See America Right
Lyrics
I was driving up from Tampa
When the radiator burst
I was three sheets to the wind
A civilian saw me first
And then there was the cop
And then the children standing on the corner
Your love is like a cyclone in a swamp
And the weather's getting warmer
I was getting out of jail
Heading to the Greyhound
You said you'd hop on one yourself
And meet me on the way down
I was shaking way too hard to think
Dead on my feet about to drop
Went and got the case of vodka from a car
And walked the two miles to the bus stop
Got on the bus half drunk again
The driver glared at me
Met up with you in Inglis
Thumbed a ride to Cedar Key
If[2] we never make it back to California
I want you to know I love you
But my love is like a dark cloud full of rain
That's always right there up above you
Hey![1]
Banter
- It’s a song about love; the love you feel for a person who can drink you under the fucking table. It takes its title from the Greyhound bus lines.(2003-06-06)
- This is a dance number...This is a song, it's about people, they go down to Florida, it doesn't go well for them. They wish it would go well for them, but it's rather too late for them to turn back. So, what can ya do? Watch them burn. (2003-06-27 - Mains D'Oeuvres)
- This is a song about people who are in love with each other. They have a hard time expressing that love, so they do so by raising their glasses to one another for the fourth time this morning. Sometimes it gets a little hairy for them, but who are we to judge them? They're gonna do what they gotta do. All we need to do is read the notices in the paper about it. It's in the local section. Arrests. (2007-03-04)
- Usually when I say that this is a true story, I mean that it's about my own life. This is not about my own life. But I feel utterly confident that this is a true story. That there's some guy down there in Florida who remembers the one time that he found it necessary to go down to the bus station and say, 'I have, I have to go home, I have to go home, I only have twelve dollars,' and the guy behind the counter said, 'It costs twenty-two dollars,' and he said, 'I don't really have any way of getting the extra ten dollars' and had to stand there for a rather uncomfortable three minutes while the men behind the counter decided to cut him a break. (2007-03-08)
- This is a song about a road trip. When you think of a road trip, you might think, oh, I'll have fun. On my road trip. This isn't really that kind of road trip. Maybe that was the idea, when you first headed from the house to the driveway, you had some sort of naive - willfully naive - vision of the road trip, said, oh, we'll get in the car, this will be different from yesterday. It won't be different from yesterday. You have to go - they say past performance is no indication of future performance in the stock market - that only applies to the stock market. Otherwise, past performance is absolutely reliable predictor of future performance. In a marriage, are you joking?! PAst performance is what you have to go on. Otherwise, you're living in a child's world where you say, yesterday we got in the car and drove to the liquor store and bought too much liquor and got too drunk and felt terrible the next morning, maybe today will be different, No. No it will not, past performance, I warned you before, but you got in the car, and you drove to the liquor store and you stocked up and you came home, and you poured the vodka in the glass, and the cream and the Coca-Cola and you made a Colorado Bulldog, and that one was good, so you had another. And after four of those sugary, sugary vodka drinks, and then you come crying to me, well I warned you. Past performance is an absolutely reliable predictor of performance gains and/or losses. (2015-06-02 - Great American Music Hall, San Francisco)
- This is a song about a coupla drunks trying to help each other out. But they don't know how to help each other out because their consciences are damaged. [in the background, Peter teaches Erin the chords, so she can absolutely rip on the guitar] They are not going to get better. People used to - we would play in clubs that didn't have a dressing room, and, like, a couple would come up to me in, say, South Carolina, and say, HEY ARE YOU THE SINGER? 'Hey, yeah, I'm the singer, good to meet ya.' 'WE'RE THE ALPHA COUPLE!' And they'd have a big ol' smile on their face. And I'd think, God, if this were a movie, in the 30s, a pre-technicolor movie, and I was Wallace Leary or somebody, and I could say, 'oh, let me draw your picture, and I want you to keep it and not look at it for seven months.' And then in seven months they'd look at the picture and see that it was actually what they looked like in seven more months of being the couple they think they are. This was an actual pair of people who I am 100% certain are not doing well today. And I dedicate this song to you, anonymous South Carolina Couple at the New Brooklyn Tavern, 2004. (2021-08-19 Gothic Theatre)
Live Performances
Footnotes
1. Instead of a sedate "hey", in live performances until his retirement, Peter screams bloody murder and it's awesome. (first noted 2004 Knitting Factory, see Claremont Cometh's excellent "see america [yelling]" compilation for all the excellent screams). Notable yells include the "ghost scream" 2013-06-05 where Peter just goes oooOOOOooOOo,
2. "when" (2004-10-15)