Phil wrote this song soon after Lenny Bruce died, possibly performing it for the first time in October 1966. Lenny Bruce accidentally killed himself via overdose, but Phil still used it as inspiration.
Obviously the song switches times, counting down the final days of a suicidal man's life in the verses and the discovery by a former lover of this fact. There are a couple of additional verses that didn't make the studio recording, for fairly good reason, as they're pretty messy.
The deep sea diver ignores the shark-skinned warning
And the empty mailbox chews on your hand every morning
The buzzards bend to fly, and you don't know why
And the tears cannot appear so you can cry away
The haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Standing rejectedly by your door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore? Are you sure?
Fiddler takes a sniff and picks up the fiddle
As you race from wall to wall, stumble down in the middle
Such a shadow scene from your movie dream
When the silence of the load explodes the screen
And the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser
Stands rejectedly by your door
Doesn't Lenny live here anymore? Are you sure?
The 3rd and 4th lines of that second verse actually went with the "You swore you'd store..." verse, though, with that verses 3rd and 4th lines with the "fiddler" verse.
@cgraham That is interesting. My favorite version is
@cgraham That is interesting. My favorite version is
Fiddler takes a sniff and picks up the fiddle
As you race from wall to wall, stumble down in the middle
And you’re torn apart
No lower point to start
And you feel you’d like to steal a happy heart
Fiddler takes a sniff and picks up the fiddle
As you race from wall to wall, stumble down in the middle
And you’re torn apart
No lower point to start
And you feel you’d like to steal a happy heart
Phil wrote this song soon after Lenny Bruce died, possibly performing it for the first time in October 1966. Lenny Bruce accidentally killed himself via overdose, but Phil still used it as inspiration.
Obviously the song switches times, counting down the final days of a suicidal man's life in the verses and the discovery by a former lover of this fact. There are a couple of additional verses that didn't make the studio recording, for fairly good reason, as they're pretty messy.
The deep sea diver ignores the shark-skinned warning And the empty mailbox chews on your hand every morning The buzzards bend to fly, and you don't know why And the tears cannot appear so you can cry away The haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser Standing rejectedly by your door Doesn't Lenny live here anymore? Are you sure?
Fiddler takes a sniff and picks up the fiddle As you race from wall to wall, stumble down in the middle Such a shadow scene from your movie dream When the silence of the load explodes the screen And the haggard ex-lover of a long-time loser Stands rejectedly by your door Doesn't Lenny live here anymore? Are you sure?
The 3rd and 4th lines of that second verse actually went with the "You swore you'd store..." verse, though, with that verses 3rd and 4th lines with the "fiddler" verse.
@cgraham That is interesting. My favorite version is
@cgraham That is interesting. My favorite version is
Fiddler takes a sniff and picks up the fiddle As you race from wall to wall, stumble down in the middle And you’re torn apart No lower point to start And you feel you’d like to steal a happy heart
Fiddler takes a sniff and picks up the fiddle As you race from wall to wall, stumble down in the middle And you’re torn apart No lower point to start And you feel you’d like to steal a happy heart
before the swore verse as he did it in Montreal.
before the swore verse as he did it in Montreal.