El Paso - Jason Anderson

Well, it seems like all the kids 'round here are wrapped up with leaving this

place.

Tony told me from his kitchen on Mesita

and he talked about to me about staying.

He said, «Man, you see across the street that’s the university.

you hit a home run and the ball rolls into Juarez.

High school juniors leave their cars

walk across to the bars

you can imagine how it is.

and even if we get out, well, we always end up back home

to the only place we really know.

el paso

el paso!

Eddie he told me about the kidnapped women

what they call «The Disappeared»

of drugs and thugs and depressing strip clubs

i guess these border towns can be pretty weird.

fair enough

but on the east side there’s a pack of wild dogs called the rippers

they chase rabbits in the summer time

true story

but they can only catch them when their little rabbit hearts quit

and melt

give out under these cloudless oven skies

see them run and they run straight into the sun

only to explode

you can watch them limp away like boats trying to stay afloat in el paso.

el paso!

yeah.

dusk was hugging the foothills as i drove in the mountains were draped with shadows east of I-10

the first couple stars like light bright pegs

like a candle in a colander

uh huh

my brother telephoned from new york state

and he told me about a disastrous date

he said i know there’s lots of fish in the lake

but sometimes it seems like they hibernate

and some nights i get so bored i cut my hair

other nights i just stand in front of that tall hall mirror and stare

until my gaze gets soft and my reflection turns weird

and when i think of my life i feel so unprepared

he said, «man, how can you live like a tramp out on the road

you know

bouncing like a tetherball

here and there

to and fro

chasing the highway like a dirty gravel rainbow

do you ever get release

let alone a pot of gold?»

and i said, «dude, chill, remember last summer those books i would read

about the history of greece and philosophy

well they say maybe when we die there’s peace

or at least just rest from these tiresome lives we lead

and either way, that makes so much sense to me»

besides, who cares until they’re deceased

and the clergy weeps

and the family grieves

and the tombstone proclaims R. I. P.

and they wrench the fillings out of of your poor old teeth

and they cover your corpse in a snow white sheet

and they hang a tag from your ice cold feet

and they pray for your soul over a couple of weeks

and they say, he was a pretty, the newspapers say he was a pretty

oh they claim he was a pretty good guy

and they let the body lie

yeah they let the body lie

oh they let the body lie

yeah they let the body lie.

well, everyone must die

it’s true,

but first we get to live

don’t ever ever forget to live

so, i let my cellphone drop low

down beneath the driver’s seat

and i pulled off on the shoulder

and stared hard across at mexico

at some space station looking refinery

there was a puff of smoke

like a dragon’s cough

off the tops of that factory

so me i joked aloud «i wonder if they make clouds?»

instead of guns and robots and machinery

and i put my foot back on the pedal

and i pulled off really slow

into the loneliness and the darkness of el paso

el paso

please say say say el paso

and you say, say it again

el paso.

you say ohhhh.

you say ohhhhhhh.

you say oh-ohhhhh.

you say oh-ohhhhhhh.

you say yeahhhhhhhhhh.

you say yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

you say yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

you say yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

yeahhhhhhhhh.

ohhhh.

whoahhhh.

whoahhhhhh.

whoahhhhhhhh.