Bad Religion

There's a prophet on a mountain and he's making up dinner with long division and a riding crop
Anybody can feel like a winner when it's served up piping hot
But the people aren't looking for a handout, they're America's working corps
Can this be what they voted for?

Let them eat war, let them eat war
That's how to ration the poor
Let them eat war, let them eat war
There's an urgent need to feed, declining pride

From the force to the union shops, the war economy is making new jobs
But the people who benefit most are breaking bread with their benevolent hosts
Who never stole from the rich to give to the poor, all they ever gave to them was a war
And a foreign enemy to deplore

Let them eat war, let them eat war
That's how to ration the poor
Let them eat war, let them eat war
There's an urgent need to feed, declining pride

We've got to kill 'em and eat 'em before they reach for their checks
Squeeze some blue collars, let them bleed from their necks
Seize a few dollars from the people who sweat
Cause it's freedom or death and they won't question it

At a job site the boss is god like
Conditioned workhorses park at a stoplight
Seasoned vets with their feet in nets
A stones throw away from a rock fight but not tonight

Feed 'em death, here comes another ration
Feed 'em death, 'cause they're the finest in the nation
Feed 'em death, when there's nothing left to feed them with
When it's freedom or it's death

Let them eat war, let them eat war
That's how to ration the poor
Let them eat war, let them eat war
There's an urgent need to feed

I can't believe it,
the way you look sometimes,
like a trampled flag on a city street,
oh yeah,
and I don't want it,
the things you're offering me,
symbolized bar code quick id,
oh yeah,
I'm a 21st century digital boy,
I don't know how to live (or read)
but I've got a lot of toys,
my daddy is lazy middle class intellectual,
my mammy's on valium,
she's so ineffectual,
ain't life a mystery?

I can't explain it,
the things they're saying to me,
going yayayayayayaya,
oh yeah,
I tried to tell you about no control,
but now I really don't know,
and then you told me how bad you had to suffer,
is that really all you have to offer?

three thousand miles of wilderness
overcome by the flow,
a lonely restitution of pavement,
pomp and show,
I seek a thousand answers,
I find but one or two,
I maintain no discomfiture,
my path again renewed,
against the grain,
that's where I'll stay,
swimming upstream,
I maintain against the grain

here labelled as lunatic,
sequestered and content,
there ignored and defeated
by the government,
there's an oriented public who's magnetic
force does pull,
but away from the potential of the individual,
against the grain.....

the flow is getting stronger
with smaller increments of time and eddies
of new ideas are increasingly hard to find,
you need all that the other has,
your right to seize the day
but in all your acquisitions you will soon
be swept away,
against the grain......
there's a common consensus
and an uncomfortable cheer,
a reverberating chorus that anyone can hear,
it sings "leave your cares behind you,
just grab tenaciously",
this lulling sense or purpose will
destroy us rapidly,
against the grain.....

everybody is talking about the girl
who went and killed the delivery man,
but she looks so kind and gentle,
it just doesn't stand to reason,
I saw her right there just the other night
as stately as a slot machine,
but when she looked my way something mad
as hell came over me,

anesthesia, mona lisa, I've got a little gun,
here comes oblivion,
I never loved you, how did you find me?
the cops will never complicity now, anna......

all good children go to heaven!
I remember your face that august night
when we lied about the beautiful time to come
and that crazy old man who came much to late
and caused a chain reaction,
I've been hanging out there for eleven long years
like a church mouse where the cat has gone,
and looking at you now
is driving me to distraction

everybody wants do dance in a playpen,
but nobody wants to play in my garden.
I see the hippies on an angry line,
guess they don't get my meaning,
I'm enchanted by the birds in my blossoms,
I'm enamored by young lovers on the weekend,
I like the Forth of July,
when bombs start flashing,

and I wish I had a shiny red top,
a bugle with a big brass bell would cheer me up,
or maybe something bigger that could really go pop!
so I could make the gardening stop

come out to play, come out to play,
and we'll pretend it's Christmas Day
in my atomic garden

all my scientists are working on a deadline,
so my psychologist is working day and nighttime,
they say they know what's best for me,
but they don't know what they're doing,
and I'm glad I'm not Gorbachev,
'cause I'd wiggle all night,
like jelly in a pot,
at least he's got a garden with a fertile plot,
and a party that will never stop,

I hope there's nothing wrong out there,
I'm watching from my room inside my room

he's the latest super hero with powers so profound
he can leap a dotted line in just a single bound,
I know you must have seen him in books and magazines,
he's the quintessential mindless modern epicene,
his life is meaningful because he get things done,
bang bang he's dead
chalk up another triumph for our hero,
the automatic man

it's true you must have met him, he's your best friend and your foe,
his opinions are determined by the status quo,
a true creature of habit, he smokes three packs a day,
when he has an original thought he forgets it right away

he's a paradigm of carefree living,
he's our mentor disturb him if you can,
he's the answer if your peace of mind is lacking,
he's our savior,
he is the common man

so if you are troubled by the daily bump and grind,
then take a careful look around your brother
you will find..... the automatic man

above us lay the burdens,
below us lay the truth,
we're somewhere in the middle,
and we're all discontent too

is someone watching over you?
inside, they know what's best for you

judgments not tomorrow,
it's today (yes, now it's here),
but no it isn't jesus,
take a look at all your peers,
they're all looking down on you,
inside they know what's best for you...

everybody knows what's best for you,
everybody knows what's best for you,
everybody knows what's best for you,
everybody knows........

well the sheaves have all been brought,
but the fields have washed away,
and the palaces now stand
where the coffins all were laid,
and the times we see ahead
we must glaze with rosy hues
for we don't wish to admit what it is
we have to lose

millennia in coming,
the modern age is here,
it sanctifies the future yet renders us with fear,
so many theories, so many prophecies,
what we do need is a change of ideas,
when we're scared,
we can hide in our reveries,
but what we need is a change of ideas,
change of ideas, change of ideas,
what we need now is a change of ideas

hey, do what you want, but don't do it around me
idleness and dissipation breed apathy,
I sit on my ass all god damn day
a misanthropic anthropoid with nothing to,
say what you must, do all you can,
break all the fucking rules
and go to hell with superman
and die like a champion

hey, I don't know if the billions will survive,
but I'll believe in god when one and one are five
my moniker is man and I'm rotten to the core
I'll tear down the building just to pass thru the door

heard a sermon from a creaky pulpit with no one in the nave,
I paid a visit to the synagogue and I left there feeling blame,
no one could tell me what to do,
no one had the ability to answer me,
what the world needs now is some answers to our problems,
we can't buy more time because our tender isn't valid,
if your soul needs love you can get consoled by pity,
but it looks as though faith alone won't sustain us anymore,
watched the scientists throw up their hands conceding,
"progress will resolve it all",
saw the manufactures of earth's debris ignore another green peace call,
no one could tell me what to do,
they had not the capacity to answer me,
what the world needs now is some accountability,
we can't buy more time because time won't accept our money,
if your soul needs love you can always have my pity,
but it looks as though faith alone won't sustain us no more.....

lie, lie, lie.......
the full moon is rising over dark water
and the fools below are picking up sticks
and the man in the gallows lies permanently
waiting for the doctors to come back and tend to him,

the flat earth society is meeting here today,
singing happy little lies
and the bright ship humana is sent far away
with grave determination....
and no destination, lie, lie, lie

yeah, nothing feels better than a spray of clean water
and the whistling wind on a calm summer night,
but you'd better believe that down in their quarters
the men are holding in for their dear lives,
the flat earth society is somewhere far away,
with their candlesticks and compasses
and the bright ship humana is well on its way
with grave determination.....
and no destination, lie, lie, lie, ad infinitum

I don't need to be a global citizen,
because I'm blessed by nationality,
I'm a member of a growing populace,
we enforced our popularity
there are things that seem to pull us under
and there are things that drag us down,
but there's a power and a vital presence
that's lurking all around

we've got the american jesus
see him on the interstate,
we've got the american jesus
he helped build the president's estate

I feel sorry for the earth's population
'cuz so few live in the U.S.A,
at least the foreigners can copy our morality,
they can visit but they cannot stay,
only precious few can garner our prosperity,
it makes us walkwith renewed confidence,
we've got a place to go when we die
and the architect resides right here

we've got the american jesus
overwhelming millions every day
(exercising his authority)

he's the farmer barren fields,
the force the army wields,
the expression in the faces
of the starving children,
the power of the man.
he's the fuel that drives the clan,
he's the motive and the conscience
of the murderer
he's the preacher on TV,
the false sincerity,
the form letters that written by
the big computers,
he's the nuclear bombs,
and the kids with no moms
and I'm fearful that
he's inside me
(In God we trust)
(because he's one of us)
(break down, cave in)
(we can redeem your sins)
(strong heart, clear minds)
(and infinitely kind)
(you lose, we win)
(he is our champion!)

like a rock, like a planet,
like a fucking atom bomb,
I'll remain unperturbed by the joy and the madness
that I encounter everywhere I turn,
I've seen it all before,
in books and magazines,
like a twitch before dying,
like a pornographic sea,
there's a flower behind the window,
there's an ugly laughing man,
like a hummingbird in silence,
like the blood on my door,
it's the generator

oh yeah, oh yeah, like the blood on my door,
wash me clean and I will run until I reach the shore,
I've known it all along like the bone under my skin,
like actors in a photograph,
like paper in the wind,
there's a hammer by the window,
there's a knife on the floor,
like turbines in darkness,
like the blood on my door,
it's the generator

hey brother christian with your high and mighty errand,
your actions speak so loud I can't hear a word you're saying
hey sister bleeding heart with all of your compassion,
your labors soothe the hurt but can't assuage temptation

hey man of science with your perfect rules of measure,
can you improve this place with the data that you gather
hey mother mercy can your loins bear fruit forever?
is your fecundity a trammel or a treasure?

I want to conquer the world,
give all the idiots a brand new religion,
put an end to poverty uncleanliness
and toll promote equality in all of my decisions
with a quick wink of the eye and a "god you must be joking"

hey mister diplomat with your worldly aspirations,
did you see the children cry when you left them at the station?
hey moral soldier you've got righteous proclamation
and precious tomes to fuel your pulpy conflagrations

I want to conquer the world,
expose the culprits and feed them to the children,
I'll save the whales,
we'll have peace on earth
and global communion.....

I've got nothing to say,
I've got nothing to do,
all of my neurons are functioning smoothly
yet still I'm a cyborg just like you,
I'm one big myoma that thinks,
my planet supports only me,
I've got this one big problem:
will I live forever?
I've got just a short time to see,
modern man, evolutionary betrayer,
modern man, ecosystem destroyer,
modern man, destroy yourself in shame,
modern man, pathetic example of
earth's organic heritage

when I look back and think,
when I ponder and ask "why?",
I see my ancestors spend with careless abandon,
assuming eternal supply, modern man....

just a sample of carbon-based wastage,
just a fucking tragic epic of you and I

culture was the seed of proliferation
but it has gotten melded into an inharmonic whole,
consciousness has plagued us and we can not shake it,
though we think we're in control
questions that besiege us in life
are testament of our helplessness,
there's no vestige of a beginning,
no prospect of an end
(Hutton, 1795),
when we all disintegrate it will all happen again,
time is so rock solid in the minds of the hoards
but they can't explain why it should slip away,
history and future are the comforts of our
curiosity but here we are rooted in the present day

if you came to conquer you'll be king for a day,
but you too will deteriorate and quickly fade away,
and believe these words you hear
when you think your path is clear....

we have no control,
we do not understand,
you have no control,
you are not in command

a sullen figure walks along a dusty road,
his life was holy and he couldn't bear the load,
he left his people and simple life behind,
he raised his torso and looked into the sky,
shouting his questions, looking for directions,
"what do I do now?"

now a confused schoolgirl stares at the T.V. tray,
the stresses of maturing compound every day,
she glances up to see her favorite video,
and gets ideas from Madonna's nasty clothes,
in need of affection, she craves a direction,
her heroes offer her,

everyone's looking for something,
and they assume somebody else knows what it is,
no one can live without the decisions of their own,
it seems so they look to someone else,
to tell them what to do,
tell'em what to wear,
tell'em what to say,
tell'em how to act and think
and compel others compulsively
until the world is all like them

a righteous student came and asked me to reflect,
he judged my lifestyle was politically incorrect,
I don't believe in self important folks who preach,
no Bad Religion song can make your life complete,
prepare for rejection,
you'll get no direction from me,
you'll get no direction from me

there's a watch in my pocket and its hands are broken,
the face is blank the gears are turning,
confusion is a fundamental state of mind,
it doesn't really matter what I'm figuring out,
I'm guaranteed to wind up in a state of doubt,
and sanity is a full-time job,
in a world that's always changing,
and sanity is a state of mind that you believe in,
sanity

there's a shadow on the wall where the paint is peeling,
my body's moving forward but my mind is reeling,
depression is a fundamental state of being,
it doesn't really matter how my day has turned out,
I always end up living in this world of doubt

did you ever see the concrete stares of everyday?
the lunatic, the hypocrite are all lost in the fray

can't you see their lives are just like ours?
an unturned stone, an undiscovered door
leading too, the gift of hope renewed,
eternity for you,
the masses of humanity
have always had to suffer

the businessmen whose master plan
(controls the world) each day,
is blind to indications of his species
slow decay

people blow their minds
(they choose to resign),
this deformed society is part
of the design it'll never go away,
(it's in the cards that way),
the masses of humanity
will always have to suffer!

long ago in a dusty village,
full of hunger, pain and strife,
a man came forth with a vision of truth,
and the way to a better life,
he was convinced he had the answer,
and he compelled people to follow along,
but the hunger never vanished,
and the man was banished,
and the village dried up and died,

at a time when wise men peered,
through brass tubes toward the sky,
the heavens changed in predictable ways,
and one man was able to find,
that he had thought he found the answer,
and he was quick to write his revelation,
but as they were scrutinized
in his colleagues eyes,
he soon became a mockery,

don't tell me about the answer,
'cause then another one will come along soon,
I don't believe you have the answer,
I've got ideas too,
but if you've got enough naivite,
and you've got conviction,
then the answer is perfect for you

an urban sprawl sits choking on its discharge,
overwhelmed by industry,
inclined toward charity,
everyone's begging for an answer,
without regard validity,
the searching never ends,
it goes on and on and on for eternity

shut off the t.v and peel off those sunday gloves,
and I'll stain the clean that you've been counting,
old mr. fletcher passed by here today,
after 40 years of toil he just up and walked away,
fantastic the panic that showed in his eyes,
he shrugged when I asked him about it,
he said "young man pay heed, you listen well to what I say,
now there comes a time for a man to walk away",

walk away, I'll be a parade,
and I'll be determined that no one shall dissuade on my way,
I'll sure take some time to burn all the bridges that I'm leaving behind,

he passed by again and he was shivering from the cold,
I'm not sure but I think that he was trying,
he told me about the weather and something old to pay,
"but tomorrow", he said, "I'm gonna surely walk away"

early man walked away as modern man took control.
their minds weren't all the same, to conquer was his big goal,
so he built his great empire and slaughtered his own kind,
then he died a confused man, killed himself with his own mind.
go!

we're only gonna die from our own arrogance.

hey, sit down and listen and they'll tell you when you're wrong,
eradicate but vindicate as "progress" creeps along,
puritan work ethic maintains its subconscious edge,
as old glory maintains your consciousness

there's a loser in the house and a puppeton a stool,
and a crowded way of life and a black reflecting pool,
and as the people bend the moral fabric dies,
then country can't pretend to ignore it's people's cries

you are the government,
you are jurisprudence,
you are the volition,
you are jurisdiction
and I make a difference too

I know I'm part of something greater than myself
Don't know the meaning but I hope that matters less
I don't know anything when I'm factored out of scale
I know I'm part of something greater than myself

We're all engaging in a game of attrition
Maybe god is just a chemical fiction
I'm a monkey with a madding affliction
Fact checking for a mental condition

I know I'm part of something greater than myself
Don't know the meaning but I hope that matters less
I don't know anything when I'm factored out of scale
I know I'm part of something greater than myself

Some live, some die
Everybody wonders why we're here
Should we even try?

Philosophers lost in the night
A beacon in the distance
You gotta turn around
Its vestige dimly flickers in elocution sound
The modernist chronometer uptight and underwound
Pretensions of a higher ground

Higher ground
Introspective paradise found
Adam's atoms resound

Economy of nature
The dead and shallow graves
The particles of happiness elude us in their names
A psychosymbiotical reflection on the waves
Eternal as the night and day

Night and day
Omnipresent ???? of fate
Adam's atoms remain


The righteous opposition has led us all astray
One side against the other
One loses, one reclaimed
And if reconciliation eludes us every day
Then will we ever find a way?

Find a way
Not with our allogeneous gaze
Adam's atoms remain
Adam's atoms betray
Adam's atoms remain

Porcelain and alabaster
Decaying ever faster
Unaware of imminent disaster
Open up your eyes

As you ruminate the hopeless sands of time
Did you wander out your days lost and resigned
Or recreate the universals in your mind?

Everybody is a bastard
My world is like plaster
Crumbling apart from pressure of the blaster
Waiting for a sign

And the momentary pleasures take their turn
As the wistful boy learns out of things to learn
The episodes of yore are never to return

Scare up some hope, you're gonna need it just to cope
You are the decision, numbers don't lie
When you bite the dust, was it for purpose or for trust?
You'll never relive it, think before you die

Yeah, think
Think before you die

Deficit and deprivation
In the wake of desperation
Rewrite the morals, rectify the nation
Now may be your time

As you ruminate the hopeless sands of time
Do you wonder how your life has been defined?
You know eternity can't ever change your mind
You know eternity can't ever change your mind

So think
Think before you die
Yeah, think
Think before you die

These rational delusions have got to cease
The second hand has finally got the best of me
I'm too aware about the singularity
That brought me to the edge of time
And it's always on my mind now

They say that what is past is coming back someday
The world is turning faster but it's just one way
And I'm desperate to try most anything to abate
A simple chronophobia
A simple chronophobia now
A simple chronophobia
A simple chronophobia now

Maybe there's a science or technology
To help me come to terms with my maker
Since natural selection never banked on me
I must be an exception to the plan
Someone help me understand now

Cryogenic methods are intractable
And collagen polymers aren't so terrible
But they still can't prevent the inevitable farewell
A simple chronophobia
A simple chronophobia now
A simple chronophobia
A simple chronophobia now

Here's a story of an honest man losing religion
Climbing the pulpit steps before an eager congregation
While praying came a wicked inspiration
Brothers, sisters, this is what he said

Dearly beloved, dearly beloved, dearly beloved
Make no mistake, despite our traits, I've seldom seen
I can't relate to you
I can't relate to you

He was the kind of guy who'd always go right out of his way
But more before the crazy notion leapt right into his head
And stubbornly crept into every mad perception
I can't deny a funny feeling when he said

Dearly beloved, dearly beloved, dearly beloved
Make no mistake, despite our traits, I've seldom seen
I can't relate to you
I can't relate to you

Dearest in memoriam, set phasers to stun
And grab yourself a neighbor's skeleton to lean upon
Did you know him in life, one filled with regret?
So soon we all forget we ever met

Do you know my name?
Sing a light refrain
For a man estranged
I won't deny that I'm inclined to isolate

Dearly beloved, dearly beloved, dearly beloved
I can't believe
I can't relate to you, I can't relate to you
I can't relate to you, I can't relate to you

Here's a story of an honest man losing religion
Climbing the pulpit steps before an eager congregation
While praying came a wicked inspiration
Brothers, sisters, this is what he said

Dearly beloved, dearly beloved, dearly beloved
Make no mistake, despite our traits, I've seldom seen
I can't relate to you
I can't relate to you

He was the kind of guy who'd always go right out of his way
But more before the crazy notion leapt right into his head
And stubbornly crept into every mad perception
I can't deny a funny feeling when he said

Dearly beloved, dearly beloved, dearly beloved
Make no mistake, despite our traits, I've seldom seen
I can't relate to you
I can't relate to you

Dearest in memoriam, set phasers to stun
And grab yourself a neighbor's skeleton to lean upon
Did you know him in life, one filled with regret?
So soon we all forget we ever met

Do you know my name?
Sing a light refrain
For a man estranged
I won't deny that I'm inclined to isolate

Dearly beloved, dearly beloved, dearly beloved
I can't believe
I can't relate to you, I can't relate to you
I can't relate to you, I can't relate to you

In the garden where he was cast out by the lord
Flames an omnidirectional sword
For he as ever failed to gather up the fruit
And thus was banished with his loot

He cantered aimlessly through endless permutations of night
Seeking a purpose and the meaning of kin
And when it finally came to him
You could have mistook it for the meaning of sin

The women wished him well every time he cast off marching to hell
Now if you've never seen a terrible sight, stroll the garden of earthly delights
Maybe we can make it right someday
I'll see you high above the Fields of Mars

He knelt down before the unholy mob
And cried "war is god"
Gleaming outwardly with great pride
And prepared to die

The women wished him well every time he cast off marching to hell
Now if you've never seen a terrible sight, stroll the garden of earthly delights
Maybe we can make it right someday
I'll see you high above the Fields of Mars

High above the Fields of Mars
High above the Fields of Mars
High above the Fields of Mars
High above the Fields of Mars

Who cannot fight anymore
Will never love any less
That kid inside of murder
Must be committed

To live a life of hostility
Never asking what it means
When mother nation, blood and religion
Sanction killing upon the Fields of Mars

High above the Fields of Mars
High above the Fields of Mars
High above the Fields of Mars
High above the Fields of Mars

Lacerate, eviscerate and perforate and mutilate
We all fall down, all fall down
Depreciate, repudiate, ameliorate, adjudicate
The wisdom found, wisdom found

Clip the wings of progress, turn the direction
Enrich the fallow soil with germs of perfection

Delegate, facilitate, investigate and obviate
The black turns green, black turns green
Separate, evaluate and cultivate and propagate
The master's dream, master's dream

Sing the fears of history with a renewed inflection
View the lost agenda with a skeptic's intention

Machine of life, oh can we make it run?
We have the tools but only just begun
Machine of life, oh can we make it run?
The calculations of a greater sum

Clip the wings of progress, turn the direction
Enrich the fallow soil with germs of perfection

And did those feet in ancient times
Trod on America's pastures of green?
And did that anthropocentric God
Wane with their thoughts and beliefs all unseen?

I don't think so
He's up there with the others laying low
Vying with those
Who you've traded your life to to bless your soul

And have they told you how to think
Cleansed your mind of sepsis and autonomy?
Or have you escaped from scrutiny
And regaled yourself with depravity?

Now we all see
Religion is just synthetic frippery
Unnecessary
In our expanding global culture of efficiency

Now we all fear
This impasse we have built to our future
Ever so near, ever so near
And oh so austere

Back in '83, a man came to me and he told me "Son
Our way of life is done," but I was only young
With an eye to the fields, speculators and yields rotten to the core
Monoculture whores entered the bidding wars from distant shores

I don't want to be
In the land known as destitute and free
With the grains of wrath blazing a path
From sea to shining sea

Oh, the sinuous trails of concrete and rails and exhausted roars
Population wars setting our future course
Is profit and greed the only conceit on a scale betrween
Mere prosperity and inhumanity? It may well be

But I don't want to be
In the land known as destitute and free
With the grains of wrath blazing a path
From sea to shining sea

I don't want to be
In the land known as destitute and free
With the grains of wrath blazing a path
From sea to shining sea

Now get up and give in, I'll crack your knuckles again
Supplicate and survive this transubstantiation
And get so mean
I want to know what it means

Did you laugh? You know I did
Did you cry? Couldn't get it right
Did you live? Always on the edge
Did you lie? Causing such a fright

Did you love? Oh, to be forgiven
Did you try? But it wouldn't be right
God, it feels like an honest goodbye

That sick brass boy daydreaming, cry baby, convict, demon
Hands so clean, a sympathetic cold-blooded killing machine
How did you get so mean?
I want to know what it means

Did you laugh? You know I did
Did you cry? Couldn't get it right
Did you live? Always on the edge
Did you lie? Causing such a fright

Did you love? Oh, to be forgiven
Did you try? But it wouldn't be right
God, it feels like an honest goodbye

Pilgrim, those are dry and bitter tears
And lonely eyes look way beyond your years
Pilgrim, did you drink the mercury?
Your lips turned blue and you're struggling just to see

You were too far gone to carry on
Now your life has stalled
As you march ahead you go no place at all

Pilgrim, when you left them all behind
The loneliness destroyed your able mind
Pilgrim, see the writing on the door?
It's taking you back to a place you were before

And the next in line paces your stride
Waiting for your fall
With a hope that lies in a hidden master's call

Pious eyes ignoring passersby
Headlong to their grave
Don't despair this world of toil and care
This pilgrim lost his way

Pilgrim, will you ever find your call?
Is truth so pure that you're willing to risk it all?

Pious eyes ignoring passersby
Headlong to their grave
Don't despair this world of toil and care
This pilgrim lost his way

If you're discontent to know your world's a pile of shit
Listen to a riddle that will tickle every bit of it
Ha ha ha!

Ape shall not murder, ape wasn't so sure
Bad ape, you made a mistake, annihilation in a cannibal war
Well, cultivation might have served you, might have raised you up unscathed
If you had called that fucker by its name

Did you listen to the arbiter's beck and call?
Did you find what you were looking for or not at all?
Not at all!

Ape shall not murder, ape wasn't so sure
Bad ape, you made a mistake, annihilation in a cannibal war
Culture might have cured you and raised you up unscathed
If you had called that fucker by its name

Say the name
Say the name
Say the name

Can you hear the call in our rambling land, susurrations that can expand
Beyond all hope of light and plunge us into unrelenting night?
A pall on truth and reason, it feels like hunting season
So avoid those lines of sight and we'll set this right

Welcome to the new dark ages
Yeah, I hope you're living right
These are the new dark ages
And the world might end tonight

Now come ye children, one and all, let's heed Ezekiel's call
And bide until the word is good and right then get plucked clean out of sight
The world will be erased, our kin will be immaculate ejaculate in space
Before the king of king's love, he'll snatch us from above, brothers, help me sing it

Welcome to the new dark ages
Yeah, I hope you're living right
These are the new dark ages
And the world might end tonight

So how do you sleep?
There's nothing to keep, this is deep
Because we're animals with golden rules
Who can't be moved by rational views

Yeah, welcome to the new dark ages
I hope you're living right
Welcome to the new dark ages
Say it again, yeah

These are the new dark ages
I hope you're living right
Welcome to the new dark ages
And the world might end tonight

Oh, can't you feel the nostalgia, I wonder about you, modernistocrat Horatio Alger
Clever, never hesitating in the baiting, ever waiting for the canticle of manacles abating
Did you ever forget you had a regret?
And what you only guessed at might still be waiting

When the prodigal son with a caroming shadow of hate comes to land at home
Well, he's a mourning star with a champagne heart at his curtain call
And father never understood the way the work gets done
Don't look at me, no, I ain't one, no prodigal son
Don't look at me, no, I ain't one, no prodigal son

When everybody about is ready to bout you about controversial values
Don't you think you'd better readdress the level of the cowardice rising to drown you?
Did you ever connect or come to reject, or even inspect
The dreams that hound you?

When the prodigal son with a caroming shadow of hate comes to land at home
Well, he's a mourning star with a champagne heart at his curtain call
And father never understood the way the work gets done
Don't look at me, no, I ain't one, no prodigal son
Don't look at me, no, I ain't one, no prodigal son

When you least expect it, he's going to run
Like the blood-red path of the western sun
The prodigal son is waiting, waiting for his moment to come
Well hell no, don't look at me, can't you see I ain't one, no prodigal son
It ain't me, no I ain't one, no prodigal son

Oratory of hope and glory, a whisper and a rhyme
An effigy, a soldier out of time
Citizen and patriot, you can't be far behind
The funeral weighing heavy on your mind

Requiem, bring the dissident from slumber
Requiem, raise the rebel from his grave
Requiem, sound the revolution's thunder
A monumental blunder averted and betrayed

Dig around the cemetery, a record of the day
Friends and neighbors in stages of decay
But the saddest thing of all eludes discovery
The stimulus for this somber ceremony

Requiem, bring the dissident from slumber
Requiem, raise the rebel from his grave
Requiem, sound the revolution's thunder
A monumental blunder averted and betrayed

The sanctimonious minions, how they grovel at the feet
Authority is populist deceit
Pity yet another casualty's demoralized decline
Just a victim of irrational design

Requiem
Requiem
Requiem

Bring the dissident from slumber
Requiem, raise the rebel from his grave
Requiem, sound the revolution's thunder
A monumental blunder averted and betrayed

One - two - three - four - five - six - seven - eight
Days go marching by
There and back I never wait for a confident reply
Truth is stark and leaves its mark as limited constraints
And the most difficult part is accepting what the future may bring

It seems like a lifetime of scrutiny
Wither the path, whether worth the fee
A lifetime of scrutiny
And it seems as though I can't be sure of anything anymore

One - two - three - four - five - six - seven - eight
Years go flying by
No one seems to hesitate or cast an earnest eye
Judgement comes in many forms but never scarce or shy
And the litany is long as the confidence is strong in their delight

It seems like a lifetime of scrutiny
Prejudicial waters wash over me
A lifetime of scrutiny
And the words just don't equate with sense or sanity anymore

One - two - three - four - five - six - seven - eight
The faces and the names
Shattered hopes and stolen dreams and no one left to blame
Is it possible to win this pointless mortal game?
'Cuz when death comes it's swift and my friends, we end up all the same

It feels like a lifetime of scrutiny
Wither the path and whether worth the fee
A lifetime of scrutiny
And it seems as though I can't remember anything anymore

Come let us make bricks and burn them hard
We'll build a city with a tower for the world
And climb so we can reach anything we may propose
Anything at all

Build me up, tear me down
Like a skyscraper
Build me up, then tear down these joining walls
So they can't climb at all

I know why you tore it down that day
You thought that if you got caught we'd all go away
Like a spoiled little baby who can't come out and play
You had your revenge

Build me up, tear me down
Like a skyscraper
Build me up, then tear down these joining walls
So they can't climb at all

Well madness reigned and paradise drowned
When Babel's walls came crashing down
Now the echoes roar, for story read that was hardly understood
And never any good

Build me up, tear me down
Like a skyscraper
Build me up, then tear down these joining walls
So they can't climb at all

Father can you hear me?
How have I let you down?
I curse the day that I was born
And all the sorrow in this world

Let me take you to the hurting ground
Where all good men are trampled down
Just to settle a bet that could not be won
Between a prideful father and his son

Will you guide me now, for I can't see
A reason for the suffering and this long misery
What if every living soul could be upright and strong?
Well then I do imagine

There will be sorrow
Yeah, there will be sorrow
And there will be sorrow no more

When all soldiers lay their weapons down
Or when all kings and all queens relinquish their crowns
Or when the only true messiah rescues us from ourselves
It's easy to imagine

There will be sorrow
Yeah, there will be sorrow
And there will be sorrow no more

There will be sorrow
Yeah, there will be sorrow
And there will be sorrow no more

Yeah, there will be sorrow
Yeah, there will be sorrow
And there will be sorrow no more

Dedication's the price you pay
The initiated are coddled and caged
Before you walk, as soon as you crawl
Hope is pointless when you're stuck in the trawl

Fuck the freshman lectures and brandishments
They just betray impoverished accomplishments
The puppet masters fear originality
They tighten up the tethers and they shackle your feet

Submission complete

Young recruits never have a chance
Enticed to the drill, admonished to dance
Early to rise and early to shine
Life is long but the end is nigh

Break the guilty trammels from yesteryear
Remember how rejuvenation conquers all fears
Lowly opportunists take commanding roles
And hawk ultimatums so their weakness won't show

The sad reflection
Of dead ambition
You live for nothing
Submission complete

Yeah, break the guilty trammels from yesteryear
Remember how the pain of failure makes it all clear
The lowly opportunists take commanding roles
And hawk ultimatums so their weakness won't show

The sad reflection
Of dead ambition
You live for nothing

Expectation
Indoctrination
Life's damnation
Submission complete

Dying on your feet
Submission complete
A total defeat

I could only get the tools, the stimuli and molecules
Frozen moments in time
I could be the archetype, a credit to the genotype
Reprogram your mind

But the storybook sages fill their pages
Hiding from the warming sun
Limitless distractions give no pause
To distort a precious delusion

Delusion
Precious delusion

Did you see the moralist retort and raise his fist?
You can't make a man a machine
I can see the edifice crumbling in foggy mist
Razed by discovery

But the storybook sages fill their pages
Hiding from the warming sun
Limitless distractions give no pause
To distort a precious delusion

Delusion
Precious delusion
Delusion

Out in the cold,
like a bundle of coal,
little packets of darkness,
wanting to grow,

Well there's nobody home,
and there's a wreck in the yard,
and maybe they're coming back,
if we wish really hard,
if we wish real hard now,

Won't somebody please come up with something,
'cause Jesus just don't seem to be impartially working
and all of the rest are really down in the ratings,
but everyone is gonna keep on waiting,

waiting for peace,
at the end of our streets,
back behind our apartments,
in our passenger seats,

just a moment of bliss,
of it all of the ways,
but despair and oblivion,
of our precarious ways,
its ours to face now,

Won't somebody please come up with something,
'cause Jesus just don't seem to be impartially working,
and all of the rest are really down in the ratings,
but everyone is still right here waiting,

now I know nothing lasts forever,
so we might as well wish for a God damn fix,
of this toxic change in weather,

Won't somebody please come up with something,
'cause Jesus just don't seem to be impartially working
and all of the others can barely stay in the running,
but everyone is gonna keep on waiting

Won't somebody please come up with something
Won't somebody please come up with something
Won't somebody please come up with something
Won't somebody please come up with something

Now get up and give in, I'll crack your knuckles again
Supplicate and survive this transubstantiation
And get so mean
I want to know what it means

Did you laugh? You know I did
Did you cry? Couldn't get it right
Did you live? Always on the edge
Did you lie? Causing such a fright

Did you love? Oh, to be forgiven
Did you try? But it wouldn't be right
God, it feels like an honest goodbye

That sick brass boy daydreaming, cry baby, convict, demon
Hands so clean, a sympathetic cold-blooded killing machine
How did you get so mean?
I want to know what it means

Did you laugh? You know I did
Did you cry? Couldn't get it right
Did you live? Always on the edge
Did you lie? Causing such a fright

Did you love? Oh, to be forgiven
Did you try? But it wouldn't be right
God, it feels like an honest goodbye

This song goes out to all the hopeless sinners
With grave allegiances so meaningless and vain
The walking wounded in a pageant of contenders
Who balance on a rail of pain for just a pail of rain

And everything is barely missed, blood relations and bricks
My expression, my confession, add it up, extract a lesson
More than this, once again, like a bullet, as a friend
Tell me, can that be all there is?

In my rectory of doubt, I kneel to pray like one devout
As time the great, gray dreamless sleep of a useless modern god
Erodes away each storied day as wretched Adams with hell to pay
Content upon a rail of pain for just a little rain

And everything is dearly missed, blood relations and bricks
My expression, my confession, add it up, extract a lesson
More than this, once again, like a bullet, as a friend
Tell me, can that be all there is?

There's an endless disposition and it doesn't mean a goddamn thing
There's space for a paper airplane race in the eye of a hurricane
And if pigs could fly, then surely so could I, but this pedestrian knows better than to even try
And my divinity is caught between the colors of a butterfly

And everything is dearly missed, blood relations and bricks
My expression, my confession, add it up, extract a lesson
More than this, once again, like a bullet, as a friend
Tell me, can that be all there is?

Maybe it's too late for an intellectual debate
But a residue of confusion remains
Changing with the times and amphetamine tortured minds
Are the average citizen's sources of pain

(Yeah) Tell me what we're fighting for
I don't remember anymore, only temporary reprieve
And the world might cease if we fail to tame the beast
From the faith that you release comes an atheist peace (Woohoohooho - Atheist peace)

Political forces ran critical winds of discontent
And the modern age emerged triumphantly
But now it seems we've stalled and it's time to de-evolve
And relive the dark chapters of history

(Yeah) Tell me what we're fighting for
No progress ever came from war, only a false sense of increase
And the world won't wait for the truth upon a plate
But we're ready now to feast on an atheist peace (Ohoohohh. yeah - Atheist peace)

(Here we go now)
No one here can show you where it is
but I can point to a sign
On the roof of the world without apparent design
The frozen definition of a lunatic ambition to rise
(The air is thin, the future dim,
dimension hard to find)
Up on a mountain encased in solar rays
Beyond electric dreams of inarticulate passion plays
Coming down a mountain
Eons have a human ring
The conversation of impassive planets
Intercepted by a human being
Ratiocination is a practicable way to derive
An attitude of altitude and probity by which to abide
Or maybe a theophany of flaming creosote in disguise
(The air is thin, the future dim, dimension undefined)
Up on a mountain encased in solar rays
Beyond electric dreams of inarticulate passion plays
Coming down a mountain
Eons have a human ring
The conversation of impassive planets
Intercepted by a human being
(Here glaring cold in the crystalline geometry of night)
(Obscuring form and tracing faceless fears)
(Of a suprahuman immensity in a patch of sand)
(Or a raptor's guileless shivering intensity)
(I'm only a visitor, an atom of atoms )
(On a jutting red-spattered synagogue of granite)
(As it crouches literally in space)
(A frozen, amoral giant gazing heavenward forever)
(Hello, hello, hello, hello)
(Let's go where the raptor goes)
(To the mountain in a cosmic glow)
(We'll have a genuine terrestrial show)
(On a mountain, on a mountain)
(Let's scan the horizon clean)
(For any trace of human schemes)
(And try to touch upon immortal themes)
(On a mountain, on a mountain)
(Let's go where the raptor goes)
Coming down a mountain
(To the mountin in a cosmic glow)
Eons have a human ring
(We'll have a genuine terrestrial show)
The conversation of impassive planets
(On a mountain, on a mountain)
Intercepted by a human being
(Let's scan the horizon clean)
Up on a mountain
(For any trace of human schemes)
Encased in solar rays
(And try to touch upon immortal themes)
Beyond electric dreams
On a mountain, on a mountain
(Let's go where the raptor goes)
Coming down a mountain
(To the mountain in a cosmic glow)
Eons have a human ring
(We'll have a genuine terrestrial show)
The conversation of impassive planets
On a mountain, on a mountain
(Let's scan the horizon clean)
Up on a mountain
(For any trace of human schemes)
Encased in solar rays
(And try to touch upon immortal themes)
Beyond electric dreams
On a mountain, on a mountain
(Let's go where the raptor goes)
Coming down a mountain
(To the mountain in a cosmic glow)
Eons have a human ring
(We'll have a genuine terrestrial show)
The conversation of impassive planets
On a mountain

""Drop dead, it doesn't matter,"" She said
""It only hurts when I laugh,"" She said
Sometimes it's never a crime to spend the day in bed
She made certain that the curtains were red
To dream better by the light they would shed
She leaned back, tilted her head,
and this is what she said:
""You can't win, think it over again
I can't win, look at the trouble I'm in
We can't win, and we're stuck here together
Yeah, I hope it will last forever""
""Don't ever dare to hope,"" He said
""So I'm never let down too bad
I know there's nowhere to go,
so I'll just stay here instead""
He knew better than to pull on a thread
They unravel like the thoughts in his head
He looked out, it filled him with dread
And this is what he said:
""You can't win, think it over again
I can't win, look at the trouble I'm in
We can't win, and we're stuck here together
Yeah, I hope it will last forever""
With good books, and looks on their side
And hearts bursting with national pride
They sang songs that went along for the ride
And the other side complied
They said, ""Hey man, where do you reside?""
And, ""Could it be Mother Superior lied?""
And, ""Is it possible too many have died?""
It's only natural to reply:
""You can't win, think it over again
I can't win, look at the trouble I'm in
We can't win, and we're stuck here together
Yeah, I hope it will last forever""

Striking at mental apparitions like a drunk on a vacant street
Silently beset by the hands of time and elegant in its fury
An aberrant crack as skeletons yield to unrelenting gravity
While viruses prowl for helpless victims who succumb rapidly

Tell me, tell me where is the love in a careless creation when there's no above?
There's no justice, just a cause and no cure
And a bounty of suffering it seems we all endure
And what I'm frightened of is that they call it God's love

Well, we twist in torment and make believe
There's a truth that we all submit
Believe my eyes, my brain complies
To all that they interpret

So tell me, tell me where is the love in a careless creation when there's no above?
There's no justice, just a cause and no cure
And a bounty of suffering it seems we all endure
And what I'm frightened of is that they call it God's love

I know there's no reason for alarm
But who needs perspective when it comes to pain and harm?
We can change our minds
There's a better prize

But first you've got to tell me, tell me where is the love in a careless creation when there's no above?
There's no justice, just a cause and no cure
And a bounty of suffering it seems we all endure
And what I'm frightened of is that they call it God's love

They call it God's love
My pain is God's love

There's a prophet on a mountain and he's making up dinner with long division and a riding crop
Anybody can feel like a winner when it's served up piping hot
But the people aren't looking for a handout, they're America's working corps
Can this be what they voted for?

Let them eat war, let them eat war
That's how to ration the poor
Let them eat war, let them eat war
There's an urgent need to feed, declining pride

From the force to the union shops, the war economy is making new jobs
But the people who benefit most are breaking bread with their benevolent hosts
Who never stole from the rich to give to the poor, all they ever gave to them was a war
And a foreign enemy to deplore

Let them eat war, let them eat war
That's how to ration the poor
Let them eat war, let them eat war
There's an urgent need to feed, declining pride

We've got to kill 'em and eat 'em before they reach for their checks
Squeeze some blue collars, let them bleed from their necks
Seize a few dollars from the people who sweat
Cause it's freedom or death and they won't question it

At a job site the boss is god like
Conditioned workhorses park at a stoplight
Seasoned vets with their feet in nets
A stones throw away from a rock fight but not tonight

Feed 'em death, here comes another ration
Feed 'em death, 'cause they're the finest in the nation
Feed 'em death, when there's nothing left to feed them with
When it's freedom or it's death

Let them eat war, let them eat war
That's how to ration the poor
Let them eat war, let them eat war
There's an urgent need to feed

The road is narrow, the horizon wide
And they say what's waiting on the other side
Is so rewarding and the ultimate prize
But what good is something
if you can't have it until you die?
Desperate, tenacious , clinging like a grain of sand
Watching its foundation wash away
Wash away
Drunk with the assertions they know they can't defend
Confident that they might live again
Live again, live again
Would you give it all up to live again?
Live again, live again
Would you give it all up to live again?
Temptation, revelation , you decide
Torture shows its colors often in disguise
Progress and purpose help us realize
We pass along a brighter faith
Even though it must be blind
Desperate, tenacious , clinging like a grain of sand
Watching its foundation wash away
Wash away
Drunk with the assertions they know they can't defend
Confident that they might live again
Live again, live again
Would you give it all up to live again?
Live again, live again
Would you give it all up to live again?
Let's go
Oh, desperate, tenacious , clinging like a grain of sand
Watching its foundation wash away
Wash away, yeah
Drunk with the assertions they know they can't defend
Confident that they might live again
Live again, live again
Would you give it all up to live again?
Live again, live again
Would you give it all up to live again?
Live again, live again
Would you give it all up to live again?
Live again, live again
Would you give it all up to live again?

Somewhere high in the desert near a curtain of blue
Saint Ann's skirts are billowing
But down here in the city of limelights
The fans of Santa Ana are withering

And you can't deny the living is easy
If you never look behind the scenery
It's showtime for dry climes
Bedlam is dreaming of rain

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives are on the breeze, even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is burning

This is not a test
Of the emergency broadcast system
When Malibu fires and radio towers
Conspire to dance again

And I cannot believe the media Mecca
They're only trying to peddle reality
Catch it on primetime, story at 9
The whole world is going insane

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives are on the breeze, even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is burning

A placard reads the end of days
Jacaranda boughs are bending in the haze
More a question than a curse, how could hell be any worse?
The flames are starting, the camera's running, so take warning

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives are on the breeze, even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is burning

Innocents burned alive at the stake
Tortured and dumped in nameless graves
Centuries waned, authority died
Scattering seeds of ancient lies

Sinister rouge coming back for more
To even the score
Sinister rouge coming back for more
To even the score

Child molesters and Jesuits
Holding secret conference
Underneath the Pontiff's nose
And only God will ever know

Sinister rouge coming back for more
To even the score
Sinister rouge coming back for more
To even the score

Give us this day our daily bread
Your legacy we'll not forget
Lick the wounds, cleanse the land
The modern world rejects your hand

Sinister rouge coming back for more
To even the score
Sinister rouge coming back for more
To even the score

The nightmare comes in sinister rouge

Right now, well, it's finally time to face my fears
Gonna get the hell out of here
And create a fresher atmosphere
But the consequence is clear

There's a furnace set on high
And a yearning undefined
But it's time to turn the tide
It's social suicide

Like you, perseverance is a useless tool
Just a patron on a ship of fools
Feigning interest in the cast and crew
While you've broken every single rule

There's a furnace set on high
And a yearning undefined
Now it's time to turn the tide
It's social suicide

Shadows entertain the unwashed masses
Scholars explain their numb reactions
I don't even know if I can ever find truth
But I'm sure it won't come from following you

There's a furnace set on high
And a yearning undefined
But it's time to turn the tide
It's social suicide

We strike first and we're unrehearsed
Here we go again to stage the greatest show on heaven and earth
Come on, get your money's worth
Don't want to live (Can't live)
Don't want to give (Can't give)
Don't want to be (Won't be)
E - M - P - I - R - E
(Can't live) Don't want to live
(Can't give) Don't want to be (Won't be)
E - M - P - I - R - E
We're comin' on fast
And we're built to last
We stumbled once in 'Nam now we're glad to
finally say those days have past
Tell me how long can it last?
Don't want to live (Can't live)
Don't want to give (Can't give)
Don't want to be (Won't be)
E - M - P - I - R - E
(Can't live) Don't want to live
(Can't give) Don't want to be (Won't be)
E - M - P - I - R - E
We just started out
You don't need to be afraid
Yeah, you deserve two minutes hate
Well, we spit and we cursed
And our bleeding-hearts burst
But even ten million souls marching in February
Couldn't stop the worst
C-c-c-couldn't reverse
Don't want to live (Can't live)
Don't want to give (Can't give)
Don't want to be (Won't be)
E - M - P - I - R - E
(Can't live) Don't want to live
(Can't give) Don't want to be (Won't be)
E - M - P - I - R - E
(Can't live, can't give, won't be)
Don't want to live (Can't live)
Don't want to live (Can't give)
Don't want to be (Won't be)
I can't live if it isn't with you
(Can't live, can't give, won't be,
E - M - P - I - R - E)
Don't want to live (Can't live)
Don't want to live (Can't give)
Don't want to be (Won't be)
E - M - P - I - R - E

The quickening is an ephemeral thing
That only happens in the dark
Like catching lightening in a jar
And the pain that it brings is just the promise of spring
It's madness on the wing
Oh, what does it mean?
To come alive
To come alive
To come alive
(To come alive)
To come alive
To come alive
To come alive
The entering is soulful conjecturing
Oh, lost and by the wind-grieved ghost
Please come back to me again
Because the way that she bleeds
Is in the law that he reads
Confusing words and deeds
So what does it mean?
To come alive
To come alive
To come alive
(To come alive)
To come alive
To come alive
To come alive
To pierce the vein of the sacred and profane
Poor science in the service of a faith
But who will bear the mark of Cain
To come alive
.......x12

Not long ago, and yet the image is so vague
I hesitate to label it a memory
There was a show of local color and I felt astray
'Cause I had nothin' to offer but insufficiency
And you know that it's a bitch
When you learn to scratch that itch
Of blatant fallibility
Sooner to some, but eventually
All gets pointed in the same direction
While the human masses and their vague conceptions
Obliterate each other with impunity
And you wonder, ""What's in this for me?""
To another abyss
To no avail
The search is bound to fail
To another abyss
To no avail
So long ago I set sail
And it chills me to the bone that I'm so far away
from home
To another abyss
So what should I do now?
What should I celebrate
Given finite means and a penchant to depreciate ?
How can I still avow and depend upon a state
That cares nothing for my happiness, welfare, or fate?
And I know I can't explain the commotion in my brain
Like a terrifying reality deconstructed but inadequately
All gets pointed in the same direction
While the human masses and their vague conceptions
Obliterate each other with impunity
And release the weight of history
To another abyss
To no avail
The search is bound to fail
To another abyss
To no avail
So long ago I set sail
And it chills me to the bone that I'm so far away
from home
To another abyss
So long ago
So long ago
Oh, I set sail
And I'm struggling on the way
And I'm waiting for the day (To another abyss )
And I'm looking for a way back home
(To another abyss) So far away
(To another abyss) So far away
(To another abyss)
(To another abyss) So far away
(To another abyss)

With nothing better to do
No one to come home to
I woefully conclude
To take it out on you

I'm bored to the extreme, this world of foolish dreams
Disillusion, I am not who I seem to be
Yeah sure, I might do harm and bear my right to arm
Retribution, if only someone would listen to me

Listen to me
Listen to me
Listen to me
Listen to me

A room, an empty shelf
A book on mental health
I look for inner wealth
By punishing myself

I'm bored to the extreme, this world of foolish dreams
Disillusion, I am not who I seem to be
Yeah sure, I might do harm and bear my right to arm
Retribution, if only someone would listen to me

Listen to me
Listen to me
Listen to me
Listen to me

She said "thanks, but I'm broken
I guess you must have misspoken
What a laugh
I've never been chosen by anyone"

She was barely a teen, hanging out in between, just a part of the scene
With mercurial smile and incurable style, she was only a dream
How's that he didn't know a thing about
Making love to the kind of girl you read about?

He said "I'm bound to be broken
My daddy bet that I'd amount to nothing
He won't let
Anybody show him anything"

He was a troubled child, had been down for a while, always kept to himself
Though she couldn't defend he only wanted a friend, now he's made something else
It's so sad, no one saw it coming
The paper said that he hit the ground running

Oh yeah, I know I'm not broken
A little cracked, but still I'm not broken
I want to laugh
But I think that I'm choking on reality

When the world is turning for you, don't turn on me
Who are you here to repair? Well, I don't know what you mean
You could never resist glorifying despair
And now it's coming to you and I don't really care

Well, I'm not the kind to insist
You couldn't have missed, we must coexist
So please listen to me
There is no such thing as human debris

Oh yeah, I know I'm not broken
A little cracked but that amounts to nothing
I want to laugh
I'm not joking

I'm unbroken, I said I'm unbroken
A little cracked, it's just a token
I'm really not broken
Well, I guess I'm unbroken

I'm incurable but durable, it's easy to see
Lack of restraint is a complaint of those around me
I know that others postpone
Gratification, well I lack that affectation

Let's get it right
There's no end in sight
And I can't stop, can't stop it, can't stop, can't stop it
Can't stop, it's shocking but I just can't stop it

Uncontrollable, I'm inconsolable
My pleasure center is the shelter for a reptile
I hate when I gotta tolerate
Frustration, see I lack the motivation

Let's set this straight
I never wait
And I can't stop, can't stop it, can't stop, can't stop it
Can't stop, it's shocking but I just can't stop it

Who do you believe can put some meaning in your life?
Meaning in your life, meaning in your life
Who do you conceive to provide you guidance and light?
Guidance and light, guidance and light

Are they waiting for you in the by and by?
Do you even have to try?

Headed for eternity and destined for nothing
The future isn't difficult to see
It's easy to confuse grand design with life's repercussions
Lament not your vanquished fantasy, it's only destiny

Why do you consent to live in ignorance and fear?
Ignorance and fear, ignorance and fear
Ancient people succumbed to it, can it happen here?
Can it happen here, can it happen here?

Does it make you suffer 'cause you have to die?
Is it best to live a lie?

Headed for eternity and destined for nothing
The future isn't difficult to see
It's easy to confuse grand design with life's repercussions
Lament not your vanquished fantasy, it's only destiny

Why can't you see?
There ain't no destiny
For you and me
There ain't no destiny

Why can't you see?
There ain't no destiny
For you and me
There ain't no destiny

Headed for eternity and destined for nothing
The future isn't difficult to see
It's easy to confuse grand design with life's repercussions
Lament not your vanquished fantasy, it's only destiny

A new age of reason, brains treason to trick the mind
What good is searching if nothing's there to find?
We arrive at this place of no return, my brothers
Only to discover that our minds have led us away so far from the painful truth of who we are

What's right is wrong, what's come has gone, what's clear and pure is not so sure
It came to me
All promises become a lie, all that's benign corrupts in time
The fallacy of epiphany

Come forth, bear witness, see the profit from your loss
Beg for forgiveness only after you tally the cost
We arrive at this place of no return, my sisters
Only to discover that our values ran us aground on the shore, in the sea of what we could be

What's right is wrong, what's come has gone, what's clear and pure is not so sure
It came to me
All promises become a lie, all that's benign corrupts in time
The fallacy of epiphany

If it's real to me, do I have to prove it to you?
Why do revelations fade to cold blue untruths?
It's oh so relative
Subservient in total to one's perspective

What's right is wrong, what's come has gone, what's clear and pure is not so sure
It came to me
All promises become a lie, all that's benign corrupts in time
The fallacy of epiphany

Always failing me

She came from heaven, well there's no point belaboring that
I've seen some trouble and I must admit that I'm in demand
I confront rejection with magnetic good intentions and yet
Hey Jack, get back, in fact, don't do that

I act sharp but feel uncertain
'Cause next time it could be curtains

Evangeline, conspirator so fine
Lend me your faith 'cause mine is broken
Compared to mine
What is your crime, Evangeline?

Now just to be certain, let's be sure to set the record straight
I could use an angel but I don't intend to split up the take
Never go for treason, but I got reasons that don't warrant debate
My act's intact and in fact you're not all that

You act sure but you're uncertain
'Cause next time it could be curtains

Evangeline, conspirator so fine
Lend me your faith 'cause mine is broken
Compared to mine
What is your crime, Evangeline?

Well, there's no use turning back
It's already much too late
When the house is burning

Evangeline, conspirator so fine
Lend me your faith 'cause mine is broken
Compared to mine
What is your crime, Evangeline?

It's a matter of prescience, no not the science-fiction kind
It's all about ignorance and greed and miracles for the blind
The media parading disjointed politics
Founded on petrochemical plunder and we're its hostages

If you stand to reason you're in the game
The rules may be elusive but our pieces are the same
And you know if one goes down we all go down as well
The balance is precarious as anyone can tell, the world's going to hell

Don't allow
This mythologic hopeful monster to exact its price
Kyoto now
We can't do nothing and think someone else will make it right

You might not think it matters now, but what if you are wrong?
You might not think there's any wisdom in a fucked up punk rock song
But the way it is cannot persist for long
A brutal sun is rising on a sick horizon

It's in the way we live our lives
Exactly like the double edge of a cold, familiar knife
And supremacy weighs heavy on the day
It's never really what you own but what you threw away, and how much did you pay

Don't allow
This mythologic hopeful monster to exact its price
Kyoto now
We can't do nothing and think someone else will make it right

In your dreams
You saw a steady state of bounty for eternity
Silent scream
But now the wisdom that sustains us is in full retreat

Don't allow
This mythologic hopeful monster isn't worth the risk
Kyoto now
We can't have vision for the future if it can't be fixed

Alien
We need a fresh and new religion to run our lives
Hand in hand
The arid torpor of inaction will be our demise

Kyoto now!

You're obsessed and distressed 'cause you can't make any sense
Of the ludicrous nonsense and incipient senescence
That will deem your common sense useless
This ain't no recess

I want to believe in you but my plans keep falling through
I know I have to face the harshness, grin and bare the truth
And I have to walk this mile in my own shoes
And I'm no fool

I'm materialist, a full-blown realist
And I guess I'm full of doubt so I'm prone to have it out with you
I'm materialist, there ain't no fear in this
It's there for all to see, so don't talk of hidden mystery with me

Mind over matter, it really don't matter
If the street's idle chatter turns your heartstrings to tatters
Flatter hopes don't flatter and soul batter won't congeal to mend a life that's shattered into shards
Was it in the cards?

The process of belief is an elixir when you're weak
I must confess at times I indulge it on the sneak
But generally my outlook's not so bleak
And I'm not meek

I'm materialist, call me a humanist
And I guess I'm full of doubt so I'll gladly have it out with you
I'm materialist, I ain't no deist
It's there for all to see, so don't talk of hidden mystery with me

Like Rome under Nero, our future's one big zero
Recycling the past to meet immediate needs
And through it all we amble forth to persevere and climb
Our mountains of regret to sow our seeds

I'm materialist
I'm materialist
I'm materialist
I'm materialist

Hit the road in wander mode, inquire along the way
Savior-faire in dull despair while living day to day
My heart is not a cold cauldron of proof
I don't ever need to prove myself to you

Looking back I'm off the tracks more times than I recognize
Mistakes are another opportunity to refine
My heart is not a cold cauldron of proof
I don't ever need to prove myself to you

There's no such thing as hell
But you can make it if you try
There might come a day
When emotion can be quantified

But as of now there's no proof necessary
No proof necessary
No proof necessary
There's no proof necessary, it's only in your mind

Father can you hear me?
How have I let you down?
I curse the day that I was born
And all the sorrow in this world

Let me take you to the hurting ground
Where all good men are trampled down
Just to settle a bet that could not be won
Between a prideful father and his son

Will you guide me now, for I can't see
A reason for the suffering and this long misery
What if every living soul could be upright and strong?
Well then I do imagine

There will be sorrow
Yeah, there will be sorrow
And there will be sorrow no more

When all soldiers lay their weapons down
Or when all kings and all queens relinquish their crowns
Or when the only true messiah rescues us from ourselves
It's easy to imagine

There will be sorrow
Yeah, there will be sorrow
And there will be sorrow no more

There will be sorrow
Yeah, there will be sorrow
And there will be sorrow no more

Yeah, there will be sorrow
Yeah, there will be sorrow
And there will be sorrow no more

Well, am I making haste, or could it be haste is making me?
What's time but a thing to kill or keep or buy or lose or live in?
I gotta go faster, keep up the pace
Just to stay in the human race

I could go supersonic, the problem's chronic
Tell me does life exist beyond it?
When I need to sate I just accelerate into oblivion
Into oblivion

Now here I go again everything is alien
How does it feel to be outstripped by the pace of cultural change?
My deeds are senseless and rendered meaningless
When measured in that vein

I could go supersonic, the problem's chronic
Tell me does life exist beyond it?
When I need to sate I just accelerate into oblivion

I won't lie (pace setters, go-getters)
It's exciting (rat racers, forgetters)
When I try (researchers, berserkers)
To decide things (strategies to help the workers)

I just want to live (new time-saving devices)
Decently (quick vices, no crisis)
Meaningfully (brevity dependency)
I'm in misery (digital efficiency)

I could go supersonic, the problem's chronic
Tell me does life exist beyond it?
When I need to sate I just accelerate into oblivion
Into oblivion

Nothing comes easier than madness in the world today
Mass paranoia is a mode, not a malady
Yeah, I'd like to watch a thousand cable channels but there's nothing on
And my high speed connection's monitored daily by the Pentagon

These things are seldom what they seem
I'm not inclined to enjoy my dream
Won't go away

(No peace) No peace
(And no friends) And no friends
(We trace)
We trace the mortal edge (With no defense)
To state the obvious
This world is perilous for us

No sense (No sense)
And no guide (No guide)
Ain't it beautiful to be alive? (Yeah, right)
I won't resign before the struggle ends
So I'll construct this sound defense

We are the prey and culture is the predator
I'm running out of time where conditions are positional
Shadows of a doubt cast reluctance and depravity
There's got to be a way to overcome this grim reality

Is there an option left for me?
I'm not immune to despondency
There's no way

(No peace) No peace
(And no friends) And no friends
(We trace)
We trace the mortal edge (with no defense)
To state the obvious
This world is perilous for us

No sense (no sense)
And no guide (no guide)
Ain't it beautiful to be alive? (Yeah, right)
I won't resign before the struggle ends
So I'll construct this sound defense

There's a signpost on the corner and it keeps everybody safe
We were all made in the shade
And your mother's in the kitchen where she's patching all the cracks in the wall
We never had a care in the world

(No shade) Too much to sacrifice
(And no light) It's hard to recognize
(Just black) Traps to compromise
(And white) Obscuring deadly alibis
(My plans) It's combinational
(Designs) The pressure so intense
So I'll construct this sound defense

(No way) Nothing's plainer than the madness in the world today
(No sign) I must conceal myself and steal myself and break away
(No grace) I seek initiatives in matters that are black and white
(No sense) So I'll construct this sound defense

How do you know what you can be
If you can't see where you are going?
What breaks the silence?
Misery can make you see where you belong
It's a dangerous stage but the show must go on

Why do you lie, why do you lie?
Would you betray your soul?
Why do you lie, why do you lie?
Don't let your weakness show
You just might be the last to know

Freedom is such a loaded word
So full of hurt and such aplomb
Loneliness saunters in its breeze
Like a disease it drags along
The time of your life can't be had for a song

Why do you lie, why do you lie?
Would you betray your soul?
Why do you lie, why do you lie?
Don't let your weakness show
You just might be the last to know

Why do you lie, why do you lie?
Would you betray your soul?
Why do you lie, why do you lie?
Don't let your weakness show

Why do you lie, why do you lie?
Only the meek follow
Why do you lie, why do you lie?
Trample the fear below
You might just be the last to know

Hey you, is there something worth aspiring to?
And can it be found in a record store? Well, it's not there anymore
Just think of all the things we did
We were different, just like all the other kids

Missy was a teen blue video star, Tom took his life in his mother's car
Milo went to college, but you knew about that
Rodney played our records, Jimmy started riots, Laurie was always quiet
She was battling depression

Hey you, is there something worth belonging to?
And can I pick it up for a song or a diploma or a worthy cause?
Well, let me tell you that there's nothing wrong
It's just that ones like us will never belong

Jack wore a skirt but he knew how to scrap, Billy went to county on a class-one possession
Wendy went to school while her daddy shot smack
Eugine kept a list, Mugger was security, Mary she kept her purity
We were all in it together

Yellowed postcards on the wall
Serve to cover up the blankness after all
So I will carry them along like a song
When I'm gone

Hey you, is there something worth belonging to?
You know we've been here all along like a confederacy of the wrong
And I confess it could be prejudice
But to you I dedicate this song

You were the one,
You were my everything
Never apart,
No one in-between
Then one day,
When you went your own way
You felt justified,
And I was mortified
But today...
You are just a picture
And a thousand memories
Is all I take with me
'Cuz your smile
Is just too much to see
You're just a thousand memories
Fantasies, broken dreams
Reveries, sordid histories
Following my heart,
Laden with reaction,
Without calibration or design
Committed to a trial,
A life of understanding
Can't somebody show a sign to you
For me to see if you only knew
That you were the one
You were my everything
Never apart,
No one in-between
Then one day,
When you went your own way
You felt justified,
And I was mortified
But today...
You are just a picture
And a thousand memories
Is all I take with me
'Cuz a picture is worth
one thousand memories

Well, it was punk-fifteen in the morning
And it was time to stand my ground
And as the gawks and stares bombarded me
You know, I didn't even hear a sound
No one gave a damn
If I was there or away
If I died and went to hell,
They'd throw a party on my grave
And they'd all say
"this kid is just a fool, he'll never be cool
They might as well just ship him off
to some other school"
Plain destitute
Just a little too guilty, just a little too soon
That day was just like any other day
No work, and no pay
I knew that paradise was some other place
And I'd get there another day
I will find it before I expire
'Cuz I've got the desire
Well, it was punk-fifteen in the evening
And it was time to set the town on fire
I saw my boots and my hair
As reflected in the mirror
Reveal a streetkid named desire
I didn't give a damn
Because I was just dying to be
And as the Hollywood street scene
Left its mark on me
I changed from a boy into a man
I said "never again!"
I stuck out my chin when I should have ran
Shit in the fan
I was driven so hard
By the sound of my heart
But that day was just like any other day
No work, and no pay
I knew that paradise was some other place
And I'd get there another day
I will find it before I expire
'Cuz I've got the desire
When the walls surround
In deeper shades of blue
And there's no voice of reason inside you
And you search for meaning
On an empty shelf
Then you're always dreaming
Of somewhere else
Today is just like any other day
No fear, no restraint
I know that paradise is some other place
And I will get there another day
You can come with me,
No conditions or fares
Somehow, somewhere,
I will find it before I expire,
'Cuz I've got the desire

I don't want to live
In a world without melody
Sometimes the rhythmic din
Of society is too much for me
But purpose is prioritized
These days the goal is win the prize
There's a sleeping resonance we hold,
Through which we're unified
So let it out! don't just get lost in the crowd
No one can deter you from your own path
There's no trip too remote
From which you can't come back
And I've got this hunch about you and me
None of us are ready
For a world without melody
Melody is the key,
It's the surest way
To unlock your individuality
Melody is the key,
It will set you free!
Don't disrelish harmony,
Community will make you whole
Work and understanding are the chords
Way deep within your soul
They only need to be struck once,
And the vibrations swell and spread
But if we mute them they decay,
Our sensibilities are dead
So let it out! don't just be one of the crowd
Hesitance and diffidence will do you in
And your soul doesn't care
For social medicine
And I've got this hunch
About you and me
None of us are ready
For a world without melody
Melody is the key,
It's the surest way
To unlock your individuality
Melody is the key,
It will set you free!
And I know together we could change the world
Just you and me
But I won't live without melody

It could happen to you,
a defect from the wasted outskirts of los angeles
with a crumpled-up pass for the RTD
And no authority or trajectory
on the brink of insanity
You'd better believe it
because it's written all over your face
just a neighborhood reject,
out of step and out of place
You'd better believe it
Would you ever have thought
persistence could prevail
against the almost
unbearable weight of the system?
With nothing better to do,
and no one else who you can look up to
You'd better believe it
because it's written all over your face
A political defect,
out of step and out of place
You'd better believe it
And the future is bright
when ideas run astray
So turn out the light,
A punk can't have a say
Sometimes desire is all that's there
Who said life was fair?

we don't need any more mountains
Because the trail builders
failed to give us passage there
so we can't reach the sky
We don't need any more failure
There is human tragedy
that's written everywhere
And we are all too young to die
Like a mystery that's here to stay
Some people never go away
cuz they've got something to say
Don't sell me short!
You've been wrong too long
Don't brush me off
just because I don't belong
Like it or not I'm all you've got,
Dispose when I'm shot
Just don't sell me short,
I might not be who you thought
We don't need any more fables
because the writers have passed
and left us lessonless
And we must find our own way
We don't need any more privilege
There is vivid desperation
that is powerless
That no surplus can repay
Like the fix of rapture in a trance
Oh, fates are sealed by circumstance
So you've got to take a chance
Don't sell me short!
You've been wrong too long
Don't brush me off
Just because I don't belong
Pass me on by, ignore my cry,
forget me when I die
Just don't sell me short,
Not while I'm still alive
Everybody's talking about heaven on earth,
I'm still trying to figure out
just what I'm worth
I'm full of emotion
and stuff you can't contain
And you just want to
flush me down the drain
But you can't make me go away

I love my computer
You make me feel alright
Every waking hour
and every lonely night
I love my computer
for all you give to me:
predictable errors and no identity
And it's never been quite so easy
I've never been quite so happy
All I need to do is click on you
and we'll be joined
in the most soul-less way
And we'll never ruin each other's day
'cuz when I'm through I just click
and you just go away
I love my computer
you're always in the mood
I get so turned on
when I turn on you
I love my computer
you never ask for more
You can be a princess
or you can be my whore
And it's never been quite so easy
I've never been quite so happy
The world outside is so big
but it's safe in my domain
Because to you
I'm just a number
and a clever screen name
All I need to do is click on you
and we'll be together for eternity
And no one is ever gonna take my love
from me because I've got security
her password and a key

It's a long way to the promise land
So you'd better well know your way
There's a ship on the ocean
And an albatross who is trying to lead you astray
Leaders, politicians, and power whores
Are in line to receive your choice
And you bet your ass, if you give it to them,
They will gladly take your voice
And it's a long way to the promise land
Wo-oh Oh oh oh oh
It's a long way to the promise land,
If we work we might find it here
There's no substitute for enlightenment,
There's no reason for bridled fear
When you join the people who've joined the club
You gotta clench and play your hand
'Cuz if you fall in line you're gonna fall in time
And you'll never make a stand
It's a long way to the promise land
Wo-oh Oh oh oh oh
What are you going to do?
When they come for you?
Bend and capitulate?
Or keep your head on straight?
easy answers bought without experience,
Is gonna lead you to certain doom
Because the truth is just what you make of it,
It begins and ends with you!
And it's a long way to the promise land
Wo-oh oh oh oh oh

Let your mind wander
Look beyond the shadows
Focus on the skyline,
Read the silhouettes
Your deepest desires
are a picture of tomorrow
All your darkest fears
are just a vestige of regret
And it's wo-oh oh oh
It seems like such a long way to go
As obstacles get bigger,
prevailing winds blow stronger
and the fire continues to grow
Don't let shallow water limit your perception
Heed the new horizon
Muster to it fast
The moments of your yesterdays
are in the wake behind you
You can't assess the future
if you're living in the past
Keep it stoked!
If you are committed
to a life of understanding
then there's no agenda
for vengeance in your life
Sharpen all your senses,
face the opposition
You can overcome
with fortitude and mental might
And it's wo-oh oh oh
It seems like such a long way to go
As obstacles get bigger,
prevailing winds blow stronger
and the fire continues to grow
in your soul
So be bold, let it grow
Don't let it die
Let it burn!

Do you know the cost of future misery?
Have you lost your sense of sustainability?
We are just a step away
From realizing what we strive to be
But we've got to break out
From this insulated, blind and lame senility
Wake up the new america wo-oh!
Transcend the mass hysteria wo-oh!
Change is the thing you're wary of wo-oh!
We need a new america wo-oh!
Laurels, human triumph
Bestowments from the past
Victories don't mean a thing
If they don't last
We are just marching toward extinction
With blinders on our eyes
Jeopardizing everything
We've learned and come to realize
You call that wise?
Open your eyes america wo-oh!
See through the lies they tell to us wo-oh!
Confront the fears that worry us wo-oh!
We need a new america wo-oh!
We don't have to be afraid to re-invent
We've got to start to build
Progress and implement
For when we take our fill
And never pay the price
We only build ourselves
A fleeting, false paradise
You can live in staunch denial
And mark me as your enemy
But I'm just a voice among the throng
Who want a brighter destiny
They say with me
We are the new america wo-oh!
This is the new america? Wo-oh

Oh me oh my
Get out of your 1950's fantasy,
Your face shines with misery transparently
Spew out that sobering
half-assed victim rhetoric
Make 'em all squirm
while they chew on it
It's a secret handshake
and a passing wink of the eye
As the witches bridge club weekly
meets to pen the tail on the sly
But they never ask
"why oh why don't we raise our voices to the sky?"
Instead you're mute
and fawn just waiting to die
Like some kind of hopeless housewife
But you can change while you're alive
and let 'em all know
at least you tried
to kill the demons inside
Oh me oh my
Damn your transcendental paralysis
We can work together
and make sense of this
Don't be so sure
you can chuck it all away
You've got to proceed
no matter how bad you want to stay
It's a natural cause
and a comfort zone
there in your head
And the world turns away
as you tap the snooze button in bed
But nobody can hear a word you said
Your history was never read
Instead you're mute and fawn
just waiting to die
Like some kind of hopeless housewife
But you can change while you're alive
and let 'em all know
at least you tried
to kill the demons inside

Shut your eyes
See the future's distant shore
March ahead
More enlightened than before
And there's sure to be bumps and distractions
but I know we'll get through
There will be me, there will be you
There will be a way
Unresolved repercussions from your life
Fortified with the vitriol of strife
And you can be gridlocked by predictions,
But you're wise grab the prize
Then revise, realize
there will be a way
Hey... Ho
And I don't know where we are going
but we're here on this ride
And we'll stand side by side
all along the way
Follow me to the future's distant shore
Vagary needn't haunt us anymore
And now it's time to set the agenda,
Learn the past, make it last
Share the wealth, hold your fire,
conserve life, make it right
kill the hate, negotiate
There will be a way

All those stories that my dad told me,
they are just a whisper in time
All those things that never came to be,
they are just a whisper in time
A whisper in time, a whisper in time
Things that I can't shake from my mind
A whisper in time, a whisper in time
Moments that just flicker and die
(memories that flicker and die)
All those places I wanted to go,
they are just a whisper in time
All those friends who now I do not know,
they are just a whisper in time
A whisper in time, a whisper in time
Things that I can't shake from my mind
A whisper in time, a whisper in time
Moments that just flicker and die
Maps and roads that brought me here today,
they are just a whisper in time
Circumstances that were explained away,
they are just a whisper in time
A whisper in time, a whisper in time
Things that I can't shake from my mind
A whisper in time, a whisper in time
Moments that just flicker and die
'Cuz we are messengers of memory
Just whispers in time

A rhapsody! Contestants in disguise
A nation of desire
But who will win the prize?
The people stand united,
Reluctantly aligned
Copying and lying
Are the favorite past-time
You've got a chance
To confront the world today
Desperate romance
Is the curse of castaways
What good is skill
If you don't make it to the dance?
Despite circumstance
You've got a chance

Common life depicted on afternoon tv,
Is spiked to give the miserable a vogue identity
Hate your neighbors,
Cheat your friends,
They don't discriminate
Popularity and fame don't care
If you're a reprobate

You've got a chance
To confront the world today
Desperate romance
Is the curse of castaways
What good is skill
If you don't make it to the dance?
Despite circumstance
You've got a chance

I'm tired of all this
Shakespearean misinformation
I want to win the game
You've got the right intentions
But who's got time to think?
You've got a noon appointment,
You've got to hit the links
You're talking in the stratosphere,
You're curled up on the floor
With such a wealth of information,
Why are you so poor?
You've got a chance
To be relevant today
Desperate romance
Is the curse of castaways
What good is skill
If you don't make it to the dance?
(don't you believe what the wise men have to say)
Despite circumstance
You've got a chance

England seemed like such a beautiful place from afar
until one day I saw how miserable things really are

all fantastic images they only are apparent
propagated just by hope
and desire to share it

beauty was the allure that brought me close to you
loneliness was the bond that made me stick like glue

all fantastic images they only are apparent
promoted by desperate hope
that things are somewhere better

I don't have a thing against fantasy
but to chase it down just doesn't make sense to me
if your only hope is simply peace and love
you end up discarding most of what you're made of
what you're made of...

all fantastic images they only are apparent
promoted by desperate hope
that things are somewhere better

what you do is what you are
and wishing upon distant stars
won't improve the hole you're in
and won't absolve your deepest sin

but action is no gift from some covert and lofty god
it's dependent and weighty all the same
and it's oh so easy just to keep to yourself
then you're at the mercy of imbeciles

now I didn't make up the rules
but clearly we are led by fools
it is wise to know their ways
so you know how not to behave

but sometimes we find ourselves in desperate need
and we look to those of privilege and power
it's then we learn compassion sits inert upon their shelves
and we're at the mercy of imbeciles

no action is no gift from some masked spirit in the sky
it's reducible to flesh, mind and bone
and it's oh so easy just to keep to yourself
but then you're at the mercy of imbeciles
imbeciles (3x)

like a morning crow and his unwelcome song
or a worn-out broken record that keeps skipping along
mountains of instructions you keep piling on me
resound like a cacophonous symphony
but I don't wanna hear it anymore
no, I don't wanna hear it anymore
let's go!

priests and politicians pretend they're your friend
and police speak to you like you're children again
blanket statements cover you like a rug
and they tell me maybe I'm acting a little too smug
but I don't wanna hear it anymore
no, I don't wanna hear it anymore
no more!

every day we hear the secrets of life
reduced to cheap jokes, poetry, and friendly advice
they'd rather see us all pusillanimous
absorbent in their chorus of correctness
but I don't wanna hear it anymore
no, I don't wanna hear it anymore
I said, I don't wanna hear it anymore
No, I don't wanna hear it anymore

I can see the shadows on the wall
drifting as the leaves start to fall
unfazed by rugosity, the objects yield to gravity
and depict the destiny of us all

no one really knows why we die
no one gets a break so we try
ignoring mortality, we worship mediocrity
and wait to see what happens up on high

in so many ways we live to follow the sun
in so many ways we exalt and fail as one
in so many ways we want so bad to be done
in so many ways we show our pain in unison
unison (2x)

something in you is busy counting days
catapulting you through the haze
blind to virtuosity, ignorant of your sanctity
revealing you in so many ways

in so many ways we live to follow the sun
in so many ways we tend to rise and fall as one
in so many ways we want so bad to be done
in so many ways we show our pain in unison
unison (2x)

in so many ways we live to follow the sun
in so many ways we exalt and fail as one
in so many ways we want so bad to be done
in so many ways we show our pain in unison
unison (2x)

look around the country, an abundance you'll find
of mediocre minds
sift through the fodder as sane justice declines
because of mediocre minds
shrouded under cover, the most flamboyant guise
hides a mediocre mind
you got yours but you can never bend mine
with your mediocre minds

when they cry foul you had better watch out
because you never know which aptitude they're griping about
don't act too smart for their stenoscopic ways
you'll be discarded away

reason's not to be what the privileged define
with their mediocre minds
so many sighted people are so helplessly blind
from their mediocre minds

if you want attention then you'll be asked to bend
but the surest insurrection is enlightenment
then you can live outside inharmoniously
without friends and enemy

they wanna keep me locked away
cuz I've an overactive brain

leaders, presidents and the nightly news guys
cater to mediocre minds
reason's not to be what the privileged define
with their mediocre minds
you got yours but you can never bend mine
with your mediocre minds
the only natural thing that I really despise
are the mediocre minds
mediocre minds! (2x)

history doesn't make something right
consensus is not a fact-based exercise
you're tied and bound to this self-indulgent enterprise
we call America

a brush with a star, a token of love
a name in the sand, enough is enough
a diet of air, a face on the net
a fish in your palm, your television set

once you convince yourself
the universe falls into place
you've got your ideas
and your posse of friends
you all make up rules
and the fun never ends

but still there's a problem, leaves you gasping for air
you look for some meaning, blank smiles are all that's there
and still water stales a soft summer breeze
you cling to your hopes while you drop to your knees
there's no substance!(2x)

once you convince yourself
the universe falls into place
you've got your ideas
and your posse of friends
you all make up rules
and the fun never ends

but still there's a problem, leaves you gasping for air
you look for some meaning, blank smiles are all that's there
and still water stales a soft summer breeze
you cling to your hopes while you drop to your knees

there's no substance!(2x)

fa fa fafa fa fa fafa raise your voice! (4x)

don't be played like someone else's board game
don't be classed out like some desperate redoubt
don't be misled you've got a lot on your head
and nobody's gonna pay attention when you are dead

so...
fa fa fafa fa fa fafa raise your voice! (4x)

it's the primary rule, you gotta wanna be fooled
it's our daunted restraint that keeps us silent in shame
it's our nature to be adversarial and free
our evolution didn't hinge on passivity

so...
fa fa fafa fa fa fafa raise your voice! (10x)

here inside this quiet room there's direction
outside in the sultry noon-time reflection
a million people scurry
they're looking for advice
none willing to lend charity, just exercise their

shades of truth and partisan conventions
shades of truth between disparate lines
shades of truth interpret my intentions
you don't know I'm alright
you don't know I'm alright

who authored the blueprints and made us captains?
someone proclaimed creation, people listened
while children by the millions are thrown into this zoo
the so-called gift of clarity! oh what was God up to?

shades of truth and lenient conventions
shades of truth between disparate lines
shades of truth interpret my intentions
you don't know I'm alright
you don't know I'm alright
yeah!

so many walk in parallel and pull their blinders tight
so few offer apology and accept others' rights
and nothing absolutely can be cherished in the end
but can't we all accept that it will all happen again?

shades of truth just partisan conventions
shades of truth between disparate lines
shades of truth interpret my intentions
you don't know I'm alright
you don't know I'm alright

just shades of truth and partisan conventions
shades of truth between disparate lines
shades of truth interpret my intentions
you don't know I'm alright
you don't know I'm alright

we all know politicians only go
just halfway there
just halfway there
the innocence of youth needs protection not abuse
but no one seems to care
yet no one seems to care

and you sit there and watch the world go around
from your pseudo-benevolent vantage point
while we who've been left to pick up after you
try our best to make some sense for those who come next

now what have you done to foster the truth
besides just hide the lies?
besides just hide the lies?
a selfish campaign never justifies the gain
but the means are verified
yeah the means are verified

and you sit there and insist you are right!
from your popular psychological podium
while those who rely and depend on you
they wilt because you don't accept we need each other

while sowing the seeds of Utopia
you invoked a convenient amnesia
you forgot how to care, you forgot how to provide
you forgot how to work toward a meaningful life

a mutinous enemy carved a nascent country
sweat, blood and valor forms the grit of our history
bequeathed to everyone: chance and free expression
substance was restrained and the spirit was broken

I feel a strange denial rhythmic as change
constant as time
lonely insistent whispers
somber as a wave bye bye

searching for solution, without constitution
blackcoats by our sides promising salvation
advocating dogma as tickets to hereafter
mortals in their prime with their desperate hands in the air

daunting complex and burning
rhythmic as change
constant as time
conflicts, craving approval
weighted as a murder trial
oh, I feel a strange denial

correct is consensus
everything else, nonsense
forward is the hope
forget recompense
peace and tranquility is only for the wealthy
dearth for the masses and inequality

I feel a strange denial
rhythmic as change
constant as time
lonely insistent whispers
dissipating in the night
like a lone forgotten light

and no one is helping me
it's a strange denial

k..k..k..killer (2x)

you have got your stranglers and prowlers in soft shoes
furniture makers, carpenters too
bombers and commandos, all with some lost cause
disgruntled workers, immersed in "veritas"

but stealthily, in the land of the free, it's lurking right there
most are unaware of
the biggest killer in American history (4x)
and God shed his grace on thee

business institutions, universities
both are quite the circus when the killer wants his way
I think of Edward Teller and his moribund reprise
then I look to Nevada and I can't believe my eyes
it's time for him to die!

most cannot remember minutia learned in school
it's not there on the blackboard, it's what they don't tell you
we have got a problem, it starts and ends right here
it can be defeated but you've got to face your fear

we'll join and unite and steady our sight
then we'll put it right 'cuz it's time to fight
the biggest killer in American history (4x)
and God shed his grace on thee

our apocalypse 1981
teenage vagrants looking for some fun
a renewed promise of prosperity
a vulgar platform for the world to see
we were...
the hippy killers (4x)

busted refuse from broken homes
pocked flesh and malacious bones
creatures sustained by desire, heart, and soul
nothing to leave and nowhere to go
we were...
the hippy killers (4x)

the hippy killers (8x)

good days during horrible times
overused bodies, neglected minds
shoulder to shoulder we formed as one
the next miserable generation
we were...
the hippy killers (4x)