Canadian Max Webster (1973 – 1981) is an innovative and extremely interesting band, not only musically but also lyrically. Some claim they brought weirdness to the mainstream. This is surely true for their home country where the band was very popular. Main man Kim Mitchell became a national legend with a successful solo career that also brought some commercial success in the States with this song:
Here we focus especially on Max Websters lyrics. Almost all of them are written by someone who isn’t in the band: Pye Dubois (aka Paul Woods). The lyrics are pieces of art themselves but they fit in perfectly with the music, as these killer songs show:
April in Toledo / talking to myself / talking to myself
She’s hiding out in Lake Louise / says she’s taking a break from my face
I’ll run I’ll run to Niagara / I’ll hide I’ll hide in the dark
She wouldn’t have me for conversation no more
Her last destination was out of town
These letters from Lake Louise / sound like damn diaries of a winter freeze
Hey I’ll sing this out my window
Say I’ll treat you good / then I’ll treat you better
Second hand telegram
Lip service legal love
Second hand out of town telegram
Lip service legal loveSo you’re the lawyer’s wife
How’s life on Lakeshore Road
Furs and boats caviar and moats
And your fat kitten
Is teasing your aunt
In the hall
With the liver hors d’oeuvres
She gives her guest(s)
When on callAhhhhh you should be down under
Pushin’ up wheat for the hungryBig revolutions in my black book
Written down in our teens
I gave them to Khrushchev
I lent them to LeninSecond hand out of town telegram
Lip service legal love
Lip service second hand out of town
Lip service loveSo you’re the canker banker
Hours nine to five on fantasies of gold
Vets cheques cigars Nassau
And your harness horse
Is cold cash
Cause the drugs you use work fast
Burned off and out before the race track
Urine testAhhhhh you should be down under
Pushin’ up wheat for the hungrySocialutions
Written down in our teens
I mailed them to Kennedy
I typed them for TitoOnly your right hand
Knows you’re left handed
What do I know / I sat under a cloud / I looked up / ‘fraid to look down
I knew I’d cry if I didn’t clear / I knew I’d die if I didn’t hear you say
Forget that fear of gravity
You take that dream away from me / i’ll have trouble getting through the day
Get a little savagery in your life
I’ll have trouble tying my shoes
Forget that fear of gravity
I’ll laugh when it rains and dampens my hair
Get a little savagery in your life
In my cloud / I walk close never fearing the edge
Never waiting at the bend / never two-faced at a crossroads
Never wanting the edge of my cloud / tender is the night
Forget that fear of gravity gravity gravity
Forget that fear of gravity
And i’ll sit in the window without a cigarette
Get a little savagery in your life
… Read the restBonjour aux amis de malheur…
Nous sommes fous.