Thwak!
The album’s Thanksgiving song is another in my pursuit of getting as much as possible into and out of the shortest of tracks. Clocking in at a sleek one minute and fourteen seconds “Thwak!” is the kind of song only a vegetarian or a very conflicted meat eater could enjoy. This hedonistic destruction of nature which is encoded into our holidays is a theme on the album, and “Thwak!” is perhaps its most forceful expression.
These days I take a more spiritual approach to confronting Thanksgiving. I call it Guiltfast and it lasts from sundown the night before Thanksgiving until sundown the night of. During this 24 hours Guiltfasters fast and contemplate the impact of all the actions that have allowed us to feast and be thankful, but first we fast. Many take issue with the word “guilt” as being unhealthy. I disagree. If you are in fact guilty in a wrongdoing (or even complicit), then guilt is a very healthy emotion, especially if it can be expressed before it curdles into shame.
I believe we would be a much healthier country if at least one of our holidays included some kind of apology thus…Guiltfast!
Lyrics
THWAK!
Nothing says thank you
like killing a bird
like killing a bird
like killing a bird
Yeah nothing says thank you
like nothing I’ve heard
like killing a bird
Gobble gobble gobble gobble
Nothing says thank you
like breakin’ your word
or gassin a Kurd
or punchin’ a nerd
or droppin’ a turd
on a world you call third
like killing a bird
And so I killed this bird for you
Yeah baby
and I broke my word in two
Awe why you gotta look so blue?
That damned bird’s day were through
Nothing says thank you
like killing a bird
like killing a bird
killing a bird
and if no one had told me
it’d never occurred to me
that killing a bird
could be the very best way of sayin’
Thank you
Thank you very much
Thwak!
Credits
Written by Andras Jones
Andras Jones – Electric Guitar & Vocals
Tom Johnson – Piano
Brian Schey – Bass Guitar & Groans
Colin Mahoney – Drums
Produced with Brian Schey & Colin Mahoney
at z’gwon,th studio in Lawrence, Kansas – September & October 1999
with engineering help from Tom Johnson,
Dan Balsinger & Anne Stephens
Purchase
$1.50