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Marionette Lyrics
No puppet, no liar, won't bend my lips to wire - No
Don't pressurize me so
Don't gamble, with my life, or you won't live to do it twice
Oh take some good advice from me
And let the wires rock
All dressed in black so nobody sees you
Smile in the wings, tell me I please you
Call me a king and watch for the wordworm to choke me
And you're like a giraffe, the performance is poor
Watch the audience laugh as my head hits the floor
When I'm broken in half you still reach for the floor
STOP!
I've had enough of this
The pantomime's reversed
I need -you feed
I greed - you bleed
Marionette - I ain't one yet
Teacher's pet - Well you'd better forget it
Marionette - I ain't one yet
Teacher's pet - Go check your stocks and shares
And when the coffin comes make sure there's room for two
You lied - I led
I died -You're dead
Marionette - I ain't one yet
Teacher's pet - You'd better forget it
Marionette - I ain't one yet
Teacher's pet - go check your product
A traitor, deceiver, a groovy disbeliever I thought
A puppet was a thing cheap-taught - No way
Creator, conceiver, romantic love receiver - caught
Who are you
The nerve
I wanna get out, I wanna get out, I wanna get out, I wanna get out, I wanna get
out, AHHHHH!
Oh he wanna play chords to the chick on the street
He wanna play words to a world that don't speak
He wanna play people who play hide 'n' seek when they don't talk
He wanna play a riff to the man with the wires
He wanna play lead but his hand's getting tired
He just wanna play but don't know how to say - STOP
OK, the show's been fun
But my wood's begun to warp
They won -I'm done
New one - begun
Marionette - I did my best
Teacher's pet - It just couldn't last
Marionette - Get me out of this mess
Teacher's little pet - It happened so fast
Marionette - Now I need a rest
Teacher's pet - Where's my sanity gone - Mother?
Marionette - I did my best
Teacher's little pet - I'm just like all the others
They gambled, with my life
and now I've lost my will to fight
Oh God these wires are so tight....
I'm just a marionette.
Don't pressurize me so
Don't gamble, with my life, or you won't live to do it twice
Oh take some good advice from me
And let the wires rock
Smile in the wings, tell me I please you
Call me a king and watch for the wordworm to choke me
And you're like a giraffe, the performance is poor
Watch the audience laugh as my head hits the floor
When I'm broken in half you still reach for the floor
I've had enough of this
The pantomime's reversed
I need -you feed
I greed - you bleed
Marionette - I ain't one yet
Teacher's pet - Well you'd better forget it
Marionette - I ain't one yet
Teacher's pet - Go check your stocks and shares
You lied - I led
I died -You're dead
Teacher's pet - You'd better forget it
Marionette - I ain't one yet
Teacher's pet - go check your product
A puppet was a thing cheap-taught - No way
Creator, conceiver, romantic love receiver - caught
Who are you
The nerve
I wanna get out, I wanna get out, I wanna get out, I wanna get out, I wanna get
out, AHHHHH!
He wanna play words to a world that don't speak
He wanna play people who play hide 'n' seek when they don't talk
He wanna play a riff to the man with the wires
He wanna play lead but his hand's getting tired
He just wanna play but don't know how to say - STOP
But my wood's begun to warp
They won -I'm done
New one - begun
Teacher's pet - It just couldn't last
Marionette - Get me out of this mess
Teacher's little pet - It happened so fast
Marionette - Now I need a rest
Teacher's pet - Where's my sanity gone - Mother?
Marionette - I did my best
Teacher's little pet - I'm just like all the others
and now I've lost my will to fight
Oh God these wires are so tight....
I'm just a marionette.
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This song is great! =) It's about a guy who's a rebel - he probably just got out of high school and wants to do what HE wants to do; no Corporate America crap the rest of the world is doing. But "the man" doesn't like it and wants to turn him into a marionette. When he says 'the nerve' it's because he can't believe anyone would try to deny him like that. In the end, the man becomes a Marionette after 'trying his best' to not be. So in the end, it is inevitable - you WILL become a marrionette and work for Corporate America.
"Frustratingly, Mott were about to embark on a US tour which would have taken them to huge venues such as Madison Square Garden. Hunter says he felt under constant pressure to write the next hit. He described the stress in a song called "Marionette", which contains a line George Formby might have written, had he lived in a later, more introspective age of songwriting: "Where's my sanity gone — mother?""
It's really about how Hunter felt by the end of Mott.
If you listen to the live recording at a Broadway theatre in May 1974 (on Shades Of Ian Hunter) there's a kind of shocked pause at the end before a few of the audience started clapping. Clearly an end of an era song, like Bowie at Hammersmith Odeon in 1973 or Dylan in Manchester in 1966 when he went electric!