Monday, October 31, 2016

Straight to Hell by The Clash

If you can play on the fiddle
How's about a British jig and reel?
Speaking King's English in quotation
As railhead towns feel the steel mills rust water froze
In the generation
Clear as winter ice
This is your paradise

There ain't no need for ya
Go straight to hell boys

Y'wanna join in a chorus
Of the Amerasian blues?
When it's Christmas out in Ho Chi Minh City
Kiddie say papa papa papa papa-san take me home
See me got photo photo
Photograph of you
Mamma Mamma Mamma-san
Of you and Mamma Mamma Mamma-san
Lemme tell ya 'bout your blood bamboo kid.
It ain't Coca-Cola it's rice.

Straight to hell
Oh Papa-san
Please take me home
Oh Papa-san
Everybody they wanna go home
So Mamma-san says

You wanna play mind-crazed banjo
On the druggy-drag ragtime U.S.A.?
In Parkland International
Hah! Junkiedom U.S.A.
Where procaine proves the purest rock man groove
and rat poison
The volatile Molatov says-

PSSST...
HEY CHICO WE GOT A MESSAGE FOR YA...
VAMOS VAMOS MUCHACHO
FROM ALPHABET CITY ALL THE WAY A TO Z, DEAD, HEAD

Go straight to hell

Can you really cough it up loud and strong
The immigrants
They wanna sing all night long
It could be anywhere
Most likely could be any frontier
Any hemisphere
No man's land and there ain't no asylum here
King Solomon he never lived round here

Go straight to hell boys

I HEARD A MIND BLOWING COVER OF THIS SONG IN A LITTLE BAR NEAR WHERE I LIVED IN L.A. IT MAY HAVE BEEN THE VIPER ROOM DURING THE 2000 CONVENTION. AT ANY RATE, THIS SONG FREQUENTLY RUNS THROUGH MY MIND. AT LEAST THE MA MA MA MA MA SAN AND THE GO STRAIGHT TO HELL BOY PART.

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Little Ghost by The White Stripes

Little ghost, little ghost
One I'm scared of the most
Can you scare me up a little bit of love?
I'm the only one that sees you,
And I can't do much to please you
And it's not yet time to meet the lord above

The first moment that I met her
I did not expect a specter
When I shook her hand I really shook a glove
She looked into me so sweetly
And we left the room discreetly
No one else could know the secret of our love

Little ghost, little ghost
One I'm scared of the most
Can you scare me up a little bit of love?
I'm the only one that sees you,
And I can't do much to please you
And it's not yet time to meet the lord above

Every morning I awoke
And I see my little ghost
Wond'rin' if it's really her that's lying there
I lean to touch her and I whisper
But not brave enough to kiss her
When I held her I was really holding air

Little ghost, little ghost
One I'm scared of the most
Can you scare me up a little bit of love?
I'm the only one that sees you,
And I can't do much to please you
And it's not yet time to meet the lord above

Though I try my best to keep it
There really was no secret
Must have looked like I was dancing with the wall
No one else could see this apparition
But because of my condition
I fell in love with a little ghost and that was all

Little ghost, little ghost
One I'm scared of the most
Can you scare me up a little bit of love?
I'm the only one that sees you,
And I can't do much to please you
And it's not yet time to meet the lord above
No, it's not yet time to meet the lord above

CAN YOU LOVE A GHOST? PROBABLY NOT. BUT YOU CAN READ THE WORDS OF A LONG DEAD POET AND THINK "IF I LIVED THEN I WOULD SEEK THIS PERSON OUT" SO MAYBE THAT IS LOVING A GHOST.

 

Thursday, October 27, 2016

We've Been Had by Uncle Tupelo

There's a guitar leaning on a Marshall stack
Used to sound like the sun on the horizon
Now I think we've been had
There's a young girl screaming all the way in the back
Poor kid, she never saw it coming
Now she knows she's been had
Watching the label spinning on my turntable
There's no call waiting in my headphones
And every star that shines in the back of my mind
Is just waiting for its cover to be blown
There's an eardrum bleeding, yeah it's in my head
How could I still be so in love when I know
We've been had?
Republicans and Democrats can't give you the facts
Your parents won't tell you 'til you're grown
That every star that shines in the back of your mind
Is just waiting for its cover to be blown
Flashing the badges, just like the law of averages
Nobody likes 'em where they're from
And every star that hides on the back of the bus
Is just waiting for its cover to be blown

WE HAVE INDEED BEEN HAD

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Youth Without Love by Har Mar Superstar

c’mon baby swallow your pride
everybody get in the water
c’mon baby make up your mind
tell me that you’re still gonna try
c’mon baby open your eyes
and if we wake up
tell that it’s gonna be fine
it doesn’t happen all the time
when you find
that you start to lose your mind
nothing can be done
it’s coming to me
and if i could somehow make you mine
a thousand times
i’d never get enough of you
c’mon baby make up your mind
i don’t wanna change you
knowin’ that your setting your sites
you can never give enough
c’mon baby show me your stuff
and if we wake up
c’mon baby give me a sign (just one)
tell me that you’re gonna be mine
when you find
that you start to lose your mind
nothing can be done
it’s coming to me
and if i could somehow make you mine
a thousand times
i’d never get enough of you

NO.... IF I WERE THE CHICK HE IS SINGING TO I WOULD SAY NO. RUN GIRL... RUN...

Monday, October 17, 2016

Suicide Underground by Air

Everyone dated the demise of our neighborhood
From the suicide of the Lisbon girls.
People saw their clairvoyance
In the wiped-out elms and harsh sunlight.
Some thought the torture tearing the Lisbon girls
Pointed to a simple refusal  to accept the world
As it was handed down to them, so full of flaws.
But the only thing we are certain of
After all these years, is the insufficiency of explanations.

Obviously doctor,
You've never been a thirteen year-old girl.

The Lisbon girls were thirteen,
Cecile, fourteen, Lux, fifteen, Bonnie, sixteen, Mary, and seventeen, Therese.
No one could understand how Mrs. Lisbon and Mr. Lisbon,
A math  teacher, had produced such beautiful creatures.

From that time one, the Lisbon house began to change.
Almost every day, and even when she wasn't keeping an eye on Cecilia,
Lux would suntan on her towel wearing a swimsuit
That caused the knife-sharpener to give her a fifteen minute demonstration for free.

The only reliable boy who got to know Lux was Trip Fontaine
For only 18 months before the suicides had emerged from baby fat
To the delight of girls and mothers alike.

But few anticipated it would be so drastic.
The girls were pulled out of school,
And Mrs. Lisbon shut the house for maximum security isolation.
The girls' only contact to the outside world
Was through the catalogs they ordered
That started to fill the Lisbon's mailbox
With pictures of high-end fashions and brochures for exotic vacations.
Unable to go anywhere, the girls traveled in their imaginations
To gold-tipped Siamese temples or past an old man,
The leaf broom tidying the Maw's carpeted speck of Japan ?
And Cecelia hadn't died.
She was a bride in Calcutta

Collecting everything we could of theirs,
We couldn't get the Lisbon girls out of our minds,
But they were slipping away.
The colors of their eyes were fading,
Along with exact locations of moles and dimples.
From five, they had become four,
And they were all (the living and the dead), become shadows.
We would have lost them completely if the girls hadn't contacted us.

Lux was the last to go.
Fleeing from the house, we forgot to stop at the garage.
After the suicide free-for-all,
Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon gave up any attempt to lead a normal life.
They had Mr. Henry pack up the house,
Selling what furniture he could at a garage sale.
Everyone went just to look.
Our parents did not buy used furniture,
And they certainly didn't buy furniture tainted by death.
We of course took the family photos that were put out with the trash.
Mr. Lisbon put the house on the market,
And it was sold to a young couple from Boston.

It didn't matter in the end how old they had been,
Or that they were girls.
But only that we had loved them,
And that they hadn't heard us call, still did not hear us.
Calling out of those rooms where they went to be alone for all time,
Alone in suicide.
Which is deeper than death,
And where we will never find the pieced to put them back together.
 
                                                            

Saturday, October 08, 2016

You Want It Darker by Leonard Cohen

If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game
If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame

Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the help that never came
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my lord

There's a lover in the story
But the story's still the same
There's a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it's written in the scriptures
And it's not some idle claim
You want it darker
We kill the flame

They're lining up the prisoners
And the guards are taking aim
I struggled with some demons
They were middle class and tame
I didn't know I had permission to murder and to maim
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my lord

Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name
Vilified, crucified, in the human frame
A million candles burning for the love that never came
You want it darker
We kill the flame

If you are the dealer, let me out of the game
If you are the healer, I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory, mine must be the shame
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my lord

Hineni
Hineni, hineni
Hineni

I HOPE IN A THOUSAND YEARS THERE IS A RELIGION THAT USES LEONARD COHEN LYRICS AS ITS SCRIPTURE

Tuesday, October 04, 2016

That Thing You Do by The Wonders

you, doing that thing you do breaking my heart into a million pieces
like you always do and you don't mean to be cruel you never even knew
about the heartache i've been goin' through well, i try and try to forget you girl
but it's just so hard to do every time you do that thing you do and i,
know all the games you play and i'm gonna find a way to let you know
that you'll be mine someday cause we, could be happy,
can't you see if you'd only let me be the one to hold you,
and keep you here with me i don't ask a lot girl but i know one thing's
for sure it's the love i haven't got girl and i just can't take it anymore....
cause it hurts me so just to see you go around with someone new
and if i know you, you're doin' that thing every day,
just doing that thing i can't take you doing that thing you do

20 years ago...

Saturday, October 01, 2016

Pretty Good Day by Loudon Wainwright III

i slept through the night, i got through to the dawn
i flipped a switch and the light went on
i got out of bed and i put some clothes on
oh, it’s a pretty good day so far
i turned the tap, there was cold, there was hot
i put on my coat to go to the shop
i stepped outside and i didn’t get shot
oh, it’s a pretty good day so far
i didn’t hear any sirens or explosions
no murders coming in from those heavy guns
no un tanks and i didn’t see one
it’s a pretty good day so far
no snipers in windows taking a peak
no people panic, running scared through the streets
i didn’t see any bodies without arms, legs or feet
it’s a pretty good day
there was plasma bandages and electricity
food, wood and water and the air was smoke free
no camera crews from my tv
it was all such a strange sight to be home
n*body was frightened, wounded, hungry or cold
and the children seemed normal, they didn’t look old
it’s a pretty good day so far
i walked through a park, you would not believe it
there in the park, there were a few trees left
and on some branches, there were a few leaves
i slept through the night, i got through to the dawn
i flipped the switch and the light went on
i wrote down my dream, i made it this song
oh, it’s a pretty good day so far

MAN, THIS SONG IS 18 YEARS OLD.... COULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN YESTERDAY...