“Used to have this rock ‘n’ roll band. It was sorta like a rock ‘n’ roll band – but we had electric instruments and stuff. And we didn’t play around here too much. We played a lotta little country places, you know. And one time we played this biker bar that we didn’t know was a biker bar until we got to the biker bar and found out, ‘Hey – this is a biker bar. Think we’ll be ok?’ And we were. It was weird ’cause there was this bowling alley in the back of the biker bar and all these old people bowling. So we figured it was, like, their parents – so if they killed us, they’d get grounded. You know? So we were ok. But I wrote this song for people that live for Fridays and Saturday nights when they’re in a rock band and, you know, pluggin’ in that Fender Stratocaster and become somebody for a while.”
-Introduction from a live performance on 25 Jun 1987
Well my old man
Died in the summer heat
In a Minnesota cornfield.
And his old man
And his old man’s old man
Rest in that same old sandy soil.
I got a factory job
Near the county seat.
My whole faceless fate is long sealed.
So I do shots and beers
And my very best
To keep my lid on when it boils.
Chorus:
And when that drummer’s drummin’
And that bass is thumpin’,
When that stratocaster’s
Screamin’ somethin’
About baby done me wrong
And baby do me right,
Give me three chords
And I’ll play all night.
Had a woman friend,
Had some good cocaine.
They both had me at the end of a 12 guage.
Well it’ll blow your mind,
When you think sometimes,
How you spent your time and cash.
So I just climbed on board
Of that midnight train,
Where your ticket stub is your slow rage.
And the rage goes blind
Keepin’ crooked time,
Until the beat is just a cinder’s ash.
repeat chorus
I’m 31 years old,
20 years in debt.
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t pay.
Since adulthood came
I ain’t been the same,
So I sing what I can’t speak.
But when that club is full
Of friends and sweat
And I’m a million miles from Monday,
Singe my hungry soul on
Great Balls of Fire.
Let ’em burn away all of the work week.
repeat chorus
“The 8th Day” appeared on The Bathroom Tapes demo, 1987.
© and ℗ 1987 Marques Bovre