DON'T HOLD GOD TO A PROMISE HE/SHE CAN'T KEEP
The Ballad of Harry Harlow
The past and the future are swirling around in my head
If belief is emotion and trust is a choice were all dead
I'm not sure how we'll fight world war 3 miss president
But the fourth will be with sticks and stones if we're not blown to bits
Harry Harlow that fucker put me and my dog in a cage
He said that you must die alone if you want to be great
There's no amount of genius that I wouldn't trade
I think love might be braver than knowledge I won't isolate
Edward and I dropped some acid and swam up the stairs
I watched the sun split the ocean and I didn't care
Who all was watching me stumble cause god met me there
Said son the folks with unopened minds are impaired
If women are unequal objects built only for sex
Who cares if the baby is starving please cover your breasts
Don said he's famous enough to reach under her dress
Decency died on the cross next to Jesus I guess
Darling If I'm So Great How Come I Always End Up Alone? (The Oasis)
I’ve been kind and I’ve been hateful
I been thanked and been ungrateful
Been given more than I am able
To handle on my own
I got cash but screwed my credit
A penny saved can’t be spent in heaven
Life your life cause you'll regret it
rich and all alone
I’ve been cruel and I’ve been gentle
Done the drugs and been judgemental
The good lord made me temperamental
but with heart of stone
My brand new car's got a failing engine
The warranty's up son no extension
Red tape is a dead man's religion
We all end up alone
Fiber optic veins bleed across the land
Long distance lover with an empty hand
I’m doing 'bout best that an honest man can
With you only on the phone
But babe I want to see you on a regular basis
I know it seems crazy but goodness gracious
Why don't you come on down to the oasis
We’ll never be alone
Home of the Estranged
Oh give me a home where we aren’t so alone,
Where the black and the white children play,
Where seldom is heard an offhand racial slur,
and my muslim sisters feel safe
Home of the estranged,
Where the white and the black children play,
Some peace is preferred, let the county lines blur,
and the preachers hold hands with the gays
Corporate motives are pure, politicians stay free ,
of corruption and work to better our lives ,
Young liberals beg for change, politely from the stage
the vice president nods and he smiles.
The natives of our land, we so brutally banned
from the beauty they were born into first
It’s been 200 years, since that damn trail of tears
Yet we still hate them for loving the earth
Home of the estranged
Human life is not a resource to trade
It is not so absurd, to hear out the perturbed
We all see the same things different ways
How often at night, stumbling bodega bright,
neon lights burn like synthetic stars
bums ponder below, spare a quarter or so?
Does their wisdom exceed that of ours?
Pick a blue lotus flower from this dear land of ours,
if it helps you start to hear people cry
on a child to annoint, or you can lace it in your joint
I wish everyone got just as high
Oh give me a land where the bright diamond sand,
Flows leisurely down in the stream;
With the grace of a swan, we go gliding along,
Don’t you wish it was more than a dream
Home of the estranged
Where no one has to wake up afraid
There’s a love we could learn, that could cover the world
I believe it’ll happen someday
As Above, So Below
The college will teach you to stay where you're sittin
The bar's gonna teach you how not to treat women
The church is the last place I'd go get forgiven
The fun things in life are forbidden
Rich blonde girls drink lattes and take trips to countries
For photos of orphans to show everybody
You don't need salvation if you've got enough money
I'll start saving my pennies honey
Now you know
You don't have to think everything that you're told
As above, so below
The liquor's no good for the ease of your mind
But the good stuff's been outlawed since '75
Let's meet somewhere north of Atlanta later tonight
C'mon babe let's go get high
The mushrooms might help cure your brain from depression
One less corrupt doctor livin' in a mansion
Red blooded Jesus on a cross for expansion
Of blue collar white man oppression
Now you know
You don't have to think everything that you're told
As above, so below
Can't talk to your dad about orientation
The porno's no place for sex education
Can't talk to your wife about masturbation
Go visit some bitch on vacation
My black friend got shot for running a stop sign
When he reached for his insurance the cop shot him outright
That asshole from Stanford got released round the same time
It'll make any decent man cry
Now you know
You don't have to think everything that you're told
As above, so below
Anthem
take all of your masts, for the world as we know
is as dark as the night, of the black hearted bleeding
you can cut them in half, for no flag should be flown
at the loftiest height, while so many are weeping
if we laid down our guns, loss of freedom for love
could a garden still grow, in a singe corner'ed sun
oh say did the newscaster finally pray
for a land truly free, and some truth to convey
The South Will Soon Rise
I've been driving down i95
Seen Christ riding tanks on a sign
A holy dog tag, confederate flag
Singing the south will soon rise
Slim boys on the field playing ball
Keep lifting son, soon you'll be tall
Your daddy is proud, when your skull hits the ground
The brain damage broadens your jaw
That's the ugliest girl that I've seen
With her face on my morning tv
She tightened her dress, to push up her breasts
The forecast today is obscene
The pills that my doctor prescribed
I'd honestly rather get high
The bugs in my brain, don't seem so insane
With the pot glazing over my eyes
Take a photograph of the full moon
My camera can't quite get the zoom
Put the phone away, kiss her on the face
The whole world will unravel soon
An Ode to the Seahorse Oceanfront Inn
(Last Call at Lemon Bar)
You'll find that you can make new friends
And still see old ones sometime again
If you dig a hole fill it back in
Paint it red so you don't forget where you've been
You could build us a wall or tear it down
It shouldn't make you smile to watch the world drown
Next time an election rolls back around
You can bet I'm gonna get the hell out of this town
If you find somewhere that you want to stay
Might as well start carving out your grave
There's always another debt to pay
Another damn dollar drive you insane
You get a little fucked up and fall asleep
In the morning baby tell me your translucent dreams
Wrote a song about it, heard it on tv
Don't trash the ceiling, just let it be
I should have known if you take me and my songs to bed
That you'd use them for pleasure without loving permanence
You can ride to neptune on a gold dolphin
Take out a room at the Seahorse inn
Last call at lemon bar and let the great world spin
A turquoise eagle for your next of kin
You can suck all the oil up out of the ground
But There were already people in the land you "found"
You tap your foot but it makes no sound
You've already spoken more than you're allowed
Hold your mother in your arms as she passes away
Last light in her eyes the first light of day
"Love you" seems like such an empty thing to say
Son please don't remember me this way
If Jesus comes walking up out of the sea
I'd give him a kiss and smoke all his weed
You don't have to try so hard to believe
don't hold god to a promise he/she can't keep
I should've known if you're cupping the world in your hand
Some people's problems slip through your fingers like sand
Angel 108
At a bar called Ginger's place
A burnt out waitress with a pretty face says
What's your name boy I haven't seen you this way before
I just moved back from out of state
I missed the golden full moons and the ocean spray
It's quite the place miss to retrace what you ignored
I won't deny I came a little unlaced
I guess I owe all my collectedness to angel 108
And a lucky silver door
God's an old white man with a weathered face
He's always up there watching from the top of the staircase
Doesn't want to watch us anymore
The Boots Her Father Gave Me
When I tear through the boots her father gave me
From wearing out the places I could hide
If wandering money runs out honey maybe
We could hole up somewhere quiet and wait to die
But let us live long, the wine we sip on
Like our love never run dry
When all the strings on this old guitar are rusted
Cause all the songs I sung to her got tired
The fiction of a family well adjusted
A small house by the dallas countryside
No place to go, the garden we’ll grow
Like our love spring up so high
“Son, when I burn through the time the good lord gave me
A back porch cigar and bourbon every night
With a big full moon play an old guy clark tune at the cemetery”
Yessir, I’ll hold her hand, wear her father’s boots with pride
The memory lives on, the man that he was
Like our love could never die
For When I Can't Articulate
Won't she ever take off that necklace that I gave her
It's chaos to recall how it once shined
I know she knows I notice, we smile so demure
When your love runs underneath there's no sense in crying
The people I use, same new year's eve blues
And a new man by your side
Easter Sunday
I grew a garden, planted petunias
I only tend to what’s my own
But all the corn that I saved to feed my family
Was burned up heating soldiers homes
The other day I went and paid my taxes
So we might build some better roads
The eagle smiled slyly counting up my quarters
But some expensive red white and blue clothes
Simon Peter, and John went fishing
Out to the ocean to escape their nagging wives
“If I have one more hook that comes up empty
I’m gonna go get drunk with Judas tonight”
Easter sunday, the choirs singing
Jesus stands there idly by
“Was it for a pastel dress and chocolate candy
That I was fucking crucified?”
When I was younger I once loved a woman
Not unlike children love their god
It was irreverent to pick a pale white clover
For sex we’ll kill whatever we want
On the computer I saw her topless
I felt more lonesome jacking off
But if I don’t say something vulgar in my lyrics
No one’s gonna listen to my songs
Too Sad to Get High
At a strip club on the poorer side of Memphis
Bartering forgiveness with eleven dollars cash
Desiree was slipping off her canvas
Her body lit up bitter blue as the officers drove past
I thought I might lose them when she shook her ass
But I was too kind to be crass
A wooded outskirt wedding up by Portland
My baby dries her tears with a pretentious leather hat
I caught her sneaking off with one of Chris's groomsmen
Head down to the open bar to try and win her back
The beam usually brings me the manhood I lack
But I was too drunk to relax
A boardwalk on the beach in palm coast Florida
Our long lost cousin's countenance still clouding up the sky
When you said “brother isn't family boring ya?”
Some scrawny California bastard came and took your side
I popped one more pill, she was waving goodbye
But I was too sad to get high
By the greenpoint tavern underneath a willow
A corner man sells ginger ale and daisy colored drugs
Baby you can cry into my pillow
And help me iron out the type of man that I'll become
Well watch the S.S. Isabella sail into the sun
Anchor down in love
Montauk III
When the price of coke’s gone up
money's running out
Pack up all my hindrance
And head down to the south
I hear that work is steady
And there's a woman I could love
Truth told I'm not a praying man
But I'll ask the lord above
For family, wine, and walls around
The places I get stuck
Some time out on the water
The chance to teach my son
Failure is a mindset, all the foul things that you've done
If you can give them to the ocean
There's a good man you might become
So the devil and I walk down
To the Tifton county line
There's a flask inside my pocket
Liquid blood orange moon-light
I didn't know revival
Could be planned and advertised
But an Easter dressed beauty
Walked right up and changed my mind
She said family wine and walls around the places we get stuck
A cool night on the back porch
With a smiling newborn son
Failure is a mindset, all the sinning that you've done
If you give them up to Jesus
There's a good man you might just become
It feels like I just got here,
I guess the time rolled gently by
That same preacher at the graveyard
Where we buried my poor wife
A couple headstones over
Flag draped red & blue & white
My baby boy at 18
To the Great War, and I feel no pride
Cause I couldn't keep the walls around the people that I love
Suppose a man can't ever pay
The debt of who he was
Failures been my mantra, lord I tried to give it up
Give my body to the ocean
Finally forgotten, to rest, a good man to become
Hospital Hymns
(Where I Sat While He Spoke)
Why did my dog have to up and die
Sweet Lord it wasn't his time
Why are all the good people I know crying
Goddamnit I'm doing just fine
What is the doctor gonna find
When he drills a hole in my father's spine
If the cancer doesn't kill you it'll take your pride
Sweet Lord we're all gonna die
I haven't spent any time with you
Singing Hospital Hymns in the waiting room
I'm the very last one to hear the news
Now there's nothing I can do
Cause death is a game you can't refuse
Sweet Lord we're coming home soon
Mama I got holes in all my shoes
Still plenty left to lose
They told me read that old book it'll be alright
But the bible never gave me any peace of mind
Aren't these protests a big fucking waste of time?
Why are all my gay friends crying?
When did black skin become a crime?
Maybe I'll give up on trying
To convince myself, and convince this lonely world
That everything's gonna be fine
Women are masters of wasting time
And men rape everything in their sight
Together all we're good for is starting fights
Sweet Lord we ought to burn in the fire
If this song is my final breath
If I'm killed by the cancer in her breast
Let me give what little I have left
And die an honest death
The Ballad of Corey Kilgannon
I can't recall what the child astrophysicist said
But I've read the books and the papers and the Internet
More human consciousness than one man could ever collect
For progress and freedom too much beautiful blood has been bled
I fell asleep standing up twice already today
Hoping the cat would come home before my hair goes gray
Both love and hatred take seats at the table and say
"Bring us your wine and your bread were not going away"
Buddha weeps under a willow and pulls out his hair
"Smoke what grows next to you; things you enjoy always share"
They paid me to burn down his village and pollute the air
Son there's no room for your dreams in the land of despair
Naked we came and so naked we climb into beds
With a man or a woman, we all must bear our own regrets
I found a beauty I don't want to leave or possess
Tonight I'll just hold her and let radiant phaedrus rest
Give me a second the cold front came quickly this year
You aren't cursed you're careless with the folks that you claim to hold dear
Speak truths to strangers but treat all your friends insincere
Roll down the road and become what your family fears
A Treaty
I can start talking to god when the world is asleep
Wishing the prayers that he'd answer would be the ones in our dreams
To love each our neighbors and hold the world more tenderly
Grace as an ocean and freedom the choice to believe
