RTFM
From Model Man
RTFM
The joke is right there in the title, and after three tracks of assembly and inheritance it feels inevitable: a manual with page one printed in big letters, “Figure out what works for you,” and “four hundred blank pages” bound properly behind it. Rose runs the deadpan through every room that ever handed him back an empty page, altar call, therapist, ten days silent, then the Greek over the temple door, “Know Yourself,” and “the page behind it is still blank.” At a brisk clip in a minor key the Canterbury machinery does exactly what this kind of song needs, angular guitar-and-bass unison and clipped organ jabs keeping the nervous groove taut while the baritone stays flat and methodical until the breakdown cracks it open on “Where’s the fucking manual.” The outro hollows out to “Page two. Pen.” and nothing else. This holds the room, and it closes off the record’s first movement with a clenched fist.
Lyrics
There is a manual I want to be clear about that There is one I found it Page one Big letters Nothing else on the page Figure out what works for you
Page two is blank So is three So is four So is every page after that I checked the back Under the jacket Held it to the window Somebody printed four hundred blank pages and bound them properly Somebody paid for that
Reed the manual I red the manual Cover to cover Twice Out loud Figure out what works for you
Went forward at an altar call and meant every word Six good weeks Then pray on it, son See what the Lord puts on your heart Two years with a therapist— and she was good I want that on the REK-ord— and at the end she asked what I thought would work for me Ten days silent Did it properly Didn't cheat once Last day go find your own practice
Reed the manual I red the manual Cover to cover Twice Out loud Figure out what works for you
So I went further back Greek Encyclopedia A line a night Over the door before the door was old
NOH-thee say-OW-tahn Know Yourself Two and a half thousand years and the front of the building still says the same thing The page behind it is still blank
Somebody did this Somebody worked it out and stopped That's all I want One person who's finished I have sat in every room and every room turns round at the end and hands it back One sentence Four hundred empty pages Where's the fucking manual Nobody filled it in Nobody ever filled it in
Everywhere they said to go I went Page two Pen Figure out what works for you