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The Thing About Things (Live​/​Piano) [OFFICIAL BOOTLEG]

by Amanda Palmer

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about

hello listener!
i am currently hosting my music here for FREE / NAME YOUR PRICE...
and this is possible because i am using patreon, a new crowd-support platform
now housing thousands of my listeners who believe in direct arts patronage!
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to support my patreon, where you can hang me with me, the community, and get special webcasts, blogs
and other Things I Make , go here: www.patreon.com/amandapalmer

...........

Recorded live on April 6th, 2013 at the Sosnoff Theater (Bard College's Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts)
Read the blog about this song at bit.ly/blog040713

“i wrote this song a few days ago.
then i played it and i let people record in the audience, come what may.
i don’t want to wait anymore, and put it in a pile, and tell anyone to take it down and not share.
i just want you to have it, so here.

listen, enjoy, and maybe someday i’ll put it on a record but maybe the ultimate message is records are fucking done forever.

i wrote a song and the reason i wrote it is i want people to hear and like my music and now that i can just let you hear it, i want to.

the end.” - afp, april 8th 2013

NOTE: The source of this audio-file was lossy to say the very least. However, we have had numerous requests for it to be downloadable…so, fuck it. If you want to download it, now you can. If you want to donate something, you can. Just enjoy. - Love, @amandapalmer & @indeciSEAN

lyrics

i’ve loaned a lot of things to a lot of friends
like dresses and records and books
and some of the time i never see them again
and in a weird way i think that it works

because the thing about things is they start turning evil
when you start to forget what they’re for
and so if you’re not sure what you did with my sweater
i’ll just try to love you a little bit more

i had a ring it belonged to my grandfather
he was a mason
and gay
and he was distant and bitter for all of my childhood
and we never had much to say

he wasn’t the type to give tokens of affection
and so i stole ring when he died
and twenty years later when i lost it at a bar
i thought
that’s fine
I DIDN’T WANT HIM IN MY LIFE

the thing about things is that they can start meaning things
nobody actually said
and if he couldn’t make something mean something for me
i had to make up what it meant

i can carry everything i need in one collapsing suitcase
i can carry everyone i love in one phone application
built to optimize the facetime with the ties i’m bent on making
actually i want to be alone
to mourn the loss
of what this cost
i collected you but now you are all lost

i think it’s a poem and i think it keeps going
i’ve borrowed and lost lots of things
3 nights ago in the bar where i lost it a bartender gave me the ring

and i lie in bed
with my phone in my hand
thinking
what can i fix with this app

and i call my grandfather
and he doesn’t answer
and i have to make peace with that fact

because the thing about things
is that they can start meaning things nobody actually said
and if you’re not allowed to love people alive
then you learn how to love people dead

because the thing about things is that they can start meaning things nobody actually said
and if you’re not allowed

to love people alive

then you learn how to love people dead

credits

released April 8, 2013
Lyrics & Music by Amanda Palmer | amandapalmer.net

Recorded by Andrew Geha | geehuh.tumblr.com
Audio cleanup by Sean Francis | on.fb.me/Y1g6d0 / thesilentorchestra.com

Cover photo by Amanda Palmer | @amandapalmer
Cover design by Sean Francis | @indeciSEAN

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Amanda Palmer Boston

performer, writer, giver, taker, listener, love-lover, rule-hater and co-founder of the Brechtian punk cabaret duo, The Dresden Dolls.

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