Father John Misty has shared a lullaby written for a skit on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show which he writes was “cut for time/content”.
The song features an array of nightmarish images about detached genitals and maggots coming out of sheets made of “lunchable meats”. Initially these include “a corridor lined with portraits of you” and “a spherical map which suddenly morphs into the face of your dad”.
The lullaby grows more and more oppressive both musically and lyrically, culminating in an absurdly repetitious passage: “they’re pointing at the pile of birds in the yard that you hid behind the shed in the corner of the yard, the dead birds you collected and hid in the yard that your neighbour set fire to in the corner of the yard, oh the smell of dead birds that are burning in the yard, the pile of dead birds that you worked on so hard.”
As the discordant music reaches a climax the tension suddenly dissipates, and Tillman sings, “Or maybe, sweet one, you won’t have nightmares tonight.” Listen below:
The track was written for, but not included in Tillman’s appearance on The Late Show earlier this month (January 14).
His performance was introduced simply as “a song from the album…”, as Colbert was unable to say the title of the track itself – ‘Holy Shit’.
Watch him perform the track on Colbert via YouTube, below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3eDqluZ-Cs