Mike Doughty Album

I went to school with 27 Jennifers
16 Jenns, 10 Jennies, and then there was her

It’s the sweet shine of,
Yeah, force of divine love
The blessed arrival of you

You might be the one that I’ve been seeking for
You might be the strange delightful
You might be the girly who shall end all girls
You might be the sweet unspiteful

I rode the bus with 27 Jennifers
15 Jenns, 10 Jennies disapproved of her

Yeah, get from my sight, man,
Gladness is a blight, and
Happiness stinks up the room

The best I ever did with my life
Said just three honest words to you
Three droplets in a pail of lies
Three gems among the alibis

Yes, I know the ways and means I are, Ma,
Yes I know the ways and means I are.

The best I ever did with my love
Said your name on the microphone
You heard it the restaurant
Cashed out and brought your tips on home

The best I ever did with my bucks
Put two down on your horse to show
She lost but just kept racing ‘round
Kept running ‘til the sun went down

All of the girls out with their hips asway
And I’m the loneliest man
They’re selling incense and sunglasses on Orchard Street
Boatloads of bootleg Sean John

And I’ll dream you up in this vast, dark bed
Believe I loved you for each hair upon the back of your neck, and I
Want to kiss you but I can’t
Down on the river by the sugar plant

Earrings
Weighing down the lobe and
Nose a lovely slope and the mouth turned down
Shoulders
Pale and beautiful and
Angle of the throat and
Your sweet sad stare

All of the waves that crash upon the shore
Fruitlessly shushing the world
I pledge allegiance to my displacement
My flag of doubt is unfurled

And I’ll dream you up on a vast, dark coast
Believe I see you walking toward me, arms outstretched like a Ghost, and I
Want to kiss you but I can’t
Down on the river by the sugar plant

40 grand in the hole
scraping my dreams out of the sugar bowl
my love for you’s corrupt
write down the words and then I snort them up

when will I love someone?
When will someone be mine?
40 grand in the hole
I’m gonna open it up and let my yearning shine

Hours that I have slept
Slumping down down like a narcolept
Surrendering to joy
Standing in line at Teriyaki Boy

When will I hear the click?
When will I know that it is time to split?
What is the use of it?
What is my life without the heart at risk?

Put my faith in the price of mud
And my lord shall match the pounds,
Ten thousand days and a night spelunking
Kill my years in the lightning round,
Confound it

Why not
Seek Ossining
These threes and foursomes
Abounded,
Why not
Seek Ossining
This time around?

No, not a maze, but like blazed-out inner star
Disclosed completely in a plain film canister

Refreshing bills
To warm the slots in the till
Infernal wheel
That churns the ocean of milk
That long wire is frayed
Don’t shout out proudly that the cash cow’s lame
That proud call is wrong
Don’t scoot by trumpeting the cash cow’s gone

The quantize knob
That drains the beat of all soul
You hapless slob
Go back to sink in your hole
This thing’s going down
Don’t gift-horse gawk it at the cash cow now
Disdainful clown
Don’t go ‘round mocking on the cash cow now

And I will offer you a place
In my pavilion
And I must stick close to the grace
LyricsOf fifty billion

Smoke in the mouth
Stick in a candy apple
So luminous-
Skinned, but the face is awful
Some cloud unknown
This pinkness creeping as the sun comes low
That long haul, wow,
Don’t go ‘round mocking on the cash cow now