The Great American Novel Songtext
von Michael McDermott

4pm she′s got a corkscrew in her hands and a bottle
Between her legs
She light's a candle, lights some incense, lights a cigarette
And she turns to me and says
"Hey baby will you help me? I think tomorrow I′m
Gonna start writing all this down"
But I know come tomorrow she won't be anywhere to be
Found
She said "I coulda been anything I wanted, my friends
All say I could have evn been a model" ...yeah
Then she says "Someday" and then she says "Someway
I'll write The Great American Novel"
Mark Twain, Hemingway, Salinger, Roth and Bellow,
Sometimes she′ll even recite Bright Eyes
Or Leonard Cohen, or Jonathan Franzen
Or Dave Eggers even long after the sunrise
She′ll play Rufus, M. Ward, Wilco, Ryan Adams,
And other names I can't recall
She′s got books strewn all across her apartment floor


And man I know she's headed for a fall
She said "Maybe I′ll write about a seagull and a sailor
Or about how far it is to finally reach the bottom" yeah
And then she says "Someday", then she says "Someway
I'll write the Great Ameican novel"
She said "Maybe I′ll write about the loneliness of a lone
Assassin
Maybe I'll write about the Antabellum South
Maybe it'll be about the Have Nots and Havins
Or maybe about a circus boy born without a mouth"
She mumbles and stumbles and speaks with her hands
And covers her mouth when she talks
She said last night she thought about ending it all
She put down her empty glass and into the kitchen she
Walks
Do you think she to get a knife... or a gun?
My guess is she went to get another bottle... yeah...
Maybe sommeday, maybe someway she′ll write the
Great American Novel second column