Cough Syrup

Ah metaphors. Having spent years upon years trying to figure out some of the most "coded" song lyrics out there (I love enigmatic music, you can find new things every time you listen... The one exception being Beck {Whom I love, don't get me wrong...} who, no matter what chemicals you put into your system, a lot of his music is just utterly incomprehesible or understandable... ) and purposely imbibing in various altered states (including my favorite, DM...) in the quest to decipher them, I have a few things to say about this song. One, I think this was about River Phoenix (He was a friend of the Surfers and dropped dead outside the Viper room while they were playing there that night). From experience, the mixture of chemicals River had in his system wouldn't have necessarily killed him without a large amount of DM (The news commented how he had been on several drugs including an "over the counter cough medicine". Large amounts of DM can really increase your blood pressure which, in my opinion, mixed with the other, contra-indicated drugs, lead to his aneurysm...). Of course this is all debatable. The lyric "I'd rather be a matchstick than a lighter", in my opinion, means that while a person, like me (for two years), can take DM everyday, all day, and have some of the most intense hallucinations possible, Gibby would rather take LSD, mushrooms, ETC. (or whatever...) for two reasons, 1) once you take LSD (or the other traditionals) you acquire a short lived, but pronounced tolerance to it, meaning that you'd have to take a lot more if you wanted to get off again the next day (whereas with DM you can keep drinking that stuff and continue to get off until your kidneys give out from the repeated daily intake of the massive amount of glucose its suspended in...) and 2) many look at an LSD trip as an experience to be cherished, not something you can or should do all the time. Its cheapens the whole experience. Now, while this may be my opinion, most of my fellow Hallucinaughts agree with this interpretation. Also, River's family may have looked at his friends as leading him to this life of drug use and may have blamed the surfers and surrounding influences (The lyric "Brother... likes to solve his problems with a gun" Joqain (or however you spell it...) is NUTS and can be a violent guy. I dunno. As for the Johnny Booth reference, I have an idea, but its not solid enough to try and defend. Anyway, God love the Surfers and I hope River is hanging out at the drugstore in Heaven...

A few things... "And I hate the fruity Mirror" I think is acutally "And I hate the food in Europe" because most of the food there does suck. "That there wern`t no point in moaning" might be "There wern't no point in mowing" which makes sense with the other grass mowing lyric, and since grass always grows back there really is no point in mowing it. If you wanna touch the sky You must be prepared to die You have to be prepared to face the unknown and not fear the random if you want to see divinity

fruity guck makes perfect sense.. it's wrong. but id does make sense. more sense than the actual lyrics, in fact. also... its genius, not genious. and an inquisition is a question...he didn't ask any questions.

Third BS song that I've re-done tonight: She played for the Angels I played for the Tribe The summer had been stolen And the bases were all loaded There was big money on the line Big money all the time Yeah, there was big money on the line Well, I can't walk so I guess I'm gonna stay at home They can have my legs just leave my mail alone I was in the kitchen The year was in the fall A friend of mine had told me that there weren't no point in moanin No there weren't no point at all There was big fire in the hall, yeah There weren't no points at all Well I can't walk so I guess I'm gonna stay at home They can have my legs just leave my mail alone And I can't talk so I guess I got nothing to say I'll keep my eyes just take these tears away Lock stock and barrel All the dogs were gone and feral And the car ran like a broken percolator His liver had gone hard and he wouldn't mow the yard There was big money on the line And I heard that his brother was a viking He liked to solve a problem with a gun If you wanna know the facts you gotta teach em how to act And I hate cough syrup, don't you? I'd rather be a sailor than a fighter I'd like to sail a ship into the sun If you wanna know the truth you gotta dig up Johnny Booth And I hate cough syrup, don't you? I know that your mother is a martyr I heard she's got connections with the mob If you wanna learn to fight you gotta drink up all the light And I hate cough syrup, don't you? I'd rather be a matchstick than a lighter I'd like to see the wood curl up and burn If you wanna touch the sky you must be prepared to die And I hate cough syrup, don't you? I hate cough syrup and I hate the food in Europe And I hate cough syrup, it's true If you wanna know the truth, you gotta dig up Johnny Booth And I hate cough syrup, don't you? I hate cough syrup, it's true. The song is about things that suck that you can't avoid. Such as cough syrup. "I can't walk, so I guess I'm gonna stay at home." "A friend of mine had told me that there ain't no point in moanin." "If you wanna know the truth you gotta dig up Johnny Booth" alludes to John Wilkes Booth, who shot a great president, which is something we can't change. The food in Europe sucks, but if you want to enjoy Europe, you've got to eat. People who think that Butthole Surfers' lyrics don't make sense are retarded, they're all some of the most blatant lyrics I've ever heard. He mumbles. That's all. Try listening harder, every song is really easy to understand if you pay attention.

and faces were all lonely? i thought it was the bases were all loaded.. hence the whole baseball analogy and im not sure about the "drink up all the white" lyric

"Drink up all the white" is a reference to drinking egg whites to build up a persons body. "And I hate the fruity Mirror" is actually "And I hate the food in Europe"

cool lyrics. so obscure.

Anyone ever drank cough syrup, such as Robitussin MAX? Not that it helps this song make any more sence, but if you've tripped on DXM before the thought process of just random things and such is kinda understandable. If you are gonna try it, or do use it, check out Erowid for safty tips. Kurt Cobain was a big cough syrup user (him and Courtny "the c*nt" met while both on it), it had it's run in the late 80s/early to mid 90s. Alot of good songs were inspired by it. And I hate cough syrup Don`t you? >Erowid's DXM Vault: erowid.org/chemicals/dxm/

I honestly don't think there's too much meaning to this song. Gibby has a tendency for not making anysense whatsoever,

I always heard something like Yeah, I hate the fruity guck!, which kind of makes more sense than fruity mirror or food in europe. Not that this is entirely a sensical song to begin with, but yeah.