Rocket Ship

Here I sit
Feeling low
Wishing I had anywhere to go
Want to go
For a ride
For a ride inside a rocket ship
 
Rocket ship
Rocket ship
Want to ride inside a rocket ship
On a trip
On a trip
On a trip inside a rocket ship
 
Here I go
I'm in a rocket ship, go
Going slow
I make the rocket ship go
 
Fogging the view, cupping face to the window
In darkness, the shape of a nose and a mouth
Head in the way of the viewers
And everyone standing around like there's something to get
 
The thing that you see will make you go insane
(Everyone wants to see that groovy thing)
And everyone wants to see that groovy thing
(Everyone wants to see that thing)
 
Second day
Of the trip
Of the trip inside the rocket ship
Second week
Second year
We're a thousand miles from anywhere
 
Rocket ship
Rocket ship
We're all riding in a rocket ship
On a trip
On a trip
On a trip inside a rocket ship
 
Messed up my face when we fell off the sofa
I injured my hair when we fell from the plane
But nothing can hurt me, I have no nerve endings
I lost so much blood that I'm ready to faint
 
The thing that you see will make you go insane
(Everyone wants to see that groovy thing)
And everyone wants to see that groovy thing
(Everyone wants to see that thing)
 
As I understand it, the thing in the window
The word on the street is, or so I have read
According to sources, the thing in the window
And based on reports, and from what we've been told
 
The thing that you see will make you go insane
(Everyone wants to see that groovy thing)
And everyone wants to see that groovy thing
(Everyone wants to see that thing)


Quoth the Johns:

"Rocket Ship" is the 1992 demo of a song that didn't get any further than this, because the chorus was cannibalized to make "Spiraling Shape." The verse is a rough idea for a lyric about how far you can travel in outer space and never get anywhere, but the chorus wandered in a more fruitful direction and suggested a better song.

—John Flansburgh
[source: Emusic promotional email, August 15, 2001]



Corrections? Let me know.