Guns & Dolls

When I first tried to listen to the Din of Ecstasy CD, Guns & Dolls was about the only track I liked.  [Don’t hate on me! I’ve since found religion and appreciate the full CD.]  I can remember thinking that the pairing of “guns” and “dolls” was a creative-Chris appropriation of the hit-musical title, Guys and Dolls.  Chris sometimes used “gun” as a metaphor for something sexual, e.g., “Three dollar down for the gun” in Poison Girl.  And, clearly, the “guns” in these lyrics are guys having sex with girls/ “dolls.”

Jamie Mishley, a member of the ATCW group, provided some insight regarding a different inspiration for this song title:  “I lived and played in Brattleboro, VT area 80’s/90’s and there was a strip club a few miles over the border into Massachusetts called Guns n Dolls we used to play at. Always wondered if it [Chris’s song] was named after that place.”

Whatever, whichever, Guns & Dolls is a gem.  Below, I provide three iterations of Guns and trace the evolution of its lyrics.  Many thanks to Desiree McCloskey, among others – see group discussion here – for helping to decipher the lyrics in the demo version.

Early demo version (thanks to Danny Kadar for preserving and sharing this):

Lyrics of demo version:

I don’t know nothin’
I lay waiting for the queen to come
Got my mouth all around her
Beneath the blanket where the water run (?)
Now you take the weed in your hungry hand sister
Best believe he just one more man
But you can’t control it
Guns and dolls all around this room
You cannot control yourself
Guns and dolls at high noon
Now the wind go moanin’ (?)
She carve your face up and down my arm
It get (or I got?) my eyes wide open
For one moment I know we can do no wrong
But I see you there when you pull me down
Like there ain’t no promises for no one around
And I can’t control it
Guns and dolls all around this room
I cannot control myself
Guns and dolls at high noon
We tore the (that?) motor all night long
Kicking and screaming its junkyard song
With the rags and lace, skin and stone
My sweat just shine and the (yer/her?) smell so strong
And you bite my lip on the broken road (row?)
From the backroom stair to the stain below
So we make them deals with the hard and blessed
With (in?) a dark and scared and lonesome sex
Break me mama on the thighs of the true romance
Got to ride me over those lips like a long white fence
I can’t control it
Can’t control myself
Say you can’t control it
Now you cannot control yourself sister

Video from gig opening for Tom Petty (1991-10-08 Uniondale, NY):

Interesting (to me, anyway!) note:  The lyrics here are a bit different from the demo. Instead of “Now you take the weed in your hungry hand sister,” he sings “Well, you watched me walk, you know that I can.”  Hmmmm, cleaning up the lyrics to avoid any offense about the obvious “weed” metaphor?  Whatever.  Nonetheless, the idea that a woman watching him walk would intuitively estimate his sexual prowess is definitely “hot” without being aggressively offensive.

Live solo acoustic performance at Bottom of the Hill (1999-04-18):

Lyrics as recorded:

Slow neurosis
Lays awaiting the cousin to come
Got my mouth all around her
Beneath the blanket where the world is run
Now you take the weed in your hungry hand
All the need of some naked man that

Can’t get over
Guns and dolls all around this room
Can’t control it
Guns and dolls any afternoon

Now the wind know no one
She carve your face up and down my arm
Got my eyes wide open
For one moment I know we can do no wrong
But I see you there as you pull me down
Like there’s so much promise in any playground and I

Can’t get over
Guns and dolls all around this room
Can’t control it
Guns and dolls any afternoon

Bit my lip of
Broken road
Slip your tongue to
The hard and cold where we
Make them deals with the
Naked myths
Break me mama
From the ties of the kitsch romance
Got to ride me over
These lies of deliverance
I can’t get over

I can’t control it