Lyrics from

“Burn The Boogeyman”

Good News

Put down that paper turn off that TV
bad bad news is all you’ll ever see
Let’s have a party
invite all our friends
Then we can decide
how the story ends

Get up every morning here it comes again
here it comes again
Oh no, bloody murder, war, disease and famine and death
well alright, are we having fun yet?
Oh no, someone wants you terrified of taking a breath
but my answer
is tellin’, tellin’ some

Good news good news
put on your dancin’ shoes
Good news, good news
got nothing to lose

Good news can’t be lying
good news can’t be fake
and the good news is that good news
is something we gon’ have to make

Gotta get ourselves together, hold on tight
hold on tight
Oh yeah things get better, better yeah when people unite
unite!, it’s alright
Oh yeah, cause together we see things been kept out of sight
but my answer
is tellin’ tellin’ some

Good news, etc.

Get together
good news
hold on tight
good news
things get better
good news
when we unite
good news
etc.

and ain’t that some real
good news

Dig Down Deep

X marks the spot
X marks the spot

Wind has blown
Rain has fallen
Weary feet have pressed it down
Pilgrims wander aimlessly over
The secret underneath the ground

Souls are lost
In frantic searching
Looking everywhere but here
Priests are chanting
Rock Stars are bleating
What would they do if we had no fear?

You gotta
Dig down deep
Where the bones are buried
Dig down deep
Where the treasure’s hid
Dig down deep
Though the stones are heavy
Dig down deep
You’ll be glad you did

Merchants trading
Armies marching
So much gold and so much blood
So much trouble
For an illusion
The treasure’s buried in the mud

So all aboard
This ship of fools
Cast adrift and tempest tossed
Every eye scans the horizon
For the Paradise we lost

Oo oo so superficial
supermarket man in the mall
Oo oo carve your initials
on the other side of the wall
Oo oo hoard those possessions
clever gadgets, shiny stones
Oo oo or heed the message
the treasure is what cannot be owned

you’ll be glad you did

The Burning of the Blue Light

So we’re running in the teeth of a 60 mile gale
and the seas are rising above the mast
and the bilge is flooding so it’s bail boys bail
or the breath you draw may be your last
we can beg and plead with old Neptune
that he change his mind and he change it soon
but Fortune’s whistling another tune,
when you set sail boys the die was cast

So burn burn burn it bright
that we may see another morning
burn burn for eyes that might
see the burning of the blue light
burn burn burn the blue light

We caught the wind under skies of blue
and joined the Pacific through the Golden Gate
From the wealthy merchants to the lowly crew
for the gold or glory our lust to sate
a blind eye turned to warning signs
from the rotten timbers to the frayed bowlines,
a captain whose compass was Madeira wine
And the vessel’s owners who’re tempting fate

Mother Nature doesn’t suffer fools glad
and woe to anyone who fails to learn
She can be the best friend anybody ever had
but a friendship, brother, you have got to earn
And to make an enemy of this true friend
trust and virtue to offend
to be Nature’s Master you pretend
well, catastrophe just awaits its turn

The Picture Is Outside The Frame

I hung my self portrait
next to the mirror
to watch myself change
as I stayed the same
Years of reflection revealed this surprise
that change has no size
and I realized
that the picture is outside the frame

Outside the frame
outside the frame
your attention stays focused
while you fail to notice
that the picture is outside the frame

At the bar on the corner
I joined with my neighbors in
the beer and the booze and the bitchin’ and blame
The bartender smiled as he recognized
that look in my eyes
when the sucker in you dies
’cause you realize
that the picture is outside the frame

Outside the frame
outside the frame
your attention stays focused
as you fail to notice
that the picture is outside the frame

Then I looked up at the stupid box
that fountain of complaint
where gluttony and avarice
are gorged without restraint
where everyone is whimpering
about evil done to them
while hoarding filthy lucre
and feeding every whim
I saw as it short-circuited
and the box burst into flame
the voice of Mother Nature laughing –
The picture is outside the frame

The River’s Dead

At the courthouse
down the road
sits a woman
got no home
just a heavy load

At the courthouse
down the road
she sits in judgement
of the crime
and the legal code
she says

She says

“The river’s dead
the pigs are fed
and no one’s laughing”

At the courthouse
there’s a statue
blindfold justice
made of stone
it’s dead forever

At the courthouse
law is guilty
of injustice
a dry bone
full of never
she says

the drummer is a drummin’
and the thunder is a comin’
gonna be hell to pay

What I Know

Blood flows like a river
and the river flows like wine
the grapes crawl up the hillside
and I try to unwind
The years they pass like blowing leaves
the days are slow as mud
and the love I feel for you, dear
is like the river when it flood
What I know, what I know,
what I know, what I know
The years they pass like blowing leaves
the days are slow as mud
and the love I feel for you, dear
is like the river when it flood

The wheels come off the wagon
and the wagon off the road
the road won’t take you anywhere
it’s a weight without a load
They coulda seen it comin’
but their eyes were on their prey
and the love I feel for you, dear
is like comin’ home to stay

A plague of locusts gathers
fever stalks the land
princes in their palaces
pretend they’re in command
People are invisible
in the darkness of this night
and the love I feel for you, dear,
is like a ray of light

Daybreak

Sunlight
Pouring through the trees high on the mountain,
flooding cross the flowering meadow
in the morning and a stream is running
Running
through the rocks and down to the valley
bounding on to join in a river
in the morning

Day break, day break, day break
over creation

Sunlight
throwing back the veil of deception
with the sight forever becoming
in the morning and a stream is running
Running
slipping through the Grim Reaper’s fingers
marrying with every becoming
in the morning

Day break, day break, day break
over creation

Everywhere is motion
turn around, turn around
Eruption and explosion
turn around, turn around
and see

Sunlight
glistening through the sweat on my forehead
running down my face as I labor
in the morning and now I’m running
Running
following the stream back up the mountain
singing out my song for the wonder
in the morning

Waiting For The Bus In New Orleans

It’s a hundred degrees
Fry and egg on the sidewalk
Just us evacuees
sittin’ ’round making small talk
Got nowhere to go
But we know we can’t stay here
Don’t nobody know
How long we’ll be away here
But a big wind’s comin’ and we all know what that means
So we’re waitin’ for the bus in New Orleans

Got a big plastic bag
Carry everything I own in
Like I’m waving a flag
Of the country I was born in
Send the National Guard
supposed to guard the nation
But if you look real hard
this is still a plantation
And all their promises ain’t worth a hill of beans
When you’re waitin’ for the bus in New Orleans

Singin’ that old song
About blowin’ my troubles away
Well, the wind sure did blow strong
But trouble’s all that stay
They say we’re making progress, gotta wonder what that means
When you’re waiting for the bus in New Orleans

Bring me the second line
And the Wild Tchoupitoulas
Outta the Lower Nine
come the Uptown Rulas
Bring a big hurricane
That ain’t about the weather
A whole lotta rain
From all of us together
get the president down here, cleaning out latrines
while he’s waitin’ for the bus in New Orleans

Bits and Pieces

Sweeping up the broken glass
Another fight is over
But the scars are gonna last
Tomorrow wasn’t wasted
‘Cause it got her through today
But pieces of her broken dreams
Keep getting in the way
But bits and pieces are all that she has

Bits and pieces all fallen apart
Bits and pieces of a broken heart
Bits and pieces cast off by love and strife
With bits and pieces she was trying to make her life
make her life

Dreaming of beautician’s school
she tried to raise the money
while the dream hung like the moon
She waitressed in Las Vegas
Tended bar in San Berdoo
Worked a truck stop out in Bakersfield
That’s where she met Lou
And bits and pieces seemed to become one

They stuck it out for 30 years
But the children are all grown now
And cryin’ their own tears.
Lou was not a bad man
He just hated being lost
And never really knowing
What he’d bought at such a cost
And bits and pieces can’t hold back the fears

One More Time

Look, over yonder see fitful skies
Blues gonna rain til they blind your eyes
Gotta shield my soul in an acre of mud
Til my soul’s a shield and I’ve understood

That it’s
one more time
the people gotta pay
one more time
gotta suffer and say
There ain’t no Right and their ain’t no Law
until the people won’t take no more

Blisters bubble up on my hands
I can carry a load but I wear the brand
There’s a mighty low ceiling where I crack my head
When I try to stand up tall instead

And it’s
one more time
the people gotta pay
one more time
gotta suffer and say
There ain’t no Right and there ain’t no Law
until the people won’t take no more

Now eternity damn sure welcome me
But here and now we still ain’t free
Cause the plain’s still flooded with a howling lie
And the devil is wearing a suit and tie

And it’s
one more time
the people gotta pay
one more time
gotta suffer and say
There ain’t not Right and their ain’t no Law
until the people won’t take no more

Rise up

The streeets are still, hardly a sound
Newspapers drift along the ground
The vermin run where shadows play
Time don’t march on it’s blown away

Here where Angelina died
One more teenage suicide
How they laughed, oh, how they lied
Pounding in my broken heart
I heard

Rise up!
In defiance
Rise up!
If you wanna live

I lie alone here in my bed
A war is raging in my head
Collapsing buildings bury me
And bricks and bottles set me free

Bombs explode and church bells peel
None excape the grinding wheel
Some will stand and some will kneel
Pounding in my broken heart
I heard

Rise up!

I Ain’t Running Away

Mirror, mirror on the wall
Who is the biggest fool of all
When I get my finger pointing done?
Mirror, mirror tell me true
Are you me or am I you?
Comes to changing things I am the one
I got to face the music
Face the fact
Face the music
I won’t turn my back

I ain’t running away
I want to learn

Mirror, mirror on the wall
I wonder if you’ve counted all
The masks I’ve worn so you wouldn’t see
Mirror, mirror I’m not blind
I dare to look and you remind me
Just how big a fool I can be
I got to face the music
Face the fact
Got to face the music
I can’t turn my back

I ain’t running away
I want to learn

I’m so tired of my own sorry self
I’m so tried trying to be someone else
I’m so tired of replaying these scenes
Someone is speaking, I don’t know what she means

but I ain’t running away
I want to learn

The Drop

I got my zoom lens eye on my telescopic sight
swing 360 degrees
bullshit dropkicked right up throught the ozone layer
I got my zoom lens eye on my microscopic viewfinder
no redneck cracker bushwacker sneakin outta these crosshairs

Don’t let ’em get the drop on you
Don’t let ’em get the drop on you

Got to be elusive, act in mysterious ways
Big game hunters want to trap you in their categories
Bag you, tag you, put you on displays
chameleon changing names and faces,
coming from all kinda places
You think you got the con on their scam …
then wham, bam, allacazam you’re going along with their program

Don’t let ’em get the drop on you
Don’t let ’em get the drop on you

Face front – battlestations
Face left – orientation
Face right – confrontation
Need eyes in the back of your head for scoping out the situation

Don’t let ’em get the drop on you
Don’t let ’em get the drop on you

Lyrics from

“Welcome”

Outbound Train

Tellin’ tales and spinnin’ yarns
Reason fails gotta make up stories
Roll them dice and deal them cards
Trouble never said, “I’m sorry”

Tellin’ time by cigarette
Sun comes up on one last bet
Can’t leave ’til I make some change
to buy a one way ticket on an outbound train

One eyed Jack and Bad Boy Cruz
thought sellin’ crack would make ’em millions
Now they’re sportin’ cement shoes
Trouble don’t care if you’re willin’

Tellin’ time by cigarette
Sun comes up on one last bet
Can’t leave ’til I make some change
to buy a one way ticket on an outbound train

One man lies and one believes
each one dies so what’s the difference?
The truth is what no lie deceives
Trouble offers no forgiveness

Tellin’ time by cigarette
Searchin’ for that secret yet
But I’ll find asylum for the sane
with my one way ticket on an outbound train

Jonny Refused

When Jonny comes marching home again
after Jonny got his gun
all the crowds they sing and cheer
for all the killing done
but when they build their monuments
there’s one name they can’t use
’cause when they called his number
this Jonny refused

Draft Board
got a letter in the mail
greetings from Uncle Sam
At War
it’s either go to jail
or go to Viet Nam
High school
all talk about it
not many want to go
what fool
is gonna squawk about it
you just do what you’re told
a lot of people were not amused
when Jonny refused (refused to go)

Rich boy
go off to college
poor boy go off to war
This boy
may be no scholar
but he damn sure know the score
What for
go fight somebody
some jungle overseas
What’s more
they could be anybody
they’re not my enemies
Who then is left standing accused
When Jonny refused (refused to go)

I know will die someday
but not that way
not that way

Jonny refused

The Hunted

Don’t talk, don’t make a sound
they’re outside the door
Be still, or we’ll be found
and then forevermore
We’ll be lost
In the glare of that blinding light
We’ll be lost
falling into that empty night
forever

Your face is everything
that I want to know
Your eyes envisioning
where I want to go
We were lost
and we thought we had found a place
We were lost
from the old ways, we’d been released

Do you remember
the soldier saying
‘You’re on your own’
Do you remember
we walked away
without knowing
what he meant

Hush now, I think they’re gone
this may be our chance
Come now, we’ve got to run
while fortune relents
We are lost
but that don’t mean that we are done
We are lost
but as long as we can go on
keep going
keep going
keep going

Old John Brown

A shadow fell across the land
Astride the horn of plenty
stood the shackle and the brand
The children of Abraham
knew the cotton and tobacco
left blood upon their hands
And Ol John Brown said Christ has come and gone
Hell’s where one man owns another one
There’s no justice, justice must be done by hand

A pale horse came riding in
From the heart of bleeding Kansas
and the line through slave and free
John Brown was riding him
A fever in him rising out of
Osawatomie
And Old John Brown said this land is accursed
Only blood can quench this soil’s thirst
Only death the chains of slavery burst apart

They opened the seventh seal
and fell on Harper’s Ferry
where the grapes of wrath are stored
But broken and forced to yield
the rising was defeated by
a different Angel’s sword
And Old john Brown he stood the gallows proud
John Wilkes Booth he stood there in the crowd
In the distance gathered dark the clouds of war

Now, children, we have heard the tale
And the moral of this story, well,
it still has to be found
Cause here where so many fell
the Home of the Brave
is six feet underground
And Ol John Brown, in body surely dead
His spirit roams this land that honor fled
Curses, still, the chains inside your head today

Learn

Terror rains from a cloudless sky
Can’t even count the people had to die
makes you wonder,
are we ever gonna learn?

Tears have swollen rivers of grief
Filling an ocean of disbelief
makes you wonder,
are we ever gonna learn?

Rage explodes in a feverish brain
Run for cover, here we go again
makes you wonder,
are we ever gonna learn?

Suffering can only multiply
There’s only blindness in an eye for an eye
makes you wonder,
are we ever gonna learn?

oh-oh, oh-oh
learn

Who are the fools, who are the wise?
Where is the truth in a world full of lies?
makes you wonder,
are we ever gonna learn?

Where is the Justice in all these crimes?
When even one time is one too many times
makes you wonder,
are we ever gonna learn?

A thousand years loaded on our backs
the locomotive on these dead end tracks
makes you wonder,
are we ever gonna learn?

Who’ll be the first to lay their weapons aside?
Who’ll the last one to have died-in a war?
makes you wonder,
are we ever gonna learn?

oh-oh, oh-oh
learn

Why Can't We Tell The Truth?

Don’t go callin’ me tonight
Sayin’ everything’s alright
Don’t go tellin’ me those lies
Anyone can see your eyes
Is it just some kinda nasty habit
You don’t trust anyone?

Why can’t we tell the truth?
Why can’t we tell the truth?
Why can’t we tell the truth?
You and I

You think you’re the only one
We each have our separate sun
Go on play that losin’ game
Hang on to your secret shame
Is it so hard to be uncertain
to live each day alive?

Why can’t we tell the truth?
Why can’t we tell the truth?
Why can’t we tell the truth?

You and I

The Geronimo Paradox

Imperial geometers draw polygons in space
But it takes General Miles to close frontiers
Extensions of the calculus full of mechanistic grace
Still need men with guns to turn the gears

This axiom of Power shatters on the paradox
Its symmetry suffers this fatal blow
The truth, it lurks in ambush
high up in the desert rocks
and it answers to the name Geronimo

Geronimo, Geronimo

A band of Chiricahua at the edge of space and time
Belonging to a place no one could own
Knew they didn’t stand a chance but fought on just the same
That their story would outlive injustice done

This axiom of Power shatters on the paradox
Its symmetry suffers this fatal blow
The truth, it lurks in ambush
high up in the desert rocks
and it answers to the name Geronimo

Geronimo, Geronimo

Geronimo surrendered to the promises of peace
But the White Man’s every promise is a lie
The living dead now wander cross this land they laid to waste
But the name Geronimo will never die!

This axiom of Power shatters on the paradox
Its symmetry suffers this fatal blow
The truth, it lurks in ambush
high up in the desert rocks
and it answers to the name Geronimo

Geronimo, Geronimo

River without end

They changed all the names
paving over fields where we used to dance
They twisted the frame
We ain’t even in the picture no more
All we’re left is grief
to replace our shattered belief
remember

River, it never end
Over and over just another bend
Heavens asunder may rend
but over and over
the broken will mend

We bury our dead
knowing they’ll put a mall on top of the graves
The horizon was red
now it’s just a shiny, virtual sky
so how much was real
of all our youthful ideals?

And it’s all over now
in this defeat
everywhere you turn you see deceit
And you’re hearing my words
and they don’t mean a thing
but I offer my hand and the songs I sing

River, it never end
Over and over just another bend
Heavens asunder may rend
but over and over
the broken will mend

The struggle ain’t over, it’s a river without end
The struggle ain’t over, it’s a river without end

Harmony

Looking for the need-fires of Beltane
Gotta burn a hole for the cleansing rain
The murrain kills the cattle it kills the sheep
The murrain even drinks of the tears we weep

So sing that harmony
bring that harmony
here to me
Sing that harmony
bring that harmony
here from me

In a distant mirror I see the flame
It was through this portal the healer came
Came in on the wings of a melody
came to sing a song of our being free

So sing that harmony
bring that harmony
here to me
Sing that harmony
bring that harmony
here from me

Oh fire, burn away disease
Oh choir, sing those harmonies
Oh fire, burn away disease
Oh choir, sing

If we can expel the triumphant beast
finally the prisoner will be released
All our ancient fears we will cast away
the music of the spheres we will learn to play

(refrain)

Recognize yourself

I turn myself invisible
to navigate these streets
To see and not be seen is what
it takes to make it back intact
Out here on the wild frontier
Where American dreamers meet
You can see the future
by avoiding eye contact

Whenever you see
anybody else
Do you recognize yourself?

People every shade of skin
know the dollar bill is green
Anyone who had enough
would not be out here otherwise
Reugees from everywhere
the dollar bill has been
It’s the one I.D. that
everybody recognize

Systems of immunity
fail to protect
when a body can’t remember
who it is and who it ain’t
So what is community
when histories intersect
and when a house is falling
does it need a coat of paint?

Whenever you see
anybody else
Do you recognize yourself?

What It's All About

When the money runs out
and the fuel runs out
and the water runs out
you gonna find out what it’s all about
find out what it’s all about

When your food runs out
and your luck runs out
and your welcome runs out
you gonna find out what it’s all about
find out what it’s all about

Where are you sisters, where are your brothers
Where are your fathers, where are your mothers
Where are your relatives when everyone believes
you’re nothing
if you got nothing?

When the road runs out
and the time runs out
then there is no doubt
you’re gonna
find out what it’s all about
find out what it’s all about

Circle 'Round

I am speaking to birds
Pigeons and sparrows out here in the plaza
Astride a great charger, Simon Bolivar
And the doctors can’t cure me

I told them all
How the woman had come across oceans of time
How she’d told of the war at the end of the world
And she’d come for the children

She held my hand
And she told of the cannibals ruling this place
How they fatten us up to be part of their meal
And she taught us to sing:

Circle ’round and ’round
Weave us a tapestry
spin us a tale
Circle ’round and ’round
Raise up the floodtides
and call down the gale
Circle ’round and ’round
Born of the Furies
to die in the deep,
All the young lovers
a promise do keep,
The Horsemen still ride
but one night they will sleep
Circle ’round and ’round and ’round and ’round and ’round

But they don’t see a thing
They chant incantations into their machines
They scratch secret codes on the chart by my name
And they’re taking my memory

I tried not to laugh
When the pearl in my earring turned into the moon
And I took off my clothes and I danced down the hall
All I want is to sing:

Circle ’round and ’round
Weave us a tapestry
spin us a tale
Circle ’round and ’round
Raise up the floodtides
and call down the gale
Circle ’round and ’round
Born of the Furies
to die in the deep,
All the young lovers
a promise do keep,
The Horsemen still ride
but one night they will sleep
Circle ’round and ’round and ’round and ’round and ’round

Proving Ground

All of us atomic orphans
scattered out across these killing fields
From the cradle to the coffin
dancing through the radioactive yields
Doesn’t matter what your nation,
doesn’t matter what country or race
Planetary situation,
everybody here from the same place

Just because you didn’t do it
doesn’t mean you don’t have to explain
Just because you ain’t been through it
doesn’t mean you cannot feel the pain
Didn’t anybody tell you
didn’t anyone give you the news
Maybe they can buy and sell you
you’re the one who’s gonna have to choose

When there’s a hole torn in the sky
And the world’s turned upside down
Everybody finds themselves
standing on the Proving Ground

People got a lot of questions
only get an answering machine
With the power of suggestion
You should keep your eyes glued to the screen
Telling you to duck and cover
waiting for the ‘big one’ to arrive
Even make you love BIG BROTHER
’cause you’re so afraid to be alive

When there’s a hole torn in the sky
And the world’s turned upside down
Everybody finds themselves
standing on the Proving Ground

Paradise Is Right Here

I want to sink my hands into the dark brown earth
I want to bathe my soul in good, clean dirt
I want to stretch my arms, embrace the sky
’cause I want to get to heaven before I die
Paradise is right here
Though none alone can see it clear
A little love and you will see
Paradise takes you and me
Together
I want to dive in the waters of the deep blue sea
Gotta feel that water swallowing me
I want to shout hallelujah when the storm winds blow
’cause I want to get to heaven before I go
Paradise is right here
Though none alone can see it clear
A little love and you will see
Paradise takes you and me
Together
Oh life
Oh life
Oh life
I belong to you

Lyrics from

“A Wild Bouquet”

This Is Your Time
I woke up
to the sound of gunfire
And I went to my window
to take a look outside
Now there’s a belltower
looking down on the street below
And on the face of the clock in the belltower are
the words,
This is your time,
This is your timeI jumped back
Like I’s hit by a live wire
And I felt all over my body
like I mighta died
Suddenly I’m standing
Looking down on an open grave
And the face of the man in the grave is my face sayin,
This is your time,
This is your timeWell, the moon will rise
and the stars will shine
But only you are gonna live
your lifeI fell down
through the roof of the Empire
And I land on the theater stage
sword at my side
The crowd is chanting:
“Slay the dragon, kill the beast!”
And I see the face of the devil on a man in the front row
saying,
This is your time,
This is your time
Show Me a Country
(where love is the currency)Oo Baby, I heat up seeing you in this light
And for a moment nothing needs any explanation
Chemistry, biology make poetry tonight
Trouble is there’s more to this than these sensations
It’s a give and take every body needs
But is it love we make, or are we just making deals?Will it be legal tender
pass between you and me
Or can we find a country
where love is the currency?
Show me a country where love is the currencyMaybe we can find a place where Robin Leach ain’t been
Where not only can we drop our drawers, we can drop
our defenses
You tell me I think too much about the state we’re in
But warning labels on a beautiful body can mess with
your senses
It’s a marketplace, satisfaction no one can guarentee
It’s a battlefield where there is no victoryWill it be legal tender
pass between you and me
Or can we find a country
where love is the currency?
Show me a country where love is the currency
Child of Love
I roll along just inches off the pavement
and only three or four feet from your face
and we’re trusting one another with our lives now
we both could disappear without a trace
Now the crack addicted baby’s back there crying
and the cops are outside busting shopping carts
and they’re killing guys like me for a lousy fifty bucks
as concrete fills the cracks in broken heartsSo let me make my confession
to the crime I’m guilty of
In a world rewarding hatred
I was born a child of loveThe prostitutes are desperate for the business
and their customers are desperate for relief
The condoms and syringes line the gutters side by side
and a word of love is met with disbelief
The holocaust is right outside my window
Every evil you can think of has been done
The apocalypse has come and gone unnoticed
And I still get up to greet the morning sunAs I drop off socialites down at the Palace
and I wonder what the hell I’m doing here
I remember that my mother and my father were in love
and joyful must have been some of the tears
And when my life is over
and they lay my soul to rest
I just hope that I may hear a voice whisper in my ear
telling me did I pass the testSo let me make my confession
to the crime I’m guilty of
In a world rewarding hatred
I was born a child of love
So let me make my confession
to the crime I’m guilty of
and may I be worthy of
be it strength or be it weakness
I was born a child of love
Empty Handed
East of Albion
where the sun comes up
O’er the field of battle
that tore asunder body and soulOh, Jerusalem
where did sin come from
to render unto Caesar
what Caesar plundered and stoleThe camel and the needle’s eye
Who by birth doth qualify?
The truth is told, so is the lie
from the inceptionWhy can’t we remember
that we all return
empty handedDown on Mission street
memory’s erased
and history is buried
by everyone escaping their pastOh, Magdelena
when your son comes up
and goes to seek his fortune
How long is his heart gonna last?We all go out to stake a claim
Invoking some almighty name
Find somebody else to blame
for this deceptionWhy can’t we remember
that we all return
empty handedLooking out across that sea of red
where the Promised Land is said to be
There hypocrisy is born and bred
in the heat of revenge
and the cold wind of our fearWhy can’t we remember
that we all return
empty handed
Shelter
Shelter
in a cove along the coast
Take me in, take me inShelter
passing through me like a ghost
Take me in, take me inThat longing look,
the child in your eyes
The strength it took,
to grow to be wise
Such tenderness
see through any disguise,
Take me in, take me in to yourShelter
I am battered by the storm
Take me in, take me in
Shelter
You know I mean you no harm
Take me in, take me inThat longing look,
the child in your eyes
The strength it took
to grow to be wise
Such tenderness
see through any disguise
Take me in, take me in
Ethel Prays for Cab Drivers
The nights are long
The streets are cold
I’m here behind the wheelSome times need
a hand to hold
and I can almost feelPrayin’ for me
Alone in her room
Prayin’ for me
In a tenderloin tomb
Prayin’ for me
Ethel is there,
kneeling in prayer
Prayin’ for me, prayin for meI have no faith
I have no god
and the wounds are slow to healShe got heart disease
and vericose veins
but I know Ethel’s realPrayin’ for me
Alone in her room
Prayin’ for me
In a tenderloin tomb
Prayin’ for me
when Death is my rider, she’s alongside,
prayin’for me, prayin’for meIf she’s saved
one driver’s life
I may never knowBut every night
as I leave the yard
I thank her even so
The Trouble with You
We tried on all the clothes
on the racks at Thrift Town
All the costumes and the uniforms,
all the throwaway identityThe damage had been done
long before we hit town
All the pieces come apart
but in the wreckage there was you and meThe trouble with you
is the trouble with me
Never to be long
where we long to be
Always looking through
eyes that long to see
The trouble with you
is the trouble with meWe tried to sing a song
no one had a name for
We got caught up in machinery
that turns emotions into goldIt took our broken hearts
to remind us what we came for
And that love’s the only thing that people make
that can’t be bought or soldYou happen to be
You happen to be
loving me, loving youThe trouble with you
is the trouble with me
Never to be long
where we long to be
Always looking through
eyes that long to see
The trouble with you
is the trouble with me
Room in the World
Tyger, tyger burning bright
but the forest’s all cut down
Hell and heaven finely wed
but the poet’s gagged and bound
The whiplash of an accident
is progress down this road
The wealth of nations harvested
from bloody seeds they sowedTrue love
Is there room in the world
for such a love?Body to body
soul to soulInnocence a legal matter
since crime became the law
Experience a sacred rite
since truth is always false
Holy is what holy does
and Holy’s all that lives
But all life is for taking now
who’s left that forgives?Is it out of fashion?
Is it out of luck?
Is it out of desperation?
Is it just for reproduction?Will you give me your body
if I give you my word
Do I have to be Jesus Christ
to touch my soul to yours?True love
Is there room in the world
for such a love?
So, What Is Forever?
Come into the world, little one
open up your eyes
Come into this life, little one
fill it with your cries
Waiting here for you, little one
in every loving caress
A promise is made
and a promise is keptSo What is forever?
And what is always?
A river so long and an ocean so wide?
It’s just that whenever
you need someone near you,
someone to love you
we’ll be by your sideThings fall apart, little one
and nothing can be done
But heavy is the heart, little one
that beats all alone
When your bridges don’t cross over, little one
and your hope is betrayed
This promise will be kept
with the love it was madeSo What is forever?
And what is always?
A river so long and an ocean so wide?
It’s just that whenever
you need someone near you,
someone to love you
we’ll be by your side
Deep Down
Stumble down along the broken asphalt
You see it laid across the heaving earth
Mumble sounds you know the wind will swallow
You count some hours
You count some dollars
You count some numbers
But is that all that your life is worth?Deep down
Under the darkened waters
Deep down
Under the rolling sea
Deep down
All of you sons and daughters
Down inside of meBroken open like a robin’s egg shell
Bare naked as the day you were born
There is a witness and they’re standing in a doorway
You see a shadow
You make a judgement
You are that witness will your testimony be foresworn?You can call it anything you want to
It will answer any name that you give
Ain’t no credentials given, ain’t no deals made
Sure as you’re born here
You’re gonna die here
So what else matters but the code of honor that you live?Deep down
Under the darkened waters
Deep down
Under the rolling sea
Deep down
All of you sons and daughters
Down inside of me
I’m Ready
When I opened up my morning mail
I found a Bible prophecy
It said the End Time is approaching
The Truth would be revealed to me
How the wicked will be punished
When the Judgement Day arrives
And the key to my salvation
Is only $19.95!After all these centuries
and all these tribulations
after all these prophecies
and all these revelationsI’m Ready, let me tell you I’m ready, Yes I’m ready,
for a change!
(repeat)At the moment any light would do
There is so much here to see
I try to keep an open mind, I do
But it just fills up with debris
Hell, I’ll join the Zapatistas
Before I’ll give you a dime
If Eternity costs money, man
I don’t even have the time(repeat bridge and chorus)Is that heaven?
Is that heaven in the air?
Is that heven?
Is that heaven anywhere?
Is that heaven?
Is that heaven to be found?
Is that heaven?
I want mine on solid ground.
I See the Light
I walked the valley
only strong men survive
I ain’t no strong man
but I come out alive
There is no reason
that I’m still here
But Fortune is smiling
as I disappearChorus:
I see the light
But it don’t see me
I see the light
How must I be?
So I run and run
trying to be someone
just to end up one more teardrop
in the seaI taunted heaven
I tempted fate
I measured my burdens
against the world’s weight
There is no reason
that I can name
But Fortune is smiling
Has it no shame?Chorus:A sea of faces
signify the times
Numbered and nameless
The laws and the crimes
I recognize no one
not even myself
Fortune is smiling
as the next hand is dealtChorus:

Lyrics from

“San Francisco”

The Land of Miracles
If you been crossed, have spells,
can’t hold money,
want your loved ones back.
Want luck?
Got nature problems?
Want to get rid of a strange affliction?
She has the remedy
Results guaranteedFrom the Land of Miracles
comes Miss Tiffany and she says
“Don’t give up
Don’t give up”If you seek to find
a sure-fire woman
can do the thing’s that’s needed,
Reveal all the hidden secrets,
evil eyes and lurking dangers
One visit’s all you need
Satisfaction doubly guaranteedSouthern born
spiritualist
has solutions to the mysteries of the
Deep South
Miss Tiffany
does what others only claim to do
She works her power
to satisfy your heart’s desireFrom the Land of Miracles
comes Miss Tiffany and she says
“Don’t give up
Don’t give up”
The Love of Mariann
In a moonlit moment stolen from a field of lonely ones
Came a vision, like and angel, came and then was gone again
Shaken, I ran blindly on the way I had been going
All I had left of that moment was the name of MarianneHungry months of ragged journey finally brought me home again
To find the doors all chained and bolted, all I’d loved abandoned
I felt the life run out of me as if my veins were open
A tiny light shone in that darkness ’twas the love of MarianneThe love, the love of Marianne
The love, the love of Marianne
Did I deserve, the love of Marianne?Crawling up out of the ruins of all I had lived for
Come to face my folly, taste my poison, know the wrong I’d done
Every lie I’d told myself was coming back to shame me
When through my lips there passed a word of truth and it was Marianne
Phantoms dancing, shadows, ghosts, illusions dead and dying
Knowing now I am alone and so alone must start again
Down a road of my own making to share this gift I’m given
Now I labor to be worthy of the love of MarianneThe love, the love of Marianne
The love, the love of Marianne
Did I deserve the love of Marianne?
Ball and Chain
Got it painted up shiny and bright
just like it was light
just like it was light
The wings of an angel
carry you in flight
But it don’t cast no shadow
only leave a stain
only leave a stain
gotta be that ball and chain, ball and chainBall and chain, ball and chain
gotta let go of that ball and chainSend us an oracle now
got it speaking in tongues
got it speaking in tongues
making digital prophecy
out of silicone lungs
Don’t you see the hand of that man
sold us so much pain,
sold us so much pain
gotta be that ball and chain, ball and chainBall and chain, ball and chain
Gotta let go of that ball and chainAll the centuries the shackles been on
sunk in to our bones
sunk in under our bones
’til we can’t imagine living
without having ’em on
Ask yourself who is suffering now
and who stands to gain,
who stands to gain
keep us clutching that ball and chain, ball and chainBall and chain, ball and chain
Gotta let go of that ball and chain
Read the Indictment
In the beginning were words,
blazing, radiant
promising words
Then they were followed by swords,
mighty, thundering
punishing swords
And by which weapon was most evil done?Read the indictment
to all assembled here
Read the indictment
what have we to fear?
Read the indictment
of all our suffering
Read the indictment
You be the judgeThey launched a holy crusade
oh, Jerusalem
holy crusade
To waste, the land it was laid
fields of massacre
mountains of dead
And what seed planted in this soil shall grow?Read the indictmentWelcome the angel of death
Oh, sweet merciful
angel of death
Welcome the angel of life
untamed, merciless
angel of life
When all the Great Men of this earth shall fallRead the indictment
You be the judge
They All Come Down
The mongoloid guitarist sings La Bamba
Someone whispers “Chiva” to ya every twenty feet
The Mexican evangelist is shouting “Christ is King!”
I’m half expecting Jesus to appear on 16th street because
They all come down
to my neighborhood
They all come down
where they’ll be understood
They all come down
for a change of mood
Because they all come downOld black men sell late nights at the bus stop
Dilapidated hookers offer hand jobs for a dime
The cops are sitting inside Georgie’s Teriyaki Donuts
Itching, twitching junkies flood the streets when it’s that time because
They all come down
to my neighborhood
They all come down
where they’ll be understood
They all come down
for a change of mood
Because they all come downBoys all look like girls at Este Noche
Girls all look like boys at Muff Dive bar and no grill
The children of America make believe on weekend nights
When you’re eyeball deep in bullshit, I guess this place seems really real because
They all come down
to my neighborhood
They all come down
where they’ll be understood
They all come down
for a change of mood
Because they all come down
Fallen Angel
I see you’re going to shoot another scene
Can you count how many has it been?
The light it shines
The tape it winds
Your body moves
The man designs
Fallen angel will you fly again?We can laugh but once I seen you crying
Pay a price and don’t know what you’re buying
Your body moves
The tape it winds
But, you, the glass eye
Never finds
Fallen angel will you fly again?There’s the sigh and
There’s the moan
There’s the cry and right on cue
You get it done
You got a job to doThey say they’re only satisfying needs
But you been inside what this hunger feeds
Your body moves
The tape it winds
The camera seeks
But cannot find
Fallen angel will you fly again?
Fly again
When I Get to Heaven
Bone, bone, flesh and bone
Who’s the God created guns and money?
Gone, gone, come and gone
Promised us the land of milk and honey
Shalom, we keep saying
Shalom, we keep praying
Shalom
All the children of Abraham
Shalom, we keep hearing
Shalom, we keep fearing
Shalom
All the children of Abraham
Here I amBorn, born a child is born
Anybody got the keys to Eden
Thorn, thorn rose and thorn
Ricochet between Faith and Reason
Shalom, we keep saying
Shalom, we keep praying
Shalom
All the children of Abraham
Shalom, we keep hearing
Shalom, we keep fearing
Shalom
All the children of Abraham
Here I amAnd when I get to heaven
I’m gonna find that man
I’m gonna tell him, ‘Mister, you made a mess of everything!
And don’t you blame your children
We done all you told us
And all we ever wanted was a little justice’
Shalom, we keep saying
Shalom, we keep praying
Shalom
All the children of Abraham
Shalom, we keep hearing
Shalom, we keep fearing
Shalom
All the children of Abraham
Here I Am
Smile
Well, I make people happy
but I don’t make men rich
so I’m stranded on rocks
between ocean and beach
and the tide it is rising’
and the clouds they are gathering’
Will you tell me again why you want me to smile?You got the power
and you got the privilege
You name the countries
’cause you won the war
So why do you need the slave to look happy?
And why do want the whore to like it?
And why do you need the children to love you?
Will you tell me again why you want me to smile?I’ve sung and I’ve danced
since I was a boy
To share with my fellows
my sorrow and joy
just to find it worth less
than the least of your property
Will you tell me again why you want me to smile?Well, you spend untold millions
to make sure we know
You’ve won every battle
you’ve slain every foe
but you forgot to kill me
and I ain’t the only one
Will you tell me again why you want me to smile?
The Wound
Rain run down the gutter
Carrying off a pool of blood
The ambulance takes another
Knowing this is a wound that will not heal
It will not healWords run down the pages
Carrying off the people’s blood
Burying the memory
But this is a wound that will not heal
It will not healTears run down our  faces
Carrying off ideals of youth
But not even surrender
Is mending the wound that will not heal
It will not heal
Relatively Einstein
He was working in a little patent office in Bern
He was getting kinda desperate for a living to earn
He couldn’t get a job with the education he had
In fact, as a student he was really pretty bad
He wanted to live with the woman he loved
You had to get married back in 1905
He was bummed out, stressed out, wondering what it’s all about
Had a problem with the Universe no one else had figured out
Science
He was thinking up a storm
Science
He knew he’s getting warm
Science
Picking through the clues
Science
With his radical viewsLonging for understanding is eternal (Einstein said)
Longing for understanding is eternal (Einstein said)
Don’t want to be left alone
Don’t want to be left aloneHe found some flaws in the physics of Newton
He thought that maybe he could make a little contribution
Everybody knows the rest of Einstein’s story
But here’s a little part of it they’re always ignoring
The secret of the Theory of Relativity is:
I’m related to you and you’re related to me
There gotta be a difference in what each one see
But there ain’t no “I” if there ain’t no “we”!
Science
he really made a dent
Science
in how we see the firmament
Science
And now it’s time to face the fact
Science
we gotta change the way we act
Out West
I never understood the cowboy thing
and I come from as far west as it gets
Momma did, grandmomma too
I do remember butchertown, the slaughterhouses and the tanneries,
stevadores and spanish dancers, Dashiell Hammett and the Red ChineseOut west, way out west
Where I come from
Out west, way out west
Where I call home
Out west, way out west
Where I come from
Out west, way out west
Boots and saddles South of MarketThe Spanish had their missions there
and the fishermen on the wharf have their crab nets
But I ain’t seen too many buckeroos
I do remember demonstrations, riot squads and bloody heads,
Black Panthers, Little Red Books, the Family Stone and the Grateful DeadOut west
By the rolling fog
Out west
Where we do the dog
Out west
Behind the Green Door
Out west
Soddom and Gemorrah
Spare Parts
I found a penny that is older than I am
probably worth more than me, too
Taken as a whole I’m just another poor man
costing society more than I produce
But then again
maybe if I sold one of my lungs
Perhaps a kidney, maybe a spleen
Even a testicle or an eye I could spare
I might be worth something to someone, somewhereSpare parts for sale
someone must need
Spare parts for sale
some part of me
Spare parts for sale
So I can finally say
I am somebody!I could end up inside of some diplomat
negotiating peace on earth
Another part could be in an artistocrat
can you imagine what I’d be worth?
Now all I need is
some kind of marketing strategy
Put up a Web Site or take out an add
I could sell futures on the Stock Exchange
I finally figured out the American Way!
St. Anthony’s
Hungry?Go down Golden Gate and Jones
Anthony’s, St. Anthony’s
Put some flesh back on my bones
Anthony’s, St. Anthony’s
Maybe they can’t save my soul
Anthony’s, St. Anthony’s
But they damn sure put soup in my bowl
Anthony’s, St. Anthony’sThey don’t preach and they don’t pray
just feed the hungry everyday
and if they tell me, “Thank the Lord.”
just pass the biscuits and I’ll be sure to say,
Amen, AmenHungry?Take a number, get in line
Plenty food for everyone
‘Round the block it winds its way
Line grows longer every dayWe must be a sight to see
but tourists prefer scenery
Well let ’em ride the Cable Cars
I’m just gonna thank my lucky stars
Amen, AmenHungry?
At my Father’s Grave
I never knew the man, just the memory
of my Momma cryin’ and her tellin’ me,
“It ain’t nothin’, Baby,
I’m just missing your Daddy.”It was a strange disease and I was only three
but ever since he died people come tellin’ me,
“Your Father was a wonderful man,
you know a lot of people loved him.”Now I’m standing at my Father’s grave staring at the stone
What lies there beneath the earth besides decaying bone
Knowing were it not for him, alive I would not be
Wondering what remains of him here inside of meNow I’ve lived longer than my Father did
Would I have made him proud of the life I’ve lived?
I know he used the time he had
tryin’ to make things betterA Star of David shines over a soldier’s grave
but they don’t symbolize what the man believed
The stars in his heaven were red
and he marched in a people’s armyNow I’m standing at my Father’s grave staring at the stone
What lies there beneath the earth besides decaying bone
Knowing were it not for him alive I would not be
Wondering what remains of him here in side of meOh Father
I never knew
Oh Father
I never knewI never knew

Lyrics from

“Feast of Fools”

River Without End
They changed all the names
paving over fields where we used to dance
They twisted the frame
We ain’t even in the picture no more
All we’re left is grief
to replace our shattered belief
rememberRiver, it never end
Over and over just another bend
Heavens asunder may rend
but over and over
the broken will mendWe bury our dead
knowing they’ll put a mall on top of the graves
The horizon was red
now it’s just a shiny, virtual sky
so how much was real
of all our youthful ideals?And it’s all over now
in this defeat
everywhere you turn you see deceit
And you’re hearing my words
and they don’t mean a thing
but I offer my hand and the songs I singRiver, it never end
Over and over just another bend
Heavens asunder may rend
but over and over
the broken will mendThe struggle ain’t over, it’s a river without end
The struggle ain’t over, it’s a river without end
I Am Confused

I got lost where the tracks run out
and trains don’t run no more
In between faith and doubt
Is this a game?, well then who’s keeping score?!
Oh I,
How did I lose I don’t remember giving up
Oh I,
I am confused has anybody got directions?
Oh I don’t know, but I want to
Oh I don’t know

I got a job but it don’t pay
and it ain’t what I do
This world makes me feel like I’m in the way
I say excuse me please, I was just passing through
Oh I,
How did I lose I don’t remember giving up
Oh I,
Must be the shoes got me walking round and round in circles

Sam Cooke said a change is gonna come
and I believe it will
Just wish I knew where it was coming from
Could be a sparrow land on my window sill
Oh I
How did I lose I don’t remember giving up
Oh I
I am confused, has anybody got directions?
Oh I don’t know, but I want to
Oh I don’t know

Feel Good

Nobody start out wanting to hurt nobody
Nobody start out wanting to hurt no one
But somehow it gets turned around
inside out and upside down
’til a simple little pleasure
got to hurt somebody else’s feelings

I just want to feel good without making anybody feel bad

Get on up you can feel it,
Get on up and feel good!

This ain’t gonna make the morning headlines
This ain’t gonna make the evening news
But we all need somebody else
to help enjoy ourselves
Do I have to put you down
to jump for joy and jubilation?!

I just want to feel good without making anybody feel bad

Sin and redemption
pleasure and pain
Don’t take advice
only from your brain
Innocent schoolgirl to
wise old sage
knows there is more to life
than sorrow or rage

Get on up you can feel it,
Get on up and feel good!

Lucky Day

Out here driving, see the world through this windshield
Not arriving, just paying for my next meal
Take a rich man out to dine at the Fairmont
Take a poor man punching suds in a restaurant
Ain’t no winners
Just beginners
and any fool can play
It’s your lucky day

Some fandango going on in my back seat
Wango tango, crackhead cannot be discreet
Reach the projects, he say, “Wait for me, here’s twenty bucks?”
I don’t object, I just say, “Don’t press your luck.”
Ain’t no losers
Just excuses
and any fool can say
It’s your lucky day

Hey, hey lucky day
Got the will and not the way
Count my stars and count my pay
Still ain’t found my lucky day

I’ve got my wheel of fortune
I steer it with my hands
I’d love to see a miracle
but it ain’t in my plans
I never know who’ll get in next
But I know somebody will
I’m wishin’ and I’m hopin’
but that don’t pay my bills

Early AM, take some guy down to Artichoke Joe’s
Texas Hold ’em, that’s where all his money goes
See folks scramblin’ just trying to keep a date
Seems a gambler is the only one to challenge fate
All you dreamers
All you schemers
in this wild bouquet
It’s your lucky day

Lift Me Up

Who’s got the ticket
that I don’t have to buy?
Will work for food, will work for life
’til the day that I die
I’m a free woman, I ain’t no slave
got no warrants out on me
still, there is one substance
I will allow to possess me
and it’ll

Lift me up
Take me to another place
Lift me up
To a world that I can face
Lift me up
Out from under the grinding wheel
Lift me up
The way that music makes me feel

Suffer, why do we
Suffer, why do we
Suffer, why do we
Suffer

Does it come from outer space or
another galaxy?
Is it our invention
or is it our discovery?
No earthly priest or president
can ever claim it as his own
There may be nothing sacred
but this feeling I have known
and it’ll

Lift me up

Walk On

Ain’t no time left
on my calendar
only now and then
Staring down
into this photograph
I don’t know where or when
and I hear the voice of angels:

“Walk on, walk on
truly, truly I say,
walk on through this place”

Waves are crashing
like they have forever
out here at Land’s End
All the words, all the chemicals
machines that called you friend
And I hear the voice of angels:

Walk on, walk on
truly,truly I say
walk on through this place

Secrecy is sewn, like a seed is sewn
Secrecy is sewn, like a seed is sewn
(Testimony, before the law,
Testimony, make a judgement)

You were raving
full of medication
your love’s death to mourn
they restrained you, chained you
to a gurney
dying to be born

The Ballad of Laughing Sal
She got into my cab
downtown at Mason and O’Farrell
I had my doubts about her,
’cause she wasn’t wearing shoes
She knew what I was thinking,
she said,”Turn your meter on,
I know that time is money, son
that’s why the poor ain’t got no history.
Now take me to the Cliff House ’cause
I’ve got to meet the captain
the ship sails with the morning tide
there are some things we can’t choose
Don’t worry I’m gon’ pay you,
here’s a hundred dollar bill,
I am a Keeper of the Temple of the Broken Wind
And I guard the key to mystery.””To Believe in me you don’t have to
Don’t need no leap of faith no how
What you really need is the laughter
And you can get it from Laughing Sal”I wasn’t really worried
Hell, I had the hundred dollars
drive a cab a couple years
believe me, nothin’s ever strange
She said, “You look like DeNiro,
that don’t mean that you believe
But faith is one thing you won’t need
to see what happens in the everafter.
I’ll show you when we get there
by the Camera Obscura
is the Musee Mechanique
all you need’s a little change
Laughing Sal is inside
and she’ll give you living proof
that there ain’t no hell or heaven
what awaits us in the great beyond is laughter.”I asked her where she’s going
and just who is this captain
was there anybody waiting
and did she plan to return
She said, “I do hate to admit
I left my head on Easter Island
high on a hill it waits for me
just staring out to sea like a stone statue.
Some times you get separated
from things you really need
and sometimes all you really need
is the need to really learn”
Then as she disappeared
into the night on the Great Highway
she said,”No matter where you are remember
Laughing Sal is right there laughing at you!””To Believe in me you don’t have to
Don’t need no leap of faith no how
What you really need is the laughter
And you can get it from Laughing Sal”
Dead Sea / Blood Road

Stand before a wall of fire
intent on burning all desire
see the rapture of entire
nations

Listen to the string of words
transform poetry into herds
of meaningless and absurd
lamentations

The Liar, oh, the Wicked Priest
stole the sunrise from the east
served it  to the Roman Feast
of power

The serpent hangs in effigy
from the dying knowledge tree
before the moneychangers we
still cower

Dead Sea, are we drowning in your history?
Dead Sea–blood road

The battleline was faith or law
to supplicate or fight the Claw
Is knowing anything at all
a blessing?

Some, they chose the righteous path
Defiance of the Legions’ wrath
to write the epitath
for all oppression

For two millenia unread
hid in caves to which they fled
lay the words the rebels bled
and died for

Now new Inquisitors control
the testimony of the Scrolls
and what was Jesus really crucified for?

Dead Sea, are we drowning in your history?
Deas Sea–blood road

Just An Other Customer

Girls on the corner doing business
Next to a Jehova’s Witness
Ten Commandments, pussy for sale
One man’s heaven is another man’s hell
Looks reveal and looks deceive
but you would be naive if you didn’t believe
that the joker gonna poke her is a banker
or a broker
some pillar of society
So what’s this talk about loving your brother
when everyone is just another
customer

Underneath the slick exterior
lies a motive ulterior
love may have no substitute
but even words can be prostitutes
You wanna catch good fish you gotta have good bait
The land of the free is all real estate
They got a statue lookin’ at you, you say
“Liberty, is that you?”
Walt Disney owns the Pearly Gate
So what’s this talk about loving your brother
when everyone is just another
customer

Do do do do you, do do do you
Do you know who you are?
Do do do do you, do do do you
Do you know who you are?

Snake oil salesman in cyberspace
Virtual believers sing Amazing Grace
Fish the oceans with their internet
Sell you mega-memory as long as you can forget
They got a world wide web connecting you and I
But who’s the spider and who’s the fly?
There is a rule in every tool and there’s a
whip and there’s a mule
Who told you silicone don’t lie?

Recognize Yourself

I turn myself invisible
to navigate these streets
To see and not be seen is what
it takes to make it back intact
Out here on the wild frontier
Where American dreamers meet
You can see the future
by avoiding eye contact

Whenever you see
anybody else
Do you recognize yourself?

People every shade of skin
know the dollar bill is green
Anyone who had enough
would not be out here otherwise
Reugees from everywhere
the dollar bill has been
It’s the one I.D. that
everybody recognize

Systems of immunity
fail to protect
when a body can’t remember
who it is and who it ain’t
So what is community
when histories intersect
and when a house is falling
does it need a coat of paint?

Whenever you see
anybody else
Do you recognize yourself?

Battleline

Make some noise in the streets
Girls and boys disturb the peace
Man will try to prevent you
Just tell him that the rhythm sent you

Everyday come a battleline
Everyday come a battleline

Work and play is all the same
What we do ain’t go no name
FTD better quake and quiver
When it comes to soul the Wild Bouquet deliver

Everyday come a battleline
Everyday come a battleline

Well I searched for faith
that I could keep
that what I sew
will be what I reap
I’ve been to the wilderness
and I been downtown
Only thing for certain
that I found
is that

Everyday come a battleline
Everyday come a battleline

Lyrics from

“Imago Mundi”

Titanic

Up the gangplank
Out to sea
Maiden voyage
Destiny

From the old world
To the new
Invincible progress
For the passengers and crew

Titanic, Titanic

Anybody who is anybody will be there
(What could be finer?!)
For your comfort no expense has been spared
(This is a luxury liner!)

How romantic
In the North Atlantic
Who needs life boats?!
We’re having so much fun!

Titanic, Titanic

We’re gonna party on the poop deck,
party on the quarter deck,
party on the shuffleboard court!
Party in the staterooms,
party in the diningrooms,
party from stem to stern,
from starboard to port!

Titanic, Titanic

[There were some deviants, some social malcontents,
there were some miscreants who were heard to say:
“Sink the motherfucker, sink the motherfucker,
sink the motherfucker, oh aye oh!
Sink the motherfucker, sink the motherfucker,
sink the motherfucker, oh aye oh!”]

But are we gonna listen to that?

We’re gonna party on the poop deck,
party on the quarter deck,
party on the shuffleboard court!
Party in the staterooms,
party in the diningrooms,
party from stem to stern,
from starboard to port!

Titanic, Titanic

Years Of Glory And Desaster

There never was a new world
and yet there always is
Possession takes possession
and what could never be lives
Inside the minds of mortal men
there’s glory to be gained
And no disaster’s to high a price
for a piece of God’s domain

They left Extremadura after driving out the Moors,
crosses on their metal breastplates,
shouts of “Santiago” on their lips
Jesus’ Sons of Thunder, agents of the will devine,
sailed out with their horse and cannon,
merchants’ fortunes riding in their ships

Los anos de gloria y los anos de desastre
Thy will be done!

Years of glory and disaster
for the slave and for the master
Years of glory and disaster
for the slave and for the master

Across the Sea of Darkness swords of fine Toledo steel,
heathen souls they claimed for Christ,
the land and all its riches were for Spain
Crashing into empires they found in their line of march,
Tenochtitlan to Cajamarca
all fell beneath a storm of bloody rain

Voice 1:    Imago Mundi, Imago Mundi

Voice 2:    This day, this day of wrath
shall consume the world in ashes,
What trembling there shall be
when the judge shall come

Los anos de gloria y los anos de desastre
Thy will be done!

Years of glory and disaster
For the slave and for the master
Years of glory and disaster
for the slave and for the master

Proving Ground

All of us atomic orphans
scattered out across these killing fields
From the cradle to the coffin
dancing through the radioactive yields
Doesn’t matter what your nation,
doesn’t matter what country or race
Planetary situation,
everybody here from the same place

Just because you didn’t do it
doesn’t mean you don’t have to explain
Just because you ain’t been through it
doesn’t mean you cannot feel the pain
Didn’t anybody tell you
didn’t anyone give you the news
Maybe they can buy and sell you
you’re the one who’s gonna have to choose

When there’s a hole torn in the sky
And the world’s turned upside down
Everybody finds themselves
standing on the Proving Ground

People got a lot of questions
only get an answering machine
With the power of suggestion
You should keep your eyes glued to the screen
Telling you to duck and cover
waiting for the ‘big one’ to arrive
Even make you love BIG BROTHER
’cause you’re so afraid to be alive

When there’s a hole torn in the sky
And the world’s turned upside down
Everybody finds themselves
standing on the Proving Ground

Melting Pot

Down here in the Fillmore this year’s boat people
living next door to the children of the first boat people,
living next door the only people who ain’t  boat people
who come to the ghetto to get out of the reservation!

Dragged here, kicked here, shackled here, tricked here
and all of us living next door to the people
who were kicked and tricked right here

Melting pot
Thanks a lot!
But it still don’t look like anybody got a home

You want to hear a joke?  We could use a laugh.
People all over the world think that
this is the land of opportunity?!?
Anybody here got the city’s key?
I ain’t even got the key to my ride
The cops impounded it looking for the evidence.
And speaking of keys, what the hell they for?
to keep you free to lock your door?
And who do locks keep out, man, where you been?,
ever wonder if they’re to lock you in?
You go out side you get busted or robbed
it’s your own damn fault, should have stayed inside.
Where’s your VCR?!
Ain’t you got a CD?!

Dragged here, kicked here, shackled here, tricked here
and all of us living next door to the people
who were kicked and tricked right here.

Melting pot
Rust and rot
But it still don’t look like anybody got a home

Do you believe this?  Do you believe that?!

They’re setting up these settlements claiming to be heaven sent
Cross the river Jordan, well Hallelujah,
You think you found religion, do ya,
West Bank, Bank of the West, Bank of America
and fuck the rest!
There were people living there but we’re the best
with guns and bombs we have been blessed.
Just God’s children looking for a home from Israel to where the buffalo roam…
or used to anyway…
And what is it with these settler states?
From South Africa to North Ireland,
From Australia to the Promised Land
to what?!  what’s that you say?
the daddy of ’em all is the U S A?!
Cowboys and indians?

“Damn it, Duke, here come the savages…
Where’s the cavalry?  Send in the marines!”

Is this the history of the world?

Well tell me now where do you come from
and what’s this place that you call home
Go ahead, climb your family tree
and tell me what you think you see…

I see roads, jammed with refugees,
choking on dust and misery
followed by the jackboots of crisscrossing armies
conquistadores of this century…

From the Indians to Palestinians,
from Geronimo to the PLO,
nobody ask if you approve,
just stuck a gun to your head and said:
“Move, motherfucker, move!”

Dragged here, kicked here, shackled here, tricked here
and all of us living next door toe the people
who were kicked and tricked right here

Melting pot
Getting hot.
It’s a blood clot
in Mankind’s heart
But it still don’t look like anybody got a home

Bizness iz Bizness

Black ink splattered ‘cross a front page
Red blood splattered ‘cross a project wall
Big stink, all the moral outrage,
Finger-pointing everywhere, looking for the cause of it all.

Will you testify?

Bullets fly, accusations fly, and everybody’s working on their alibi.
When you get done watching all the reruns
You won’t know a dealer when you actually see one.
We’re out here chasing Number 2 when the colors of Number 1 are
Red, white and blue…

Crackdown    (with the one hand)
Coverup         (with the other hand)
Crackdown    (with the one hand)
Coverup         But on the corner we say:

Business is business
And business is good!

Flashback!  Back before the hubba trubba,
Back before Colombia was paying off its national debt;
Speakeasy, talking Prohibition people,
Long before Crockett and Tubbs  there was Elliott Ness
And on the wild frontier:  Bonanza!
Who was selling firewater, bringing China opium,
You need a little history to know where somebody coming from,
Roll the tape, fast forward, back to the present day,
Forget the illegalities, checking out the policies,
Stockpile morphine, inoculate the populace
In the event of a nuclear war;
Don’t believe me, find out for yourself,
Call the FDA, EPA, FBI, CIA, DEA, maybe TUVWXYZ
Somebody somewhere gonna cop to the fact:
All of this shit didn’t start with crack!

[“Crackdown” section repeats.  “Business” section repeats.]

That Look

I’ve seen that look
in my father’s eye
farther away than the edge of the sky

I’ve seen that look
in my momma’s eye
farther away than a prairie horizon

And I’ve wanted to cry
But the wind dried my tears
before they reach my eyes

I’ve seen that look
in my brother’s eye
run away faster than bullets can fly

I’ve seen that look
in my sister’s eye
hide in the shadows like some bastard child

and I’ve wanted to cry
But the wind dries my tears
before they reach my eyes

And it’s cold and it’s hard and it’s a long way
from anywhere

And I’ve wanted to cry
People can scream
but all they do is sigh

Mother With A Gun

The shadow of a rainbow
fell across her breast
(Dogs barking somewhere out there)

Her years were not many
but they were her best
and they were all behind her
they were all behind her when she pulled the trigger

Mother
Mother with a gun

Babies fed the hunger
for another life
(television yakking away)

Now all those love songs
cut like a knife
and they were all behind her
they were all behind her when she pulled the trigger

Mother
Mother with a gun

The edge of the cliff was the rape of the daughter
and the shadow of a broken bottle
approaching from the bedroom

Terrorized screams could not raise the neighbors
they had their own nightmares
and no one wants to meddle in domestic affairs

There is no silence quite like the silence
that follows the sound of a bullet
leaving the chamber

The judge would find her guilty
for murdering a lie
(Headlines screaming out there)

Open up the wicked
let me tell you he die
but none of that could find her
none of that could find her when she pulled the trigger

Mother
Mother with a gun

Frankenstein Meets Mary

Yours was an ancient madness
runs in the blood
Mine was a generation
at war with the way things are
Ours was an avalanche of passion
turned into mud
Now twenty years find me
alone in this darkened bar and

I see you
I see you

I had my Dostoevsky
and my Rimbaud
I had my Henry Miller
and my William Burroughs
All of us storming heaven, god
to overthrow
We thought we were history’s agents
and sentiment our foe, now

I see you
I see you

{She says the rest}

“How could you leave?
Did all your ideas of freedom mean freedom from life?

Were you ashamed?
You seemed so embarrased when I was with you and your friends

Just you and the boys?
Except when it came to me sleeping with anyone else!

But forget all of that…
How could you live without knowing your child?”

Full Moon

We been sweating at the furnaces
that turn this power loom
since cheating hearts and lying smiles
first graced a Pharaoh’s tomb
We imagine ourselves mighty
and erect our gleaming spires
’til the Grim Reaper comes to prove
that all our laws are liars

But there’s a full moon
a full moon out tonite

We built kingdoms burning witches,
we built empires binding feet.
We’ve built temples to the Virgin
put our daughters on the street.
The priests promise redemption
to the masters of this earth.
But the only ressurection
is a mother giving birth

But there’s a full moon
a full moon out tonite

La Luna que brilla mas,
Charanga quando el sol se va!

Nu Boots

Birthright
In your hormones
You belong here
Now that you’re born
Have a taste
Of blood and iron
Tongues of fire
Lick your lips

wearing          Proudly
Proudly
Nu Boots

Sleep in fear
Wake to drumbeats
March to slaughter
Enemies
You were down once
Now you’re victorious
Keep the scum
Under your heel

wearing         Proudly
Proudly
Nu Boots

This time
It will be different
We will set right
All the wrongs
We’re better, yes
New and improved
Chosen people
Walk like this

wearing       Proudly
Proudly
Nu Boots

One Day

Bones in the clay, shores of Lake Turkana
The phone is ringing, I pick it up there’s nobody there
Bones in the clay, shores of Lake Turkana
Static on my radio, is anybody anywhere?
Bones in the clay, shores of Lake Turkana
Sometimes wonder, maybe I’m the one to blame
Bones in the clay, shores of Lake Turkana
Teacher get so upset, that boy is asking questions again!
Bones in the clay, shores of Lake Turkana

Words circle the fire
Echoes roam the caverns
Pieces of the mystery
Passed down, passed down, passed down

Oh One day
One Day

[second verse same form as first]

Look down the alley, see garbage cans and no parking signs
All the walking blue notes, looking to be deaf, dumb and blind
No one wanna know, just go on without a reason
Well, I don’t know what I know but I don’t believe in not believin!

Words circle the fire
Echoes roam the caverns
Edges of forever
Passed down, passed down, passed down

Oh One Day
One day

Lyrics from

“Jericho Down”

Pavement Of Bone

Cross the jungle
on a crowded bus
Leave the driving
to the wind and rain
The lives of our fathers
would have buried us
It all would be over
had we remained

Highway lie ahead
Oh yea, a pavement of bone
By way the thunderhead
Oh yea, driving us on

The mud isn’t heavy
the sun isn’t blazing hot
Anytime a fortune
could be found
It will be standing
no decay, no rot
Long after we’ve taken
it’s place in the ground

Highway lie ahead
Oh yea, a pavement of bone
By way the thunderhead
Oh yea, driving us on

Under A Blue Concrete Sky

For Sale sign
on the Eden apartments
No takers
for this forsaken place
Face down
in a urine soaked carpet
blood on his body
and vomit his face
Charley Lone Eagle
came to the city
a name and a place
was all he was born with
Where do you go
when you’re not included
in somebody else’s
creation myth?

Under a blue concrete sky
Under a blue concrete sky

He sought adventure
outside the circle
The wind in the voices
of the old ones had died
He had no reasons
just the flare of the nostrils
like the hard charging ponies
that warriors ride
They came wearing masks
that turned out to be faces
made into masks
in a mystical rite
They came with their guns
and they wanted their money
He had nothing else
so they took his life

Under a blue concrete sky
Under a blue concrete sky

Outside The Wall

You say, “Don’t talk to strangers,
it might be dangerous,
keep to your own kind.”
Father, Father
all I see is
people are people
which one of us is blind?

You say, “Lay low it’s a danger,
life around here”
All I hear you say, “Stay low, it’s a danger,
life around here”

But all I want to do is
Take my chances
Outside the wall
Take my chances
Outside the wall

You built this wall for protection
and now you are imprisoned here
Do you see your own reflection
in the very ones you fear?
Your way of life, your way of life
somebody always dies
Why can’t you see beyond
your Land, your Law, your God, your lies?!

All I want to do is
Take my chances
Outside the wall
Take my chances
Outside the wall

The Rock At The Bottom Of The World

On a night like this
there’s a storm out
and all the oracles are dead except one
In a dockside bar,
The Hero’s Welcome,
lies are told and deals are done

An old sailor sits,
singing songs he sang
from jakarta to the Argentine
pounds the table
with a gnarled fist
“Buy me another and the truth ye shall find!”

Down there,
there’s a cold, grey rock
Down there
at the bottom of the world

“All you young men
make the same mistake
‘Cause your compasses keep pointing north
sail a death ship
cargo munitions
bearing south out of the Azores

“Ride the trade winds
to Cape Verde
across to Patagonia you’ll be borne
down the coast
to Tierra Del Fuego
and there, just as you ’round the Horn”

Down there,
there’s a cold, grey rock
Down there
at the bottom of the world

Mary Had A Baby

She used to work down at the Fantasy
I drive a cab and she would flag me down
We’d always talk about how our nights had gone
and all the people in the ‘lost and found’
“They pay to look,” she’d say, “but I’m the one who sees
what is going on behind the eyes
Some mother’s son out in the audience
It ain’t a stripper told him all those lies.”

Mary had a baby tonight
Mary had a baby tonight
Mary had a baby tonight
Me, I drive on

One night she tells me some guy come in there yelling
about how a woman is the devil’s work
He goes outside, he shoots a hooker down
saying, “Jesus was a virgin birth!”
“I must be crazy,” she said, “to think I found a place
I could be someone none of this could touch
Now you’re a man, in this here man’s world
so why does living in it hurt so much?”

I hadn’t seen her in quite a little while
and then one night I heard her calling me
She was pregnant and going into labor
I had to rush her to emergency
“Men never live,” she said, “up to their advertising,
sell you a rose and all you get’s a thorn
I hope this child don’t end up telling me
I never asked you, Momma, to be born”

Mary had a baby tonight
Mary had a baby tonight
Mary had a baby tonight
Me, I drive on

Demon Land

You’re standing here, ain’t ya
in this teeming market place
you’re known by no name but the Other
See no signs, do ya,
no symbols speaking to ya
don’t even know your own Mother

Everywhere they’re selling secrets
but can the Mysteries be sold?
And a truth that laughs at all of this
might even save your mortal soul

You wander the Demon Land
The Demon Land wanders you
You wander the Demon Land
The Demon Land wanders you

You dream in other languages
from a faraway star
in the one they speak you’ve learned to trust nobody
Everything created
by the works of Fallen Man
tells a lie in pages torn and bloody

Every place there is no place
for a member of your race
no one knows what human beings look like
All approaches to the gate
subdivide and separate
’til you’re left out here screaming,
“To hell with all of this!”

You wander the Demon Land
The Demon Land wanders you
You wander the Demon Land
The Demon Land wanders you

Long the tunnels, time and mountain
knowing books hid in the vaults
guarded not by knights or archers
guarded only by your fear
Down millenia they all gather
dancing in the written word
twisting sinews of creation
always distant, always near

Laughing in the face of mortality

Painted Cave

Come away,
Come away, come away
To the painted cave

Crawling
this dark passage
under the ground
where the sole light shines
in human hands
’til I’m reaching
‘cross the ages
in a great hall
where the walls rejoice
here I am

Come away,
Come away, come away
To the painted cave
In the womb of the mother
In the womb of the mother

These eyes see through the mask of time

The Girl In The Water

The girl came out of nowhere
but the moon was turning red
a shadow was behind her
that was all
She spoke the words she learned to
but they weren’t what she said
and he watched her disappear
over the wall

Down, down
he would follow every night
Down, down
to the water
Down, down
until try as he might
she would slip away

The buildings were all empty
and the statues looked alive
the colors of the people
like a rash
She kept on reappearing
and he’d know when she’d arrive
’cause he’d see a face behind
the iron mask

Down, down
he would follow every night
Down, down
to the water
Down, down
until try as he might
she would slip away

He tried to get to know her
but she made him feel a fool
’cause every move he made
he’d learned before
All the gifts he brought her
every flower, every jewel
just so many deadbolts on the door

Jonny Refused

When Jonny comes marching home again
after Jonny got his gun
all the crowds they sing and cheer
for all the killing done
but when they build their monuments
there’s one name they can’t use
’cause when they called his number
this Jonny refused

Draft Board
got a letter in the mail
greetings from Uncle Sam
At War
it’s either go to jail
or go to Viet Nam
High school
all talk about it
not many want to go
what fool
is gonna squawk about it
you just do what you’re told
a lot of people were not amused
when Jonny refused (refused to go)

Rich boy
go off to college
poor boy go off to war
This boy
may be no scholar
but he damn sure know the score
What for
go fight somebody
some jungle overseas
What’s more
they could be anybody
they’re not my enemies
Who then is left standing accused
When Jonny refused (refused to go)

I know will die someday
but not that way
not that way

Jonny refused

Cut Cane

Oh cut cane
Oh what for
Oh cut cane
Oh what for

I, I go I go
Make the money
I owe I owe
Why, why, more I go
Make the money
The more I owe?

Oh cut cane
Oh what for
Oh cut cane
Oh what for

Power, Power (All Fall Down)

In evil hour
with the fuse burning down
I got no home
in my hometown
Identity
in a combat zone
Everybody looking
for an enemy to call their own

Power, power all fall down
It all fall, it all falling down
Power, power all fall down
It all fall, it all falling down

They got the drugs
they got the money and guns
They got the power
of thermonuclear suns
Sometimes it seems
the only justice and truth
is the rock in the hands
of a Palestinian youth!

Power, power all fall down
It all fall, it all falling down
Power, power all fall down
It all fall, it all falling down

This is the gospel
according to the fool
It doesn’t matter
who be making the rule
Sooner or later
the all mightiest high
is gonna be lower,
lower than a pigsty

Power, power all fall down
It all fall, it all falling down
Power, power all fall down
It all fall, it all falling down

Sing Our Way Back Home

Where am I to find my rest?
Where am I to find my strength?
Where am I to lay my weary head?
Where am I to start again?

Oh, we’re gonna
Sing our way back home
Yeah, we’re gonna
Sing our way back home
Oh, we’re gonna
Sing our way back home

Where am I to find those arms,
Warp me in their warm embrace?
Where am I to lay my armor down?
Where am I to find that healing place?

Oh, we’re gonna
Sing our way back home
Yeah, we’re gonna
Sing our way back home
Oh, we’re gonna
Sing our way back home

Lyrics from

“Sides”

Wrong Beach

They landed on the beach
With their armor and their cannons
They came in mighty hordes
As if lava flowed uphill
They met with stiff resistance
But they battered it with big guns
And they joked with confidence
As if they’d only time to kill
But the hours turned to weeks
And the tents into block houses
And the trenches dug in deeper
Not to conquer, just to stay
Now the beach just smells, it reeks
Of death and dung and diesel
And whistling on the wind
Are the words from a play

Wrong beach
Wrong time
Wrong reasons

They filed back to the transports
Their tours of duty ended
Faces on recruiting posters
Never looked like this
They trudged back to their families
To the tears and worried glances
Was there anything the bullets
And the mustard gas had missed?
They saw death making headlines
And killing making movies
As if nothing that had happened
Had meant anything at all
And now lonely in the twilight,
Looking out across the ocean,
A young man is weeping
As the raindrops start to fall

Wrong beach
Wrong time
Wrong reasons

They opened up the century
With the war to end all wars
But from Gallipoli to Saigon to Honduras
It goes on
Ten thousand years of manhood,
Of people taking orders,
Of fathers wanting their names
On the children being born
To pass on this inheritance,
These medals, these museums,
These monuments to murder
That fill cities everywhere
They split the sky wide open
And they fill it with dead dreams
Until everybody’s looking like
A thousand yard stare

Wrong beach
Wrong time
Wrong reasons

Sides

Someone got a match
Someone got a attitude
Someone got a target
Someone got a Molotov Cocktail
Someone got a badge
Someone got a uniform
Someone got an order
Gotta guard military hardware

Everybody’s taking sides
Ain’t nobody neutral
When there ain’t nowhere to hide
Everybody’s wearing camouflage
Trying to be invisible or at least a mirage

Sides

Someone got a job
Someone got an education
Someone got a contract
Designing nuclear warheads
Someone got a dog
Someone got a wife and kids
Someone got a satellite dish
Watching television ministries

Everybody’s taking sides
Ain’t nobody neutral
When there ain’t nowhere to hide
Everybody’s wearing camouflage
Trying to be invisible or at least a mirage

Sides

Follow Me

Hey, this news just got back from the Front
They’re dancing, dancing in combat country
The hills are alive with that gunfire sound
Got to get up for battle and, yeah, party down

What we see we sing
Whatever the world may bring

Always in danger, never in fear
Follow, follow me
You got to be lost to be found her
Follow, follow me
We’ll be dancing, dancing all night long
Follow, follow me
To the rhythm of the gunfire song
Follow, follow me

Everyone knows they’re an only one
But that ain’t the reason you’re a lonely one
None of these faces have we ever seen
but I sure get the feeling you know what we mean

What we see we sing
Whatever the world may bring

Flag For Sunrise

Sucked down into the jungle
with mercenaries, missionaries, pirates and spies
The poisoned tipped fingers of the clutching hand
The fabricators of wounded skies
They fuck their way through the wilderness
With every orgasm more hope dies
There are guerrillas up in the hills
And I hear tourism’s on the rise

One day come and one day gone
Man still made of flesh and bone

Under the ruins of the Holy Name
The sacred tablets were shot down in flames
A disco junta plays its deadly game
Living, dying all the same here

Men sacrifice to the lie
These peasants were born to die
Nobody dare wonder why

But I, I got my flag for sunrise

They dragged her struggling down a jungle trail
They shoved her face into a shit-filled pail
They jammed a rifle into a private place
To dignify the human race

These colonels all love parades
Eyes hidden by mirror shades
Thus leaders have history made

But I, I got my flag for sunrise

Lyrics from

“Flashpoint”

War Drums

Shit flyin’ left and right
a lotta smoke and not much light
War drums rock the beat
Gonna get a gun and learn to use it

Ain’t a word been written yet
as crazy aas this world will get
War drums rock the beat
Do we find life before we lose it?

See the foamin’ mouth fo the broadcast whore
gangrene drippin’ from every pore
War drums rock the beat
I couldn’t believe it if I didn’t feel it

We’re the spittin’ image of the human race
but the truth’s been banished in disgrace
War drums rock the beat
You want the real deal you’re gonna have to steal it

Is this the rhythm of the day?
Is this the rhythm of the day?

Well, dinosaurs may be extinct
and the money men are the missing link
War drums rock the baet
I damn sure hope that we’re in transit (going somewhere)

There’s a crisis in the laboratory
test results show the same old story
War drums rock the beat
There is life on the this planet!

Cross The Border

Lost in the alleyways of the city I was born in
Just another message written on the walls under the freeway
Imprisonment invisible, the sentence is not belonging
Then far away someone heard our voices
Want us ‘cross the world to sing our song

Where you goin’ boy?
Don’t you know there’s a war?
So much danger there
Donde vas?

Goin’ down, goin’ down
Cross the border

The skin is dark, the black eyes burn M16s and red bandanas
I get excited knowin’ we’re going to where they take the pictures
Some wallsare gonna fall been messing up the panorama
I wanna get out, I gotta get out, what’s it like to be going somewhere?

Goin’ down, goin’ down
Cross the border

Gonna burn like phosphoro,
Gonna, gonna blow like Momotombo

Manzanar

A relocation
A reservation
A concentration
Civilization

I lie awake at night
I see the stars are shining
How could they do these things
In this beautiful place?

he don’t know, he don’t know about it
she don’t know, she don’t know about it,
they don’t know, they don’t know about it

All I’m asking you is:
How far is Manzanar?
How far is Manzanar

Along this trail of tears
Some people are such strangers
Calling this victory
And finding misery useful

Can’t go home, no I
can’t go home
and I want to go home
Can’t go home, no I
can’t go home
and I want to go home

All I’m asking you is:
How far is Manzanar?
How far is Manzanar?

Outrage

I hear your sweet voice
sing your baby to sleep
Such joy in your song
tell me why do you weep?
(You tell me) Look at this child
don’t you see what I see?
How long ’til the world
sleeps so peacefully?

Outrage
Feel it in the morning sun
Outrage
Feel it like a smokin’ gun
Outrage
Feel like I’m the only one
And all that I can do is holler!

How can it be
innocence is punished?
How can it be
that the evil ones thrive?
How can you say
I should try and forget
When anger is all
keepin’ me alive?

Outrage
Feel it in the morning sun
Outrage
Feel it like a smokin’ gun
Outrage
Feel like I’m the only one
And all that I can do is holler!

No Way

The shattered glass
The bloody forehead
The streetlight claims
An empty sky
The evidence
Lies in the gutter
Another judgement
Another lie

You’re gonna feel the water, undertow
Again and again and again and again
Until every achin’ bone in your body say:

Hey, ain’t no way, ain’t no way!

The shadow cast
This barren landscape
An icy fear
That only pain is real
The treachery
Of the social contract
That guarentees
This dirty deal

You’re gonna feel the water, undertow
Again and again and again and again
Until every achin’ bone in your body say:

Hey, ain’t no way, ain’t no way!

Attitude

Told me to stand up
Naturally, I sat down
Told me to pay attention
Naturally, I messed around
Told me to get in line,
Naturally, I kept on playin’
I heard it so often
I thought it was my last name

Attitude

Little boy at the movies
Tryin’ to look like James Dean
Down there in Chinatown
They’re coppin’ moves from Bruce Lee
An’ over there in the barrio
It’s that old Zoot Suit game
An’ there’s a youngblood on the corner
Tryin’ to look like Rick James

Attitude

Where we’re going I don’t know
But we got to go!

You ask me do I, do I understand?
Well I’ll tell you this much
The situation’s getting out of hand
You got your politics, your philosophics
And your different points of view
But I guess everything depends on your

Attitude

Find Me A Way

(No, not no more, this ain’t no life)

Years gnaw at the iron gate
steal a way
Vines engulf the wall
Under an ancient sky

Floors fall under phantom’s weight
steal a way
Spiders slowly crawl
Through the ruins of time

Yeah, I’m gonna find me a way

Rain fall through the crumbling roof
steal a way
Cleansing everything
Oh, but it takes so long

Got no answer, got no proof
steal a away
All the children sing
Oh, and I know the song

Yeah, I’m gonna find me a way

No Man’s Land

Flashpoint soldier
Don’t light that cigarette
Across them trenches
Your name is on a bullet

Stay low soldier
Hold them precious inches
You’re on this earth or in it
It’s your cradle or your grave

Territory soldier
Civilization
This bloody mud
Has got a name and flies a flag

Nothing matters, does it?
‘Cept them snapshots in your wallet
And the fear that’s eating you alive
Here in no man’s land

You heard what you heard
You saw what you saw
Best believe that ain’t all
You get for obeying the law

See what you want to see
Ain’t gonna matter, no,
The ride ain’t free
You, what you gonna do
when everything that’s happening is
happening to you?

All you gypsies got no place
all you looters got no face
All you fuck ups got no name
So, why we playing this here bingo game?

Here in no man’s land

Being Human

Who are you to tell me?
I see that steel in your hand
Is that how everything’s decided here?
Or is that just the edge of your imagination?

Fly like an eagle
Brave as a lion
But you are just an animal

Being human means more than that
Being human means more than that

Who the hell are you?!
Frowning down on my sorry neighborhood
People stab and kill each other every night
You just set up a recruiting station

Brand us like cattle
herd us like sheep
How does that make you a man?

Being human means more than that
Being human means more than that