Missing Pieces

Track Notes:

We made Bill learn to play the harmonica for this song. Not just for this recording, oh no. We were literally going to go on to play in front of a few hundred people at The Cell Block (which has now been closed a very, very long time) and Mike gave bill a harmonica. “Here you go, this is for Missing Pieces.”

This song was never included on the “official” release of PigDog Farm, as it is incomplete. Recorded during a really brutal December winter, Mike had a 103 degree fever and Bill was getting hoarse while fighting off a cold. As a result, the last verse was WAY out of tune, and we tried to cover Mike’s illness by putting a chorus effect on his backing vocals. That didn’t work, but his backing tracks still appear on the final recording. The last line of the last verse, though, was erased and so there’s a big “blank spot” in this version of the song.

Lyrics:

Missing pieces of my shattered mind
Fallen away, they’ve been left behind.
A worldwide playpen, a sanitarium
And for breakfast, a bowl of lithium
A canvas jacket with long, white sleeves
They keep the cufflinks buckled
Tuck me away beneath the eaves

Find my missing pieces
Find my missing pieces
Find my missing pieces

Missing pieces of your fractured smile
You’re green-eyed poison, I’ll be dead in a while.
Well, you shook me up, then dropped me down
Left me all alone with this perpetual frown.
Wrecked my world, and depressed my soul
Your personality’s just a big black hole.

Find my missing pieces
Find my missing pieces
Find my missing pieces

(harmonica solo #1)

Missing pieces of my twisted soul
Well I don’t think that I can again be whole
Faulty prophets, can’t say I have no faith
Salvation is ephemeral, substantial as a wraith
God forgive me, for I know not what I do
The church, or freedom
A trust in god… or you.

Find my missing pieces
Find my missing pieces
Find my missing pieces

Missing pieces inside a wooden frame
The puzzle of my life, every piece looks the same
Struggling inside to get the next piece right
Well how am I supposed t’keep the big picture in sight?
I do my best, for me that’s plain to see
(Wish that everyone would please leave me be)

Find my missing pieces
Find my missing pieces
Find my missing pieces

(Second harmonica solo, break, third solo)