I wrote about this John Kongos song 14 years ago. I searched for its lyrics online and failed to find them. The song was etched in my memory and that’s all I had.
Well! Recently, whilst doing random web searching, I came upon used record sales of the album containing this song, which was also titled Confusions about a Goldfish. With photos. Lo and behold, the album jacket had lyrics of all the LP’s songs! Including this one!
CONFUSIONS ABOUT A GOLDFISH
Happy as Mice are ones with a
Confusions About a Goldfish, John Kongos
Christ
Synagogue, Mosque or the local
Church
But are they the Ghost Writers of
the Story
Without beginning, without an end.
There must be more than kicking a
ball
Around and around a box of food
Even more than the Joy and pride
Of a Mother in her smiling Thalidomide
I search for a plot and it seems
to thicken
With a trip to the Moon, but it does not
It does not
Does the Goldfish in the bowl
celebrate thanksgiving
And can he see me
And if he can’t, does he think that I created him
Just to look like me
And does he question the changing
of the water
Happy like sheep are part-time
followers
of revolution and change
For to them at least there appears
to be
A purpose in their riot
But are they the authors of a grand-new plot
No. it’s all been said before
Ideals are potent as a Eunuch’s
dream
So we might as well be quiet
It’s a bad situation when I’m not
even able
To think what I’m trying to think
What I’m trying to think
Does the goldfish in the bowl
celebrate Thanksgiving?
…
All my life I’d misremembered one word in the chorus, and didn’t remember (really, never understood / deciphered) a few words from the rest of the song.
This is the kind of stuff that makes the web valuable.
Seek Nuance 