The Interim : Battles and Bands 10 : Let it Ride

2,098 : 13 ?



Thinking hacking pounding pondering
Looking for an answer, just another Saturday night
Looking for a way to get out
Should I try to get laid, should I try to get tight
I got lost so long ago, I can’t get back now
I burned every bridge that I crossed
My luck has finally run out, I lost the roll on
Every die that was tossed
There’s a time to cut your losses
There’s a time when you’ve got to swallow your pride
But it’s too late for me to get out now
I don’t care anymore, anymore
Let it Ride

Waiting for my ship to come in
Trying still when trying gets weary and old
Tired of trying to make a difference
Tired of looking in standing outside in the cold
I thought that maybe you could
Just answer one or two of the questions I had
You left me with less answers
That’s okay, I had a mask to make me look sad
World seems to think I owe it a living
It seems determined, bound to take it out of my hide
This time there’s no hedging bets
I put it all on the line on the line on the line
Let it Ride

No more looking for the answers
You can’t find them why waste your time on dismay
I know I have to do something quickly
I don’t know what but the masks are getting stronger each day
Did you really think you’d see me?
I can’t see me so how did you expect to get through
It was good you got out quickly
It’s all coming down the storm is starting to brew
One more broken heart couldn’t kill me
Just another loss just another thorn in my side
If the storm rips my life apart
Well I don’t like it anyway -
Let it Ride

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

reserved

It is a signifier of the amount of water gone under the bridge that the last time I investigated formally applying for copyrights of the songs of days I railed against the fact that the government could not deal with a simple electronic transfer of data. Years pass, apparently, and they've gotten a little closer to modernity down Library of Congress way. Frugal soul that I am I've started by compiling the entirety of the first project into a single volume and registering it as a single literary work. Which it is, to my mind, a compendium of original verse. The copyright office's website has this ridiculous, old school design and action, as if they kidnapped math teachers out of the 1980s and forced them to program it on VAX terminals, but it functions well enough. The thing ended up as a rich text file weighing in at an almost invisible 627 KB. It probably takes more memory to run a flashlight these days.

It is in fact a little bit alarming to ponder that any crazy with a computer and 35 dollars can make the government store a copy of whatever insane rantings they've produced at any time of the day or night... I wonder what sort of madhouse stockpile of ephemeral text they've accumulated since they started taking submissions online (because I have to confess, I probably still wouldn't have this done if I'd had to mail it... at 1,001 songs it's the printing that would really kill my enthusiasm for the project). Of course the irony here is that I am in fact one of the "crazies," seeing as how I don't really project a likelihood of doing much anything with the songs. I'm hoping somewhere along the line some factotum of Sony will gank a few lines out of one of my lyrics for some chanteuse of the week, then to fill my bank accounts with the sweet proceeds of litigation. Luckily my plans of growing rich, by whatever means, at the hands of the record industry are purely jocular, as their chances of being anyone's sugar daddy grow ever more remote. I'm not sure why to bother with the actual copyright, when I get right down to it. Except that it is the work of years, and it is mine. I figure I'll compile editions of the new project every 5 years or so, as I complete the transcriptions. On a related note I just finished transcribing the songs from the first book of the second series - the first time I've finished transcribing a book before I start actually posting it. A good sign, I'd like the transcription to actually get caught up at some point. Considering I'm on volume 12 in the second series this is a good way off yet, though. All rights reserved, kids.

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

The Interim : Battles and Bands 9 : Ever Decreasing Circles

You tell one more lie
To hide that you didn’t tell the truth
Smoke another cigarette
To lessen the pain that you quit
Screw up just one more day, it’s not
much when you’ve wasted your youth
All in all you always want
Whatever you can’t seem to get
In
Ever decreasing circles
Ever decreasing circles
Ever decreasing circles

Through the cycle one more time
telling yourself it’s the last
If you didn’t lie so well
You might have the courage to change
After all life’s not so bad
if you don’t count the present or past
Try to live with what you’ve got
You gave up your life in exchange
For
Ever decreasing circles
Ever decreasing circles
Ever decreasing circles

When the tears start falling
Pick up your masks one more time
Don’t let the world see you cry
They’ll use it to hurt you again
If they see your real face
they’ll charge you for every crime
It hurts to wear it always
But the mask helps to over the pain
of
Ever decreasing circles
Ever decreasing circles
Ever decreasing circles

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

The Interim : Battles and Bands 8 : Driving in the Spikes

Now my eyes are opened
and I can clearly see
The way out of the black mood
I thought had captured me
Live each day for what it’s worth
I think I’ve found the way
Now go to bed and sleep on it
Tomorrow’s a new day

When you wake your hopes blow away
Before you’ve started you’ve lost another day
Still you waste time with desires and dislikes
All your pretty hopes were just
Driving in the spikes

Pretty baby I love you so
And this is all that we require
I know that you were meant for me
And you are all that I desire
No more lonely days or nights
Now that you are by my side
I never thought I’d find this love
Oh I’m so very glad I tried

But when she’s gone the words become dust
What’s left untended finally turns to rust
You waste your time with desires and dislikes
All your pretty hope was just
Driving in the spikes

I know I’ll overcome this
If I believe I can
The masks are just a nightmare
I’m sure of who I am
the road is long, and I am young
and change can come each day
All I need is courage, then
The storm will fade away

But when your courage fails you you’re lost
You never stopped, to think or count the cost
Your time, wasted - desires and dislikes
All your pretty hopes
Driving in the spikes

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

The Interim : Battles and Bands 7 : The Lonely Lands

Oh pretty lady, please look out your window
I’m trying hard to make myself seen
I know I must seem indistinct and hazy
but if you listen to the words I sing
You might see me for what I really am
if you and I can just hold out our hands
maybe together we will never have to
spend another night in the lonely lands

Maybe I could see myself in your eyes
as clearly as you see yourself in mine
Do you think that we could get together
Oh pretty lady all I need is a sign
Everybody needs somebody with them
to protect them from time’s spilling sands
Oh when the winds of change are all around you
Doesn’t pay to be in the lonely lands

I see you draw back, and shut your window
You turn away and pull your curtains closed
Ignore this shadow, pale in the moonlight
whispering words that must not be disclosed
We’re all just prisoners locked behind our windows
I’m just a man who can’t say where he stands
Once I was happy, knew where I was going
Still I find myself in the lonely lands

Oh was it your fault, was it really my fault
there is no use in trying to place blame
we are the casualties of another war
man versus woman just another game
I’ll be all right, don’t you worry ‘bout me
Loneliness is a thing I understand
I have a mask that makes me look alive
I wear it when I walk in the lonely lands

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

The Interim : Battles and Bands 6 : The Dream

Last Night I had that dream, that dream
about the masks again
I wandered in a maze alone
And turned some corners, then
I came into a room like some
forgotten carnival
And saw my face was mirrored a million
times on every wall

Then I realized there were no
mirrors in that place
And what I saw were masks made in
the image of my face
In all my life in all my dreams
I’d not seen such a thing
masks for every mood I’d ever felt
from joy to pain

I wandered for what seems like hours
in that abandoned hall
and tried to understand the masks
that stared back from the wall
Masks of fear and friendship
Masks of drama and desire
Masks of hope and jealousy
of anger love and ire

I thought these masks are useful
I should take a few along
Whenever I don’t like the mood
I’m in I’ll slip one one
Then the world need never see
the shape I’m really in
no one else will ever get
to cause me pain again

Something happened then that caused
my heart and mind to balk
all the masks began to move
and then began to talk
All the masks seemed to be fighting
Struggling to be free
Every one seemed to be saying
it was really me

No I screamed it isn’t true
You are not what I am
You masks are just puppets but
I am the real man
The masks all flew around me
suffocating screaming lies
Till all that could be seen of me
was two lost tortured eyes

I woke then in my room then sitting,
shaking on the floor
And made my mind up then and there
to think of it no more
I drifted back to sleep again
My room was dark and warm
But far back in my mind I thought
I heard the gathering of a storm...

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

The Interim : Battles and Bands 5 : The Masks (I)

2,091 : 6 ?


What do you really think you’re gonna see
What do you think will meet your eyes
When you take off this mask, rip it off of me
Will you see me or just my next disguise

What will you penetrate?
What will you reveal?
What will you demonstrate?
What pain will you feel?
Did you think that you could
see into my mind
Did you think that it would
Be enough, for you to be kind

I am a master, of this I am not proud
It just happens when you feel a lot of pain
I am a shadow, a face without a crowd
Just a slick of oil on water, down the drain

What will you penetrate?
What will you reveal?
What will you demonstrate?
What pain will you feel?
Did you think that you could
see into my head
Did you think that it would
Be enough to take me to your bed

Better just leave quickly, I’m more than slightly bent
Just give in now you’ll never see my face
My masks and I are happy sometimes half content
Better for you to go, and leave me in this place

What will you penetrate?
What will you reveal?
What will you demonstrate?
What pain will you feel?
Did you think that you could
see into my soul
Did you think that you would
Be enough, enough to make me whole

I call to God what has become of me
Rip off the masks, rip off the masks
and set me free

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

mellow drama

"Battles and Bands" songs 5-13 are the undergraduate post-breakup song cycle with the running central metaphor which were called "The Masks". Hard times, hard times, come again no more.

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

The Interim : Battles and Bands 4 : Eagle Feather

Find a little piece of freedom
buried somewhere far away
we had it once or so they told us
must have lost it ‘long the way
our parents traded it for something
we don’t need or want today
maybe if we trace our footsteps
back to where it all began
we’ll find how such a hopeful country
turned into this wounded land
our parents made it into something
we don’t really understand
lost it now you try to tell us
what the hell we’re fighting for
well I don’t think we’re going to listen
too your bullshit anymore
you say we’ve got to stay the course
well can’t you hear the ocean roar
the mighty judgment’s coming down
we’re gonna have to fly to reach the shore
find myself an eagle feather
stood for freedom once I’m told
throw out all your faded symbols
and pray to God to make me bold
and set out now to make a difference
before I’m like you
scared and old

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

The Interim : Battles and Bands 3 : They Went Mad

Well your ship sailed out today
you said you thought the weather’s lifted
guess I’ve nothing left to say
you never promised you’d stay with me
guess we went a little mad
when the storm rolled in to blind us
guess we might as well be glad
to leave all them days behind us
well

Ain’t much left in the world today
and I don’t give a damn for the words you say
for the ones I lost and the ones I had
well I stayed for a while but I musta gone mad

Ain’t much left in the world today
and I don’t give a damn for the words you say
for the ones I lost and the ones I had
well I stayed for a while but I musta gone mad

Well another storm rolled in
yeah this one I weathered solo
and I watched the clouds roll by
while the time was passing so slow
Got a postcard in the spring
I got something left to give you
bein’ sane is no great thing
guess I’d rather be mad with you
Yeah

Ain’t much left in the world today
and I don’t give a damn for the words you say
for the ones I lost and the ones I had
well I stayed for a while but I musta gone mad

Ain’t much left in the world today
and I don’t give a damn for the words you say
for the ones I lost and the ones I had
well I stayed for a while but I musta gone mad

Ain’t much left in the world today
and I don’t give a damn for the words you say
for the ones I lost and the ones I had
well I stayed for a while but I musta gone mad

Ain’t much left in the world today
and I don’t give a damn for the words you say
for the ones I lost and the ones I had
well I stayed for a while but I musta gone mad
Gone mad
Gone mad
They went mad

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

The Interim : Battles and Bands 2 : Good Luck

Kid you wanna play in the band
you wanna ditch the nine to five
you say you wanna hold your fate in your hand
don’t want to have to hate your life to stay alive
kid you must be dreaming
kid you must be cracked
kid you’re fighting heavy odds
and it’s on your head they’re stacked
and the drummer lost the beat and the rhythm went to hell
and the bass player wasn’t looking too well
and the guitar player mistook the chords
and the singer’s voice cracked, he forgot the words
kid you’re looking a little sick
it ain’t as easy as you might think
maybe you lost your energy
yeah, maybe you just stink
hey kid are you leaving
hey kid are you beat
hey kid why you standing there
you think you’re gonna take the heat
don’t sell out don’t sell yourself short
don’t give in give up or give out
hey kid I can only say Good Luck
hey kid let me hear you shout
let me hear you shout

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

The Interim : Battles and Bands 1 : Sand and Ashes

I awoke from peaceful sleep
to find that I had gone too deep
by my bed there was a heap
of sand and ashes, sand and ashes

thought my body would be kept
from corruption while I slept
now there’s nothing left except
sand and ashes, sand and ashes

Hey man gun in your hand
think you’ve found the way to the promised land
all your dreams will turn to sand
and ashes in your mouth

Hey man gun in your hand
think you’ve found the way to the promised land
all your dreams will turn to sand
and ashes in your mouth

Used to have a golden touch
now I don’t add up to much
happiness is just a crutch
sand and ashes, sand and ashes

nothing left to me but vice
promises and bad advice
I took the trip, I’ll pay the price
sand and ashes, sand and ashes

Hey man gun in your hand
think you’ve found the way to the promised land
all your dreams will turn to sand
and ashes in your mouth

Hey man gun in your hand
think you’ve found the way to the promised land
all your dreams will turn to sand
and ashes in your mouth

Hey man gun in your hand
think you’ve found the way to the promised land
all your dreams will turn to sand
and ashes

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

Interim Phase 2: Battles and Bands

I was in a couple of bands in college, hastily concocted for the purpose of participating in the annual Battle of the Aforementioned, put on by the college radio station, KUMM (University of Minnesota, Morris being my alma mater). Which charmingly billed itself as the only radio station that put KUMM in your ear. The first band, the Stanley's House of Doors Band, was not very imaginatively named for the large, dilapidated, and mystifyingly over-endowed with doors rental house that all of we members lived in.

Indeed this band took first place at that year's Battle of the Bands with a set of covers and originals, a few of the latter bearing lyrics written by me. This band also later prompted one of those small world moments when I was sitting smoking a cigarette on the steps of my brother's apartment in Minneapolis and some friend of one of his fellow tenants looked strangely at me and then said "Stanley's House of Doors Band!"

The next year two of the members of that band had moved on to brighter lights and I joined my roommate in forming a new band. (We now lived in a rental trailer-home lot some enterprising slum lord had erected on the edge of town, a truly dismal little hovel up on cinder blocks, it's grim semiotics fully ameliorated by the fact that my rent there was $110 a month in 1993-1994, plus propane for the gas heater. We put heavy plastic over every window come winter and proceeded to smoke, heavily and unrepentantly, until my girlfriend (the one that came after the one I get into below) refused flatly to visit me at home any more. My roommate gave them up later in the winter. Not too long prior the school had finally banned smoking in the last few holdout spots indoors and one of the other former Stanley's Etc. bandmates, who was working maintenance crews in the summer, brought me one of the giant, silver, wall mounted ashtrays that had been stripped from the walls, a button beside the bifurcated tray to open its halves out and dump the accumulated butts into the bullet-shaped reservoir below. This I bolted to the side of the slight deck and staircase set against the side (and only) door and proceeded to smoke outside in the midst of a genuinely heinous winter on the prairie, so as to be a better influence). The name of the band was Crackspine, its genre was Hardcore, and I gamely endeavored to write hardcore lyrics in the spirit of the thing. I had a wretched case of bronchitis during the Battle of the Bands and we did not win.

Somewhere before or in and along this thing I wrote a series of connected, vaguely narrative songs called The Masks, so named for their extraordinarily clichéd central metaphor. These were inspired by a break-up, naturally, the same one that spawned the last two of the Journal Songs. In retrospect that relationship was fairly misbegotten and I was lucky to be out of it and would probably have been better off if it's total duration had been shortened by about two thirds but of course it was my first serious college relationship so I was unclear on these realities at the time.

Such as they are, then, these songs. Some were nearly lost, I dug out of the inexorably decaying disk-based data archives a rough rip from analog (VHS, to be precise) of that long ago triumphant Battle, which had been missing for a couple years now, and was in quite literally the last place I had to look. Which allowed me to transcribe a few that I'd lost all written record of. Whatever the lyrics may represent in themselves, this was the first time I really intentionally set myself to serially writing verse to be sung, and I suppose I never really stopped.

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

The Interim : Journal Songs 6 : Not Enough

2,084 : 15 ?


Love is not enough though this is what we must have thought
And I’m not sure what kind of thing we thought that we’d bought
And it was good for me to love you, though I’ve hurt it was
And if you ask me why I think it’s so, well - Just because

And If I had it all to do I’d do it all again
For I will not believe that what he had was some great sin
We made mistakes I’m sure well just like everyone must do
Don’t ask me why I feel this way, I just believe it’s true

And if I hear the rulers of this dark world at my door
Testifying that my judgment in this thing was poor
I’ll rebuke them though they might well nail me to the wall
What we had was worth it I just think so that is all

And I’m not sayin’ that we should go back to where we were
Time is come for movin’ on but of one thing I’m sure
One day we’ll all laugh together, all of us who tried
And finally get the answers, for every tear we cried

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

The Interim : Journal Songs 5 : Jenny's Song

These are the Holes you Left Behind
Holes on my walls, holes in my mind
Holes where pictures used to be
You seem nervous I look happy

I can’t believe you got so brave
That you could set both of us free
That you could say what I could see
And you tried so hard to be kind
You couldn’t save
me from the holes you left behind

I would have waited just a little more
It wouldn’t have helped but then what did
And just who am I tryin’ to kid
There’s not much for
These holes you left behind

These are the holes you left behind
I try to fill them in my mind
Try with one for two to atone
I try to smile but I’m alone

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

The Interim : Journal Songs 4 : Sometimes On My Mind

I met you in an old notebook
I kept from long ago
I though for sure that I had gotten
rid of you completely
I saw you on TV with some old friends
we both still know
I had to wonder if you were still
tryin’ to defeat me
But then I knew it couldn’t be so
I knew you must forget me
I never got to say goodbye
You know, you’d never let me
I don’t mean to say
I want you back, you know I don’t
I don’t mean to say I’m sorry
I may be, but I won’t
For I have found a truer love
I’ve left you far behind
I guess that all I had to say
Is sometimes you are on my mind
And I won’t hurt you if you wanna talk
you know I’m glad to
I never meant to cause you pain
I just did the things I had to

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

The Interim : Journal Songs 3 : Moths

2,078 : 9 ?


Moths dance for light in the window well
Radio sings with a story to tell
Blind men dream about heaven and hell
The deaf man can’t hear the warning bell
Me I just lit my last cigarette
what’s death when life seems a losing bet
wanting whatever I can’t seem to get
Life’s love the stars in their courses set
Just another war, just another defeat
Summer burns off winter’s lust for heat
Try to keep the death in my head discreet
Try not to show that my heart missed a beat
Moths know they’re destined, to light they fly
Living for hope that from here seems a lie
It’s light that they live for, for light they’ll die
Just another mote in God’s knowing eye

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

The Interim : Journal Songs 2 : Anarchist's Revenge

Absolute chaos
Trial by fire
Civilization’s
funeral pyre
End of order
Law’s demise
Anarchy is on the rise
Anarchy, Anarchy -
I’ll change the world, wait and see
Anarchy, Anarchy-
Leave the planet’s fate
To me

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

The Interim : Journal Songs 1 : Requiem

I don’t wanna die
A child of technology
I will die when it’s
the universe’s time for me
I don’t wanna die in an automobile
with a flash of light and a crash of steel
steel piercing flesh, the last thing I feel
that’s why
I don’t wanna die in an automobile

I don’t wanna die - underneath a gun
though guns don’t kill people it was Adam’s son
It was by technology the deed was done
that’s why
I don’t wanna die - underneath a gun

I don’t wanna live
A child of technology
A thousand tubes and bottles
going in and out of me
I will die in an icy stream
with only the water to hear my scream
until my body’s nature’s dream
I will die in an icy stream

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

Interim Phase 1: The Journal Songs

I kept a personal journal for a long time - from early teens to early thirties, and for a good chunk of 8 or 9 years in there wrote almost daily. At some point very early in the century I felt like it had just become a workbook where I came and inscribed a reiteration of quotidian existential sorrows against which I was making no sort of progress and I quit. Its many volumes now squat in a couple of boxes tucked back into a dim shelf in the basement, daring me to do anything at all with it. I tried intentionally reading it a couple of times (when I was in the midst of writing it I would frequently browse over older material but this habit did not persist past its active life) but always came rather quickly up against some point in my life the recollection of which was painfully unpleasant. It is not always so great to encounter relatively sincere representations of your younger selves. I kind of prefer my less documented antecedent, who I can edit mentally as needed to not be quite such a dumbass.

So to date I've only done two things with the journals since they went into the boxes. When I compiled the questionable visual document of my existence we call The Bootstrap Gospel Graphic Novel, I scanned a bunch of small, cartoon-ish self-portraits I'd sketched in the books over the years (a habit that now brings to mind the inherently solipsistic nature of the journal, not that there's anything particularly wrong with that), printed copies of them and pasted them into a multi-page collage for the book's penultimate section, entitled "Spheres of Influence."

The other thing I did, quite recently, was to go through all the books and pull out the handful of incidental song lyrics I'd written in its pages over the years. There turned out to be rather less of these than I'd expected. The thing is, I had this very clear recollection of writing half a dozen songs and assumed this would translate into at least a couple dozen, considering the ones I didn't remember writing. But it turned out I remembered almost all the songs I'd written in my journals. I also deemed some number of my versical efforts to have been intended as poems, and have permitted myself the kindness of omitting them for this project, as they are awful. In any event, these are the most juvenile of the juvenilia about to be presented, though a certain persistent sensibility is evident from the start.

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

The Interim

Which wraps it up for project one of the Songs of Days. I wrote My Masterpiece, put the book on the shelf, and wrote next to nothing, lyrically speaking, for over 4 years.

Between closing the first daily project and initiating the second we got married, bought a house, had a child. I became a homemaking parent, leaving the 40 hour week office work world for the first time since I left college. And somewhere in the first year of that new life, following a train of thought I no longer have a clear grasp on, I decided I would begin again, this time with the intent of writing 10,000 consecutive songs in as many days. The scope of this project is just shy of 27 and a half years. If I persist (and survive) the project will be completed on Saturday, September 18, 2032, half a month past my 61st birthday.

I'll begin posting those songs, whose writing is ongoing, on the 6th anniversary of their inception, May 4, 2011. In the meantime, I present:

The Interim.

Between January 7, 2011 and May 3, 2011 I'll post most of the lyrics I have written outside of the Songs of Days projects - before, during, after, in between and during again. There are not quite enough of these for daily posting until May, but it will be nice to take weekends off from blogging for a while. For those of you following along at home, look forward to the opportunity of imagining my squirming embarrassment as I present to the public for the first time the angst-ridden products of my adolescence and much, much more. Sadly some of the true gems of my youth are apparently gone for good... I remember one with a sort of D&D, horseback knight in armor theme that was really about a girl who shot me down in high school, which, damn. I can only remember a couple slight scraps of those lyrics and that is a shame. I got rid of a very great deal of personal ephemera after I graduated from college, a decision I mostly don't regret, but this product along with a lot of other youth writing was probably a victim of that purge. Anyway I'll give you what I've got.

Post Script, May 2011: Now that this project is complete, a quick guide to the various sections of the interim and links to what I wrote about them:

Phase 1. The Journal Songs, posted January 7 through January 17, 2011
Phase 2. Battles and Bands, posted January 18 through February 28, 2011
Phase 3. The Two Track Mind Era, posted March 2 through April 22, 2011
Phase 4. The Lepton Lyrics, posted April 25 through May 3, 2011

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

1,001 : 1/5/01 : My Masterpiece

I won’t stop I can’t desist or cease
Do you wanna come up for a cup?
I’ll let you see my masterpiece
I’ve got it under lock and key, I keep it under my bed
I’ve got it under a bushel basket
it’s all locked up tight inside my head
Someday I’m gonna be rich and famous
a real Picasso of verse
Maybe I’ll get something better than fame
I can’t see much that’s worse
What do you think of it so far
This row I chose to hoe on
What do you think of my Masterpiece
it’s all I have to go on
We’re rolling; nothing’s ever final
things take a life of their own
in bits and bytes and tape and vinyl
It’s time to wrap up the masterpiece
put it back up on the shelf
I don’t know call it what you will
It’s just a thing I tell myself

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

1,000 : 1/4/00 : The Inevitable

The inevitable final failure
final triumph, penultimate thrash
We’re all standing on the same line
We’ll all get knocked off by the crash
When it comes my time for leaving
I don’t want nobody to moan
I know the Kingdom’s coming baby
and this veil of flesh is just a loan
How well I know it’s just one loop
and each word we say is irrevocable
I’ll keep my counsel till the moment comes
then step up to the great inevitable
it could be tomorrow it comes
who can say it couldn’t be today
it may be that it comes never
I’ve heard it sometimes happens that way
when the inevitable final reckoning
draws my equation’s sum
I’ll pull my hand outta that pie in the sky
I’ll be holding a perfect plum

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

999 : 1/3/01 : Wage Slave Redux

2,070 : 1 ?


Roll out the red, strike up the band
come on tough guy stand an hour
in my shoes
singing the wage slave blues
It’s heart and soul baby liver and lights
Ooh lord we gonna have a time tonight
Dancing the wage slave rag
This time next year we’ll have a whole new bag
No message here no nothing surprising
‘bout the workers revolution and the radical uprising
Aw baby get that wage slave swing
wage slave redux, a man is how he fucks
aw shucks I ain’t got no excuses for
the way I am
Kicking out the wage slave jam
But forget it tonight baby
and let your attitude get right baby
Do it till you drop
hip to the wage slave hop

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

998 : 1/2/01 : Tha Afterlife

What will it be after the light goes out
will another light come one
what do you think of tha afterlife theory
or that maybe it’s been come and gone
I dreamed I died on a bus
came back as a werewolf
Forgot my fate my spectral state
I dreamed I saw the Rapture
But I didn’t get taken
But I refused to rise to that bait
Ain’t thought too much about tha afterlife theory
Tha afterlife itself or even dying
who knows what comes
I only know I’ll not waste
My time goodbying

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

997 : 1/1/01 : Rock and Roll

Rock and roll
rock and roll
rock and roll
In the beginning
God created
rock and roll
To the mountain
to the sea
to the valley, you and me
in my heart dear
in my soul
God created
rock and roll
I
Cross the Mississippi
on a bus
I don’t think I’m crazy
but you must
while they count their
Silver and gold
I escaped with Rock and roll

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