Guns Under The Counter Lyrics - The Fiery Furnaces

Guns Under the Counter 

"Well, good for you. 

But we have something too." 

So said my aunt 

A bowling alley and lunch counter 

Filled with fellas on their lunch break 

From the Western Electric plant at a slant across the street 

And next door when So-and-So's men would come in, and the man himself very often 

It was guns under the counter every time 

Guns under the counter every time 

Guns under the counter every time 

And bowling on the second floor 

Very often he was there himself 

And I, of course, had a special small ball as a little girl, 

And didn't I grow up, didn't I grow up to be captain of the Morton girls bowling team? I did! 

Though I don't attach much importance to that now, or then 

Then riding the old Garfield El downtown 

And on up to State Street 

And back to guns under the counter 

Guns under the counter every time 

Guns under the counter 

And bowling on the second floor 

I never liked Douglas park 

And no one likes it now 

But that's neither here nor there 

There, or here 

West of Crawford, where it is I stayed 

Chicago straights alliterates 

North, and south 

I lived in the Ms 

But it was down on the south side 

Dr. Peter Pane and his brother had their doughnut factory 

And I mention it now because 

That one day 

Now I wasn't there, we were in Davenport at that time 

Some north side Irish bullets came zipping through that window 

In Cicero 

Never stand at a window 

And past the counter 

Looking for those men 

Who had their guns behind the counter 

And you could smell the boiled cabbage on those bullets 

One of them managed to hit a young pinsetter in the leg 

Wouldn't you know it 

But luckily Panagoulis 

Dr. Peter Pane 

Was there to see to it 

He took some special blackberry filling right out of his lunch bag 

And applied it to the young man's wound 

You see, Dr. Peter Pane was an interesting man 

And an even more interesting doctor 

As he would use no material or remedy that wasn't used in the manufacture 

Of his doughnuts down on 82nd and Kedzie with his brother. 

But he tempered this by the fact that he would rarely use ingredients 

That didn't have some medicinal purpose 

Or so he thought 

Here in the doughnut factory 

They have confectioner's sugar 

So sweet it was caustic 

And chocolate so bitter that it could kill typhus 

Glazing so shiny 

It could set back glaucoma 

And filling so filling, 

You didn't need stitches 

The same special blackberry filling that was applied to the young man's wound 

Blackberry filling that came straight from Dr. Peter Pane's lunch bag 

We were in Davenport 

With a big restaurant downtown 

And I once kept a jackrabbit in the back yard 

And I'd walk across the river to Rock Island to Greek school 

On a fine fall day 

And I'd look up at the sky 

And down at the river 

But Davenport changed its name to Hooverville 

So to speak, and we had to go to Chicago to move in with my aunt