The Paper Chase
The Paper Chase
The Paper Chase
The Paper Chase
The Paper Chase
The Paper Chase
The Paper Chase
The Paper Chase
The Paper Chase
The Paper Chase
Hara-kiri, kids, come kill yourself
Slice your throats and spurt the blood
Paint a wall cloud weather cell
A vortex of self
Put your tongue in the mouth of the old funnel cloud, Adel
And I have become pregnant with myself
Bloated bellies distended out like corpses sweat and swell
We fucked ourselves
Let our thighs fall to each side of the cyclone they sell
No pie graphs or charts to speak of
No slogans for the repeating
No silver bullet was shot
No hand over heart, no X marks the spot
No catchphrase for stars a-feignin'
No big letter writing campaign
No fanfare fills up the room
No interviews, no big kaboom
The fruit is falling 'cause the tree is rotting, my dear
You were a good mare for the state
But you're no longer needed here
Go back to your coup
I will chop off my head as an act of contrition for you
I sleep in my clothes 'cause nobody knows
When the shit goes down, we're gonna turn this thing around
I'll keep tying my shoes, there's no telling when you...
Everybody now! We're gonna turn this thing around
So I sleep in my clothes 'cause nobody knows
If it will touch down, we're gonna turn this thing around
And I'll keep tying my shoes, there's no telling when you...
Everybody now!!!! Everybody now!!!!
The whistling, winding trees, the boiling of the seas
We know what you are (All together now)
The hum of coming trains, the connection we can't maintain
We know what you are, we know what you are
I think this is it - the last thing I'm ever going to record.
The whistling, winding trees, the buzz of a billion bees
We know what you are
The hum of coming trains, the connection we can't maintain
We know what you are, we know what you are
All together now
You will be no more. It probably won't be pretty like in the movies or in fairy tales. Maybe something extraordinary will happen, but probably not. Sometimes people have enough energy to say or do something meaningful right before they die. And that's nice. But that is uncommon. Usually, people just die, and you're going to die too.
This Is Only a Test (The Tornado) was written by John Congleton.
This Is Only a Test (The Tornado) was produced by John Congleton.
The Paper Chase released This Is Only a Test (The Tornado) on Tue May 26 2009.
In a July 27, 2009 interview with Interboro Rock Tribune, John Congleton was asked:
Q: How are these songs directly related to the disasters they represent?
A: It’s purely metaphorical. These songs are not about natural disaster. It’s not that black and white. It’s all encrypted, but it seems clea...
Yes. There is an early live version with substantially different lyrics, of which there is a single available recording (from March 2008):
The sample at the start of this alternate version comes from the Jonestown Death Tape (Warning: disturbing content).