Odious Odense - Stephin Merritt

Odious Odense, city of my birth

Happy that day when ya vanish from the Earth!

Me for Copenhagen, me for Greece and Rome!

Every day’s an adventure when you’re not home

And, in a thousand years from today

Americans will come to play

In giant flying metal birds

To view our beauteous antiques

And hear some fearsome German words

And tour all Europe in two weeks

A marble marvel ev’ry hour

A stunning country ev’ry day

They’ll lope up Copenhagen’s tower

But they will never pay for-

Odious Odense, city of my birth

Happy that day when ya vanish from the Earth!

Me for Copenhagen, me for Greece and Rome!

Every day’s an adventure when you’re not home

And as a new spring dawns, hail to thee

The muse of our new century!

She wears a Garibaldi hat

Yet cares for Aristophanes

Part artist, part aristocrat

And lover of cacophonies

She telegraphs her laughter from

Her rococo locomotive

Well might some write that she is dumb

But she would never live in-

Odious Odense, city of my birth

Happy that day when ya vanish from the Earth!

Me for Copenhagen, me for Greece and Rome!

Every day’s an adventure when you’re not home