Desert Island Questionnaire - Conor Oberst

Say that you were stranded on a desert island

What books you gonna bring what friends would tag along

Say you had a month and you knew you were dying

How would you spend your time

What goodbyes would take too long

You don’t like this game and you take exception

Who wants all this trouble even hypothetical

With the charging sky above

And the ground below that could swallow everyone

Staring at your phone at another party

Spend a lot on clothes got a lot of skin to show

People in the pool like the drowning army

Smoke along the moats and the hotel lobby glows

Wish that you can dance but you’ve got no partner

Keep tapping on your glass because you want to make a toast

To the ennui of our times

To the selfishness in everyone you know

Made a lot of friends but they can’t be trusted

Don’t know what their angle is Post up at the bar and I’m double fisted

Talking to a mannequin

I don’t know what it means when he takes my pulse

And says that I’m a lot like him

I say that’s fair enough that’s why I’m trying to loosen up Every lunatic must be well intentioned

Sets himself apart he’s an instrument of god

Took her from the playground to the farmhouse cellar

Kissed her while he killed her like a good Samaritan

They finally found her body many Autumns after

Interviewed her mother who said she’d now be 21

And although we lost her young

I know the good lord has a plan for all of us Mormons at the door they are clean and handsome

Always have a good sales pitch

Your little sisters swears that she can take my order

But I can’t take her serious

Need something to bring

For this human nature is not what this condition is

I’m so bored with my life but I’m still afraid to die

Everyone’s asleep in this burning building

And I can’t wake them up in time

You go on ahead I’ll be right behind you

I’m headed to the finish line

I can’t ignore the sun until this is over

Pretend that you were stranded on a desert island

What would be the message that you’d spell out for the plane

Say the engine failed when that plane was flying

If you were the pilot would you curse or would you pray

No one’s gonna cry at this John Doe funeral

Not a lot to say did it even have a name

Light a candle just in case he was someone’s friend

Throw some flowers on the grave