[Intro: bonfire crackle, one floor tom] Strike the match Watch me [Hook: gravel male lead, dark choir stabs on every line] Every year you stuff me, string me up and strike a match Every year you dance around me while the burlap starts to catch Every year you sing it and the whole town sings along This year I come down. Y'all better learn a different song [Verse 1: low growl, floor toms] Thirty-one Octobers on a cross of two-by-fours Button eyes and a feed-sack face, nailed up before the chores Stuffed me with the summer, every stalk they couldn't sell Stitched a grin across the burlap like the harvest went well Mayor gives a sermon 'bout the luck and the rain Deacon pours the diesel like he's pourin' champagne Crows were my congregation from the first of June Pickin' at my shoulders while I preached to the moon I heard every secret that you whispered at the post Who borrowed from the banker, who he buried, who he owes [Flow switch: triple-time] Every lantern, every candle, every scandal in the stubble, every shovel in the trouble by the creek Every whisper, every blister, every sister's missin' mister in the mist, I was the witness every week Thought I was a costume with a hat and a stick Thirty-one Octobers, I been countin' every lick [Hook: gravel male lead, dark choir stabs on every line] Every year you stuff me, string me up and strike a match Every year you dance around me while the burlap starts to catch Every year you sing it and the whole town sings along This year I come down. Y'all better learn a different song [Verse 2: wind rises, brass enters] This year the wind came early and it whistled through my seams Chewed the twine off my wrists like it was tired of my screams First match hit the kindling and the children started chantin' Put one boot in the dirt and the whole damn field was standin' Corn rose up behind me like an army in the dark Every stalk a rattle, every husk a little spark Mayor dropped the microphone, the deacon dropped the can Banker hit the rows runnin', but the rows got a plan Take your babies to the trucks, I ain't here for the kids I'm here for the grown ones and the shit that they did [Beat Switch: floor toms double, brass blares, townsfolk chant, choir roars] (Burn him! Burn him!) Try it (Burn him! Burn him!) Light it (Burn him! Burn him!) I'm right here smilin' (Come down! Come down!) Whole town hidin' [Verse 3: triple-time into barked half-bars] Straw on the pavement and they leavin' in a hurry, I'm walkin' with the wind at my back and your match in my fist Mayor's in the chapel and the deacon's in the truck and the banker's in the corn, and the corn don't miss I don't need a heartbeat, I don't need a name I been stuffed with every secret, so I know who to blame Thirty-one Octobers y'all been singin' my song Now the hills sing it back, and they're singin' it wrong [Final Hook: full choir, brass, town chant] Every year you stuffed me, strung me up and struck a match Every year you danced around me while the burlap tried to catch Every year you sang it and the whole town sang along This year I came down. Now y'all learn a different song [Outro: fire roar, choir cuts, one voice] Next October? Stuff yourselves
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