387 : 5/2/99 : Chaosium (The Inertia Machine 21/36)

1,401 : 38 ?


Welcome back to the chaosium
Gee it’s like you’d never gone
Everything’s just as it was before
the truth seems stupider these days
guess it’s my old fashioned ways
I never knew I was such a prisoner
That’s an old story boy
Fate can make a man a toy
Fate can make a man renounce his creed
our works are wrapped around our wills
One man reaps what another tills
And the social bargain is fulfilled in another filthy deed
Welcome back to the chaosium hotel
Here are all the old friends you knew so well
Such a crew of ragtag rulers just like in the movies man
And if we want it all to change it can

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

386 : 5/1/99 : The Pill (The Inertia Machine 20/36)

Son you’re mentally ill won’t you please take the pill
I don’t know if I will I prefer where I am I prefer
things dark ma’am there’s no room here for glam
there’s no room now for big hair or train
tracks that go there or blue skies and clean air
He’s a star by his looks I’ve seen his kind in books
I know all his best hooks there’s nothing new
even among the best and he’s just like
all the rest his soul is half undressed by madness
on all sides bordered take it son please it’s just what
the doctor ordered I’d rather be drawn and
quartered take it don’t you know it’s for your good
can’t live if I have to wear that hood my eyes
cleared and I saw where I stood my eyes
looked back behind I saw the moon was
on my mind it hung there like a gnawed-at rind
it hangs around the way it will I watch it
clock and chart its fill until it shines a full round pill
with madness steaming in its gears I shut my
eyes and stop my ears I’m scared enough without
the moon’s fears scared enough to stick out my
tongue let them bust me down another rung
Let them blow the cork and pull the bung and
let it all come boiling out watch out it’ll
be a rout that leaves the strongest man with
little clout watch which pills I’m given
you think this is crazy you should see me when I’m
driven I thrive on forgotten and unforgiven
I drive on and go straight through here to
nowhere me to you the pill the poem and what is true

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

385 : 4/30/99 : Signs of Spring (The Inertia Machine 19/36)

You’d think I’d had enough of doom and damnation
You’d think that I’d be ready to relax the rules
But on and on I go this unsuccessful delineation
Of a perfect system of government for fools
Think about wouldn’t you think a clever kid like me
Would finally figure out the scales are permanently bent
Sometimes the chips fall against you other times the ride is free
And when you’re on the skids it does no good to ask where your luck went
I find it hard to believe there’s a hidden meaning in the words I sing
I can’t believe I’m any closer than I was before
What mystification it must be a sign of spring
The way my luck went walking out the door
What does it mean it’s nothing a con job
Pay no attention do not ask about it
Just thinking about it makes the vessels in my temples throb
I want to climb the ziggurat and shout it
That the whole wide world is a maze of misperception
And you cannot lay your and on anything
And if you come around and find a cold reception
Well I guess it just must be the signs of spring

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

384 : 4/29/99 : Strife (The Inertia Machine 18/36)

Given as we were to faction
Given as we were to strife
we found we couldn't pry ourselves
away from all this modern life
Given as we were to dispute
always cutting out our neighbor
we found competition didn't
really optimize our labor
There's always disagreement
Some good reason we can't get along
and you're a bigger fool than I thought
if you think the answer's in a song
Given a fine chance to save the world
we found we can only reflect what we are
disaffected striving blindly
Darkly crossed by some dark star

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

383 : 4/28/99 : Cataract (The Inertia Machine 17/36)

Where is the cataract in my eye
the void that is blocking my vision
between what is perceived to be
and what we hope for and what
it seems could be, there
is the cataract in the
impulse of moments
in a flash of inattention
in the sly assumption of some
universal principle of slack
The gap yawns open and
society falls through the
cracks again

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

382 : 4/27/99 : Parthenon Blues (The Inertia Machine 16/36)

1,394 : 31 ?


In the beginning they say
there was one mind one being
The meaning of the division
or separation, or
creation of the many
minds is shrouded in mystery
Lord, it’s not so easy to
know anymore
I wish I was back at the Parthenon
when abstraction had not gotten so far along
Lord there’s just not enough mind
to go around these days
I’m dying for the valleys of my youth
when we stood in the shade of the
fine things we’d made when
the music of the spheres was clearer
I guess if they had the option
they’d take a turn in my shoes
But there’s no trading places this
turn round oh it gives me the Parthenon Blues

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

381 : 4/26/99 : The Chaos (The Inertia Machine 15/36)

The Chaos, this pervasive static
cannot completely disguise
The patterns of an underlying meaning
from forming before my eyes
The chaos they say was introduced
by a virus into the system’s core
No one knows whether God or man made it
we just know it wasn’t there before
Under the lens an image coalesces
Like smoke turning to words in the air
Spells out a signal from the heart of darkness
That spins at the center of the Spidergod’s lair
Where do all the useful moments go?
What further process does entropy’s engine drive
They all wind up in heaven you know
Almost nobody gets there alive
I just can’t imagine things being any worse than they are
and if I’m to fall apart that isn’t any great loss
even universes go to pieces by and by
and all around it all dissolves in the Chaos

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

380 : 4/25/99 : The Theory (The Inertia Machine 14/36)

So the theory goes
Each life each mind each moment
is encoded is embedded
is infinitely present in the universal structure
in the fabric of time
so the theory goes
beyond life beyond mind beyond the moment
that is all we can receive
we will all rise again
we will all exist
or to put it another way
we will have already existed
we will all be together
we will all be present
so the theory goes
but proposes no suggestion
of the nature of the being
we shall become

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

379 : 4/24/99 : The Disagreement (The Inertia Machine 13/36)

The disagreement involved a resolution by the
committee to establish a fixed frame of cardinal
directions to be used for the organized division
of known space into a theoretical grid.
It was agreed unanimously that the benefits
of a fixed frame of reference would be
profound in ecumenical studies of astronomy,
temporal logistics, naturally in space exploration.
The disagreement occurred over which direction
was to be deemed “up.” There was a surprising
diversity of opinions on the subject. It was
astonishing how vehemently each participant
held to the particular set of barely
articulated assumptions and cultural
prejudices that gave rise to
a specific definition of up. The entire
project threatened to founder the first
day, before a single point was
triangulated. Fortunately, an older
scholar of spiritual texts, who was there
mainly for the luncheon, suggested they
simply make a new system of measurements -
new cardinal points, new axis coordinates -
and assign them randomly. “Each of
us,” he said, “will in the inmost heart
know which way is truly up.”

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

378 : 4/23/99 : Bubblegum Royale (The Inertia Machine 12/36)

1,388 : 25 ?




Isn't it all bright and shining
Isn't it all sharp
Isn't it all precious with the
strumming of the harp
Look at all the fine deceptions
marvel at the sound
Build the better sucker trap
and watch the path they pound
Watch the way they track the next fix
watch them start to drool
Watch the slack-jawed yokels
watch this century's best power tool
All wrapped in an acid treat
your Bubblegum Royale
Your narcissistic, solipsistic
pablum puking pal

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

377 : 4/22/99 : Stupid Pills (The Inertia Machine 11/36)

Honey did you forget to take your stupid pills today
no no not at all first thing in the morning JUST AS
THE DOCTOR PRESCRIBED if i were to forget to
take my pills I should be disturbed by the thoughts
again fearful wondering why I do what I do
why the work I am given seems to bear no
relationship to anything that is real or important
to me NO not at all I took them first
thing and a comfortable cloud of numb
indifference settled around my head
like quick dry cement the cement
of THIS MODERN AGE don’t forget
every day you too missus two
pills every morning keeps away
the NEGATIVE thoughts and terrible
feelings of helplessness JUST LIKE
THE DOCTOR PRESCRIBED available
in convenient jumbo dispensers
lest you forget stupid pills
are the universal anodyne
to the crushing weight of
being.

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

376 : 4/21/99 : Blow Your Mind (The Inertia Machine 10/36)

Deep in the trenches of lost Atlantis
a hollow metal sphere
encloses all that was preserved
from the water
The seeds the vestiges of life
that would be lost in the disaster
All the would be lost was preserved
frozen in the sphere
the processes of time were halted
But nature abhors every kind of vacuum
and in this vacuum of time
a strange mold flowered
a glowing blue powder
coated every surface
it’s said that ingesting the smallest
part of the powder
Would blow your mind

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

RPM Challenge Mark II

I decided, after skipping a year, to undertake the RPM Challenge for the second time this year, the annual internet based project inviting musicians and bands to complete a full album from scratch in one month. I posted about my first time around with the project here and here.

There are still copies of this album extant if you feel you have the moral strength of character to endure it. In the latter post there I linked to my music submissions page on Metafilter: there's a little player box at the top of the list of posts. The songs Defeat, Eccentric, Only Civilization and Heat are all from my first RPM album, but I warn you, they aren't exactly pleasant to listen to, created as they were by a method that guaranteed results in terms of getting tracks recorded, but only by sheer stubbornness. The music is being generated more or less randomly by a computer and I am singing to it more or less without rehearsal. Rough stuff. I liked the lyrics I wrote for it, though, I feel like several of them deserve better music. So far this month the writing is going so so, I keep hoping something will gel. But as before, I'll get something down that satisfies the conditions of the challenge, come hell or high water. Honestly if hell or high water actually came I would probably just chuck it.

My RPM profile page is here, its got the archive stuff from 2007 too. I'm going to try to coax slightly more tuneful accompaniment from my newly acquired KORG DS-10 synth emulator. There's an audio file of me dinking around with that on the RPM profile page. If you're not partial to dentist drills you may want to skip the last 30 seconds or so. There is also a half-assed blogging tool because I totally need another venue to explicate the contents of my navel in textual form. With 16 days left to go we'll see how it all pans out.

375 : 4/20/99 : Hole at the Center of the Universe (The Inertia Machine 9/36)

There is a whole a
great dark hole
at the center of the
universe
An unimaginable density
A dark reflection
of the static demise
to come

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

374 : 4/19/99 : Lethemax (The Inertia Machine 8/36)

Don’t let your constant awareness
of the designs and unimaginable interplay
of complex and incomprehensible forces
at work in your life
vex you for a moment longer!
Lethemax acts directly on the brain,
the center of cognitive dissonance,
quieting fears
and putting painful awareness gently to sleep
Recent clinical studies show
that the artifacts of higher awareness
empathy
introspection
foresight
circumspection
Are leading causes of dissonant stress
and are unnecessary
for happiness and personal fulfillment
Don’t spend another day
asking why

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

373 : 4/18/99 : Snatches of Late Television (The Inertia Machine 7/36)

1,380 : 17 ?


What do you want?
Do you want more time for yourself?
Time to do the things that really matter to you?
That’s the way most of us feel...
But the boss never feels that way -
Does he?
You see a complete revolution in
human society is about to occur
We will realize all at the same time
that by understanding what we truly need,
truly desire and truly have
the path to ultimate fulfillment
will quickly become apparent to us.
When does this revolution occur?
When I count to three.
You will know that it has
begun. Take a moment for
yourself now
and say
I am almost ready to begin

One

Two

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

372 : 4/17/99 : Visionary (The Inertia Machine 6/36)

And the visionary is still
at the center of his sphere
He go no electric light show to distract him
Things to him are exactly what they appear
Visionary got no sockets in his skull
Ain't got no home computer or cellular phone
Visionary got no cable TV
When no one else is with him he's alone
Visionary makes pronouncements
Calling for a higher connection
calling for the real revolution
Calling for the Velvet Insurrection
Visionary takes his stand unseen
Insisting that the whole world come along
And though no one in the whole world can see him
Still there's me to sing his song

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

371 : 4/16/99 : Cold Fusion (The Inertia Machine 5/36)

One of the lost artifacts is a
small plain metal box which
is said to contain the coldest
element in the universe,
a bubble about the size of
a sixty carbon sphere that
contains the universe’s only known point
of sustained absolute zero
in the center of this bubble a
microscopic platinum stylus
holds a single atom of
the most unstable element
in the universe. Ancient
sources claim the element
is accreting particles of time
and that when a critical
mass is reached, the element
and the accumulated time
will fuse into a new form
of matter. Opinions are divided
on the consequences of this
fusion but it is generally
agreed that it will take several
billion more years to occur.

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

370 : 4/15/99 : The Differential (The Inertia Machine 4/36)

A sort of gear was discovered,
a way of warping space so that
the passage of time was altered.
Moments could be slowed down, stopped,
and gently rocked backwards.
They used this phenomenon as the
center of a device called the Differential
The differential was conceived as
the final, ultimate solution
of keeping time. Using a series
of interlocking warped space gears,
any moment of time could be
forced into regression until it
reached the theoretical limit of the
subdivision of time, the so-called instant.
The differential operated such that
intervals of time were measured
using the theorems of calculus
in an experimental subdivision of each
moment into a limit approaching infinity number
of interval-less instants. Unfortunately
there was no way to display the
results of this operation. The
differential was designed only to
keep time. Not to tell it.

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

369 : 4/14/99 : The Leisure Machine (The Inertia Machine 3/36)

1,373 : 9 ?


The Leisure Machine
was turned on only
once.

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

368 : 4/13/99 : Sundeath Inc. (The Inertia Machine 2/36)

A partial record survives of the Sundeath
Corporation. Having perfected a method
of accelerating stars to nova and
subsequent collapse to singularity,
the privately held Sundeath Exploration Group
was faced with the hurdle of
marketing this remarkable service.
As the first prototype projectiles were
entering simulated environment testing,
the Sundeath engineers were
envisioning vast arrays of storage batteries
set thousands of millions of miles from the
targeted sun. Mile wide solar sails would serve
to propel the batteries toward the engineers’
home planet while simultaneously collecting
the massive radiant energy produced by
the nova. In a few thousand years
the batteries would arrive by the millions,
ready to form the power infrastructure
for a massive orbital factory. Unfortunately
for the Sundeath engineers, these
ideas were still merely notions when
the recently incorporated Sundeath
discovered another relevant fact about
emerging technologies on
entirely new scales: Industrial
accidents also occurred on similar
orders of magnitude.

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

367 : 4/12/99 : The Inertia Machine (The Inertia Machine 1/36)

1,366 : 3 ?


They say that once the universe was
perfectly balanced: the forces that
tumbled things apart were counter-matched
exactly by the forces that caused things to
be conjoined together. And everywhere
people had the freedom to pursue
understanding for its own sake, because
in the time of the Steady State, life
was very easy. And one race
pursued questions of celestial mechanics,
and in them perceived that a machine
could be constructed that would never
stop running. They believed such
a machine could be
harnessed for divination.
They spent many years designing and building
what they called the Inertia
Machine. When they activated the machine,
it operated just as they had
predicted. But when they sought
to use it to predict the outcomes
of things to come, they saw
visions of worlds they could not
understand. They saw a time
when the will of the individual
constantly foundered on the
ambivalence of the collective.
They saw a time when life was
very hard and even had to
steal the life energies of
other individuals by physically
consuming them. The visions
they had when they sat circle
around the machine filled
this people with a feeling they
had not known before.
When they broke circle, the visions
stopped but the feeling remained.
This is when they realized that
there was no way to turn the
machine off. Because it was
created to run forever, they
had not considered a method of
deactivation. They applied many
forces, the entropic and the creative,
they symbolical and the diabolical,
trying to tip the balance of the inertia
machine and cease its
perpetual motion. But all their
methods failed: the inertia
machine’s balance remained perfect.
Finally, they placed the machine in a
vessel and sent it towards a place in
the universe where they believed there
was a great black hole. The trip would take
tens of thousands of years. They say
that by the time the vessel carrying the
machine reached the black hole, the people had
forgotten what they had done, and
had no understanding of what was
happening when everything changed.

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

briefer: introductions new and old

I decided to tighten up and consolidate the introduction and various explanations of this blog and the daily songwriting projects that make up the bulk of its content. The new introduction is here.

For the record, here are the original introductory and explanatory essays:

Let’s begin again (posted 7/18/06)

In 1998 I was in a very strange band called Tao Lepton, and as the ostensible chief lyricist I found myself struggling to find the inspiration to write. I decided to start a project of writing a lyric each day, and after a couple of false starts, I started daily writing in earnest on April 11, 1998 with the song "Huntress Moon."

Maintaining this sort of practice is very difficult, so from the beginning I decided that if I missed a day, I would allow the project to continue as long as I made up the missing lyric. In my own draconian viewpoint this is cheating, but I knew that if I demanded 100% on-time delivery, the project would not last for long, and if I allowed myself to simply skip days and not make them up, I would just end up skipping more and more, defeating the central purpose which was, after all, to do more lyric writing.

A little less than three years later, the band was long since history and I questioned my motivation for keeping the project up. It felt like work for work's sake and I was doubting whether the practice was really doing anything for my ability as a lyricist... indeed, whether I was a lyricist at all. I decided 1,001 songs was a nice figure and on January 5, 2001 I wrote the last song of the original project, "My Masterpiece."

Over the next four years I got married, bought a house, worked a couple of jobs, and became a father. From time to time I paged through some of the old song books, I wrote a handful of fragmentary new lyrics, and didn't think all that much about it. Then some train of thought I can no longer remember made me decide to start it up again, and on May 4, 2005 I wrote the aptly titled "First Song," with the stated intent of writing 10,000 consecutive songs - a project that (if I persist) will take over 27 years, at which point I'll be around 61. As of this writing that project is up to date.

During the first project, I had a fairly strict system for recording and tracking whether a song was written on its designated day or not. I never crunched the final numbers, but I was averaging a little over 80% of the songs written on their designated day. With the new project, I decided to not bother with this. I keep no record of when the songs are actually written, though I continue to aspire to write them on their designated days rather than later. One rule I maintain with both projects is no writing ahead. But the slacker guidelines on the new project have unquestionably made it more vulnerable to procrastination: on several occasions I have gotten seriously (as much as a month) behind, requiring some marathon writing sessions to get back up to the present. Thus the most likely cause of the premature demise of the new project will be not consciously deciding to give up the 10,000 song goal, but rather falling so far behind that catching up becomes functionally impossible.

(Note added later - I've since added a couple of elements to the song blogging that captures the status of the current project in terms of whether I'm getting behind, described here, and how I'm doing with writing songs on their designated days, described here).

Getting the songs transcribed (the vast majority exist solely as handwritten entries in formerly blank hardcover journals) has been an ongoing goal I have trouble keeping up with. Probably less than ten percent are transcribed to a digital format. Part of the motivation for deciding to blog the songs is to encourage this (boringly clerical) effort. My current plan is to post a song a day, every day I can. Of course, on this schedule it will be years until I even get to the second project, and if I were to keep it up (and not abandon the second project, and not die, and if modern society does not collapse into a plutocratic technological dark age, rendering the internet obsolete) I would not catch up until several years after the 10,000th song of the second series was written, finding me about ready for retirement (except retirement age will probably be about 75 by that time, but that's a whole other blog).

When you make a commitment to a project like this these kinds of speculations are inevitable, but they aren't really what it is all about. It is about one day at a time, and creating something concrete that reminds you that yes, those days do keep going by, and my, there are a hell of a lot of them.

I started this blog a while ago, publishing both old and new songs without much structure, but I didn't like it so I decided to delete everything and start over, preferring instead the one-at-a-time presentation most true to the original project. I also decided to eschew making comments and asides about the songs, and just let them stand as they are. If anyone is curious enough to ask about something specific, they can leave a comment in the relevant post and I will try to respond to those. I may inject the occasional aside relating to projects that utilize these lyrics - for example, one of my (very few) recordings of one of the song lyrics is on the playlist of a compilation CD of musicians who are members a community website called Metafilter, and I will probably make a small post about this when the CD is available for sale.

A final note: I have engaged in a few collaborations with better musicians than myself on some of the songs and I've been happy with the results. So if a lyric happens to capture your fancy, my email is available on my profile page: please feel free to contact me about setting my words to your music.

And so on to the songs.

the fairly secret song of the day blog: now with weekly drama (posted 11/19/06)

I've been wanting to bring the current song of the day writing project into this blog in a small way. I don't want to introduce any new lyrics: I want to preserve the flow of the daily writing from the original project. But I'd like to have a small reminder that I am doing this now, it's not just something that happened 8 years ago.

So: each Monday, prior to the day's actual song, I'm going to post a little status report on the ongoing project. It will consist of the number of the current project's song, and an icon that represents how well (or poorly) I'm actually keeping up with the current writing. Here's a key to the meaning of the icons:

Songs are current. There is no backlog of work to do.


Songs are less than a week behind schedule


Songs are between one week and a month behind schedule


Songs are between a month and three months behind schedule. So far, the worst it's been. It was very difficult to get back to current.

Songs are more than three months behind schedule. If it ever gets to this point I think the project will be in severe jeopardy. Aren't you feeling anxious just thinking about it?

At first I was going to use a "threat level" graphic in the style of the whole Homeland Security Terrorometer thing but I decided I was sick of all that shit.

I have another motive for this small window into my day to day. As I mentioned in the original project explanation, unlike the first daily writing project, I am no longer indicating in the actual writing whether I wrote a song on schedule or as a catch-up on a later date.

While I've never felt it was realistic to expect I'd never miss a day, with the old project I followed the simple expedient of writing late songs in red ink. I don't know if it is the lack of this crude psychological goad or just a more complex life, but I've been significantly more lax in the current project with allowing myself to get behind schedule. I figure a little public accountability couldn't hurt.

As for "drama," I'm a behind right now, as Monday's post will show. As these things go, I have relatively good reasons for having gotten behind, but I'm not going to get into the reasons here or anywhere else. I'll just let the numbers speak for themselves. Hold on to the edge of your browser as my aspiration to write 10,000 lyrics in less than three decades surges forward with all the dramatic tension of an encroaching glacier!

Weekly status, now with continuity tracking (posted 11/12/07)

I explained my original intentions behind the weekly status report here. I've decided to add an additional marker that indicates how long a string of songs I've written without missing a day during the ongoing project. By way of example, today's status:

926 : 1 ?


Explanation

Icons indicate if I'm running a song backlog and if so how much.


926 : 1 Songs written in the current project : Songs written without missing a day

(Whenever I'm running a backlog the latter number will be zero)

The question mark links to this explanation. I'd like to say that I've only written one song without missing a day because I purposely skipped a day to officially start the public count. But that would be a lie. Although I've been avoiding serious backlogs, I'm still missing a lot more days than I'm satisfied with. As usual, increasing the amount of status data I'm publishing is an attempt to motivate myself to better performance.

Including the 1,001 songs written in the original project (the one I'm currently blogging) I'm nearing 2,000 daily songs written so far.

Speaking of origins

I've been dealing with some computer issues, now resolved, and found things at a good point for one of my semi-frequent interruptions of the lyric stream. The songs enter an odd phase for a while now. The Inertia Machine, a 36 song series that commences with the next eponymous song, is something of an enigma to me. I remember writing it only vaguely, and although I can see some definite themes running through it I don't really know what the unifying element that makes it a series is supposed to be. Maybe in the end there wasn't much of one. I think it is something of a frustrated response to the last posted song, The Sound of No Walls, which I remember writing pretty well and recall distinctly started with being pretty excited about a concept that really failed to transfer to the page. Only the title remains to suggest much promise (there are bits of that song I like but I think it fails decisively as a whole).

Why my reaction to this was to write a lot of, essentially, speculative fiction, much of it looking like a prose paragraph or two chopped up into psuedo free verse, again I don't much recall. Maybe it will become clearer to me as I transcribe the rest of it. I suspect, reading it, that I am under a particular literary influence, but I'm not at all sure what... I'm pretty sure my W.S. Merwin phase came earlier, my Brian W. Aldiss phase later. Whatever the case, it comprises a not-inconsiderable chunk of the whole first project - more than three and a half percent - and I'm not very satisfied with it. Of course I'm not very satisfied with a lot of it, it's the nature of the beast. Wait till we get to the point nearer the end when I decided I needed a vacation and wrote a bunch of two-word "songs." That'll be a proud couple of weeks.

Last thing I'm going to do before I get on with the songs is clean up, consolidate and rewrite the introduction to this blog, something I've been meaning to do for a while. Keep an eye out for Monday's status summary - I'm a week behind on the current project (which should be on song number 1,363 but remains stuck on song 1,356... the first time I've let it fall this far behind in a while, and getting dangerously close to a point I promised myself I wouldn't get to again, having two separate notebooks going at once - though why this particular sign of neglect should get to me I don't know). So I'm going to try to get it caught up by the end of the weekend. Don't feel bad about taking a break if the gripping drama becomes too much for your nerves to bear.

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

366 : 4/11/09 : The Sound of No Walls

It’s always this way a little notion
Comes in the night whispering in my ear
Mine to take and hold and shine
Meanwhile above me two have a finer idea
and find oblivion in the arms of the night
In the heart of darkness whispering
Sweet nothings into the void of the well
of the souls of all the saints
Why not me
there are always reasons
why not me why is that not
my cry of ecstasy this moment
I want revelation no waiting
I want the whole show right now
I want the mountaintop
I want it all I want it all I want it all
I want it all I want it all I want it all
I want it all I want it all I want it all
I want it all I want it all I want it all
right here right now right in
this moment

But instead I got just this
a lagging spirit and a cramped
hand such a shame such
a shame and all my little
notions never seem to add
up to enough to make me
feel as if I’ve finally gotten what I
think that I deserve and I don’t deserve
anything anyway what do I add to
the world but toxic waste just another
American parking any damn place he
wants to drop the goddamn bombs I
don’t care I’ve got a mortgage and
these kids are gonna kill me what the
hell is wrong with everyone these
days

The big finale
wrap it up with one bold stroke
Is life a subtle symphony
or just a cosmic joke
I’m tired of the moment that never comes
While I watch you making millionaires of bums
While I watch you making millionaires of
men who wouldn’t cross the street
to pick you off the pavement
If you failed to land on your feet
But anyway I just don’t know it
You get your row and no choice but to hoe it
If this is genius then we’re all in trouble
Well I guess if we both survive to survey the rubble
We’ll just have to figure it out then
Maybe I’ll be better then

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

365 : 4/10/99 : Million Dollars

1,356 : 0 ?



I would pay a million dollars
I would take an acid bath
To stop thinking of the future
To stop worrying about my path
I would stop my mouth with plaster
I would close my eyes with glue
Just to be in this one moment
just to know that only this is true
But I don’t have a million dollars
I don’t have the will to fight
I fought Lord oh a long time
I was born to struggle with the dying light
I didn’t ask to be this person
Didn’t ask to bear this cross
I didn’t ask to always have to
see the foul truth underneath the gloss
And I’d pay a million dollars
For those rose tinged glasses that you wear
man I’d just sit in the park
man I’d just sit there and stare

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

364 : 4/9/99 : Apollyon

Apollyon, Apollyon are you getting lazy
we’re so good at screwing things up ourselves now
I read about you in the book of Revelations
But it seems we have decided to pull our own wrathful plow
Apollyon Apollyon is your time at hand
Are you coming soon to finish what we started
will the righteous be lifted from the conflagration
Before the heavens fall and seas are parted
Doesn’t it seem like it has already happened
Like those days are dead and long gone
Doesn’t it make you kind of wish for the old days
Doesn’t it make you wish Apollyon
Did things go the way you thought
Is this all running by the plan
Are these the cities of heaven
is this the inheritance of man
Apollyon you’ve got the answers
You have seen in from both sides
You know how the dice roll up there
You know where the truth abides
Whisper in my ear and tell me
If this one may be the last
I just want a chance to wrap up
Just a few loose ends in my past

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

363 : 4/8/99 : Images

Images that circle up and wheel around me
I remember the time you found me
Standing staring into space
With a baffled look on my face
The wheel spins around and tumbles at you
bursts into flames reminds you of the time that you
drove all night away from that town
drove that river road all the way down
Images from the past or future tense
Living in a world that spares no expense
Our collective vision of the new age
Oh children please its time to turn the next page
The diamond the hanged man and the snake
The cup the sword and the lady of the lake
too many images I see them in my sleep
Who do you pray your soul to keep
I see a skull and crossbones on a vial
A yellow circle with a big smile
And in your monochrome world I hide my many-colored coat
Till the day comes when we all sing as with one throat

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

362 : 4/7/99 : Phantasm 5

1,354 : 1 ?



Well the mind blows
out from the inside
Forth and out in
every possible direction
face the perfect complexion
of the sphere that lies
At the center
I asked him if he meant her
or someone else I’d never known before
Or someone who had just walked through the door
And he said it’s just like
Phantasm Five
This silver sphere flies through his head
And his mind blows
out from the inside

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

361 : 4/6/99 : Vicious Cycles, Three Visited

At the intersection of Vicious Cycles,
three visited together after two thousand years
talking about the trip they made so long ago
three kings chatting over beers
They recalled the gifts they brought him
The gold the frankincense the myrrh
And laughed to think how they never guess
that the little guy would raise such a crazy stir
Kasper said it never really caught on back East
We stuck with the Buddha, Confucius and Lao-Tzu
Heaven knows that’s a lot of disbelievers
Well that chalice of myrrh was from them too
And Balthazar said don’t I know it
I should have asked him to let my people go
When I handed the frankincense over
I should have asked about the end of the show
Well Melchior said well you know boys
I’m the one who laid out gold
Though I must confess I never
figured out exactly what I’d been sold
But it seems now in the end
It’s just this world and it’s wicked ways
All our sacrifices always
Wind up winding up as passion plays

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

360 : 4/5/99 : Lucky Number 13

What’s that sound I’m hearing
A train is coming ‘round the bend
And soon old number thirteen will be appearing
that’s my lucky number friend
When that train comes rolling in
I’ll know I’m on my path again
Oh lucky number 13
Well I guess I’m really fortune’s fool
Waiting for fate to tap me on the shoulder
I should have tended to my lessons in school
I should have known every year I’d be another year older
And when Fate taps me on the shoulder the last time
Who knows if there’ll be any reason or rhyme
To the tracks I traveled on
Oh lucky number 13
Well if you miss the train I’m on
There’s no need to carry on
‘cause the whole thing just comes looping back
a toy train on a cheap toy track
Make no mistake I’m coming ‘round
Next time old thirteen passes through
I roll along then go to ground
It’s strange what I get paid to do
Well I guess I just gotta roll with the machine
Well I guess I just gotta roll with my lucky thirteen

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

359 : 4/4/99 : Antiwar

I guess it’s time I came out full-fledged anti-war
Though it makes me shudder to wonder if we can stop it
I guess we must get off on that feeling we been here before
I guess we have a hard time trying to cop to it
I wonder about entropy how somehow all that energy
That got pumped in so long ago must oscillate its way out
In my mind’s I I see terrible synergy
It all comes to head in a long horrific spout
In a few men’s minds the cold equations
locked in matter spelled out in fire
And a little bit of matter is subjected to our persuasions
And Hiroshima turns into a funeral pyre
I don’t want to be around for the next big one
to come along and swear to end all wars
Cause I think that after that the whole show is done
Oh why does a man become what he deplores

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

358 : 4/3/99 : To Hell With You

Who wants to hear my words my voice
Not you not me what’s the point
We all get to make our own choice
But it makes no difference if it’s all out of joint
So I say to hell with you all
You don’t want salvation and that’s a good thing
Cause we don’t have it for you I don’t have the gall
Anymore to try to make you listen to what I sing

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

357 : 4/2/99 : Good Friday

I hate the week to week I hate my day to day
I try not to complain too much it’s always been this way
The weekend’s just a bone I’m thrown to distract me from the fact
I think that I’m getting away but Monday I’ll be back
I hate the work week attitude the way it sucks me in
Diverted from my true work waiting for my weekend to begin
And we all rush out Friday night like hounds sniffing for tail
My God the spectacle we’d see if we tore off the veil;
But this one will be different
This time it’s not gonna go the same way
This is the weekend heaven sent
This is my Good Friday
I’d love to live on principles and make a real change
I’d love to live my life exploring everything sublime and strange
Wouldn’t it be something if we all could have that chance
Maybe we would finally pull this culture from its trance
Try for just one moment to imagine what we’d build
If we finally figured out that what we get is what we willed
I guess I must be crazy to pretend I’m so naive
But in the end and in a sense it’s still what I believe
That if we could stop for just a little while
We’d see that everyone had something worthwhile to say
And if we failed at least we would go out in style
On that last mile together on Good Friday

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

356 : 4/1/99 : When the Pump Shut Down

1,345 : 6 ?


Oh when the big pump shut down
no one could get any water at all
We had to dig so deep by the time the pump shut down
So deep that it was way too far to haul
I guess we should have thought of that
I guess we really should have known
I guess we really should have though about the big pump
I guess we really shoulda thought a little further
than we coulda thrown a stone
Well it’s all drying up now
And I’m so thirsty I could cry
Ah my baby left me she heard there was water up North
I was too thirsty to get up so she left me here to die
Oh but before I dry up and blow away
On that hot wind that blows now all the time
I’m gonna take my last shot at setting you straight
I’m gonna tell you off cause it’s my dime
Sir every living thing needs water
And every one of us is a living thing
And every one of our poor old pumps will shut down some day
But without water it could be sooner than you think

355 : 3/31/99 : Rattled

I get rattled every day that goes by
I get scattered by the tyranny of the day to day
So much I’ll never know unless I try
So much to do so much to learn so much to say
This is just a bookmark on a slow sad decline
I don’t want anything but to disappear
I don’t want anything but to throw away what’s mine
I don’t want anything but to get right out of here
This is not a song it’s a complaint box
I’m so sick of all the nothing I’ve got locked inside
I’m so tired of all my keys that fit none of my locks
I’m so sick of having my living taken from my hide
I’m so sick and I don’t know the cure for it
I’m so sick of all you being bad as me or worse
I’m so sick and tired of the same old happy horseshit
If I only had the secret how to lift this curse
Rattle on the bars of this old familiar cage
Rattled and distracted to the point of no return
Rattling off the same lines on this old familiar page
I’ll rattle on and on and watch Rome burn

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

354 : 3/30/99 : Accusations

I stand to point at you
and make my accusations
This does not seem to me
the best of all possible worlds
The way the Vikings had it made more sense
the great serpent round
the whole thing curled
this seems like a mistake
doesn’t it?
This one shoulda been thrown back
into the sea of possibility
I guess that option’s up to me

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

353 : 3/29/99 : Error Message

1,311 : 3 ?


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

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

352 : 3/28/99 : Big Computer

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

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

351 : 3/27/99 : Inattention

1,290 : 2 ?


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

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

persistence interruptus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More songs later maybe.

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

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

350 : 3/26/99 : Pandemonium

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

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

349 : 3/25/99 : Ready or Rot

1,259 : 0 ?


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

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

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

1,252 : 48 ?


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

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

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

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

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

346 : 3/22/99 : Deep

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

343 : 3/19/99 : A Curse Upon

1,233 : 30 ?


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

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

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

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

342 : 3/18/99 : Secret Agent

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

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

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

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

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

340 : 3/16/99 : Unimaginable Splendor

1,228 : 24 ?


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

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

339 : 3/15/99 : The Big Sound

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

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

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

338 : 3/14/99 : Without Inspiration

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

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

337 : 3/13/99 : Elixir of Life

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

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

336 : 3/12/99 : Finish Line

1,221 : 18 ?


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

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

335 : 3/11/99 : Dissection

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

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

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

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

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

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

1,212 : 11 ?


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

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

332 : 3/8/99 : Four Walls

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

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

331 : 3/7/99 : The New Day

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

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

330 : 3/6/99 : In the Cathedral

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

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

329 : 3/5/99 : Fortune’s Fool

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

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

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

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

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

327 : 3/3/99 : March

1,205 : 7 ?


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

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

326 : 3/2/99 : Third Day

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

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

325 : 3/1/99 : Fleeing Ninevah

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nothing is simple
Everything is strange
Everything just what it is

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1,170 : 5 ?


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

316 : 2/20/99 : Spidergod

1,165 : 2 ?



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

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

315 : 2/19/99 : Pain or Parting

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

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

314 : 2/18/99 : Jelly Roll

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

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

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

1,149 : 1 ?


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

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