A MOMENT OF CLARITY
Be afraid, be very afraid
Of the teeth, and the horns
And the bed you made
And notice how on a brand new day
Voting just don't make your problems go away
CHORUS:
And seeing how it was your decision
Still you place it on the head of a politician
There's a hole in your logic of parity
I saw it in a moment of clarity
There's a whole other side ripe for the pickin'
But you let your kids roam like free range
chicken
You better chew before you swallow
Or expect happiness to land tomorrow
Be aware, be very aware
Of your rights, and your dues
And what's really fair
And comment on the way we live
And your power to fight and your power to forgive
(CHORUS)
And me I'm understanding more
As the truth of life opened up the door
Life's too complex to be an island
You ought to join in and stop denying
Your part in living with civility
Not to mention some humility
The world belongs to you and me
It's time to assume responsibility
(CHORUS)
La la la la la la la la la la la la la ah ah
(CHORUS)
La la la la la la la la la la la la la ah ah
La la la la la la la la la la la la la ah ah
I SEE THE DARK
When I look back upon my life
Full of mistakes and full of strife
When I look at the things I've done
People I've hurt and you were one
When I look back I close my eyes
Cause up to now my life was a lie
That's what I see when I look back
CHORUS:
Sometimes I walk in the dark
Sometimes I live in the dark
Sometimes I dream in the dark
Sometimes I fear in the dark
Sometimes I see the dark
When I wake up to face the sun
No time to waste no time for fun
When I wake up and face my day
I wish the past would fade away
When I wake up and start anew
I still look back and think of you
That's what I see when I wake up
(CHORUS)
I don't expect you to understand this song
I never meant to try to right a wrong
I know nothing I ever say or do
Would ever begin to make it up to you, to you
(CHORUS)
When I look back upon my life
Full of mistakes and full of strife
When I look at the things I've done
People I've hurt and you were one
When I look back I close my eyes
Cause up to now my life was a lie
That's what I see when I look back
(CHORUS)
Sometimes I see the dark
BAD IN PINK
You just couldn't call her pretty
Any more than you can say
Her loneliness would ever lift away
The girl looks bad in pink
Yes the girl looks bad in pink
She is just society's woman-child in pink
Let her smile and let her giggle
But please don't let her think
The girl looks bad in pink
She looks worse than you think
She followed the rules
She forsook all the jewels
A contract with the status quo
Oh, and it goes
CHORUS:
You gotta have faith, you gotta break the bread
You gotta have faith, or you're gonna be dead
Color her beautiful in shades of powdered red
Make it fit, make it last
Or she will soon be dead
The girl looks bad in pink
Yes the girl looks bad in pink
Give her sugar give her spice
Try to make it very nice
Till her hopes and her passions
Turn to steel blue ice
The girl looks bad in pink
She looks worse than you think
She followed the rules
She forsook all the jewels
A contract with the status quo
Oh, and it goes
(CHORUS)
(CHORUS)
WHEN THE PEOPLE ARE DEAD
And the child grew up, and the child grew old
And when she died her story was told to no one
in particular
And her child grew to know her past
As a storybook tale that didn't last for long
CHORUS:
But late at night when the people are dead
And the stories told go to your head
And no one knows why the lonely ghost
With people to haunt chose you the most
And her memory of those who came before
Like a sitting ghost beside her door in a chair
It taught her life, it taught her love
But it could not teach what it could not touch
or feel anymore
(CHORUS)
Sometimes I'm afraid to admit I just don't heed
Sometimes I'm tired of taking my ghosts
seriously
(CHORUS)
And the child grew up, and the child was me
And I sit by the door at a quarter to three in a
chair
And my child's grown to know her past
As a storybook tale that didn't last for long
(CHORUS)
(CHORUS)
(Dedicated to the memory of Karin Leudthardt)
MARY & MAY
Mary Mary so contrary
Understand what makes you hairy
She is so strange
A fine young woman a devoted wife
May would never change
Mary had a little cat
It licked it's bottom while it sat
She named it Chunk or Bo
May never cared for a pet
Why she did not know
CHORUS:
Toe the line to strike a blow
Twiddle your thumbs to and fro
If you think you're winning look again
The joke is back on you my friend
Mary Mary saw the country
Heathen Valley to the funky
Beauty and gore
May would do all the things
She had done before
Mary met the human race
Shared her knowledge and her space
Time was on her side
May embraced her amenities
But most of all her pride.
(CHORUS)
Don't mistake Mary when she says she's free
She never once refused responsibility
And when you vote May into sainthood
There is no reward for being good
(CHORUS)
(CHORUS)
Mary Mary so contrary
Understand what makes you hairy
She is so strange
A fine young woman a devoted wife
May would never change
ALONE
When I fall I fall so low I've very very low to go
And when I rise I take a stand
Sitting on my ass digesting sand alone
And here in my room I find a view
And contemplate what to do
Then out in the world I make my mark
Sucking on a beer after dark alone. Alone
CHORUS (1):
I learned the truth long ago
I couldn't save the world alone
Not everyone knew it right or wrong
And so this is my sister's song
When it's time to take a bow
I run and hide I don't know how
So far away I plant my dreams
Reaching for the end with no means alone
Maybe I can find a way
To set my sights beyond today
It seems no matter how I try
I find an excuse to come up dry alone. Alone
Alone, alone I find myself
Saving souls for no one else
Alone I find I'm just me
When I cut through the crap I can finally see
CHORUS (2):
I learned the truth one dank day
I couldn't save the earth today
But I moved on to live my life
And so this became my sister's rite
When I fall I fall so low I've very very low to go
And when I rise I take a stand
Sitting on my ass digesting sand alone
And when I fall I fall so low
Cause no one showed me which way to go
Then out in the world I'm all alone
Waiting for someone to throw me a bone
A bone. A bone
(CHORUS (2))
DON'T TOUCH THAT CALICO CAT
Once there was a calico
Whose thoughts you would never know
She lived in a perfect home for cats
Long in understanding it
And short in comprehending
What's wrong with that calico cat
Don't touch that cat!
CHORUS:
Please save your calico
She won't leave you if you don't let her go
So don't disguise her colors or her hues
Don't despise the calico in you
Don't touch that cat!
She would never satisfy
The protocol by and by
The cat has a mind of her own
Now if you try to mend her ways
She'll leave you in a purple daze
You can't change a calico
Don't touch that cat!
(CHORUS)
Do you recognize her?
Will you realize her?
Don't touch that cat!
Now you're recognizing her
Coming to accepting her
She's your lady MacBeth
Be careful not to scare away
The part that's your everyday
It's that calico cat!
Don't touch that cat!
(CHORUS)
Don't touch that cat!
Please don't touch that cat
Don't touch that cat!
a.k.a. POCAHONTAS
(The sad historical record on Pocahontas teems with inaccuracies. Although the child's real name was Matoakah, history books often favor her nickname "Pocahontas," translated from the Algonkian as meaning "cock-teasing." The belief was that if you gave a child a nickname that reflected the opposite of the child's true nature, that the child would not respond when an evil spirit called him/her by the nickname. Does that make Disney evil?)
Once upon a long ago
A little child was born
Her destiny was sealed
Before she learned her song
A hero came to save this girl
To whisk her away
And before the bloody murders
He named her Pocahontas
CHORUS:
Hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hi
Hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hi
Dear Mr. Disney, I really hate to complain
But I think there's been an awful mistake
You used the wrong name
What's a man to do
What's a man to say
With such a little child
Keep your hands away!
If you fiddle with the juniors
You better watch your back
When you glorify a pedophile
And call the child Pocahontas
(CHORUS)
Hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hi
Hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hi
Such a pretty girl
I want to live in her world
Little hands and little feet
I almost thought she was Chinese
(CHORUS)
Once upon a time
A child heard a tale
Of a past long ago
And a man who set sail
Of a world that was conquered
For its own good
And a deed justified
Through the child Pocahontas
Hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hi
Hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hi
Hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hiya hi
TELL THEM NO
A man, he died, he was alone
A silent blow, a moment home
And she, she saw, and never spoke a word
Her ears were dumb to the screams her eyes heard
CHORUS:
I fall apart in the recess of my heart
Help me grow so I can tell them no
And she once knew the color of gloom
A memory lost so brilliant and so soon
And no one there ever spoke a word
Their ears were dumb to the screams their eyes heard
(CHORUS)
Though I followed the vision of your voice
It was not a prophecy cause I made a choice
When I was so far from here
I faced my thoughts no doubt, no fear
But now I know, I learned to talk the game
Though I'll look back I'll never be the same
(CHORUS)
(CHORUS)
I fall apart in the recess of my heart
Tell me no so I can let it go
(Dedicated to the memory of Kenny Gwyn)
THE COWARD'S CRADLE
(unrecorded)
There's a voice up in his attic
She heard it once and then she had it
For ten and twenty and one more years
Though it moved everyone else to tears
Well it screamed of pain and it moaned of fear
It spoke to her through so many years
It's the state of art for a lonely father
Left a chip in the flesh of a sister and a brother
CHORUS (1):
So rock little baby if you are able
And rock in the cradle made by Abel
Oh rock little baby in the tree top
Rock little baby until you drop
Was he born with a crown in his pocket
And born with a spine that just couldn't stop it
So the voice grew bolder in its weak beauty
As she chalked it up to filial duty
He was born with his life right ahead of him
But she learned he just couldn't swim
A legacy willed to the static
With regrets piling up in his attic
(CHORUS (1)); CHORUS (2):
Rock little baby with all your might
Rock little baby to deny the fright
Rock little baby in the coward's cradle
Oh falling down like Cain for Abel
Can't you see me hanging on to life
Oh man trying to know what's right
Open the door and see that grandpa's dead
The voices you hear are in your head
(CHORUS (1))
C(HOURS (2))
Rock little baby
Rock little baby
For thirty-one years
Rock little baby
For thirty-one years
For thirty-one years
For thirty-one years
Thirty-one years to trace the night
Thirty-one years just begun to fight
Thirty-one years 'neath the coward's cradle
Oh I gotta move on if I'm able
(repeat first verse)
