Three Sheets to Kishkiyya · Track 122 · middle

Rabbit Shit Tea

VOLUME V — the CURES, crawling back to life. The idiom and the song's title hook: "Rabbit Shit Tea". Its true history: US, Wild West frontier — tea brewed from rabbit droppings; the desperate, humorous frontier remedy; keep it tall-tale, never gross. Render this beat of the night as the band's affectionate, funny, celebratory tribute — the idiom itself is the chorus hook.

Lyrics

[Intro]
Gather 'round the fire with your pounding frontier heads.
I got a cure from 1875 to yank you out of bed.

[Verse 1]
When Sisu woke up with the high-plains grizzly-shivers,
The saloon was just a memory of punishing her liver.
Her mouth was full of tumbleweeds, her stomach in a knot,
She needed something mighty to boil inside the pot.
The doc was out of bitters, the apothecary bare,
So we looked out to the sagebrush, and we tracked a desert hare.

[Chorus]
Oh, when you're flummoxed and you're fading on the western jubilee,
There's a prairie-magic brewing in the Rabbit Shit Tea.
Gather up the pellets where the jackrabbits run,
Steep 'em in a tin cup to carry your spirit home.
It ain't exactly Earl Grey, it ain't a parlor brew,
But Rabbit Shit Tea is gonna resurrect you.

[Verse 2]
Just a handful of those meadow-pearls, baked by the canyon sun,
Drop 'em in the water when the caterwauling comes.
The cowboys swore by the magic of this desperate frontier craft,
Passing down the kettle for a very humble draft.
It takes a snollygoster's courage to take a little sip,
But you'll feel the wild kickback running right across your lip.

[Chorus]
Oh, when you're flummoxed and you're fading on the western jubilee,
There's a prairie-magic brewing in the Rabbit Shit Tea.
Gather up the pellets where the jackrabbits run,
Steep 'em in a tin cup to carry your spirit home.
It ain't exactly Earl Grey, it ain't a parlor brew,
But Rabbit Shit Tea is gonna resurrect you.

[Outro]
It ain't no snake-oil swindle, just a testament to need.
So drink it down, you ramblers, and face the breaking sky.
Rabbit Shit Tea...
Washing the absolute worst of the prairie dust away,
Or maybe the shock just makes you forget your head hurts anyway.