its amazing how far music can come.. 24 years after it released and its one of the most heartfelt songs ive heard
She swings the string of pearls on the corner
The street lights reflect the light in the water
The string it snaps and the pearls go sailing
And they splash and bounce and roll 'cross the wet street
As she bends to chase the pearls a car swings 'round the corner
She darts from the eyes of the panic-struck driver
Who's racing to the delivery room
'Cause in the back seat his wife is busting out of her womb
And the sack breaks and out come the Siamese Twins
Who grow up to become the first President
With two heads
Are better than one
He puts his heads in his hands, says I got to put my heads together
I can become the best President ever
And not just President
Fend for yourself
Signs his name, takes the blame for all of the names with no shame
In their beliefs
They adjourn and they leave, and in walks a man
With a broom and a knife and blood on his hands
And he sweeps everything under the rug
And goes home to his kids and gives them a hug
But his wife was not there, she had just left a letter
That said "you'd be much better off without me"
Now his wife took the train to her ex-lover's funeral
Who died in the bathroom, hit his head on a urinal
When they got together, the knowledge was carnal
And the widow was at the funeral, and they had quite a catfight
And they fell into the hole where the casket was resting
And the preacher just left in the middle of the service
'Cause death was one thing, but women made him nervous
And he ran to his car and he drove 'round the corner
Then something in the street caught the light in his eye
He pulled over, reached down, and picked up a pearl from the gutter
And he didn't know what to think
And he brought it home and washed it in the sink
And he gave the pearl to Sister Mary Teresa
Who could not accept it so she gave it to Lisa,
A young prostitute who was missing a pearl
On the necklace that broke late last night
The street lights reflect the light in the water
The string it snaps and the pearls go sailing
And they splash and bounce and roll 'cross the wet street
As she bends to chase the pearls a car swings 'round the corner
She darts from the eyes of the panic-struck driver
Who's racing to the delivery room
'Cause in the back seat his wife is busting out of her womb
And the sack breaks and out come the Siamese Twins
Who grow up to become the first President
With two heads
Are better than one
He puts his heads in his hands, says I got to put my heads together
I can become the best President ever
And not just President
Fend for yourself
Signs his name, takes the blame for all of the names with no shame
In their beliefs
They adjourn and they leave, and in walks a man
With a broom and a knife and blood on his hands
And he sweeps everything under the rug
And goes home to his kids and gives them a hug
But his wife was not there, she had just left a letter
That said "you'd be much better off without me"
Now his wife took the train to her ex-lover's funeral
Who died in the bathroom, hit his head on a urinal
When they got together, the knowledge was carnal
And the widow was at the funeral, and they had quite a catfight
And they fell into the hole where the casket was resting
And the preacher just left in the middle of the service
'Cause death was one thing, but women made him nervous
And he ran to his car and he drove 'round the corner
Then something in the street caught the light in his eye
He pulled over, reached down, and picked up a pearl from the gutter
And he didn't know what to think
And he brought it home and washed it in the sink
And he gave the pearl to Sister Mary Teresa
Who could not accept it so she gave it to Lisa,
A young prostitute who was missing a pearl
On the necklace that broke late last night
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Dave Pirner's greatest lyric i reckon. A narrative of a single pearl broken from a prostitutes necklace. Incorporating a twin headed president, because two heads are better than one, even in one's hands. Yeah it's about a cycle. An absurd cycle. The pearl ends up with a prostitue.
I don't like this song much, but the idea it speaks of is pretty cool.
to me its like a never ending cycle... no matter what happens, what takes place, who dies, who runsaway, whatever, it always ends back in the same place..
life is cycle?
i always thought the story this song told was crazy and funny at times, but i never got the part beginning with "signs his name, takes the blame..." and ending with the janitor walking in with "a broom and a knife, and blood on his hands."
I downloaded this song -- yeah i'm cheap, haha -- purely because a friend showed me the lyrics. They're so damn hype! Agreeing with Webchef on the meaning, life is a never ending cycle. We're all interdependent and interconnected.
The themes are exactly what the title describes them....a string of pearls.
Dave Pirner outdid himself with this amazing lyric, made even more interesting with its unusual reflexive rhyme scheme. As a fan of Kurt Vonnegut I couldn't miss the "president with two heads" section as this has got be inspired by his novel Slapstick. In that book a set of brilliant, incestuous, not-Siamese twins actually become co-presidents and do their best thinking when they literally "put their heads together." At the same time, Pirner was undoubtedly taking a jab at then president Bill Clinton, who had to "fend for himself" after the Monica Lewinsky scandal had everyone thinking about another meaning of "head" involving the president.
It’s a trip. Catchy lyrics and timing. Love it.