Prettier Than Death

She was born without much in the way of nothin' She was born without a whole hella lotta lovin' She was born in north Orleans Parrish in the eighties At a time and a place that could bottle up the babies Born among the floozies and the boozies and the crazies Where the crime of fate was to gobble up the ladies She feels happy in the springtime Always winds up in love in the fall She's prettier than death in the wintertime But in the summer she's most beautiful of all In summer she's most beautiful of all She grew up without never hearin' her own laughter She grew up without a much chance gettin' what she's after She grew up in the battles and the shadows of the gutters Where people lock the doors and draw the shades and Close the shutters She grew up in the furnace with the burners and the cutters The funked up and the punked up and the junked up and The others She feels happy in the springtime Always winds up in love in the fall She's prettier than death in the wintertime But in the summer she's most beautiful of all In summer she's most beautiful of all She found god in a postcard of the Sistine Chapel She found god in a garden with a half-eaten apple She found god in the hookers and the pushers and the gypsies Reflected as the can collector mints a pretty penny For the family down in shantytown along the Mississippi With the burned out and the churned out and the turned out from the city She feels happy in the springtime Always winds up in love in the fall She's prettier than death in the wintertime But in the summer she's most beautiful of all In summer she's most beautiful of all She packed everything and thought about hittin' the highway She packed everything but never made it past the doorway She packed up all the bruises and excuses and the fibbin' It's easy to believe that you belong where you are driven She could hardly say she's sorry for not askin' for forgivin' She doesn't need approval just to move on with her livin' She feels happy in the springtime Always winds up in love in the fall She's prettier than death in the wintertime But in the summer she's most beautiful of all In summer she's most beautiful of all She feels happy in the springtime Always winds up in love in the fall She's prettier than death in the wintertime But in the summer she's most beautiful of all In summer she's most beautiful of all She's prettier than death in the wintertime But in the summer she's most beautiful of all