Slavin' Away Lyrics - The Fiery Furnaces

Slavin' away 

Slavin' away 

All for you my love 

And i've nothin to show for it 

Cept my dusty old book full of pictures 

A dusty old book 

Tell me a story 

Bout how i wasn't so tired 

From my slavin' away 

I ran off 

Put on corduroy knickers that i got from the coal shovelin' kid 

And hitchhiked in a rickety old ford 

Hitchhiked in a rattly old norton side car 

Down strange roads 

In the purrin' rain, as the poet put it 

On up to st. Paul 

On a cold day in the middle of the fall 

And they picked me up for not wearin a dress 

And suspended my sentence 

If i wore somethin with a strap that was pink 

And i scrubbed up on somebody's sink 

So now i catch the canadian pacific 

And not be too specific, just somewhere up north 

And get into lumber and slumber when i like 

And in the spring ride down into cheyenne on my bike 

I looked out the window 

And i stuck my head out the door 

And the snow was melting so slow... 

And the sky was light but so gray... 

Slavin' away 

And all for nothin' my love 

Cookin and washin in the morning 

And startin at 9:25 

I assemble six boxes of little plastic christmas trees 

And put in the blue leds 

On kid toy cell phones with borg batteries 

And then on to the sewing machine 

Stick the labels on purple t-shirts 

And the arms on pull-over jumpers for the uk 

Slavin' away 

All for you my love 

And i've nothin to show for it 

I've nothin to show for it 

I could see her lookin in the mirror at me 

Wonderin' if it wasn't plain for everyone to see 

Nothin ever seemed to turn out how it might be 

I could see her doubting now that all had gone and went 

That anything she got was equal what that she'd spent 

That she never seemed to get back what that she'd lent 

Anyway they did have a son 

And by the time he was married and i played at his wedding too at holy trinity 

I was choir director myself 

Rehearsals in the basement twice a week 

I demanded we'd be in peak condition 

And everything seemed to be going quite well 

I got along well with the priest...