BETTER LIAR LYRICS AND NOTES page 2
4. Metaphors
(C. Robertson 2009)
Sometimes language truly gets in the way of saying what we want to say. Too many similies (she is like a rose), too many metaphors (she is a rose).
G9
You can tell me you’re not playing,
C6
You can tell me you fold.
G9
You can tell me you’re busted
C6
Or the cards are all cold.
Em
Chorus: But every time we go round
A9
You say deal me in
C
When will you learn
Dsus4 G9
This is a hand you can’t win.
Well, it’s long after midnight
and you don’t understand
why you cant draw a heart
to fill out your hand.
You always stay in
You never call pass
And all these metaphors
Are a pain in the ass.
Chorus
C9
Bridge: I know all the cards you’ve got up your sleeve
G9 B7
I know you can’t stay and I know you can’t leave.
Em A9
If you look out the window you can just see the dawn
C Dsus 4
But you never look out and the game just goes on.
Play what you’re dealt
Don’t look at your cards
Leave it to fate
It’s not really that hard
Leave it to gravity
Close your eyes and breathe slow
Cause nothin’ will happen
Until you let go.
Chorus
Final Chorus:
And all these metaphors
Are a pain in the ass.
5. Rosa’s Song
(C. Robertson 2009)
Welcome to paradise, never mind the panther in the garden.
I rented a house outside Havana
Walked through a window in time
down where the jungle meets the ocean
I left New York behind
I hired a housekeeper name of Rosa
Her hair was dark, her nails were long
She fed me plantains soaked in dark rum
Beneath her breath she sang this song:
Chorus
Maybe you see the panther in the garden
Maybe you hear the spider monkey’s call
Maybe you feel the wind blow through the window
Maybe you don’t belong here after all.
The Cuban sun burned my resistance
I never had much anyway
My sense of time, my sense of distance
Grew dimmer and dimmer every day
Now I can hear her in the kitchen
And I think something is wrong
Music crawls across the sky like spiders
Through the threads of this song.
Chorus
6. Narcissa
(C.Robertson 2009)
”Is this song about me?” “Don’t be silly, it’s absolutely not about you.” It’s about you.
G D
When I finally worked up the nerve
C G
I guess I got what I deserved
G D
I said you were heaven to me
C D G G7
And you just agreed
C
Why don’t you go fuck yourself?
G
Cause you really don’t love no one else
D
Under the makeup and hair
C D G
There ain’t nobody there.
You dragged me from right into wrong
That summer was hot and long
Then you went back to that other man
now I understand.
Everybody's got a crush on you,
at least you think they do...
Chorus
I could use fancier chords
An’ I could use fancier words
But it’s pretty straightforward to me
I’m sure you agree,
(and even if you don’t)
Chorus(3x)
(You can take my heart, just leave the bottle…)
7. The Scorpion Queen
(Z. Janzen 2009)
This is based on a true story. Zoe Janzen pulled a set of lovely images out of the headlines.
The scorpion queen is one of a kind but
she's still a woman with one thing on her mind
If only there were someone with whom to unwind
Normally that wouldn't be too hard to find
She is just looking for someone to cuddle and hug
the only criteria - unnatural affection for bugs
Her predilection? Or is it a flaw?
To admit you are fond of the scorpion's claw
How to respond? If that turns her on
I bet she turns around to find most people gone
She is just looking for someone to cuddle and hug
the only criteria - unnatural affection for bugs
There is a man in the same country
who harbours a love of the centipede
He's having the same trouble as she
finding the one who's his destiny
He is just looking for someone to cuddle and hug
the only criteria - unnatural affection for bugs
He accepted that this was his folly
that he could not resist the creep of the crawly
It did not discourage his hope that fate
would eventually find him a mate
Then one day their stars did collide
at a world record quest on the Thai seaside
They fell in love - so happy they cried
and it wasn't too long before she was his bride
They were just looking for someone to cuddle and hug
the only criteria - unnatural affection for bugs