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SET LIST THIRTEEN (13)
1 Can't Have That………….138
2 Gettin' Juiced
3 Gate Keeper…………..140
4 Uncashable
5 Permanent Lies………….141
6 Mickey D's
7 Poorest Chorus…………..143
8 Staking the Flag
9 United We Stand………...145
10 Pledge
11 Sleepless……………...147
12 East Timor…………..148
13 Steady Calm……………..149
CAN'T HAVE THAT
The latest polls show
That when the people say "yes"
Our leaders say "no"
I was taught that it was us versus them
Now I’ve learned that them is us
But I’m not talking about your Average Joe
Just of those who try to buy our trust
Here’s a list of things the peasants want
Well surely they can’t have all that!
Just give them these stale loaves of bread
And then we’ll raise the tax!!!!
Society at large...Oh, we're not too pleased
Politics to the core...has become diseased
All I need is one believer
To inspire me to dig just a little bit deeper
Society at large...Oh, we're not too pleased
Politics to the core... has become diseased
All they need is one good reason
To get me off of this charge of treason
Society at large... Oh, we're not too pleased
Politics to the core... has become diseased
When I hear the word lobbyist
My right hand reaches for my gun
When it comes time for talking politics
People get paid to keep us dumb
GETTIN' JUICED
Smashed is the equality
Living in this world of sin
As long as you got power
There's no trouble you're gettin' in
An old football star
He ain't gonna do no time
Money, fame and connections
All cover up the crime
Killing death row inmates
I haven't seen the use
The machine is all plugged in
But it still doesn't have The Juice
And when it's time for you or me
The average American Joe
They'll put us in a steel-caged cell
With no place else to go
When they come and lock me up
There's gonna be a parade
They'll say they've seen my writings
And heard every word I said
If I ever make parole
There'll be snipers on the roof
But they'll need to have an extra round
Because I'm bulletproof
Well, actually I'm not
I've got no fortune or fame
That's why when things go wrong
They place on me the blame
Killing death row inmates
I haven't seen the use
The machine is all plugged in
But it still doesn't have The Juice
GATE KEEPER
If it goes to trial
They got you on file
As a well-known liar
This whole time
The feds had it pegged
Were all wearing wires
You’re left to ask why
Not everyone tries
When bogged down in the mire
And it seems to me
You’re as high as can be
I don’t think it gets any higher
Time to make a deal
Before your fate’s sealed
The contract has expired
You see, going for broke
It leaves you broken
And cold and hungry
Yet you keep on hoping
That tomorrow
A new door will open
That’ll light the fire
And you’ll see that thing smokin’
You found yourself a game
That you really want to play
“Oh won’t you deal me in?”
They’ve been waiting for you to say…
Gate keeper, gate keeper
I can dig a little deeper
Please tell me what you require
Would you have me walk across the water?
Or are you thinking of something hotter?
Am I sensing a cleansing by fire?
Oh those eyes I see them rise in desire
As beads of sweat from your forehead perspire…
Gate keeper, gate keeper
Oh won’t you let me into your little show
Gate keeper, gate keeper
Oh tell me all the secrets
That we both know you know
UNCASHABLE
From where you stand
Everything looks groovy
But living inside of a commercial
It ain't the same as starring in a movie
Hey brother can you spare a dime?
I beg for money all the time
Rather hold an empty cup
Than lead a life of crime
Reality checks can't be cashed
That's what they said at the bank
When I asked:
Is there a tax on misery?
What's the price of a life
Worth materially?
She wrote down a number
But it didn't seem enough
When I said I suffered from poverty
She subtracted a couple of bucks
I said, "Have a nice day"
And I just walked away
Pondering the price we'll all pay
For people acting and thinking this way
I document history
The kind no one reads
In this land of pretty flowers
I’m considered a weed
PERMANENT LIES
Permanent lies, permanent lies
Permanent lies, permanent lies
Facts are interchangeable
Opinions oh so manageable
Everything is rearrangeable
For those who own the world
The discovery I am finding
No contract can be binding
When the empire is declining
The shell closes on a pearl
When confined by isolation
With this stale air I’m tasting
I slowly begin wasting
My time, my mind, my pay
So with nothing in my pockets
I gotta go get it
Because I don’t got it
And when I do it flits away
Permanent lies
Lead to infinite wars…
What hides behind the disguise?
It’s so hard to tell anymore
There’s many giving up
No, I’m not talking ‘bout the poor
Lots of middle class or better
All falling dead upon the floor
MICKEY D's
I cannot complete a thought
It gets lost as I get cross
Trapped like a gas
In this vast
piece of orbiting mass
This little lucky piece of rock
That you could almost
paddle across
We've got some
pretty green trees
Yet it's still ripe
with disease
Full of wars you
can and can't see
You ask, "So what's it to me?"
Yes I know of history, geology,
Astronomy and World War Three
I have seen the greed
Once I would have
never believed
That money could
buy such misery
Now I see the naivety in me
As corporations start
owning countries
Now they're calling
Kenya Mickey D's
And happiness is just
a distant memory
So long unknown to me
Living in this world of adultery
Where what you see
Is not really what you see
And where what's to be
May never be
And though unchained
no one is free
You can look forever
and still not see
Believing simply that
What's to be will be
Thinking that men
don't make history
Only got lucky
Someone had to be
It took me many years to see
That God helps those
who help themselves
So think twice to yourself
Before you trust in anyone else
Or else you run the risk
Of feeling just like me
A dear friend to insanity
But hey, at least somebody
listens to me
POOREST CHORUS By
The brutal honesty of this fun house
mirrored fishbowl world in which
we all live inside
Is that a man's soul
Will either with him gently die
or watch him lay helpless as he is
economically crucified
This is not just mere opinion
But a simple fact That we can no
longer push aside:
I've been watching the Walmartization
of these United States...
Which is tied directly to the exploitation of
our country's citizens by big magnates
Where the more get more
and the poor get less
As every mom and pop store
is forced to liquidate
I've been watching the Walmartization
of these United States...
Seen values and morals
and a sense of duty to country
slowly disintegrate
Over the last sixty years faces on the street
Have become overrun
by utter indifference if not hate
I've been watching
the Walmartization of these United States...
People getting hosed but not being
able to take a bath In Katrina's aftermath
And it’s our own government
that has yet to close the floodgates
But there's more to it than court rulings
It's what large bills get passed
On the house floor to the Senate
I've been watching the
Walmartization of these United States...
I've seen kids having kids
Who're functionally illiterate
Little ones walking hand in hand
With the falling prices of real estate
I've been watching
the Walmartization of these United States...
I've seen people drown
In a pool of knowledge
Because the water turned stagnant
As our world has become all carved up
and fractionated
I've been watching
the Walmartization of these United States...
As funding for education
gets bled so badly it needs a turnicate
Yet it's never seemed to be
a major issue for debate
Brought up by any presidential candidate
I've been watching
the Walmartization
of these dividing states...
Hoping for a reversal of trends
But how much longer will we have to wait?
It's an unfortunate story
But one that somebody
had to narrate
STAKING THE FLAG
Left, right, left, right, left, right
Keep on walking
Don't you look behind
Left, right, left, right, left, right, left
Keep on walking
Don't you look behind
Left, right, left, right, left, right
Keep on walking
Don't you look behind
If you do you know what you'll see
I said if you do
Then you'll know what you'll find...
A trail of tears...
One tear for every step
A trail of tears...
One tear for what couldn't be kept
A trail of tears...
One tear for every breath
A trail of tears...
One tear for every death
The Indians in their Teepees
Speakie English and say
'In trouble deepie"
The cavalry is about to charge
No dancing with wolves
When you're waltzing with Custard
Forced into building casinos
And inventing new mustard
The pilgrims with muskets
Are now at large
And with a box full of small pox
Expanding isn't very hard
Trade whiskey for deeds
Throw in a few beads
When you find a cross in the yard
Then you'll know it's in the bag
To put men on the moon
You know it's never too soon
Sometimes you have to push hard
When you're staking the flag
Left, right, left, right, left, right
Keep on walking
Don't you look behind
Left, right, left, right, left, right, left
Keep on walking
Don't you look behind
Left, right, left, right, left, right
Keep on walking
Don't you look behind
If you do you'll know what you'll see
I said if you do
Then you'll know what you'll find...
A trail of tears...
One tear for every step
A trail of tears...
One tear for what couldn't be kept
A trail of tears...
One tear for every breath
A trail of tears...
One tear for every death
UNITED WE STAND
All for one and one for all
It really makes no sense to hide it:
That he thinks this and she thinks that
One man’s fiction is another man’s fact
Not every conversation is one-sided
All for one and one for all
What was once on the way up
Is now going down
After empty words were spoken
The unity was broken
And the three musketeers
Have all skipped town
All for one and one for all
As an individual we are so small
But this isn’t China, this isn’t Japan
No one wants to be part
Of any master plan
Yet society’s foundation will crack
Without enough bricks in the wall
All for one and one for all
Quite similar to an alcoholic’s motto
They say take things a day at a time
It’ll help ease your mind
I guess there’s
No such word as tomorrow
All for one and one for all
The time that’s wasting is now
But for your God or for yourself
Maybe for me
Or perhaps someone else
To some greater cause
We must each take our vow
All for one and one for all
What kind of future
Does this world hold?
The ill are getting sicker
Each day our children
Are growing up quicker
Yet they say that
What hasn’t a price
Cannot be sold
All for one and one for all
The justice system of our country
Has no equal
Though the cases seem
To keep getting worse
After a movie is made
Everyone wants to be the first
In line to buy the sequel
All for one and one for all
The liberty bell keeps on ringing
As republicans and democrats
Keep on listening
While trying to figure out
Where the sound is at
And until the do I’ll keep on singing
All for one and one for all
You can sit staring
At quotes on the wall
But I believe
That Lincoln said it best
So there’s really no need
To recite all the rest
United we stand, divided we fall
All for one and one for all
It takes many seeds
To plant a garden
So you better harvest
Before the frost
For if you don’t
All your work will be lost
As I feel a wintry chill just starting
PLEDGE
Globalization without exploitation
Should be the pledge
of this next generation
The goal set forth
for this new millennium
More songs that unite...
That's right...
I'm penning them
So who is with me?
(thunderous clapping and applause)
Alright now who is against me?
(solo person clapping fades out)
The only weapon you need is love
To destroy any potential enemies
It's thoughts like these that make me
The most dangerous man in the world
Someone that can teach these beliefs
To all of Mother Earth's
little boys and girls
Every arm in arm
Each hand in hand
That's the one nation
For which I'll stand
SLEEPLESS
We regret it in the morning
What feels good in the night
We see things as we want to
And we pretend that we have sight
Have you ever asked Helen Keller
What she thinks of as right
Her answers might surprise you
Keep you sleepless and up at night…
EAST TIMOR
Amidst this endless
and senseless violence
The one thing
that I despise most
Are the swords that
were swung in silence
For when futile
becomes resistance
The bloody few who are left
Look to us
for some assistance
But it's by our weapons
That their blood is spilled
When you're wiping out poverty
Sometimes it's just cheaper to kill
So we justify we need a place
For our new submarine base
Since our economy is tanking
Why let good weapons
go to waste?
Sell them to Indonesia
And everybody wins
At least those with a voice
Amplified by
propagandist spin
I'm getting angry
unhappy
If I start crying
please slap me
Slap this frown
right off of my face
As you see I'm in
a delicate state
Been like this
for years
How long
will they have to wait?
When the media
is your ally
You can hide a genocide
Started back before 1975
Hundreds of thousands
have lost their lives
Amidst this endless
and senseless violence
The one thing
that I despise most
Are the swords that
were swung...in silence
STEADY CALM
When we are the many
And they are the few
We shall never be forgiven
For what we failed to do
As the time came
When it was time to act
We turned our backs
Clinging to made up facts
Children crying in their mother’s arms
Fathers dying in wars like Vietnam
Vacant eyes
Formaldehyde smell
Following the trail
You know so well...
In this struggle for survival
The key is the journey not the arrival
It’s more the process less the prose
Where the wisdom’s found by those who know
‘Tis best to walk where the road don’t go
As everything speeds up
Is when it’s best to take it slow…
It quickens - the pace of the nation
And sickens - what some of us are facing
As the plot thickens - you forget what you were chasing
Those not stricken - stop sleepwalking and awaken
To all you spring chickens
- can we unmake this forsaken aching creation?
I sense the sound of hesitation in your voice
I’ve found most of your frustration is by choice
Those afraid of confrontation shall be coerced
To either stand up for themselves
or else lie down in a hearse
Day to day to day…
Today is worse
If you wanna make an omelette
Then sometimes you gotta break some heads
It don’t pay to be a chicken
Forever sitting on unhatched eggs
Here at the feast not everybody eats
Not everybody speaks
Even those who are able
But when the money’s on the line
And the cards are on the table
Someone’s bound to cheat
It happens every time
Hence the noose around the neck
Legs dance and then dangle
Silhouetting the gable
Now... things are back to normal
Everything all nice and stable
Steady Calm...
Yeah, I’ll wear that label