I rather shoot a woman than a man,
I worry whether this is my last life
And girl, if you're listening
I'm sorry, I can't help it
O, Dana
O, Dana
Come on
I'm forevermore fighting with Steven
We do our goo-boo-koos
But we know, overboard and down
And strung out twice
We seldom know what things are
Two illusions going very far
I got busted across the bridge
They rounded up every soul
But, now I'm on the East Side
She says, "Don't give a girl a chance"
She's not afraid to take a chance
She's got a magic wand
That says play with yourself before other ones
I worry whether this is my last life
And girl, if you're listening
I'm sorry, I can't help it
O, Dana
Come on
We do our goo-boo-koos
But we know, overboard and down
And strung out twice
Two illusions going very far
They rounded up every soul
But, now I'm on the East Side
She says, "Don't give a girl a chance"
She's not afraid to take a chance
That says play with yourself before other ones
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For years, I could not figure out just what Alex is getting at with this song. When I read Rob Jovanovic's book on Big Star, I finally found out. The lyrics are simply a collection of things said by a friend of Alex named Dana. Apparently she was quite the character who would blurt out things like "I'd rather shoot a woman than a man", and "I'm forevermore fighting with Steven".
I think it's actually pretty clever. We all know that one person who is always saying off-the-wall things. To write some of them down and make a song out of it is pretty cool.
goo-boo-koos? is that 70's lingo for doing drugs or something? Well eitherway, this is probably one of my favorite songs in all of Third, yet the subject matter always makes me doubt my liking of it. Alex must have been in a really bad relationship to rather shoot a woman than a man.
Also, the third verse makes no sense to me. What does he mean by busted across the bridge? Another drug reference to being caught with them? Or am i just assuming every 70's rock band was doing drugs some time or another?
@nelson325 You're way too stuck on the drugs thing. The album was much more about the band falling apart, largely from disappointment on their lack of success w/ such fine material. And it's 'We do argue beaucoups', not the nonsense lyrics here. And Chilton was not in a relationship that made him write that lyric. It was something a female friend randomly blurted out and he put it in a song.
@nelson325 You're way too stuck on the drugs thing. The album was much more about the band falling apart, largely from disappointment on their lack of success w/ such fine material. And it's 'We do argue beaucoups', not the nonsense lyrics here. And Chilton was not in a relationship that made him write that lyric. It was something a female friend randomly blurted out and he put it in a song.
I'm surprised that this lyric is often butchered, especially since nonsense words ("We do our goo goo koos") are usually cited in place of something that makes much more sense: "I'm forevermore fighting with Steven; We do argue beaucoups" (meaning "a lot," as in Ringo Starr's lp title, Beaucoups of Blues). The "Steven" reference is interetsting: is it "Steven" or "Stephens" as in Jody, the band's drummer?
"Busted across the bridge" is probably a reference to scoring drugs(?)in Arkansas, which is across the Mississippi River from Memphis, where the band (and whomever the song was about) was based.
Is the "She's got a magic wand" as blatant a reference as I think -- she's going to play with herself -- or is it meant to be a hypodermic syringe?
i doubt it's he's talking about a vibrator; remember that these songs were written in the early 70s in the deep south. and women owning sex toys wasn't exactly common or talked about.
i doubt it's he's talking about a vibrator; remember that these songs were written in the early 70s in the deep south. and women owning sex toys wasn't exactly common or talked about.
a lot of people read tons of drug stuff into big star lyrics, and i know chris bell had a brief but rather severe heroin habit- was chilton a druggie too ?
a lot of people read tons of drug stuff into big star lyrics, and i know chris bell had a brief but rather severe heroin habit- was chilton a druggie too ?