The Roches
Before You Sing
[Verse 1]
Before you sing
Before you strum your silken strings
Uncloud your mind
Take yourself out of time
Remember me as a child
Unviolated and wild
Laid out upon your bed
The wine but not the bread
Your thirst among my fears
Your verse for only my ears

[Chorus]
But you had magic, you had might
You had everything in sight
And everything I gave to you
And still you do not know me

[Verse 2]
Before you sing
Before you strum your silver strings
Put down your cup
That drowns the sounds of us
One hallowed night defiled
I conceived your child
The life that you disowned
The wife you tried to own
At the crossroads of will
The child you had me kill
[Chorus]
But you had causes, you had hope
You always had enough rope
And as your mother I gave birth to you
And still you do not know me

[Verse 3]
Before you sing
Before you strum your muted strings
Put down your cross
Consider what it has cost
My mask, it mirrors yours
The task you must endure
Laid out upon your bed
To cup your weary head
But the mirror is unseen
And your life is obscene

[Chorus]
You have poisoned well the songs you sell
You've created hell upon earth
And the gleemen laugh with their ghoulish glee
And still you do not know me