Colt M1911

Lyrics

[Intro]
Here comes the yellow rag again.

[Verse 1]
You wipe me down with a silicone cloth
And tell your guests I won the war.
You aim me at the living room wall
And wonder what the heavy grip is for.
I was stamped in the factory, shipped in grease.
I didn't know a thing about the bold or the brave.
I only knew the sweat of a shaking hand
And how much pressure it took to save.

[Chorus]
I am terrified of this velvet drawer.
I am terrified of being clean.
You look at me and see a monument
When I was just a desperate machine.
Thirty-nine ounces, unloaded weight,
Waiting for the slide to lock back.
Don't call me a legend.
I'm just the thing you squeeze in the black.

[Verse 2]
There’s a safety in the grip, right at the spine.
It won't give way to a casual hold.
The palm has to crush it, the hand has to act,
Before the conscious mind is even told.
Seven brass rounds in a single stack.
I remember a kid in the freezing rain.
He didn't hold me like a piece of history.
He gripped me like a tourniquet for pain.

[Chorus]
I am terrified of this velvet drawer.
I am terrified of being clean.
You look at me and see a monument
When I was just a desperate machine.
Thirty-nine ounces, unloaded weight,
Waiting for the slide to lock back.
Don't call me a legend.
I'm just the thing you squeeze in the black.

[Bridge]
Now I sit on a shelf under halogen light.
You don't even keep a round in the chamber now.
You love me for a ghost you never met,
And I am just forgetting how.
I miss the dirt.
No, I don't miss the dirt.
But I hate the lie of the glass.

[Outro]
When does a tool become a ghost?
When the oil dries up?
When the stories get too tall?
I'm afraid of the day you look right at me
And don't see a weapon at all.
Just a heavy piece of metal
That forgot what it was for.