Song of the Week: Mutton and Strawberries - October 26, 2019

Live from Here Highlights

Chris Thile’s Song of the Week for October 26, 2019: “Mutton and Strawberries.” The band: Chris Thile, Rachael Price, Mike Elizondo, Armand Hirsch, Gabriel Kahane, Jeremy Kittel, Joey Waronker.

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Lyrics:

What hath God wrought

Of strength unfelt

Gifts neglected

And love withheld

What hath God wrought (x3)

Lucretia left the world without a fight

Father left it clutching the handle of a knife

His memory never failing to give that knife a twist

All has led to this:

Mutton—

My children scattered like so many seeds

Separated from one another and from me

All my colleagues snickering at Samuel Morse the Scientist

All has led to this:

Mutton— (x2)

Dark magic or miracle

I don’t care

It’s wonderful

Listen, America’s about to bare her soul

And maybe her teeth as well

It’s a sound

To behold

Good or bad only someone else’s time will tell

—and strawberries

And a wire to connect the world

A wire to remind it

That nothing can become itself

‘Til something else defines it

One wire to connect the world

One wire to remind it

That nothing can become itself

‘Til something else defines it

Now a ghost of wire haunts this world

A ghost of wire drives it

Unto the need to know itself

And with that knowledge binds it

One ghost of wire haunts this world

One ghost of wire drives it

Unto the need to know itself

And with that knowledge binds it

‘Til we use it to connect the world

And let the world remind us

That none of us become ourselves

While someone else defines us