Warren wanted a Beach Boys thing for this one, and Carl Wilson and Billy Hinsche came in, with Carl arranging the vocal parts. The other harmony vocalists (credited as the "Gentlemen Boys") were Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Zevon's longtime backers Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon, and Linda Rondstadt/Stone Poneys guitarist Kenny Edwards.
In the garden district
Where the plants grow strong and tall
Behind the bush there lurks a girl
Who makes them strong and tall
The villagers call her
Quicklime girl behind her back
Quicklime girl behind the bush
Quicklime girl
She's the mistress of the salmon salt
Quicklime girl
Quicklime girl
Quicklime girl
In the fall when plants return
By harvest time she knows the score
Ripe and ready to the eye
Yet rotten somehow to the core
And they call her
Quicklime girl behind her back
Quicklime girl behind the bush
Quicklime girl
She's the mistress of the salmon salt
Quicklime girl
Quicklime girl
Quicklime girl
A harvest of life a harvest of death
One body of life one body of death
And when you've gone and choked to death
With laughter and a little step
I'll prepare the quicklime, friend
For your ripe and ready grave
For your ripe and ready grave
It's springtime now and cares subside
And the plannings almost done
And fertile graves it seems exist
Within a mile of that Duke's joint
Where Coast Guard crews still take their leave
Quite listless in the sun
And the Quicklime girl still plies her trade
Reduction of the many from the one
And they call her
Quicklime girl behind her back
Quicklime girl behind the bush
Quicklime girl
Well she's the mistress of the salmon salt
Quicklime girl
Quicklime girl they call her
Quicklime girl
A harvest of life a harvest of death
Resumes its course each day
It comes as if by schedule
A harvester lifts his arms to the rain
The toes that crawl
The knees that jerk
The necks like swans that seem to turn
As if inclined to gasp or pray
Where the plants grow strong and tall
Behind the bush there lurks a girl
Who makes them strong and tall
The villagers call her
Quicklime girl behind her back
Quicklime girl behind the bush
Quicklime girl
She's the mistress of the salmon salt
Quicklime girl
Quicklime girl
Quicklime girl
In the fall when plants return
By harvest time she knows the score
Ripe and ready to the eye
Yet rotten somehow to the core
And they call her
Quicklime girl behind her back
Quicklime girl behind the bush
Quicklime girl
She's the mistress of the salmon salt
Quicklime girl
Quicklime girl
Quicklime girl
A harvest of life a harvest of death
One body of life one body of death
And when you've gone and choked to death
With laughter and a little step
I'll prepare the quicklime, friend
For your ripe and ready grave
For your ripe and ready grave
It's springtime now and cares subside
And the plannings almost done
And fertile graves it seems exist
Within a mile of that Duke's joint
Where Coast Guard crews still take their leave
Quite listless in the sun
And the Quicklime girl still plies her trade
Reduction of the many from the one
And they call her
Quicklime girl behind her back
Quicklime girl behind the bush
Quicklime girl
Well she's the mistress of the salmon salt
Quicklime girl
Quicklime girl they call her
Quicklime girl
A harvest of life a harvest of death
Resumes its course each day
It comes as if by schedule
A harvester lifts his arms to the rain
The toes that crawl
The knees that jerk
The necks like swans that seem to turn
As if inclined to gasp or pray
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I've always wondered what this song is about. There's several things I've come up with.
My first inclination since Albert Bouchard was the writer, and he tends to lean toward sexual references, is that Quicklime may be a substitute for quick time girl. It says she "plies her trade" so she's getting paid for something. I was thinking that sailors "where coast guard crews still take their leave" hit her up for sex behind the bushes. "Where the plants grow strong and tall Behind the bush there lurks a girl Who makes them strong and tall" could be a reference to their erections. Mistress of the "salmon salt" and "reduction of many from the one" have always seemed like code for semen to me. Perhaps they spill their semen and feed the plants that way?
She perhaps is killing her victims too, since there are ripe and ready graves. With laughter and a little step, perhaps you fall into a hole in the ground?
There's one other literal possibility. Quicklime is an actual substance en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_oxide "Because of vigorous reaction of quicklime with water, quicklime causes severe irritation when inhaled or placed in contact with moist skin or eyes. Inhalation may cause coughing, sneezing, labored breathing. It may then evolve into burns with perforation of the nasal septum, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. Although quicklime is not considered a fire hazard, its reaction with water can release enough heat to ignite combustible materials." She could be burning her victims to death with quicklime, or it could even be a drug dealer reference. Since the lyrics mention gasping, and choked to death perhaps they're smoking something intended to be a drug, and it's actually poison, or perhaps they're just junkies dying from her drugs. Also, Quicklime is used to make cement, so she could be burying victims in cement too.
Another thing about the plants growing tall, is that she could be feeding actual plants with the corpses of her victims.
I believe she's a prostitute, and she lures sailors in with sex behind the bushes, and she kills them, and feeds the plants. I don't really think the drug reference makes sense if they are sailors. Sailors don't generally go off on drug binges.
I wish someone would give a definitive explanation to this song, as it's always made me wonder.