Loosely, the scene is- A Mardi Gras gone awry. Damn tourists!
Note: "Portmanteau" (pr. Port'-maen-too) is a word formed by combining two. ex., used in this song, smoke and fog = smog.
On the afternoon i wrote this my daughter came home from school and announced that she had a new favorite word and proceeded to explain to me the meaning of "portmanteau." The song already had been placed at mardi gras time and I took great joy cleaving the word in half to make a fictional, french-sounding port town. I mispronounce it in the song...why not, it's a made up place after-all?
lyrics
Port Manteau Blues
Shoe drop on a rabbit's foot
Paint your face with chimney soot
Dog tired, pound for pound
Merciful heavens we are hell hounds
Carnival krewes and flambeau
Great guns, buenos ammo
Paper mache' and masking tape
We're cardboard cut-outs of a couple of apes
Cross purposes and uppercuts
We've got the moon in a paper cup
Tearing the Starlight Ballroom down
The wrecking crew has come to town
The smog is lifting from Port Manteau
Meet me on Wednesday where the faithful go
Saint Louie will be bustin' at the seams
Good God Almighty we're a hell of a team
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