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Tin Can Telephone

from FOUNTAIN OF JOY by Paul Kotheimer

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Written as homework assignment #2 for Adrianne Lenker's songwriting workshop presented by SchoolofSong.org, January 2024.

lyrics

honey, lend me your pocket knife
—i wanna cut us a length of twine
and string it all the way
between your sweet heart and mine.

and i will get us a couple tin cans
from the shed or the bottom of the bin.
and we can make us a tin can telephone
that we can whisper all our secrets in.

yes, and if that length of twine
starts to weather and to fray,
please don’t take out your pocket knife
and cut your end away,


for on that tin can telephone
you once whispered “would you meet me in that tender place?”
—where we can talk at ease
of matters we might never mention face to face,
and somewhere on that line,
we found a way to give each other something folks call “grace,”
—or maybe just some space.

so honey, take three steps toward me
and I’ll take but two step back
and that’ll give our tin can telephone line
just a little bit of slack

honey, lend me your pocket knife
—i wanna cut us a length of twine
and string it all the way
between your sweet heart and mine.

credits

from FOUNTAIN OF JOY, released February 14, 2024
PK - guitar and vocal

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Paul Kotheimer Urbana, Illinois

For well over 30 years now, Paul Kotheimer has been writing songs. And then recording them. And then putting them together into albums.
At first, way way back in the actual 1980s, he used a cassette player and a microphone from Radio Shack. Now he's the proprietor of Pillow Monster Home Studio, complete with lots of musical instruments and recording gear and one actual pillow monster. YAY MUSIC! ... more

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