| Disc 1 | ||||||
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| 1. |
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the sun is setting on the century
and we armed to the teeth we're all working together now to make our lives mercifully brief schoolkids keep trying to teach us what guns are all about confuse liberty with weaponry and watch your kids act it out every year now like christmas some boy gets the milkfed suburban blues reaches for the available arsenal and saunters off to make the news and the women in the middle arelearning what poor women have always known that the edge is closer than you think whe your men bring the guns home look at where the profits are that's how you'll find the source of the big lie that you and i both know so well in the time it take this cultural death wish to run its course they're gonna make a pretty penny and then they're all going to hell he said the chickens all come home to roost yeah malcolm forecasted this flood are we really gonna sleep through another century while the rich profit off our blood? true it may take some doing to see this undoing through but in my humble opinion here's what i suggest we do open fire on hollywood open fire on MTV open fire on NBC and CBS and ABC open fire on the NRA and all the lies they told us along the way open fire on each weapons manufacturer while he's giving head to some republican senator and if i hear one more time about a fool's right to his tools of rage i'm gonna take all my friends and i'm gonna move to canada and we're gonna die of old age |
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| 2. |
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i don't keep much stuff around
i value my portability but i will say that i have saved every letter you ever wrote to me the one you left on my windshield outside of that little motel is in the pocket of my old gig bag from back when life was more soft shell letters littered with little lewd pictures drawn by the ghost of woody guthrie who would use you big thick hand just to draw one or two for me i think of your letters as love letters which is how i think of songs in that it is the writing of them that tends to carry us along and i danced to one of your old tunes with my true love on our wedding day and you voice sang the way my heart would sing if it finally knew just what to say two people pulled over on the same night to look up at the same stars they both found their wheels were spinning in a soft shoulder when they both got back into their cars and they missed fates appointed rendezvous and then a whole lotta time wnet by and then one day they were done worshipping the landscape and they just put down their hands and moved into the sky they had barely said hello and it was time to say goodbye |
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| 3. |
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i am losing my love for adventure
i'm losing all respect for me and myself tonight i wonder what happens if i get to the end of this tunnel and there isn't a light i've worn down the treads on all of my tires i've worn through the elbows and the knees of my clothing i am stumbling down the gravel driveway of desire trying not to wake up my sleeping self-loathing do you ever have that dream where you open your mouth and you try to scream but you can't make a sound that's every day starting now that's every day starting now don't tell me it's gonna be alright you can't sell me on your optimism tonight it's stiff competition to see who can stay up later the stars or the street lights all they really want is to be alone with the darkness no more wish i may no more wish i might it takes a stiff upper lip just to hold up my face i got to suck it up and savor the taste of my own behavior i am spinning with longing faster than a roulette wheel this is not who i meant to be this is not how i meant to feel i don't think i am strong enough to do this much longer god i wish i was stronger this song could never be long enough to express every longing god i wish it was longer |
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life in the circus ain't easy
but the folks on the outside don't know the tent goes up and the tent comes down and all that they see is the show and the laides on the horses look so pretty and the lions are looking real mad and some of the clowns are happy and some of the clowns are sad but underneath there's another expression that the makeup isn't making life under the big top it's about freedom it's about faking there's an art to the laughter there's a science and there's a lot of love and compliance welcome to the freakshow here we go... we live to hear the slack-jawed gasping we live under a halo of held breath and when the children raise up a giant shield of laughter, it's like they're fending of death oh and we can make something bigger than any of us alone and then the clowns will take of their makeup and the people will go home but life on the outside ain't easy no sequins, no elephants no parading around yeah, the circus comes and the circus goes and they're stuck in this fucking town you need a lot of love and compliance welcome to the freakshow here we go... |
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going once, going twice
sold to the girl who ignored all the advice of all the people who knew better she just stood there on the front porch waiting for her will to come and get her she was packed she had a suitcase full of noble intentions she had a map packed and a straight face hell bent on reinvention and she was ready for the lonely she was in it for it only going once, going twice down the road less taken with her diary and her WD40 and her swiss army knife and her beer and there was always someone there to say why don't you just stay and hang your hat here but she was packed she had a suitcase full of bumbles and near misses and she was swinging through a jungle of last calls and first kisses and she was learning about please and huge humilities then one day she looked around here and everything up till then was showing and she wondered how did i get here without even knowing where i was going? now there's no getting out of this and there is no going back and it all seems so odd sometimes and the odds all seem stacked going once, going twice sold to the girl who ignored all the advice of all the people who knew better she just stood there on the front porch waiting for her will to come and get her she was packed she had a suitcase she had a map packed and a straight face she was ready for the lonely she was in it for it only |
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Hold me down
I am floating away Into the overcast skies Over my home town On election day What is it about Birmingham? What is it about buffalo? Did the hate filled wanna build bunkers In your beautiful red earth They want to build them In our shiny white snow Now I've drawn closed the curtain In this little booth where the truth has no place to stand And I am feeling oh so powerless In this stupid booth with this useless Little lever in my hand And outside my city is bracing For the next killing thing Standing by the bridge and praying For the next doctor Martin Luther King It was just one shot Through the kitchen window It was just two miles from here If you fly like a crow A bullet came to visit a doctor In his one safe place A bullet ensuring the right to life Whizzed past his kid and his wife And knocked his glasses Right off of his face And the blood poured off the pulpit Yeah the blood poured down the picket lines Yeah, the hatred was immediate And the vengence was divine So they went and stuffed god Down the barrel of a gun And after him They stuffed his only son Hello birmingham It's buffalo I heard you had some trouble Down there again And I'm just calling to let to know That someone understands I was once escorted Through the doors of a clinic By a man in a bulletproof vest And no bombs went off that day So I am still here to say Birmingham I'm wishing you all of my best Oh Birmingham I'm wishing you all of my best Oh Birmingham I'm wishing you all of my best on this election day |
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back back back in the back of your mind
are you learning an angry language, tell me boy boy boy are you tending to your joy or are you just letting it vanquish back back back in the dark of your mind where the eyes of your demons are gleamin are you mad mad mad about the life you never had even when you are dreaming. who are these old old people in these nursing homes scowling away at nothing like big rag dolls just cursing at the walls and pulling out all of their stuffing every day is a door leading back to the core yes, old age will distill you and if you're this this this full of bitterness now some day it will just fill you when you sit right down in the middle of yourself you're gonna wanna have a comfortable chair so renovate your soul before you get too old cuz you'r egonna be housebound there when you're old you fold up like an envelope and you mail yourself right inside and there's nowhere to go except out real slow are you ready, boy, for that ride? your arrogance is gaining on you and so is eternity you better practice happiness you better practice humility you took the air, you took the time you were fed and you were free now you'd better put some beauty back while you got the energy you'd better put some beauty back, boy while you got the energy |
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are you weary as water
in a faucet left dripping with an incessant sadness like a sad record skipping and an ugly and ornery and shadowy dread lurking like a troll under the bridge between your heart and your head she came to and her whole life was how she remembered it she had a mouth full of fur and she was laughing she parked her hearse across three spaces posted "motorcycles only" and jumped out shouting what the cus could make a nice girl like us feel so lonely? are you weary as water in a faucet left dripping with an incessant sadness like a sad record skipping and an ugly and ornery and shadowy dread lurking like a troll under the bridge between your heart and your head please dumb blind kind sir lend little miss listless just a little bit of christmas she's been a real good girl but now she's stuck here the world is so little and still mysterious and ominous as ever before like an unmarked bottle full of pills on the shelf right next to the thing you were reaching for are you weary as water in a faucet left dripping with an incessant sadness like a sad record skipping and an ugly and ornery and shadowy dread lurking like a troll under the bridge between your heart and your head swing the groove 'round here where i can reach it when i get my ass back on track i'm gonna need it swing shift til i get the money to buy me and my baby a moon full of honey then i'm gonna turn off the nagging voices inside my head that follow me to bed and say (you suck) are you weary as water (what'd you do that for?) in a faucet left dripping with an incessant sadness like a sad record skipping and an ugly and ornery and shadowy dread lurking like a troll under the bridge between your heart and your head (end of radio version rest is only on To the Teeth) if you diggin on the sound (break it down down) no walls up break it down (break it down down) happiness spread it all around (break it down down) racist stomp it in the ground (break it down down) so if you diggin on the sound (break it down down) no walls up break it down (break it down down) ignorance stomp it in the ground (break it down down) then happiness spread it all around (break it down down) tcha who said funk and hip hop can't match put us together on a stage and like a match KABOOM guess who stepped in the room sweepin ya off ya feel like we had a broom with ani difranco and Maceo. add a little freestyle flow and who knows put a little scratchin into the mix and its enough to get you high if you need a fixin if you diggin on the sound (break it down down) no walls up break it down (break it down down) ignorance stomp it in the ground (break it down down) happiness spread it all around (break it down down) if you diggin on the sound (break it down down) no walls up break it down (break it down down) happiness spread it all around (break it down down) racist stomp it in the ground (break it down down) break it down down down down (fades out) |
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how pleased can one
sun setting make you if you humble yourself to it? how grateful can you relay say that you are just to be here and live through it? and when beauty asks a question how often do you reply? how often do you wonder about life on the other side? on the other side of sorrow on the other side of rage on the other side of ok ok at all in any way imagine what loneliness will drive someone to do now multiply that times me and multiply that times you now imagine what it would take to make this all happen again and just when you think you're gonna cry multiply that times ten you are distracting me from all other activities and i know the fact of your presence will dominate my memory of this restaurant this table this day and this town cuz i carry you, baby i carry you around |
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i've been wondering what you meant when you asked
do you have a light? i've been wondering where you went when you left that party that night cloud blood smudge smeared on the sky it's dawn's roadkill i've been driving since midnight and i'm driving still stop on the top of the ridge just to feel the wind on my rand mcnally then i feel the air go cold as i drift in to the first blue of the valley you're wondering how far down you are on my call back list but you don't realize everytime i find i'm by a phone the landscape shifts every other song someone's trying to write angels into the wrold every grace, every ace every near miss every decent kiss by a pretty girl she was an angel she looked like an angel and all of the angels did sing the angels were watching and the angels were listening and the angels were on hand to stand in for everything you can call it magic when a man pulls a rabbit out of a hat but the reason i don't call is cuz i wonder if there isn't a better word than that and you can call me crazy but i think you're as lazy as white paint on a wall and i know you'll only speak to me in dial tones if i call it's been way too long since i've been behind the wheel headlights guiding me through the dark i feel dry eyed trying hard to resist sleep's first kill everytime i have time to think i think of this |
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| 12. |
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who knew
at this party that i would walk in and i'd see you i guess now we could just get drunk yeah, and that could be our excuse you could slip and outta nowhere i could be there to catch your fall and we could laugh at ourselves and the writing that's on the wall it's a narrow margin just room enough for regret in the inch and a half between hey, how ya been? and can i kiss you yet? so we talk like nervous neighbors over a tall fence true love but for the lack of providence but i just got one more thing to tell you cuz words are vitamins and life is short and i know when we get up to the front office we're gonna have to fill out a full report the first question will be what were you thinking? and the next question will be what did you say? and then they're gonna check to see if the answers to one and two matched up much along the way in the interest of poetry and the cowboy movie that's you and me i'm back on the horse now and i am riding i am striding so effortlessly what i mean is it's late much too late for us and i'm fixing to go home with just my conscience and a bitter sense of irony as my chaperone |
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i know this bar
with a jukebox full of medicine and christmas lights blinking around a clouded mirror it's not that far from old voelkers bowling alley just go up there and turn right it's about three blocks from here you'll probably find grace her shift starts at happy hour she's got this sweet face easy as tea leaves to read you gotta know what to look for you gotta know what's there to find but then i guess you don't really know her so nevermind i used to hang out a lot around here in that part of town where all the white kids still have feathered hair i know this song with this one really killer line i don't remember it exactly but it slays me every time it's on the jukebox there i know it's number 5403 go put that song on for me won't you and make gracie think of me |
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