Six Weeks on a Concept

Lyrics

[Intro]
(sewing machine, a glue gun hissing, someone yells "IS THAT HOT GLUE ON MY RUG")
July. She started in July.

[Verse 1]
She's got a mood board and a glue gun and a plan,
she's been building this since summer, understand —
there's a headpiece in the closet that she welded out of wire,
there's a bodice on a dress form and a bin marked DO NOT TOUCH.
Six weeks on a concept. Six weeks and a dream.
Nobody's gonna get it but the concept is supreme.

[Pre-Chorus]
And the dog is scared of it. And the roommate's given up.
And the kitchen table hasn't been a table since the fall.

[Chorus]
Six weeks on a concept! Six weeks on a look!
Every night a fitting, every fitting overbooked!
She could have bought it, but she'd rather build it right —
six weeks on a concept for a costume for one night!

[Verse 2]
Meanwhile in the bedroom there's a fella getting dressed,
he's been thinking about this one for a solid thirty seconds.
Found a tie. Found a jacket. Called it good.
Says "I'm a businessman," like anybody could
tell the difference from a Tuesday, from a meeting, from a man
who put in the bare minimum and pulled it off again.

[Pre-Chorus]
And he looks fine. He honestly looks fine.
That's the part that's hard to say out loud.

[Chorus]

[Verse 3]
Now ask her why she does it and she'll shrug and look away,
'cause the answer isn't clever and it doesn't really play:
it's the wire in her hands. It's the problem and the fix.
It's the hour around midnight when the whole thing finally clicks.
Nobody sees the pattern. Nobody sees the seam.
Nobody sees the fourteen things she tried that didn't gleam.

[Bridge]
Now don't you dare compare them, it's not the same event —
one of them's an artist and one of them just went.
She's got a glue burn on her thumb and a vision in her head,
he's got a lanyard from a conference and a slightly rumpled bed.
It isn't fair. It never was. It never will be.
But she'd do it all again, and honey, so would he.

[Chorus]

[Outro]
(a zipper, a deep breath, keys jangling)
Six weeks on a concept.
Thirty seconds on a tie.
Let's go.