Terminal Annex
Recorded
Release history
Also known as
(Down at the) Terminal Annex
Credits
- Written by Harvey Danger, © But Mom I Love Music (ASCAP)
- Aaron: bass
- Jeff: guitars
- Sean: lead and backing vocals
- Evan: drums
Lyrics
Here’s something beautiful
now smash it to bits
Save your little wheelchair empowerment films
Save your swoons, I’m spoken for
It isn’t pretty to think so1
but I can’t feign interest nowDreaming of the fistfight I never got into
Thinking of the mean shit I wish I’d said to you
Such a fancy lady, call her Secretina
She didn’t get all the good stuff
but she looked like youLike a zero drowning in a sea of higher numbers.
Everything you say to me is dumb
At least it’s stupidTwenty heavy hammers smashing down
Here’s a doorstep you can never darken
You complain about an overflowing cup2
Don’t forget that I’m the one who filled that fucker up
(one, two, three)Like a zero drowning in a sea of higher numbers
I remain as ever intrigued but no more astounded
Like a zero drowning in a sea of higher numbers
I think that I like you better when you just ignore meSo I sit and notice shadows growing
I think of how the clocks are slowing
Hoping hope’s eternal flowing springs3
will do their thing and save me from myselfLike a zero drowning in a sea of higher numbers
I remain as ever intrigued but no more astounded
Like a zero drowning in a sea of higher numbers
You want ego? I will show you ego
I’m jealous now
Quotes
SCN: “Terminal Annex”: unfinished lyric #2, but also the second example of hearing how John Goodmanson’s wizardry transformed the sound of our basement fantasy into a pop-rock colossus, another long night in Jeff’s car with a cassette; also defensible on the grounds of the “overflowing cup” line, maybe my favorite couplet on the record, and Aaron’s revving motorcycle bass solo.10A
AMH: I think we were all mesmerized by the Echoplex tape delay, which was responsible for the guitar sound in the verses.10A
SCN: Named, inexplicably, for the US Post Office at Third Avenue South and S. Lander, kitty corner from former HD practice space. “Wheelchair empowerment films” comes from puppet-based self-esteem program seen in bewilderment on PBS at 3 am (
I’m not in a wheelchair; I use a wheelchair—but “I” was a puppet!). “Secretina” borrowed from Chris Dorr, with love.P&F
SCN: I still have the sense that the words for “Problems and Bigger Ones” and “Terminal Annex” were never quite finished. Both songs contained experiments in a discursive, vaguely cut-up writing style, and as a result, I hear myself strugging to find a voice that wasn’t exactly mine. Despite and because of those difficulties, I love them both, and the lesson they taught me about how songs aren’t finished until people hear them.MMV
Notes
- Previously titled “(Down at the) Terminal Annex.”HDW