The lyrics to this song are based on the monologue Eric Emerson gives while on LSD in the Andy Warhol’s film “Chelsea Girls.”
[Intro]
Achoo, Branca-fest
[Verse 1]
I can't see anything at all
All I see is me
That's clear enough, that's what's important
To see me
My eyes can focus, my brain is talking
It looks pretty good to me
My head's on straight, my girlfriend's beautiful
It looks pretty good to me
[Pre-Chorus]
Sometimes I speak
Tonight there's nothing to say
Sometimes we freak
And laugh all day
[Chorus]
Hold these pages up to the light
See the jackknife inside of the dream
A railroad runs through the record stores at night
Coming in for the deep freeze (Mary)
[Verse 2]
A simple word
Are you there in the cold country?
Your eyes so full and your head so tight
Can't you hear me?
Remember our talk that day on the phone?
I said I was the door and you were the station
With shattered glass and miles between us
We still flew away in the conversation
[Pre-Chorus]
My cup is full
And I feel okay
The world is dull
But not today
[Chorus]
She thinks she's a goddess
She says she'll talk to the spirits
I wonder if she can talk to herself
If she can bear to hear it
[Bridge]
This is Eric's trip
We've all come to watch him slip
He's slipping all the way to Texas
Can you dig it?
[Verse 3]
I see with a glass eye
The pavement view
A shadow forming across fields, rushing
Through me to you
We tore down the world, we put up four walls
I breathe in the myth
I'm over the city, fucking the future
I'm high and inside your kiss
[Pre-Chorus]
We can't see clear
But what we see is alright
We make up what we can't hear
Then we sing all night
[Chorus]
Scattered pages and shattered lights
See the jackknife, see the dream
There's something moving over there to the right
Like nothing I've ever seen
Eric’s Trip was written by Kim Gordon & Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo & Steve Shelley.
Eric’s Trip was produced by Sonic Youth & Nick Sansano.
Sonic Youth released Eric’s Trip on Tue Oct 18 1988.
Lee uses EBEEAB. Thurston uses a guitar called the “drifter”, strung with four bass strings, tuned BBF#F# and fretted by drumsticks. It was used exclusively for “Eric’s Trip” until it was stolen in California in 1999.