Music and lyrics by Damon Waitkus

Lyrics

All my friends are dead.
What can you say to that, my friend?
Cancer dropped a blockbuster: the formula
works. The car crash was a sleeper hit.
1908 and twenty days late, I dragged
the midwife from her bed. There was a handsome
front lawn I could roll around on,
a great sigh in the chestnuts overhead.

Along came the war. Along came
the war, and everyone agreed
what we were in it for.
But I saw a flash in a darkened theatre,
a newsreel splash of a crash on a foreign shore.
All my friends seemed to think I’d feel differently
if I’d only had to risk my hide,
but I’d have to hear from God himself
before I’d kill for either side.

My father said “Franklin, you’re
not a fighter. They would snap you
in two like a twig. You’re going to have to
find a post in the Post Office. That’s the
only other decent gig.”

Well, I’m never alone for long,
’cause people know these walls
are strong, and neither snow nor rain
can get in. But who can recall the way
the tall chestnuts used to sway
before the blight set in?

You can’t stand too tall in a clear-cut forest
or the world stops laughing at your jokes,
No, Jesus never laughed at my jokes.

Personnel

DW – voice, music box, banjo, flute, piano, glockenspiel, percussion
EP – psaltery, viola, violin
KM – bassoon
JH – acoustic bass
JG – vibraphone, accordion, drums
Art Elliot – church organ
Marielle Jakobsons – waterphone
Cory Wright – clarinet