Anybody heard of the poem "Multiplication Table" by Robert Penn Warren? It seems to be the inspiration for the song, especially verses I, III, and IV.
"If the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center were
A billion times bigger, and you laid it
Flat down in the dark, and
With a steam roller waist-high to God and heavy as
The Rocky Mountains, flattened it out this as paper, but
Never broke a single damned colored light bulb, and they were all
Blazing in the dark, that would be the way it is, but
Beyond the lights it is dark, and one night in winter, I
Stood at the end of a pier at Coney Island, while
The empty darkness howled like a dog, but no wind, and far down
The boardwalk what must have been a cop's flashlight
Juggled fitfully over what must have been locked stoor-fronts, then,
Of a sudden, went out. The stars were small and white, and I heard
The sea secretly sucking the piles of the pier with a sound like
And old woman sucking her teeth in the dark before she sleeps.
The nose of the DC-8 dips, and at this point
The man sitting beside me begins, quite audibly, to recite
The multiplication table.
Far below,
Individual lights can be seen throbbing like nerve ends.
I have friends down there, and their lives have strange shapes.
Like eggs splattered on the kitchen floor. Their lives shine
Like oil-slicks on dark water. I love them, I think.
Anybody heard of the poem "Multiplication Table" by Robert Penn Warren? It seems to be the inspiration for the song, especially verses I, III, and IV.
"If the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center were A billion times bigger, and you laid it Flat down in the dark, and With a steam roller waist-high to God and heavy as The Rocky Mountains, flattened it out this as paper, but Never broke a single damned colored light bulb, and they were all Blazing in the dark, that would be the way it is, but
Beyond the lights it is dark, and one night in winter, I Stood at the end of a pier at Coney Island, while The empty darkness howled like a dog, but no wind, and far down The boardwalk what must have been a cop's flashlight Juggled fitfully over what must have been locked stoor-fronts, then, Of a sudden, went out. The stars were small and white, and I heard The sea secretly sucking the piles of the pier with a sound like And old woman sucking her teeth in the dark before she sleeps.
The nose of the DC-8 dips, and at this point The man sitting beside me begins, quite audibly, to recite The multiplication table.
Far below, Individual lights can be seen throbbing like nerve ends. I have friends down there, and their lives have strange shapes. Like eggs splattered on the kitchen floor. Their lives shine Like oil-slicks on dark water. I love them, I think.
In a room, somewhere, a telephone keeps ringing."