Surgeon

The line came from one of Marilyn Monroe. In an interview with NPR, Annie Clark said,

"I was reading Marilyn Monroe's journals, she wrote down the sentence, 'Best, finest surgeon – Lee Strasberg, come cut me open,' because she was studying with Lee Strasberg at the Actor's Studio at the time, and he was a tremendous mentor to her. And I just thought that was brilliant and really strange. I definitely wanted this particular song to sound like someone was kind of in a Benzedrine and white-wine coma – like a housewife's cocktail."

She is saying "best finest surgeon/come cut me open" It's definitely a Marilyn Monroe quote. I read that article in Vanity Fair too... fascinating.

delicious st. vincent as usual. i love the double meaning of sex and surgery. "i spent the summer on my back" either having sex or on the table in a hospital. the song even starts and rises and climaxes like sex/surgery, with a slow start and a chaotic end.

Well, I hear the lyrics as:

I spent the summer on my back Another attack Stayin' just to get along, get along, get along

Turn off the TV Wait in bed Of blue and red A little something to get along, get along, get along Get along, get along, get along

Best find a surgeon Come cut me open Best find a surgeon Come cut me open

Dressing undressing for the wall If mother calls She knows where we don't get along, get along, get along

I tell the mailman never you mind I'll sift through the piles And for him to just get along, get along, get along, Get along, get along, get along

Best find a surgeon Come cut me open [repeats]

I spent the summer on my back Another attack Stealing just to get along

and

Best finest surgeon* Come cut me open

..or at least that's what I hear. Fantastic song. <3

*that part I read in a blog. She got that from Marilyn Monroe's autobiography.

Sex, it's gotta be about sex. That's all I hear when when she sings, "best finest surgeon, come cut me open" I half expect her to wink after that line. Not to mention the obvious, "I spent the summer on my back".

While I definitely hear the references to sex, there's also the lines to consider that suggest the narrator doesn't have the best relationship with this other person. Even her mother knows their relationship is volatile. One of them is moving/moved out of where they once lived together, and she tells the mailman not to worry about delivering their mail to separate locations. (Maybe she wants to deliver personally because they still take opportunities for sex in spite of all this?) "Just get along" might mean that the affair has become lifeless and drawn out, which would explain why she compares the act of sex to a medical procedure.

Anyways, fantastic song.

Agree with SirBlackSheep, but I think that when she says "Dressing and undressing for a wall", she refers of loneliness.

This song is about feeling depressed and lonely: I tell the mailman, "Never you mind, I'll sift through the piles" talks about wanting to be alone. The part of the mother: Obviously our mothers care for us and keep bothering, asking questions,etc. She refers to that, and states she has issues with her mom: If mother calls, she knows well we don't get along"

The chorus is basically she asking for help.

It is STAYING just to get along

chorus: Best, FINEST surgeon etc.

Annie Clark said it herself she got the chorus line from Marilyn Monroe's diary--somebody aint reading the comments! (I tried to find the "lyric correction" for type of comment but it doesn't appear)

To me the "blue and red" stood for bruises, however not literally, but mentally being beat up and just tired. "A little something to get along" keeps her from giving up on her life, that perhaps she can use the depressed feelings she has to push through to a better life. Someone else wrote the blue and red line stood for "blue=sad red=anger" but all in all I think we've got the same meaning :)

SORRY! I meant

STAY IN just to get along.