i'm half drunk on babble you transmit

There are songs, sometimes, that you fall in love with a little bit. For whatever reasons, because of a single turn of phrase, or catch in the throat, a song can grab you and never quite let go. Soul Coughing's True Dreams of Wichita, for me, is one of those songs, though I couldn't quite tell you why. I think it's a little bit because I've got relatives in Kansas, but mostly because, even after listening literally hundreds of times to "and you can stand on the arms of the Williamsburg Bridge crying hey man, well this is Babylon," something about it can still bring me to tears.

"signal got lost to the satellite
got lost in the rideup to the plungedown

man sends the ray of the electric light sends the impulse
through the air down to home

and you can stand on the arms of the Williamsburg Bridge crying
hey man, well this is Babylon
and you can fire out on a bus to the outside world down to Lousiana
you can take her with you

i've seen the rains of the real world come forward on the plain
i've seen the Kansas of your sweet little myth
you've never seen it, no,
i'm half sick on the drinks you mixed through your

true dreams of Wichita

Brooklyn like a sea in the asphalt stalks push out dead air from
a parking garage where you stand with the keys and your cool hat of
silence where you grip her love like a driver's license

i've seen you fire up the gas in the engine valves
i've seen your hand turn saintly on the radio dial
i've seen the airwaves pull your eyes towards heaven
outside Topeka in the phone lines her good teeth smile
was winding down

engine sputters ghosts out of gasoline fumes
they say you had it but you sold it
you didn't want it, no
i'm half drunk on babble you transmit through your

true dreams of Wichita

true dreams of Wichita..."