1. |
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Son of man, set your face like flint
Say these words to the government
Say these words to the violent:
"You must tend to the wounded"
Now God may not exist
But He loves you as if He does
So let us not insist
That what is, is like what was
Take my hand we'll walk
The I-95 corridor
Take my hand we'll walk
Straight down to Baltimore
Where the great Chris Toll once walked
Alas, he walks no more
But you could walk with me
And I could walk with you
In the city where he wrote:
"Love is so hard and it's all we came to do"
Thirty years is a long time without the veil of alcohol
Hey, fifteen years is a long time
With no excuses for the falls
So let me by you a soda babe
But let's sing a drinking song
And by the time the cops arrive
The whole damn bar will sing along
By the end of the night
When every gal and every guy
Will raise their glasses high and amid the sloshing foam
Assert we are alone
We teach them all to sing these simple lines
We sing:
God may not exist
But He loves you as if He does
So let us not insist
That what is, is like what was
Take my hand we'll walk
The I-95 corridor
Take my hand we'll walk
Straight down to Baltimore
Where the great Chris Toll once walked
Alas, he walks no more
But you could walk with me
And I could walk with you
In the city where he wrote
"Love is so hard and it's all we came to do"
So we all get arrested for ontological drunkenness
With a lesser included charge of public gentleness
They let us off with a warning
But on the courthouse steps
We commit the crime again
Before the gathered press
We sing:
God may not exist
But He loves you as if He does
So let us not insist
That what is, is like what was
Take my hand we'll walk
The I-95 corridor
Take my hand we'll walk
Straight down to Baltimore
Where the great Chris Toll once walked
Alas, he walks no more
But you could walk with me
And I could walk with you
In the city where he wrote
"Love is so hard and it's all we came to do"
In the city where he wrote
"Love is so hard and it's all we came to do"
"Love is so hard
and it's all we came to do" from The Disinformation Phase by Chris Toll (Publishing Genius Press, Baltimore)
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2. |
SOC
04:03
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When you turn thirty-two
You've outlived a mighty crew
Janice, Jimi, Robert Johnson,
I had five years on you
As I sat at my desk
In 1989
While Kid Rock
Sat by the lake
In Northern Michigan
My hair was short my hours were long
I did the work of lawyers
But the law brings death as scripture attests
As did the classic rock stations
I was looking for a spirit to give me life
And you may not have liked my choice
But it got me through some nights
'Cause the rum was in the drawer
Malcolm X hung from the door
And the weasly voice of Eazy-E
Would fill the whole damn floor
When I broke that boom box out
'Cause the bosses all had gone
And played "Straight Outta Compton"
All night long
Well, I never did like that Lynyrd Skynyrd song
It seemed to go mighty lightly
On something mighty wrong
I preferred the sounds of the sons
Of southern refugees
Crying "Fuck the police, fuck the police
Fuck the police, fuck the police"
The rum was in the drawer
Malcolm X hung from the door
And the weasly voice of Eazy-E
Would fill the whole damn floor
When I broke that boom box out
Cause the bosses all had gone
And played "Straight Outta Compton"
All night long
Well, as leaves that fall in autumn
Hip-hop began to rot
As the gangstas became the masters
Like at the end of animal farm
And my conscience bothers me
As I go looking for the truth
But I loved to hear that crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube
The rum was in the drawer
Malcolm X hung from the door
And the weasly voice of Eazy-E
Would fill the whole damn floor
When I broke that boom box out
Cause the bosses all had gone
And played "Straight Outta Compton"
All night long
I played "Straight Outta Compton"
All night long
I played "Straight Outta Compton"
All summer long.
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3. |
Pharaoh
03:24
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See the women
Walking on concrete
Where once they strolled
On cherry blossom carpets
And why, oh why, must there always come a time
When a Pharaoh will rise who knows not Joseph?
They were sitting in a Nuremberg beer garden
Talking 'bout the city, the trials and the laws
Sitting in a Nuremberg beer garden
And a random wind was blowing
The saw dust 'round the floor
Said the elder to the younger
"I hear you went in-country"
Said the younger to the elder
"I hear you climbed a mountain.
And why, oh why must there always come a time
When a Pharaoh will rise who knows not Joseph?"
So they raised their glasses
To the women that they wronged
They raised their glasses
To the women in their songs
They raised their glasses
In the city that made them
They raised their glasses
To the love that might have saved them
Oh see the women walking on concrete
Where once they strolled on cherry blossom carpets
And why oh why must there always come a time
When a Pharaoh will rise who knows not Joseph?
So they took their guitars through the memory of a forest
One past the hospital
The other past the courthouse
And the stench of white roses
Trampled in the asphalt
Rose to meet the smell of New York City summer piss
Oh see the women walking on concrete
Where once they strolled on cherry blossom carpets
And why oh why must there always come a time
When a Pharaoh will rise who knows not Joseph?
When a Pharaoh will rise who knows not Joseph
When a Pharaoh will rise
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4. |
Schlemiels Like Me
04:03
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The man next to me is rapping
As if his words could fuck you up
It's like "Come to my neighborhood, nigga
My niggas gonna fuck you up!"
But he's just a schlemiel like me
Inside this particular fantasy
Of resistance to the local tyranny
And a single platoon could crush them
Now maybe God will crush all unjust armies
But maybe that's my petty indignation
Just my small man's reading of the Revelation
As if the plaintive patience and the vindication
Of the witnesses beneath the altar
Were meant for schlemiels like me.
My friend loves his Second Amendment
His guns could fuck you up
IIt's like "Send your armies to my neighborhood, nigger,
My boys gonna fuck you up!"
But he's just a schlemiel like me
Inside this particular fantasy
Of resistance to a distant tyranny
And a well-trained platoon could crush them
And maybe God will crush all unjust armies
But maybe that's my petty indignation
Just my small man's reading of the Revelation
As if the plaintive patience and the vindication
Of the witness beneath the altar
Were meant for schlemiels like me
Yes, maybe God will crush all unjust armies
But maybe that's my petty indignation
Just my small man's reading of the Revelation
As if the plaintive patience and the vindication
Of the witness beneath the altar
Were meant for schlemiels like me.
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5. |
Mechanical Camel
03:30
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Your God of mercy, seems like no God at all
Nobody cares and everything is permitted
But the days when I think that God might be just
Are the days when you'll find that my pants have been shitted
The pendulum swings
Like England used to
First burn the Prods
And then kill the Papists
Now it's judgment for the torturers
Judgment for the killers
Judgment for the judges
And judgment for the rapists
But have mercy on me, have mercy on me
I had them thoughts, I just
Lacked the opportunity
Have mercy on me, have mercy on me
I had them thoughts I just lacked the opportunity
It was Zarathustra in his cave
Zarathustra meets the hermit
Could it be that this old man
Could it be that this old monk
Has not heard the news?
Your God of mercy seems like no God at all
Nobody cares and everything is permitted
But the days when I think that God might be just
Are the days when you'll find that my pants have been shitted
Well, the pendulum swings like England used to
Libel to Jews and make war on the Moslems
Now it's judgment for the Presidents
Judgment for the Imams
And all your kings-equivalent who are pawns of the darkness
But have mercy on me, have mercy on me
I had them thoughts I just lacked the opportunity
Have mercy on me, have mercy on me
I had them thoughts I just lacked the opportunity
It was Zarathustra in his cave
Zarathustra meets the hermit
Dylan and Eric in the lunchroom
Could it be that this old monk
Has not heard the news?
I'm gonna hit the gas on my mechanical camel
Point it down the road at the needle's eye
There'll be shattering of glass and shearing of metal
If I aim just right I'll make heaven on the fly
But have mercy on me, have mercy on me
I had them thoughts I just lacked the opportunity
Have mercy on me, have mercy on me
I had them thoughts I just lacked the opportunity
Have mercy on me.
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6. |
The Light
03:27
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Oh the light that shines upon the Buddha's finger
Is neither Buddha, finger, moon, nor the truth
It's just the light that shines on Buddha's finger
Buddha's finger pointing at the moon
He saw her in the sunlight by the water
He'll be singing "Boys of Summer" from now on
He guesses that he'll love her long after
The sunlight and her beauty are both gone
But the light that shines upon the Buddha's fingers
Is neither Buddha, finger, moon, nor the truth
It's just the light that shines on Buddha's finger
Buddha's finger pointing at the moon
And the light that shines upon the Beauty's finger
Is neither Beauty, finger, diamond, nor the truth
It's just the light that shines on her finger
She twists the ring and wonders what to do
'Cause the light that shines upon the Buddha's finger
Is neither Buddha, finger, moon nor the truth
It's just the light that shines on Buddha's finger
Buddha's finger pointing at the moon.
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7. |
Spark
02:33
|
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I don't dig you better dead
Even if you fucked that guy from Joe Jackson's band
And I don't dig you better dead
Even if you likely blew that transit cop as well
I don't dig you in a prayer flag world
I don't dig you better dead
And I don't dig you better dead
Even if you multiplied imaginary lovers
I don't dig you better dead
Even though you had a gaping hole in your womb
I don't dig you in a prayer flag world
I don't dig you better dead
And I don't dig you as a sort of eternal Facebook friend
Kept alive
Oh kept alive
By all these postings like faded roadside wreaths
And I don't dig you better dead
Even if your spark should move to another set of molecules
I don't dig you in a prayer flag world
Destined to be born and then forget just who you were
I don't dig you kept alive in this rhyme
I don't dig you better dead
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8. |
The System of The World
02:46
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The system of the world as I crossed the bridge that night
Was the system of the world for every single night
Just the earth and its objects
The moon and the sun
The planets and the fixed distant stars
A broken hope of memory
Had turned me from the light
The same external melody
That draws me out to fight
Against the earth and its objects
The moon and the sun
The planets and the fixed distant stars
But a French girl was dancing to "Holiday in Cambodia"
Amid the aperitifs
Amid the sweet liqueurs
And the red clay of her hometown
Is like the red earth of the Dakotas
Where the stars shine
So the system of the world
As I cross the bridge tonight
Is not the system of the world
Like any other night
It's the earth and its objects
The moon and the sun
The planets and the fixed distant stars
And a French girl dancing to "Holiday in Cambodia"
Amid the aperitifs
Amid the sweet liqueurs
And the red clay of her home town
Is like the red earth of the Dakotas
Where the stars shine
From horizon to horizon
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9. |
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I'd hoped you'd got out with that joy you had
'Cause things were looking like things went bad
And all them boys that you held in your hands
Did your beauty ever break their hearts
Did your beauty ever break their hearts
Did your beauty ever
I'm came in at the tale end of that boomer crew
They were off in their communes getting screwed
Or maybe making porn with some German dudes
But did your beauty ever break their hearts?
They followed the Dead until Jerry died
They sang "Let's pass around the women like a bottle of wine."
And I know sometimes you didn't mind
But did your beauty ever break their hearts?
I remember the night I was first on the floor
Of the legendary Studio 54
There was sex and there was cocaine on the bathroom floor
But did your beauty ever break their hearts.
So I fall on my knees in the semblance of prayer
And send out my petitions to who knows where
I cry "You demand that I never despair
But Your beauty just breaks my heart."
And I know you're a beauty but you're not all right
I can tell by your eyes that you miss the light
And if I could shine, I would shine tonight
Your beauty just breaks my heart
Your beauty just breaks my heart
Your beauty
I hope you get out with that joy you had
'Cause things were looking like things were bad
But all them boys that you held in your hands
Did your beauty ever break their hearts?
Did your beauty ever break their hearts?
Did your beauty ever
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