10 What Have I Done Mama, I'm Swollen (Lyrics)

A year now and nothing much has changed
Holed up in a motel in El Paso
This was meant to be my great escape
But, I got lost along the way
Amongst free HBO (Court TV) and take-out
Going to write my Moby Dicks
More like scratching lyrics on paper plates
I spent the best years of my life
Waiting on the best years of my life
So what's there to write about?
What have I done?
What have I done?
So is this my destiny?
From starlight into eternity
The gods must be laughing down at me
Ha, ha, ha
Ha, ha, ha
A traveling salesmen at twenty years old
Stranded in Ann Arbor with a flat tire
And I watch the sun sadly set
Any younger, I may have wept
Much older, I wouldn't notice
But I was out there in the world
Yeah, then the world, it passed me by
I was telling everyone back home
That I was taking it by storm
Instead, I watched it from the roadside
What have I done?
What have I done?
So are these the best tales I can spin?
A boy waiting to begin
A man with no memoirs
What have I done?
What have I done?
You're young and you're going to be someone
Then you're old and you're ashamed of what you've become
Well, take a look around you
You're preaching to the choir
Oh, oh, oh
???
What have I done?
???
What have I done?
What have I done?
What have I done?
What have I done?
What have I done?
What have I done?
What have I done?
???
???
What have I done?
What have I done?
What have I done?
What have I done?
What have I done?
What have I done?

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Cursive
• Tim
• Kasher
• New
• Album
• What
• Have
• done
• Mama
• I'm
• Swollen

[Akathist]

Deeply disturbing, because he really is preaching to the choir.

[sk8tolive123]

I can not wait to see them tomorrow, fuck yes.

[jillybean190]

i love this song so much

[trackingtim]

@trackingtim It's a really amazing play on words, and has a double meaning. Reality vs. dream. Old man vs. boy.

[trackingtim]

I want to make a correction to the lyrics. It seems pretty minor, but to me it's one of the really subtle beauties of this song. The lyric is actually "from starlight INN to eternity" and not "into eternity."

Kasher is making reference to the hotels he stays in going on into eternity. The beautiful part is that it can also be interpreted (without reading the lyrics and only hearing the song) as "starlight," as in infamy/fame, into eternity - which is the hope of the boy "wanting to be someone."

[trackingtim]

@notyourmartyr

That verse as well as "So are these the best tales I can spin/A boy waiting to begin/A man of no memoirs" gets to me all the time. So amazing. Tim Kasher is the best lyricist of our time.

[VitaminD88]

one of the most highly underrated bands in my knowledge of music. But. Maybe that's one reason they're so damn special.

[cursivebydeath]

this song is my anthem...

[bleufools69]

i've seen them four times now. to me their simplicity is their beauty. tim is a fucking lyrical genius. and in person he's just as wonderful. music like this is why i still have faith in it.

[notyourmartyr]

"But I was out there in the world

Yeah, then the world, it passed me by

I was telling everyone back home

That I was taking it by storm

Instead, I watched it from the roadside"

I don't think any lyric has made me sadder, or summed up my self-image more perfectly. Goddamn you, Tim Kasher, I wanted to write that!

[xxhappyemo]

God this song gives me chills.