721 : 3/31/00 : After the Wave

After the wave... we said:
now everything’s gonna be different
those days we thought
every idea we had was heaven sent
This has got to be the band
that’s the band
that plays a song that saves the world
and makes me rich and famous
I’m not gonna be the man so bland
I dreamed I was for five long years
when the song came to claim us
After the flood my blood
ran hot and cold for no reason
these days the kids think that
everything that’s old is out of season
And I ride a wave, a wave so high
the world’s lost sight
of how I transcended destiny
and the real big sound
is coming down and I know I know I know
that it is meant for me

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

720 : 3/30/00 : Edge

It doesn’t pay to fool around
around the edge
This world’s a sucker bet
and we all hedge
trying to get the odds on our side
knowing we can get taken for a ride
any time at all
one day we all take the fall
Isn’t it a shame we
have to go away
leave this place forever
until judgment day
until then at the edge you’ll find me
until the great machine unwinds me
and feeds me into the endless loop
another dim child fortune’s dupe
It doesn’t pay to fool around
when you’re at your rope’s end
trying to be strong and wait
For what’s around the next bend
Maybe it’s as good as it gets
So sorry there are no safe bets

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

719 : 3/29/00 : Heroes

1,790 : 7 ?


Heroes fools villains tools
play parts penny wise
push the wheel around
Kings or Queens ways and means
Who knows who rules
all end in the ground
Heroes heroes sums and zeroes
rise to play their piece
bastards minions thieves
Rise and go tally ho
dragging us along
scatter us like leaves

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

718 : 3/28/00 : Internalog

The interalog is registering
a complaint that something’s stirring
that we thought we had got rid of
very long ago
It sounds a bit like insect legs
assembling tents with tiny pegs
to worship insect deities
with antennae bowed low
But then again it sounds a lot
like something burning in a pot
a nasty lump of sorrow
from an undigested past
And if that explanation’s thin
allow me to explain again
the image will not hold
because I’m an iconoclast

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

717 : 3/27/00 : Metaphysical Archaeology

Metaphysical archaeology
excavating all traces of philosophy
ancient protocols of ancient kings
reeds stalks clocks and thick gold rings
Teleological anthropology
The talking cure for cultural oncology
Sometimes we prefer the sickness to the cure
sometimes we’re not so sure
Long ago and far away
Try to understand it in the present day
Left with strange words and artifacts
Unknown parties unknown pacts
Ontological flow dynamics
reason hides in the usual bag of tricks
everybody’s got an explanation
to me it’s all just re-reiteration

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

Yum Yum Yummy

The inimitable Hungry Bug marks the completion of A Song a Day, project 1, volume 5, Untitled. Tomorrow I'll start posting volume 6, Before the Wave.

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

716 : 3/26/00 : Hungry Bug

Hungry bug could
not stop eating away
at the fabric of order
call it a programming error
in the universal virtual reality
generator
Yum yum eat it up
yum yum eat it up real good
just keep packing it away
You knew you would
Hungry bug
Yum yum yum yum
to take the cake
yum yum yum yum
And let the people eat it
Yeah yummy ummy
That hungry
Yummy

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

715 : 3/25/00 : Adios

Adios my friends
head westward down the sunlit trail
as the moon rises
so wide and round and pale
remember me as one
who stayed to see
the glorious battle won
Dear friends
Adios
and so it goes

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

714 : 3/24/00 : Napster

Napster
I am sleeping now
the visionary
creeping out now
Look not back
look only fore
Aft away
No longer wanting more
napster
sleeping genius
creeping to be in us
past nothing
here it comes
dissolving

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

713 : 3/23/00 : Start

You better watch what you ask for
You better watch what you start
Once you start something
You’re bound to play the part

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

712 : 3/22/00 : Bootstrap Gospel

Bootstrap Gospel start from zero
no help no tears bootstrap hero
don’t need anything but true grit
trust me I’ve got plenty of it
Bootstrap Jesus I’ll save myself
I’ll store myself up on the top shelf
I don’t want anything anything
I don’t want what an angel can bring
I don’t want fuss or ado
I only I only want you
bootstrap gospel write my own
listen to me piss and moan
never really cold or hot
pull myself up it’s all I’ve got

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

711 : 3/21/00 : Impatience Too

Loathing agony
impatience too
waiting for the download
waiting for you
I’ll die of impatience
I’ll go to my grave
waiting for the
big computer
to save

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

710 : 3/20/00 : Sleep

Sleep calls the restless crowds
are silent quiet
for once in all
the days of murmuring
Like a hammer like a wave
black velvet draught
the sleep king gave
Sleep comes quiets all
Silence in the pinnacle
Silence in the hall
comes bearing a dark
and silent gift
this message this riddle
this eye this gift

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

709 : 3/19/00 : Joy

There’s joy in this world I’m finding
When you least expect the dark unwinding
revealing a feeling a glimmer
of heavenly lights
The eye in the triangle may mean more
than another foolish secret or golden door
the angel of this strange hell has seen
unimagined sights
the light was in the world but the world didn’t know
am I going to be ready when the man says go?
one more time one fast rhyme I see
it all written
But the story of my joy is the center of all
The difference in a mirror a door and a wall
the antidote to what it wrote the primeval
serpent has bitten

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

708 : 3/18/00 : Perfect

I remember all the hard times perfectly
And the shrink said to be realistic see
I guess I’m hung up on hope and good intentions
I guess that I’m obsessed with being free
this wasn’t supposed to be all about me
It seems I misjudged the thing’s dimensions
This isn’t a story a riddle or poem
it isn’t going platinum or even chrome
A song a day I guess I lack direction
once there was a firestorm wherever I’d roam
not too much left going on in my dome
are these the wages of striving for perfection
I’ve written this song a thousand times
that isn’t true yet but hey it rhymes
But I feel it now just as I felt it then
When Eric and I spoke in Northern climes
of the perfect tree and fate’s chimes
I’m searching for my perfect world again

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

707 : 3/17/00 : Preemptive Strike!

Let’s blow the fuck out of everything
Let’s have a preemptive strike!
Let’s have the war to end it all
impale the future on a golden spike
Let’s bomb the state of the union address
Let’s bomb the treaty talks
Let’s bomb the People’s Congress
Blown to the wind like yarrow stalks
in another couple billion years
it’ll all burn up anyway
what the hell difference could it make
if we blew it up today?
at least it would end all the pain and strife
sounds crazy but it would
a preemptive strike on everything
now and forever bad and good

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

706 : 3/16/00 : Be Quiet

how shall we be quiet how shall we pray
how will I let go at the end of the day
I know how to be silent, know how to be still
I know in my black heart there’s a truth that can kill
how will I still the tempest deep inside
how will I kill the fear of being taken for a ride
I know how to be stoic I know how to be grim
I know why Jesus wept but I’m not him
How will we be peaceful how will we make love
how will we find the attitude that fits like a glove
I know that there’s an answer from very long ago
I beg the lord down on my knees don’t tell just show
how can I be quiet still my crazy head
how can I talk my way out of sleeping in this bed
when I’m the one who made it I’m the one to blame
When nothing really matters when it all turns out the same

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

705 : 3/15/00 : Pointless

1,776 : 1 ?


Your pointed comments leave little to imagine
I may be unambitious but that’s not such a bad sin
Does there really have to be a point to everything
So I am pointless and pointless sing
La la la
You’d like to put me in my place and knock me down
You may be bigger but I’ll make you share this town
someone’s got to be the one who doesn’t have it all
Someone’s got to have the guts to scale the wall
ha ha ha
This may be pointless but it keeps me out of hell
I may be blind but I can hear the tolling bell
If I related all that I have mulled over in thought
You would be amazed at just what song you bought
La la la

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

704 : 3/14/00 : Shaky Hands

Shaky hands
shaky prose
knocked down with a fire hose
hard to change
hard to resist
hard to look and not get pissed
shaky morals
fading fast
tempted by a rich repast
double mind
forked tongue
in between not old not young
look at me
on shaky stilts
patchwork mental crazy quilts
Shaky hands
Steady heart
not just any young upstart

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

703 : 3/13/00 : Persacutrix

Persacutrix there’s no quick fix
can you hear it
on my dime a verbal climb
a verbal spirit
It’s literal just like a bell
that tolls for thee
She takes her picks the persacutrix
shows for free
The regular just raise the bar
I’m reaching for glory
Who strives to grasp but fails to clasp
the truth of the story
The pin drops my heart stops
and skips a beat
someday the thing won’t start again
won’t that be neat

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

702 : 3/12/00 : Fast Master

Past fast master
of the long goodbye
too many nights
deep in thought and high
too many days on the
assembly line
has taken its toll
upon my spine
fast master I’m
a whiz with tricks
for reading hidden futures
in the yarrow sticks
for scrawling down a message
from the great beyond
watch me conjure
with a wave of my magic wand

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

701 : 3/11/00 : Fugitive

I’m a fugitive I’m on the run
stolen car stolen name stolen gun
I’m blazing a path straight to Tijuana
smoking lucky strike and marijuana
I’m a desperado a man for hire
matched sixes and leather attire
I’m dangerous not a man to know
A man calls with a number and I go
I’m a fugitive I’m hiding away
Won’t poke my head out for many a day
I’ve done more wrong things than I can count
but the worst is I went too many times to the fount
someday the statute of limitations will expire
then I won’t be running hiding or for hire
I’ll show my face in the sun
no more a fugitive living by the gun

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

700 : 3/10/00 : Beaten

My qualifications seem
strangely arbitrary
I know I’m supposed to be
doing the right things but
I just feel beaten anyway
I just feel beaten again
the answers gleaned thus far
seem very suspect to me
I know I’m supposed to be
making a difference but
I just feel beaten anyway
I just feel beaten again
I’m made of dust and air
numinous ethereal
I know I’m supposed to be
solid and present but
I’ve just been beaten again
I just feel beaten anyway

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

699 : 3/9/00 : Remembrance

Remembrance of things long gone
ain’t I a useless one
While others laugh and carry on
I’ll be remembering
And all you’ve heard so far is lies
My mouth must stink and buzz with flies
What should a man do before he dies
To be remembered?

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

698 : 3/8/00 : Switch

1,769 : 3 ?


Calcutta express watercress
desire and fire and fire
Malcontent and heaven sent
one day I’ll make it underneath the wire
Nonsense verses read as curses
time relentless unbending
I’m full of shouts looking for outs
some way to stop the signals I’m sending
Bent and battered nothing mattered
so I pushed it into the sea
it floated a while sank with a smile
it never stopped looking at me
the thing in the jar got hit by a car
and was lost forever in a ditch
while I counted change they did a rearrange
then someone pulled a switch

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

697 : 3/7/00 : Evolve

Evolve for a purpose
rise to meet God
Individual is meaningless
is fertilizing sod
Evolve due to physics
the meaningless accretion of form
A meaningless evolution of
attraction in the chaos storm
chalk it up to evolution
pass it off as a game
pass it off as a painful
play of words in a pointless name
Nevertheless the cycles
will turn and turn again
As we argue our time erodes
out from under us like sand

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

696 : 3/6/00 : Must I Crawl

Must I crawl now
to reach the finish line
after all now
is this what I came to find
failing dignity
and pride where did that go
one more thing this city
swallowed up whole
Must I crawl now
to get underneath the wire

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

695 : 3/5/00 : Further Memories of Youth

Where to begin
so many years gone
since I tuned in
and sang a sad song
I dreamed
and couldn’t dream if it was a dream
I blinked and
couldn’t find the edge of the stream
all the temponauts
wondering what to remember
A hard July
or an amazing December
to our future pioneers
these further memories of youth
the taste of clover
a weekend in Duluth
3 hours on an airplane
3 years in a house
12 nights of the ice storm
12 years quiet as a mouse

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

694 : 3/4/00 : Lyric Plasma

Rolling through the gray miasma
this is the fourth state of song lyric plasma
Word without end everlasting diction
Made possible and brought to you by friction
What’s the point you well may ask
I cannot answer I just set myself a task
Row by row I’m a bricklayer true
I’m just trying to build a bridge of words to you
You can’t walk on words or eat them either
to be or not to be or both or neither
words will not answer the questions they pose
by any name a rose is a rose is a rose

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

secretary blues

One of those nights where about the only task I can stomach in the face of an overwhelming sense of futility is transcribing old songs from their pen and paper stasis into the infinite fungibility of digital. It's secretary's work, and I guess I've spent a good piece of my life filling that role. While Jennie watches American Idol I sit and churn it out, listening to Led Zeppelin on the headphones, soundtrack of drug-addled youth, and find it about as satisfying as I find anything lately, which is not saying a hell of a lot.

I've been on a tear with it, which is why the daily song posting has been so reliable. I'm nearing the end of May 2000, not quite halfway through the second to last volume. Closing in on the end of the first project. Which ended very early in 2001. The new project starts early May of 2005, which raises the question of how to do the transition, if I'm going to stick with trying to post things on their birthdays, which does make keeping track easier. I've thought about taking it easy for four months, perhaps putting up the some dozens of songs I've written outside of this project, as many as I can find anyway (some, having never made the jump to digital, are probably lost forever, gone to the fire in one of my youthful spasms of eliminating anything of no immediate utility. I don't have much regret about this, though there are a couple things I wouldn't mind seeing again. I suppose it might be a good time to get it all into ones and zeros.

I could also start dual-posting in May, wrap up the first and start up the next over the same 8 months... Which holds a certain twisted appeal to me in my fetish for round figures and weird superstition about the number five (going from posting ten years after the fact to five). I should push back against that kind of thing, though, and then again I have a feeling even one a day is a little much for most if not all of my tiny band of beleaguered partisans. So I suppose May of 2011 it will be.

Despite everything I once again finished, in some sense of the word, the RPM Challenge I alluded to before. The "album" is a horror, an endurance exhibition of pure stubbornness. In the context of complete failure to generate instrumentals I busted out the handheld digital and recorded all 28 songs written in February - one take, a capella, zero preparation. Even God doesn't want to listen to this one. And with that I think I am truly done with that sort of thing. I feel like I wrote elsewhere, some other year, but can't track it down, that these things are mainly about encouraging people to realize that productivity can be a choice, which is not really, at this point, the lesson that I need to learn.

As well, I think no more of these notes aside, for a while.

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

693 : 3/3/00 : Pear Quartet

Four ripe round pears
Pear quartet gets stares
lined up just so
four three two go

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

692 : 3/2/00 : Quartet Pair

1,763 : 6 ?


Four by four and
Made of dull lead
forged in rats’ skulls
Quartet pair’s first head

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

691 : 3/1/00 : My First Best Friend

My first best friend was Robert
but they made me move away
some other school some space issue
I remember it was a hard day
Robert’s dad and mine were both ministers
he gave me a book and a candy pipe
we didn’t really talk that much
we were both the quiet type
I got sent to some other school
didn’t see him for five years
It’s funny how a person
is there then just disappears
we stayed friends all those years
hung out in the neighborhood
and he moved onto another place
disappeared this time for good

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