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Guelah Papyrus Lyrics
Aboard a craft bereft of oar, I rowed upstream to find Lenore
Abducted by a bandit or a king from some forgotten war
And mindful of his larval craze, the rhinotropic micro-gaze
Ignored it and to my amazement rode to Paris in twelve days
This is the work of the guelah papyrus
Stranded for a moment on the ocean of Osyrus
Absorbing all she can for every member of her clan
Expanding exponentially like some recursive virus
She take me on, I never fail to ride on the redundant rail
'Cause when I know she's switched a track there's always one to take me back
And through the bedroom door intrude a fretful frown and spoil the mood
'Cause though I never really stand that tall she tilt my frame, she watch me fall
chorus
So maybe I could be a fly and feed arachnid as I die
And view the ritual from within the silken tunnel that they spin
And through the bedroom door intrude a fretful frown and spoil the mood
'Cause though I never really stand that tall she tilt my frame, she watch me fall
chorus 3x
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beautiful trip aide.
"She take me on, I never fail to ride on the redundant rail"
one of the best phish lines ever.
i still have no real idea what this song is about.
though i could be wrong, this verse:
"And through the bedroom door intrude a fretful frown and spoil the mood
'Cause though I never really stand that tall she tilt my frame, she watch me fall"
makes me think of erectile dysfunction..haha
great song. what does is mean though? I think its definitely about relationships and the perils that girls will put you through.
I think this song is about expecting to catch a cheating girlfriend in the act, with undertones of fears of venereal disease as a running theme? Why? Well, when you listen to the other lyrics on the album, STD's are something of a running theme-- it's a public health announcement to jam band types everywhere. "Whatever you do, take care of your shoe" (Cavern) lest you get a "Crab" in your "Shoemouth" (Manteca)
"In summing up, the moral seems A little bit obscure...
Give the director a serpent deflector A mudrat detector, a ribbon reflector A cushion convector, a pitcher of nectar * A viral dissector,a hormone collector"
(Cavern) - this entire list is a collection of synonyms for condoms. With the exception of a "picture of Nectar." Nectar's was a club that Phish played in and while I haven't seen the proprietor myself, it would presumably be enough of a turn off to prevent any activity that might result in catching anything!!! And I think bacteria can come in the shape of little serpents, ribbons, rods, or tiny spheres. Yuck.
This album came out during the AIDS epidemic when I was a teenager-- I think the message was pretty clear at the time. The remainder of "Cavern's" lyrics contain a lot of disease imagery, and other earlier tunes like Golgi Apparatus suggest that microbiology tends to come up in Phish lyrics.
So the singer imagines himself paralyzed by a spider, a "fly on the wall" to witness the tryst of his lover, and then imagines walking in, causing frowns all around-- and noticing that his photo frame on the nightstand has been turned flat on the table.
The relationship issues that run through the sequence of songs here also echo the dysfunctional relationship theme here.
flat earth