[INTRO — trap hi-hats and 808 only, drone organ enters bar 4, no vocals] [VERSE 1 — Meadowlands] The turnpike runs through what the city threw away We laid the drainage pipe, we mapped the settling clay We know the fill sites by the way the cattails grow We know the bloom schedule three seasons out or so The marshland takes the weight that concrete couldn't hold We do the paperwork before the ground gets cold The smell at mile marker thirteen's just the land Doing what the land does — nothing more was planned [PRE-CHORUS] You drove past here your whole life Never asked what fed the green The prettiest exits on the turnpike Always backed up to something you haven't seen [CHORUS — distorted guitar up, trap hi-hats forward] We're the Garden State We know why the flowers bloom where they do We tend what gets left here That's what gardeners do You threw it over the fence at the county line We put it in the ground, we watched it take the vine We're the Garden State We know why the flowers bloom where they do [VERSE 2 — Pine Barrens, steel guitar enters, tempo feels slower] The bogs don't take — they keep That's a different thing Iron water turns the cedar red Preserves most everything We pulled a boot from '43 Leather still held the lace We noted it and reset the markers Didn't file with the state We been here since before the county Before the county name The pines grew back over everything The pines always do the same [PRE-CHORUS — vocals quieter, more patient] You think the barrens means there's nothing here You think the silence means it's clear The silence means we finished And we're waiting for next year [CHORUS] We're the Garden State We know why the flowers bloom where they do We tend what gets left here That's what gardeners do You threw it over the fence at the county line We put it in the ground, we watched it take the vine We're the Garden State We know why the flowers bloom where they do [BRIDGE — 808 and drone only, hand clap drops out, vocals near-spoken, flat] Two kinds of keeping in this state The marsh keeps shallow The bog keeps deep The turnpike workers and the Pineys Never needed to meet But ask us both what's in the ground We'll give you the same answer We're just tending the garden, friend That's all we've ever been after [CHORUS — heaviest version, full band, trap hi-hats dominant] We're the Garden State We know why the flowers bloom where they do We tend what gets left here That's what gardeners do You threw it over the fence at the county line We put it in the ground, we watched it take the vine We're the Garden State We know why the flowers bloom where they do [OUTRO — drone organ and 808 only, hi-hats fade bar by bar, steel guitar single notes over silence] [spoken, flat, no reverb] Exit 13. Mind the drainage schedule. Everything here is seasonal.
