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TAPE 3 OF 4 · WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO RECORDS
Possum Logic
Their most philosophical record. The songs are longer. Nobody complained.
- 01Possum Logic
Whitfield has confirmed the Dauphin Street possum. He has declined to confirm that he waited for it.
Words, as sung
Possum in the road does not get out of it Possum in the road lies down and waits Everything alive is built to run from something Possum built himself a different set of gates That is possum logic It does not look like a plan Looks like giving up to anybody watching And the possum is still here. And he never ran. Bobby says it's cowardice with fur on Mike says it's the oldest trick they've got Jimmy has no opinion about possums And I have thought about it more than I ought That is possum logic It does not look like a plan Looks like giving up to anybody watching And the possum is still here. And he never ran. I have watched men fight a thing that would not move I have watched them get real tired and still lose And I have watched a possum in the middle of Dauphin Street Get up after, and walk off when he chose.
- 02Arrived Somewhere
The critic is Darren Mouton. The band did not read the review until 2019. This song was written in 1992, which the archive notes without further comment.
Words, as sung
There is a difference between stopping and arriving Looks about the same from outside of a man One of them is running out of somewhere left to go One of them is standing where you planned I have arrived somewhere I could not tell you when There was no morning that I woke up different It just quit being a question. And then. I am not at peace — I want to be clear about it Peace is a word for a thing I have not had I am not fighting anymore, which is not peace But it is quieter. And it is not bad. I have arrived somewhere I could not tell you when There was no morning that I woke up different It just quit being a question. And then. Man drove four hours down from Pensacola Wrote a thing about me I would not read for years Said I had already thought it through and got somewhere And was letting people watch me be there.
- 03The Restraint Is the Point
Kowalczyk has said this is his favourite thing the band recorded and that he does not play on most of it.
Words, as sung
Bobby can play three times the notes he plays Bobby has proved it, more than once, at length I have never once asked him to hold any of it back He holds it back. That is where he keeps his strength. The restraint is the point Not the notes that got away It is knowing what it cost you not to play them And not playing them anyway Everybody young thinks more is generous Everybody young is wrong, and ought to be You have got to have it first before you hold it You cannot leave out what you never had in you The restraint is the point Not the notes that got away It is knowing what it cost you not to play them And not playing them anyway There is a hole in this song right about here Where a solo would go if we were somebody else Bobby stands there and he does not fill it And that is the loudest thing on the shelf.
- 04Let It Finish
Whitfield has never identified the two things. Fontenot has said he knows what one of them is. Tran has said he knows what both of them are.
Words, as sung
There is a point in every pot of coffee Where you have got what you are going to get You can leave it on the burner if you want to It will not get better. It will just get. Let it finish Do not stir it, do not stretch it Everything that is any good has got an end inside it Let it get there. Let it finish. Same is true of records. Same of nights. Same of anything you built with anyone. The trick is not the making — anybody makes. The trick is knowing when a thing is done. Let it finish Do not stir it, do not stretch it Everything that is any good has got an end inside it Let it get there. Let it finish. I have held on to two things past their finish I am not going to say which two they were Both of them went bad in the same fashion. Slow. And with me watching. And unsure.
- 05Patient as Alabama
The live oak is on Government Street and is still standing. The archive has verified this.
Words, as sung
Nothing here is in a hurry to convince you Not the heat, not the water, not the pine Kudzu takes a county in a decade Kudzu is not worried about time Patient as Alabama Patient as the Bay Everything down here is going to get here It is just not going to do it your way North of here they schedule things in minutes Down here we schedule things in when I have been late to every place I have been to And I have gotten to all of them Patient as Alabama Patient as the Bay Everything down here is going to get here It is just not going to do it your way There is a live oak out on Government Street Been there since before the war Does not want a thing from anybody That is what I am working toward.
- 06Nobody Complained
Broussard has been asked about this quotation. She has said she does not remember saying it and that it sounds like something she would say.
Words, as sung
Played three hours at a bar in Ocean Springs Sound was bad, the room was mostly wood Nobody clapped much. Nobody left either. Nobody complained. And that is good. Nobody complained That is a review, if you will take one Nobody complained I have taken worse. I have taken none. Everybody's chasing the standing ovation The whole room up and hollering your name I have had that twice in about ten years And I remember the quiet ones the same Nobody complained That is a review, if you will take one Nobody complained I have taken worse. I have taken none. Charlie owns The Sandbar down in Biloxi She has watched a thousand bands come through that door She told me once: the good ones, nobody notices. They just do not leave. And they do not know what for.
- 07Slow Is a Decision
Album closer. The band never played it faster than it appears here, including live, which Kowalczyk has described as "the whole argument."
Words, as sung
Everybody thinks that slow is what is left When you have run out of the fast you used to have Slow is not a thing that happens to a man Slow is a thing you do Slow is a decision Made every time you play Anybody can play fast when they are frightened Takes a grown man to stay We played Mobile Bay at a hundred and ten in eighty-eight We play it now at about seventy-two Same song, same notes, same everything Only thing that changed is what we knew Slow is a decision Made every time you play Anybody can play fast when they are frightened Takes a grown man to stay There is nothing coming after this No place that this is on the way toward I intend to take the whole thing at this tempo Until somebody makes me stop.