John's unintelligible lyrics

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John's unintelligible lyrics

Postby Ars_Nova_Chris » Fri May 01, 2009 2:43 pm

There are several songs of John's that, due to being buried in the mix, or to him mumbling and slurring his words, it's incredibly difficult to understand what he's saying in certain places. Prime offenders are, of course Revolution on Vacation, as well as Devil's On the Loose, Mr. Blue, Penthouse of Your Mind, and Too Bad.

I'm down to maybe four or five lines in Revolution that still totally confound me. I know some of you have the sheet music, at least Richard, I believe... Would anyone mind posting what lyrics they have in there? Not that they're necessarily correct, but I'm just completely stumped on a few lines.

It's a shame when this is the case, especially when researching John's life, as a lot of info can be gleaned from these songs as to events in his life or his thoughts on things at the time each was written. With this in mind, I did finally figure out what I believe are the correct intended lyrics to Mr. Blue (Stones sessions version, although it does sound like he messed up and mumbled through a few lines, missing or saying a wrong word here or there, and decided to use the take anyway, being the best take overall, despite a few flubbed lines. In these cases, I used the other versions to get the intended lyric), as this seemed to be an important song to John, with three recordings I know of by John himself, one by Gen, and another apparently about to be released on the 'Many Mamas, Many Papas' album. There was one line that I could not get for like a month, and then it just occurred to me out of nowhere, exactly what he was saying. The "should your show come to a close...", the rest of that line. And then it hit me one day, hmm, show coming to a close... duh, "as a vignette"!

If anybody feels any of these are incorrect, or knows the words to any of John's other songs that are difficult to make out, please chime in!

MR. BLUE by John Phillips

Meet Mr. Blue, elegant Jew, of New York City
Ex-real estate man, sits on the can, always looks pretty
And Miss Never-Say-Please, pink and white knees, (his) favorite kitty
Movie star queen, fell off the screen, oh, what a pity

Diamonds and things, shiners and dings, (you) powder-puff whore
And a backgammon king having a fling behind locked doors
It's just a sleepy-time binge, disposable syringe, there's never no more
With pin-ups and thugs, dealers and drugs, escaping the boys

Straighten your hair, powder your nose, little junkettes
Look down on the street, nobody knows about you yet
But you're pink as the rose pinned to your clothes, how I'd regret
Should your show, come to a close, as a vignette

Meet Mr. Blue

Shooting stars, they have fallen all around you
Where it is they all fall to, no one knows
Pretty soon I'm gonna shoot myself... up with you
Just to find out where it is that you go

Meet Mr. Blue, elegant Jew, of New York City
And Miss Never-Say-Please, pink and white knees, (his) favorite kitty
Meet Mr. Blue, meet Mr. Blue, meet Mr. Blue...
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