From the recording Songs of Rabble and Roots
After a night of drinks and dirty jokes at dinner with the band, I lay in bed laughing to myself about some of the night's humor. With those themes in my head, I remembered being a kid in the dentist chair as he struggled to work around my inquisitive tongue. Being the ever-patient man that he was, he quietly commented, "It's such a curious thing!" Thus came the idea for the song, and the rest was free association: An ode to the tongue. ~ Mark
Lyrics
When I was a young boy sittin’ in the dentist chair
And he had that mirror lookin’ here and up there
My tongue kept pokin’, wouldn’t let it be
‘Such a curious thing!” That’s what he said to me
When I’m kissing my woman, and it gets a bit hot
He comes slippin’ up forward to see what she’s got
Hidden in those sweet cheeks, Parlez vous Francais?
Red Rover is about to come over are you ready to play?
It’s a curious thing . . .the doctor said
It’s a curious thing . . .rattlin’ round in my head
It’s a curious thing . . .so please say it’s true
That I can have the time to learn all there is about you
Well I think old Sigmund might tell it like this
It’s an oral fixation from the nursing I missed
I gave Freud the slip. He was so passe’
I think a tongue’s got a mind of it’s own, and that’s all you can say
Got a little bit of popcorn stuck up in my tooth
He went pushin’ and pryin’ trying to get the thing looth
Got red and raw, but he got the job done
He’s a hard-working, non-stopping curious son-of-a-gun
It’s a curious thing . . .the doctor said
It’s a curious thing . . .rattlin’ round in my head
It’s a curious thing . . .so please say it’s true
That I can have the time to learn all there is about you
Well I wouldn’t be singin’ without my partner in crime
Cause he gimme that diction, enunciation and rhyme
And he got ‘im some taste buds, salty, sour and sweet
So whatever I put in my mouth is a pleasure to eat
Now I once knew a lady, had a strange thing to say
“If a gal had a pickle she could throw her man away”
I said “Wait a minute woman! What’s the matter with you?
A pickle don’t have a tongue, and darlin’, I do!"
It’s a curious thing . . .the doctor said
It’s a curious thing . . .rattlin’ round in my head
It’s a curious thing . . .so please say it’s true
That I can have the time to learn all there is about you
It’s a curious thing . . .so please say it’s true
That I can have the time to learn all….
All there is about you