Shelved
Lyrics
I wanna ride the hydraulics
Lit up like the North Star
I wanna wallow in the spoils before the crowd
I wanna play my guitar
Not gonna sit up and beg
Not gonna do tricks
Not gonna stand here on a sound stage
Tethered to a crucifix
The ride's over, I know
But I'm not ready to go
I wanna flash my pastel colors by the rail
On a windy day at Pimlico
Don't want to write songs with this clown they set me up with in a Los Angeles rehearsal studio
Not gonna tour with Trent Reznor
Third of three, bottom of the bill
You can't pay me to make that kind of music
Not gonna swallow that pill
The ride's over, I know
But I'm not ready to go
Maybe Dad is right
I'm still young
And I can write C++ just as good as anyone
I know this guy at LucasArts
He says they're looking for hands
In fifteen years I'll be puttin' back beers
With my feet in the sand
Banter
- "This song is also off the new record [Goths]. And it's about - I was doing research. By the middle of the set you start going "wow, I got a Sisters of Mercy Song", and I've got one that's cryptically about representing Nick Cave and Peter Murphy, then you start digging deeper and you discover that some bands started putting on more eye makeup when it started looking like their own scene wasn't gonna work but the goth scene might be the ticket to another three album contract. And I find that very interesting, because I see their point, it's a good job making music, but at the same time, it's very weird to me to imagine a band going, 'sure, we'll make a goth record, why not?' So this is a song about a band who does, and regrets it. What happens is when you make an album, if you're working for a big label, you have to present it to them. Your manager calls a meeting and you play a couple tracks and you try to frame them. 'This next one is about such and such' and then the guys who have all the money, they don't care about what you're saying at all. They tell you whether or not they like the album and will release it. If they don't release it, you spend a year or two or three, working on something that will never see the light of day. And they take your little album, and they put it on the shelf." (2017-11-12 Brooklyn Steel)
Live Performances
Footnotes