After years playing violin as a session musician with the likes of John Mellencamp, Indigo Girls and Bob Dylan, Germano embarked on a solo career in 1991 with the understated but occasionally brilliant On The Way Down From The Moon Palace on her own label, which led to a deal with Capitol, who released her second album. Although Happiness was a massive step up in terms of confidence and songwriting, troubles at the label led to her buying back the rights. In 1994 4AD released a re-sequenced and remixed version of Happiness with a new sleeve and a few different tracks (including a gloomy version of the formerly scintillating ‘... Dresses’).
She turned out to be not just a great musician (she plays most of the instruments: piano, guitar, percussion and tape effects, as well as her trademark violin) and a wittily melancholy if kooky songwriter (‘I Love A Snot’, indeed), but a phenomenal arranger whose innovation and breadth of expression is comparable to PJ Harvey at her tape-mangling best.
As her style developed, so the music’s potential commercial appeal increased without compromising its uniqueness. Bright kaleidoscopes during an otherwise dark time in 4AD’s history, the following three albums, Geek The Girl, Excerpts From A Love Circus and Slide all won critical acclaim, but sadly failed to reach the wide audience they deserved; Germano was dropped in 1998, and announced her retirement from the music business.
(In 1997, she also released a collaboration with Giant Sand and future members of Calexico under the name OP8 Featuring The Ilk Of Lisa Germano).
Retirement didn’t suit her, and she was soon out on tour again, sessioning for David Bowie and Neil Finn, before, in 2003, releasing the self-funded Lullaby For Liquid Pig on ArtistDIRECT imprint Ineffable. A return to the woozy, after-the-carnival soundworld of ...Love Circus, the album was made with help from collaborators Finn, Johnny Marr and Wendy Melvoin.
Label-less again after Ineffable dissolved, Swans mainstay and longtime Germano fan Michael Gira snapped her up for his Young God label, which in 2007 released In The Maybe World, a stripped-down but ultimately hopeful reflection on mortality inspired by the death of, well, a cat, but also the imagined death of her Father. Young God subsequently reissued Liquid Pig with an extra CD of live recordings and demos, whose between-song banter highlighted Germano’s unique and cat-slanted take on life and death.
In September 2009 the album Magic Neighbor was released, again on Young God Records.
She also works with Maynard James Keenan's Puscifer
Official site: www.lisagermano.com
... A Psychopath
Lisa Germano Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I'll wait around and wait around, and wait
I hear a noise, I hear a noise,
Well I hear something
I am alone, you win again,
I'm paralyzed
I drift away, I'll drift away,
I hear a scream, I see me scream,
Is it from memory
Am I awake, am I alone,
When it is sunrise
A baseball bat, a thing of mace
That thing of mace, the thing of mace,
Where did I leave it
A psychopath, a psychopath,
He says he loves me
And I'm alone, and I am cold
And paralyzed,
I can't move
Based on these lyrics, Lisa Germano's "A Psychopath" tells the story of a woman who is living in fear of a potential psychopath. The woman keeps a baseball bat and mace beside her bed, waiting for the psychopath to come for her. She hears noises and sees things, but is unsure if they are real or just in her memory. She is constantly living in a state of fear, even when the sun rises.
The lyrics convey a sense of helplessness and isolation often associated with victims of abusive relationships or stalking. The woman is paralyzed by her fear, unable to move or defend herself. Despite her efforts to protect herself by arming herself with weapons, she still feels vulnerable and alone.
The use of repetition in the lyrics emphasizes the woman's constant state of vigilance and the potential danger she feels she is in. The haunting melody and sparse instrumentation further add to the unsettling atmosphere of the song.
Line by Line Meaning
A baseball bat, a baseball bat beside my bed
There is a baseball bat next to my bed which could be used for protection
I'll wait around and wait around, and wait
I am waiting and being patient
I hear a noise, I hear a noise,
I can hear some kind of sound that could possibly be a threat
Well I hear something
I am definitely hearing something but I am unsure what it is
I am alone, you win again,
I am lonely and defeated by this situation
I'm paralyzed
I am frozen in fear and cannot move
I drift away, I'll drift away,
I am becoming detached and disassociated from reality
Am I asleep yet
I am not sure if I am actually asleep or still awake
I hear a scream, I see me scream,
I remember hearing a scream and possibly being the one to scream
Is it from memory
I am questioning if the scream was from a past event
Am I awake, am I alone,
I am unsure if I am awake and if I am the only one present
When it is sunrise
I am waiting for daylight to come and hoping to be safe until then
A baseball bat, a thing of mace
I also have mace as a form of protection
That thing of mace, the thing of mace,
Trying to remember where I left the mace
Where did I leave it
Trying to recall the location of the mace
A psychopath, a psychopath,
I am dealing with a dangerous and unstable individual
He says he loves me
This person claims to care for me despite their violent behavior
And I'm alone, and I am cold
I feel isolated and vulnerable
And paralyzed,
I am still frozen and unable to move
I can't move
I am physically incapable of taking action in this situation
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: LISA GERMANO
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Jhonny
Un bate de béisbol, un bate de béisbol junto a la cama
Voy a esperar y esperar alrededor, y esperar
escucho un ruido, escucho un ruido, así que escucho algo
estoy solo , usted gana de nuevo, estoy
paralizado voy a la deriva de distancia, voy a la deriva de distancia, estoy dormido con todo
escucho un grito, que veo a mi grito, es de la memoria
Am me despierto, soy yo solo, cuando es que la salida del sol
un bate de béisbol, una cosa de la maza
Esa cosa de la maza, la cosa de la maza, ¿de dónde lo dejo
un psicópata, una psicópata, él dice que me ama
y yo estoy solo, y yo soy frío y paralizado, no me puedo mover
ihayamysin
Okay so according to some of the researches I did, in an interview of Lisa Germano, we can learn that the 911 call heard in the back is an extract Lisa first heard in a rape documentary. She then had the permission of a sexual violence help center to use this call in her art. About the woman: she hasn't been taken seriously by the cops, so when she called, they didn't arrive at time, and she was raped and killed. It's a public domain tape used in many rape documentaries, and the woman's name was Karen. I'm totally chocked to admit that this phone call is the trace of her life's last moments..It's so sad to know that this woman was so scared and that nobody came to help her and at least try to save her. She totally died because of being ignored, even though she was already saying she had a stalker. It's heartbreaking..
ᴥ
Fake backstory for the audio
ihayamysin
@ᴥ okay thanks for letting us know, what is the good one?
ᴥ
@ihayamysin You can find the audio easily. They took her seriously, you can here the dispatcher relaying information to others. This call has been around for years and has hundreds of backstories, from it being from the 80s to the 2000s, from burglary to a serial killer to it being fake and used for dispatch training. Don't believe everything you read online.
max k
@ᴥ proof? I believe your story is correct though
Jessica Oudbier
The trauma was a decade ago, but I still feel this way. I've moved away, moved on, but I still wake up screaming. This song captures this feeling so well.
TombSnake
I hope it´s better nowadays.
fun-videos
The hopelessness of the singer's voice and the lyrics bring me to tears. I can definitely relate with this song since I am depressed and hopeless on a daily basis.
Monk Onyx
its going to be okay buddy
Dan Mac
truly chilling and terrifying... when the woman screams "Why are you here?!?!!? WHY??!" - wow...goosebumps. Does anyone know what happened to this poor woman? Does anyone know who she is/was? this is heart-breaking to listen to..."this baseball bat...this thing of mace..." - horrifying.