the empire unknown

The baron and his mistress
Dine in fine banquet hall
As rebel insurgents plot in
The attic space crawl

Wide open falsehood
The clan destine truths
Rival till the end
In a series of duels
Pardon the drapery language I choose

His small hand did strive
To explain all the
Rants and raves of
A people enslaved

By the cant of the shrewdest
Capable men

The guile and the treason
The faith and allegiance
Now lie in my hand

The guile and the treason
The faith and allegiance
Now lie in my hand