Alias McDaniel: a song by Thomas Anderson

Alias McDaniel said to the duchess

You're just broken hearted don't lean on your crutches

Saint Jerome on maracas has the whole world shaking

In the new dispensation the morning is breaking

Through the sweet piney woods we're riding the Katy

I sing the benediction to all my countrymen

Asleep in the cries and the songs of the Theremin

The duchess and the porter they both ask the brakeman

And point out the window where the fog is lifting

The seismograph trembles above the earth shifting

A cigar-box guitar for a band of young children

Of tarpaper shacks and buck-and-wing dancing

They sing of a love past all understanding

As the skyline appears as tall as the mountains

Alias McDaniel says it's yours for the taking

In the new dispensation the morning is breaking

For you and for me and for the passengers waking

On tracks laid down by those who came before us

To shine in the sunlight and sing through the forest

Turn the radio loud when we get to the chorus

I can show you the chords and teach you the rhythm

I'll take you there, I sing to my countrymen

Call it a dream or call it delirium

Alias McDaniel, his hand on the throttle

Half Jesse James and half Aristotle

With a Calvin Klein jacket and a song by Madonna

Each skyline window in the music is shaking

In the new dispensation the morning is breaking

Tell Rosetta, tell McKinley, and all at the station

Open your eyes to the continents drifting

The seismograph trembles above the earth shifting

Alias McDaniel in the tremolo drifting

Six strings of bronze the key to survival

We'll sing on the platform at the future's arrival

Alias McDaniel said to the duchess

You're just broken hearted get rid of those crutches

Saint Jerome on maracas has the whole world shaking

In the new dispensation the morning is breaking

Alias McDaniel