SAM
Maybe they had a ridiculous statement / To make about something they hadn’t experienced / Possibly sam had a different opinion / That nobody’d ever considered important / And damn it if norman and betty were listening / Somebody would have become a phenomenal / Howling lightning tampering with the / Electrical evidence shown to be relevant / Possibly with the exception of ivory / Everyone else had abandoned the obvious / Chipping away at erroneous garbage / Which definitely is as exciting as pudding / Deliciously spooned from the lap of the ludicrous / Into the mouths of the questionless idiots / Licking their lips as their eyeballs are rolling / And flapping their tongues as they’re losing their marbles / That’s the way sam played around that’s the way sam’s played / Someone who wasn’t related to anyone / Twisted the facts till the truth was apparent / And dished up a dollop of dubious doo-doo / That sparkled like something folks scrambled to swallow / Slipping the rich through the eye of a needle / Is easy as getting a camel to heaven / And granny transgressing had blubbered a bibful / Of classified info on milton’s imbroglio
NAIL IT DOWN
In or around this cold and broken sight / In the heat of events got one thing right / I walked through an invisible fire / I got burned i remember and i still got the scar / Like the loosened connection on your personal circuit / Don’t need a hammer just to nail it down / You know the thing with the sideways glance / In the heat of events there’s a little chance / Little face with a painted grin / Comes the realization you must backwards walk in / If it tries to escape you through an open window / Don’t need a hammer just to nail it down / Step aside to miss the opening verse / Catch the full-on blast of what’s a little worse / Within a pond down inside somewhere / There’s a rustle of quiet and the salt of air
THIS DAY
On this day we were miles away / We saw a clock up in the sky / The hands lay on the show to pay / Number fallen on its side / This day / Just one note that was all she wrote / And the sound blew down the walls / The one boat that was set to float / Took a trip right down the falls / In two ways we could cut the haze / And we never used a knife / In those days there was zero waste / Now the waste of time is life
OPEN WIDE
Twenty-one little pink salamanders pass me by tonight / Twenty-one little red tongues are flickering in my sight / Amphibious thoughts are flowing with the salamanders showing / Of the “touch of evil” tinted black and white / Seventeen fat ripe rats hold stacks of juniper pie aloft / Thirty-four clever rat hands are juggling tarts on high / These rodents know the craving for a slice, a sliver or shaving / No request for satisfaction is denied / Open wide, open wide / Twenty-one little pink salamanders pass me by tonight / Twenty-one little red tongues are flickering in my sight / These amphibians know the craving for a slice, a sliver or shaving / No request for satisfaction is denied / Open wide…
ANOTHER MOON
All these nights have made me crazy / I can’t seem to come around / Days of hiding in the sunshine / Feeling nighttime’s falling down / Oh, i see another moon over me / All these lies have got me thinking / Maybe this is just a thought / Soon my ship of thought is sinking / Slipping through the thinking knot / Pulling back the veil are monkeys / Hidden there are monkeys more / Someone spills a jar of honey / Sticky monkeys crawl the floor
THAT’S HOW IT GOES
Maybe you won’t have to hit me again / Maybe you won’t try to slap me for lying / I did what you heard and i can admit / That i’d do it again in a second tomorrow / Little or nothing makes much of a difference / So i took the chance not to bother with trifles / You mind your business and i’ll pick the slack up / And you’ll never notice how much i have borrowed / And we say, “that’s how it goes,” / And we stay, watching the mess that we’ve made as it grows / I took a long drink of some kind of water / That ate up my thoughts and dried up my conscience / I’d be the first to admit what my faults are / But change is a problem and i’ll be resistant / Little or nowhere is closer than ever / And i got the feeling we’re stuck till tomorrow / Carry on fishing and i’ll keep my hat on / And together we’ll see just how much we can borrow
WHIRLPOOL
There was a swirling mass of water that lived in a quiet pond / It asked permission from its master to visit the lands beyond / And its master allowed it to fly / So the wind swept the whirlpool across the sky / The whirlpool’s mother wore a jacket she’d sewn out of dental floss / It was stolen by a monkey that sold it to an albatross / And it had the idea to fly / So the wind swept the whirlpool across the sky / There was a swirling mass of water that lived in a quiet pond / It asked permission from its master to visit the lands beyond / And its master allowed it to fly / So the wind swept the whirlpool across the sky / And it had the idea to fly / So the wind swept the whirlpool across the sky
POPSKULL
Love flies on wings / Listen to the angels sing / Love flies on wings / Put it in the calibrations / Show it to be ornamental / Wrapped up, crapped on, torn up, thrown away / Love flies on wings / Oh be joyful / Try knock ‘em stiff / Send in the clowns / Popskull / Here come the clowns / Welcome all to tiny town / Send in the clowns / Put it on the burner / With an extra shot of bubble water / That’s right you take no more little dribble / Here come the clowns / Oh be joyful / Try knock ‘em stiff / Send in the clowns / Popskull / Love flies on wings / Listen to the angels sing / Love flies on wings / Put it on the burner / With an extra shot of bubble water / That’s right you take no more little dribble / Put it in the calibrations / Show it to be ornamental / Wrapped up, crapped on, torn up, thrown away / Love flies on wings / Oh be joyful / Try knock ‘em stiff / Send in the clowns / Popskull / Oh be joyful / Try knock ‘em stiff / Send in the clowns / Popskull
NO LONGER GONE
Ice on the wings and we were flying / Sand in our eyes but we were seeing / Below us a crowd that wasn’t buying / Watching us pass and not believing / No one else has seen the sights that crossed our eyes / Everything beyond these purple skies / No longer gone, we’re back again / No longer gone, we were dead but now returned / No longer gone, though the tides are standing still / No longer gone, and our bridges are still burning / Marks on the floor where we were laying / Better explain what i’m saying / Put us to rest but we’re not staying / Life is the price that we’ll be paying / No one else has seen the sights that crossed our eyes / Everything beyond these purple skies / No longer gone, we’re back again / No longer gone, we were dead but now returned / No longer gone, though the tides are standing still / No longer gone, and our bridges are still burning / Ice on the wings and we were flying / Sand in our eyes but we were seeing / Below us a crowd that wasn’t buying / Watching us pass and not believing / No one else has seen the sights that crossed our eyes / Everything beyond these purple skies / No longer gone, we’re back again / No longer gone, we were dead but now returned / No longer gone, though the tides are standing still / No longer gone / No longer gone, we’re back again / No longer gone, we were dead but now returned / No longer gone, though the tides are standing still / No longer gone, and our bridges are still burning
FORBIDDEN PLACES
You said i shouldn’t have gone / I don’t know i went ahead on anyway / Night time wore to dawn / I found my free will had gone away from me / Behind the masks that pass for faces / Hours are lost in forbidden places / Nowhere for me to run / Not that i feel like running anywhere anyway / Some things are clear at night / Then become confusing in the light of day / Within the darkness / Behind the faces / Pioneers of forbidden places / Something i wouldn’t have thought / Crept up from behind me now it’s here to stay / Too real although it’s not / Couldn’t have possibly been avoided anyway / The crazy landscapes behind the faces, / Holding back the forbidden places / Abolished music, lost for ages / The living words of forbidden pages / Though dust has gathered on honest feeling / Forbidden truths through twilight stealing / And in the eyes of the listless faces / Glisten hints of forbidden places
All lyrics by Curt Kirkwood
Lyrics reprinted with permission
All songs ©1991 Meat Puppets Music (BMI)
All rights reserved
This was the first Meat Puppets album I bought and it is still one of my favourites.
I need to buy another copy as mine no longer plays.
Is it still available? I can’t find it ‘new’ anywhere.
Please reissue this album as it deserves to be in the shops and in peoples collections.
Thanks.
Left by Huw Griffiths on January 9th, 2006
In our “Music” category, you’ll find a discography, with as many Amazon links as I could find. Many out of print items are still available secondhand from various Amazon Associates.
Left by Derrick Bostrom on January 9th, 2006
I have been listening to a song I recorded from a radio station around ten years ago. I knew a few of the lyrics, but the rest were incomprehensible to me. Believe it or not, I tossed “lyrics eye of the needle” into the ol’ search engine and … damn. There you are. Great song.
Now I know.
Meat Puppets.
Thanks!
Left by DJRickman on February 20th, 2006
Thanks for these; this is still one of my favorite albums.
Left by Beerzie on May 5th, 2006
Forbidden Places (along with Too High To Die) is far and away the best Puppets album, so great have the definitive lyrics here!
Left by bolisj on August 26th, 2007
Hey Derrick, is it true that whirlpool was thought as a single, with promo video and stuff?
PD. Do you realize that you didn’t release any bad album!? heh…. =D
HAPPY 2009!!!!
Left by Andres on December 30th, 2008
Look here:
http://meatpuppets.com/puppets/?page_id=35
There was no video though.
Left by Derrick Bostrom on December 31st, 2008
Derrick,
Recently I busted out all the Puppets SST reissues which I’ve been enjoying lots, and was wondering is there any chance of “Forbidden Places” getting this treatment? It’s surely the lost gem of the Meat Puppets from that weird American cultural era right before Nirvana hit it big when anything seemed possible. I’ve never tired of this album and was shocked to find that it was out of print!
If you don’t think any reissue is forthcoming in the foreseeable future, could you post some “liner notes” on the making of this album and point out which tunes off “rare meat” or otherwise would be contenders for bonus tracks?
PS thanks for all the great posts & free rare music
Left by apple-o on February 19th, 2010
Oh the things I could do if I didn’t work for a living! Another great fan post suggestion.
Unfortunately, “Forbidden Places” is owned by Polygram (or whomever owns the former Polygram), and they have never shown any interest in reissuing it, nor do I know if and when the Meat Puppets will ever gain ownership of it.
There are a nice handful of demos from that album, however, and I should make them the centerpiece of of post. I should do the same thing with all the “Mirage” outtakes and “Too High To Die” outtakes. I really should.
Left by Derrick Bostrom on February 20th, 2010