Talkin' Mrs. O'Leary's Cow Sabotage Blues
(4:08) [4/6/99/3:30 am]
For Kathy Brooks.
MP3
Liner Notes
Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow played kick the can.
Now the Windy City knows the truth, but that’s not all she’s began:
On that Easter day she fired the first shot
(While Pearce was still trying to sort it all out)
& started that whole NINA thing like we’d all smashed the van.
That’s my theory
For every time I’ve blew it;
That’s my story
& I’m sticking to it.
(Manamanah.)
She’s slouching towards Belfast to be
Reborn as something we can’t see.
& some still think it’s all just accident.
(It's no accident!)
Shell casings & hoof prints near the Knoll:
Someone changed the parade route & dressed like a hobo.
& when the Challenger got spoiled,
Guess who froze up all its coils?
Mrs. O’Leary’s bovine takes her toll.
That’s my theory
For every time I’ve blew it;
That’s my story
& I’m sticking to it.(Manamanah.)
She’s slouching towards Belfast to be
Reborn as something we can’t see.
& some still think it’s all a big accident.
(It's no accident!)
It’s the Cow, the Cow . . .
It’s the Cow, the Cow, the Cow . . .
A donkey mayor with cow’s blood in his veins
Knocked some protesters down in her old stomping grounds while the O.L.C.
took the reins.
& when that ethnic cleansing went down,
Some Bosnians swore they heard a sound:
A mooing like a barrelling night train.
That’s my theory
For every time I’ve blew it;
That’s my story
& I’m sticking to it.
(Manamanah.)
She’s slouching towards Belfast to be
Reborn as something we can’t see.
Now who still think it’s all some accident?
(Now who still thinks it's all some accident?)
Now who still think it’s all some accident?
(It's no accident!) |
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A shaggy cow story whose shadowy, comically ubiquitous protagonist (like
Woody Allen's Zelig or The Dead Milkmen's Sha Na Na) finds its stamp
onto nearly every 20th Century event. Proof positive that no one can
be the scapecow, er, scapegoat for all misery.
REM - “Departure” / Dwight D Eisenhower - “Farewell Presidential Address” / Tex Avery - “Ventriloquist Cat” /
John Williams - Score from JFK / Nick Lowe - “(I Want To Build A) Jumbo Ark” / Goldfinger - “This Lonely Place” /
Los Lobos - “Wake Up Dolores” & “Run Away With You”
“The angel
of Yahweh moved and took up his stand in a place so narrow that there
was no room to pass, right or left. When the donkey saw the angel of
Yahweh, she lay down under Balaam. Balaam flew into a rage and beat
her with his stick.
Then Yahweh opened the mouth of the donkey, who said to Balaam, ‘What
have I done to you? . . . Am I not your donkey, and have I not been
your mount from your youth? In all this time, have I ever failed to
serve you?’ He answered, ‘No.’ Then Yahweh opened the eyes of Balaam.
He saw the angel of Yahweh standing on the road, a drawn sword in his
hand; and he bowed down and fell prostrate on his face. And the angel
of Yahweh said to him, ‘Why did you beat your donkey three times like
that? I myself had come to bar your way; while I am here your way is
blocked. The donkey saw me and turned aside from thee three times. You
are lucky she did turn aside, or I would have killed you by now, though
I would have spared her.’ Balaam answered the angel of Yahweh, ‘I have
sinned. I did not know you were standing in my path. However, if you
are angry with me, I will go back.’”
- Numbers 22: 26-35, The Jerusalem Bible
“Still the plans get hatched
And the plots they thicken
See everybody’s looking for . . . that attitude chicken
Let’s drag out the old scapegoat
If he’s still alive and kicking
And go riding off in glory for . . . that attitude chicken
Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble
Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck
Attitude chicken."
- Bob Geldof, “Attitude Chicken” (1993) |
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