Red House Painters -
"Medicine Bottle"

Anyone who fell in love with The Smiths in the Eighties or Belle And Sebastian in the Nineties, will swoon at this song.

Regardless of what may be said of Phespirit's other tastes, Phespirit MUST BE TRUSTED on this one. Anyone who swooned at the, erm, 'harrowing despair' of "I Know It's Over" (from The Smiths' "The Queen Is Dead") MUST listen to "Medicine Bottle".

It can be found on 1992's mini-album, "Down Colorful Hill".

Phespirit had the honour of seeing Red House Painters play the Camden Underworld live in October 1993, rating it as one of the finest gigs he had attended. Unfortunately for Phespirit, Mark Kozelek apparently always refuses to play "Medicine Bottle" live due to the intensely personal nature of the material. Notwithstanding this, Kozelek was deep into rich vein of form and could have played all night with unceasing brilliance.

Lyrics

Giving into love
And sharing my time
Letting someone into my misery

I told it all step by step
How I landed on the island
And how I swam across the sea
And it crosses my mind
That I may wake to a knife in me

No more breath in my hair
Or ladies' underwear
Tossed up over the alarm clock
Blood dripping from the bed
To a neatly written poem
A heartfelt last line reading:

"There is no more mystery
Is it going to happen my love?"

"There is no more mystery
Is it going to happen my love?"

It's all in my head, she said
Morning after nightmare
"You're building a wall," she said
"Higher than the both of us
So try living life
Instead of hiding in the bedroom
Show me a smile
And I'll promise not to leave you"

It happened under a rainy cloud
Passing through the dark south
We went into a big house
And slept in a small bed
I didn't know you then
As well as you of me
We talked of our sad lives
And we went off separately

And we went off separately
I found your overseas souvenirs
Holiday greeting cards
And some long forgot high school fears

"It's all in my head," I said
Banging a piano
I've not been so alone, I thought
Since kicking in the womb
I drank so much tea
I wrote my letters in Kanji
Around the block I walked and walked
Pretending you were with me

Not wanting to die out here
Without you

The hurting never ends
Like birthdays and old friends
We forget that this flesh blood and bone is human
Trading phone lines for airlines
Unwilling to face
That love is found on the inside
Not the outside

And like a medicine bottle
In the cabinet I'll keep you
And like a medicine bottle
In my hand I will hold you

And swallow you slowly
As to last me a lifetime
Without holding too tight
I do not want to lose
The thrill that it gives me
To look out from my window
And scowl at the houses
From my world in the bedroom

"It's all in his head," she read
In her girlfriend's self-help book
"It's all his own making
A war with himself
Like two sides of a war
That separates two countries
He shuts out the world
And wants only to love you"

Not wanting to die out here
Without you

Not wanting to die out here
Without you