Jim James
At the Bottom of Everything
[Intro]
So there was this woman and
She was, uh, on an airplane and
She's flying to meet her fiancé
Sailing high above the, the largest ocean
On planet Earth and she was seated
Next to this man who, you know
She had tried to start conversations
And only, really the only thing
She'd heard him say was to order his bloody mary
And she's sitting there and she's reading
This really arduous magazine article about a
Third world country that she couldn't
Even pronounce the-the name of and
She's feeling very bored and very despondent
And then uh, suddenly there's this huge mechanical failure and one of the engines gave out
And they started just falling, thirty thousand feet
And the pilot's on the microphone and he's, he's saying
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Oh My God, I'm Sorry"
And apologizing and, and she looks at the man and she says, she says, she says
"Where are we going?" and he looks at her and he says
"We're going to a party, it, it's a birthday party
It's your birthday party, happy birthday darling
We love you very, very, very, very, very, very, very much."
And then, uh, he starts humming this little tune and, and uh, it kind of goes like this, it's kind of
One, two, one, two, three, four
[Verse 1]
We must talk in every telephone, get eaten off the web
We must rip out all the epilogues from the books that we have read
Into the face of every criminal strapped firmly to a chair
We must stare, we must stare, we must stare

[Verse 2]
We must take all of the medicines too expensive now to sell
Set fire to the preacher who is promising us Hell
Into the ear of every anarchist that sleeps but doesn't dream
We must sing, we must sing, we must sing
(And it'll go like this, all right...)

[Chorus]
While my mother waters plants, my father loads his gun
He says, "Death will give us back to God
Just like the setting sun
Is returned to the lonesome ocean"

[Post-Chorus]
And then they splashed into the deep blue sea!
Oh, it was a wonderful splash!

[Verse 3]
We must blend into the choir, sing as static with the whole
We must memorize nine numbers and deny we have a soul
And in this endless race for property and privilege to be won
We must run, we must run, we must run
[Verse 4]
We must hang up in the belfry where the bats and moonlight laugh
We must stare into a crystal ball and only see the past
Into the caverns of tomorrow with just our flashlights and our love
We must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge

[Bridge]
(And when we'll get down there, way down to the very bottom of everything
And then we'll see it, oh, we'll see it, we'll see it, we'll see it)

[Chorus]
Oh, my morning's coming back, the whole world's waking up
All the city buses swimming past, I'm happy just because
I found out I am really no one