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CHAPLIN OR HITLER from “Songs About Girls, Vol. I” by RJT
Sticks and stones and combat zones, the jams and jellies you spread on scones. The nooks and crannies you know so well. Genocide or a life of mime, I’m tired now it’s your turn to decide: Chaplin or Hitler who could tell?The picture’s on but the popcorn’s stale. You don’t speak but you read my mail. Who knows what secrets you could sell to former eagle scouts on roundabouts? Who held out for hope but hope held out? Chaplin or Hitler who could tell? And one part of speech and one parlor trick later, you’re my little tramp I’m your great dictator. I’m your alibi with a calculator Is it comedy or infamy or are we history? Deposit slips and shaving kits where you keep my heart when you’re done with it, and leave the raindrops where they fell. But these bones are brittle and they break at whim, and you may be cruel but your mustache is trim. City lights are out I’m trapped in the gears, and the lies I keep to count the years, the dress I wear like a diving bell. And the goose step that you’ve so well prepped and the promises that are barely kept. And the dim and daft who you pay in laughs like a crowd of seals or a cabinet staff. I don’t listen when you ‘schnell!’ You can’t play me like a reel or a glockenspiel or the cavalry on the battlefield. Chaplin or Hitler who could tell? Between your pratfalls and your smokestacks you never saw my bag was packed even if I always stay. But even if only an inch of me’s gone, I won’t be your two-reeler or your Eva Braun. Chaplin or Hitler, either way.
Written by Ryan J. Tressel
RJT: Voice, acoustic guitar
Recorded live August 2002
