Going to Lubbock
Lyrics
He drove north out of Dallas on a Tuesday afternoon
The summer wind was sweet in his mouth
As the engine whistled a solitary tune
Ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere
Among the rocks and the tumbleweeds and the dust
He popped the trunk and he pulled out the shovel
And punched the dull blade through the earth's tough crust
When he dug up the human skull that was bigger than a basketball
He took one step back
He took one step back
Into the sunlight
He stood there by the roadside
Underneath the clear blue sky
And ancient stories ran through his mind
As the certain detail caught his eye
There was a pronounced depression
Along the skull's occipital bone
Space burned in the dry June sun
And his forehead dripped like an ice cream cone
He laid the skull down gently in the backseat
And in his mouth the summer wind was sweet
He took one step back
He took one step back
Into the sunlight
Banter
- I haven't been here in awhile and it's really good to be here. I figured out the thing is, like, I should try, but I can't make any promises. I had like, a, if you tell me your name, and we work on the same day job together, a year from now you will be frustrated that I can't get your name right. But I knew I was coming to Lubbock for the first time in a long time, and I was walking around my house singing Going to Lubbock by the Extra Glenns. Which is a side project I was in. That's it, right there, it was the record. And my wife was in the house, who bought that record when it was new, before we knew each other. And I shocked myself by remembering all the words on the first pass while walking around the house, a song I have not sung since 1994. [ed: the curator of this website was born in 1994. that is a long-ass time ago.] [audience: woo!] Well, yes, woo, indeed, but then being me, then I was like, ok, I got that one, and I didn't look at it again. This was last week, you know. Then turn around, here I am, probably should have practiced. I bet anything I miss the top of the second verse, but we'll see if it comes to me. If it doesn't, the song will be missing its entire punchline. [note: he did not remember the verse and this is therefore a partial performance which happens] Anyways, turns out there's a skull in the trunk, the end. A few years later we were driving out here and we ran across a creationist museum as we were driving to Lubbock, that had a bunch of human skulls that they asserted were only 200 years old, which is amazing. (2023-10-27 Cactus Theater)
Live Performances
Footnotes