| Disc 1 | ||||||
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| 1. |
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High speed drift on a prairie road
Hot tires sing like a string being bowed Sudden town rears up then explodes Fragments resolve into white line code Whirl on silver wheels Black earth energy receptor fields Undulate under a grey cloud shield We outrun a river colour brick red mud That cleaves apart hills soil rich as blood Highway squeeze in construction steam Stop caution hard hat yellow insect machines Silver steel towers stalk rolling land Toward distant stacks that shout "Feed on demand" 100 miles later the sky has changed Urban anticipation -- we get 4 lanes Red orange furnace sphere notches down Throws up silhouette skyline in brown Sundogs flare on windshield glass Sudden swoop skyward iron horse overpass Pass a man walking like the man in the moon Walking like his head's full of irish fiddle tunes The skin around every city looks the same Miles of flat neon spelling well-known names USED TRUCKS DIRTY DONUTS YOU YOU'RE THE ONE Fat wheeled cars squeal into the sun Radio speakers gargle top 40 trash Muzak soundtrack to slow collapse Planet engines pulsate in sidereal time If you listen close you can hear the whine |
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| 2. |
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Stand on a bridge before the cavern of night
Darkness alive with possibility Nose to this wind full of twinkling lights Trying to catch the scent of what's coming to be (in this...) World of wonders... Somewhere a saxophone slides through changes Like a wet pipe dripping down my neck Gives me a chill -- sounds like danger But I can't stop moving till I cross this sector (of this...) World of wonders... There's a rainbow shining in a bead of spittle Falling diamonds in rattling rain Light flexed on moving muscle I stand here dazzled with my heart in flames (at this...) World of wonders... Moment of peace like brief arctic bloom Red/gold ripple of the sun going down Line of black hills makes my bed Sky full of love pulled over my head World of wonders... |
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| 3. |
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Above the dark town
After the sun's gone down Two vapour trails cross the sky Catching the day's last slow goodbye Black skyline looks rich as velvet Something is shining Like gold but better Rumours of glory Smiles mixed with curses The crowd disperses About whom no details are known Each one alone yet not alone Behind the pain/fear Etched on the faces Something is shining Like gold but better Rumours of glory You see the extremes Of what humans can be? In that distance some tension's born Energy surging like a storm You plunge your hand in And draw it back scorched Beneath it's shining like Gold but better Rumours of glory |
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Rays of the moon make magic in the streets of the city
All the people get strange but their faces look so pretty The walking graffiti, survivalist bums Even the secret police shout that you're the one See how I miss you Every psychopath gets his own magazine these days I just read about how I can kill in a hundred ways But I don't want to cause anybody pain I only want to hold you in my arms again See how I miss you I watch this woman in a tight sequined lizard dress -- Tosses her scarlet hair like a sly caress She got midnight voice like some beckoning saint She got something special but you she ain't See how I miss you |
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After the rain in the streets light flows like blood
I can just taste salt on the humid wind Here comes that gasoline Spreading hungry rainbow over shiny black tar I'm blown like smoke and blind as wind Except for when your love breaks in Maybe to those who love is given sight To pierce the wall of seeming night And know it pure beyond all imagining Engine throb street cruise light bullet car flash Hollow beauty night gleam oily river tension glass Ultraflame! Glittering dust falling in slow motion Clouds tumbling one over another into apparent emptiness It's like a big fist breaking down my door I never felt such a love before Maybe to those who love it's given to hear Music too high for the human ear And clear as hydrogen to go singing |
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padded with power here they come
international loan sharks backed by the guns of market hungry military profiteers whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared with the blood of the poor who rob life of its quality who render rage a necessity by turning countries into labour camps modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom sinister cynical instrument who makes the gun into a sacrament -- the only response to the deification of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations' idolatry of ideology north south east west kill the best and buy the rest it's just spend a buck to make a buck you don't really give a flying fuck about the people in misery IMF dirty MF takes away everything it can get always making certain that there's one thing left keep them on the hook with insupportable debt see the paid-off local bottom feeders passing themselves off as leaders kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows open for business like a cheap bordello and they call it democracy and they call it democracy and they call it democracy and they call it democracy see the loaded eyes of the children too trying to make the best of it the way kids do one day you're going to rise from your habitual feast to find yourself staring down the throat of the beast they call the revolution IMF dirty MF takes away everything it can get always making certain that there's one thing left keep them on the hook with insupportable debt |
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| 7. |
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Through rutted winding streets of Kathmandu
Dodging crowded humans cows dogs rickshaws - Storefronts constellated pools of bluewhite Bright against darkening walls The butterfly sparkle in my lasered eye still seems To hold that last shot of red sun through haze over jumbled roofs Everything moves like slow fluid in this atmosphere Thick as dreams With sewage, incense, dust and fever and the smoke of brick kilns and cremations - Tom Kelly's bike rumbles down - we're going drinking on the Tibetan side of town. Beggar with withered legs sits sideways on skateboard, grinning There's a joke going on somewhere but we'll never know Those laughing kids with hungry eyes must be in on it too With their clinging memories of a culture crushed By Chinese greed Pretty young mother by the temple gate Covers her baby's face against diesel fumes That look of concern - you can see it still - Not yet masked by the hard lines of a woman's Struggle to survive Hard bargains going down When you're living on the Tibetan side of town. Big red Enfield Bullet lurches to a halt in the dust Last blast of engine leaves a ringing in the ears That fades into the rustle of bare feet and slapping sandals And the baritone moan of long bronze trumpets Muffled by monastery walls. Prayer flags crack like whips in the breeze Sending to the world - tonight the message blows east Dark door opens to warm yellow room and there Are these steaming jugs of hot millet beer and I'm sucked into the scene like this liquor up This bamboo straw Sweet tungba sliding down - drinking on the Tibetan side of town |
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Sun's up, uuh huh, looks okay
the world survives into another day and i'm thinking about eternity some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me. I had another dream about lions at the door they weren't half as frightening as they were before but i'm thinking about eternity some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me. Walls windows trees, waves coming through you be in me and i'll be in you together in eternity some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me Up among the firs where it smells so sweet or down in the valley where the river used to be i got my mind on eternity some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me and i'm wondering where the lions are... i'm wondering where the lions are... Huge orange flying boat rises off a lake, thousand-year-old petroglyphs doing a double take, pointing a finger at eternity i'm sitting in the middle of this ecstasy Young men marching, helmets shining in the sun, polished as precise like the brain behind the gun (should be!) they got me thinking about eternity some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me and i'm wondering where the lions are... i'm wondering where the lions are... Freighters on the nod on the surface of the bay One of these days we're going to sail away, going to sail into eternity some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me and i'm wondering where the lions are... i'm wondering where the lions are... |
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Breakfast woodsmoke on the breeze --
On the cliff the U.S. Embassy Frowns out over Managua like Dracula's tower. The kid who guards Fonseca's tomb Cradles a beat-up submachine gun -- At age fifteen he's a veteran of four years of war Proud to pay his dues He knows who turns the screws Baby face and old man's eyes Blue lagoon and flowering trees -- Bullet-packed masaya streets Full of the ghosts of the heroes of Monimbo Women of the town laundry Work and gossip and laugh at me -- They don't believe I'll ever send them the pictures I took. For every scar on a wall There's a hole in someone's heart Where a loved one's memory lives In the flash of this moment You're the best of what we are -- Don't let them stop you now Nicaragua Sandino in his tom mix hat Gazes from billboards and coins "Sandino vive en la lucha por la paz" Sandino of the shining dream Who stood up to the U.S. marines -- Now Washington panics at U2 shots of "Cuban-style" latrines In the flash of this moment You're the best of what we are -- Don't let them stop you now Nicaragua |
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Way out on the rim of the galaxy
The gifts of the Lord lie torn Into whose charge the gifts were given Have made it a curse for so many to be born This is my trouble -- These were my fathers So how am I supposed to feel? Way out on the rim of the broken wheel Water of life is going to flow again Changed from the blood of heroes and knaves The word mercy's going to have a new meaning When we are judged by the children of our slaves No adult of sound mind Can be an innocent bystander Trial comes before truth's revealed Out here on the rim of the broken wheel You and me -- we are the break in the broken wheel Bleeding wound that will not heal Lord, spit on our eyes so we can see How to wake up from this tragedy Way out on the rim of the broken wheel Bleeding wound that will not heal Trial comes before truth's revealed So how am I supposed to feel? This is my trouble -- Can't be an innocent bystander In a world of pain and fire and steel Way out on the rim of the broken wheel |
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From Tierra del Fuego to Ungava Bay
The history of betrayal continues to today The spirit of Almighty Voice, the ghost of Anna Mae Call like thunder from the mountains -- you can hear them say It's a stolen land Apartheid in Arizona, slaughter in Brazil If bullets don't get good PR there's other ways to kill Kidnap all the children, put 'em in a foreign system Bring them up in no-man's land where no one really wants them It's a stolen land Stolen land -- but it's all we've got Stolen land -- and there's no going back Stolen land -- and we'll never forget Stolen land -- and we're not through yet In my mind I catch a picture -- big black raven in the sky Looking at the ocean -- sail reflected in black eye -- Sail as white as heroin, white like weathered bones -- Rum and guns and smallpox gonna change the face of home In this stolen land... If you're like me you'd like to think we've learned from our mistakes Enough to know we can't play god with others' lives at stake So now we've all discovered the world wasn't only made for whites What step are you gonna take to try and set things right In this stolen land Stolen land -- but it's all we've got Stolen land -- and there's no going back Stolen land -- and we'll never forget Stolen land -- and we're not through yet |
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Rising like lightspill from this sleeping town
Like the light in a lover's eyes Rising from the hearts of the sleepers all around All those dreamers trying to light the sky Burning -- all night long Burning -- at the gates of dawn Singing -- near and far Singing -- to raise the morning star Rising like lightning in the pregnant air It's electric -- I can feel its might I can feel it crackling in my nails and hair -- Makes me feel like i'm dancing on feet of light Burning -- all night long Burning -- at the gates of dawn Singing -- near and far Singing -- to raise the morning star Singing for the yellow and the brown and the black For the red and the white people, too Dovetailing strong points with the things we lack Singing for the people like me and you Burning -- all night long Burning -- at the gates of dawn Singing -- near and far Singing -- to raise the morning star |
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| 13. |
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Maybe the poet is gay
But he'll be heard anyway Maybe the poet is drugged But he won't stay under the rug Maybe the voice of the spirit In which case you'd better hear it Maybe he's a woman Who can touch you where you're human Male female slave or free Peaceful or disorderly Maybe you and he will not agree But you need him to show you new ways to see Don't let the system fool you All it wants to do is rule you Pay attention to the poet You need him and you know it Put him up against the wall Shoot him up with pentothal Shoot him up with lead You won't call back what's been said Put him in the ground But one day you'll look around There'll be a face you don't know Voicing thoughts you've heard before Male female slave or free Peaceful or disorderly Maybe you and he will not agree But you need him to show you new ways to see Don't let the system fool you All it wants to do is rule you Pay attention to the poet You need him and you know it |
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Some things in life are bad, they can really make you mad
Other things can make you swear and curse When you're chewing on life's gristle, don't grumble -- give a whistle And this'll help things turn out for the best, and... Always look on the bright side of life Always look on the bright side of life If life seems jolly rotten, there's something you've forgotten And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing When you're feeling in the dumps, don't be silly chumps Just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing, and... Always look on the bright side of life Always look on the bright side of life Life is quite absurd, and death's the final word We must always face the curtain with a bow Forget about your sin, give the audience a grin Enjoy it -- it's your last chance anyhow, so... Always look on the bright side of death Just before you draw your terminal breath Life's a piece of shit, when you look at it Life's a laugh and death's a joke it's true You can see it's all a show, keep 'em laughing as you go Just remember that the last laugh is on you, and... Always look on the bright side of life Always look on the bright side of life... |
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