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City Of Motors Lyrics
Three times dark, first in the mind.
Second on Java street, the dead car there.
The hood blown off with a BB gun.
Manuela said she saw the brakes fail.
Manuela said she saw the brakes fail.
An empty body but it still bled
Oil from the axle and it left a trail.
Ran down Java street and formed a pool.
Manuela saw the moon in there.
Manuela saw the moon in there.
I hear a rumbling.
I hear transmission grind.
I bear witness.
I have the clutch now.
Three times dark, third on the rooftops;
Man jumps between and grabs the rail.
Man pulls the door but the door is locked.
Man gouge the hinge and goes down the stairs.
Man gouge the hinge and goes down the stairs.
Dull bright morning and the tools are gone.
Detectives with flashlights in the elevator shaft.
Manuela tells detectives she saw him there.
Stuck in the hinge is a sliver of a fingernail.
Stuck in the hinge is a sliver of a fingernail.
Stack of tools in the Oldsmobile.
From the Motor City to the City of Dis.
They trace his travel by his credit card.
No sleep, smokes, and he's nauseous.
No sleep, smokes, and he's nauseous.
Flicks an ash like a wild loose comma.
Ash hits the oil around the pump.
Travels to the pump and the pump explodes.
Witness said he saw the car jump.
Witness said he saw the car jump.
Second on Java street, the dead car there.
The hood blown off with a BB gun.
Manuela said she saw the brakes fail.
Manuela said she saw the brakes fail.
An empty body but it still bled
Oil from the axle and it left a trail.
Ran down Java street and formed a pool.
Manuela saw the moon in there.
Manuela saw the moon in there.
I hear transmission grind.
I bear witness.
I have the clutch now.
Man jumps between and grabs the rail.
Man pulls the door but the door is locked.
Man gouge the hinge and goes down the stairs.
Man gouge the hinge and goes down the stairs.
Dull bright morning and the tools are gone.
Detectives with flashlights in the elevator shaft.
Manuela tells detectives she saw him there.
Stuck in the hinge is a sliver of a fingernail.
Stuck in the hinge is a sliver of a fingernail.
From the Motor City to the City of Dis.
They trace his travel by his credit card.
No sleep, smokes, and he's nauseous.
No sleep, smokes, and he's nauseous.
Flicks an ash like a wild loose comma.
Ash hits the oil around the pump.
Travels to the pump and the pump explodes.
Witness said he saw the car jump.
Witness said he saw the car jump.
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I think this is one of Soul Coughing's most terrifically visceral songs...The narrative unspools some crazy images in yr brain as you listen...I miss Soul Coughing!
this song contains one of the best lines in any song: "flicks an ash like a wild loose comma". thats just brilliant.
Yeah, that has always been my favorite line of any song, too. I love how he can make mundane, boring things like "comma" just sound so frickin' cool!! :)
Yeah, that has always been my favorite line of any song, too. I love how he can make mundane, boring things like "comma" just sound so frickin' cool!! :)
Yes, I also miss S.C. I think Doughty still writes well on his own, but some of the luster is gone without the sparse bass and crisp percussions thrown on top.
Yes, I also miss S.C. I think Doughty still writes well on his own, but some of the luster is gone without the sparse bass and crisp percussions thrown on top.
Manuela means "God is with us".
Manuela is a psychic detective, who is helping the cops find a car murderer.....who ends up being murder by one of the cars he stole. Simple.
Doughty said, "The moral of the story, kids, is don't smoke at gas pumps."
It's not that straightforward of a story, and no one here has put it in full narrative form yet.. 3 times dark gets progressively darker. I think the first is just antisocial murderous tendencies in the mind of the fugitive who accidentally blows up the pump at the end. This guy is some kind of tradesman with tools, and drives an Oldsmobile. He is probably just in the habit of pulling dangerous, life threatening stunts.
The second is him shooting a car with a BB gun from a nearby roof, which is certainly dangerous. The car dies, and the driver probably dies in the accident caused by the shot. Manuela ("God is with us") is a witness, calls police. Manuela sings the chorus, "I bear witness".
In the 3rd dark, the guy runs, jumps rooftops, goes down through an elevator, and escapes capture - becoming a hunted fugitive. The police trace him with forensics and his card as he travels from Detroıt to somewhere else, which is his own personal Hell ("from the motor city to the cıty of Dis", the city of Dis being an infernal city I know of from old school D and D) now that he is most likely guilty of manslaughter. He is nervous, no sleep, sick ... and the story ends like everyone said, when he smokes at a gas pump and blows it up, ending the investigation with a bang.
another obvious story told by the most amazing muthufuck in the US.