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Side One/
Phone Dub 1
Get It Right(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Circus Doctor(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Side Two/
Political Films(McLaughlin,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Please Gimme Another Chance(McLaughlin,Shapiro)
Phone Dub 2
Side One/
Corporatized(Ewen,McLaughlin,Shapiro)
Spank That Honky To Death(Geduldig,McLaughlin)
Youth For Understanding Japan(McLaughlin,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Damballa(Greene,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Mr. Indestructible(McLaughlin,Shapiro)
Guesthouse(McLaughlin,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Side Two/
Roundem Up(McLaughlin,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Attila The Hun (The Pedestrian)(McLaughlin,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
He's Back(McLaughlin,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Overexposed (Nathanson)
Balkan Countries(McLaughlin,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Overtime(Greene,Skoller,B.Wheeler,T.Wheeler)
Money
Molten Blobs Of Cheddar(Geduldig,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Love & Ecstasy(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
A Life Without F Is A Lie(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Dambala(Greene,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
The Ballad Of Socrates(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
500 Guns(Huff,Shapiro)
The People(Geduldig,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Set It Free(Compost,T.Wheeler)
Nourishment(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Alchemystery(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
One Good Reason(Compost,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
The Spirit Of An Owl (Shapiro)
Epic Theater(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Son Of A Bitch's Brew (The Emancipation Of America)(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Empty-Headed Athenians(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Rubber Soul Train(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
(All original songs / BMI)
Garagezilla(Farzan,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Drunk(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Can't See Your Way(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
A Sunny Day(Shapiro)
Exit 56(Compost,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Helen/Faust(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Color(McLaughlin,Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Music Lesson Waltz(Compost,Shapiro)
Jurgen's Lotion(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Anthem 77(Shapiro,T.Wheeler)
Jump Down(Trad.,Ledbetter,T.Wheeler)
Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On)(Toussaint)
(All original songs / BMI)
On the violet verge of paradise
a shining snake from the lion flies
and finds refuge in the eagle's nest
and with her eggs is thrice thrice-blest
and with her eggs is thrice thrice-blest
And there their hearts the worm entwines
The fire of bliss shoots up their spines
and down the eagle, now a dove
descends ablaze in fluid love
descends ablaze in fluid love
The kiss of Nu, the point of Had
O Ra Hoor Khu, unveiling god
if it be pleasing to thine eye
let us that wine of joy imbibe
let us that wine of joy imbibe
sixty stories we're over our head, corporate nightmare we'd rather be dead
living only to suck up the dreams of us fools buying get rich quick schemes
we won't go willingly, we're not gonna be your commodity
we won't do what we're told, we're not afraid of all your gold
we will not be slaves, we won't dig the graves
laboratories all porcelain and steel practice tortures in order to heal
while the science of unseemly haste stains the earth with its nuclear waste
we won't go down that road, we're not gonna be a dissected toad
we won't do what your numbers say, we're not afraid of the games you play
we will not be slaves, we won't dig our graves
politicians push spiritual drugs, making allies of zealots and thugs
but their power can never destroy true direction or passionate joy
we won't go where you're leading, we're not gonna be your diurnal feeding
we won't do what you will, we're not afraid of your lust to kill
we will not be slaves, we won't dig your graves
you've made gods out of paper and ink, read your bible and don't stop to think
that religion's an unconscious fraud bowing down to an image of God
we won't go be sacrificed, we're not gonna be making virtue vice
we won't do what your church compels, we're not afraid of your endless hells
we will not be slaves, we won't dig the graves
Attila the Hun (The Pedestrian)
He wasn't very pretty
He wasn't very tall
He had a greasy little moustache
He had a thousand whores
REFRAIN:
He was Attila the Hun, Attila the Hun,
the son of a gun, Attila the Hun,
but where is he now?
He killed a lot of Romans
He should have killed 'em all
He slaughtered people by the thousands
He wanted all their gold
REFRAIN
He wasn't very gentle
He wasn't very kind
He took a deadly view of living
He rode a lot of horse
REFRAIN
In all the Balkan countries
the standard of living
is pitifully low
Bulgaria is almost
entirely agricultural,
and in Yugoslavia
there are no free passes
They had less production
then there was in all of Germany
during the last three years before the 2nd World War
To attain so rapidly
to predominance
is beyond the ability
of the Balkan farmers
They need a world market for their output
They want a world market for their output
In all the Balkan countries
they are learning how to fix
TVs, stereos, radios, car
(living for electronics),
and in all the Balkan countries
they are looking for a world market for their output,
and in several other countries
they are buying all the Balkan countries
This is a song about Socrates
A man who asked a lot of questions
He didn't care about the deities
or the politics of indiscretion
He just sat back and drank the poison
He had an interest in Philosophy
but all he brought to it were questions
Could he be the only one to see
that all the answers are reflections[just questions]?
The answer of the State was poison
Boys of Athens, gathered round his feet,
with whom he traded tricky questions
they didn't learn to hate the liberty
that so frightens politicians
They had to watch their friend drink poison
The moral of this story is:
Don't ask a lot of questions
It's too annoying to society
if you ask too many questions
Unless you dare to drink the poison
sometimes it gets so quiet I can't even hear
sometimes I get so lost you could find me anywhere
sometimes the rippling night is opening my heart and brain
and the ocean's pouring water into seas of pouring rain
it's not really night when darkness is light
it's not really day if you can't see your way
I know you can't imagine the things that I can't say
I'm sure I've got no reason for trying to explain
I thought that maybe I would pick up reasons on the way
instead I'm only mouthing slogans standing line for the right to pay
it's not really night when darkness is light
it's not really day if you can't see your way
heard about the big commotion down at 49th & Main?
seems somebody got the notion suicide is a form of praying
he pulled a pistol from his pocket - pop go pop - and one less brain
and now he's off to see the wizard crash the gate and board the train
it's not really night when darkness is light
it's not really day if you can't see your way
just before he pulled the trigger someone thought he heard him say
"I never seem to get no bigger though each day I eat my weight"
in the wake of each disaster widows orphans swelled with pain
the best may cope though never master either past or the present day
unless their love is o! so strong that even death is scared away
and even then it won't last long because this world is made that way
it's not really night when darkness is light
it's not really day if you can't see your way
lately it appears to me that I'm not really real
and even though it makes no sense it's exactly the way I feel
and all I can do is to write this song
I can't make do with what's totally wrong
I only know for however long
we'll always miss you we'll always miss you we'll always miss you
now it's time to change the station find the mouse cat ears
now it's time to ask the nation "can you face your mortal fears?"
now it's time to say goodbye to Jed and all his kin
because there's nothing left to buy to guarantee you'll win
and anyway it's not a game though everybody's playing
the difference is it's all the same to us as it is to them to us as it is to them
it's not really night when darkness is light
it's not really day if you can't see your way
Moldy hay is something we watch out for [2X]
We treat it immediately, break up in the early stages
We had a little trouble, too, passing through Texas
Down there we had to use prairie hay instead of timothy
Moldy hay is something we watch out for
This affects the brain [2x]
Whenever we pass through Texas
I usually try to arrange to leave the show for four or five days to visit my father's ranch
This is the only vacation that I can possibly take
Because as long as animals are around I have to be there to watch them
I'm a circus doctor [2x]
Moldy hay is something we watch out for [2X]
We had a little trouble, too, passing through Texas
Down there we had to use prairie hay instead of timothy
I'm a circus doctor
Down in winter quarters
I'm a circus doctor
When the animals aren't working too hard
We had a little touble, too, but we treat it immediately
We had to use prairie hay instead of timothy
I try to visit my father's ranch
I work very well on cases of botulism
I can tell you all about a horse's brain
An elephant's, too
I'm a circus doctor
I still have troubles
A horse with a phobia
every day I'm hearing things and hearing folks agree
to things that anyone who stops and thinks can see can't be
like talking of humanity in terms of black and white
when just one color photograph will show you it's not right
don't call it black when it's not a fact
don't call it white when it's just not right
there's far too many blinders being imposed by what we say
and far too little focus on what should be clear as day
that talking of humanity in terms of black and white
just contradicts reality that's hiding in plain sight
don't call it white cause it's just not right
don't call it black when it's not a fact
I been out in Africa and the funky part of town
and I never saw no black man there who wasn't really brown
and it was bloody English slavers of the sixteenth century
who were first to pin the label 'white' on folks who look like me
don't call it black cause it's not a fact
don't call it white cause it's just not right
salmon chocolate beige cream tan pink-orange mahogany
all colors in a rainbow that we call humanity
the red the brown the yellow can all make their grandkids proud
if they paint a picture where all colors are allowed
don't call it white when it's just not right
don't call it black when it's not a fact
each and every human is a rainbow on their own
the cheek the tongue the feet the bums all have their separate tones
so if you will consider what is true for you and me
it might well be a truth that's fit for all humanity
don't call it black cause it's not a fact
don't call it white cause it's just not right
to tell me it's a black thing which I couldn't understand
just postulates a white thing from which you are likewise banned
I far prefer this human thing wherein we may agree
that anything that I can dream is something I can be
don't call it white it's just not right
don't call it black when it's not a fact
A 1922 ad for Jello showed
a little girl sitting in her mother's lap,
her face filled with terror,
having just awoken from a bad dream
She bares her commodified soul,
REFRAIN:
"A nightmare, mother! I was dreaming Jimi stole my Jello
A 1922 ad from Paramount Studios
documented the breakdown of parental know-how,
and gives an insight into the ways in which
youth served as a cover for
the new authorities [2X]
REFRAIN
A 1929 ad for Quaker Oats
pictured young James Folan who
led his class and had good checkups, too
In a letter written by his mother comes a formula for such
success, our mornings are never too rushed
to give Jimmy his Quaker Oats
REFRAIN They're corporatized
Rat eyes, rat eyes, rat eyes, rat eyes
I was dreaming
Here come the loa [repeats]
REFRAIN:
Damballa, the good serpent of the sky [2X]
Of the world before these troubles began
He comes like a snake, and dives in the sea,
but then he rise, the source of all wisdom
REFRAIN
Aida the rainbow arches 'cross the sky
World inside a mirror, immortal reflections fly
A-a-a-aida, A-a-a-aida
REFRAIN
He comes like a snake, arched in the path that the sun travels across the sky
He is in love with the rainbow, and he can fly
He is the maker of these waters, of these heavens which he dominates,
and of the springs and of the rivers which his water nourishes
REFRAIN
Of the world after these troubles are gone
Back of the mirror [4X]
Dive in the water
out on the street ain't got no home
out on the street and you're all alone
just wanna get drunk just wanna get drunk just wanna get drunk
how do you feel if you had no next meal?
how could you do without a mulligan stew?
you'd wanna get drunk you'd wanna get drunk you'd wanna get drunk
Mama hated me she hated Daddy too
I hated Daddy he hated me what a crew!
now I'm all alone I ain't got a telephone ain't got a bedroll
just wanna get drunk just wanna get drunk just wanna get drunk
buddy got a dime? hey you got the time? have you got a match for my misery?
I'm out on the street and I'm feeling rather beat got nothing to eat but my memories
I wanna get drunk I wanna get drunk I wanna get drunk
I'm just a social scum I'm everybody's chum
some people call me bum neuro-chemically
but there's no voices in my brain I am absolutely sane
I am just a mortal stain on your glass house fantasies
I'm gonna get drunk I'm gonna get drunk I'm gonna get drunk
I'm out on the street inside your home yeah
I'm out on the street in the rain and the sun
you oughta get drunk you oughta get drunk you oughta get drunk
get drunk with me yeah
This is a song about Socrates
A man who asked a lot of questions
He didn't care about the deities
or the politics of indiscretion
He just sat back and drank the poison
He had an interest in Philosophy
but all he brought to it were questions
Could he be the only one to see
that all the answers are reflections[just questions]?
The answer of the State was poison
Boys of Athens, gathered round his feet,
with whom he traded tricky questions
they didn't learn to hate the liberty
that so frightens politicians
They had to watch their friend drink poison
The moral of this story is:
Don't ask a lot of questions
It's too annoying to society
if you ask too many questions
Unless you dare to drink the poison
In this theater everyone is allowed to state an opinion
In this theater actors give a lot of the directions
Everything is given a trial
Mr. K is asked to insert an occasional grunt
in this theater
In this theater directors often try their hands at acting
Everywhere you look something's being born or just reacting
Mr. K looks up with a smile
Every pain lasts only a while
in this theater
father's in the factory and your momma's in her bed
you sure have traded in your misery
but it's taken all you had yes it's taken all you had
all you had all you had all you had all you had
no time for disaster when the bullet's on the run
you could be moving so much faster
but you're having too much fun yes you're having too much fun
too much fun too much fun too much fun too much fun
just keep to the highway until Exit 56
you'll find a dog to keep out company
unless you learn to do new tricks unless you learn to do new tricks
do new tricks do new tricks do new tricks do new tricks
Well, I almost killed a man the other day
I caught him trying to break into my apartment
Turned out to be my landlord with something about the health department
"Well, I'm tired of this shit," I said
"You fuckers are always out for blood
I think I'll call me a little rent action"
But he just smiled at me and he said,
"Go right ahead, son, 'cause I own the Sheriff
and he'll be here with a gun to put you out on the street"
But was I scared? No, not at all
REFRAIN: Five hundred guns could not convince me, make me change or go away
Five hundred guns could not dissuade me from the way I feel today
Well, sure enough, on the very next day I went down to answer my door,
and there was the Sheriff and he had a pistol pointed straight at my heart,
and he had two deputies with him and they had rifles pointed at me,
and out in the street there were National Guardsmen with bazookas
and an M-1 tank and an F-111 Skyhawk and a naval destroyer
and it looked just like World War Three
But was I scared? No, not at all
REFRAIN [2X]
standing here in Tom's garage with this microphone
can't help but think of all the times the parties and the shows
in artsy spaces pagan places far too smoky bars
singing blues and paying dues in overloaded cars
seems it all comes back to me in shades of hope and fear
meanwhile our society don't even know I'm here
don't even know that the dream come true they call reality
is just some beast with electric breath rising stomping from our sea
Garagezilla Garagezilla Garagezilla
sitting here in this small room writing down these lines
can't help but feel there's just no way to say what's on my mind
I remember stormy weather misty freeway lanes
youth grows old we not so boldly lean upon our canes
I used to think that happiness is something to achieve
I even thought eternal truth is something to believe
I even thought that the dream come true I called reality
was just a dog with a mythic tail till it stomped all over me
Garagezilla Garagezilla Garagezilla
standing here in Tom's garage alone I'm not alone
cause I know what lives upstairs perpetually grows
deeper wider blacker whiter shine these night-blue stars
bidding us to be the driver not to be just cars
seems it all comes back to me in shades of hope and fear
meanwhile our society don't even know I'm here
don't even know that the dream come true they call reality
is just some beast with electric breath rising stomping from our sea
Garagezilla Garagezilla Garagezilla
Move it! Keep moving
Why not [3X]
get it right the first time [2X]
Just remember what your uncle told you
He said, "Don't forget, be spontaneous"
That was just before his surgery
Now it's over, he died
Get it right, keep it moving, move it!
You won't get a second chance
No, you won't get a second chance
So get it right the first time
It might be the last time
So get it right, get it right,
get it right the first time
You won't get a second chance to
get it right the first time
Get it right the first time
You can't get it wrong if there ain't no song
You can't get it all if there ain't no fall
Get it right
You can't get it right if there ain't no light
the first time
He was haunted by an idea(l) [2X]
But they asked him directly to begin to accommodate himself to the 20th century
He was haunted by an idea(l)
A real illumination never ends
A real initiation never ends
The Devil's masquerade [3X]
Inkiness, spirit of abyss in his muddled mind
A Xth degree impostor and the socialists were there
He ran back to the guesthouse and yelled at the Devil's shade,
"Give me coffee!"
Demons drink from human skulls and souls are up for trade
He was a member of the English race
He was going all the way to Loch Ness
With your opinions, with your opinions you might find an ancient bard
He polluted it and died a horrible death
He was haunted by an idea(l)
The Devil's masquerade
The Milky Way is a galaxy
The planet Earth is Terra
It's so late when many are slaves,
or worship their Fuehrer
there was a man who walked off the road on to a twisted path
his feet kept stumbling over thickets and stones his flashlight dimming fast
and where he stepped was wavering in the half-light of the moon
the distant dogs were baying all night through the silence of his tomb
he won't play nice he can't sit quiet he wants to lead you to your doom
he knows a secret he'd like to tell you make you a member of his crew
I've got to warn you he might deceive you and give you everything that you desire
he'll be your lawyer write up the papers just sign in blood and take the key
to the silence of your tomb to the silence of your tomb
once a woman crawled from the brush on to a royal road
she had a spirit that the world couldn't crush no matter what its load
and where she stepped was shimmering in the full light of the sun
the brazen bells were ringing a chime for her victories ever won
she don't need cheers cause she can face fears she wants to take you by the hand
she knows the secret she'd like to school you make you member of the band
I've got to warn you she might deceive you and give you everything that you desire
she'll be a warrior goddess of battles just shed your blood and pay the price
for your victories ever one for your victories ever one
you know we live to die
Here he comes, he's back
He's back again, he's back
Here he comes, he's back
But we must remember, the bandits of the present
are different than the bandits of the past
Here he comes, he's back [repeats]
But we must remember the bandits of the past
It would not be true to say that the prisons were born with the penal codes
But we must remember, he's back
Here he comes, he's back
Anything that helps to tire the body helps to expel bad thoughts
But we must remember, the bandits of the present
are different than the bandits of the past
jump down turn around pick a bale of cotton
jump down turn around pick a bale a day
jump down turn around pick a bale of cotton
jump down turn around pick a bale a day
o lordy! pick a bale of cotton
o lordy! pick a bale a day
o lordy! pick a bale of cotton
o lordy! pick a bale a day
jump down turn around see the bossman coming
jump down turn around think I'll steal away
jump down turn around see the bossman coming
jump down turn around think I'll steal away
o lordy! see the bossman coming
o lordy! think I'll steal away
o lordy! see the bossman coming
o lordy! think I'll steal away
jump down turn around if the deal is rotten
jump down turn around fold and walk away
jump down turn around if the deal is rotten
jump down turn around fold and walk away
o lordy! if the deal is rotten
o lordy! fold and walk away
o lordy! if the deal is rotten
o lordy! fold and walk away
jump down turn around do a dance forgotten
jump down turn around learn a step a day
jump down turn around do a dance forgotten
jump down turn around learn a step a day
o lordy! do a dance forgotten
o lordy! learn a step a day
o lordy! do a dance forgotten
o lordy! learn a step a day
jump down turn around scrape a string of catgut
jump down turn around hear the fiddle play
jump down turn around scrape a string of catgut
jump down turn around hear the fiddle play
o lordy! scrape a string of catgut
o lordy! hear the fiddle play
o lordy! scrape a string of catgut
o lordy! hear the fiddle play
jump down turn around dribble round a nipple
jump down turn around see a mama sway
jump down turn around dribble round a nipple
jump down turn around see a mama sway
o lordy! dribble round a nipple
o lordy! see a mama sway
o lordy! dribble round a nipple
o lordy! see a mama sway
jump down turn around pebble cause a ripple
jump down turn around river wash away
jump down turn around pebble cause a ripple
jump down turn around river wash away
o lordy! pebble cause a ripple
o lordy! river wash away
o lordy! pebble cause a ripple
o lordy! river wash away
did you ever see a pride of lions go out hunting?
did you see 'em springing out of the grass like a cloud of white pigeons?
like that time when you were a child and you went out walking
as you plunged in a field of high grass all the birds took wing
together we'll fly together we'll fly together we'll fly into the night
did you ever stick your hand in a hive while the bees were swarming
and snatch out the honeycomb and suck out the syrup?
did you ever fly around the world on a flock of white pigeons?
did you ever see the serpents dance in your wildest visions?
together we'll fly together we'll fly together we'll fly into the night
together we'll fly together we'll fly together we'll fly into the night
I could find it in my heart to believe that it was all the cream of the jest
Some dead people have been selected by fate
for a very different kind of eternity
Tlaloc has made his mark on you if you have been drowned
or struck by lightning or died of disease brought about by water
Could it be dropsy? It must be dropsy
Here in the tropics, green, flowers, and warm rain
Not like the corpses devoured by steppes of the north
in cold twilight country covered with bones masked by spiders
Hoot owl in Mexico
Could it be dropsy? It must be dropsy
There was a time I thought
I'd never find nobody
to share my wakin' thoughts
liven up my dreams
But now I've given up
on all tomorrows
I find today's enough
to move me down the stream
REFRAIN:
I just got to tell you
what you're lovin' means to me
Oh, I never realized
how sweet a love could be (that it could set me free)
Oh, I'm not the same tonight
as the one you've seen
Oh, I just got to tell you
'bout all my love and my ecstasy
Now every day's the beach
beside your body
You occupy my thoughts
and share this bed with me
If only everyone
could know this beauty
then surely peace would reign
in silence utterly
REFRAIN
REFRAIN
Guess that fryin'll be the death of me
At least that's what they say,
but nothing pleases like that hot grilled cheese
It's got everything you want it bleed
When it comes oozin' like a well-oiled train
it better make tracks for some mouth,
or we'll have molten blobs of cheddar on our chins,
and all our vices will come out
REFRAIN: Cheddar, I love that cheese [4X]
Everybody has some secret sin,
or so some people say
Whenever they come over visiting
you never know which closets they've been
When they come oozin' like a well-oiled train
we'd better make tracks for the door,
or we'll have molten blobs of cheddar on our chins,
and wonder what are secrets for
REFRAIN
There we were,
snarled up in those danged lines
Caught under the gunwales,
and the canvas sail had built a space in the center, under the boat,
but we couldn't get our heads up where there was air
Also, shrouds had caught us so we couldn't swim
to the outside [4X]
There we were,
fogged in at the airport
Stuck waiting for hours
When the fog cleared we looked at the runways
where our planes were waiting for waves,
but we couldn't get our motors started at all
Somehow fog had fixed us so we couldn't start
on a mission [4x]
There we were,
lights out in the cavern
Rocks block up the exit,
and the stalac-tites broke off so often
they would surely block off our air
So we sat right down and tried to think our way out,
but someone started yelling and he wouldn't shut up
about dying [2X]
I'm gonna die
You're gonna die
We're all gonna die
Wave bye-bye
you went looking for a voice but you found this song instead
you keep hoping for a choice but you sing these words in dread
of revealing the feelings you know that you feel of unsealing the dealings of gods with your soul
of repeating the meeting of halves in a whole of decoding the meaning of what you're all for
you keep striving toward your goal but it slips and slides away
till you finally gain control of the lips that silence pays
it's a heartache to wake up and look in the mirror sets you reeling when feelings are suddenly clear
and you're able to open the door without fear of decoding the meaning of what you're all for
you've been working so many years at imbalance in your brain
who can see that all those tears you've been storing up like [g]rain
are for tomorrow's sowing time when you'll start the same new game?
you don't know you can't know exactly who you are
but when you take chances you shine like a star
A picture grows upon the wall, telling tales of giants
while seasons march right through it all, inconquerably quiet
There bellies burst with berries from the first most festive feast of Spring
There Summer burns with vital force, and War and Love make fitting kings
while Autumn's judgement sits in courts whose sentences the harvest brings
and Winter prisons freeze and crack like sharp reports of armed attack
and all the dreams of painters die each time one flower blooms again
It's fine enough for gods to cry when you and I need watering
to tell our tales of giants [4X]
My daddy shot hisself to death
though he didn't have a reason
No, he didn't have one good reason left
Now that lead has cleared his head
He's found some peace at last and yet
he never asked me what I thought,
an' he never tried to tell me
'bout the demons that he fought
He never spied those tears I cried,
the tears that he would never shed
My momma worked herself to death
though she didn't have a reason
No, she didn't have one good reason left
Now her grave has freed a slave
She's found some peace at last and yet
she cain't be happy with the rest
'cause she never took a day off,
an' she always did her best
t' keep us fed and tucked in bed
Right now she's trimming God's split ends
My baby drank herself to death
though she didn't have a reason
No, she didn't have one good reason left
Now the booze has cured her blues
She's found some peace at last and yet
I know we'll never meet again
'less in another lifetime
we can recognize old friends
But if that's so, well, I just don't know
if I would love her once again
REFRAIN:
Overtime [3X]
I've been working overtime
All the time I'm working overtime
Just set some leftovers on the stove and I'll heat 'em up when I get in
I'll keep the TV on low, try hard not to wake ya,
but it's gonna take 'bout an hour to unwind
Now don't worry, all the bars be already closed by the time I'm getting off
So, I'm coming straight home, and I promise I'll drive slow if it's wet
REFRAIN (Kiss the kids for me)
You know it ain't been easy
We came down here all the way from Detroit, spent some time in Beaumont,
and spent a whole year in Shreveport
Now we're here in Houston and I got a good job
The kids been in the same school for six months
Ya know, I think if I can just put in a few months working these hours
we'll put things together here
REFRAIN (Gotta keep the car moving)
Now I got two weeks of 7-12's looking me straight in the eye
The man says I'll be sucking sludge out of a pit
at the water plant, just off 225 'bout a mile up from Red Bluff
14 days of my lungs burning from ammonia fumes
4 AM, stuck on the graveyard shift
The lifthose on the crane's busted and I'm sittin' here
3 hours in the smokestack wishin' I was home, asleep in the air conditioning
REFRAIN (Just watch me work)
I know how rough it's been for you, hon
I know I've been gettin' to bed 'bout a half hour before
you gotta get up and hustle the kids off to school,
and that I've been doing it for months now,
but we need the money, and I've been workin' hard
I've been workin' for you and the kids
I've been workin' hard for America, and
you know, I believe that's important, too.
REFRAIN
They tell you that you're different from the day you're born
and then they come to wonder why you treat their world with scorn
They never seem to notice the fingers on their feet
They think that evolution is impossible to beat
REFRAIN:
But they're not alright when they're not at home
and they're so uptight when they're on their own (when their cover's blown)
They never seem to stumble even when they fall
They're neither proud nor humble when they're either big or small
You ask them what they worship, you bribe them with the truth
The answer's disappointing and impossible to prove
REFRAIN
REFRAIN
Please gimme another chance
Gimme another [3X] chance
I promise I'll try real hard
This time I will try real hard
If you please [5X] gimme another chance
I'm beggin' ya
Please
Just one more chance [repeats]
I have been making political films since 1961
World War II split my Marxism right down the middle
An internal affair of the U.S. ruling class,
artificial coloring added
That made symbols of Americans hard to damage, monument
Justice Department for all in the million dollar appropriation
Computers, wiretaps, and grand juries have been largely ineffectual
An internal affair of the U.S. working class
We are opposed to military intervention
1917 [2X]
The failure of liberal politics [3X]
But Mexico starved...
If there were any way...
One of the most useful...
Well, it's not impersonal, it's not a trick...
Well, we're a very small...
Then am I, I wonder about the...
When the F.B.I. took them off the ten-most-wanted list
Currently he is working on a book about Hollywood and the Cold War
Well, that's an internal affair of the U.S. artists' class
In a tasteful red volume, suitable for coffee-tables
A tasteful red volume suitable for coffee-tables
I have been making political films since 1961 [2X]
I have been making political films since 1965
Please listen to me
Save energy, conserve, be responsible please
The din of the factory is growing
It's waiting for you in the 25th century
It's waiting for you in another age
No more fuel, no more machinery
No more construction, no more pollution, no more noise
Be responsible please
The next thing you know, this planet,
the deadly wolves of breakdown
I'm a devil right now
I'm gonna wake up the past
What is that? the desert? out there?
Look at the sand [4X]
Gaudeamus igitur juvenes dum sumus
I'm gonna join a new tribe [2X]
I'm gettin' tired of the same old knock-knock
I'm gonna join a new tribe
We're headed for the round up [repeats]
It's a crazy world where you can watch your children starve
while other children watch your children on TV
And it's a greasy pole that every monkey wants to climb
when it's the time for every monkey to compete
But if you'll take a look into your history book
you will find that everybody must agree
We aren't the captains of this ship
and any wave might make us flip
into the abyss at the bottom of the sea
Get on board the rubber soul train (4x)
There's no mystery here about just who is in control
'cause rubber soul can rail a road without no tracks
And where we're going to is where we've been before
although we're never gonna double back
A train that keeps on rolling till the end of time
is something you might call the Moebius Express
It's like a bird keeps flying when all the air is gone
never noticing it's nowhere that it gets
But if you'll send a spy into the universal mind
you will find what everybody must forget
We aren't the rulers of our fate
and any time we might be late
for dates we never can remember having set
Get on board the rubber soul train (8x)
It's the closing dispensation, a time of karmic reparation
and the sickle's gonna spray those seeds away
For whatever it is worth you owe it to your birth,
taking up the timelines without fear
And your body's in the web with the living and the dead
and the salmon knows the way only too clear
You gotta jump like hell into the torrent's mighty swell
to a higher place to spawn those new ideas
Well, you're living for the wild or you're slaving for the deathdealers
Give the day to the child or throw away the years
Pick up the incantation for a living destination
Redefine the situation
Save the trees (4X)
No, no poison food, your DNA trick and sway ain't my way
No technocrack hoodoo, I'll choose my medicine
Mother Nature does it best, does it (2X), Mother Nature does it best
My body belongs to me
Play your sound when it goes down, round and round, round and round (2X)
Think about it (7X)
Set it free (2X)
Son Of A Bitch's Brew (The Emancipation Of America)
You had to be tough
to make it across in the first place
crammed in the hot as hell hold
and you hadn't even heard of hell yet
but if you made it across
there'd be someone with a cross
to tell you all about hell
and eventually it came through
"Oh right, hell!
I've already been there!"
You had to be tough
to drink that bitter water
and taste those bloody whips
you learned to watch and listen
and you worked
and you worked
and into the spaces between being treated like an animal
and being treated like an object
you packed in all of the humanity which slavery can never repress
Your liberation had so much to offer
but then fear, and hate
and greed, and pride
and the will to power
sang such a mighty chorus in the ears of rich white folk of all faiths and factions
and pretty soon they were singing along
to lynchings where there could have been learning
and color bars where there should have been land grants
and no amount of your striving
was ever allowed far beyond mere surviving
So how is it that you have overcome?
For you have overcome
You have overcome to the center
to the core, to the marrow
You are now the masters
and only you can teach us the way to go forward
You had to be tough
to make it at all
in the concrete hall
of the disintegrating urban sprawl
that leapt out of a world unimagined by your friends
or even your greatest ofay
No government conspiracy to flood your neighborhoods with crack
no evil doctors engineering plagues to depopulate your future
no liquor stores on every corner
can compare to the devastation you found
when you finally won through to the center
to the very heart and soul of America
and found them broken and lost
Perhaps you can redeem this festering miasma
repaying injustice with your morality
and brutality with your excellence
Perhaps you can explain why the euromans should be happy
with the lonely, frightened, ugly, dying empire
which they have themselves created
Perhaps you can invent a rhythm to rap it into my skull
over and over, until the beat becomes my reason for living
and the voice of the turtle is heard in some imagined land
but not in this land
with its jury of housewives of every donahue
its judges going off like buchanans
its just desserts a humble pie
served cold and stale, and without a seat at the counter
How can you be blamed for shaking your head?
How can you be denied the few small snorts of laughter?
Why should you pick up the pieces?
Why should you save our ass?
I don't know, but only you can
You had to be tough
because we demanded it
Now you are the toughest we have
and you have earned the right to grasp America
and remold it to your will
That is what our posterity will call "The Emancipation of America"
When you see that flash, and you feel that heat,
and the blast knocks you right off your feet,
as you suck in your very last breath
you're gonna wish you'd spanked that honky to death
Spank that honky to death [4X]
Oh, they're just grown boys,
and they play with toys,
and they don't like girls,
and they run the world
(Those clones are all alike)
Spank that honky to death [4X]
Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear [repeats]
if I could find the words I guess you'd be here now
but all my clever words just miss the mark somehow
I hope you'll understand when I have sung this song
one thing I don't demand's one thing that you think's wrong
at least I see that you can understand the pain
though when you brush my cheek I know it's gonna rain
but the sun is shining yeah it's a sunny day
my friends are smiling as they lazy lay
and I just got the news you're going away
you're hardly ever off my mind you're hardly ever off my mind you're hardly ever off my mind
ending's where we begin to reach a new old friends
a spark of love still glows just banked against the wind
you'll stay a part of me a part of everything
perhaps someday you'll see we're where we've always been
at least I know that I've declared to you my heart
though still inside I see that rain's about to start
but the sun is shining yeah it's a sunny day
my friends all laughing as they lazy lay
and I just got the word you've gone away
you're hardly ever off my mind you're hardly ever off my mind you're hardly ever off my mind
We are [3X]
youth for understanding Japan
We are youth for making five year plans
We are youth for irrigating more land
We are youth for understanding Japan Well I never really did care much for Japan
I never did like kimonos, or straw mats on the floor,
or sleeping in a paper room, or drinking all the tea in china Then one day my grandson came over, and he was wearing this
T-shirt that said "Youth For Understanding Japan" on it,
and I said, "Sonny boy, what the hell does that mean?",
and he looked at me and he said, "Gramps, basically it means- We are youth for understanding Japan [repeats]
How would you like to take a trip with me to Japan? [2X]
We are [4X]
youth for understanding Japan
Standing Japan [repeats] The bus [8X]
The bus is leaving in five minutes