1. |
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|
She says when I listen to Lucinda Williams, she can see me thinking of other women
I tell her no way baby. You know I'm just listening.
She says when I listen to Lucinda Williams, she can see me thinking of other women
I say I'm just wishing I sounded more like Lucinda
"Once we [lived] together," "in a world without tears,"
"and I would hold you close, take away your fears"
She says when I listen to Lucinda Williams, she can see me thinking of other women
I tell her I'd sell my soul so I could play guitar like Lucinda
She says when I listen to Lucinda Williams, she can see me thinking of other women
I don't know how to ask whether we count Lucinda
I know better than to ask where you learned to read my mind
and I never meant to be unkind
She says when I listen to Lucinda Williams, she can see me thinking of other women
I tell her darling, "Drunken Angel," I'd never put no one above you
She says when I listen to Lucinda Williams, she can see me thinking of other women
I say that look in my eye is a sigh--a sign of how much I love you
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2. |
You're Really Hot!
02:50
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|
You're really hot!
Hot like hot. Hot like attractive.
The wick burning down to a firecracker. Alright!
You're really hot!
Hot-spiced flame-grilled jalapeno.
Bathwater so hot my feet feel cold. Yeah!
I want to feel everything you feel. I want some proof that you are real. I want to be the man in your dreams, but I'm afraid they'd burn me. Oh!
You're really hot!
Blowtorch. H-bomb. Solar plasma.
Sunshine. Summer. Desert asthma.
I think sometimes our society gets fixated on looks, and we forget about so many more important things.
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3. |
Someone True
03:01
|
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|
I been looking for someone true
but you'll do
You'll do.
I've been looking for someone true
but you'll do
Baby you'll do.
I've been looking for someone just like you
Only true
but you
will do
I've been looking for something true
but if you'll have to do
then you'll do.
Baby you'll do
I've been dreaming of a life of joy
but oh boy
Oh boy
I've been dreaming of a life of joy
but oh boy
Baby oh boy
I've been dreaming of someone that I could always make
happy
and never annoy
but oh boy.
I've been dreaming of a life of joy
Oh boy
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4. |
Start a New Life
04:10
|
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|
Drive me away and don't you try to bring me back
my heart's all messed up and we're too drunk to fix that
but you can cheer me up with that funny way you laugh
and we can start a new life, wherever your car runs out of gas.
I've been on my own, afraid I hadn't got a friend
thought I had a home. Every dream must end.
Feeling empty-hearted. Feeling dry and cold.
If this is all it's like, I don't think I'll like getting old.
I've been on the highway a little bit too long
What used to seem like life just seems like a country song
Can you give me directions? I'm going anywhere.
I want to see the monuments and run my fingers through your hair
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5. |
Away
02:48
|
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|
Am
In the morning write your dreams all down
G
That way you’ll never forget them.
Am
In the morning write your dreams all down.
G E
That way you’ll never let them get away.
Am
Away.
G
Away.
Am
Away.
In the morning write your worries down
I know you’ll never regret them.
In the morning write your worries down
That’s one way to let them roll away… away…. Away… away.
In the morning write your true love’s name
On recycled paper
Love is from everyone. We’re all the same.
So hurry up before the neighbors move away… away… away…. Away.
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6. |
Meek Ain't Waitin'
02:13
|
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|
Want to know the secret of success?/Don't think too much about happiness./Don't focus on what you want out of life./ Just slow down, do what you're told and walk right//cause the meek ain't waiting to inherit the earth/they're teaming with the weak and they're taking it by force/easy to see how this country's ravaged/land of the free under the laws of average/in the city on the hill if you want your reward/get yourself and ugly beat up ford/cruise through life with nowhere to go/pay your bills on time and drive real slow//want to know the secret of a happy marriage?/Shut up and tell her how pretty her hair is./Want know just how to meet the girl of your dreams?/You dirty old man! You know she's just in her teens!/You say you want a party that never stops?/Pull yourself together and tell it to the cops.
Too many protest songs are about big things that we can't seem to change. This one is about speeding tickets and credit reports--little things that sound good in principle, but can snowball on poor people. If I call it a protest song, can it still be a country song? Or do country musicians just complain?
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7. |
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|
Fists don't stop fights. Love peace. Act right.
Bombs don't stop wars. They just start more.
It's been overtried like feeding roaches pesticide.
Skip the middleman. Skip the middleman.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
Drugs don't kill pain. Clouds don't cause rain.
Water vapor's slow rise can start from your eyes.
Skip the middleman. Skip the middleman.
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
The title is a list of what the author walked to the store to donate to a homeless shelter during an ice storm, when cars couldn't move.
|
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8. |
||||
|
Murder Inc.
John F. Kennedy died for your sins
Robert Marley died for your sins
Abraham Reles died for your sins
Elvis Presley died for you sins.
Luc Bourdon died for your sins
Heath Ledger died for your sins
Harry Strauss died for your sins
Biggie Smalls died for your sins
You just sin, sin, sin. You never win.
Janis Joplin died for your sins
Vladimir Lenin died for your sins
Tupac Shakur died for your sins
Jackson Pollack died for your sins
John Lennon
Albert Ayler
Miles Davis
Jimi Hendrix
You just sin, sin, sin. You never win.
You just sin, sin, sin. You never win.
Mahatma Gandhi
Harvey Milk
Paul Wellstone
Oscar Romero
Victor Jara
Charlie Parker
Chief Joseph
Martin Luther King
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9. |
It's Alright
02:59
|
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|
(It's alright)
Dm C
Child, stitch by my side
G G
right until the end
Dm C
but when I won't get better
G G
do not lie or pretend
for I've had a good time
in this life of mine
and it's alright
yeah it's alright
Don't leave me alone
in my final minute
don't put me in the home
don't promise you'll visit
I've had a good time
in this life of mine
and it's alright
yeah it's alright
Don't feed me on tubes
if I'm not gonna make it
Don't need the abuse
If I'm going, don't fake it
I've had a good time
in this life of mine
and it's alright
yeah it's alright
When it comes my time
and there's nought to be done
If there's any good left
Sew it into someone
I've had a good time
in this life of mine
and it's alright
yeah it's alright
Help yourself if you need
an old eye for your face
And I'll help you see
that it's no disgrace
I've had a good time
in this life of mine
and it's alright
yeah it's alright
And please take my heart
to hold in your breast
with every beat
you know I love you best
I've had a good time
in this life of mine
and it's alright
yeah it's alright
Songs don't need to be for or against anything. Sometimes it's better just to observe. Are you an organ donor? An organ recipient? What about an organ player? If you get a job, you may be entitled to compensation.
|
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10. |
Mamma, Get Me My Shotgun
02:41
|
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|
Mamma, get me my shotgun. We gonna find us a son. Mamma get me my shotgun. We gonna find us a son. Well, the boy gonna pay for the things that he has done.
Mamma go get my shotgun. We gonna get that child. Mamma go get my shotgun. We gotta find that child.
Well the boy is wild, he's wild. He's wild. The boy is wild.
|
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11. |
No Segregated Heaven
02:28
|
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|
Segregated Heaven
E G A B
talk about religion
how to raise children
I can't believe in
a segregated heaven
we talk about religion
how to raise children
I won't believe in no
jim crow heaven
should we move in together
in Falls Church virginia
Why not in fairfax?
DC? Alexandria?
By "move in together
in Falls Church virginia"
what I really mean is
are we gonna kill each other?
cause if we're gonna kill each other
should we even bother
heaven ain't gonna let us
stay with one another
got a lot of separate spaces
put us in our places
better not kill each other
no matter how much I miss my mother
|
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12. |
Do the Dishes
02:13
|
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|
Here's a classic dance that's easy to do and it can leave your silver looking shiny and new. You can do it all alone in your kitchenette at home or you can do it in a restaurant all night long. Come on and do the dishes.
Well, dinner was delicious, delectable, nutritious...now it's time to share a little with the fishes. I asked a genie for a hundred wishes. He said, "I'll give you three if you'll do the dishes." Do the dishes.
It's a real cool dance that can get you paid. It's a wonderful chance to put your silverware away. If it's dinner at six we'll be doing it by seven, our hands so soft and smelling sweet like lemons. Do the dishes.
|
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13. |
||||
|
G6 Bbdim7 Amin D7
G6 Bbdim7 Amin D7
G6 Bbdim7 A7 D7
C7C#dim7 D7Db7C7B7 CD G G
Chorus, double time
C D G G G7 C A7 D7
G D Em C BmC DC GC G
If I didn't drive I wouldn't be at work on time
to do things I don't care about and earn those dimes
If I didn't drive I'd have to live right next to work
and you know my office smells and the boss is a jerk
and I love sitting in my car
Well I love sitting in my car
I love sitting in my car
Every morning every evening for at least an hour
well I love love love love love sitting in my car
If I didn't drive I couldn't get to work by six
to do things that I don't like, things that make me sick
if I didn't drive I couldn't have this great commute
stuck behind these bastards I would like to shoot
and I love sitting in my car
I love sitting in my car
Every morning every evening for at least an hour
well I love love love love love sitting in my car
Well if I didn't drive there'd still have been an oil spill
Cause someone else would do my job. There always will
be someone dumb enough to buy this overpriced heap
Someone who thinks there's an off-road left for a jeep
someone who loves sitting in a car
they just love sitting in their car
Every morning every evening
for at least an hour
they just love sitting in their car
If I didn't drive the world would still be warming up
Polar ice-caps melting, oceans churning up
This house from which my stupid job is out of reach
would still be next in line to be on the beach
we all love sitting in our cars
we all love sitting in our cars
every morning every evening for about three hours
we just love love love love love sitting in our cars
|
||||
14. |
Three Bills
01:56
|
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|
Three bills for the credit card
Two more to keep the car insured
One for my health and none for myself
Spend the rest on you
Five bills just to pay the rent
Good deal on a half of a basement
in a good part of town with stable roommates
convenient location
When the cop stops me it better be
just to ask the time
But if he wants money
well, I love my country
but I can't give this state
one more dime
Three bills for the credit card
Two more to keep the car insured
One for my health and none for myself
Spend the rest on you
Eating out and passing out it's all the same to me
Consciousness is money and if I'm missing one I ain't getting where I need to be
Trouble at the bank. Broke a string with the band. Something's got to get fixed.
Don't be offended if your birthday present is a brand new guitar...pick
|
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15. |
All There Is
02:15
|
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|
The thing about the present
is it goes on forever
things might never get different
until you make a change
and the thing about the past
its stuck in one position
through gruesome prepositions
that tomorrow must look strange
And I've never seen any future
I don't believe it exists
Save me your promises. I don't want forever.
I love you now and that's all that there is.
Well the thing about the world is
It's seldom very simple
A smile reveals a dimple
even on the face of fate
and the the thing about a girl is
she's all I ever wanted
Whatever it is, she's got it
even on her bad days.
|
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16. |
Eminently Lovable
02:13
|
|||
|
Two years later on the corner of my desk, and unread technical chart/it showed the music for our fingers but it didn't reveal your heart/and I remember you were so dramatic. Every step was the end of the world/but I was just a boy. How could I know you were just a little girl?//Did you really go in for the weightlessness or just a moment to rise above?/You were oh so lovable. I just wasn't looking for love.//Honey take me downstairs and put on Mingus/we're a scream in a dream. We are your new favorite singers/and if music's not a means to us, we are the means to music/so the world is ours tonight hold tight before we lose it.
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17. |
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|
Love is simple.
Love is blind.
Love will find you if you run.
Love is easy.
Love is fun.
Look out baby. Love's got a gun.
They say the most common American motive for murder is money
and gloss over the baby in the tummy or the carriage
as a chip in a game of support and blame, but it's funny,
if you follow the narrative--
the most common relationship for killer and killed
is burnt out old flame with the same name
one could say the most common American motive for murder
is marriage
Love is simple.
Love is blind.
Love will find you if you run.
Love is easy.
Love is fun.
Look out baby. Love's got a gun.
The most common method of marriage is religion
Easy to make promises to gods you don't believe in
To have, hold in sickness. To honor an protect,
Just until death.
Love is simple.
Love is blind.
Love will find you if you run.
Love is easy.
Love is fun.
Look out baby. Love's got a gun.
Obviously this is intended as a protest song against relationship violence, and a rebuke to the hundreds of formulaic love songs that ignore it, and advocate for love at all costs, let alone those that seem to fit the pattern. In case that wasn't all obvious enough.
|
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18. |
All It Takes Is One
03:32
|
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|
Dm F Em C
I used to get jealous of my girlfriend's friends who were men
But the trouble with jealousy is once you start it never ends
it never ends
Because I think I know at least a hundred beautiful women.
So I'm sure every woman knows a hundred beautiful men
maybe times ten
I still get jealous of my girlfriend's friends who are men
But the trouble with jealousy is once you start it never ends
it never ends
Because I think I know at least a hundred beautiful women.
So I'm sure every woman knows a hundred beautiful men
maybe times ten
I'm scared I'll always get jealous of my girlfriend's friends who are men
Because the trouble with jealousy is once you start it never ends
it never ends
Because I think I know at least a hundred beautiful women.
So I'm sure every woman knows a hundred beautiful men
maybe times ten
|
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19. |
Johnny Over the Ocean
02:49
|
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|
E F#m D D
Johnny over the ocean
E F#m D D
Johnny over the sea
E F#m D D E E
Johhny catchin' them big fish
AEAAAEAA
Save some for me
E D A A
Well you reel off the reasons real well why the real world's not well
E D A A
You wield the reel well with a will like the wind in a mill-wheel
E D F#- E
You wind up the reel. Fish by feel. Cast your hook like a winch in a
D
well.
D D A A
You well up for real when you're real when you think I can't tell
E D A A
Sail the world over like there's something lost you're trying to find
E D A A
No man's an island, so you won't pick a shore to defend.
E D F#- E
You're not sure whether you're looking or whether you've always believed
D
you were blind.
D D Dm A A
Well your ships in the wind but you'll find what you seek in your mind.
|
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20. |
Nebraska
05:02
|
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|
She grew up in Airpark
quote unquote maide it to DC
in a city full of leaders somehow
she settled for me.
Nothing lasts forever
Everything's for sale
Nothing could be better
whatever tries will just fail
Only wanted something to get me through the night
Now I believe that I could love you 'till the stars quit selling light
Didn't think twice I just asked you
Can I come with you back to Nebraska
Never wrote many love songs
Not the best at saying what I feel
all I know is this time
everything's finally real
And I've given up on everything
That I've seen in this life
Given silver linings
I said, "they're coming with knives."
|
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21. |
Innerlichtkeit
03:53
|
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|
If I find my inner self,
will it sound enough like Plath?
I listen with a Van Gogh ear,
cross-check each reference like Mike Hough,
who skated on that three-inch ice,
away off in the frozen North,
and strove in every coliseum,
with all who would prove their worth
but when I see my silhouette
I find my mind looks for Van Hunt,
a singer I have not yet heard,
which makes comparison quite hard,
but not as hard as introspection,
not as hard as resurrection.
Death can give me no protection,
nor can i teach it one lesson.
Dying, to me, is no art.
What I want is not in Heaven.
I'll pay the charge. I'll play my part,
Sign up for one chance in seven,
but when I think of our hereafter,
I hear pigeons in the rafters.
Some say the world will end in fire.
Until then it's here on Earth.
If I cannot live quite right,
I hope at least to live to write.
Don't look for me with the birds.
Find me, then let's find the words.
Let's find the words.
|
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22. |
Someone to Dream Tonight
03:44
|
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|
you tell me that you gave up smoking same time you gave up dishonest men
I promised you you'd ask me for a cigarette next time I saw you again
I just want something special. I just want something right.
Want something that will last forever and I want someone to dream tonight.
Want someone a bit like you, and I want someone like her
I want someone who wants someone who's someone I wish I were
and I wish that I could warn you that I'm not all I try to be
but I can't seem to get you alone for one single moment away from me.
so I'll wish for the best and shut up for this dance
and wonder at the differance between a heart and pants.
you tell me that you gave up smoking same time you gave up dishonest men
I promised you you'd ask me for a cigarette next time I saw you again
I just want something special. I just want something right.
Want something that will last forever. I want it to start last night.
|
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23. |
How the TV People Look
02:41
|
|||
|
You just got a spend a little bit more money
On looking how the tv people look
There are steps you can follow
through the shopping mall
it's all in the tv fashion book
and then you'll find that you didn't need the secrets
the self-love, the pride or self-worth
just take care and beware that you wear your new hair
with the tight new clothes that hide your old girth
and the looks that you'll get from the opposite sex
and the same sex--you know it's the same--sex is sex.
It's all great and divine. Blows your mind. Love is blind.
love is easy to find if you look
how the tv people look
Always stay one more step ahead
Long before you're old you find you're already dead
always stay one more step ahead
in no time at all you could be already dead
|
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24. |
Mr. R.
03:46
|
|||
|
Mr. R. Mr. R.
Please sign my hall pass Mr. R.
We know you by one letter.
Now get back into your car.
Maybe we'll see you again another day
if that old computer calls you you when our teacher is away
We all call you retarded, lame, too nice, too mean, too gay
We hit you and we kick you but we love you, in our way
But you teach us to be brave when you ignore these little scars,
so wherever there's a teacher feeling sick, near or far
You just call me up, and call me Mr. R.
Yes, call me up. I'll be Mr. R.
They told me when I started that some days would be rough.
That everything I ever learned might be just half enough.
Some days that's right. Other times I disagree
I think we really overestimated me.
Mr. R. Mr. R.
Please sign my hall pass Mr. R.
We know you by one letter.
Now get back into your car.
Maybe we'll see you again another day
if that old computer calls you when our teacher is away
We all call you retarded, lame, too nice, too mean, too gay
We hit you and we kick you but we love you, in our way
well, we may or we may not
but what other way to spend today have you got?
|
||||
25. |
Homeless
01:53
|
|||
|
Not sure if this is a love song or a prayer. I guess Madonna would say it's "like a prayer," either way.
|
||||
26. |
When I Find God
02:11
|
|||
|
When I find God, you're gonna wish you was dead. I'm gonna tell her all the nasty things you said and then I'll ride behind her. She's a pillar of fire and I know hell may be low, but oh no, you ain't getting no higher. You ain't getting no higher. I'm gonna hit you with my numchucks right in the back o f your knee. And then you'll finally know, yeah you'll finally see, just how it feels to be me and know you. I'm gonna get you with my slingshot when you're ten feet tall. You know the bigger they come, the bigger my balls. When I find God you're gonna wish you was dead. I'm gonna tell her all the nasty things you said and then I'll ride behind her. She's a pillar of fire and I know hell may be low but oh no you ain't getting no higher.
|
||||
27. |
Ground Zero Love Song
02:16
|
|||
|
Until we all can recognize
our ideas about god
are just ideas and realize
they're all partial and flawed
and until we all can dream about
a world of happy friends
we're just counting down the days
until we all fall down again
plant a tree. plant a seed. hatred isn't what we need
and it's not below or above. All we need is love.
Until we all can pray together
against human tragedy
we can't really claim to be
a peaceful democracy
We're making so much progress
In these days of hope and change
The peace and love we have achieved
are wonderful and liberating
|
||||
28. |
Cereal Monogamy
03:02
|
|||
|
Sugary sweet morning treat or a delight in the afternoon
I can barely keep my face out of the bowl. Who needs a spoon?
My favorite is corn, or oats or maybe wheat. Then again,
the occasional bowl of grape nuts keeps us regular healthy men.
Oh, cereal monogamy
Some say the soggy, sloppy cereals simply taste better
some people like cereals that stay crispy under pressure
I've even heard that some have tried to eat them both together
oh, but cereal monogamy
We used to pretend our favorite ones were made of tiny rocks.
I even dreamed that one day they'd put my face on a box.
How come only jocks get their faces on the box?
Cereal monogamy.
|
||||
29. |
||||
|
A man's house is his castle
A man's fishpond is his moat
A man's hair is his little black dress.
A man's car is his boat.
A man's boss is his jailer
A man's wheelchair is his limousine
A man's pipe is his inhaler
A man's wife is his beauty queen
In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man.
Now I've reached that age I find it's time I try to make another plan.
A man's shades are his x-ray spex
A man's cane is his bionic knee
A man's libido is his epic quest
A man's war is his killing spree
A man's egg is his omlette
A man's genie is his elf
A man's poem is his Hamlet
A man's god is himself
In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man.
Now I've reached that age I find it's time I try to make another plan.
|
||||
30. |
Some Trees
04:10
|
|||
|
Some Trees
There's no way anybody could see so much after dark.
Smoky trees on a sooty river. A grey sky lit
from beneath the flat earth's curve. And the curve
of a river road, churned muddy under cart wheels.
Pines on a bluff, and some petty cataract, all obscured
by a maroon dress of ripples, periodic, crushed, unlike the ripples
of the road, serpentine, like a river, unlike the ripples
of the river, lazy, unforced, unlike the ripples
of her hair, billows in a wind that touches nothing else.
The sun beneath the horizon shines through a periscope up,
up, up through the earth, up through the river, up through
her torso, her chest. Shines through her forehead.
It pushes up the left corner of her lip.
|
||||
31. |
||||
|
I would write you an epic poem about the struggles I have known but I'm afraid that no one reads the average modern epic poem.
I would write you a symphony but I don't have the energy to relearn all the rules of melody, counterpoint or harmony.
I guess I'd write a novel but it takes so bloody long. And you'd be just as happy with a song.
I'd never write book on love and teach the next guy all my moves cause then I'd be afraid that I couldn't win you back.
I'd maybe write a movie script, train pretty fools to follow it and end up the director of a summer hit. I would
but movies take collaboration and I might not have the patience, plus they're all just exploitation once the critics have their word.
I guess I'd write a novel but it takes so bloody long. And you'd be just as happy with a song.
I'd love to write a novel but it take so bloody long and you're always just as happy with a song.
|
||||
32. |
Saturday Night Laundry
02:12
|
|||
|
Just another Saturday night at home, staring at your number on my cellular phone. Think about things I'd like to say to you, how I wouldn't have to say them if you wanted me to. Wonder if I'll know when it's really done. Listen to your favorite breakup song. Listen to your favorite breakup song. Try to get a little bit of laundry done.
|
||||
33. |
Softball Player
05:02
|
|||
|
I want to date a softball player
Someone who hits things with a stick
Someone who covers all her bases
I'm dreaming about that homerun chick
I want to date a social worker
someone to manage my case
someone who can maintain boundaries
and help me find my place
I know it's only a fantasy
but you should be with me
I want to date a sociologist
someone who really understands
a girl who scientifically
studies her man
I want to date a college professor
who teaches me new things every day
and if at night I call her doctor
she won't know whether I'm playing
|
||||
34. |
Love Rocks!
04:42
|
|||
|
Do you like me?
Check yes or no.
I think I like you
But only
if you like me first
then I might like you back
I'm not ready for the risk
of really putting it all out there
So sharpen up your pencil
check the appropriate box
and if this is love if this is love
love rocks
I want to love you forever
I want to touch your fingertips
I want to marry you and start a family
I want to kiss you on the lips
Do you love me?
Tell me your mine
I can't even think but I think
about you all the time
Do you love me?
Make up your mind
I can't even think but I think
love will make me go blind
|
||||
35. |
||||
|
Brian stop eating at my brain.
This Zombie thing is a pain.
Stab you in the face if you try it again
so Brian stop eating, serious, no cheating, Brian stop eating my Brain.
Brian stop biting at my face.
I'm literally running out of mace.
If I tell you till I'm blue then it's really a waste
Brian stop biting. Dude, I'm tired of fighting. Brian stop biting at my face.
This sort of thing only happens in the movies
We used to watch, feeling drunk and stoned and groovey.
Now I'm running out of hope. You're at the end of my last rope
We can't sing Simon and Garfunkel tonight--you're all like
ba da da da da da da da nom nom nom nom nom
ba da da da da da da da nom nom nom nom nom
Note: This song was briefly featured on a humorous "Zombie School" website posted by the department of homeland security, to talk about disaster preparedness. They did not offer to pay me, so I guess it's not all true what they say about people getting rich selling anything to the Pentagon.
|
||||
36. |
||||
|
You'd better disinvite your houseguest. Turn that so-called music down.
You'd better disinvite your houseguest. Turn that so-called music down.
Your sleepover's been cancelled. Your dad ain't leaving town.
You got so much to live for, someday I hope you're gonna wed
You got so much to live for, someday I hope you're gonna wed
But for tonight you're grounded. So do the dishes, make your bed, clean the bathroom, (fold the lauindry, scrub the bathtub)
Disinvite your houseguest...
Thought I raised you up to respect yourself, never put your needs behind anyone else
Thought I raised you up to respect yourself, never put your needs behind anyone else
Well, listen to your father, and keep your hands to yourself.
|
||||
37. |
Warm
03:56
|
|||
|
Employment is the opiate of an allegedly sentient life-form slowly baking itself to death beneath the noxious biproducts of a forty minute commute to a job that doesn't ultimately benefit society or air quality. Call in samaritan. You are choking me.
Those who would sacrifice breathable air, drinkable water, livable temperatures
and ultimately a habitable planet for the profits of a corporation that sells a commodity we don't even need may or may not still deserve air, drinkable water, and a livable planet but we're not gonna get it.
Those who would sacrifice life for profit reveal that we live on a planet in which the rich are bribed with insignificant quantities of stock every bit as volatile, finite and exhaustible as the poisonous oil it entitles them to make others sell.
Until the philosophy that feeds the one who drives each day and leaves hungry the one who stays home is finally and permanently, discredited and abandoned everywhere is warm. It's warm.
Until the way a man gets somewhere is of no more significance than where he is going, it's warm. It's warm.
Warm--polar bears are drowning
Warm--dark clouds are blowing
Warm--
|
||||
38. |
||||
|
Jacob told his wife
he was only wrestling angels
honey I was only wrestling angels
there was nothing going on
Jacob told his wife
he was only wrestling angels
and either she believed in angels
or she sweetly played along
Jacob told his wife
he was only wrestling angels
he was only werestling angels
early on a sunday morning
Jacob told his wife
he was only wrestling angels
angels God had sent to test him,
Sunday morning in Gomorrah
Oh those were the days of the patriarchs
And patriarch is the first three syllables of patriarchy
Oh those were the days of the patriarchs
In the land where marriages came in twos or threes
or fours
long before
women's rights
|
||||
39. |
Regular Guy
04:48
|
|||
|
I'm a regular guy.
From a regular town.
Don't be asking me why
Up is up. Down is down.
I'm just a regular guy.
And I don't need to be right
Cause if you and I disagree
You know we're gonna fight
If you want trouble
That's what you've found
If you're seeking sympathy
'fraid we've run fresh out
You can ask me questions all day long
I only know one thing true
If you got problems with me
Then I got problems with you
I'm a regular guy
From a regular town
Find yourself in my way
Find yourself shot down
Hey, pal.
No, I insist.
The pleasure was all mine.
And that's the way it's gonna be.
According to me.
Y'all come right back now y'hear
I'm a regular guy
From a regular town
I keep it on the up and up,
so down with down.
Down with down.
Down with down.
|
||||
40. |
Sublingually Suppressed
05:25
|
|||
|
a dirtier secret than money or sex
the true mark of american success
I got places to go and people to see
so someone else cleans up after me
Well the universe is a battleground
between energy and entropy
and you just can't win
without without a helping hand
deeper subrosa than money or sex
we don't talk about it with our closest friends
you wonder how I ever keep my house so clean
it's cause someone else is cleaning up after me
but some things in life ain't free
well the american revolution
was fought by immigrant mercenaries
and that's the same way real american housewives
keep american houses clean
our capitalist system pre-dates our democracy
and capitalists predate upon the free
the proletariat will do the things you need for a small fee
|
||||
41. |
Like a Metaphor
05:22
|
|||
|
C Dm Am Em
How fucking romantic. Forty more reasons to hate
life, the universe and the distance we create
between the click of the light and the spark of the electrical fire
We can only go down from here but the flames climb higher
into the night to light up my life like a helicopter shining bright
over the interstate. Please take good care of these letters I write
across time, across space, across the things I never quite
learned how to love about your face
Am Am Am Dm
And she walked in through the door
of my erstwhile employer, the store
and she opened her purse like a metaphor
a metaphor
for
her
and she gazed around thoughfully
at the joy she had brought me
a morning cup of coffe
caffiene dream
Haven't been gone a day but it feels like a lifetime special. Wishin
I could see you again. Running around, afraid, like a chicken
with it's head cut off looking for head from a black hole
it's a most unusual locust of control.
Dm Dm Am Am
This guy is making beer out of cicada's, she says
but I hear the sky is making beer
the sky is making beer
This guy is making beer out of cicada's, she says
but I hear the sky is making beer
the sky is making beer
|
||||
42. |
Fireman
03:01
|
|||
|
F#minor
I should have been a fireman.
I'd never get speeding tickets
And alright, I'd have to walk through fire, I guess,
but really I have walked through fire for less
I would gladly walk through fire
in a magic suit, with an oxygen mask
saving women, children and cats
for the right to drive
one hundred miles an hour
I should have been a paramedic.
I'm responsible and empathetic
'malready certified in CPR
I'd like to take a spin
in the hospital car
save lives and drive
one hundred miles an hour
I should have been a car mechanic.
I wouldn't have to keep replacing
every mobile makeout room
that ever took me places
And I guess I'd have to spend all day
drilling under hoods for minimum wage
but on the weekend I could go out and relax
take my funny car down to the track
for the night to just drive
one hundred miles an hour
I should have been a policeman
sit by the road with a radar scanner
Well, then again...
I got too much love
for my fellow man
Obviously this is another protest song about speeding tickets. Gotta focus on the important issues.
|
||||
43. |
||||
|
Cursed Chain Letter Song (Do not post gently into that blues line).
This is the cursed chain letter song
If you don't want the curse on you
Just forward it along
When people first heard this song
Nobody believed it was true
This is the cursed chain letter song
If you don't forward it along
You might as well just turn blue
Just forward it along
And beware of any magic song
sung by any magic jew
This is the chain letter song
and it's best not to sing along
the survivors are very few
Just forward it along
If you slipped up and sang along
I pray to God for mercy on you
This is the chain letter song
Just forward it along
|
||||
44. |
||||
|
Sarah Palin makes me want to build a mosque
across all of ground zero every time she talks
Sarah Palin makes me want to build a mosque
across all of Alaska every time she burns a cross
And I've loved crazy Christians all my life
and I've even had conversations with racists
but there's gotta be room for dialogue
There's gotta be room for dialogue
Sarah Palin makes me want to build a mosque
across all of ground zero every time she talks
Sarah Palin makes me want to build a mosque
across all of Alaska every time she burns a cross
Well she's on the TV crying every week, shine or rain
faux folksy faux reporter on a five year campaign
but she changes all our headlines everytime she tells a lie
and she wants to change the world back for the ones who advertise
Sarah Palin makes me want to build a mosque
across all of ground zero every time she talks
Sarah Palin makes me want to build a mosque
across all of Alaska every time she burns a cross
Sarah Palin makes me want to build a mosque
across all of ground zero every time she talks
Sarah Palin makes me want to build a mosque
across all of Alaska every time she burns a cross
Key reference: https://abcnews.go.com/US/sarah-palin-takes-twitter-oppose-ground-mosque/story?id=11194148
Do I think I overstated the liberal talking points of the day, here? Obviously, and hopefully to some comic effect. When you look at how artists from Bob Dylan, to Neil Young, to Henrik Ibsen have gotten famous for dramatizing stories they get straight out of the newspaper, then that's probably something any aspiring artist should try. Shakespeare did a bit of the same thing, perhaps, and historians have argued back and forth on whether his heart was really in his political satires. If I regret anything about this song, it's that the satire isn't harsh enough to be really laugh-out-loud funny. Like, sure, the Klan is evil, and turning Alaska into a giant Al Aqsa is a good pun to reach for, but she had also recently come under scrutiny for shooting wolves from a helicopter, and any satirist worth his salts should be able to to skewer a millionaire who hunts puppies from the sky. A song per day is a tight deadline, and some days I had other stuff happening. Sorry for the lack of dead puppy imagery, rock fans.
|
||||
45. |
Wooden Leg
01:50
|
|||
|
You should be my live-in life coach.
You should be my wooden leg
You should be my bread and butter
You should make me scrambled eggs
You should be my secret lover
You should be my winter coat
You should be my himalayas
You should be a little less remote
I will not be afraid of wanting what the love I need.
Even if I can't tell whether you need anything from me.
I know deep in my heart love doesn't have to be so hard
We can both find what we want. It's easy like trading hockey cards.
You should be my morning coffee
You should froth with steaming milk
You should be my good luck charm
You should put on a little silk
You should be my Mia Wallace
You should be my Penny Lane
You should trust me that I love you
You should stop playing games
Note: I have no idea what this song is about.
|
||||
46. |
In the Army
02:38
|
|||
|
Where can a young man learn how to kill with just a knife, pick up useful business skills and get an edge on life? Where can you earn more than just a little bit of dough, while building strong connections that help everywhere you go?
You can find it in the army, if you give it all you got...
Where can you dance with danger and have a lot of fun?
Where can you meet a plethora of beautiful young women,
learn life's little lessons looking down the barrel of a gun,
and give your mom a heart attack because she thinks you're too young?
You can find it in the army, if you give it all you got...
Do I have to tell you that some writing is fiction? For starters, I was never in the army...
|
||||
47. |
Shakespeare at the Bank
02:44
|
|||
|
Shakespeare at the Bank
G D C C Em C G D
Of the wide world, dreaming on things to come,
Duty so great, which wit so poor as mine
Whenas thy love hath cast his utmost sum
Than unswept stone besmeared with sluttish Time!
As he takes from you, I engraft anew
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,
Of his self love, to stop posterity
Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place
My tongue-tied muse in manners holds her still
Then can no horse with my desire keep pace
Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all
That millions of strange shadows on you tend,
Sweet love, renew thy force, be it not said,
Obviously each line is from one of Shakespeare's sonnets, and the rhyme scheme comes out as quite a different sonnet, partly about a more modern topic, and partly indecipherable, perhaps.
|
||||
48. |
Decent in Bed
01:26
|
|||
49. |
I Love Gay People
02:46
|
|||
|
I love gay people. I just don't love you that way. Because I'm straight. Sorry.
|
||||
50. |
||||
|
the adolescent venting of a child of divorce. the type of quotes that cutters put on messageboard signatures
plodding grade school poetry class lyrics
Same formula, too sentimental. I can see liking it for what it is though
the adolescent venting of a child of divorce. the type of quotes that cutters put on messageboard signatures
it was but in an incomplete
and spasmodic
a fragmentary
and unsumbstantial manner
that the true Folk-spirit
could ever manifest itself
beneath the influences
that pressed upon it
from outside and above
|
||||
51. |
||||
52. |
Electron Directions
03:41
|
|||
|
The direction the electrons flow is opposite the way that the arrows show/'cause we've been drawing these same backwards pictures since back when we really didn't know. // There was never an easy time to erase and redraw perpendicular tiny lines/on every diagram and every schematic so scientists agreed not to care // Now each electrical engineer knows how to speak of up as down and north as south / just like bad actors whose hearts and mouths conduct contrary conversations
|
||||
53. |
Dick Cheney
01:30
|
|||
|
I believe I got a second hand, used-up, old heart. Don't love like it should. Don't do me no good, liable to leave me broke down on the side of the road, used up old heart.
A note about the words: I'd just read in Popular Science that Dick Cheney has replaced his heart with a robotic device that pumps blood at a steady rate. The article put to rest any previous belief that the former Vice President and avid hunter of the most dangerous game may have a pulse.
I started thinking about the mythology of the body, and the way that we have attributed various emotions to various organs. It would be one thing to get a robotic spleen or a robotic stomach. You'd be more popular at parties: "Eddie'll eat anything. He's got a robotic stomach!"
But replacing our hearts with robots is a sentimentally challenging move. That's one of those places where (in spite of the conundrums enumerated in recent Paul Giamatti films) you'd really rather have someone else's version of the real thing than nothing at all.
I don't want to get all Rolling Stones and say I felt sympathy for the Haliburton executive and former senator from Wyoming, but I was at least able to think through the logic of the situation and write this song.
So while I believed the war in Iraq may have been founded on a lie, and may have been engineered in part to financially benefit multimillionaire military contractor and former Vice President Cheney, who reportedly earned over $13M per year during the war, largely from stock options in a military contracting company, and reportedly shot one of his friends in the face, this was primarily a song about medical progress, and a discussion about what makes us human, rather than a piece of political protest.
One needs to reference current events to be relevant, but there's nothing more timeless than the meaning of having a heart, or in that case, not having one.
Did the war in Iraq mentally and physically injure some friends of mine? Yes. But this is a science fiction song in the tradition of Frankenstein, not a song about our first Frankensteinian vice president's politics. Don't get it twisted.
|
||||
54. |
Hipsters in Skinny Jeans
05:41
|
|||
|
There are lyrics to this song, but you probably don't want to know them. Also, there's a free bonus track if you download this entire album, which is still, as of early August 2010, entirely free. It won't be forever, so get on it. On the other hand, the free bonus track will still be free even when you have to pay for the album, so don't hurry too much, and pay for all the other stuff. It's cool. I'll appreciate it.
You might ask, unironically (I said that ironically) why I'm including a free track with a free album. It's because I'm a hipster.
Whatever.
|
||||
55. |
English Class
06:17
|
|||
|
Tell her what you're gonna tell her. Tell her what she already knows. Tell her 'bout the change in the weather, the way the sunlight kisses her toes. Tell her with a song or a story, in less than five hundred words. Telling her is gonna be easy. It's just the getting ready that's so hard. And when the mood is fine and mellow and you both are feeling well, then it's a simple as saying, "hello," if you just show more than you tell...
|
||||
56. |
Dance in the Street
03:32
|
|||
|
D Bm C AmC
Dance in the street til the war is over.
It's the only way it's gonna stop.
When everybody's shakin' it out on the corner
Won't be nobody left to drop
Bombs
Respect is a right for all humanity
Love is stronger than hate
No intelligent God could have given us a mind
And expected us to accept fate.
Dance in the street...
We gotta make a difference in this world
And the best time is while we're alive.
All it takes to save the world
Is just to save one life
Dance...
If not us, who?
If not now, when?
If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I'm only for myself, Baby, what am I?
|
||||
57. |
Flying
02:49
|
|||
|
I can't stop thinking bout you
But it hasn't yet stopped me from trying
If I said I thought we should try again
I guess I'd be lying
but sometimes I feel lonely
and sometimes I feel blue
You're probably feeling sienna
or magenta, but I miss talking to you.
You would make a perfect wife
for someone in another life
and I can't say if I wanted
more than a good time
but sometimes I feel selfish
times I'm downright mean
and it almost seems alright
to call and tell you my dreams.
I was flying through the air
up over the swimming pool
holding on to a chair
I couldn't steer
I had to climb down the wire
to a telephone pole
wished I was there
or I wished you were here
|
||||
58. |
Exceptionally Well
02:20
|
|||
|
It was during the second W administration.
that my friend was briefly pregnant by the man she once said raped her
And no one believed she could have gone back. They said she faked.
We're also fighting a war overseas, with the purpose of hunting down the evildoers and bringing them to justice. And I'm patient and I'm focused, and I will not yield. We must win.
This was during the second W administration.
It was during the second W administration
that my friend was briefly pregnant by the man she once said raped her
and I can't believe she could have gone back. They say she faked.
This was during the second W administration.
As Sylvia Plath once said, I do it exceptionally well
As Sylvia Plath once said, I do it so it feels like hell
Note: I don't normally think artists should explain what their songs mean, but this one is pretty obviously intended to defend an alleged victim against skepticism and isolation from friends who sided with her alleged attacker, if either of them exist, which it clearly wouldn't be my business to reveal, if the song were based on anything like a true story.
In child development classes, you read about psychologists who believe it's important for parents to read scary stories to children, because the children see the parents go back from sounding like monsters right back to being parents, and kids learn that society is mostly okay even if we all get scared sometimes, and kids might also learn that they have to use their own judgment to decide whether and when to trust people.
I spent hours trying to find a quote responding to allegations that the 2000 election was stolen, and eventually just settled on a famous quote about claiming war was a simple battle between good and evil, from someone thought to have stolen an election and thought to have lied in order to start a war, who then went on to cleanly win the 2004 election in a landslide.
If this song disturbs you, good. It disturbs me, too. Sometimes art should disturb us. If Kim Kardashian goes back to Kanye West after he publicly threatens her and then drops off a truckload of flowers at her house, that would be disturbing, too, but it could happen, because America voted for its own possibly abusive ex. Try to believe survivors, because they might need your support, even while presuming innocence of the accused for legal purposes. You can be there for a friend in trauma, without wanting to throw your other friend in jail. Art should disturb us and get us to think through awful situations, so that when they happen, we have some idea how to stay compassionate, and keep our hearts.
Do I like singing in character as a monster? No. But I think this is an important song, and nobody else was going to sing it.
|
||||
59. |
||||
|
Just because some days the medicine doesn't work
Doesn't mean you get to stop taking it
(nobody gets to stop taking it)
Mondays, Fridays, you don't feel like going to work
Might be time you learned to start faking it.
(nobody gets to stop taking it)
they might give you a sticker if you do things well
but if you misbehave you're going straight to hell
Someday you're gonna want a car in the driveway
Have a couple kids and take em speeding down the highway
Do what you're told and do everything the right way
I'll be your Brad Pitt if you'll be my Kiera Knightley
Sorry, Angelina...
I just want to be my self
Just like everybody else
|
||||
60. |
Northern Virginia
06:04
|
|||
|
This is a response to the lyrics of a collaborative song that was written by party guests the night before.
My now-ex delayed me from finishing the album on time in order to get friends over to help me with songs at the last minute. She let someone else plan a surprise party in my apartment, and she passed around a piece of paper and had people write down lyrics, and then told me to sing, while people played.
Someone she or another "friend" invited to the party clearly hated me, and write down something pro-incest. I had other stuff on my mind, and I sang it. I told my now-ex I was not going to post those songs, and I needed my apartment to myself to write and record other songs, to make my self-imposed, arbitrary deadline. She made up reasons why that was impossible, saying she was really close to finishing a paper for school, and just had to work on it right away, and there was no other quiet place to work. It would take her two more years to write that paper, and she would later tell me that my apartment prevented her from focusing, and that was why it took so long, and it was all my fault.
Since writing this, I have learned that "Northern Virginia," was the name of Robert E. Lee's army, so it actually is a part of the South. My belief that the region was named in protest of the Confederacy turned out to have been wishful thinking. I don't care. I still like this song.
But I'm taking down the collaborations from that stressful party.
|
||||
61. |
Safe Drive Home
02:14
|
|||
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