Lyrics Distortion - Vic Chesnutt

Everybody lies
What's the big deal?
It's impossible to know what is and isn't sealed
Faith is the lies we tell and tell ourselves
Life is the lies we tell everybody else
History is a daisy chain of lies
Humans love distortion
Public record is a poetic device
Blown way out of all proportion

I look at the color red, and say 'red'
Everyone else looks at the color and says 'reddish'
We all say I don't believe it 'til I see it
But so much happens between light hitting the eye
And the assimilation of that data into consciousness
Simple beam bending
Or obscuring lens anomalies
Or electrical distortion along the optic nerve

But more mysterious are the magnetic osmotics
Sloshing around inside
The hifalutin grey filter switchboard that is brain
Miles of rough road
Vital baggage is tousled or tossed off the truck
Everyone sees it in a certain way
Everyone knows it as only they can know it
And everyone has things that only they can see
Understanding breaks down
Gulfs in agreement develop
Concrete terms crumble
We all define the stuffs and stages of our worlds
With terse tags and populist generalities
We all know a rose is sometimes a rose
But what fucking color is it? What fucking color is it?

Everybody fibs
Myths are entertained
Faith is the lies we tell and tell ourselves
Life is the lies we tell everybody else
Common knowledge is a daisy chain of lies
Humans love distortion
Civilization is costume revelry
Culture by coercion
Everybody lies