[ music: Natalie Merchant/lyric: Natalie Merchant ]
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the legs of Maddox kitchen tables
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my whole life twisted on a lathe
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in a foreman's torrent
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my first English was
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"faster boy if you want your pay"
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barking commands
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loud and simple
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we could all obey
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then I was forever pulling silvers
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rubbed the sawdust always
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deeper in my eye
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varnish vapor that could linger
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on my skin
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it held tight
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the whine of spinning blades
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still echoes to bother my sleep at night
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see that ox
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stamped dead center
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on the letter head of the company mail
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four decades a spitting image
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of the animal I portrayed
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at Maddox Table a yoke was carved
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for my neck
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sun through the window oil spattered
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and in mason jars
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tricked plenty seeds thrive
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the standing joke
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around the shop was
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with my green thumb
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anything'd grow
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my part was to laugh
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show and ornery jig had
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cut it at the knuckle bone
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see that ox
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trade mark burned
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into every stick of furniture
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from horn to tail
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four decades a spitting image
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of the animal I portrayed
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at Maddox Table a yoke was carved
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for my neck
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was tailor made
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o my Dolly was a weak
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not a burdened girl
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treat her to a piece of vaudville
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a Wintergarden moving picture show
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Bemus Point on July Sundays
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by trolley we'd go
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to your benefit we's strike or bargain
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with the waving fist a union man
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not just for
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smokes spirits candy and cologne
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but for
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automobile keys
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cash in the bank
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and the deed
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on a place called home
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Maddox Table
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10000 Maniacs |