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This Is Sally Hatchet Lyrics
Born the daughter of a comedian
Middle of the eighties
Someone turn that awful mouth-breathing down
Or else
Sally Hatchet lives in a hole in the ground
The longer it keeps raining the more she has to struggle to maintain a wonderful time
Oh yeah
Go on and laugh it up without me
I've got smoke in my lungs
And a past life in the trunk
Could he rattle by the way that she empties a few clips out
Do I have a choice now
Point that thing away from me
Lady
Middle of the eighties
Someone turn that awful mouth-breathing down
Or else
The longer it keeps raining the more she has to struggle to maintain a wonderful time
Oh yeah
I've got smoke in my lungs
And a past life in the trunk
Do I have a choice now
Point that thing away from me
Lady
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Fairly sure that it's: "Go on and laugh it up without me" rather than "Oh wanna love it up without me".
It's an awesome track- outro is just epic. I've been struggling with the story behind this but I've narrowed it down in my mind to it being about the narrator meeting a girl who has become desensitised to happiness and so has to do more drugs to keep her on an even keel.
I'm not sure about the break. To me it sounds like a change in narrator, but from who's perspective I don't know.
The last verse and outro feels to me like it's about the moment the drugs are presented. From the trepidation in the narrators description, it sounds like he's not overly keen on the idea but see's no other options. What kind of drugs would be contained in 'clips' I'm not sure but as it leads into that euphoric and primal sounding outro that kind of makes sense to me.
Or I could have gotten it very wrong!
My take is that Sally Hatchet is tobacco.
"Born the daughter of a comedian" - born of someone, where anything they say is laughable, their truth is so laughable, unrealistic or detached from today's reality. I think this song for Father John Misty (FJM), was his perception about the protagonist, a woman he calls, "Sally Hatchet, [whom metaphorically] lives in a hole in the ground" - a woman, who's parent(s)... a daughter of a comedian", where she, who'd been repressed - had no opportunity to be her genuine self. But she'd lived through it - for a time it WAS her reality - one suffrage she's sustained for long enough. "The longer it keeps raining the more she has to struggle to maintain a wonderful time'". I hear an internal suffocation but also an endeavour on her behalf, for wonder and joy - ultimately leading towards an outpour-age of emotions. At least through her adolescent upbringing...Albeit this suffocating feeling, "pretty rattled by the way the way she empties a few clips out" - she's finally letting all of that frustration and emotion out. Then on the receiving end, from FJM; "Do I have a choice now, point that thing away from, lady". Then the song progresses to one of the most beautiful outros I've ever heard... The outro is cathartic and matches the theme. But of course, [of my understanding of him] through FJM's, this man understands and accepts all the good and bad - all of it. This song is a bittersweet, masterpiece.