Story Behind The Song

When I returned to Los Angeles from touring across the US, my girl friend decided to move on. From Los Angeles, I arranged to drive to Florida to meet some friends and record. With the date set, I drove- stopping at rest stops along the way, and wrote 12 songs chronicling the stages of recovery from a lost romance. We recorded them the week I arrived. I wrote this song while I was in New Orleans. I got the idea from a children?s story, "Sylvia and Bruno, by Lewis Carrol that I read when I was a child. In the story, there is a character with the bad habit of making up seemingly nonsense rhymes about the people around him. The one that inspired me was when a fat woman unexpectedly came to dinner and the character said: " He thought he saw a Banker?s Clerk descending from the bus, He looked again and found it was a hippopotamus." After the first chorus each verse is in a different feel to help the song build and to give separation to the verses. Like you were looking at a photo album.

Lyrics

He thought he saw a French fry girl
eating beans and rice
He looked again and saw it was
a heartache in disguise
If I should stay here long he said
It won't be very nice

He went to the senator
who was bathing with a sponge
He looked again and found it was
a snake with a forked tongue If he should and talk with him, he said,
He'll eat up all our young

CHORUS
I'm never sure of what I see
It is all such a mystery
But everything is poetry to me

It is just a Metaphor
Of everything that was done before
And everything I can?t really say

So he went to the president
who was standing in the rain
He looked again and found it was
a man who was not to blame
We should ask him nice he said
Cause he won't be back again.

He sailed upon an artichoke
on a deep and stormy sea
He looked again and found it was
the man from the TV
If I don't get paid soon he said
I'll have to work for free
CHORUS
He thought he saw a building
eating at some cheese
He looked again and found it was
a banjo on his knees
I'll play a little while he said
cause I already have the disease

SOLO
CHORUS
He thought he saw an artist
standing on the stage
He looked again and found it was
a jailer in his cage
I won't let him out he said
'cause we'll all' in a rage

He thought he saw himself one day
laughing at the zoo
He looked again and found it was
a man who wasn't two
If I don't mend my ways he said
I won't know what to do