The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #85108   Message #3289374
Posted By: Jim Dixon
12-Jan-12 - 12:56 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Now I'm Good
Subject: Lyr Add: I'M REALLY FINE / NOW I'M GOOD
The description of "Devolver" at Allmusic.com has nothing called I'M GOOD, but it shows the last 2 tracks, tracks 12 and 13, as "[Untitled Track]". Track 12 is 59 seconds; track 13 is 5:10.

The album is also available on Spotify, but the track list differs: Track 12 is called UNTITLED and track 13 is I'M REALLY FINE.

The track list at The Waybacks' web site has no track 13, but track 12 is called NOW I'M GOOD.

None of these track lists credits a songwriter. Kat, how did you connect this song to Roy Zimmerman (if you can remember after all these years)? I can find no such connection.


I'M REALLY FINE a.k.a. NOW I'M GOOD a.k.a. [Untitled]
As sung by The Waybacks on "Devolver" (2004)

When I was seventeen and just a little bit bewildered,
Feelin' cheated and hung over in the wake of adolescence,
My recruiter took my number and he graded my exam.
He said, "You'd be a perfect soldier, 'cept you've got no depth perception."
Said, "I want to serve my country and I got so much potential."
He said, "What you lack in weight you more than make up for in density."
You see, I'd always suffered from a lack of self-esteem,
So if my country doesn't want me, then I'll serve the Catholic Church,
So I enrolled in seminary where I memorized the gospel,
But they caught me reading On the Road and threw me on my ass.
There were a bunch of other factors which I won't enumerate.
So then I'm sittin' in my parents' Norman-Rockwell living room,
And bein' still so as to hear my ego crashing in my ears,
When the voice reason says, "Son, have you thought about the future?"
And I get real sick, but now I'm fine. (He's fine; he's really fine.)
I'm really fine. (He's fine; he's really fine.)

By twenty-three I'd gained a sort of enigmatic drive,
And having no success with suicide, I thought I'd turn to art,
So I acquired a set of brushes and I went without a bath,
Which presumably implied I had a new set of beliefs,
But I'd underestimated the important role of talent,
Which was easily apparent from the record of my sales,
And in the meantime I'd severely strained a muscle in my thigh,
Attempting to sustain the lotus on a neighbor's kitchen table.
In the hospital I thought of doing something for the world,
But the Peace Corps didn't answer, so I joined a cooking school,
Having always held and cherished an affinity for food,
But my self-respect deflated with an undercooked soufflé,
And I was back to busing tables at that Denny's in Salinas,
Where I sort of snapped, but now I'm well. (He's well; he's really well.)
I'm really well. (He's well; he's really well.)
Yeah, it's a long story how I got to say: "Now I'm well."

My mother always told me to be more like my dad.
I asked her, "More like which one of the five that I'd had?"
She said, "A change is comin'; don't go feelin' so used."
I said, "My only problem is I'm chronically confused."

On my twenty-seventh birthday, which occurred about that age,
I was talking to the analyst who found me selling incense
At an airport after having left the clinic 'bout a crisis
And some silly Venice metaphor for sinking in the soul,
When my thought was interrupted by a birthmark on my arm,
Which looked a little like Nebraska, I'd forgotten since those two weeks
Of pre-med in junior college, which I'd quit to study judo,
And I look at the meat an' marrow someone stuck together,
All the veins and vital organs, all that gray and white, all humming
And collaborating and ticking and recycling,
And making that Nebraska on my arm a possibility,
And I got up from the couch and I shouted: "HEY, I OWN THIS THING!"

And my analyst suspected I was closing on the edge,
And I convinced him when I said I wouldn't send him any money.
He said, "Don't go getting cocky 'cause you had one revelation,
'Cause the only tool you've got against psychosis is experience,
And yours has all been bad."
I said, "You're darn right, but now I'm good." (He's good; he's really good.)
I'm really good. (He's good; he's really good.)
Yes, now I'm good. (He's good; he's really good.)
I'm so darn good. (He's good; he's so darn good.)
It took a long time for me to wake up and seeeeeeeeeeeeee—
I'm good.