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

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

246 : 12/12/98 : Despair

It’s said the sickness unto
Death is called despair
They said it’s temporary
I know because I’ve been there
I would give a lot for fifteen
minutes of anonymity
The vectors of the possible
shrink to one in the face of infinity
Bad philosophy is
anybody’s game
But this feeling I’ve got
does not have a proper name

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

245 : 12/11/98 : Function Ghost

1,031 : 21 ?



My house of flesh is haunted by a function ghost
It plays the violin, I play the host
Form in its function the function in its form
I can’t live without it and I can’t stay warm
It’s about the size of an appleseed
It makes me worry and smoke too much weed
It makes me write but I don’t know why
I envy anyone the function ghost passes by
I’m trying to make peace with my function ghost
I’m trying to work when I’d rather coast
I’m trying to make it on my own terms
If that doesn’t work there’s always the function worms

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

244 : 12/10/98 : Thrall

Ghosts doppler in twilight
You don't know the half of what goes on
Gone but not forgotten
What do you expect to learn that they've known so long
Hound howl for water
Cats yowl for rain
and I've got a feeling
You'll lose what you gain
I haven't got a nickel
I'm happy as I am
I'm smarter than your average crab
I'm happy as a clam
The dogs bay at the setting sun
The cats pray to the moon
I do believe the hunt is on
not a minute too soon
Darkling in the moonlight
Watch me change my stripes
Watch me change before your eyes
Watch me blow my pipes
Crimson clean and gorgeous red
Crawling up the wall
Everything looks better when you're dead
Dappled in the twilight thrall

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

243 : 12/9/98 : Virtue Is Its Own Reward

No good deed goes unpunished
virtue is its own reward
I am not afraid anymore
In a world like this I’ll never get bored
I woke up with a taste in my mouth like rum
I remembered the feeling that I had
When my little boat was sucked into the maelstrom
I remember well it was very bad
And someday I’m going to die
I hope it’s not in some dismal hospital bed
But I guess what difference does it make
It’s all the same place when you’re dead
I guess it all comes down to a sense of style
A day is the longest thing there is
And a year is a long roll along a miracle mile
I guess the whole crazy world is part of the biz
I have become so very silent
I think I’ll practice being asleep
I guess I ought to consider my options
I’ve got a caution about the company I keep
You think one more line is gonna fix anything
You think you can prop it up another day
You think the same old lines are gonna set you reeling
I tell you a man ain’t nothing but clay

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

242 : 12/8/98 : Am I Fooling Myself?

Am I fooling myself?
To think that things work out
For the best all the time
And asked to explain what I’m about
I find I’m straining to reach the shelf
If I am I wish you’d tell me now
I think I have a right to know
I really wish I knew
why I’m always sad and blue
I wish I knew where to go
or who to call to tell me how
A man is meant to answer
The questions that defy us
That rattle round inside our skulls
The answer to this dread that pulls
and tries to crucify us
I’m just a singer and a dancer
Trying to make a living with my la di da
trying like every living thing
Pushing through to foregone conclusion
Hoping it’s not an illusion
Hoping I’m not fooling
Myself as I swing on my parabola

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

241 : 12/7/98 : Seven Lines

Seven lines strung taught in steel
six plus one inside of me
Strung too tight it’s all I feel
Tension and the wish to be free
One end’s pegged on what is real
Wound and winding humming slightly
Other end points to the center makes me kneel

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

240 : 12/6/98 : The Change

It wasn’t what was expected
it was something so strange
it wasn’t anything simple
this new thing, the change
it happened everywhere at once
everybody knew when it came
nobody was sure how to feel about it
nobody knew how to give it a name
the scales will tip the scales will tumble
the scales will fall down from your eyes
when the change is complete
no one understands it; everybody tries
Everything is always changing
everybody needs a little push
a bird in the hand is worth exactly
the same as a bird in the bush
And he’s counting every sparrow’s fall
of that you can be sure
when the change is reckoned
You will be counted if your heart is pure

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

239 : 12/5/98 : Revolution

The revolution will not come
when the computers crash
The revolution will not be
paid for with cash
The revolution will not arrive
riding on the millennium
You’ll all be surprised
At how the revolution will come
The spirit’s in the blood
that’s the fuel of revolution
so keep it in your veins friend
The dead won’t be part of the solution
There’s revolution every hour
We all get one once per day
Our blood ebbs and flows with the tide
And we ride this thing together
there isn’t any other way
the future is no one’s possession
no man holds time in his power
it’s just a thing we all reach at the same speed
sixty seconds every hour.

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

238 : 12/4/98 : Complications

Life is filled with complications
cul-de-sacs and limitations
Laying bets on shaky chance
Big Magnet guides our jerky dance
I get slayed by hesitations
second-guessing my creations
when the day is done
Trapped in orbit like the sun
I am filled with indignation
want a bigger daily ration
Guess you call that covetousness
But it’s simply restlessness
When I accept my situation
I’ll be fit to lead a nation
out of false economy
and finally to autonomy

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

regulary scheduled programming

Back to business, after briefly giving everything over to promotion of the album. But before going into a (I hope) long stretch of uninterrupted song posting, a little conversation.

I've had a little post-project depression with the release of the album. It's the culmination of an intentional process of archiving creative output of the last decade or so (mostly - some of it goes back as much as 20 years) that first surfaced with establishing the text archive over at (warning - prominent f-word alert) It's Rome, Baby!. It started out with just wanting to tame what had become a tangled mess of computer files, but over time I suppose it became a sort of protracted contemplation of what I've been about, artistically speaking, from a bit of a height.

And it ends with perhaps some inevitable let-down. I generally try to view the reward of what I'm doing as being intrinsic to the process and primarily in service of my own clarity. Writing and making music does something salutary for my brain, and it is for this benefit that I continue. Even so, after putting a significant amount of time into organizing and presenting these little exhibitions, there is small but vocal part of me saying holy hell, man, what in the world are you up to?

But vocal or not, it hasn't stopped me, so I guess, there you go.

I recently started the first really long conceptual series of the second songs of days project. It's based on the Tao Teh Ching, that curt and enigmatic book of ancient Chinese philosophy I've read so many times with little wisdom penetrating my brain, as far as I can tell. The writing goes easily, but I'm not sure how I feel about the product. As is usual with the songs, though, this is no reason to drop the concept - there are 81 sections in the Tao, I've been at it a few weeks, in a couple months it will be done, regardless.

I've been doing much better writing the songs on their assigned days, which is ever the fundamental and elusive goal of the project. I haven't fallen more than a song or two behind for a while. But I'm still tending to slip and miss a day at least every week or two, mainly on the weekends. Still don't quite have that continuity down.

Nevertheless, persist.

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

237 : 12/3/98 : Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

1,017 : 7 ?


I’m a great big man
I’ve got great big ideas
About the way the world should be run
About the way the truth can free us
You can see I’m sincere
You can see I’m well adjusted
You can see I’m a fine catch
You can see I can be trusted
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
That little guy’s not important that’s for certain
I’ve got my finger on the pulse
I’m a visionary man
You can see I’m larger than life
You can see I’m special yes you can
My head’s a floating archetype
I’m a diamond in the rough
I’m a poet and a profit
And all kinds of special stuff
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
With his crazy bells and whistles he looks so uncertain

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

allow me to re-introduce myself

Note March 26, 2010: The information below is no longer current. Watch my main page for current announcements on available recordings

Rebroadcast of the songs of days first project circa 1998 has been interrupted for the Fever'd! Announcement!! Of!!!

Only the Very Greatest Hits, a collection of my favorite recordings of my original music from the last 10 years, available for sale as a digital download. You can preview the whole album here, and here's a sample:

-=sample not available=-

Released in honor of the writing of the 2,000th song of the day project song, like a week ago. Only $1.35 for 29 MP3 tracks plus art and lyrics: it's a statement about overpricing in the digital marketplace! It's a fashion statement that will single you out as one of the new desiderati overclass!! It's nothing short of the bootstrap gospel! Why not buy it during the present?!

236 : 12/2/98 : Puzzlebox

You put all the good stuff in a puzzlebox
one man gathers what another mocks
And I’ll work it out you know I will
I’d figure it out if I could just stay still...
Rotate the top or make the corner slide
there’s a secret button on the side
I can look but You don’t let me touch
I could walk away if I could just find my crutch...
Someday I’ll work it and find a white stone
Etched with a secret name for me alone
I’ll put it under my tongue
Someday someday when I am no longer young

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

235 : 12/1/98 : Assault of the Die-Hard Land Crabs

Up out of the ocean out on land
No more slow evolution in dribs and drabs
Ain’t got no opposable thumb, ain’t got no hand
It’s the assault of the die-hard land crabs
The earth prepared a defense in advance
held for the moment of ultimate decay
nothing’s been left up to chance
This is the hour this is the day
In the fathomless caves of trenches deep
Terrible pressure in hollows no human eye has seen
Some fearsome armored thing is waking from it’s sleep
Some kind of horribly perfect killing machine
They’re die-hard, they’re not designed to stop
They've got a job and mean to do it
Watch them rising to the top
Watch them getting right down to it
Deep in the night while you’re peaceful drifting
Wondering what tomorrow will bring
Somewhere sunny they’re already sifting
through the debris of what’s left of our thing

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

234 : 11/30/98 : End of November

The end of November
The last thing I remember
I smoked a passion flower leaf just for kicks
I was thinking about my escape clause
when the night came to a serious pause
And that little trident leaf started to play tricks
I believed that everything was all right
I believed in an eternal right
I thought I had a sight of my objective
And all night long
I heard a little song
It said all you need is a change is a change your perspective
And all night through
I listened for you
And all the night I hummed and muttered
Perspective’s not that hard
I always thought I’d be a bard
But I know which side my bread is buttered...

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

233 : 11/29/98 : Thinking About the Last Thing I’ll Think About When I Go

995 : 3 ?


I wonder what the last idea
I’ll ever have will be
Will I be figuring it all out
When Mr. Reaper comes to me
As I fade away and fall
down the tunnel, to the light
Will I see the solution
Will my last belief be right
or will I be thinking about
something trivial and inane
Be glad you’re not in my head friend
this kind of thinking drives a man insane
I hope I’m not thinking about
the last thing I’ll think about
when I go,
when I go

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

232 : 11/28/98 : I Can’t Wait

I can’t save the world because I’m stupid weak and small
I can’t save myself because I do not know myself at all
I can’t save money because I can’t make enough
I can’t save this song from being sloppy short and rough
There’s no pleasure in writing for writing’s sake
There’s no pleasure in the chances you are forced to take
There’s no pleasure in being right if all is wrong
There’s no pleasure in a short and stupid song
I could take a chance and throw myself at fortune’s feet
I could take a long look at the people I meet
I could take advantage of them for my own gain
I could take pleasure in their pointless pain
I can’t keep at it but I can’t quite stop
I can’t keep my head on the block waiting for the chop
I can’t keep saying the same things over and over
I can’t wait until I’m pushing up clover

233 : 11/29/98 : Thinking About the Last You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

231 : 11/27/98 : The Hour Before

In the hour before the madness started
I reaffirmed myself to you
I swore that my love would be true
An hour before we were parted

In the hour before the torrent began
You promised me a tale
You showed me a glimpse beyond the vale
An hour before you and I and everybody ran

In the hour before the stars were falling
We tied a lovers’ knot
Exchanged a vow on this very spot
An hour before the universe came calling

The hour before the hour before
We didn’t have the slightest clue
Anyway we wouldn’t have known what to do
An hour later nothing made sense anymore

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

230 : 11/26/98 : A Simple No Would Suffice

I don’t mind it that you haven’t called in years
I don’t mind it that you don’t return my calls
I don’t mind being stranded boiling in my fears
I don’t mind being left to climb the walls
But the way you give me exactly what I don’t need
the way you kick me when I take your advice
the way you mock me even as I chant your creed
a simple no would suffice

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

229 : 11/25/98 : More on the Devil

The Devil has his tongue
shoved far up this world’s ass
The movable cannibal feast it’s all become
You take your fill I think I’ll pass
I can see the Devil has two fingers
poised above your eyes
It’s hard to believe but when he
blinds you it will come as a surprise
I don’t want to deal with you
any more you’re puppets
Following every blind lead
Falling when they yank the carpets
If I could just get away
from you for a moment
All your vicious energy would
effervesce away like the sea foam went

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

228 : 11/24/98 : Catastrophic Reasoning

989 : 1 ?


I keep waiting for the hammer to come down
I keep waiting for the snap
Catastrophic reasoning a mad king in a cocked crown
An unsubtle lure into a crude trap
Meanwhile I am shaped by hidden forces
Blind to the essential details I miss
All I hear is “well, of courses”
Drowning out my simple bliss
Who turns the crank of feast and famine
Who creates this tale of woe
The excuses are wearing thin
The sand in the hourglass is low

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

227 : 11/23/98 : The Worst Thing About the Devil

The worst thing about the devil
he hides in unexpected places
sneaking past the kitchen window
Leering out past familiar faces
The terrible thing about Satan
he never ever rests
He’s got a hankering for your soul
He’s got a goal for the time he invests
The real bitch of Beelzebub
there’s no end to his appetite
He wants to swallow everything
He wants all subsumed in Endless Night
The worst thing about the devil
He simply can’t exist
In the absence of any good thing
he’s simply a nothingness

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

226 : 11/22/98 : Single Cell

We sing a song ancient in a way
That makes you seem like flash of fireflies
On a warm September night
Our numbers are so vast on any given day
More of or ranks will fall and rise
Than you will ever introduce to the great fight
We wage our age old war
With spore and yeast and mold
You were never a big part of our program
You’d be surprised what we’ve used you for
You are young and we are very old
We’ve been on you since the blue ocean you swam
And if we all chose to leave this little sphere
Your ecology would fail and you would fall
But if you all disappeared in a snap
We would hardly notice you weren’t here
I don’t think we’d really miss you at all
In an eyeblink we would cover over the gap
You left behind when you went
We would go about our business
It doesn’t matter to us either way
Any one of us is just a fragment
And any of you may find that the duress
Of a single cell will bring down your dying day

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

225 : 11/21/98 : World for Sale

World for sale... slightly used
The indigenous ecosystems are slightly abused
But there’s an infrastructure for power

6 or 7 billion sentient souls strong
All shapes and sizes though they seldom get along
An excellent choice of slaves to build the landing tower

Final closeout - everything must go
Oceans and continents, deserts and mountain snow
There’s no serious offer I won’t consider

It’s a bit of a fixer upper, true
But I’m ready to talk business with you
Let’s get around the table and find the highest bidder

We’re not doing much with what we’ve got
We think we’re doing okay but we’re not
Any discerning customer can see the wasted potential

Call me at the office send a fax
I’ve got the appropriate documents sealed with wax
As you can imagine time and discretion are essential

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

224 : 11/20/98 : Mexican Chocolate

The other day when I was buying
that Mexican chocolate you used to mix with coffee
back in the day five years ago or more
I tried to remember the way your face looked
when you said something
My mother had said to me fifteen years before
She said sooner or later
You’re going to find out you don’t
have all the time in the world
I haven’t proven either of you wrong yet
I stood back while the ghosts of memories
walked past me and swirled
Away and I can’t remember
how your face looked at all
When you said that about something completely
different, and I remember that even then
I couldn’t remember
Why my mom said that to me

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

223 : 11/19/98 : Killed Constantine

982 : 10 ?


I went back in time and killed Constantine
I went back and kept the living image of Aman alive
I taught him to build factories instead of pyramids, what foolishness
I started a strange chain reaction in the human hive

I brought the wise graybeards and crones to Egypt
Gave them a hint or two and let them go
And in the momentary vacuum of power I created
I watched the strange flower of human technology grow

What are we creating why are we creating
Do we want the thing that we are making
What’s it going to look like things are pretty bad now
Do we understand what kind of risks we’re taking

This might not make interesting conversation
But I understand that a society which lacks
a coherent vision and does not value
the worth of its people will soon become a figurine of wax

Another failed nation leaving only
The unwieldy monuments to its profligate decline
Someday barbarians will wonder
At our stupid boring artifacts all covered in kudzu vine

If we sought a common current now
Something different might happen anyways
As it is we’re a bust friend
We all just make it through the day to days

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

222 : 11/18/98 : Form & Function

Form follows function
Let’s see what kind of shape I’m in
If I’m so smart why ain’t I rich
I seem to have acquired a toxic spin
As of this writing the chips are down
As of this writing I’m contemplating driving
Over the river and through the woods
Find some other method of arriving
At a conclusion that doesn’t seem forgone
Stack it up any way you like
Ain’t nothing like a rhymed couplet
When your genius goes on strike
demanding better digs and better pay
better drugs better sleep and a firm objective
An artist can’t be expected to work under these conditions
Check the Geneva Convention and the prime directive
check the bible and check the law
check with my mother she’s sure to agree
that I’m doing the best I can
My mom she always sides with me
What I can’t swallow the wurm digests
Its form and function are perfectly aligned
It has its task it has its no it has its yes
It knows the work it’s been assigned

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

221 : 11/17/98 : Climb

That’s not the way to make it
You can’t sit back and take it
They’ll do it to you if you let them
What things you need go out and get them
What you need to do you must do it
Takes more than good intentions to get through it
You just gotta climb, motherfucker
You’ll reach your peak in time motherfucker
And then you’ll be the big man
You’ll have the fanciest keel on your catamaran
Will you be extra happy then
Find a new hill to climb start all over again
We’re a funny part of nature
Don’t quite fit the nomenclature
Crazy creatures crazy for strange delights
Honor and glory and the name up in lights
I’ll kick back and watch you heathens claw
I’m ready with my hammer and my saw
I’ll build my boat while you labor
I’ll beat a different rhythm on my tabor
No more climbing for this boy
No more will the bastards vex and annoy
No more to let it get to my head
I’ve got my boat I’ve got my daily bread
I’ve got a plan I’ve got a mission
I’ve got a paper that explains my position
Tacked up on my wall
I’ve got it made, I’ve got it all

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

220 : 11/16/98 : Over With

Let’s just fucking get it over with
thank God all the patterns and schemes are foundered
I can’t forget the way you watched and threw me
concrete-filled life preservers while I floundered
I’ve got a pile of bricks and a deep hole
I’ll build a vault to rock my cradle right into the grave
No one’s coming to rescue me are they
What made me think I was worth the trouble to save
this isn’t helping I know that for sure
Nothing ever helps not in the long run
and the long run’s all I’ve got to work with
such a long and strangely pointless pilgrimage under the sun
You gave your favorite signs and portents
you gave me a barrel full of doubts and dubious desires
You gave me the notion of of finding a better way
But I don’t know who you got to pull my wires
I’m sick of waiting and wondering always on the down
This is a mockery, a waste of time that profits not
I’m supposed to be glad I’m breathing still
I’m supposed to make do with the little I’ve got
You gave me a stone for a heart and a mind restless and bright
but not quite bright enough to pull out victory
And the heart’s not quite a stone enough
To free me from the burden of my own pathetic history
I said I wouldn’t do this anymore
I’d save my pages for a finer paradigm
I haven’t got the wherewithal to fight it
Not tonight I’ve got neither inclination or time

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

219 : 11/15/98 : Tales of Johnny Shoemaker

My Johnny was a shoemaker
He was bland as buttered bread
At least that was the way he was
Before he got that idea in his head
To sail the shining sea, shining sea
To sail the shining sea
He said to me he said
Listen listen to me baby
I saw a road in my dreams that went a long way down
I saw a road that went all the way around
I swear I got to let that road carry me
I swear to you that’s where I’m bound
Oh but some day he’ll be wrapped in glory
then he’ll come back home
And marry me
And he’ll be so very different
We’ll be so very free

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

Happy New Year

Although I broke a pretty good streak of songs written without missing a day (as you can see by my sad little score of 4 in the minutes-ago status update), I managed to keep caught up through a genuinely hectic holiday season - it's a Song of the Day Christmas miracle!

The last posting also marks the completion of my blogging of Song of the Day volume 1.2, Record. Starting on January 2nd I'll begin blogging volume 1.3, The Functional Notebook.

And in less than 25 days the 2,000th Song of the Day will be written. Keep watch for an exciting announcement!

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

218 : 11/14/98 : Rasta Billy Skank

976 : 4 ?


There’s an old man a very old man
And he’s forgotten more songs than I’ll ever know
And I always stop to talk to him when I can

He’s down in the bars by the docks where the old ships come and go
Old man old rasta man his hair all cloud gray dread
He said a son I forgotten a lot but there’s one thing I know

He looked at me and this is what he said
There’s a road that goes a long way down there’s a road that goes a long way around
He look an’ he wink at me that old billy goat put ideas in my head

He say lift up your head and listen to the sound
Everytime I pick up my fiddle get that same skin slither skank
I spent so many years on that road, would not go aground

And so many people tell me that sound was money in the bank
But man I never could find a reason to sell
They told me to turn my fiddle for something you play with a crank

And it makes me laugh and say it’s just as well
You ain’t gonna find any answers anyplace you call hell

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

This Christmas, give the gift of infrequent updates

Updates will be pretty sparse through New Year's or so. Merry Christmas!

217 : 11/13/98 : Anything

I always say I haven’t learned anything
That’s not true I am a grim grim man
And maybe that’s my fault
You always say look on a bright side
You’re right but it’s not something I can
Always do some things stay locked in the vault
Anything is good enough for me
Better than nothing it must be
Better than the fearsome void
What have we learned today
Well if you can trust me
Surely we won’t be destroyed
And it makes me laugh and shake my head
All the things all the things we do
It makes me want to spin
Around around around around
I’m laughing but it’s true
It’s all gonna happen again

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

216 : 11/12/98 : Hit Song Video Concept

I woke up with a bad taste in my mouth
left over from the things that I said back to you
the other day when you hung me out to dry
the other day when you told me we were through

I walked out on the streets alone
All the people couldn’t see how much
I was holding inside and hiding away
the hole I’m left without your touch

I got up on the roof of a tall building
and looked down on all the little people below
I can’t understand how I can get so high
and end up down so low

I went to a night club to drown my sorrows
But the music couldn’t reach my heart
And all the happy dancing people couldn’t see
the way my love for you was tearing me apart

In a couple weeks when I’ve gotten over you
another someone will be coming along
And it’s a good thing there are bills to pay
I’ll have to write another hit song

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

215 : 11/11/98 : Goin’ Around

957 : 0 ?


It’s very funny but I’m not laughing
I’m crazy with a capital kay
If you’re not hearing the questions I’m asking
There’s nothing more I can say
You say you want a little more
Well everybody agrees
You think you’re what the good stuff’s for
You’re all so very hard to please
But I don’t have to make a sound
‘Cause the world just keeps on going around

You say I take too much for granted
That I’m always reaching for the moon
I say I take whatever I can get my hands on
life’s too short to give up too soon
I keep on my lucky star’s light
Well it keeps me on my toes
And if I end up staying out all night
Well when’s the last time you watched
when the sun rose
Don’t worry and don’t make a sound
Whatever you do the world just keeps on goin’ around

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

214 : 11/10/98 : Wage Slave Redux (II)

I don’t care to write a song about it
I suppose I think it’s all my fault
There’s nothing but a wage slave’s dinner on my plate
I work so hard for my little bit of salt
I suppose that I should feel blessed
I suppose that I should count my lucky stars
I don’t care to argue with you about it
Unless you have the time to count my wage slave scars
I guess I should be proud of what I’ve done
I guess at everything these days it’s true
I used to know some stuff I guess
I used to think I knew the way through
My shoes are still smoking from hell’s floor
I’ve still got ice in my hair
My head’s still reeling reeling
from hovering through the fog and filthy air
I’d like to make a big declaration
I’d like to stand up on my desk
With my mouth full of peyote buttons
grinning numb on mary jane and mesc
I’d like to rattle these saps cages
Show them all the shit my skull holds down
I’d like to dance right out the door
Just for a change be my own clown
But I sit and write a song about it instead
Can three thousand wrongs make a right
When I write my millionth song
Will God open up the box and let in the light

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

213 : 11/9/98 : What the Trees Might Say

If I threw down the shackles
of expectation and ignorance
If I threw my watch down the gutter
I could not reclaim my innocence
If I gave it all away
And went into the forest green
And waited to hear what the trees might say
I might find I couldn’t understand what they mean
The trees might say
You’ve gone down a long, long road
They might be amused by me
Such a long journey to figure out where the water flowed
You might go to hell and back
And you might write a million songs
That would take three thousand years
I don’t think I’ve got that long
They might say come sit down under
any one of us and figure it all out
It doesn’t matter which we’re all strangely the same
Feel free to wrestle with your doubt
While we go on
The way we’ve always done and always will
That’s what the trees might say
If I had the time to kill

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

Take that windmill

So, that's the end of what I affectionately referred to as "My Pathetic Little Inferno." I've also finished transcribing the second volume of the songs of the day, first project, although there are half a dozen songs left to post. 2 down, 12 to go (except of course I'm generating new books full at the same time).

Writing that mess was an ambiguous experience and transcribing it was too. As a formal work, I mean as actual songs or poems, I have to consider it a failure. The meter is tortured to the point of nonexistence, the narrative is patchy. It's barely readable, let alone singable. It was a real chore to write and throughout I seriously questioned my motivations. I still do. I question the whole thing.

For all that there's a lot going on in that series. Technically, however much a failure it is structurally (and indeed artistically) it pushed my facility for rhyming to the limit - as I mentioned in a prior comment I have never used any kind of rhyming dictionary or similar aid. And for me it was an interesting exercise, theologically, to insert myself fictionally into Dante's medieval hell. The doctrine of hell seems a serious contradiction to the putative compassion of Christianity. And while I am about the opposite of orthodox I don't think it is a doctrine that is easily disposed of without abandoning the canonical Gospels entirely. This conflict becomes a running theme of the series.

Whatever it is, it's done. As to my doubts about the larger project, I persist nonetheless. The two thousandth song of the daily projects (1001 songs completed in the first song plus 999 songs in the second project in less than a couple months) will be written soon, and with it will come an Exciting Announcement. Meanwhile, more songs starting tomorrow, and we'll be getting into volume three, project one in about a week.

212 : 11/8/98 : In The Middle (II) (Canto 34)

We trekked across the ice heading for the middle
that lay a hundred yards beyond
The edge of the great smoking griddle

The pit where I would release the bond
I’d taken at the iron door
And we stood and I bent in the wind like a frond

of a plant that bloomed too late for
the season it was born
And Eliot pointed to the ice floor

And said I’ve shown you what I’d sworn
I would so meditate a moment on the luck
of those below that are planted like an acorn

Frozen in the frozen muck
And I said hey it’s not that the wind blows
that hole has a serious suck

That’s where all the evil goes
he said onward Christian soldier into hell
The sinners frozen under your feet

They’ll wake again for the final bell
but for now it’s just you and the prince
It’s time you finished what you started when you fell...

There will be no violence
cast yourself to the crater
Hereafter, ever after, ever since

You’ll know what it was good for later
so go and take your leap
Get on the escalator

Going down, you’ve promises to keep
back in your sunny town
Miles to go before you sleep

I won’t see you again not down
there in the dreamless time
So say goodbye here destiny’s clown

And I thought back on my downward climb
I clasped my guardian’s hand
And I scuffed my shoes of the icy rime

I picked traveling over that land
and took a running start
And didn’t look to see ol’ T.S. watch me from his stand

I just leapt out into the heart
Out into the middle of it all
And I flew towards the center like a dart

I twisted in the great stony hall
Past where the fog cleared
At a great chamber, a sphere I felt my fall

slow as the last denizen appeared
Hew was as small as a walnut
But I felt his mass pull at me as a I neared

I almost slowed to a stop but
I was still moving as I passed
His eyes were closed his chin rested on his gut

A dark aura around him was cast
A kernel a seed of evil stone
a tiny seethingly still iconoclast

I felt the pull on sinew and bone
I rotated once when I faced him
And drifted slowly slowly, helpless and alone

But before I could grow to grim
I picked up speed the other way
So soon I saw the outer rim

of the way out I saw the new day
was dawning on the other side
And I was weightless free I didn’t have to stay

And so I just stayed on the ride
rose above the atmosphere
And from my freefall orbit glide

I saw the planet hell laid out tier by tier
The grooves cut deep the levels I never knew
From way out there was no pain or fear

And my distance grew and grew
And I felt myself passing through

fin

This song is the last of a series loosely based on Dante's Inferno. You can read an essay about this series here. You can read a more general explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

211 : 11/7/98 : Cocytus (II) (Canto 33)

954 : 2 ?


I was getting cold and stamping my feet
and a silence rose in the wake of our conflict
which T.S. broke saying here’s a pair you need to meet

I think that you may think me derelict
in my office as your guide
You fail to see the limitations on me are strict

You’re looking in on this from the outside
And you judge what you see in haste
And fail to see inner truth that will abide

When providence sees you once again placed
in your home; but now observe
These I have pointed out frozen to the waist

And deemed by hell fit to deserve
the punishment of being paired
Locked together here at the next to last curve

of this frozen hell: so ask what sin they shared
they were locked in struggle, the clawed and scratched
So I kicked them about the heads till both glared

Up at me, and one of them unlatched
his tongue and said hell has made us twins
In mockery of how we were from the world snatched

So monstrous were our sins
We killed our kin and ate our young
So now we struggle here and neither wins

And I said yeah but have you learned your lesson
Do you think your punishment is just
I have become confused, I’m not the only one

Who finds himself hard-pressed to trust
The Vision of this pit of fire and ice
So tell me, then from where you’re frozen in the crust

Locked forever in the diabolical vice
Listen then said the one that I’d invited
to speak; and understand the nature of the prize

We are joined who were divided
by hatred as unnatural as a tree’s for a leaf
We share the fate of all who have incited

Their fellows to abandon unity for grief
All are born to die
And our walk under the sun is brief

And you will understand if you try
That it is all simply allegory
False unity from false division meets your eye

Can you not comprehend the simple moral of this story
We are all joined by blood by fear by pain
Yet we all deny our unity and so deny the glory

That might be all the way back to Cain
All who will not join must then remain

This song is part of a series loosely based on Dante's Inferno. You can read an essay about this series here. You can read a more general explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

210 : 11/6/98 : Cocytus (I) (Canto 32)

We were lifted down on a giant’s palm
I couldn’t stop the spinning in my head
We stepped off onto ice and I felt a qualm

I don’t know where I am I said
I am no better than a dog
I might as well be down among the dead

I was looking into the icy fog
that from afar I had mistook for smoke
well are you gonna stand all day agog

my guide said, do you take this as a joke?
There’s nothing funny about it is there
so gather up your cloak

and let’s get onto where
we have been bound to travel
there’s no time to stare

at those who wait for the great judge’s gavel
to lay down judgment with a mighty strike
who wait for it all to unravel

and I said man you know what I’d like
I’d like something to make a tiny bit of sense
and I’ve never been down this strange a pike

but here in the devil’s demesne
I don’t feel like I’m finding a single clue
It’s all just static more interference

I’ve got no insight into the evil that men do
I have no idea why I’m here
And he said I’ve been over all of this with you

And I thought that everything was very clear
let’s have this conversation one more time
Try not to let it all fly out the other ear

your head is wrapped up in reason and rhyme
you’re obsessed over the question why
but when you’re facing the uncertain and sublime

these questions ring hollow while real truth passes by
open your eyes and look around
you aren’t here to find out how come we have to die

I looked up at the stone sky, I looked at the icy ground
I looked at all the sinner sliding listlessly
I listened and I didn’t make a sound

Let’s go I finally said it doesn’t matter to me
sometimes you simply have to get things done
I feel I’ve been at this a month and I can tell you honestly

It hasn’t been a lot of fun
all I want to do anymore is get back underneath the sun

This song is part of a series loosely based on Dante's Inferno. You can read an essay about this series here. You can read a more general explanation of the origin of these lyrics here