749 : 4/28/00 : Cargo

have to hack through this jungle
Cross the mighty river flow
many with us now will not
survive to reach the cargo
Dropped by old gods long ago
ancestors drew maps in light
projected into diamond cubes
to shine forth in the endless night
To lead the way though perilous
the tombs of magic gone out of the land
brought back by the next young gods
the secrets of the past in hand
no more will the heathen thrive
what we bring back will prove so
the gods will smile and help us
smash our rivals with the cargo

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

748 : 4/27/00 : Olive

Man made the atom bomb
God made the olive
God made man
Now what the hell is that about
Noah made the ark
The Lord made Noah make it
The dove brought back an olive branch
When Noah cast it out
Man makes weapons
small arms and handguns
God makes the sun
and sets us swinging falling
The olives in their orchards hum
green and perfect
When you stop to ponder
the disparity’s appalling

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

747 : 4/26/00 : Everything’s Wrong

1,818 : 4 ?



Maybe God is sick of creating
and that’s why everything’s wrong
Maybe God’s as sick of reigning
as I’m sick of writing this song
Maybe in the endless reiteration
He saw a futile loop
an unavoidable recursion
Maybe he’ll wipe it out in one fell swoop
Maybe there’s something wrong with my brain
and nothing else is wrong at all
caused by fluoride or radiation
or missing an important call
Maybe nothing is wrong with me either
and the truth is stranger still
The seeming the being the wrong I’m seeing
just the flip side of an act of will

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

746 : 4/25/00 : Hero

I’m no hero I wait and see
but the world just can’t seem to
get by without me
All around I just see
people getting by
all around I see the
rules just don’t apply
Hello hero get on deck
this world ain’t got the time
to be circumspect
step to the issue, get on the page
prove my cynicism
wrong in the new age
choke back whiskey bite on rye
jump up and collect
a punch in the eye
bargain basement hero
substitute
I’m waiting for the bitch patrol to
give me the boot

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

745 : 4/24/00 : The Answer (13/3 minute songs 13)

Ask one question
only one
Ask with a bottle of wine
or a gun
Ask with a candle or
weighted line
You’ll know the answer true by how
it cuts so fine
Ask after god or another
theory
ask after the afterlife of
Timothy Leary
Ask only one ‘cause it’s all you get
It isn’t fair but it’s an
even bet

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

744 : 4/23/00 : The Digit (13/3 minute songs 12)

The digit had been hidden in the mists of time
the digit looked like cuneiform and read like rhyme
it was a number to be sure
and some said it was the cure
They say it’s carved into the ice of the North Pole
They found a tag stamped with it in a vein of coal
Where no digit should be
that’s what they told me

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

743 : 4/22/00 : Architect (13/3 minute songs 11)

Architect architect
show me the plan
I would suffer gladly
I would act just like a man
if I knew for sure
a cathedral was rising
form the seemingly senseless
relentless life thing

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

742 : 4/21/00 : Crystal Spinned (13/3 minute songs 10)

Blow it down
show it ‘round
who knew the thing just
made a sound
like a match head burst
like a cough of thirst
I seen some bad things
this was the worst
watch it spin
feel the wind
slip through the window so
the crystal spinned
just like that
sparked and spat
rolled up and turned black
and there it sat

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

741 : 4/20/00 : Travelers in Time (13/3 minute songs 9)

The travelers in time its said
would say this rhyme they said
the dead are alive somewhen
the living are dead somewhen
it’s already happening
it already happened then
And history is someone’s future
held on by a hazy suture
held in line by no one knows
only in its line it goes

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

740 : 4/19/00 : King (13/3 minute songs 8)

It’s lonely being king, it’s lonely at the top
I heard a voice on the radio
that said that everything had stopped
I thought it was a good revenge
I thought it meant I’d really won
I guess it got served back to me cold
I can’t even see the sun
It’s lonely being king
the last man on the west coast
the sole survivor of the crash
the only one who isn’t toast

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

739 : 4/18/00 : Flash Flood (13/3 minute songs 7)

I wanted the flash flood
I wanted the kind bud
I wanted everything on a platter
did I think it would matter
I wanted a three minute revelation
I wanted to trace out every station
of the cross in the road
and all it might forebode
I’m sick of the flash flood
I’m sick of the taste of my blood
I’ve been down the path and every fork
I’ve been over a barrel stuffed with pork
and here’s the holy end of it
they’ll try to make you bend to fit
their mediocre master plan
the curse of the everyman

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

738 : 4/17/00 : The Dive (13/3 minute songs 6)

The dive into the depths of what she’d
Come to think of as the wreckage of the
Ship of thought she had erected in the Tower
Happened on a day like any other
Happened to remind her of her mother
Seemed to happen every other hour
The wreck was not an abstract thing
Though made of dust wrapped up with string
It had a presence powerful and dark
She dived in with intrepid ease
And slipped through like an errant breeze
That curls a strand of hair back and reveals the mark

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

737 : 4/16/00 : Parabola (13/3 minute songs 5)

God in His wisdom on His throne
hid the answer to the riddle in the section of a cone
while the fakirs strut out the la-di-da
I ponder the means of the parabola
everything’s a circle everything’s an arc
the lesson of the message
of the dream of a spark
the parabolic gospel
the transcendent arch
the final disposition
in the ides of march

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

736 : 4/15/00 : The Scale (13/3 minute songs 4)

A thought evoked a tortured cry
the vision of the future’s fall
and seen in one mind’s fevered eye
the failure to measure up at all
the scale she cried the scale’s the thing
and turned her face away at last
The scale the measure the brass ring
the hourglass and time flies fast
I heard the marker chalk the line
the scale and its dominion strong
and everywhere from here to fine
we fight the scale our whole lives long.

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

735 : 4/14/00 : Compulsion (13/3 minute songs 3)

You are under compulsion
you are not your own man sir
say it too loud and you’ll make a stir
we live by desire and repulsion
I am under compulsion
the song must go on
hears the answer to the question long;
its all about jet propulsion

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

734 : 4/13/00 : Bang (13/3 minute songs 2)

Bang daddy downbeat fraction
one two three four
and an inevitable equal opposite reaction
Watch me close a door
bang bang nothing to it
creating space warped symmetries

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

733 : 4/12/00 : Magic Bullet (13/3 minute songs 1)

1,804 : 21 ?




Magic bullet find your mark
in the chaos, in the dark
just go to the place of your need
only my voice you’ll heed
magic bullet set me free from strife
do not ask after the purpose of life
just go to the heart of my problem
they do not ask and I will not tell them
mark me as one who saw the light
do not distract me from my endless night
far past reason down a hole
magic bullet strike your goal

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

732 : 4/11/00 : Obsession

Am I obsessed with the manufacture of verse?

am I under a spell, a voodoo curse?

does it all root back to my childhood days

or a summer long lost in a marijuana haze

I confess obsession with many things

God and watch works and Saturn’s rings

I’ve been recycling rhymes a long time it’s true

but I’m still trying to rhyme my way back to you

Is this obsession have I lost my mind

did I mask it with cigarettes and kind

if the therapy takes will I give it up

this fountain this overflowing cup

I’ve got a jones but that’s not what I mean 

I’ve got to wash till my hands feel clean

I’ve got to write till the words are gone

so hey, today, another song

One day I’ll break through the barrier

the unknown terrifies - the alternative is scarier

to find at last the plenum or the void

someday when my obsession is destroyed

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

731 : 4/10/00 : Dream Park

Is the unexamined life worth living
Is the dream park of philosophy
a line worth giving
You’ll die for it but
would you stand in line for it
We’ll all stand in the line someday
waiting on the gates of Dream Park
No more afraid of the dark
between the final lepton and the first quark
Yeah dream park
is there a vision in my mind
of a California coastline
and a submarine made of bent pipe
those were the days
now I’ve been up here a long time
hibernating in a Northern clime
I feel my blood rising at last
for the next go round
la la la
striking some memory of a spark
light on the big screen of the dream park

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

730 : 4/9/00 : Hibernation

I’ve built up a nice layer of fat
Time to settle into my habitation
For a patented reverse hibernation
I tell you it’s more fun than a vacation
Gluttony in moderation never killed no one
One more bold descent into the cave
try to figure out what I have to save
meditate for a blissful year
I’ll be grinning from ear to ear
when it’s all said and neatly filed
the office where the letters piled
will shovel out and demonstrate
more incidence of love than hate
thus proving that above it all
the great Director’s casting call
can dial you up at any time
but then why not it was his dime

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

729 : 4/8/00 : Value

When the thousand voices are connected
by the thousand points of light
soft comes the next wave new wave
knock the pendulum swing from left to right
When the hundred thousand junkie army
arms itself and starts a nation state
The new heavy in highway armadas
new pirates a new sea to regulate
when the mighty million rise up
and raise me to my true dominion
many who were called but chose to screen me
will beg to be my minion
Meanwhile there’s only one of me
if I’m one in a hundred still the hundred’s there
Buying this and that and the other
Value vanishes in thin air

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

The Other Analog Hole

I was going to forgo these intermittent statements but this is an important announcement, maybe, I guess? It's not that important as important things go but it is definitely an announcement.

So, I did something I'd been meaning to for a long time and ran the dates from my current songwriting through an internet widget that calculates and the number of days elapsed between the dates. The number of days between the dates (inclusive) equals the number of songs, and thus did I discover that my song count was off by 599 (seriously). In a general sense this explained the frustrated sense that's been scratching at the back of my mind lately that I ought to have written a whole lot more songs by now.

Specifically though I had to dig back through the volumes to discover a total of four errors, three of which made some kind of sense (in two cases it seems likely I misread the previous song's number and so wrote down an erroneous number for the next in the sequence, in the other case it looks like I flipped back an extra page when checking the previous song's number); in one case the error was inexplicable, I jumped the number ahead by several songs without any reason I could discern. The first error I made way back in volume three (I'm on eleven now, mind you), almost 6 years ago. Dang. Such are the travails of a hand-numbered sequence in a series of longhand volumes, especially with handwriting like mine.

This is clearly far too many to write in corrections by hand (I'll take care of it piecemeal when I eventually get around to transcribing these songs) so instead I made notes on the front and back endpapers of each affected volume with instructions on correcting the numbers via simple mathematical corrections.

The other upshot of this of course is that basically every song number I've posted in the weekly status updates is incorrect. I fixed things from 1/25/10 on but other than that you're on your own, because explaining how to correct the other dates would be tedious and I'm sure nobody really cares. Suffice to say I should be writing song 1,800 of the second project today.

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

728 : 4/7/00 : I Don’t Want to Talk About It

I don’t want to talk about it
no more talking talking’s done now
no more waiting
no more wondering
time to start it time for fun now
thought you had my poor ass cold
You thought you had me bested
You have not a notion of
how often I’ve been tested
there is nothing like perfection
in a verse ad lib and rhyme
that will not protect your treasure
when I smash your paradigm
no more waiting for a savior
Savior’s been and gone
now the stage is set to meet and
receive virtue’s paragon

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

727 : 4/6/00 : Fast Track

Hey bodhisattva
won’t you fast track my enlightenment
I’ve got some big ideas about
nailing the establishment
I must be holy holy
So I must be full of power
I’m so convinced this autumn’s
gonna be my fate’s true hour
If you’d come along and free me
from attachment to the dust
I would know right at the moment
how to do the things I must
I’m on the fast track baby
no more waiting for the light
the time for words is over
no it’s time to rise and fight
No more need for patience baby
I am way beyond all that
I’m convinced I am a buddha
‘cause I’m wearing Buddha’s hat

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

726 : 4/5/00 : Jerk

1,797 : 14 ?


Hey jerk
where’z your big plans now
spilt hastily across the page
lost somehow
where’z your holdout stash
your emergency supply
dealt with without regard
and many a day gone by
I must be a real jerk
to fool myself around
leaving all my best devices
on hard winter ground
soon to be snowed drifted over
Lost until another spring
When at last the freezing passes
I won’t recognize the thing

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

725 : 4/4/00 : Hard Planet

Hard planet
Young love
angels seen
meanwhile up above
the stars cross
a fate is prepared
revenge is a dish
best served shared
hard planet
forbidden and vile
stay with me and dream
of lost love a while

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

724 : 4/3/00 : Patient

I’ve been patient as can be
I’ve written many a line about me
seems I’ve got no stories left
I am inconsolable bereft
I have waited still and calm
for a word just like a balm
to come down like morning rain
to feel joy feel joy again
I’ve been patient I’ve been true
I have sworn myself to you
When each day ends like the rest
I have not put you to the test
Will you forget me always
will you walk with me all my days
Will you keep me dedicated
will this fearful thirst be sated
I’ll be patient one more time
wait and listen it’s my dime
wait and offer one last rhyme
hang my head it’s not a crime

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

723 : 4/2/00 : Golem

I feel like I’ve been carved from wood
hollowed out and filled with lead
I feel my hands are seven thousand
miles from my head
The Golem of what’s left of me
orbits in an unreal space
Leaving me to contemplate
the thing that I refuse to face

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

722 : 4/1/00 : Fool

A fool rushes in
ready to begin
the evening’s entertainment
the table was set
the guests were grabbing what they could get
most were already moderately bent
and the fool sang
You’re all gonna die
by and by by and by
I look at you and see only earth
ashes to ashes dust to dust
pretend the bell tolls for your neighbor if you must...
pretend for what pretending’s worth
have you seen it in your dreams
the long table we’re all bound for it seems
welcome to the banquet honored fool
grab a fork and feed your neighbor
an eternity sentence of easy labor
Welcome to the age of the golden rule

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

721 : 3/31/00 : After the Wave

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

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

720 : 3/30/00 : Edge

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

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

719 : 3/29/00 : Heroes

1,790 : 7 ?


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

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

718 : 3/28/00 : Internalog

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

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

717 : 3/27/00 : Metaphysical Archaeology

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

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

Yum Yum Yummy

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

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

716 : 3/26/00 : Hungry Bug

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

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

715 : 3/25/00 : Adios

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

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

714 : 3/24/00 : Napster

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

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

713 : 3/23/00 : Start

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

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

712 : 3/22/00 : Bootstrap Gospel

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

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

711 : 3/21/00 : Impatience Too

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

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

710 : 3/20/00 : Sleep

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

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

709 : 3/19/00 : Joy

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

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

708 : 3/18/00 : Perfect

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

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

707 : 3/17/00 : Preemptive Strike!

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

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

706 : 3/16/00 : Be Quiet

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

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

705 : 3/15/00 : Pointless

1,776 : 1 ?


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

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

704 : 3/14/00 : Shaky Hands

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

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

703 : 3/13/00 : Persacutrix

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

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

702 : 3/12/00 : Fast Master

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

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

701 : 3/11/00 : Fugitive

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

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

700 : 3/10/00 : Beaten

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

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

699 : 3/9/00 : Remembrance

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

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

698 : 3/8/00 : Switch

1,769 : 3 ?


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

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

697 : 3/7/00 : Evolve

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

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

696 : 3/6/00 : Must I Crawl

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

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

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

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

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

694 : 3/4/00 : Lyric Plasma

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

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

secretary blues

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

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

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

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

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

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

693 : 3/3/00 : Pear Quartet

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

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

692 : 3/2/00 : Quartet Pair

1,763 : 6 ?


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

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

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

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

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

690 : 2/29/00 : Outside the Lines

I got kicked out of kindergarten
for coloring outside the lines
the first time
I knew better the next time around
I didn’t make a sound
If you wind up in the wrong room
on your first day of school
they’ll just send you home
eventually
but sooner or later you got to go
you got your own row to hoe
and if you stay inside the lines
you’ll never know
what happens outside

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

689 : 2/28/00 : Monday Losers

Sundays it plays out
winners or losers
games and distractions
barflies and cruisers
but the Monday losers
gotta get up and go
Yeah the rest of us
just don’t know
Well the whistle don’t blow
these days we keep our own clocks
shackled to our wrists
So back in the box
And only money talks
in this world baby
and to Monday losers
it only says maybe

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

688 : 2/27/00 : Days Like This

Days like this I used to think
Better off just to get high
but too much time passed me by
Days like this they’ll warn you of
So I face it crystal clear
taste its measure and feel fear
Did they tell me there’d be days like this
they must of but I didn’t see
they were really talking to me
got no special dispensation
get these days like everyone
when the weight feels like a bone
If I’ve learned one thing it’s this
whatever passes comes again
if it’s not now it will be then
so forget your omens and your signs
days like this can’t be predicted
anyone can be inflicted
One more verse to nail it down
a day like this can’t kill me so
I guess it’s time for me to go

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

687 : 2/26/00 : Soil

The worm devours death and makes a bed for life
The cycle of the soil never ending
When I hear the word revolve I test my knife
worm father and his soil wife
never mind the future, the rules we’re bending
the tragedy we make up as we go
never mind the message we’re sending
never mind it’s for ourselves we’re fending
after the dark hour after the snow
The soil abides forever
turns us over in a cycle so slow
back to the soil we all go

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

686 : 2/25/00 : Wyrm Wyrd

A man cannot resist the wyrm of his wyrd
He gave up his choice and the option appeared
Warm words make me feel alright
but in the end the end is out of sight
It seems this mute earth is our ward
It seems we best stop rattling our swords
There’s a warm word
and the first word I heard
Came as if in a dream
and the word was word

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

685 : 2/24/00 : Last Laugh

Rooted in an enigmatic concept map
pull a magic rabbit from a hat by a bootstrap
In the end we’ll see who gets the last laugh
And takes the final draught from the empty carafe
The cosmic joke just might be on us
I dreamed I left the city on a magic bus
And crossed a lake somewhere up north
made it over the wall and went forth
But that was just a dream, untrue
All strung with myth and gardyloo
the truth is harder, more opaque
shot with fractures, more at stake
Restless with the rhythm of a wandering soul
I settle back inside and contemplate my goal
Will I have the last laugh or will I get caught
The vision is for sale but I won’t be bought

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

684 : 2/23/00 : Venerable Stone

Venerable stone
why won’t you talk to me
teach me your language
I want to see what you see
and will see long after me
In innocence my sister gave you
to me to watch over
Venerable stone give me
an answer to the
question I seek
something to make sense
of my weeks
fit in somewhere
and tell me...

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

683 : 2/22/00 : The Third Word

1,755 : 17 ?


The third word that came was the word hmm...
If I listen I could hear it
In the spring a cool rain falls softly
It sounds like that a bit
And the voice said write a song
I said what should I say?
said a well just hum along
said I could do that any day
hmm hummm hmm
Maybe a little too far gone now
after it all swallows up
Go about your bit of tao

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

682 : 2/21/00 : The Next Word

The next word that came was the word wind
And the path was shown to me
And though I’d dreamed it a thousand times
I still could not believe what I could see
Longer than I could imagine
higher than I could have hoped
broad and narrow crooked and straight
a step for every second I fumbled and groped
While I slept I dreamed I rose above
all of my turnings and twists
I dream I rose on wings of light
to a realm where only light exists
And the voice said the path is long and true
before you were born it was made
and its end lies long past your dying day
and its light shall never fade

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

Lacking the template

While Jennifer nods off on the couch to a DVD playing to no particularly attentive audience (I will admit, perhaps not a context particularly conducive to the creative process) I dust of the DS-10. It's the twentieth and I vaguely decided to do the RPM Challenge project. If you're reading this near the time it was written that profile should be notable in its complete emptiness. I see to my chagrin also that they either lost or I never properly transmitted my second attempt at the project, last year's Bootstrap Gospel, which is a shame, because it is a lot easier to listen to than the one they have, solvet saeclum in favilla. Which is not saying a lot as that album is almost unlistenable. I am probably the only person in the world who has listened to it in full, I am without question the only one who has done so more than twice.

The Korg goes a good ways deeper than I have previously intuited, mocking some of the absurd on-the-fly production techniques I came up with, having failed to grasp the appropriate techniques of multitrack sequencing. After more than a year I finally succumb to reading the manual.

But the forays into composition are painful, simply painful, so unrewarding. If the final production were really tight it would be one thing. But I know it won't be, it will be another slack, looping mess. And I just don't have time for that. Nor do I feel up to dusting off my 17 horribly clichéd chord progressions to produce another shaky singer-songwriter set accompanied by monotonous strains from a second-rate acoustic guitar. Finally, I don't think I can cull another decent set out of GarageBand's prerecorded loops and that's another time consuming process I'm pretty sick of. So either I'll have to renege this year or do what I've long threatened to and record a whole album a capella.

A Capella is hard too though, although not as hard for me as trying to compose and make music. It strikes me at last that the only way the music could ever go anywhere is collaboration. I can see myself getting my signing to the next level, I remain despite everything wholly committed to writing the lyrics. My songs. But I can't make the music well enough. I've made a lot of product but at the end of the day it's just not good enough.

Searching for others is a large and daunting step though. It's been a very long time since I tried to play with anyone and life is so much more complicated now. I really don't know what I'll do. If anything. Not for tonight, anyway. I put aside the DSi and spent some time listening to my strange personal catalog and transcribing songs from the current handwritten book. A pedestrian task but it has to be done if the things are going to get uploaded. It is an interesting way to get to know the songs again. Will they ever have a life outside of their books? Do they need one?

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

681 : 2/20/00 : The First Word

The first word that came was the word dream
It came to me while I was sleeping
Hard to believe, hard to conceive
Under cover of dawn a strange truth creeping
While I dreamed that I was awake
a waking dream captured my heart
And I spun for a timeless moment
And watched one word tear my world apart
And a voice said you are sleeping yet
You will wake with the morning light
I put my hands over my eyes
and said take me when it’s right

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

680 : 2/19/00 : Essene Scrolls

bill tee at mugwort dot com
insisted on a cd rom
of Essene Scrolls he’d scanned in
from the backs of soap labels
It’s Scripture he said
it speaks of a land of the dead
I’ve triangulated on them
using trigonometric tables
and the terms of the Peace Agreement
I’m nothing if not vehement
still so far to go
still we must go on
Still there’s little reason or rhyme
It could be me next time
Nothing to worry about
just to say so long

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

679 : 2/18/00 : High Art

true or false
Light imitates dark
check my pulse
Let’s get high and make art my darling
Let’s make art an get high as starlings
If it’s really true
that what we
dream of we by and by
get ‘round to
it could be the next super villain
will sing like Poe and dance like Dylan
Let’s make high art
day and night
in sweat and sweetness
in blood we write
I’m so high, Art comes natural
Cold steady and factual

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

678 : 2/17/00 : Relentless

Look at me: relentless
after such defeats
still my endless
struggle to break through
pushes on and on and on
Speak to me: I’m lonely
Could it just be
you and only
you could get through
to a heart that was almost gone
relentless not giving in
not today anyway
when they think I’m done I’ll begin
push to the limit
one last one last time
Something’s broken that I can’t fix
it’s all beyond me
something tainted got into the mix
but still I’ll try to
tie it all together with rhyme

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

677 : 2/16/00 : Philistine

A curse upon the vulgar classes
The Philistines and slack-jawed masses
Addicted to football and giant cars
A plague upon the house of Jones
And Smith a plague upon their bones
They only want news on weather and the Stars
Philistine Philistine victorious
And your world banal and glorious
Too much butter and easy living
No challenge makes the ego rot
You think this is the good life but it’s not
You think you’re taking but you’re giving
I don’t know why I try to save
a terminal culture from an early grave

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

676 : 2/15/00 : Affliction

1,748 : 10 ?


Cure me of this curse’s affliction
bring sleep to my eyes
the daily grind is grinding me down
grinding me down to size
cure me of the curse of nonsense
spouting out around my head
teach me how to practice silence
and listen to the Big Sound instead
All the words words I trusted
only little sounds
End up chasing me through nights
like relentless hounds
Lord will my affliction leave me
leave me to rest in peace
tell me it will be soon
tell me that the noise will soon cease

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

675 : 2/14/00 : Loss of Way

Cat tail swished at the top of the stair
And loss of way was the subject in the air
We had sought oracles sages and stones
we could feel we had lost our way deep in our bones
the rooster cries morning, crickets call the eve
and all who couldn’t stand to stay still hated to leave
with so much left unspoken and so much left to chance
in the end only those who had lost their way were left to dance
our roads were marked with the signs of all the saints
Who’d gone the path before free of all earthly restraints
and everyone who found the way was marked
but no one could recall just where virtue was parked
so we gathered up together our raggedy band
and everyone took someone’s brother, sister by the hand
and I said despite the road and the weather
despite our lost ways we’ll go it together
the best I see out there today’s a parody at best
300 million souls all pray to be blest
From all who have a little must be taken away
a little oil to light a lamp of the lost way

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

674 : 2/13/00 : Fascinating Facts

Cheap religious tracts and
fascinating facts from
the Bible cover my walls
I’ve got them hung with tacks
and stored in plastic sacks
in boxes stacked in disused halls
Portraits of the Christ
fitting symbol of my zeitgeist
whatever that may mean
You get them for a price
like soldiers throwing dice
for a robe of one piece no seam

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

673 : 2/12/00 : Rip Van Winkle

Rip Van Winkle
slept a hundred years
imagine what he thought
when he woke up here
Year two thousand
forests all cut down
every kid has got a cell phone
country city town
Rip Van Winkle
I wouldn’t mind his fate
I could use the rest
Wake up to assess the state
Twenty one hundred
Brave new world no doubt
sure it will be amazing
lots of that about

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

672 : 2/11/00 : Voyage of Sick Drudgery

It’s a pity we’re not all
Spartacus
Stamped by fate
Handsome like Tony Curtis
The rest of us nobodies
Are just chained to our oars
Is ours just a voyage
of sick drudgery
A hard thought to take
But the great mystery
is someone has to row the boat
While another
Wily goat
calls the rhythm
beats the drum
pays the piper
makes the big show run
we’re all sailors
all at sea
chained to our sad oars
no one’s really free

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

671 : 2/10/00 : The Forest

I’m dreaming the forest again
of my youth my misspent dalliance
No forest I know no place I’ve ever been
Who understands the root of experience
in my dream I run like the wind
In my dreams I’m flying through the trees
In my dream I’ve got my motivation pinned
and I make my own rules do as I please
the forest the ancient silent giant
dappled sunlight shadows of leaves
silent green peace yet inside I am still defiant
knowing fate still has trouble up her sleeves
asleep or waking dream will never last
it’s just an echo from so far from now
in the dream a great wind rises up
and like leaves of grass the trees bow

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

670 : 2/9/00 : Blank Book

I shout a song unheard before
I demand a mirror a window and a door
and I rise above every challenge
I stand steady a mystery like Stonehenge
the wind blows and the cats meow
I never meant to take that journey anyhow
I wonder how the day got so late
filling a blank book cleaning off the slate
East of the sun west of the Father
I never knew a muse would be so much bother
So hard to feed so hard to care about
So hard to illuminate the shadow of a doubt
I wrote a song unheard of before
about a blank book, a circle on the floor
is it a mystery like the Mary Celeste
Will it stand unsolved or topple like the rest

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

669 : 2/8/00 : End All War

1,742 : 4 ?


To end all war a war is not required
And should in fact be well avoided
The war to end all wars and all the bastards that he sired
Good sirs the misery that you exploited
To end all suffering that is a goal unreachable
But do not think it frees you of your shame
For all your fine display of virtue unimpeachable
Good sirs I think you realize your blame
And one man standing silent by the road
and one man hanging lifeless on a cross
and I am just another who was showed
The sad depths of our uninterrupted loss
To end all wars will take another thousand years
It wouldn’t surprise me a thousand after that
It seems our lot is death and bitter tears
and so good sirs to you I raise my hat
And so to you good sirs I bid goodnight
And walk my weary pilgrim road alone
I pray you peace and hope that you sleep tight
and leave the rest of us to find it on our own

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

668 : 2/7/00 : Weary Song

The weary mind begs respite
The weary man agrees
Writing one more song is
going to bring him to his knees

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

667 : 2/6/00 : Macrocosm

The realization of the wider
universe
And me so small makes no sense at all
to feel cursed
Nothing at all out there to even
care
The macrocosm doesn’t know you’re
there
The perception of inevitable
mortality
Leads relentless to collective
morality
Say what you may it’s all just
all just words
Accept absolute exile or run
with the herds
Macrocosm it’s a shame that
you can’t see
There’s nothing to you that’s not
inside of me

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

The inevitable

Inevitably my long stretch of writing songs without missing days was broken last night - not intentionally, just a distracted and inattentive night. Final string 114 days, which I suspect will be the the one to beat for a while.

666 : 2/5/00 : Pardon

Pardon my sins
and my appetites
pardon my slips
and my long empty nights
pardon my confusion
and my aimless ways
pardon me my anger
and my trivial days
I’m searching for redemption
searching far and wide
I’m searching for a mission
from the other side
I’m searching for a way
to make it all feel real
pardon me for slipping on
cosmic banana peels
pardon me for living
I won’t always be
pardon me for breathing
and for being me
pardon me for giving up
and starting over
pardon me for pushing till I’m pushing up clover

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

665 : 2/4/00 : Flower

Sweet sweet pretty
soft and fragile
pretty flower
subtle and facile
same old clichés
same old line
bright and brightly
colored on the vine
pretty flower
full of schemes
full of essences
full of dreams

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

664 : 2/3/00 : Wage Slave

Wage Slave Maledictus
while we were sleeping
the higher power picked us
You will suffer the curse of knowing
The wages of sin of sin are death
the price of life
infused by God’s breath
All I know for sure is I didn’t start this thing
wage slave slave to earning
slave to consumption
the question burning
why do I go on is on my mind
put your shoulder to that wheel
the hill is very steep
and eternity is real
I must admit from here it seems unkind

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

663 : 2/2/00 : Whole Wide World

Who deserves the whole wide world
Not me, not me...
To much to do too much to see
We are blinded by necessity
The ocean chasm the sea of sand
the Well in the center of the Promised Land
Command the earth the angel cried
and all who saw its face just died
crying for the beauty lost
the maelstrom the early frost
the hanging rock the cavalcade
of sigils that the wind and time made
Who is wise enough to see it all
not me
And the whole wide world is waiting
but I’m blinded by necessity
and led astray by circumstances
and the fear of taking chances
with the whole wide world at stake
it seems a heavy choice to make
To me

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

662 : 2/1/00 : Last Brief Song

1,735 : 112 ?


One last brief song
before I must go off to war
to fight for all that war destroys
to die for what all war is for
Take my hand love kiss me once
For you may see me never
It is for this all war is fought
the fruitless fight to seize forever

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

Commitment

I wrote at some length and elsewhere of my reaction to the memory of a particular scion of technology's definition of "commitment". So I won't rehash that here. While I will surely never work hundred hour weeks in the service of a desperately next century startup, I will say I felt some small personal version of that sentiment when, racked with fever and wringing bodily pain, in the throes of the illness that had kicked me out of bed early that morning to the tune of violently ejecting the contents of my stomach, thrice, in rapid succession, I crept out of my bed of pain some time around 10 in the evening, made my way to the kitchen (as far as I felt was wise, all things considered, my blank books being down a steep set of stairs), tore a page off the memo pad...

and wrote a song.




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

661 : 1/31/00 : Piece of Piss

Piece of Piss:
That’s not easy but this is:
a raz a raz a raz a raz
a razmataz
uh hu hu

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

660 : 1/30/00 : Dismal

What a dismal little lot
The average slop has got
pushing this stupid culture up the hill
A rare message for a six line verse
never laugh as you pass the hearse
We don’t believe we’ll die but we will

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

659 : 1/29/00 : Paracelsus

Paracelsus father of Alchemy
can you guide me to the fifth principle
Paracelsus can you help me
I’m searching for the philosopher’s stone
I’m looking to get rich and vile
Paracelsus am I gonna hafta make it on my own
It all looks all right to me
gotta be plenty of opportunity
Paracelsus will you show me how to turn it into gold
Paracelsus father of chemurgy
we’re still seeking transformation
praying makes anyone but me repent
I read a pamphlet that said
The hour and the day come quickly now
we must prepare for what heaven sent

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

658 : 1/28/00 : Sphinx

Here’s a riddle sphinx
What has a head but never thinks
What has a tale but never speaks
Passes years as we do weeks

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

657 : 1/27/00 : Lizard Music

It’s not so interesting
always to be puzzling thinking
Mind over matter matters on my mind
I guess I’m just that just that kind
was I trying to hear lizard music in my sleep
is there a promise my soul can’t keep
if the rhythm wrecks the rhyme
or vice versa how do I tell time?
I’ve got the secret in my hat
Just like the Chicken Man I like it like that
If you understand you’re one of us
and if not go stand in front of a bus
Or wait for one to take you to the fourteenth stop
It’s a jungle out there we’re waist deep in slop
LA cops leave the games early to beat the crowds
I’m staring at shapes in the clouds
On the other side Australia
The last place there is if your heart don’t fail ya
Make your way there when the shit goes down
Look for the Lizard Music store in the nearest town

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

656 : 1/26/00 : Record of the Long Journey

Early in the record of the long journey
Weak handed, weak eyed, dying to return
To some simpler paradigm long gone by
Some sea change to shake this ship stem to stern
chapter four there were incidents
of mutiny and temporary insanity
Some ships were lost with all hands at sea
better them than me but oh the humanity
On an important day of the long journey
The captain realized the time had come
Deep in the throes of a fit of passion
Strapped down under Damocles’ pendulum
You’ll never know if you’ll finish a journey
Or what will wait for you to come back
So best keep a record of the Long Journey
If you manage to return we’ll add it to the stack

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