Cross the palisade
At the holiday inn
See the mujahidin barricades
Just walk right through

Past the bullhorns
And sleepy 47s

Right by the coalition guards
I'm in the back of the second floor basement
I'll have my editors
Arrange for payment

Come to me now
You are warming weather
Come to me now
The kind that comes with
Sandbags along the river

Wear your aqua mirabilis
Dotted on your pulse points
A miraculous transformation
Ahh my aching joints

You are a vision in the air
Cheap lipstick, bleached hair

Ohh dressed like that
You are a flag of a dangerous nation
Oh dressed just like that
You are some kind of declaration

Come to me now
You are warming weather
Come to me now
The kind that comes with
Sandbags along the river

Here cowboy bars
And dance clubs don't exist
The trance manual says just stand alone
And then shift and shift

Come to me now
You are warming weather
Come to me now
The kind that comes with
Sandbags along the river


Lyrics submitted by balalín

Trance Manual Lyrics as written by John Vanderslice

Lyrics © SC PUBLISHING DBA SECRETLY CANADIAN PUB.

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Trance Manual song meanings
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7 Comments

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  • 0
    General CommentThus song is about an american and an iraqi prostitute.
    Akymotoon March 01, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General CommentUmm...actually, I'm pretty sure it's the prostitute thing.
    TheRealDannyMon September 13, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General CommentAnother example of Vanderslice taking the political and rendering it beautifully, intimately human. So good.
    TGon November 20, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General CommentJust a guess, I always thought the "Trance Manual" to be the Qur'an, the "Islamic book of divine guidance".
    AcidMilkon September 19, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Commentgood song for flying.
    annazoffon May 09, 2009   Link
  • 0
    My OpinionI read in an online review of the song that it's about a "journalist transformed by a visit by a prostitute", but I think the meaning can go deeper than that. It could describe any relationship that can be considered "dangerous". Specifically, an affair.

    The person singing is trying to woo a woman that he is not supposed to be with. When they meet, she has to go through elaborate security measures, similar to sneaking around on a boyfriend or spouse. He calls her the "flag of a dangerous nation" meaning that he shouldn't be messing around with her, but she is "warming weather" and is like spring in his life. Yet, when spring comes the snow melts and the river rises and floods the country around it. They can't meet in normal date places like bars and dance clubs and when in public they have to be very careful of how they act so they "stand alone" and "shift and shift." In the video, the girl lighting the matches is wearing a wedding ring and we know John Vanderslice has sung about being attracted to someone else's girlfriend in "You Were my Fiji". Maybe he is exploring this idea again in this song too.

    Whatever the meaning, this is a beautiful song!
    whircaton June 27, 2009   Link
  • -1
    General Commentthis song is about how gay akymoto is.
    Heather200408on June 03, 2006   Link

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