353 : 3/29/99 : Error Message

1,311 : 3 ?


We met in a chat room
Our opinions of Björk seemed well in tune
You called yourself starkitty
I called myself the Man in the Moon
And we talked all night
just like lovers do
You stayed the night in my mind
I gave it up for you
But now when I try to email you
An error message is my only reply
The user cannot be found on this network
That’s all I find no matter how I try
So much gets lost now anyway
Swallowed in the electronic sea
I think I left a piece of me behind in your mind
but you didn’t leave a piece for me

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

352 : 3/28/99 : Big Computer

I’m gonna hack my way into the big computer
Give all the wealth and power to the common slob
Watch them go crazy with it drive it off a cliff
I know these people; they only know one kind of job
Maybe I’ll turn the whole show over to Ralph Nader
Or someone with a similar background
Maybe all we need is one good benign dictator
Someone really smart to push us all around
I could program it to operate at random
Might as well give anarchy a chance
Anything different just as long as I get left out of the loop
I’ve never had the stomach for the power dance
Maybe when I’m in and see how complicated things are
I’ll despair of finding anyone to run the show
Maybe I’ll just plug the big computer back into itself
tell it to do what it thinks is best and go

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

351 : 3/27/99 : Inattention

1,290 : 2 ?


Entropy is embedded in the fabric of this universe
everything’s unraveling at a microscopic pace
just look at how the clutter in the attic’s getting worse
just look at all the new lines in your face
Inertia is the mainspring ever since that first big pop
And everything just pushes endlessly on
Look at how the days go by and never ever stop
Look at how the traces of the past are never gone
And inattention is the lynch pin
keep it all falling apart or pushing endlessly out
Making sure that we ignore the only engine
That could save it all from going down the spout

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

persistence interruptus

I've had persistent enthusiasm deficiency for posting songs lately. While this has often happened when I've lagged behind in the job of transcribing the songs from their handwritten notebooks, in this case I have a small backlog of transcribed songs. I've been disinclined even to open the posting interface.

At the point when I'm actually taking more time to write something completely new here as a substitute for transcribing another song I have to wonder if there is something more complicated than ordinary, periodic disinterest and procrastination that comes with any long-range project.

Maybe not. Certainly I think about stopping altogether sometimes. There is a strange difference between this electronic "publication" experiment and doing the original writing of the songs, which I did not expect to be seen or heard by anyone (even less so after the band I was playing with succumbed to attrition and I stopped home recording) - and I rarely presented actual material to anyone, even friends - though I think I spoke to people about the song of the day project in the abstract a fair amount.

The ostensible function of the fairly secret blog was to get the material digital, fungible, searchable. Despite its theoretical availability I didn't expect it to be read much. But with one thing and another at least a few hundred people have been exposed to this and I don't believe anyone is reading it regularly.

This seems like a relevant observation especially as I am turning out more of this material as we speak (literally, like I wrote a song in the midst of composing this post) and I have to ask myself why. Recording seems like too much trouble (and I have zero budget set aside for it) and I'm not doing anything to actively solicit collaboration. I haven't thought seriously about trying to form a band in 9 or 10 years. I certainly don't see the Cosmodemonic Music Group ringing me up to request any of these odd little ditties for one of their mass produced chanteuses. I could say I gave it the old college try. It's not like it was a callow effort: I've written a song for every day for three and a half years (despite recent blog infrequency I've been more or less dutiful in cranking out new daily verses).

I breezed past the song count on the original project somewhat less than a year ago and felt I'd gotten my second wind up, but now, a third of the way into the second (only second!) of a putative ten (ten!) thousands, I'm wondering if I'm hitting a heretofore unglimpsed plateau of creative juice. The writing lately is dull, brief and arduous. And though I may feel differently later (it's certainly happened before) at the moment it seems to me that the material, that is to say the issue, is not very good. It's hard medicine to test the stuff of my persistence with.

A story went around a short while ago about a broom shop in Tokyo that had stayed open since 1972 without serving a single patron. The implication being I guess that someone had unlocked, set out stock and sat stolidly behind a counter for 36 years (financed, one presumes, by some small inheritance or disinterested kin). It turned out to be an easily debunked hoax, of course, but there is something interesting about the inclination to think of it as something potentially true... the proprietor of such a shop would clearly be mad but there seems the possibility that this particular kind of madman (or -woman) could really exist. The projected span of Ten Thousand Nights, the second iteration of the song of the day project, is a little less than 27 and a half years. Of course, at current rates I'd have to live to be about 130 to hope to get the whole thing online. But setting that aside, as a mission (even one that is far from full time) it does strike me just this moment as a trifle quixotic.

More songs later maybe.

P.S. Google's dictionary doesn't know how to spell "searchable". WTF Google?

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

350 : 3/26/99 : Pandemonium

Hah hey now get ready for the big pandemonium
It comes down like the supersonic platinum plutonium
Not tonight my darling there’s a serpent in my chest
I figured out the rhythm you go figure out the rest

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

349 : 3/25/99 : Ready or Rot

1,259 : 0 ?


Ready or not here it comes
The future with the flashing lights and rolling drums
Like it or not it’s here to stay
Cause time won’t ever go back even just one day
Ready or Rot it’s all the same
Dragged by fortune by any other name
It smells of mystery and sweet misfortune
As each day dishes up its daily portion
Always talking of an abstract future
Never noticing the here and now
And a the center of it all a clumsy suture
binds the earthly spirit who knows how
Ready set go here we are again
Somebody stop me because I’m inclined to pull the pin
And throw my lot in with the doomswatch set
It seems to be the best odds I can get

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

348 : 3/24/99 : The Mystery of the Chart

1,252 : 48 ?


In those days they believed
there was a map to the center of the earth
And down there in a chamber
The answers to all secrets were given berth
Some saw the chart as a token
of all man had lost in his rush to know
Some believed that the mystery of the chart
was paradoxically hidden down below
Some claimed that they had fragments
secured from sepulchers of holy knights
some claimed the chart was plain to see
bound up in the glory of earthly delights
The mystery of the chart is
no one ever claimed to have seen it
Everyone believed it had existed at least once upon a time
The lines the chart and what was read between it

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

347 : 3/23/99 : Strike Up the Band

Strike up the band... And take a stand
You’re doing it right now
All it requires of you
Is your attention
Listen to the music play you got all day
if you want it
And if you don’t the day
will pass by without mention
And every day goes by one closer to the one where you die
And that’s a truth for everyone
That no one wants to hear
Nevertheless if you can hear this you’re not dead yet
So strike up the band and play be fearless greet the new day
Living all the way is not for everyone
But no one knows until they try it
Strike up the band and take my hand
We got something a little faster than the jet set

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

346 : 3/22/99 : Deep

Deep in the heart of everything the truth hides
like a seed like a cancer like a mine
Waiting to turn it all upside down again
Waiting to let you know that things won’t turn out fine
The sickness lies inside of you
waiting for conditions to emerge
waiting for the poisons to accumulate
waiting for the system to purge
Deep in the heart of Antarctica
The mothership emits the signal into space
Boy I can’t wait for it I can’t wait
to see the expression on your face

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

345 : 3/21/99 : End of the Beginning

Unfinished business all around
All I can see is we’re not ready yet
can this be the end arising
My hands are not steady yet
Do the numbers and add to a conclusion
Can the Doctors balance the equation
I’ve got nothing in my hand to bring
I’ve got nothing but persuasion
To convince you to attend
to the end game, losing or winning
I don’t think that this can be the end
but it might be the end of the beginning

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

344 : 3/20/99 : Throw Down the Dead Days

Throw down the dead days behind you
learn what you can from them and move on
I know that it might seem unkind, you
Gotta throw your past away to get a real groove on
Throw down the gauntlet and act like a man
Take the world they’re holding out
Find out it’s all in the garbage can
While we slept they sold the whole thing out
While we slept and dreamed of better days
While we dreamed our futures stumbled
looked back in horror at our callous offhand ways
We reached inside our pants and fumbled
To make the dream come true a little bit
Take the world they dangle above
Take it and find out it’s just like the rest of the shit
Lay down the gauntlet and strike them with the glove

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

343 : 3/19/99 : A Curse Upon

1,233 : 30 ?


A curse upon the business lords
who rule us from the sky
All those who live by all their swords
And never really seem to die
A curse upon the evil men
addicted to the evil that they do
And curse me for this worthless pen
that cannot even write its way to you

A curse upon the capitalists
Leading us all down the primrose path
Let me tell you it’s a small list
it comes down to when you do the math
A curse upon the three piece liars
Lurking in the shadows of the throne
Busy putting gas on all the fires
That they started with a telephone

A curse on every little man
Who ignores it just like me
When the race is run we ask who ran
And wonder why we don’t feel free
A curse upon me letting it get in the way
Between you and me and destiny and God
A curse on every servant baking bricks of clay
the path they’ve built for me is very very broad

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

342 : 3/18/99 : Secret Agent

The drop of a hat and I’m out the door
Hitting the street in the bright morning sun
Doing business and something more
Maybe making a path for the chosen one
You take a rule and stack it on another rule
You got the little here and the little there
I slip under the wire and skip school
I pull my instructions right out of the air
I pull a trick or two I’m not afraid to rock the boat
If it’s the only way to make you notice the water
I’m a pamphleteer I’ve got sedition underneath my coat
It’s a good time for anarchistic leanings as the globe gets hotter
Hey secret agent man who are you working for
Who are the pamphlets for and what’s the reason
Behind that fucked up music that plays when you hit the killing floor
Don’t you know one of us arises every Easter season
Get up stand up rise up in the season of the new moon
take what little time you have before the pendulum swings
Here’s to rushing forward bravely, to winning once in a blue moon
You know it’s the truth by the way it stings

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

341 : 3/17/99 : 12:48 a.m.: Television Commercial

Good morning early riser
We just wanted to take a moment of your time
to tell you that the world you live in
Is controlled by vast intelligences from another galaxy.
We got here about thirty years ago
So pleased to finally meet you
(We're here to give you the secrets
of happiness and immortality
I tell you Horatio there are
things undreamed of in your morality)
When we arrived, we discovered that we could
broadcast mind reprogramming neural pathway software
using your existing television sets.
We broadcast from a giant transceiver
located on the dark side of the moon!
It's receiver is in real time contact with
Our home planet, using a scientific principle
Your primitive minds couldn't understand
But soon that will change: that's what
the reprogramming is for.
(Do not go softly into the night
rage and rail and scream and fight
Go out the way you came in
kicking and screaming)
As some of you have already guessed,
your world powers are already under our
control. Yet the figureheads you perceive as wielding
power are in fact automated shells. Our
programming is irresistible to your
primitive monkey brains. Just try to rise
up and do something. Go ahead! Try!

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

340 : 3/16/99 : Unimaginable Splendor

1,228 : 24 ?


If I could just project myself
one moment into the unimaginable splendor
of the whole wide universe
But down here we just have to
Always always have to fend for
ourselves as it all goes from bad to worse
Always slipping back and forward
rambling on our random walk
winding ever down to stillness
so we drive to work and pick our
children up we force ourselves to move and talk
when the the tension gives our voices a note of shrillness
That’s the unimaginable splendor
all we’re seeking always all around
Always moving moving moving on
The flowing sifting tide
And all the islands where we ran aground
time my friend she said it’s a moving gun

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

339 : 3/15/99 : The Big Sound

Tuck up to the teevee set and get ready for the big sound
No need to move a muscle we'll bring it straight around
No need to interact no need to say a word
Relax and let it flow in it's like nothing that you've ever heard
The operation starts with something you can't hear
Followed by a warm sensation centered on the ear
When you feel your spine relax you know that it's begun
This is the new taste for you for me for everyone
A feeling like a downward spiral's perfectly expected
A feeling like you've shamed yourself in front of those you most respected
A feeling like you're finally up against the wall
In the shadow of the big sound everyone feels small
When the bottom crashes out the peak is on its way
Your mind slides all around the room you feel the urge to pray
And at the top the dizzy height you finally understand
The big sound shows you visions of a life you never planned

While the beat is cooling and your mind is snapping back
And your same old reality and your mind on the same old track
Hey its just a teevee show and maybe just as well
These gentlemen behind us have some lovely things to sell

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

338 : 3/14/99 : Without Inspiration

Without the spirit in me what can I possibly do
without the breath to animate me
How can I speak of you
How can I make anything work
Without the vision I’m just another jerk
Jerking my time away on worthless words that profit not
Without inspiration, the work is dry without reward
So many live and die within without the two-edged sword
Is flying now without remorse
I take what comes to me of course
It’s all yours anyway I never claimed I own a single thing I’ve got
But I’ll show you that the work goes on
I’ll do it in a vacuum
I’ll do it all day long
I persist like radiation
I will nurture my uninspired creation
It’s a long road but I’m ready to go all the way down
So turn your back on me and go go go
I just do what I have to
It’s all I am and all I know
See me bent in fierce rebellion
to your silence such a hellion
If you haven’t got a smile for me I’ll take a frown

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

337 : 3/13/99 : Elixir of Life

I was in the boat with Ponce de Leon
What he was seeking he could not find alone
Little did he know
I was on the path long before
The rivers I’d sailed beyond his dreams
the seas the continents the reams
of ancient wisdom piled around the door
It’s a long and ancient trail and many have failed before
I always find something wherever I go
I always hear rumors but no one will confess they know
The place or the nature
of the vessel of the elixir
I did not find it in Egypt I did not find it in Rome
I did not find it in Shangri La I just want to go home
I did not find it in Paris or anywhere in France
I did not find it in the jungles of America
But I guess I had to take that chance
The elixir of life remains outside my grasp
My face is lined and weary my breath comes with a rasp
One of the false potions I consumed
keeps me living but my body is like a corpse exhumed
And now I must seek forever
The elixir of life or a final way to sever
the strings that animate me dance me on the stage
you’d think I’d get a little more respect in my old age

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

336 : 3/12/99 : Finish Line

1,221 : 18 ?


Run we just run we just
run all the time
racing rushing getting ahead
Rushing to the finish line
I get by or you get by me
wolves at the door and beggars in the street
Ask anyone about it
where they’re going on the street
gotta do a little here do a little there
rushing to the final curtain
we’ll all end up crossing on the same boat
of this much I’m certain
I’m not going to run anymore
I am out of the race
I am going where I want to go
or falling flat on my face
but it don’t matter oh
everything will be just fine
everybody in this bad old world
makes it to the finish line

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

335 : 3/11/99 : Dissection

Come step up to the show
It’s nothing like you’ve seen or know
Another session in the effortless dissection of verse
Oh but I’ve done worse
I slide it around with the best of them
Forget about the rest of them
Send up Steely Dan
Phil Spector and his band
Set up a wall of glass
smooth as alabaster
Cocktail glasses and diamond rings
Next week’s winning girl and shiny things
Just give me a sway sway rhythm and a gunmetal suit
Dress me up and do my hair like Donald Sutherland in Klute
Make me stop cause I can’t take it any more
This revolving door

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

334 : 3/10/99 : Wouldn’t It Be Pleasant

How I long for the days of yore
When the song of the land greeted the ships on the shore
And everything was simpler, life was what it had to be
Wouldn’t it be pleasant to live back then by the sea
Wouldn’t it be pleasant to walk along the sand
I’d offer you my arm and you’d take my hand
We would work to satisfy our needs and be content
To follow in the footsteps our forebears went
Toodle oo that’s that old timey nifty tune
And boy I tell ya I can’t get back to soon
And work like an animal in some lice infested hole
Wouldn’t it be pleasant to die from mining coal
Wouldn’t it be pleasant to be anywhere but here
trying to rush something that can only just appear
That’s okay my daily bread is rich enough
I always go to ground when the going gets rough

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

333 : 3/9/99 : Song of the Universe

1,212 : 11 ?


Song of the universe
One more day one more hour one more verse
The thoughts the words the saying
The going or the leaving or the staying
We tried so hard to pull it all off with a chart
We understood our goal but did not know where to start
Looking for that primal song buried deep in stone
The perfect resonance the final tone
We sent a gold record into outer space
Such an arrogant innocent race
Immortality the nature of the song
There’s nothing to find it’s always there to sing along

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

332 : 3/8/99 : Four Walls

A blue shade of gray
I sought I thought more from the so-called new day
Thought I'd gotten something more I could say
Four gray walls that hold my thoughts at bay
The windows shut the blinds are drawn
Suffer in silence, keep your peace little pawn
Or march to Washington, camp out on the White House lawn
Protest my four walls; march at dawn
Pain is relative, time is twelve by twelve
And four walls just another idea to shelve
Who can deny we choose our walls ourselves
The secret caves we delve

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

331 : 3/7/99 : The New Day

Thank you for sharing the new day with me
Thank you Mr. Carnegie
Thank you for reminding me
That my treasure’s not stored up in vaults
That despite all my faults
I continue to resist this world’s assaults
Thank you for turning me down
You deserve your crown
You deserve to be the toast of the town
There is no need for my begging hand
Since the new day began
There’s a whole new order in the land
And I’ll make it through on my own
harvest the seed I’ve sewn
Just wait and see how my garden’s grown

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

330 : 3/6/99 : In the Cathedral

In the trees where none have been
for a thousand years
There are a few places
Left like that on earth
I walk in sunset as
Shadows throw down cathedrals among the fallen leaves
Seeing the halls of the titans
Seeing the forest for the trees
In the cathedral the bell tolls
for me I always knew it would one day
I hear my dreams breaking on the shore of waking
we walk in that forest but we never get to stay
And every dream of yesterday is cast in bitter bronze
The maker’s on vacation so we get by as best as we can do
And if you think your solitary journey is the only one
All the lemmings launched from the same cliff that you ran to
In the forest dark in dreams we might
find something to lead us up out of the dark
we dare not go we fear to tread
where even angels have not left a mark
Either my treasure’s stored up there
or I have left it far behind
Either I’m on my way inside
Or I’ve completely lost my mind
In the cathedral will I find
The answer to lead me out into the light
will I find the maker’s mark
A sigil to guide me up out of the night

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

329 : 3/5/99 : Fortune’s Fool

Ain’t I just fortune’s fool then
On a voyage in a tin boat taking on water
Trying to win wisdom a golden apple the king’s daughter
Ain’t I just the great Narrator’s tool then

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

328 : 3/4/99 : Step Out On the Water

You’re walking on the water you’re walking in the moonlight
You’re telling me the storm will calm and everything will be all right
I don’t know I believe you don’t know that I believe my eyes
This boat is tossing crazy I try to speak but words fail me
I see you gesturing to me and fear and doubt assail me
out in the middle of the sea under stormy skies
You’re asking an awful lot of some poor fisher’s son
Who never guessed he’d see a new thing underneath the sun
What will support me if I step out of the boat
I never heard a soul who moved me like I do
You’re walking on the water but that’s not me it’s you
I try to call out but the words stick in my throat
I step out on the water my mind is fixed completely
on you standing out there and your voice is saying sweetly
Peter come across the water all the old rules are changed now
I’m stepping and not thinking of the cold depth below
I feel the fear returning but I’ve got to got to show
My faith in you is strong enough to wipe the fear from my brow
In a moment the storm again began to rise
I looked to see you bu the fear blinded my eyes
A wave rose and I was suddenly part of the sea
And in a moment when I knew I couldn’t survive
I knew that you were really him I knew I was alive
That’s when I felt your hand take hold of me

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

327 : 3/3/99 : March

1,205 : 7 ?


Nothing’s going to happen by itself
No one’s going to come and save you
And you’ve no right to complain
You haven’t cracked the book I gave you
Faith is not the same as trust
trust will never get you through
Faith is acting as if
everything was up to you
when trust fails you turn to hope
Hope’s a blessing from above
But even hope and faith are nothing
If not bound and fixed with love
Love’s the center of it all
The keystone that holds the arch
only love will get you on your feet
when the orders come to march

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

326 : 3/2/99 : Third Day

Things are getting tense on the
day before the third day
is anyone still marching anymore
Does anyone have anything to say?
Tempers start to grate against
the implacable inertia of the universe
I heard someone say the revolution had been postponed
I heard someone say it was something worse
Are you going to rise from the dead
on the third day like you said
Are you going to rise up from the grave
We’ve got them lined up for you to save
When I look back on five years gone
I feel so stupid and disgusted
Was it worth a single thing
I kept my cool while my chops got busted
Are you gonna keep me waiting always
Waiting for a sign to lead my way
Am I supposed to just march faithful
You’ve kept your promise on the third day
Are you gonna roll away the stone
Are you gonna make your presence known
I try so hard to keep my faith
As I get skinny as a rail and white as a wraith

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

325 : 3/1/99 : Fleeing Ninevah

I looked through the magic picture frame
Into a world that’s lost its groove
I gotta fear; I know its name
Things are gonna get worse before they improve
And no matter how I blink and shake my head it’s the same game
When the shit rain come you got no choice but to move

I looked into my inner being
My other brain was cowering in fright
I looked but I didn’t know what I was seeing
If I could just look at it in better light
Am I in my path or am I fleeing
Ninevah just like any other sinner might

I looked to the psalms and saw
that King David felt forgotten too
Hung up between destiny and law
I don’t know where my trust has gotten to
And the hard truth of this moment jams my craw
Got no choice but to play what’s dealt, the rotten truth

Go ahead and send a whale to get me
I need some peace and quiet anyway
Deep in the belly of the ocean set me
on my way to say the words I’m given to say
only ask you do not forever forget me
I want so much to set out on my voyage today

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

324 : 2/28/99 : Voyage of Discovery (3 Line Songs 7/7)

If I lay my heart open will you uncover me?
I haven’t tried enough seen enough done enough
Take me away on a Voyage of Discovery

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

323 : 2/27/99 : Nothing is Simple (3 Line Songs 6/7)

Nothing is simple
Everything is strange
Everything just what it is

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

322 : 2/26/99 : What Will the Future Bring (3 Line Songs 5/7)

What will the future bring to me
Will it be what I needed
Some truth unheeded

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

321 : 2/25/99 : One More Day (3 Line Songs 4/7)

One more day... One more day
I wasn’t sure that I would make it
But I did it anyway

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

320 : 2/24/99 : Conscript (3 Line Songs 3/7)

1,170 : 5 ?


Conscript me into the service of the Glorification of God
Give me something true before I wind up poisoning the sod
Don’t set me upon this journey with my poor sore feet unshod

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

319 : 2/23/99 : Implosion (3 Line Songs 2/7)

Fueled by a restless relentless erosion
Riding some cosmic backlash
It buckles caves and then implosion

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

318 : 2/22/99 : Mardi Gras is Over (3 Line Songs 1/7)

Mardi Gras is over and the lenten vestments hung
What will I give up this time
Life spills down into a cataract

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

317 : 2/21/99 : The Day That Wouldn’t Begin

Get up ah! Gotta get up slap that
clock down gotta go gotta hit the town
Gotta hustle gotta hit the hep cat
Market gotta sell while I get the shot ta
Oh slap the clock down rest my eyes
Gotta get up straightaway and a face my busy day
My whole life up to now such a surprise
Gotta get to the action get myself some satisfaction
Oh smoke another cigarette one more cup of coffee
Get my poor strength back gotta travel the breadth and length back
To get back to what I knew before the catastrophe
When I started saying no ‘cause I was too afraid to go
stub out my third smoke man gotta hit the shower
clean up my act and get my platters stacked
Gotta go gotta build that tower
Up into the sky to climb up and ask the heavens why
If I could just get up and start
The day that wouldn’t begin for nobody or nothing
Heaven help me help my heart
Lie here a second it’s harder than I reckoned

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

316 : 2/20/99 : Spidergod

1,165 : 2 ?



Walking without shadow in the chamber of night
Everything is bathed in an unearthly light
Keep your eyes open don't let your head nod
Not in the chamber of the Spider God
Took a strange turn on our ephemeral path
Followed the wrong scent here's your aftermath
They say the descent must follow the fall
And the Spider God crouches at the center of it all
All radii lead to the hub of the lair
Escape is not a concept they believe in there
While your sinister doppelganger steps from its pod
Consider your audience with the Spider God
Eyes fixed forward footsteps light
Are you in for revelation or up to the fight
No strangers to wisdom we walk well aware
Of the paradox perils of the Spider God's lair
Were our turns all right and all wrong
No answers as usual found in the song
And all the questions of the past seem nonsense
When the Spider God grants you audience

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

315 : 2/19/99 : Pain or Parting

We’re not gonna be sad anymore
Enough I say too much is starting
It’s too good a day we have the night
No time for pain or parting
When we’re all together on the hill
Watching the grid go down
Watching the riots start
Watching our brothers rise to burn this town
Now I call that a party
We’ll never finish what we’ve started
That is the nature of life
The seeds you’ve sewn grow only when you have departed

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

314 : 2/18/99 : Jelly Roll

Jelly Roll
Jelly Roll
Jelly Roll
Jelly Roll... Rollin’!
Jelly Roll... Rollin’!
Jelly Roll... Rollin’!
You just keep rolling on
Jelly Roll

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

313 : 2/17/99 : Right Down Into It

1,149 : 1 ?


Slide down around that intestinal
Shiny curving cornucopial spiral
Right down into it
Thinking that just the right moment will inspire all
That wonderfulness locked up inside
The cornucopia and its endless bounty
Meantime doing time in the box
Working for the count of the county
But now I’ve got no time for working
‘Cause I’m working my way back
So kiss me softly honey
Pull my favorite record off the stack
Let’s get right down into it
Let’s not waste time pretending
That it all means something higher
Something better never ending
Whistle to the wind to do our bidding
as we cruise down the long slow slide
I’ve got an ugly feeling that this time I’m not kidding
What I owe will be extracted from my hide

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

312 : 2/16/99 : Wasted Youth: Pussy Whipped

Wasted youth: pussy whipped and
ruled by that bitch goddess blue screen sex machine
All lit up and tripping the tryptophan
Fantastic jizm dripping down the glowing silver screen
Ah won’t you chain me down
and make me beg for more
Hook it up to current root me to the ground
Blue eyed silver whore
Magic magic magic box
Tellin’ a tale of bright and electric delight
Look ma they got this thing that talks
And puts out sickly bluish light
And all the wasted youth sit quiet
And watch it slip past shining we’re all pining
for her kiss as we scrape by on a steady diet
of nothing fingers fingers intertwining

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

311 : 2/15/99 : Early Riser

Early Riser sleep cannot disguise her
Face pointing straight out East
She's got distance in her eyes, her
heart is set on that movable feast
Daydream wanderer flight of fancy ponderer
You'll dream your life away while she leaves
You wondering how to respond to her
He who hesitates deserves the loss he grieves
Ever always the long end to all days
This slow decline into blank unknowing
Where will we meet perhaps in the hallways
Of the long dream where we all are going

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

310 : 2/14/99 : The Gear Game

Big gear drive a small gear faster
small gear drive a big gear slower
Somehow we prevent disaster
But our chances now are lower
Take my place and drive my gear
Directed by the bigger wheels
The Mainspring drives it all down here
I wonder how the guy who winds it feels
Should I play the great gear game
And be a great big wheel like those
who move and shake it in the name
Of giant empty houses and designer clothes
I don’t think so anymore
I’ve seen a vision of a brighter day
I don’t know what’s in store
For me, well everybody feels that way
But if I could find what makes me tick
and truly know my heart’s desire
Then maybe it would all just finally click
And I would finally catch my fire

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

309 : 2/13/99 : Roundabout

Roundabout and down the spout
it happens every day
everybody’s big plans turn out the wrong way
Down and out nothin’ but a weak shout
Tomorrow tomorrow always a sorrow
Words strung beads on a long line
I run my fingers over each spine
Looking for the morrow and the proper book to borrow
Won’t lose what I’ve found with my eyes on the ground
The roundabout is always there
The senseless pressure in the air
Don’t make a sound let the surf pound

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

308 : 2/12/99 : Antarctica Begins Here

1,142 : 1 ?


The dogs are dead and eaten now
The penguins are too fast to catch
You wouldn’t think it would you
I think we’ve hit the bad patch
Antarctica begins here
Nothing to do with latitude
The endless lighted waste
This grim beatitude
I just wanted to find someplace
No one else would like
They’ve got a fuckin’ cash machine down here
Another last frontier to strike
Some penguin brought me fish to eat
And through ice thick and clear
I saw the narwal swimming past
Antarctica begins here

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

307 : 2/11/99 : Tonight, Tonight

Tonight, tonight some bum is puking at the bus stop
And the stars are shining brightly up above
And some drunken man is beating his girlfriend so badly
And two kids just fell in love
but it won’t last.
And a car just got turned into abstract art
by a semi, the driver was instantly killed
A twenty-two year old college student thinks he’s figured out
The answers to the questions that spilled
by so fast
Tonight, tonight the moon is above us
But down here it’s just the same old shit
Put it away anyway just to say
I think I’ve had about enough of it

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

306 : 2/10/99 : Economics

Well the rich get rich and the poor stay poor
And most of us grew up on the wrong side of that door
Print a little more plastic money whoo-ee we’re gonna get drunk tonight
Tomorrow morning will take care of itself we got time to get tight
Build a machine invent a need
Run the whole show on blindness and greed
Shovel out a little more useless product to pile in front of the cracks
And we laugh about the old pagan offerings with some rich asshole’s tag on our backs
We know nothing of the future we’ve forgotten what was past
And the flags of all our idealistic notions fly half mast
And they tell us that we’ll win it if we focus on the middle card
And there’s no place here for some poor visionary bard
Like me
Civil disobedience is duty not opinion
Either you’re a menace to the system or a minion
This one’s gonna end up in my F.B.I. File
I’m plotting a strange revelation all the while
There is no sure path before us
And the gray Cassandra chorus
sounds a little more descriptive every day
As we try to buy the trip to heaven
Smuggle in a little leaven
Never guessing at the price we’ll ultimately pay
Well it’s always been like this I guess
I’m almost relieved to be beaten I confess

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

305 : 2/9/98 : Everything According to Plan

1,136 : 3 ?


I asked God about a million times
Why this world was made the way it was
Why the evil are not punished for their crimes
Why the evil man does as he does
Why am I standing here ready to connect the wire
That’ll bring it all shattering down
Ten thousand strong we mark the hour and wait for fire
All ready to assume the thorny crown
There will be no more beginnings now
Everything is going according to plan
In a remote hiding place darkness hides my brow
And I could be any man
Throw a switch and touch a fire off
Send the devil back his own
The world is turning over and its cough
will wipe out all the bad seeds that were sewn
Everything according to plan just like you foretold
The sinners fall down and the righteous arising
See the road to the city paved in gold
Here comes the fire for the new world’s baptizing

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

304 : 2/8/99 : Last Day of the Long Vacation

Say goodbye to the sun and sand
Hold a broken seashell in your hand
Say goodbye to the southern sun
Last day of a long vacation
Tomorrow it all starts once more
back in the box down on the killing floor
Relax the change has already begun
By and by I’ll get back to the long vacation

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

303 : 2/7/99 : Get Down (II)

Don’t you know you get down on yourself
But it’s a hard road and all men falter
Some are early some are late
And none lead fate as with a halter
Don’t get down so low you cannot see the light
Don’t go beyond the point of sanity
You’re on a long road on a long road now
All the way around it goes humanity
Get down
get off
go hard
or go soft
Go on
get down there
Get on with it
here or nowhere
Down on the surface you’ll receive your orders
Get what you got coming to you grunt
Follow your orders the whole fucked up cavalcade
Is ready one last time to punt
Rise up and die
Speak to the sky
Ask heaven why
You gotta get down to get high
Or leave it be
And cease to roam
Leave it behind
And just go home

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

302 : 2/6/99 : Old Times

Gotta know you gotta know girl
I been around I been around the world
And I’ve seen everything there is to see
And I’ve been all the places there are to be
You and me girl you and me gotta get down
to the city one of these days and meet downtown
have lunch and catch up on old times
Discuss the season’s latest high society crimes
You and me gotta get down to Carnival
For old times’ sake get down and relive it all
Gotta know girl you gotta know girl
Thinkin about those times makes my mind whirl
You gotta know I think about it often
Toward evening as the shadows grow and soften
You and me dear by the fire again
Just like all the years had never been
You and me together on the beach
For old times sake come lie within my reach
Gotta know girl you gotta know
That everything will just go the way it goes
But I will never question my decision
Made when you just first crossed my vision
You and me girl got get back to the way it was
For old times’ sake or just because
You and me together all night long
For the sake of old times and our favorite song

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

301 : 2/5/99 : Get Down

Gotta get down
Gotta get down
Gotta get down on the floor and dance away that frown
Gotta get slow
Gotta get low
Gotta put your hands together don’t you know
Gotta get laid back
And move your feet like a heart attack
Platter after platter batter up from the wax stack
You gotta get down
Gotta get down
Throw your hands in the air and stomp your feet on the ground
Gotta get down
Gotta get down
Stand real still and listen to the Big Sound

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

All I ever wanted

I'm on vacation for the next week or so (from posting old songs, not from writing new ones, the writing never rests). See you back around June 3.

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

300 : 2/4/99 : If it Seems

Here’s the truth that passed us by
there’s more to this than meets the eye
and if you see me standing staring
do not pause or ask me why

And if it seems that I’m past caring
past the point of grace or sharing
Even so I’ll carry on a while
I’m nothing if not daring

All that trouble for a lying smile
While I leer and choke back bile
If it seems I have a clue
Please dismiss it all as guile

If it seems it’s down to me and you
Another day another change of venue
Waiting for its day in court
For someone else to say what’s true

It must be all some kind of sport
I always stretch but come up short
I’ll find contentment of a sort
I’ll find contentment of a sort

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

299 : 2/3/99 : Missed Your Bus

I can see him standin’ up there the day you missed your bus
You started running and saying o shit o shit
And he looked down on you; smoked his cigarette
He must have known how say you were he must have known it

You were just as sad as the day he left you
They day he broke your heart and left you all alone
Ain’t it hard how a little misfortune
Seems to make it seem okay for them to cast the first stone

He could hear you coughing from running
Up there on his balcony above it all
He must have known you’d miss your bus
He knows the way they leave and never call

He knows what it’s like to run hopeless
After what you need but can never catch
He knows what it’s like to be watched from above
As you have to start over and over from scratch

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

298 : 2/2/99 : Shadow

Follows like a shadow
stretching round corners
faded in darkness
It sticks to you
Shadowed by a grim cloud
Hangs the threat of every life
the promise of the bitter end
The bitter cup it’s only fitting
Casts its shadow back and forth
along and all ends and all
And past the shadows of regret
The something couldn’t ever get
the past the promise and the bet
My shadow goes out before me
Creeping in my sleeping as
a new day dawns
the sun brings its shadows
with it always

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

297 : 2/1/99 : Get on Track

Everybody’s down with what’s going on
Everybody’s on the short con
Singin’ the same song
Gotta get this gotta get that
Gotta be the heppest cat
Always up at bat
All runnin’ all the writing on the wall
This society of ignorance avarice and thrall
That’s All
They got me chasing around with the rest of them
Me who used to run with the best of them
I am put to the test by Them
They who run with their fingers on the scale
Steal a nickel from every dime bag sale
My sins pale
In comparison to theirs
As they manage their affairs
In gray suits and tall backed chairs
Everybody headin’ one way Jack
But me I’m just lookin’ for the way back
Get on track
Set my wheel on the one way
Read scripture and pray
Live in the one day

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

296 : 1/31/99 : Council of Sedition

Like any ordinary heroes
we’re well acquainted with the gravity of our call
Taking the high road isn’t like
they tell you it is at all
We don’t mind the risks we’re takin’
or the rules we may be breaking
We’re taking something to the people that the people want
Don’t look back and don’t get riled up
We’ve got all our best tricks styled up
Wait around and see this century’s big stunt
Like any Council of Sedition
We’ve positioned ourselves in the right place
We’re waiting for our moment
Creating our own space
Here’s a joint the noise can live in
We cannot back off or give in
What’s riven can’t be mended this time
This time out we’ll hit the very top
Break through the ceiling never stop
Listen to the empty hall the final bell’s chime

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

295 : 1/30/99 : Jonestown

This song contains uncouth and profane lyrics

1,108 : 1 ?




I dreamed I saw the Reverend Jones
Alive and on the street
He said I waited underground
A long long time to preach this beat
Waited for this bad old world
To push its luck far enough down
And now I’m ready to begin
Fuck the world, let’s go to Jonestown
Let’s go to Jonestown
I dreamed I saw a flaming wheel
Was spinning in the air
And hovering above New York
I dreamed that you and I were there
And Jim Jones in a pure white suit
Came riding on a pure white bull
Said fuck the world, let’s go to Jonestown
And celebrate the funeral.

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

294 : 1/29/99 : Hey Mr. Revolutionary

Hey Mr. Revolutionary
how’s this one gonna be any different
How do I know you got the better way
for me to see my time spent
You gotta roll with the punches
You gotta go with the flow
You got to hit the nail right on the head
But when your time comes you got to go
What a revolution that would be
If we could see our deaths in front of us
Waiting for us patiently
Waiting to see us return to dust

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

293 : 1/28/99 : Epistemological Evidence

Epistemological evidence points to a first cause
But a tendency for mysticism persists
In the psyche of the human race, to transcendence our minds are drawn
due to consideration of the questions that are intractable

Hah, hah

And the image of what we have wrought is enough to give me pause
And in my mind some spark of strange attractions resists
The illusion; in the magician’s cabinet the beautiful lady is sawn
In two. Our logic’s a fine scalpel but the blade is not retractable

Ta da

And it doesn’t matter anywhere you go is the same
I’ll get by with my cross and my secret name
You’re always looking for somebody to blame
Might as well pin it on me it’s the secret of my fame

Blah blah

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

292 : 1/27/99 : Have To

Does it really mean anything
If you only do what you have to
is there really anything
We don’t have to do
Really anything can be
balanced on a dime
neatly split in two
The haves and haven’t got times
Thanks to the logic
and dreams of our elders
The earth we’ve inherited’s
Nearing collapse
We all sit straining
our necks out our ears cocked
All listening for the
one-handed claps
Does it really mean anything
That we choose something to listen to
We all take our half but
somebody must take the other half, too

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

291 : 1/26/98 : Dream

I dreamed I saw them dragging you into the pit of hell
Your were clawing at the sheets and screaming not to let them take you
But I knew I knew you must deserve it otherwise
They wouldn’t have been there for you isn’t that true
I saw the ground open wide and breathe out fire
I saw the cataclysmic chasm open wide
an angry mouth of wrath crumbling open
under our feet I dreamed the day I died
I dreamt I spent a month in hell sort of a vacation
from having to invent my own punishments
A month away from making up crazy stories
to short circuit my murderous bents
I dreamed I found a road that went the whole world round
And I traveled on it in a flaming wheel
I dreamed a city made of cobalt glass in 80 story spires
I dreamed I went around a thousand times begging what I could not steal
I wake up every day the same old dull fish that I am
swimming on the edges of the big school
Making our way from nowhere to nowhere
I dreamed a special hell reserved for all us little fish
You can only ever damn your own self in your dreams
All of us who swim along and do not seek another sea
Do not seek another scene or so it seems

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

290 : 1/25/99 : The Last Shattered Verse

To the last shattered verse, a hollow muttered curse
I swore myself to pushing on
This universe of broken symmetry, this lousy existential mystery
What a bad idea it seems to me, what a sad song
To be so languid and unsure, just like the man in the mirror
What difference do I make, Fate gets her take
And we all end up as nothing in the end
you and I we die the same my friend
What a stale paradigm, there's a mountain so we climb
Led by the nose by any possibility
It makes so little sense, everything falls out of sequence
Just because I see it is it my responsibility
The year's end will not end it all, we've quite a distance left to fall
And all in all, all of creation, me and my big imagination
Is such a small small thing a little paper boat
Tossed on the Big Sea try so hard to stay afloat

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

289 : 1/24/99 : Cul de Sac

What’ll you do when you come upon it
what’ll you do when the wall’s at your back
what’ll you do when the options have closed
and you’re right up against the cul de sac?
What would you pay then for just an hour
of easy freedom from want and need
You would give anything you ever had
Now instead you’ll give until you bleed
Is it the case that there must be an end to all things
Isn’t it stranger stranger than it seems
Can it be that nothing that is is ever lost
Could it be that this is all just mirrors and dreams
I came a long way but I fear I lack the proper grit
I’ve tried to be a man but I am just another drone
frozen by the magnitude of what is broken
Fooled into endlessly rolling the stone
Turn turn around turn turn around
Whatever can be entered can be left
Whatever can be bound can be opened
Stretch a tiny bridge across the cleft

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

288 : 1/23/99 : No Try Do

What is cannot
be what is not
What is not can
Never be what
What is is
No try do
Only what is
Can be true
No try trying
is not doing
Only do what
Is to be done
What's done is done
What's tried is none
Untried
just done
right now
just one

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

287 : 1/22/99 : The Honest Men

I’ve got my candle and my candle holder
Don’t know that I’m wiser but I sure am older
I’m out alone in the dark again
Searching for the honest men
I read about infighting in the business classes
I saw the fat cats sitting on their fat asses
I got questions by the bushel and pound
I need an honest man to lead me to the higher ground
I’ve got a feeling this has all been done before
Heard of one in Washington but justice doesn’t live there anymore
I’m getting tired but the night’s so long
How did we all turn out so wrong
Went to the cities and I went to the coasts
My sighing soul made strong petitions to the Lord of Hosts
Who said I’ll spare it all if you can just spare ten
That kept me searching for the honest men
Maybe I should give up moral absolutes
Focus on shoveling the shit into the chutes
All around I see reflections of my worst half
All around I see reflections off the golden calf

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

286 : 1/21/99 : Child of Creation

Child of creation
Just born today
Take a look at America
What do you have to say
This is a strange situation
Come to visit on the fourth of July
Come and see all the pomp and veritas
Come and watch while the parade passes you by
Child of contemplation
Say everything is become strange
You were just born yesterday
We had so little time to arrange
Walk into our garden
and ignore the garbage by path
walk among our rosebuds
and ignore the man who needs a bath
Walk among us
Join our celebration
of our strange decay
Child of creation

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

285 : 1/20/99 : The Quarry

My Body told me to lay off the writing a while
But I had promises to keep the old story
But I promised to keep it short
Another pebble lifted out of the quarry
So deep so hard so filled with water
just another hole in my head
I gotta give it up for one day
I got to lay and contemplate the feast of the dead

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

284 : 1/19/99 : Stand Up

1,096 : 1 ?


I heard a man say
that pride goes before the fall
I know I have strained to to hold my pride up
in the face of the One who knows all
But I’m gonna get down on my knees to stand up
Get down on my knees and pray
that You would turn my pride to the strength I need
to follow in the one true way
You got to get down on your knees to stand up
You got to get yourself near the ground
You must forget yourself enough to listen
Listen for a small still sound

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

283 : 1/18/99 : A Certain Thing Arises

A certain thing arises
When I see you cross a room
Like a chill on my spine
like the ghost of a goose ran ‘cross my tomb
And you known that I see you
I see it in your secret smile
I feel it in me rising
I’ve crossed my moonlight mile
A certain hesitation
I see it when you talk to me
Believe me when I say you’re getting
exactly what you see
I see you rise to take my hand
I feel a flash of what’s to come
You feel what I feel there beside you
What we got we both need some
A certain thing arises
There it is something between us
A thing that passes back and forth
some wind to intervene for us

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

282 : 1/17/99 : Jennifer’s Secret Bell

Jennifer wears a bell under her shirt close to her skin
The rings as she walks and rises and falls as her breath goes out and in
And I said Jennie why’d you put that string over your head
And slip that bell under your shirt this is what she said
You get a bell for your waking and rising
A bell to signal the next downsizing
of the significance of your life
Bell that tells you you’re next in line
Bells that ring if I take what is not mine
Bell ring get dinner from the oven like a good wife
Jennifer’s secret bell rings as she walks down the street
Music playin in cars but it has its own special beat
And it rings and rings and rings against her heart
She said I gotta ring my own bell if it makes the world fall apart
There’s a bell that rings when it’s time to talk to your friends
The bell tolls someone comes to a nasty end
Again again the bell calls you to take your place in the roll call
The bell rings so the plane has left the ground
I’ll get to the bottom of it but it’s a long way down
The bell tolls for me for you someday the bell will toll for us all
And there she goes shaking that bell that rings for all of us
It chimes for you on the corner as you’re waiting for the bus
And if we’d all just listen to that secret bell
There’s just no saying what it might tell

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

281 : 1/16/99 : Sanctum Sanctorum

There is a chamber in stone
Some things are better left alone
My god the way the time has flown
Time for harvesting what seeds were sown
In the Sanctum Sanctorum
The ancient of days takes tea with great decorum
Just as it was in the days of the forum
Human hands tore them down but angels will restore them
The cognoscenti descend to ask
When will you quit your crypt and take your task
in hand open the flask
reveal yourself remove the mask
The ancient only laughs and sings
Are humans still such reckless beings
Obsessed with pride and shiny things
You know a lot but the truth still stings
Back to sunshine I count the clock
You'll have other plans by the third crow of the cock
I'll take tea while you take stock
Time moves so slowly down here in the rock

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

280 : 1/15/99 : Timetable

We have revised the timetable
on Armageddon for your race
so as to give you one last chance
which we fully expect you to throw back in our face
Look around you and look within
Is this what you sought to achieve
You have created a clockwork catastrophe
A machine designed only to deceive
Anyone awake enough to listen
Listen: your time is not so long
As you think so think about it
What is your calling what is your song
Our engines are ready to descend
The appraisers are among you
Your value has been weighed and measured
You can be replaced believe that it’s true
So we thought it best you knew
Better set your clocks ahead
Set your own timetable better safe than sorry
Punch your own clock or you’ll be punching ours instead

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

279 : 1/14/99 : Axe to Grind

I was never satisfied
to leave the thing alone
I had to pick the scab
I had to gnaw the bone
I saved up my pennies
And waited for what I knew I’d find
Now I’ve got what I was looking for
I’ve got an axe to grind

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

278 : 1/13/99 : Ray of Sun

I get crazy waiting for the moment to come
I get lazy and listen to the guitar strum
The same old rhythm the same old rhyme
I can’t live with ‘em and I can’t stop time
The same old scheme the same old voices
the same old theme and all the usual choices
so sick of my hackneyed verse I could cry
things could be worse but I’d still wonder why
I want so very much and get so very little
Such a little nonesuch to the last jot and dittle
I make my way like a good bee should
I wait for a ray of sun in a dark wood
Am I close to the edge or smug like a cat
Am I driving a wedge or blind as a bat
I don’t know my own face in the glass
I been put in my place but this too shall pass
All for a ray of sun I wait here standing
It could be me or anyone it’s not too demanding
But it holds me tight and breaks me down
waiting for a ray of light in this dirty town

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

277 : 1/12/99 : Constancy

I went to the bible I went to the bard
I went to J. S. Bach he said I worked very hard
I sought for enlightenment
I sought to find the cure
I went looking for the lotus in the waters so impure
I sought constancy and devotion
I wore myself out with emotion
Consistent effort brings reward
the truth is such a two-edged sword

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

276 : 1/11/99 : Sleepless in Chernobyl

Think you got handed the bitter cup friend
Think you know how things will end
up don’t you
don’t you
On the flaring magnesium highwire
Wormwood dreams made me a gun for hire
I made it through
made it through
Since the incident I don’t seem to need much sleep
since my baby left me I can only weep
touch my face
my face
Wormwood in the cup is what made the drink bitter
I’m pretty beat up but I’m no quitter
think about it
about it
I cannot turn back and I just don’t dream
Some things are exactly what they seem
Won’t you come back home
You come back home

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

275 : 1/10/99 : I Am Neither Wise Nor Young

I am neither wise nor young
A truth that lingers on my tongue
between wild youth and sage old age
On that strange pinion hung
Faced with a childish half writ page
And prospects that I cannot gauge
the road less traveled has been turned
Into an offramp to a cage
that waits with all things that I spurned
the lessons of the world I learned
when all was fresh and all was new
And all the fire inside me burned
But continuity’s the glue
And here’s a lesson sad but true
It fits ill still I wear the shoe
It fits ill still I wear the shoe

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

274 : 1/9/99 : I Am Neither Young Nor Wise

I am neither young nor wise
And there’s a riddle true
I guess it comes as no surprise
the foolish things I do
It seems that everyone must come
to this strange midway mark
the unyoung body suffers from
the unwise deeds that bark
And howl out from the unwise mind
Obeyed despite my brain
That whispers that I’ll pay in kind
And take my dose of pain

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

273 : 1/8/99 : Lightning Strikes

1,077 : 0 ?


In an ink black inky night
No sound ozone without light
A darkness so complete
Hear only grass soft beneath bare feet
Up from above I feel a force
Reverse from that that fouled my course
So long so long ago now
In the air I feel it know how
It is and taken into hand
One stop drop to the promised land
Somehow the darkness sinks
Another notch and makes me think
But before the thought's completed
In an agonizing heated
Moment there that place that night
the universe explodes in light

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

272 : 1/7/99 : Mission, Vision, Goal

Send me strength for the Mission send me strength for the Goal
I don’t care what it takes fill my mouth with burning coal
Send it down in a Vision, Lord set my head on fire
Send me strength for what it takes to get under the wire
I see a wheel in the skies
I see a wing that’s full of eyes
I’ve said it once I’ve said it twice
I need strength now not advice
Push me under the water Lord, make me beg for air
I try so hard to live in this day I just want to get there
Pull me up with you when you go fly me up past the swill
I can’t get by with just myself with just an act of will
I saw the cheaply flashing screen
I’m sure that can’t be what you mean
The mission for the vision is the goal
The stone just needs a little angel push to roll

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

271 : 1/5/99 : Raise the Flag

If I could raise the flag of all I see and all I do
If I could put it on a stick and raise it up to you
If I could codify this undulating tapestry of life
I would be satisfied I would be content to consent to the knife
If I could make the rhymes that say all that I want to say
I would regain my equilibrium enough to live my life in one day
If I could raise the flag at least it would be a start
I’m sick of standing under your flag, I’m sick of my part
If I could make a right hand turn away from this dull prose
I would find at last the answer to the truths I pose
Paradox has stripped me of my virtue leaving only vice
And the impulse of the moment has mortgaged my existence to the dice
If I could get away from trying to understand
What is not mine to know I’d find a bird nestled in my hand
I would hold it gently ready for a gentle toss
that would baffle the giants into permitting me to cross
I can’t stand it anymore I’m done I’m done I’m done
I don’t have it I am nothing I am no one
I won’t let it push me push me push me anymore
Once trice thrice I’ll say it then I’m out the door
Raise your own damn flag and solve your own damn riddle
Pay the devil what he’s due it’s you that hired his fiddle
Don’t come to me to wrap you in a flag
I’m gonna crawl on in and zip up my own body bag

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

A Song a Day, So Far: April 11, 1998 - April 11, 2008

A brief interruption to note the tenth anniversary of the inception of the song of the day project! Of course, due to my taking 5-ish year hiatus in the middle of it I've only written 2,077 songs to date, instead of more than 3,600, but nevertheless.

I must also look back in some consternation at the posting of the first lyric on this song blogging project. July 2006! Can that be right?! Almost 2 years to post 270 songs. Clearly this will not do, I'll be 103 before I post the final lyric*.

It's cool: that's what we call job security, my friends. I hope to increase the frequency of posting to near one a day - although staying on top of writing the new songs remains my highest priority. In fact I think I'm due to write one right about now.


* (I'm aiming for 10,000 consecutive songs, starting from May 4, 2005 for those just joining us - the first 1,001 songs, written between 1998 and 2001, those which I'm currently blogging, serving as a warm-up to the current project - daily songs that I'm currently writing, and for which I provide a more-or-less weekly status report, as discussed here).

270 : 1/4/99 : Maybe We Should All Just Die

Maybe we should all just die after all
anyway God knows it’d be easier that way
Maybe in the end we all hear the call
Maybe it’s time to call it a day
But anyway I’ve gone this long
And all I know, all I know
Is that I’m going to go on
As long as I have left to go

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

269 : 1/4/99 : The Way You Came In

Do you think you’re going to back out of this the way you came in
Don’t you know transformation can only proceed from within
And the broad and easy way that brought you here will not suffice
We got no answers here we got no good advice
Do you think you’re gonna talk yourself out of the corner you talked yourself into
That paint’s still fresh and wet there’s nothing you can do
But wait on a message or a miracle from high above
This dirty worn out mortal coil that fits you like a glove
Don’t you know if you could see one thing beside yourself you’d know
You’d be a hero the man of the hour you’d have that special glow
And everyone who put you down and laughed at what you said
They’d be so sorry they missed their chance with you they’d wish that they were dead
Wake up and smell the burning effigy of your big talk
Ain’t a thing you believe that couldn’t get knocked down in one trip around the block
The paint is drying so slowly so dry your weary eyes
Dig your knuckles into the sockets till you see the stars of paradise
or just stand up and walk across this mess you made
The center will not hold and fate must be obeyed
Next time round you’ll learn from your mistakes to make all new ones
Take a break stand in wet paint your pain’s the same as anyone’s

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

268 : 1/3/99 : Rise Above

1,073 : 23 ?


I can’t push farther than my reach
I can’t help wishing I was back on the beach
twenty three twenty four half a lifetime back
I died that day swept off the track
I gotta rise above the waves
the weakness of the flesh demands what it craves
Rise above rise above rise above
I got nothin’ but a notion I’m living on love
Push back the dark push one more day
Somewhere you’ll hear a clear voice say
time to rise above limitation
from now on it’s all vacation
back to the days the days of youth
Little Jon and David and sister Ruth
Run back run back swept along
this day this memory this song

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

267 : 1/2/99 : I didn’t make the chart today

I didn’t make the chart today
Or do the other thing I said
I would I let the circumstances say
the way in which I’d get my daily bread
I didn’t climb the mountaintop
I didn’t explain the stars
What you may sew you’ll reap that crop
I see my life from behind bars
I saw my life contained too long
By nothing more than thoughts
I took what I had found along
the way and threw away my oughts

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

266 : 1/1/99 : The First Day

On the first day since departing
Lonely and my eyes were smarting
Thinking what I might be starting

All the journeys coming to this
Crouching like a praying mantis
On the edge of the great abyss

Searching for the faith for leaping
What I’ve sewn I’ll soon be reaping
Gird myself and stop my creeping

Rising on the first bright Sunday
Drop the false path take the one way
Now departing clear the runway

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

265 : 12/31/98 : The Last Night

The oceans rise raging but the moon is receding
All the rules are broken now the moon is red the moon is bleeding
Stand by my side now my love this is the last night
Everything is ending here and everything will be all right
Locusts swarm down from the sky and crabs boil from the sea
This is Armageddon this is epiphany, catastrophe
What if nothing ever happens anymore from now on
I turned to ask you but I couldn't see where you had gone
What if I spend the last night alone
Waiting by the telephone

The stars are phasing out into confusing folds of space
I have a look of idiotic concentration on my face
There is a violent current circling the globe
I've got a nasty schism brewing in my frontal lobe
And the oceans rise raging but the moon is back
One more bloody harvest then the whole thing fades to black
I saw smoke signals in the hills
One last hurrah before I'm motivating daffodils

I found you once and I'll find you again
The hat is white and the star is tin
I'll rescue you
That's what I'll do
The balloon is ready to launch
We'll cross the canyon if our hearts are staunch
My spider friends are watching our backs
It's time to jump the tracks
And go into the great unknown
Go where only the wind's blown

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

264 : 12/30/98 : Promises

I promise my heart will always desire you
And my kisses will last two days for you
My promises to see the world with you are true
I will always love you

And I promise that my vision quest is for you
Together we’ll laugh at life’s ironies
My promise is to treat you right ‘cause my love is true
I will always love you

I will look into your eyes and explore your depth
There’ll be no games between we two
My depth and beauty await
I will always love you

We’ll watch the thunderstorms with a glass of wine
I am the last of the wonderers a bright shining star for you
Let’s share our life -
I will always love you

Life is an exciting journey baby
I’ll always be dazzled by what you do
We’ll live life to the fullest
I will always love you

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

263 : 12/29/98 : Day Off

1,066 : 16 ?


Take a day off, little friend
All good things must come to an end
But not today
Rest easy you’re all right
You’ll get to fly your little kite
It’s going to be that way
We all end up the same
No body no desire no name
We all know where we’re going
So rest and let the evening slide
You’ll find the answer in the long slow glide
You’ll reap just what you’re sewing

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

262 : 12/28/98 : Kill Them with Kindness

Let's kill all our enemies with kindness
Give and give until they disappear
Under the elemental force of our generosity
Let's shower them with riches till their poverty is clear
Let's destroy the rules and institutions
Neglect them till they crumble into dust
Let's make up all new rules and make them follow
Us into the future it's Utopia or bust
When they show you the Golden Idol on the Television
Turn the channel to the Lepton Vision Hour
And worship at the altar of the true revelation
Smash the golden calf! More power for the flower

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

261 : 12/27/98 : Shit from Shinola

Maybe I don't know shit from Shinola
Maybe I'm a lunatic with a desperate plan
All I know is you can't let the bastards control ya
Ya gotta live your life to be a man
Maybe I'm a master of deception
But you can see exactly where I'm coming from
Baby ain't you heard it's gonna screw with the reception
On your teevee when the commies drop the bomb
Ain't it just teejus when you get up every morning
And slide your magic card through every slot
Somewhere in Venice the flower of your labor is adorning
The summer home of the rich motherfucker who's stealing what you got
And it's a hard truth but the reasoning is sound
That the man with the pistol's got your poor ass cold
I never have to keep my ear to the ground
I've got my own thing to unfold
I don't have to deal in shit no more I'm through
With lining up to hold out my tin cup
Lean in close baby I'll whisper it to you
my secret plan was never giving up

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

260 : 12/26/98 : The Evil Men Do

Do do do-wah, here’s a pretty ditty ooh
About the evil things the evil men do
Bop shoowop, sha la la my friend
Here’s a little song about their final dividend
Bop bopaloowop I see a crimson flood
I see the violated outlines pressed into the mud
Shanana I see the children torn from innocence
To me the evil that men do makes so so little sense
A ring a ling and a gun against the forehead
Duct tape across the mouth and beaten till you’re dead
Tra la la tortured in basements buried in the yard
The evil few the things they do down any boulevard
Well hey nonny nonny I’m prone to the opinion
That there’s a special place in hell reserved for every minion
Ah diddy wah it warms my heart to imagine
That eternal punishment in Lucifer’s dominion
But ah boom boom boom does that make me evil too
And should I turn my other cheek to the evil that men do
Am I wallah wallah bing bang expected to forgive
I confess I long to see their twisted souls wash through the sieve
Heigh ho, heigh ho to this hard truth I’ll hold
that the evil things they do must return a thousandfold

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

259 : 12/25/98 : Signals

1,058 : 9 ?




Do you hear the signals
Do you hear the bells
Do you hear the acolytes
Repeat the ancient spells
Magnetic energy
Is flying in the sky
And burrowing down in the earth
Don’t let the signals pass you by
I insist there is a meaning
I insist there is a plan
I insist that we can trace it
back to where it all began
Alchemical transformations
Programmed in the sea
Programming an undulating
Living tapestry
Listen to the distant thunder
listen to the fungus chant
listen to the cacti speaking
this is no pink elephant
Every ray of light is bent
around a subtle template
listen to the signals
broadcast from a subtle parapet

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

258 : 12/24/98 : The Future Is Not Ours to See

Shining metal towers may
rise up from ocean trenches
You cannot imagine the
proportions of the monkey wrenches
We might regulate the sun
and push he planets from their circuits
We may build the last machine
and find no one knows how to work it
some may reach an understanding
no one thought was reachable
We may find a well supported
president impeachable
Don’t come around here for answers
Ask anyone else but me
You already know my opinion
The future is not ours to see

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

257 : 12/23/98 : Stretching

Stretching for a metaphor
reaching for the furthest door
Nothing makes it nothing works
Write it off as one of my quirks
Feeling like a literary fool
Watch me pantomime and drool
Watch me stumble watch me fall
Watch me spin my parasol
I’m so sick of my own name
all it means and all I claim
I’m so sick and that’s the fact
Nothing else has much impact

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

256 : 12/22/98 : Fragmentary Recollection

Armed only with a fragmentary recollection
The lonesome sailor faced a world unkind
His mates had taken a collection
They gave the best that they could find
He remembered a whale and a casket
A cannon a harpoon and the boatswain’s call
He recalled a wicker basket
A spyglass and chronometer: that’s all
Reeling through the battered seaside towns
He was accosted by a strange brigade
A silent minstrel and a duchess on the downs
An apprentice alchemist seeking student aid
He said I am just a sailing hand
I’ve got no answers for your plights
I don’t know just when I last hit land
My mind is overcome with vanishing nights
So he traded in his sailor suit
For a natty three piece job
When I asked him why he just said shoot
Anything to stop the old sea’s sob

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here