Happy Hollow (2006)



1.   Opening The Hymnal/Babies
2.   Dorothy At Forty
3.   Big Bang
4.   Bad Sects
5.   Flag And Family
6.   Dorothy Dreams Of Tornadoes
7.   Retreat!!
8.   The Sunks
9.   At Conception
10.   So-So Gigolo
11.   Bad Science
12.   Into The Fold
13.   Rise Up!! Rise Up!!
14.   Hymns For The Heathen

"Opening The Hymnal/Babies"
 
Welcome one,
And welcome all
To our small town,
The lyrics are the voice
Of the neurosis of a city
inside each house
you'll find the guilt
The fables and folly
Of the residents residing in...

[barely audible]

Fourteen hymns for the heathens…

Baby, baby, baby
This world must seem
So immense compared to the womb,
And baby baby,
Your head must seem
So much smaller than you assumed
Your whole world
Seems to center around you
Be easy to make the mistake
That maybe you’re why the world was made,

Baby, baby, baby,
You learn so fast,
You seem to carry a special gift
Maybe you’ve been given
To this world to make a difference

Such delusions we all struggle with
But the beautiful truth of it is
This is all we are,
We simply exist
You’re not the chosen one
I’m not the chosen one
But we don’t need anyone
Let’s not choose anyone

"Dorothy At Forty"
 
Dorothy, I know you've had amazing dreams
We can't go chasing down each golden street
Each and every rainbow, each passion, each unattainable goal
We're not in dreamland anymore

Dorothy, it seems you'll never understand
This here land is everything we have
Every sweat-stained collar, every dollar,
every bent and bloodied spur
We're not the kids that we once were
We can't be the adults we want to be

Dreams are all you have, dreams have held you back
Dreamers never live, only dream of it
Dream cars, dream houses, dream jobs, dream spouses
Dreams of tornadoes, cities of emerald

And I know we swore we'd make more of ourselves
but this plot is literally our lot in life.

American dreams pollute our cities
Our piece of the pie can't fill our bellies
(More!) More square inches
(More!) Picket fences
(More!) Clothes on the line
(More!) Naps at noontime
More of our fair share
More of our birthright
More of what we're owed

More...

Paid vacation
(More!) Entertainment
(More!) Compensation
(More!) Gratuitous gratification

Dorothy, wake up, Dorothy, wake up
Dorothy, wake up, it's time for work

"Big Bang"
 
Before we ever saw straight, we were grasping at straws
A debate was born, picket lines were drawn
There was this big bang once, now we're learning to use our thumbs

We need a purpose in life, a survival guide
We need explanations for how we arrived
There was this big bang once, now we're standing on our own two feet
There was this big bang once, we've been sharpening up our teeth

They say there was this big bang once, but the clergyman doesn't agree, oh no
There was this big bang once, but it don't jive with Adam and Eve
Original sin, idyllic garden
Some talking snake giving apples away
What would that snake say if he could only see us today?
Ha ha ha!

There was this big bang once and we were left here to fill in the blanks
There was this big bang once, now we're aimlessly drifting in space
We're gonna need an explanation for rational thought
Enlightenment and the weight of our hearts
In a world of entropy, why can't we just simply be?
And don't feed me lines, intelligent design

There was this big bang once, why are we back down on our knees, huh?

"Bad Sects"
 
For 20 years I've held this pulpit
Preached the word, served the Eucharists
Gained the trust of the townsfolk
Made every football game, never missed a social
Last week a boy I taught theology
Came back in town with a new ideology
Those feelings I tucked away
Threaten the sanctuary
A lifetime of burning culminated in one innocent forbidden touch
I know this is wrong
Cause I'm taught this is wrong

A new recruit, 25 years old
He joined the habit with a chip on his shoulder
Some nights he'd proclaim his preference
But only flat back drunk on a bottle of Jameson
One of those nights we stayed up, the two of us
Singing our lives, just the two of us
We were hiding in the dark
I fell asleep by his side
We woke to the chimes of the bells in the steeple, and ran off to separate rooms
They can't know what we've done
Our whole world would come undone

You'll never live this down
You'll never live this down
You'll never live this down
You'll never live this down

They're gonna find you out
And when they find you out
They're gonna drag you out! Don't let them find you!

I know this is wrong
Cause we're told this is wrong
A lifetime of burning culminated in one innocent forbidden touch
I know this is wrong
Cause we're told this is wrong

"Flag And Family"
 
Your daddy and my daddy had a drink at the bar
Talking about what was best for me
Without an aim or a degree,
Stubbornly holding on to you
And you pulling away from me

The best that they could say
For my restless teenage ways
Was some time in the service might serve me well,
Even if it’s just servicing the latrines

Lucy my love, don’t go sending me off to war

I put up with your family,
Full of bigots and fanatics,
Just to get a little closer to you,
Now you’ve turned on me too
You have turned on me too.

Go hide behind your flag and family
This town has nothing left for me
This town is nothing more
Than a fundamentalist penitentiary

When you’re down on your knees
Are you praying for holy war?
When you’re down on your knees
Are you praying for oily war?
Lucy my love, don’t go sending me off to war

We must live,
We must true to our childhood dreams,
Or they’re worthless and our youth is insincere

So where do we find worth?

I put up with your family,
Full of bigots and fanatics,
Just to get a little closer to you,
Now you’ve turned on me too
You have turned on me too.

When you’re down on your knees
Are you praying for holy war?
When you’re down on your knees
Are you praying for oily war?
Lucy my love, don’t go sending me off to war

We must live,
We must true to our childhood dreams,
Or they are worthless and our youth is insincere

So where do we find worth?

"Dorothy Dreams Of Tornadoes"
 
You said we'd leave next year
Each year for thirteen years
Each year, it gets harder to hear
It's getting hard enough just to stay in love

And now our roots grow deep
Beneath these barren streets
I've had the darkest dreams
The city's pipes and wires
Run through our nerves and veins

And those nights, after a double shift, I feel it
The dashed plans you never dared to live
They used to light up your eyes
Those bulbs have long burned out

Let a tornado tear through
Let it tear straight through our roof
And let the rain pour in
I'll scream, "Babe, this is it!
We'll leave the house in ruins
If we escape right now, we just might make it out"

This city, this city's killing us
This city, this city's killing us
This city, this city's killing us
It's killing us

It's killing us

This city, this city's killing us
This city, this city's killing us
This city, this city's killing us
It's killing us
It's killing us
It's killing us

"Retreat!!"
 
They checked the shrine and the temple,
But he wasn't there.
They checked the mosque and the chapel,
Nope, not there.

Since you've been away on holiday,
The natives are all nightmares.
Since you've been away on holiday,
I daydream you'll disappear.
You keep us on a leash we can't conceive,
But still must adhere to.

The natives are whipping each other,
Over which god they prefer.
I wish you'd do us all a favor,
And just differ.

Since you've been away on holiday,
We don't know which god is which.
And since you've been away on holiday,
It's getting harder to give a shit.

So if you stayed away on holiday,
We could get on with it.
I mean, we could evolve like this,
If you'd just call it quits.

Since you've been away on holiday,
We've stomached your archaic rule.
And since you've been away on holiday,
We've hosted some wars over you.

So stay away on holiday, my friend,
We don't need your services;
Your excuses --
Your "mysterious ways" [x4]

What a mysterious way to behave.
What a mysterious way to just go away.

Lord let us go! [x16]

"The Sunks"
 
Surrender your furniture
push the television out the window
overmedicated, this must be the sunks
if you can't understand the blues you don't know much

With much love for science and a youthful defiance
we struck blindly at the roots of this tree
whose branches got broken, pissed on and trampled

O please forgive us o mighty shady tree
O please forgive us o mighty doomsday tree

It's time to stick your branches
in the merciless wheel of Time
It's time to stick your branches
in the merciless spokes of Time
It's time to stick a fork in the merciless socket of Time
It's time to be sewn into the limitless fabric of Time

They'll call you a wash up
when you can't stay sunk
it's a shame to be so wet so young
living your life with much love for science

"At Conception"
 
Jeanie's been throwing up all morning
Poor girl's been so heartsick ever since her boyfriend went to war
Father Cole's done his best to console the girl-
more so than some neighbors deem necessary-
but you just can't measure young love.

Picketing the clinic outside town,
Father Cole holds the record for turning twelve girls around.
If anybody knows the sorrows of the young woman, it's...

Father Cole, he's been acting out of sorts;
that strange sermon he gave accepting termination due to rape.
Jeannie whispered, "She's carrying" but there's one awful catch:
her boyfriend's been off in the desert for half a year.

Cole cried, "This simply cannot be!"

She quipped, "Quite the opposite-
I'm hardly the Virgin Mary...and you're no carpenter.
So, who will build my home?"

"Jeannie, you're just a kid. You can't conceive such mortal sins.
Everything will be alright...what happens in confession stays in the confessional."

So what goes on behind those curtains?

"Jeannie, you're just a kid, you WON'T conceive this mortal sin."