Jeffrey Lewis
Exactly What Nobody Wanted
[Verse 1]
You were throwing off sparks of pure power
Sending signals from a mystery tower
You didn't bother making sure it would sink in
It was a different way of workin' and thinkin'
Really wild and completely expressive
So creative and intense and obsessive
You were practically completely beyond it
And you were exactly just what nobody wanted

[Verse 2]
You were conscious and responsive and present
You weren't trying to make something unpleasant
You were just bouncing off of things that were trashy
And it was never very tricky or flashy
You had a vision that was clear and directed
And the way the words were all unexpected
You were unbelievable, and you were undaunted
And you were exactly just what nobody wanted!

[Chorus]
But to me, it was so awesome
So awesome, so awesome
So awesome, so awesome, just awesome

[Verse 3]
It was like a focusing of what had been brewing
It did a thing that no one else had been doing
You worked small to see what made this or that tick
Then you flipped it over, so it all seemed galactic
It was crazy, but you really believed it!
You gave it everything and lived it and breathed it
You made a space where all these good things collided
And it made approximately no one excited
[Verse 4]
It's hard to speak about the stuff you invented
It was unique in how it all got presented
It hit the mark, and never stopped going forward
Out of a darkness, with no signs and with no words
It spoke a language that was instant and brutal
And it made all the art around it seem futile
You did it well, and you could even repeat it
And that was exactly just what nobody needed!

[Chorus]
But to me, it was so awesome
So awesome, so awesome
You were so awesome
So awesome, just awesome!

[Bridge]
A long time waiting and leaving
And that's a good, weird faith to believe in
A mirror needs depth and an angle
Where the light waves wiggle and tangle
So if someone else had all your same concentration
They still couldn't reach the same destination

[Verse 5]
There's really something anywhere you look closely
But a lot of it could come or go, mostly
But when something really cuts away the pretenses
When something really takes a swing for the fences
When something really knocks it out of the borders
And rearranges all the usual orders
That's exactly what the track you were on did
And that was exactly just what nobody wanted!
[Verse 6]
A berserk sea that flooded in and receded
You were so perfectly what nobody needed
You pushed as far as you could make an idea go
And it exactly made an impact of zero!
And basically, the public never responded
You were so amazingly what nobody wanted!
I held on tight to every scrap that I took in
But it's like it all happened when nobody was looking!

[Chorus]
But to me, it was so awesome
So awesome, so awesome
You were so awesome
So awesome, just awesome!