The Decemberists - On The Bus Mall LYRICS

In matching blue raincoats,

our shoes were our show boats

we kicked around.

From stairway to station

we made a sensation

with the gadabout crowd.

And oh, what a bargain,

we’re two easy targets

for the old men at the off-tracks,

who’ve paid in palaver

and crumpled old dollars,

which we squirreled away

in our rat trap hotel by the freeway.

And we slept-in Sundays.



Your parents were anxious,

your cool was contagious

at the old school.

You left without leaving

a note for your grieving

sweet mother, while

your brother was so cruel.

And here in the alleys

your spirits were rallied

as you learned quick to make a fast buck.

In bathrooms and barrooms,

on dumpsters and heirlooms,

we bit our tongues.

Sucked our lips into our lungs

'til we were falling.

Such was our calling.



And here in our hollow we fuse like a family,

but I will not mourn for you.

So take up your makeup

and pocket your pills away.

We’re kings among runaways

on the bus mall.

We’re down

on the bus mall.



Among all the urchins and old Chinese merchants

of the old town,

we reigned at the pool hall

with one iron cue ball

and we never let the bastards get us down.

And we laughed off the quick tricks--

the old men with limp dicks--

on the colonnades of the waterfront park.

As 4 in the morning came on, cold and boring,

we huddled close

in the bus stop enclosure enfolding.

Our hands tightly holding.



But here in our hollow we fuse like a family,

but I will not mourn for you.

So take up your makeup

and pocket your pills away.

We’re kings among runaways

on the bus mall.

We’re down

on the bus mall.

We’re down

on the bus mall.

Down on the bus mall.

oh ooh oh