Esther Lyrics

The song Esther is performed by Phish in the album named At the Roxy in the year 2008 .



It was late one fall night at a fairground near town
When Esther first saw the Armenian man
Who groveled toward her and stood by her side
With a bucket that swung in his hand

His grin stretched the folds of his pasty white cheeks
And his lips hurled a dollop of murk on the curb
And the lights from the rides showed a mischievous sparkle
That flashed in his hollow eyed stare

He said "Little girl, you can chop off my legs
And then peel off my socks if you want to.
But I'd rather you took this old puppet from me
That I hold in my pail as we speak."

And he stood looking down at the innocent girl
And she stared at the bucket bewildered
Til he lifted the doll for the young girl to see
And a giant smile grew on his face
She saw the doll's eyes and she couldn't resist
And she thanked the man quickly and ran to the church
And she burst through the door with puppet held high
And a hush filled the chapel, and the people looked mean

Esther tried in vain to pacify the mob
Quibble grew to spat, to wrangle, then to brawl
The frenzied congregation struggled desperately to fetch
The pretty puppet snugly nestled deep in Esther's leather sack
Through the window of the church a storm began to rage
And Esther knew the time had come to flee

She scurried down the aisle toward the doorway in the distance
And out into the rainstorm where she felt she would be free
But the wind was blowing harder
And her skirt began to billow
Until finally her feet began to lift

And she rose above the people and the houses
and the chimneys
And Esther and the doll were set adrift
Floating higher over the hills, and the valleys and treetops
they'd flutter and glide
Soaring and turning suspended on air
With the earth far below them they'd tumble
And dive through the clouds

And she began to plummet earthward till she
Landed in the nasty part of town

She glanced about the village sure to find the evil men
Who rob and pillage in the darkest hour of night
Nervously she fumbled for the pouch that held the
Puppet on her rump.

Feeling quite outnumbered Esther hid behind
A nearby pile of lumber, where she waited
Till the dawn
Cause it would have been a blunder to
Succumb to a hoodlum on the prowl

When the morning came, she wandered through the streets
Along the chilly lake that lay beside the town
At last a peaceful moment, but she thought she heard a sound
It was an angry mob of joggers coming up to knock her down

As Esther stood and shook her head
The joggers were approaching
And she knew she had no choice left but to swim
As the frosty water sank its bitter teeth into her hide
She tried to slide the heavy clothing from her skin

Naked now she made her way toward the shore
When suddenly she felt a tiny tugging at her toe.
And the puppet she'd forgotten wrapped its tiny
Little arms around her ankle and wouldn't let her go.

The waves seemed to open and swallow her whole
As the doll pulled her down through the eerie green deep
And the sound of the laughing old man filled her ears
As she drifted away to a tranquil
And motionless sleep



Phish - At the Roxy

Nov 2008

  1. Loving Cup
  2. Rift
  3. Split Open and Melt
  4. Fee
  5. Maze
  6. Colonel Forbin's Ascent
  7. Fly Famous Mockingbird
  8. Sparkle
  9. My Friend, My Friend
  10. Poor Heart
  11. David Bowie/Moby Dick
  12. Runaway Jim
  13. It's Ice
  14. Paul and Silas
  15. You Enjoy Myself
  16. Ya Mar
  17. Big Ball Jam
  18. Lawn Boy
  19. Funky Bitch
  20. My Sweet One
  21. Hold Your Head Up/Love You/Hold Your Head Up
  22. Llama
  23. Amazing Grace
  24. AC/DC Bag
  25. Golgi Apparatus
  26. Foam
  27. The Sloth
  28. Possum
  29. Weigh
  30. All Things Reconsidered
  31. The Divided Sky
  32. The Horse
  33. Silent In The Morning
  34. Fluffhead
  35. Cavern
  36. Wilson
  37. Reba
  38. Tweezer
  39. Walk Away
  40. Tweezer
  41. Glide
  42. Mike's Song
  43. My Mind's Got A Mind Of Its Own
  44. Mike's Song
  45. I Am Hydrogen
  46. Vibration Of Life
  47. Kung
  48. I Am Hydrogen
  49. Weekapaug Groove
  50. Have Mercy
  51. Weekapaug Groove
  52. Rock And Roll All Nite
  53. Weekapaug Groove
  54. Fast Enough For You
  55. Big Ball Jam
  56. Hold Your Head Up/Terrapin/Hold Your Head Up
  57. Harry Hood
  58. Tweezer Reprise
  59. Sleeping Monkey
  60. Suzy Greenberg
  61. Buried Alive
  62. Punch You In The Eye
  63. Uncle Pen
  64. Horn
  65. Chalk Dust Torture
  66. Esther
  67. Dinner And A Movie
  68. Bouncing Around The Room
  69. Run Like An Antelope
  70. Axilla
  71. The Curtain
  72. Stash
  73. Manteca
  74. Stash
  75. The Lizards
  76. Bathtub Gin
  77. Hold Your Head Up/Cracklin' Rosie/Hold Your Head Up/Tuning
  78. The Squirming Coil
  79. Big Black Furry Creature From Mars
  80. Sweet Adeline
  81. Good Times, Bad Times
  82. Paul and Silas
  83. Pig In A Pen

Esther