Here are all the lyrics to all the songs on the new Semi-Twang recording The Why & The What For. Click on the artwork to travel to CD Baby and buy one… Then get your hootenanny organized!

1. The Wrong Side Of The Tracks

There are flowers

And there are weeds

Nags and thoroughbreds

Lap dogs living the life of ease

And mutts that won’t get fed

There are mansions on the hill

And shacks in shanty town

Bluebloods tryin’ to look away

When poor folks come around

You can wish upon a star

But that won’t change your luck

Drop some coin down in that well

And wish that you had a buck

Some folks can fit everything they own

In a dimestore paper sack

But a man can’t help if he was born

On the wrong side of the tracks

You can’t move a mountain

If the mountain sits on you

And there is no accountin’

For the things some people do

They drop some coin down on the ground

And tell you how you should act

No, a man can’t help if he was born

On the wrong side of the tracks

2. 52 Jokers

The lion’s head is mounted on the wall

The bearskin rug beneath you starts to crawl

Oh 52 Jokers — They all know your name

On silver trays the champagne flows like wine

You rock the cash bar trying to numb your mind

Oh 52 Jokers — Find you just the same

Laugh track’s cranked up through a Marshall stack

And everything you think is feeding back

Oh 52 Jokers — They all criticize

Another toast — another glass

Another dance — just might be your last

Best man’s weaving — he’s half in the sack

The band just tried to murder Paint It Black

Oh 52 Jokers — Cut you down to size

The lights are spinning way above your head

The chandelier now hanging by a thread

Oh 52 Jokers — Wearing joker capes

The Mickey Finn is kicking in you feel

Like lying down and quitting this whole deal

Oh 52 Jokers — there is no escape

Another toast — another glass

Another dance — just might be your last

3. Au Contraire

Au contraire

I beg to disagree

You say it wasn’t you

I know it wasn’t me

Au contraire

We’re not seeing eye to eye

And now I must point out

What you have let slip by

Just a little thing

Far as you’re concerned

But I feel like

Yes I’m getting burned

Au contraire

Please let me call your bluff

You’re selling me thin air

I believe I’ve had enough

Au contraire

Looking in the horse’s mouth

And now I see the truth

I see that I want out

You just walk away

With what you haven’t earned

I’ll just chalk it up

One more thing I’ve learned

Au contraire

Just one minute of your time

While we add up two and two

And try to make it rhyme

Au contraire

Let’s just make that au revoir

Now it’s the longest day

And it’s the saddest hour

People treat you well

Everywhere you go

But the way you act

Man you’d never know

Au contraire

Au contraire

Au contraire

Au contraire

4. The More She Gets The More She Wants

Not Content

Not content with her old haunts

The more she gets

The more she gets the more she wants

Practicing

Those jibes and taunts

The more she gets

The more she gets the more she wants

Coming out

Coming out a debutant

The more she gets

The more she gets the more she wants

Like a flag

Unfurled she flaunts

The more she gets

The more she gets the more she wants

Losing sleep

Losing sleep looking gaunt

Cause what she gets

What she gets she don’t want

She steps in line

Right near the front

The more she gets

The more she gets the more she wants

The more she gets the more she wants

The more she gets the more she wants

The more she gets the more she wants

5. You Love Everybody

When you think of

Everyone you hated

seems so easy

to be jaded

But you love everybody

You love everybody

You love everybody

Like the first one

In your head

Like the last one

Up in your bed

But you love everybody

You love everybody

You love everybody

Ah ah ah ah

Ah ah ah ah

Ah ah ah ah

Ah ah ah ah

Whooh!

Tell me baby

Honey please

Don’t you want

Want a man like me?

If you love everybody

You love everybody

You love everybody

Ah ah ah ah

Ah ah ah ah

Ah ah ah ah

Ah ah ah ah

Whooh!

I know it

And you know I know it

6. Contents Under Pressure

Sign on your head — Contents Under Pressure

Someday you’re gonna blow sky high

People gonna point and say my my

The one that blew he was the quiet kind

Let it go now — let it go

Something’s got to give— contents under pressure

Why you want to live like you do

Building up inside of you

The big explosion it’s overdue

Let it go now — let it go

Pointing out the one you’ll get

You can’t forgive — you surely can’t forget — oh no

Saying you won’t budge — contents under pressure

How can you hold a grudge for so long

It tears you up — it brings you down

The gauge on your head it’s spinning round

Let it go now — let it go

Everyday you walk the ledge

So afraid that you might lose your edge

7. Love Interest

Yeah she’s my love interest

Yes she’s a real princess

I can call her when I’m low

And she’ll be there

She will I know

She’ll be there

She will I know

And we’re nocturnal creatures

Going to a double feature

Says she’s gonna meet me at the show

And she’ll be there

She will I know

She’ll be there

She will I know

Did I neglect to mention

She’s got all my attention?

And if there’s somewhere that we want to go

She’ll be there

She will I know

She’ll be there

She will I know

She’ll be there

She will I know

She’ll be there

She will I know

8. Making Everybody Cry

Is anybody in their right mind?

Or has this great big world gone mad?

There’s people treating people unkind

They’re making everybody sad

Did anybody see what happened?

Or was it just too much to face?

With all our troubles overlapping

It makes the world a sadder place

And I wonder why

It is this way

The way it is and it’s always been

And it’s going to stay

Now everybody make your own bed

You know that’s where you’re going to lie

I ask you keep these words in your head

Stop making everybody cry

And I wonder why

It is this way

The way it is and it’s always been

And it’s going to stay

Now everybody make your own bed

You know that’s where you’re going to lie

I ask you keep these words in your head

Stop making everybody cry

Stop making everybody cry

9. Miss Watson

Elementary Miss Watson

Let’s discuss this in my Datsun

You want love I believe I got some

Elementary Miss Watson

Young Miss Livingston I presume

Let’s slip out and take a look at the moon

My head is reeling from your perfume

Young Miss Livingston I presume

Alas Miss Yorick I know her well

Down on the beach playin’ with her shells

I hear the ocean she hears wedding bells

Alas Miss Yorick I know her well

Elementary Miss Watson

Let’s discuss this in my Datsun

You want love I believe I got some

Elementary Miss Watson

Miss Watson

Miss Watson

I believe you got some

Out in your Datsun

And you know I want some

Miss Watson

Miss Watson

Miss Watson

10. A Handsome Man

The reason why I’m walking round

Without a bloody trail

A handsome man

A handsome man

A handsome man can’t go to jail

Take a look at you average con

He’s ugly without fail

A handsome man

A handsome man

A handsome man can’t go to jail

Every single time

For every single crime

He’s gonna get away

He’s never gonna pay

Open up them iron doors

And give me back my bail

A handsome man

A handsome man

A handsome man can’t go to jail

Every single time

For every single crime

He’s gonna get away

He’s never gonna pay

Open up them iron doors

And give me back my bail

A handsome man

A handsome man

A handsome man can’t go to jail

11. Dark Out

Dark out

It’s dark out

Left me in no-man’s land and it’s dark out

Talk out

Baby talk out

Say you don’t need a scene and so you walk out

Yeah you walk out

One little thing you ought to know

One little thing before you go

Oh I love you like anything

And it’s dark out

Dark out

It’s dark out

Left me in no-man’s land and it’s dark out

Talk out

Baby talk out

Say you don’t need a scene and so you walk out

Yeah you walk out

And it’s dark out

Yeah dark out

12. Foghorn

Everything is true

That you thought was false

Things come out to get you

When the nightbird calls

And when the foghorn blows

Gonna tear down these walls

Sittin’ by myself

At the end of the pier

Cryin’ man oh man

Get me outta here

Cuz when the foghorn blows

Gonna shed another tear

To the ships at sea it’s a long long way to go

Lyin’ on the waves you can’t see the shore

Listen to the foghorn blow

Blow baby blow

It’s an S.O.S.

From some poor S.O.B.

It’s a distress signal

From some soul lost at sea

And when the foghorn blows

They’ll be comin’ after me

To the ships at sea it’s a long long way to go

Lyin’ on the waves you can’t see the shore

Listen to the foghorn blow

Blow baby blow

Everything is true

That you thought was false

Things come out to get you

When the nightbird calls

And when the foghorn blows

Gonna tear down these walls

All Songs Written By John Sieger

Except #4, 5 & 10 Written By John Sieger & Michael Feldman

Published by Stwangtoons/MCM BMI