His two big sisters told him Lisa was trouble.
His mom told him Lisa was trouble.
His little sister told him the same thing.
One night his dad called from Miami to tell him his mom told him to call and tell him Lisa was trouble.
He knew Lisa was trouble.
It wasn’t like it wasn’t obvious.
It was just that he was, any way you look at it, helpless.
It was like his life started when he met Lisa. He’d just been waiting around to live. Getting by. Keeping people off his back. But Lisa made him want to please her so bad. It was a compulsion. For a year and a half everything he did was, in one way or another, an attempt to make Lisa happy.
And it wasn’t like he hadn’t known from the very first day that that was probably impossible. It was almost as if it was the very impossibility of pleasing her that made him crave it all the more.
And yet he also knew that she wanted to be happy. He could feel it.
And, finally, he knew that she didn’t know how impossible her own happiness was. And that made the compulsion to go to any length to please her all the more irresistable.
Today’s acoustic version
Full version (1996), from The Barista Cycle
Losing Lisa
Lately it looks like I’ll be losing Lisa
Danged if there’s a thing I can do to keep her
It scares me what I used to do to please her
‘Cause now I know there’s just no pleasing Lisa
Now I know — there’s no pleasing Lisa
Now I know — there’s no pleasing Lisa
Gave all my records and my stereo to Lisa
gave up my band and dropped out of school — all for Lisa
Tattoed her name in a secret place — it said “Property of Lisa”
What a waste of time ’cause nothing ever pleases Lisa
Now I know — there’s no pleasing Lisa
Now I know — there’s no pleasing Lisa
Got a second job just to buy nice things for Lisa
Laptop, cell phone, wetbar in her car — all for Lisa
But she’s not impressed, she’s not happy yet — that’s just Lisa
‘Cause nothing in the world will ever please that girl — that’s our Lisa
Now I know — there’s no pleasing Lisa
Now I know — there’s no pleasing Lisa
(C)1996, TK Major
