1. |
Unsupervised
01:36
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There’s a dead preppie, dead preppie by the pool
Dead preppie dead preppie he looks so cool
Dead preppie, dead hippie, dead art fag or a punker
Dead serious, is this a joke?
There is a secret place
By the river, in the malls, in the halls in the cellar
The first lap in a race
And time becomes space
And you run home the ten miles home you run home
I don’t know much, I’m unknown
And I’m always lonely unless I’m alone
I’m a fabulist, a little prick and a ham
And all I want in this life is to not be who I am
Unsupervised
White, lazy, and ashamed of nothing, young, loud, and snotty
Jerusalem, Rome, and Ayurvayatti
Twin white elephants of my mind and my body
Dead serious, is that a joke?
I wrestle up front to see
By someone’s Big Gulp with Kahlua resting inside the horn
And space recedes into mythology
And I’m so glad I was born
And I’m so glad I was born
And space recedes into mythology
Today your love, tomorrow the world
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2. |
Inhuman
02:42
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One day your head will grow into your face
And you’ll be hard to miss - you’ll be running the place.
The standards you set you will meet and exceed
And discard and reject as suits your mood or your need
There’s nothing there for you to relate to
But God willing, one day you will
Pray to a God worth being prayed to
Shaped like the space you can’t wait to fill
So that’s Human, that’s Way Too Human
Nobody dreams about the things that they are
You’re only human, that’s a very low bar
So when you look at yourself, at your faith, at your friends
Recognize only hindrances you will some day transcend
It’s better to be presuming
To take what you need and only then give way
There will always be plenty of room in
Anywhere you wanna go as long as you don’t stay
To forgive is divine, to error is human
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3. |
That's MISTER God To You
01:35
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Well I could get past this, I bet, if I could only get through it
But I can’t escape my hunch that I finally blew it
So I turn the TV on just to snipe back to it
Hilarity’ll ensue
And that’s MISTER God to you
And I dreamt they sought my council on matters unrelated to my craft
And when I shared this fantasy they rolled their eyes and laughed
Goddamn, what can’t they see about me that’s intriguing?
Goddamn, I feel my powers beginning to weaken
Why is it I seldom finish what I begin?
Could be out of my league
I’m still MISTER God to you
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4. |
Veruckterjugend
06:53
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Easy to suppose
This is what you chose
‘Cause you are unique
Not because you’re weak
That one could have a hidden program
That one didn’t know too well
That one might never attempt
for fear one might not stand out or excel
I know there’s offerings I haven’t made yet
I know that good things come to those who wait and
I know something of mine I haven’t played you
GO WILD
Not a quick study
You hate selling as much as you hate being sold to
But the telling will change depending on who it’s being told to
Learn by discovery
Arrogance without confidence
Makes zero sense and fewer friends
Do you feel the heat of burning rubber
Do you smell the smell of its scent
Do you see the tire fire of
a pile of wheels you reinvented
I know the brightest things are hot to touch
I know you don’t fully engage if you ride the clutch
I know I say I know way too much
GO WILD
One day victory, for me, will be much more than merely what I got away with
But how I’m acting right now is something I don’t think I’ll ever learn to be okay with
I know the biggest things calve off but do not sink
I know it happens so fast you’ll miss it if you blink
I know some lights grow more intense even as they shrink
I know I believe that I don’t know how to think
I know unburied bodies start to stink
I know I’m teetering there on the brink
GO WILD
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5. |
Get Rooted!
03:27
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If I were liquor, I’d be a kind of aqua vitae
Good for your ticker, seldom have you hug the bidet
Slivovitz or Lion’s Tears or Cuvee Bruts
I’ll cop to a penchant for being overly familiar
If I’m a mensch and a balebus it wouldn’t kill ya
Still sure to quench and rejuvenate so fill yer boots
Pray what sort of chap d’you think you’d marry?
One who’s welcomed anywhere he roams
Speed your departure from the estuary
A Manc around the house
A Brummie or a Scouse
Somebody Gaulish who’d kiss your hand and call you madam
Someone with polish who’d waggle his wings if he had ‘em
Poised to demolish anything that demolition suits
One whose Weltanschauung’s less Germanic
One with shorter words and lighter tomes
Whose eschatology is messianic
A Rasta or a Druze
The sub-Saharan blues
Maybe I’ll cloister - an ashram or a monastery
Mum as an oyster, forbearant as a dromedary
No more to roister, forgoing all worldly pursuits
When I get back to
get back to my roots
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6. |
This Business Of Show
03:58
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Wine, women, and song? I’ve had a bellyful
Baby, that’s how I roll
I know they won’t always be super-plentiful
But I can wait, and I can fast
And I can think all of the thoughts I’ve amassed
And sort ‘em out and order ‘em
according to importance in the furtherance of a goal
And shape the shape to carry out my next cavortings in
Smoke and mirrors - Geronimo!
You make a splash in This Business Of Show
Seriously, who wouldn’t be
taken aback by what they see?
I couldn’t catch every word but I know it was me you were discussin’
I’m a street-walkin’ cheetah with a heart full of Robutussin
And I’ve crossed many rivers, and I’ve tarried and bathed
And I’ve crawled through the Pit and emerged unscathed
The exile in the wilderness, baby
was a harsh and pitiless teacher
You thought I was gonna sit still for this, maybe?
I do not share one atom with
that late unfortunate creature
His adventures now belong to those he had ‘em with
Theseus’ ship, Grandfather’s axe
You got the story, you don’t need the facts
Sometimes you suck, sometimes you blow
No time to catch your breath in This Business Of Show
And I’m gonna tell you what I tell all of my detractors
The best liars make terrible actors
Somebody once told me I could be anything I wanted
I took it to heart and I acted upon it
So I do what I do when I do just because
Do not make the mistake that I am what I was
I’m the fourth man seen to be struttin’
through the fiery furnace to some
To others I’ll always be lamb dressed as mutton
Just like you own it or already knew it
You do the thing and you become what would do it
Don’t need a reason, don’t need a plan
Don’t need to tell you what I’m talking’ ‘bout, man
You gotta ask, you’ll never know
You think fast in this business of show
You can’t just stand there, you gotta grow
Or you won’t last in this business of show
Na-na-na-na HEY!
Na-na-na-na HEY!
Na-na-na-na HEY!
Goodbye
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7. |
Walkin' The Hog
04:15
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8. |
Down With The Tonics
00:47
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Thinking it’s about time for a new gaggle of friends
One for alienating and making amends
New boon allies in work and play
To be put upon by in a familiar way
When they act like that I can feign impatience-oh!
Let’s go: Down with the Tonics
Everybody needs a pick-up sometimes
I’m no special case
You might have seen I’ve got this sweater that I wear every day
It’s no great shakes, I guess it’s okay
If you didn’t know better you’d think it’s my fave
Like if there was a fire, it’s the thing I’d save
But I don’t think I’d notice if you took it away from me
Ya hey! Down with the Tonics
Everybody’s got a hobby, mine’s collecting myself
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9. |
On Arrival
05:13
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5’11” is the most pathetic height to have to put
They think you know that you’re only 5’10”
but you know that you can’t get away with an even six foot
It’s not like filling out your eyes and hair
You can change whatever you don’t like there
It says so where it says you don’t have to wait for a lift
But you can’t go to the party ’til you get off shift
You turn up ready to go when they’re starting to rise
To get their coats and say their goodbyes
Where you going already?
I haven’t had enough
I coulda gone with the chumps I work with
but I don’t need their greasy kidstuff
You can share this cab, you shouldn’t drive
It’s already four, I’m gonna stay ’til five
I’ve lived to see them all get what I wanted most for them
come to the very least:
The Hose, The Wings, The armies of the East
I can ponder them and dream of one day
Having an estate of my own to piss away
My own country to betray
My own spoiling my own myth
My own life to get on with
If at the moment of the fulfillment of her dreams
You’re not wondering at it from afar
that isn’t how it seems
From up here it looks flat and it looks wide
And it looks bare, nowhere to hide
And there’s no one worth hiding from
Not even those you hoped would come
I guess the mail lost my invite
A little thing like that’s easily put right
Now that I’m here and staked my little plot
I’m struck by all the things it’s not
It’s not easy, it’s not fun
And I can’t see it ever being done
Just about all I can see
is a fussy little stowaway who looks a lot like me
Never letting up until he reaches his mark
Never slowed or swayed cutting through the crowd
like the fin of a shark
To arrive on time
On a specified date
At a specified hour and have to wait
To arrive on time when everyone’s late
There is a part of me that looks just like you
And I’ve taken great care to see that’s the only part you’ve had exposure to
Like one of the teeth of a skeleton key
File any one of them down and there’s no more me
The more i love you the less you’re shown
Like a light that’s intensified the smaller it’s grown
I like everyone I’ve never met
Who haven’t made their arrival yet
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10. |
Distaff Executive
04:10
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I woke to sounds of dishes stacked and water run
Looked round a room I didn’t know and saw no one
A breath, a thought, a vacant spot
A thumbnail of what has and what has not been done
I heard new sounds come echoing up from inside
And made like I was good at things I’d never tried
Sometimes I might have not been right
But when I was it was just like I hadn’t lied
It’s fair to say most things will stay a mystery
The world is full of things that I will never see
But sometimes I’ve been invited in
It’s fair to say the ladies made a man of me
It’s fair to say the ladies made a man of me
And what I want is to be wanted
I would do anything to be
All I want is to be wanted
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11. |
Gioia Infinita
03:05
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12. |
Shitcoaster
07:08
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How tall you gotta be to ride on this thing?
The exceptions are diverse and bizarre
They’ll tell you how they got to where you find them
They aren’t shy about how special they are
It’s like it’s never occurred to them they’re not right
What made them think that was a way you could act?
What kind of lived experience could make them
Believe their preference was a statement of fact?
They’re gracious but proud when they win
They only lose when they’re cheated so they’re proud of their losses
They got no time to be hung up on fundamentals
But all the time in the world to explain you their process
How tall you gotta be to ride on this thing?
There must be somebody with something to say
There must be some kinds of rules or codes of conduct
In place to keep the crazy people away
Where did all the crazy people come from?
Do their friends like them acting this way?
Where did all the crazy people come from?
Do they even have friends anyway?
How tall you gotta be to ride on this thing?
The trestle clatters as you’re pulled to the top
And it hits you you could kick the bucket belted in with
all these crazy people when you finally drop
They don’t know much about history
They don’t respect the things that matter to me
Where did all the crazy people come from?
Who told them that this was a way they could be?
When did our hard-fought-for consensus
become a thing we don’t all already know?
It’s like these specimens didn’t get the memo
These matters were laid to rest long ago
Rights, responsibilities, and conventions
Whose very existence is best expressed as a dearth
This is the kind of a ride that relies on elevation
And when you’re elevated you’re not down to earth
Where did all the crazy people come from?
What’s what any one of them has to say worth?
How tall you gotta be to ride on this thing?
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Ford Pier Vancouver, British Columbia
Ford: v.t. to cross by wading (Webster)
Pier: n. a disappointed bridge (Joyce)
Ford Pier has a
rock band called The Vengeance Trio and a string quartet called Strength Of Materials. There's ten or eleven albums of this stuff, and more on its way. You just watch.
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