Disc 1 | ||||||
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1. |
| 4:21 | ||||
Dead tired.
Bone dry. Admired, Till I- Can't make with the batteries, Bad day at the cannery. They're making a mess of me. Best left tested by history. I grab this mic, I spike it to the ground. The lightning's bad But at least it's not loud. The lighting's bad- The band can't see the crowd So I'm coming down. There is no incident. There's nothing incidental in this song. There is no accident. There's nothing accidental in this song. There's no coincidence. There's nothing coincidental in this song. Meet me in the dollar bin- It's a band I once was in, Haven't done much better since. This is no coincidence- Been rubbing off our finger prints, Covered up with phony skins, This giving in has worn so thin That you can see the beat within. Born fat or flat chested, The best of us tested. We passed and we passed, We passed out when we could. We got old, But we got good And we did all We said we would. |
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2. |
| 5:16 | ||||
Hold on to your genre,
Your genre's got a hold on you. Hold on to your hair-do, It's the only thing to hold onto. Hold on to your genre, Your genre's got a hold on you. Get up on the vapor, 'Cause the solid's tough to hold on to. There's a promise in the back room. See it written in the bathroom. You tell a little lie and then you Try to get us in your bedroom. You see our little lives and then you Try to drag you to your death tomb. I've been checking the seams of your Red velvet blazer. Now I'm haunted by dreams of the Things I've found hid there: All the rabbits you've vanished, All the cards that you've killed, All the dawns that you've banished With too many pills. Together Forever, The pity, The pleasure, The privilege, The pressure, The arteries We sever. The stillness, It chills us, But it's chills that we crave. The stillness will fill us when we fill in our graves. I never wanted something Like nothing half this much. I'd gladly trade my state For nullity and such. For once to stop this buzzing And the lights inside my head. Can I please have truly nothing Once before I'm dead? I've been checking the seams of your Red velvet blazer. And I'm seeing the lines of your Will and your wish list: And you wish you were nothing, And you wish you were cold, And you wish days meant something So you'd stop getting old. Back in the day you loved the night, And you would feast with great delight. A walnut coffin lined in silk, And daughter's blood was mother's milk. But now with fangs rust red as dusk, A wet mouth in a dried up husk, You try to make me one of "us." Are you sick of being pretty? Are you sick of being cool? Are you alive beneath your makeup? Or just an un-dead ghoul? |
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3. |
| 3:43 | ||||
They say, "Once you've found love
And it's rarer than gold. You stake your claim- It's so hard to hold." I say, "We've struck a vein And it's wide as a road!" Have we got love enough to go around? Why don't you get a piece and pass it down? Even 100,000,000 years from now The love we make will still be Putting out. We filled up our pockets Till they would explode And called the whole world here So they could behold The light of our love Beats the dark and the cold. I get the best of you, You get the best of me. You know I come to you Across the broadest sea. For just a speck of you, I'd trade the whole of me. I wish each peck from you Would last eternity. Where the skin's thin And where the skin gathers. When you're moving in And see it's all that matters. Records left skipping, Clothing all scattered, A kiss in the kitchen, The dishes all shattered. We'll make a lover of you. |
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4. |
| 3:58 | ||||
When we were little kids,
We tried the seven deadly sins In the attic every summertime. The wet felt smelling silent kind. We'd play light as a feather, Stiff as a board And you'd press to my hips As we'd slip through the floor. The grey, grey ghost is coming out of the Bright, white sheet that was wrapped about him. The shade, shade, shade could have been mistaken, but I Swear that the sunlight was shooting straight through him. Let's make a mess of this banquet While your bones are soaked in blood. When your skin and cells are bankrupt, You'll be deposit in the dust. Let's try to stay soft And remember to bend- The chance to get supple Will not come again 'Cause in time You will find Rigor mortis sets in. Well I failed and I failed But my failures were passing, Grew hair and a tail And was all the while asking, "Does it stay like this?" and "Will it end like this?" I'm afraid that you're fading away, You're not coming in clear. I'm afraid that the games that we've played Have turned desperate and dear. All that you cherish will perish. All that you punish will pass. I know you'll hit the ground running When you ditch the road at last. Well, we failed and we failed But our failures were passing, Grew hair and a tail And were all the while asking, "Does it stay like this?" and "Will it end like this?" Is this supposed to hurt Or are we sensitive?" There'll be no red rose The day you die. There'll be flies round your nose And rings round your eyes. The clock ticks on, We don't have a say. We let one hand wash the other's Dirt away. We're doing way too much, We do it way too often. What used to be a crutch Has become a coffin. It's been good to be alive, But I've simply got to go. Someone's on the other line And they're calling for my soul. |
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5. |
| 4:15 | ||||
The sweat descends.
The sweaty scents. One cocksure fox In a house of hens. My mouth will water Where the sweat descends. The sweat descends. Sweet decadence. Let's hope this party Never ends. A shiv in the ribs, Some smoke in the hive, You live how you live, I'll die how I die. Wake me up when we get to heaven, Let me sleep if we go to hell. Blame my mouth if the house is burning, Check my tongue if you still can't tell. The sweat descends, My psyche bends, I'll never be The same again. The soul is twisted But the skin will mend. My tight young skin Covers up a sick palimpsest. Make your mark on a darkened dance floor. Slip across the present tense, Press up against the skin you care for, Meet me where the sweat descends. |
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6. |
| 4:49 | ||||
Pappa don't preach,
I beseech you man, Your devilish deeds Teach more than a teacher can. What have we learned? Which lessons won't stick? Tracing the edges Of wisdom and shit. Knowing how the world works Is not knowing how to work the world. You're tracing its movements, Predict its every turn; You watch down from above And record what you learn. You're graphing the data And tagging up our ears. Complex simulations With graph paper gears. Wistful in his widow's peak, So to speak, he stands. A son confronts his father With his hat in his hands. All the things you never could do, I never can. All the things I blamed on you I see I now do, too. A handful of stories, A house full of cards, A mouthful of sorrys, And a heart full up of scars. I take a handful of you And take a handful of me, I put it in my mouth And chew it up so thoroughly. |
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7. |
| 3:54 | ||||
Hello
To my halo, Goodbye To my glands. You can't Move a mountain With a book of plans. You can't Break a heart With a Birthday wish, You can't Make a wave In a Petri dish. Tell them We think they're starving. Tell them We think they're deaf. Tell them We've seen them carving curse words Into their desks. Tell them That I'm a liquid. Tell them It's been a gas. Tell them They're frozen solid Just behind The looking glass. The mirror's just flat, The mirror's just glass, Into the mirror Let's try not to pass. |
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8. |
| 4:05 | ||||
Catching whispers on the phone
But the whispers get away. Making entries in our diaries With all the things we think they say. Can you hear it? I can't hear it! Can you see it? I can't see it! We've been feeding the vermin, Now they're hanging around. Can't we take back the sermon That we tossed to the crowd? Obsessed with the excess But stuffed with a crumb. The lessons progress less As professors succumb. They're craving confusion When starved of sense And graven confusion Has been heaven sent. Can you do it? I can't do it! This is the way the sick people play: Hands in their pockets, goose bumps on display. This is the way the well people drink: Mouths on the spigots of the sick people's sink. In the town square, In the city hall, In the war room, On a conference call, They set the date to drop the bomb And sit and wait with perfect calm. I wanna do it! If you call this living, If you call that love, If you'd call the cops before God above, If you'd call the cops before God below, If you call this culture, Then I think you'll know, The stone cold con and the 6-6-6, We're trading our eyeballs in for asterisks. We're trading our idols in for rapprochement. We're burning the bridges that we're crossing on. I wanna do it! |
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9. |
| 3:18 | ||||
She was sweet sixteen,
Baby beauty queen. Straight white teeth, Bathed in beauty cream. Priss don't drink And priss don't smoke. Shit don't stink And don't take jokes. Botoxed in bobby socks. Cold as ice. All the boys were like White on rice. The end result is still the same, You can't go back the way you came. Drunk on mint juleps on the tennis court, The wealthy widow wanted more than sport. The tennis pro thought it was inappropriate, The wealthy widow thought that they should go for it. She giggled, pickled, tanned as leather. Sacks of sand in her cashmere sweater. Oh Madame, the way you waste my time, It's so divine. Kissing the concrete you'd swear it was skin, Her manicure secretes original sin. Oh Madame, your taste for steak and wine serves to impress me. You're so vain You probably don't think this song is about you, Champagne Jane. So many eager sinners, only 7 deadly sins; Hell's so Goddamn crowded that there's no one getting in. The line goes to the river Styx, but she can get you in. It was work, But the work was fun. What will they say when they see what we done? What will they say when they see what we do? 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2- One of us has got to go. One of us has got to cum. Bury me in mistletoe. Put a dollar on my tongue. You're so vain. |
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10. |
| 2:57 | ||||
One was a piper.
One was a rat. They couldn't decipher How it came to that. And at the cockadoodle They crawled out of their beds. As if the rooster knew Each rising dawn they dread. Lost in a flurry. Looking for land mines Hid in a ribcage Back at the front line. And when the sun is falling They crawl out of their skins. They hear the moonlight calling Them from this mess they're in. Take deep breaths and waste sweet seconds. The late day beckons And if you save it, it will slip away- Spend 7 nights like Saturday. Yawn, Yawn, Yawn, We're all long gone. If we get lucky we'll be dead by dawn. So let's get it on. I want to get it on! Charging the windmill And missing the mark. Blinded by sunlight But building an ark. I've got 1,000,000 dollars Made of 10,000,000 dimes Paid for 1,000,000 failures Of others' good advice. |
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11. |
| 4:15 | ||||
The singer of the band
Has been encased In a circuit board formed From arsenic and old lace. The piano has been dropped. A c-note hits the cop. So he would turn away While we're cleaning up the slop. This is the bishop's finger. This is the bishop's hand. Onto Jesus' body The people place demands. They're pointing with their pistols, While we're reaching for the sky. The soundtrack of their lives Is an eye for an eye... Hail hail the talk show, Cocked after cocktails. I lied and I lied... God save the techno! The sequencers don't know When it died, when it died... Edison put the gun in our hands. The black bear put The muzzle to its muzzle. The dogwood didn't care But the maple was troubled. Trademark, this is a trademark, This move was trademarked in 1883. |
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12. |
| 3:23 | ||||
13. |
| 6:30 | ||||
All nerve endings shut down.
Stiff lipped at the countdown. All systems are go, All systems are gauche, All systems are ghosts. In a can, In a cupboard, In a submarine, There's nothing left inside. In a basket at the bottom of the guillotine Is where the sailor died. He never said a word To the jury or the press And when the ax-blade bit his neck, "Set me free" is all he said. In a pixel, In a portrait, In a T.V. screen There's nothing left to hide. Stitched each instant by the firing electron beam, Let the camera man decide. And he never said a word To the jury or the press When the on-air light turned red, "Cut Away" is all he said. When she opened it up, She dropped her coffee cup, And when the cup hit the ground The whole damn house came stumbling down. Good by my memory. From this point on I'm unsettling. In Brooklyn we stay home. |
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14. |
| 2:55 | ||||
All nerve endings shut down.
Stiff lipped at the countdown. All systems are go, All systems are gauche, All systems are ghosts. In a can, In a cupboard, In a submarine, There's nothing left inside. In a basket at the bottom of the guillotine Is where the sailor died. He never said a word To the jury or the press And when the ax-blade bit his neck, "Set me free" is all he said. In a pixel, In a portrait, In a T.V. screen There's nothing left to hide. Stitched each instant by the firing electron beam, Let the camera man decide. And he never said a word To the jury or the press When the on-air light turned red, "Cut Away" is all he said. When she opened it up, She dropped her coffee cup, And when the cup hit the ground The whole damn house came stumbling down. Good by my memory. From this point on I'm unsettling. In Brooklyn we stay home. |
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15. |
| 3:04 | ||||
You're bringing us down.
Hear the symphony in the 5-man band, Try to sympathize but you can't understand. Set my mind to intervalometer, It moves so slow from desk to dresser, Hits the ground without a sound, It took 5 years just to get down. Who put up the flag? We haven't got a door Yet if they storm the fort tonight, Leave your pistol by your bed. We have jeopardized our situation, Disengage the ammunition, We are on a mercy mission. Take away the golden epaulettes From the fallen dead cadets. Let their rank stand as their epitaphs, Throw their bodies in the acid bath. Drop the C-code and go for the gusto, The man at the plant swears the foreman must go. If the chief says, "Fight!", Let the chief go ahead. The squaw and the scout will stay in bed. If the chief says, "Jump!", I say, "Not I." If the chief says, "Jump!", I say, "How high?" |
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16. |
| 4:20 | ||||
Rally up my friends
And stand by my bedside, If I die tonight Put my head inside a mason jar. Put it in the ocean And send it out to sea. I'm wading because... And when I hit some shore, And when my seal is broke, I'll split my eyes and lips asking, "Is this a judgment or a joke?" This is a chance to dissect it. This is a chance to make it up. These are the words we've selected. Don't believe my lies Of an afterlife spent drifting; After 40 hours I sank straight to the bottom Of the harbor near my home And there I lay alone, The spider crab Is finely clad Beneath my cloak of brain and bone. In the basement of the dress shop, They play poker on the weekends. Old men trading laces, It's an absolute disgrace. They never gave a tip To the boy who ran the route. They never gave a shit What the paper was about, But when they heard he died They read the news that day Just so they could see What his obituary would say. It said: "Rally up my friends And stand by my bedside! Rally up my friends And stay with me tonight!" |
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17. |
| 3:27 | ||||
He's a bad mother fucker,
16 pairs of shoes in a closet 6 feet deep, and 6 feet wide, and 6 feet high. Blackouts on Thursday! Total blackouts are where it's at! I'm going back to high school Where I can make out like a cat. It's a shake down. A mental break down. Is this a take down? We're gonna make out. The band sort of sucks, But the audience sucks too much. I'm going back to high school Where the audience plays rough. I got myself elected. I got myself rejected. I'm gonna run again. |
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18. |
| 2:20 | ||||
Fav,
Les Savy Fav, Les Savy Fav- That's our name. The first crack Was invisible, The next crack Tears this thing apart. The accident Was at the rodeo. We've got a problem at our camp, We've got a problem with our math. We want to figure something out, We always have to write it down. Gigantic spaces Between the lines Leave too much room to hypothesize- If they ask us, We'll have to blame our dads. Cheerios like red blood cells. My bowl is full. |