Summer Painter Songtext
von Bill Callahan

I painted names on boats for a Summer
For luck you keep the same first letter
You don′t want
You don't want
You don′t want
Bad luck at sea

Rich Man's Folly and Poor Man's Dream
I painted these
While beavers built dams
All around me

And come September, come Fall
Holding a job was not believable behavior at all
So I split
But like a beaver is a dam builder, you never really quit


I made some dough
And I socked it away
I always said for a rainy day
I never truly knew who I was working for anyway
The rich or the poor?
Who am I working for?
The rich or the poor?

When the hurricane hit
Some found it suspicious
That I′d just since left the frame
Like all that time spent down by the water
Had somehow given me control over the rain
And some people say wrongly that I′ve washed things away

Guess I got my rainy day

Like a sorcerer's cape
The rain ripped the lips off the mouth of the bay
And rendered the eye
And slighted the hand
And tricked the land
And blew the air away

Then came a quiet
No one should know

Rich Man′s Folly and Poor Man's Dream
I′m painting these
While beavers build dams
All around me