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

255 : 12/21/98 : Very Short Song for a Long Fretful Journey

1,052 : 3 ?


Here’s a very short song for a long fretful journey
I’m about to stand trial with no attorney
I think I’d better get my travelin’ shoes on!
‘Cause sooner or later I got to be gone

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

254 : 12/20/98 : Dark Glass Morning Hymn

Through a dark glass I see
all so many people
grim, unhappy
I see a world gone astray
decisions made in an hour
regretted by end of day
I see a dark glass rising.
In the morning
I see reflections of a
past that never was
all illusions
not the real world at all
just clouds shifting
restlessly across a dark
glass
across a dark glass

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

253 : 12/19/98 : Solstice

On the shortest day of the year
I felt the beginning of the Fear
of the flight of time and the frailty of flesh
I felt the long arm of the longest night
I felt confusion frustration and fright
The dark suspicion that my karma would never mesh
In the evening at an affair
I stepped out for tainted air
And pondered the uselessness of vice
But I kept up nevertheless
Another day I thought I would address
All the changes, another day to pay the price
Just another fall from health
Another year escapes by stealth
And I made sick no doubt by avarice
Will mumble and bemoan my fate
the wisdom always comes too late
or so it seems in the long night of solstice

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

252 : 12/18/98 : Flaming Wheel

When the great and flaming wheel
comes spinning down from heaven
Will I be taken up
Will I pass through each of seven
Gates between here and the next
And see the shining face of God
And understand the mysteries
Or will I be measured with a sterner rod

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

251 : 12/17/98 : Hold

You put me on hold again
there oughta be a law
It shouldn’t be allowed
A Human Being Deserves Some Dignity
You think I’ve got my whole life to wait
Well that ain’t so
I’ve got as little time as any other soul
I can’t believe you put me on hold again
I can’t believe you care so little for me
You only think of your own gain
You care so little for my pain
Damn you, Damn you for putting me on hold again

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

250 : 12/16/98 : Strike the Gong

1,045 : 2 ?


When you hear me strike the gong
then you’ll know I’ll soon be gone
when the hour is come again
You’ll find I am no less a man
if the path you took is dark
At least you’ll know you left a mark
If there is nothing but illusion
Pray do not add to my confusion
Perils to the left and right
isn’t it a strange and sordid sight
Past all of that and out beyond
I’ll swim into the bigger pond

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

249 : 12/15/98 : Counterweights

Someday when I find my home
I’ll build a tower for a windmill
I’ll build a little gazebo
a hundred feet in the air
And when the sun is setting I will
know exactly where to go
I’ll go right up there
Watch the sky watch the clouds roam
There’ll be an elevator run on counterweights
I’ll build a swing built for two
If you’ll go up there with me
We’ll go up and watch the sunrise
With a cup of coffee me and you
We’ll listen to the wind lying in the lee
And let the world recede in size
He is lost, who hesitates

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

248 : 12/14/98 : My Secret Name

1,037 : 3 ?


I believe in the Father
I believe in the Son
I believe in the three and the two and the one
I believe in myself
I believe in you
I believe that the Word that was spoken was true
But I don’t believe in fortune
I don’t believe in fame
The only thing I own is my secret name

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

247 : 12/13/98 : Go Forth

I wouldn’t lie if you asked me
I’d be the first to admit
That the hope that I have
Seems a little far-fetched
But I can’t seem to help it
It’s the way that I’m wired
I rest with it when the evening comes
I work with it when I’m hired
And I guess that it bugs me
to have so little to go on
And so many questions
I’ve been searching for answers so long
I will go forth surrounded
by all the travelers who join me on the road
Searching for the narrow gate
What a long strange row I’ve hoed

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