The Autopsy Garland[1][2]

Lyrics

One clear shot or else he gets away
Red sun high in the sky tonight
Look west from London[3] down toward Hollywood
Remember the first days in California

You don't want to see these guys
Without their masks on[4]
You don't want to see these guys
Without their masks on

Fat rich men love their twelve year olds[5]
Deco cuff links [6] and cognac by the glass
Look west from London toward the Emerald City[7]
Remember Minnesota[8]

You don't want to see these guys
Without their masks on
You don't want to see these guys
Without their masks on, or their gloves

Sweet spearmint and bitter tangerine
Bedside decked with roses
Look west, look west, look west and look away
From old familiar faces

You don't want to see these guys
Without their masks on
You don't want to see these guys
Without their masks on

Footnotes

1. A demo version of The Autopsy Garland was released on All Survivors Pack. Accordingly, The Autopsy Garland is part of the informal series of demos. (Credit: Annotated TMG)↩
2. "The song is directly about the death of Judy Garland in London in 1969. Judy Garland met a lot of people throughout her life who treated her badly: who abused her from a very early age. In the hands of these people she never had a chance. These are the people who you do not want to see without masks." (Tumblr)
On playing the song live: "One of my personal favorites, a song I’m really proud of that gets down into some intensely personal territory for me – thanks for this ask. Never say never, but I doubt it’ll get a live airing-out; I feel like it was in an alternate tuning, the strum pattern is pretty demanding – both the demo and the final were kinda built-from-the-ground-up takes, different from what we usually do, and less friendly to live presentation. I wouldn’t know where to begin. we’ve never done tabs at all, any tabs you see were done by people guessing/deducing; sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re not, I don’t even know how to write tablature except in my unhelpful how-I-write-things-in-my-notebooks way (”Gmaj7 in LH / C + D in R + ad-lib D / C” for example). So, probably not, and probably not with apologies!" (Tumblr)
The song has been played live once, in 2021.↩
3. Judy Garland had a home in Chelsea, London, where she died. Garland was an award-winning American singer and actress, born in 1922 and dying in 1969. Her work included playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and Judgment at Nuremberg. During her early years as an actress, she was sexually harassed and assaulted by people in the entertainment industry, including the head of MGM, Louis B. Mayer, who simultaneously constantly insulted her appearance (calling her "his little hunchback") and pressured her into plastic surgery and use of prosthetics. MGM pushed her to get an abortion that she didn't want in 1941, to use amphetamines and barbiturates to keep up with the workload and to lose weight, and controlled her eating so she would have the body type they wanted. She eventually progressed to using morphine, difficulties with alcohol, and other substances. Her life was plagued with multiple suicide attempts, placement in psychiatric hospitals, violent relationships, and other tragedies. She died at 47 of an accidental overdose of barbiturates. (Credit: Annotated TMG)↩
4. When asked about the mask imagery in All Eternals Deck, John replied: "It's funny, because I tend to do a lot of mental health talk anyway, so I'm going to go straight into some therapy-speak. Much of my life, I've struggled with this idea of whether I even had a 'real' self — maybe I was just this long sequence of masks that I put on for various audiences." (Interview Magazine, October 3, 2012) ↩
5. Likely a reference to the sexual abuse Garland suffered at the hands of many people in the entertainment industry, but most notably Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM; or at least the exploitation of her youth and talent by the same people. (Credit: Annotated TMG)↩
6. Deco (Art Deco) was a French design movement which spread across the world from 1920 to roughly 1950. The style featured symmetric, geometric forms, vivid colors, and modern materials. (Credit: Annotated TMG)↩
7. The Emerald City is the capital city of the fictional Land of Oz, and therefore a major location in arguably Garland's most well-known film, The Wizard of Oz. (Credit: Annotated TMG) It is also the nickname for Seattle, which is regionally connected to Portland, a location of some significance throughout the album.↩
8. Judy Garland was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and made her first stage appearance there at the age of two-and-a-half singing alongside her sisters at a movie theater owned by her father. (Credit: Annotated TMG)↩