Three Sheets to Kishkiyya · Track 76 · middle
Gueule de Bois
VOLUME IV — the HUNGOVER morning after. The idiom and the song's title hook: "Gueule de Bois". Its true history: France — 'wooden mouth/gob'; the dry, rough, splintered morning; sing it in French-touched alto. Render this beat of the night as the band's affectionate, funny, celebratory tribute — the idiom itself is the chorus hook.
Lyrics
[Intro] The sun is a thief at the edge of the blinds Stealing the dark from the edge of my mind I open my lips but the desert is there A carpenter's shop in the morning air [Verse 1] My tongue is a plank of unpolished pine I think of the water, I dream of the vine There is dust on my palate and bark on my chin A forest has grown where the liquor had brimmed [Chorus] Ah, gueule de bois The timbered mouth, the heavy jaw A beautiful ruin wrapped up in the quilt While the daylight is warming the wine that we spilled Gueule de bois, my darling, my tree The oak and the ash have taken root in me [Verse 2] It is an old French romance, this splintered old gob From the days when the absinthe made the bistros throb They called it the wooden mouth, literal and true When your throat feels like driftwood the tide washed ashore It isn't a penance, it's a souvenir Of the wild golden magic we made in the dark [Chorus] Ah, gueule de bois The timbered mouth, the heavy jaw A beautiful ruin wrapped up in the quilt While the daylight is warming the wine that we spilled Gueule de bois, my darling, my tree The oak and the ash have taken root in me [Bridge] So pour me a coffee, as black as the earth To water the branches, to measure my worth I will speak when the sap finally rises again Right now I am carved out of cedar and rain [Outro] Gueule de bois My tongue is just timber I would ask for a glass of water, my love But the words, they just catch on the splinters