NIGHTMERICA

Simple germs learned in dreams
Lay me down with what I’ve seen
Take my code, trace the seam
Tell me if I am clean

The Teleinfotainmentzine
Tries to sell the vaccine
But it glows a dull obscene
A double-edged smoke screen

It’s all about America
Nightmare America
It’s in the Constitutiona—
We gotta get hysteria!!

Take a taste, it’s gasoline
She’s our rabid mainline queen
The blood that churns the machine
Makes us quiver, makes us scream

From their bunker comes the creed
Some of us may have to bleed
To burn and purge, spread the seed
Chaos is a symphony!

And the germ fits their needs
Like they wrote the disease
Line up now and be seen
Without the code, you are not clean!
(repeat)

(CHORUS)

TAME SNAKE BLUES

A cough can be heard in these castle walls
For miles around without trying
I tried to hide inside this corner
But you found me out
by the silence of my breathing

The snake has been tamed and now it winds
In perfect lines and perfect circles
I may be lost, but never for long
Because every street is a mile of its’ tongue

And you & I have always been
And you & I have always been

There’s something thrashing around in the dust
And I found that I wanted to touch it
I thought there were no signs left to speak
But I crossed myself in the face of it

And what about its’ call?
What about my answer?
What is this thing writhing in my hands?
All I been taught, from dust to a cinder
When there’s no walls—There’s no walls!!

ASSAULT #13

I have seen the darkened lands
Laid like a stain, laid like a plan
I spread them thin, across these shores
The ends meets the means, of course you’re sure

Here is the fire, here is the hand
What we forge now takes command
We break like seeds, or tired whores
We feed the fire of conquistidors

God and the Devil, hand in hand
They’ve compromised, drawn up a plan
The feast is laid, the wine is poured
The word gets out, a poisonous spore

The Kingdom Come-And-Get-It Plan
Is bankrupt now, you understand
We blame the flame, the need for more
We drink the ash of conquistidors

LONELY FINANCIAL ZONE

© JONATHAN RICHMAN

DO THE FAULT

Talk & talk & talk & talk & talk
That’s all I ever do is talk
Talk & talk & talk & talk & talk
That’s all we ever do is talk

When you got nothing
That’s when you’ll buy anything
Our words beat the wind like idiot fans
Our love is a just a diagram

(CHORUS)

When you get under my skin
It’s like the fall of Berlin
The fault line leads to a just cause
But I’d rather hit the pause

(CHORUS)

SNOWBALL

© DEVO

GHOST WALKING BLUES

I’m walking this town
Like a clock that’s come unwound
There’s no time left in me
I’m a ghost that you can see

I’m walking, I’m talking
Trying to give you
A fix on my position
The signal is fading
Weren’t you listening

I’d love to live in your eyes
In the story you reprise
But there’s nothing there that’s me
Just some shadows you want to see

(CHORUS)

Like a buoy on the sea
I’m saying, stay away from me
I’m a wreck that hasn’t broken
I’m the ghost that has just spoken

I’m just, just a memory

UGLY TRUTH BLUES

I saw your face in full
But now you’re a dust particle
I reach out for you
But you are just see-through
We bend & bend & hew
But we’re not breaking through
A lie is not true
Unless we see it through

I don’t believe in you
I said I said that—
I can’t believe it’s true!

This story is so old
A fable marked in bold
The lines we use like new
Fit like scar tissue
Our trough is now our pew
We bend to break, renew
But we both drink
From that curdled residue

I can’t believe in you
I thought you could give that,
But it’s not in you!

I face the face I sold
A mask that has gone cold
But in its’ purest view
It’s me who sees through you
Another bloodless coup
Will doubtless now ensue
When you give the clues
To our ugly little truth

I’m still in love with you
Yes, I did say that—
I can’t believe you knew!

SLIP KNOT

You’re saying what you’re meaning
But you’re—NOT
I say that I’m agreeing
But I’m—NOT
And now what’s the reason
That we’ve—GOT
To be tangled up together
Inside this—KNOT

Go Away, Oh Please, Stay
These chants were tired yesterday
The ties that bind also fray
I don’t care much, anyway

Don’t ever let it go
The small, sheltered light that glows
Don’t ever lay it low
The gift that dies unless it grows

You say you love me
Love me—NOT
I’m strangled by the loose ends
Of this—PLOT
We’re friends who make amends
It’s all we—GOT
Tangled up together
Inside this—KNOT

Here we stand, let us pray
I can’t remember, anyway
When the strands stripped away
Left us both naked prey

Guess I’m growing old
The fire just leaves me cold
You tip your hand, I fold
And make a fist of what I hold

We’re wearing the slip-knot
We’re bearing the slip-knot
The noose on the neck of what we forgot
Were trapped in the slip-knot-knot-KNOT!!

DARKEST TOWN

Well, I’ve been heading nowhere so long
I forgot I was on my way
And yesterday was a month or a year
Or was it just today?

I’ve seen faces fall away
I’ve lost a lot of friends to the din
The dull, scattered racket that we make
To forget where we begin

Well, they say a light is always burning
For the lost & forsaken
But I’m afraid they are mistaken
Any signs left, they all say, “Vacant”

Well, now I’m going to another place
That I know, but I’ve never found
Where I draw my bitter faith
Like water from deep underground

Well, I’m going to those places
Those dark, dark places
That light up the night sky
I’m going where fire is an oasis
And darkness feeds my eyes

(I’m reaching down
and you know what I’ve found?
A bottomless sound –
A way to pray without god around)

(chorus)

In the darkest town, in the darkest town
You will find a light in the darkest town

SEARCH FOR WATER (lyrics by Jeff Earing)

DEEP SLEEP BLUES

I CAN’T ESCAPE FROM YOU

© HANK WILLIAMS

SCARECROW BONES