GET IN TOUCH
Bad Lazy Habit
It's hard to listen when I'm flapping my lips in the breeze
Shutting my mouth seems to extra my sensories
I can feel the love, I can feel the hate
I can feel the energies change
I don't believe in power and I don't believe in sin
Just doing what you're told is a bad lazy habit to get in
Trying to pay attention, hope to get there eventually
Stilling the mind, as easy and as hard as can be
I can feel the weakness, I can feel the strength
I can feel the balances shift
I shouldn't have to tell you much less tell you again
Just doing what you're told is a bad lazy habit to get in
Neither master nor slave neither coward nor brave neither wasted nor saved
Neither psycho nor sane neither wild nor tame either way it's the same
It's hard to see with the bells and whistles shining so brightly
Shutting my eyes lets me see the harmony
I can feel the future, I can feel the past
I can feel them meeting right now
One planet with one people, watch the spin
Just doing what you're told is a bad lazy habit to get in
One planet with one people, kindness to all kin
Just doing what you're told is a bad lazy habit to get in
High Fructose
You flash a high fructose corn syrup smile
I’m a wily poet and a drinker
You sit and wonder why I walk a crooked mile
La La La, La La La
Looking out for FD&C Yellow No. 1
You left Fox News on for the children
Live by the bible and swear by the gun
La La La, La La La
"Hell Was Made for Deadbeat Moms", your sign says
What the hell does that mean?
In your noble cause I see Santa Claus
Bringing lumps of coal and gasoline
You wear that hamburger helper disguise
I’m a wily poet and a thinker
Don’t sit there soaking up the company lies
La La La, La La La
Somebody's Crazy
Blowing up whole mountains for the coal that's in the ground
Go back to building nuke plants right when 3 are melting down
Engineer the food so I don't even want it
Modify the genes so they can spray more poison on it
I look around and as far as I can see
Somebody's crazy and it's not me
Got to love those cars since their prophets stopped the trains
Now petroleum's the juice they've got us slamming in our veins
We'll do anything to get it like some oil craving junkie
Takes four thousand pounds of car to move two hundred pounds of monkey
I look around and as far as I can see
Somebody's crazy and it's not me
Stockpiling warheads enough to blow us all to hell
They're weaponizing anthrax and they weaponize it well
Missiles in the silos ready in one second flat
Splice ebola genes on smallpox, Jesus - whose idea was that?!
I look around and as far as I can see
Somebody's crazy and it's not me
Labels
I’m only a theoretical drug offender
But I’m about to go off on another bender
I don’t belong
What I need is a good back scratching
Or maybe a little positive thinking
I’m only a theoretical underachiever
But I’m about to go off on another teaser
I can’t be wrong
What I need is someone good and strong to guide me through
when the raid goes down in a college town
Cover my back, cover my back
Emotional I.Q. it’s all right this time around
I’ll be recovering, I’ll be recovering
All that’s been taken, taken from me
I’ll be recovering, I’ll be recovering
Mean Wind
People rounded up in Postville for their race and where they're from
Like cattle at the fairgrounds till the deportation comes
They're trying to bust the unions from Keokuk to Madison
Iowa, Ohio, Idaho and Michigan
The mean wind howling down on Main Street
Is the blast from when the rich folks slammed the door
The people are rising and we're pissed off
We're not gonna take it anymore
Black man in Cedar Rapids he got 20 years for real
For stealing fifteen dollars that he didn't even steal
Wall Street steals trillions numbers I can't understand
They'll never see a day in any prison in this land
They steal health care from sick people they steal housing form the poor
They steal pensions from the old folks and they spend it on their war
I'm real slow to anger, I get that from my Dad
But it's been a long time coming and I am really fucking mad
Beg Borrow or Steal
I won’t beg borrow or steal
Please don’t cast your shadow on my freedom
I’ll take a pass on religion
and give myself to you cause you’re real
I won’t beg borrow or steal
You’re not some notorious self-possessed genius
Who can’t carry a tune while he scorns the band
And I was half crazy homeless
Two left feet in love, one helpless hand
Girl from the Island of Misfit Toys
She doesn't like to watch TV, she says it makes it hard to see
Reads "Overthrow" and "Answer Me" and "Little House on the Prairie"
She listens to the ancient things, Chaka Khan and Bach and Wings
But when she hears Al Green she sings a little flat and oh so pretty
And the basket on her bicycle is full of real good things to eat
And she wears a wristwatch on her foot 'cause her hands already feel complete
She wonders if there's some boy somewhere
Writing her a love song on his porch swing
She says "Don't be silly, stupid"
I know she's out there somewhere wading through a sea of fit boys
She's a girl from the island of misfit toys
She's got a cat named Al Capone and they both like to be alone
Right now they're probably at home watching birds fly through the window
She makes herself a pecan pie she'll eat it later when she’s high
She sees the others passing by and wonders who is crazy
Waiting for the Crest
I guess it’s time to say good-bye to all fair weather friends
Since we woke up to the sound of the water creeping in
Seeping in without a care, breaking down our little nest
That we built with peace and love, now we’re waiting for the crest
Waiting for the Crest
And all over the world there are people suffering more
and our little disaster can’t compare to the endless war
That our government is waging against the people of Iraq
Against the people of Afghanistan, the troops ain’t coming back
They never want to bring them back
We’ve got to push them and pressure them to bring them back
Be like water
I guess it’s time to say hello to all the people we still don’t know
As we pass them on the street I hear the water rushing near my feet
And if there’s ever been a time to see beyond one selfish mind
Feel beyond one selfish heart, now’s the time to start
We’ve got to push them and pressure them to make a start
Be like water
There's Nothing New about Fucking the Poor
This one is a neo-liberal that one is a neo-con
They both love those corporations now all my money's gone
I always thought "neo" meant something new but I've been wrong before
My Latin's just a little bit rusty friend, does "neo" mean "fucking the poor"?
There's nothing new about fucking the poor
There's nothing new about fucking the poor
Neo this, neo that, I smell the same old rat
This one is a neo-colonial working for the World Bank
Open up your markets or he's sending in the tanks
You'll be paying Bechtel for your water, Monsanto for your food
If he doesn't like who you elected, they're getting their ass couped
And it's neo geo me-o my-o stolen elections in Ohio
Doesn't really matter it's the choices that make me cry-o
Whichever pro-war corporate whore millionaire you want to vote for
One thing's for sure, they'll be fucking the poor
Look there goes a neo-nazi with his pointy little head
6 billion people, he wants most of 'em dead
He doesn't have a pot to piss in, his job was first to go
Rich white men fucked him, he blames Mexico
4-17-09 (The Business of Killing)
She’s been practicing for about 5 years
She’s tall and pretty and she wears high heels
She has student loan debt but she always works hard
For the hot tub and swimming pool in the back yard
She goes to the tanning bed and she goes to the mall
She wants the best for her daughter and she hopes she’ll be tall
She doesn’t care about politics, the crooks are all the same
She sets her sights on fortune, she’s smitten more by fame
And the business of killing goes on
I wonder if she knows that on April 17 they released
the torture memos
John Yoo, Jay Bybee, and Steve Bradbury
3 cowboy counselors on a criminal torture spree
Now Bybee’s a judge who still sits on the bench
How can anyone with half a brain still sit on the fence?
And the business of killing goes on
I wonder if she knows just how bad things can get inside Guantanamo
He’s been practicing for 30 odd years
He revels in the luxuries and he lives for the beers
He wants the best for his family but the company wants more
He never takes a case pro bono, no time for the poor
And the business of killing goes on
I wonder if he knows that on April 17 they released
the torture memos
Rocket Surgeon
People with way more than they need
invest it and get more and more exponentially
People who don't have what they need
borrow and get poor and poorer exponentially
How it all connects it's as simple as E to the X
The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer
And we all just get jerked along
It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out that's wrong
Everybody knows you don't get something for nothing
Profit comes from labor that's the hitch
If anybody's getting a paycheck for not working
It ought to be people who aren't already rich
People with way more than they need
Buy some politicians rig the laws and feed the greed
People who don't have what they need work and slave and fall behind
Use credit cards to eat
The robber barons live, their machines combobulate the derivatives
The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer
While we all drink from just one cup
It doesn't take a rocket surgeon to see that that's fucked up
What Would Alexander Berkman Do
Push-up bras and protocols
Deep mud spas and Barbie dolls
Billiard halls filled with friends
The bowling alley, a means to an end
Will the markets crash before the ice caps melt
A bird flu pandemic, your Dad with a belt
Philanthropy and philosophy
Your daily prescription of hypocrisy
I ask myself, what would Alexander Berkman do?
In this new gilded age, can’t be a hero in a prisoner’s cage
on a virtual page, derision and rage
You like to dance to that same old music
How can you like it
You couldn’t see through it
Anatomy or analogy
Your daily prescription of hypocrisy
I ask myself, what would Alexander Berkman do?
Rules
No cigarette smoking here. Rules, Rules
Can't get married if you're queer. Rules, Rules, Rules
Not supposed to rob and murder. Don't chew gum in the hall.
Somebody wrote some rules down and hung them on the wall.
Good folks they don't need them bad folks pay no mind at all.
There's right, there's wrong and then there's rules.
Don't do this and don't do that and do do this and do do that.
Face it folks the rules are arbitrary. Makes you wonder if they're necessary.
You don't have to be a visionary to see that we can rule ourselves.
Must be 21 to drink. Rules, Rules.
“Thou shalt not kill”.....you think? Rules, Rules, Rules
Can't turn right on red here. Don't commit that genocide.
There's rules against it buddy, you'd better abide.
Good folks just do good things bad folks never even tried.
There's right, there's wrong and then there's rules.
Don't do this and don't do that and do do this and do do that.
Rules are just the power that's behind them.
Big monkey with stick say you must mind them.
But all the little monkeys can unbind themselves and sticks grow on trees.
Can't give hungry people food. Rules, Rules
Everything banks do is good! Rules, Rules, Rules
Can't smoke marijuana. Don't put poison in the stew.
Somebody wrote some rules down. Somebody isn't you.
Good folks just do good things bad folks tell them not to do.
There's right, there's wrong and then there's rules.
New World Orderly
I spend my days in the New World Orderly workspace
Everywhere is cameras on me
I have been retrofitted with a tracking device so they can see where I might be
Who it might be that see where I might be I don't know
The folks who run this place are crazy, mean and out of control
They try to cover it up with this fake-ass Disney John Wayne Gacy clown face
I'm telling you this place will drive you crazy
I don't mind working I mind tyranny
I mind people thinking they’re lord over me
They're making it a struggle to be free
I spend my days trying to think of ways I can beat this
Everywhere is invisible chains
Debts, taxes, wages, electric spies and lies my blinders my bit, my reins
That somebody slyly steering me sounds an alarm
Arrogant obtuse and mean as hell I mean them harm
They're trying to dress the whole world
in their corporate gangster mono-culture outfit
I'm telling you this shit will drive you crazy
Sorry I Treated You Bad
Silver maples and cottonwoods
Here by the river life is so good
Has it been twenty years since I first made you mad
I'm sorry I treated you bad
I'd walk to work with tears in my eyes
Met you on the rebound
then I cheated and lied
I took you for granted like a mom or a dad
I'm sorry I treated you bad
Nothing makes me more sad
than to know we just can't be friends
You've got your pride, I've got my baby
You're in that scene, why was I so mean?
Back in those days I was so dumb
I played silly games and I selfishly won
But I'm looking for Peace despite all that I've done
I'm sorry I treated you bad
I Don't Wanna Be a Wanna Be
I don't wanna be a soldier, I don't wanna be a biker
I don't wanna be a cop, or a troubadour hitchhiker
I don't wanna be a Jesse James, don't wanna be John Wesley Hardin
I just wanna live in peace, I just wanna tend the garden
I don't wanna be a wanna be, I don't wanna be a wanna be
I don't wanna be a wanna be, I just wanna be me
I don't wanna be a gangster, I don't wanna be a saint
I don't wanna be a country boy, talk like something that I ain't
I don't wanna be all Hollywood, little poser with my poses
I just wanna live in peace, I just wanna tend the roses
I don't wanna be a wanna be, I don't wanna be a wanna be
I don't wanna be a wanna be, I just wanna be me
Lemmings Can't Swim
Hey there my friend, can you tell me where we're going?
Why is everybody running? You say we're running into the ocean
Well I guess that's ok, but you see my mind's all doubts and questions
I'm not trying to be a wise ass, I just think someone ought to mention
Lemmings can't swim, lemmings can't swim
When we try, we generally drown
Lemmings can't swim, lemmings can't swim
I'm not trying to rock the boat here, but lemmings can't swim
This ocean thing then, tell me whose idea was this?
Is anyone in charge here? Don't you think we should discuss it?
Now where'd I get what? My swimming shorts Salvation Army
You feel good about your Speedos, excuse me friend but are you crazy?
All There Is
If I could go anywhere in this whole world
Do anything I want, no matter what it cost
I'd want a little cabin in the woods by the water
With a great big porch and to be there making music with my lover
Strings that sparkle shining smiling endless silver lining
On the surface of the river on these guitars on their laps
Sing a song that weaves with the wind and the leaves
And the bird sounds reaching out to where the distant rumble of machinery
is barely there at all
Just want to be right where we are
Right above the center of the earth
Nowhere to go, no time to get there
Only here and now
We can stay right where we are
Right above the center of the earth
The rumble has come there's nowhere to run
So we fight like hell for this little spell
All there is...is
If I could have anyone in this whole world
Anyone I wanted, anyone at all
I'd want a brave woman full of passion and conviction
Who is beautiful and into making music with her lover