These Filthy Hands

(album: Superbuick - 1996)

"It can be anybody
It can look like anything at all
Anyone at all... You can never tell
Regular people... They look like human beings"

Haphazardly, tumbling hard
Fall right down, laugh out loud
All in the scheme of things
We're all looking up, growing tall

It's like pulling one hair – You are what you are to me
With wet fingers – In my eyes, you're a star
Petroleum jelly – You're something I'll never be
And watch the rains dance – You're something
You're something I'm frightened of – I've got to get clean

The rain will cleanse me
And I've got to wash these filthy hands

Because it's all just a futile plan
That'd mean I'd have to believe again
It's like a career to breathe
An existence I can't conceive
Emotionless as in slug
In my imagined oblivion

You would swear – It's as much fun
That I could – As poking at a nerve
Walk and talk – No one wants to fail
But I doubt you will ever – But no one wants to work
Ever prove enough – Vocabulary test is graded on a curve
Smartest kid is stupid, word is never heard
I doubt you'll ever prove enough – I've got to get clean

The rain will cleanse me
I doubt you'll ever prove enough
And I've got to wash these filthy hands
I doubt you'll ever prove it

All these thoughts and feelings are for naught
Unappealing, so you expect them to dull and fade
Still they remain
All these thoughts and feelings are for naught
Unappealing, so you expect them to dull and fade
Still they remain

Caught! Waiting for the rain
Time devours life
With my soul as the defendant
Don't catch me if I fall, I may have jumped
You never know
You don't know me at all
At all

All these thoughts and feelings are for naught
Unappealing, so you expect them to dull and fade
Still they remain
All these thoughts and feelings are for naught
Unappealing, so you expect them to dull and fade
Still they remain

Because it's all just a futile plan
That'd mean I'd have to believe again
It's like a career to breathe
An existence I can't conceive
Emotionless as in slug
In my imagined oblivion

You would swear – Try pulling one hair
That I could
Walk and talk – With wet fingers
But I doubt you will ever
Ever prove enough – Petroleum jelly
And watch the rains dance
I doubt you'll ever prove it

All these thoughts and feelings are for naught
Unappealing, so you expect them to dull and fade
Still they remain
All these thoughts and feelings are for naught
Unappealing, so you expect them to dull and fade
Still they remain

Caught! Waiting for the rain
Time devours life
Waiting for the rain
Devours!