quote:

---

Originally posted by klik:
The U.S. Forces give the nod
It's a setback for your country
Bombs and trenches all in rows,
bombs and threats still ask for more
Divided world the CIA,
say, who controls the issue?
You leave us with no time to talk,
you can write your own assessment

Sing me songs of no denying,
seems to me too many trying
Waiting for the next big thing

Now you'll know it when you see it,
eyeless children dogs of war

Now market movements call the shots,
business deals in parking lots
Waiting for the meat of tomorrow

Sing me songs of no denying,
seems to me too many trying
Waiting for the next big thing

Everyone is too stoned to start emission
People too scared to go to prison
We're unable to make decision
Politicians' party line, "don't cross that floor!"
L. Ron Hubbard can't save your life
Superboy takes a plutonium wife
In the shadow of Ban The Bomb we live

Sing me songs of no denying,
seems to me too many trying
Waiting for the next big thing

We're waiting
We're waiting
We're waiting...

_U.S. Forces_
Midnight Oil
from the album, _10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1_ (1982)

---

These lyrics and this song are worth repeating.

I was taught a month ago,
To bide my time and take it slow

But then I learned just yesterday
To rush and never waste the day

Now I'm convinced the whole day long
That all I learn is always wrong

And things are true that I forget,
But no one taught that to me yet

"character zero" phish

Re the Midnight Oil lyrics - I think "Everyone is too stoned to start emission" should read: "Everyone's too stoned to start a mission".

Good album, that one.

So many to choose from, but here's something cynical in honor of it being nearly election day here in the states. Lord help anyone on a college campus without headphones this week.

TOOL - Opiate
deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow
what you need is someone strong to guide you
deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow
what you need is someone strong to guide you
like me

Jesus Christ why don't you come save my life now
open my eyes, blind me with your light now
deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow
let me lay my holy hands upon you.

(excerpts)(by the way this is just how i remember it)(i haven't bothered with the egofeeding filler)

from eminem's square dance

never been the type to bend or budge
the wrong button to push
no friend of bush

i've come back now to release this info
i'll be brief let me just keep shit simple

mush the senate's face in
push this generation of kids
to stand and fight
for the right
to say something you might not like
this white hot light that i'm under
no wonder i look so sunburnt
oh no i won't leave no stone unturned

do-se-do oh yo ho hello there
oh yeah, don't think i won't go there

yeah you laugh till your motherfuckin' ass gets drafted
when you're in baghdad thinkin that crap can't happen
(blah blah anthrax)

all this terror
america demands action
next thing you know
you've got uncle sam's ass askin'
to join the army
or what you do for their navy
you just a baby
gettin recruited at eighteen
you're on their plane now
eatin their food or their baked beans
i'm 28, they gon' take you 'fore they take me
crazy insane or insane crazy
when i say hussein
you say shady


yeah buddy
life is funny
i have the money to have you killed
by somebody who has nothing
i'm past bluffin
pass the KY
lets get ready
for some intense
serious
ass-fucking

(now that last bit some may see as a homo-phobic gangsta's mouthing off. i believe he's suggesting that bush and hussein are willing to fuck over the kids with barely a second thought.)


and from white america

how many people are proud to be citizens of this beautiful country of ours?
the stripes and the stars
the rights that men have died for to protect
the women and men who have broke their necks for the freedom the united srtates govt has sworn to uphold
or so we're told

never would have dreamed in a million years i'd see
so many motherfuckin' people who feel like me
who share the same views and the same exact beliefs
it's like a fuckin army marchin in back of me



last night i put the eminem show back in the car stereo more as a sad thing, cause when i first heard it i thought that he'd be able to mobilise the kids, and then my hope sort of fizzled out. i thought his timing had been off. but if he's released a new single just in time, you never know.

the style council's walls come tumbling down

we don't have to take this crap
we don't have to sit back and relax
we can actually try changing it

i know we've always been taught to rely
upon those in authority
but you never know until you try
how things just might be

I got a letter from the governor the other day
I opened and read it, it said they were suckers
they wanted me for their army or whatever
picture me giving a damn
I said NEVER

"We've Got A Bigger Problem Now" x D/K
Last call for alcohol.
Last call for your freedom of speech.
Drink up. Happy hour is now enforced by law.
Don't forget our house special, it's called a Trickie Dickie Screwdriver.
It's got one part Jack Daniels, two parts purple Kool-Aid,
and a jigger of formaldehyde
from the jar with Hitler's brain in it we got in the back storeroom.
Happy trails to you. Happy trails to you.

I am Emperor Ronald Reagan(Dubya Busch)
Born again with fascist cravings
Still, you made me president

Human rights will soon go 'way
I am now your Shah today
Now I command all of you
Now you're going to pray in school
I'll make sure they're Christian too

California Uber alles
Uber alles California

Ku Klux Klan will control you
Still you think it's natural
Nigger knockin' for the master race
Still you wear the happy face

You closed your eyes, can't happen here
Alexander Haig is near
Vietnam won't come back you say
Join the army or you will pay

California Uber alles
Uber alles California

Yeah, that's it. Just relax.
Have another drink, few more pretzels, little more MSG.
Turn on those Dallas Cowboys on your TV.
Lock your doors. Close your mind.
It's time for the two-minute warning.

Welcome to 1984
Are you ready for the third world war?!?
You too will meet the secret police
They'll draft you and they'll jail your niece

You'll go quitely to boot camp
They'll shoot you dead, make you a man
Don't you worry, it's for a cause
Feeding global corporations' claws

Die on our brand new poison gas
El Salvador or Afghanistan(!)
Making money for President Reagan(Dubya Busch)
And all the friends of President Reagan (Dubya Busch)

California Uber alles
Uber alles California

more dead kennedys:
"Rambozo The Clown"
Got a deadly toy
To brainwash your boy

An egocentric muscle thug
Kicks butt on screen like a brat outa hell
Bullshitter in the Indochina shop
Pull the string in his back, we win the war

That we never should have started at all

A cabbage patch terrorist to call our own
Who rewrites history with a machine gun
Don't think about it-KILL IT
That's what we teach your child

RAMBOZO
RAMBOZO
RAMBOZO the Clown
To draft age kids
It sure looks like fun-
"Kill 'em all
And let God sort 'em out."
Like video games-no mess
Just fuel for a mass lapse of common sense
You can be Don Quixote
We'll dice you with our windmill blades

Brawn over brain
Means a happy ending
G.I. Joe in the cereal bowl
Grey shrapnel-flavored chewing gum
Mass murder ain't just painless
Now we've made it cute

RAMBOZO
RAMBOZO
RAMBOZO the Clown
War is sexy
War is fun
Iron Ego
Red Dawn
Be a wolverine. You'll rule the hills
Just get some guns and Cheerios
Any kid can conquer Libya
Just steal a fighter plane

Look who came home in a wheelchair
V.A. Hospital, they don't care
"We're the machine
You're just a tool."
Who fell for the myth of Rambozo the Clown

D/K;
"Kinky Sex Makes The World Go 'Round"
Greetings:This is the Secretary of War at the State Department
of the United States
We have a problem.
The companies want something done about this sluggish
world economic situation
Profits have been running a little thin lately
and we need to stimulate some growth
Now we know
there's an alarmingly high number of young people roaming
around in your country with nothing to do but stir up trouble
for the police and damage private property.
It doesn't look like they'll ever get a job
It's about time we did something constructive with these people
We've got thousands of 'em here too. They're crawling all over
The companies think it's time we all sit down, have a serious get-together-
And start another war
The President?
He loves the idea! All those missiles streaming overhead to and fro
Napalm
People running down the road, skin on fire
The Soviets seem up for it:
The Kremlin's been itching for the real thing for years.
Hell, Afghanistan's no fun
So whadya say?
We don't even have to win this war.
We just want to cut down on some of this excess population
Now look. Just start up a draft; draft as many of those people as you can.
We'll call up every last youngster we can get our hands on,
hand 'em some speed, give 'em an hour or two to learn how to use
an automatic rifle and send 'em on their way
Libya? El Salvador? How 'bout Northern Ireland?
Or a "moderately repressive regime" in South America?
We'll just cook up a good Soviet threat story
in the Middle East-we need that oil
We had Libya all ready to go and Colonel Khadafy's hit squad
didn't even show up. I tell ya
That man is unreliable.
The Kremlin had their fingers on the button just like we did for that one
Now just think for a minute-We can make this war so big-so BIG
The more people we kill in this war, the more the economy will prosper
We can get rid of practically everybody on your dole queue if we plan this right.
Take every loafer on welfare right off our computer rolls
Now don't worry about demonstrations-just pump up your drug supply.
So many people have hooked themselves on heroin
and amphetamines since we took over, it's just like Vietnam.
We had everybody so busy with LSD they never got too strong.
Kept the war functioning just fine
It's easy.
We've got our college kids so interested in beer
they don't even care if we start manufacturing germ bombs again.
Put a nuclear stockpile in their back yard,
they wouldn't even know what it looked like
So how 'bout it? Look-War is money.
The arms manufacturers tell me unless
we get our bomb factories up to full production
the whole economy is going to collapse
The Soviets are in the same boat.
We all agree the time has come for the big one, so whadya say?!?
That's excellent. We knew you'd agree
The companies will be very pleased.

Uno mas:
"Saturday Night Holocaust"
There's a prefab building and a funny smell
Around the hill outside of town
Every now and then we wonder
But we shrug our shoulders
And get back to work

There's a railroad there and trains go by
And there's people locked in cattle cars
And have you noticed
The french fries at the A&W
Taste a little strange?

I drive down to the disco
Pompadour and pink lamme
I bow and blow the doorman
He parts the chain, says join the game

A quick line in the girls room
To the bar for the electrodes
A coin into the right slits
Tape my temple watch me go

Now I want your perfect Barbie-doll lips
And I want your perfect Barbie-doll eyes
Slip my fingers down your Barbie-doll dress
Up and down your spandex ass

If I lit a match for you
You'd melt before my eyes
C'mere my pretty glow-worm
You look so fine to dance with me

The fly-eye lights are throbbin'
I'm burning up the floor
Whirling twirling
Close my eyes
No faces judging me

But I want your perfect Barbie-doll lips
And I want your perfect Barbie-doll eyes
Slip my fingers down your Barbie-doll dress
Up and down your spandex ass

A Hitler youth in jogging suit
Smiling face banded 'round his arm
Says, 'Line up, you've got work to do
We need dog food for the poor'

A scream bleats out, we're herded into lines
Customized vans wait outside
I'm getting scared of my new home
To Auschwitz condominiums we go
Oh no

Now I want your perfect Barbie-doll lips
And I want your perfect Barbie-doll eyes
Let my fingers down your dress
One more time

Ben Folds Five - "Smoke":

Leaf by Leaf page by page
Throw this book away
All the sadness all the rage
Throw this book away
Rip out the binding, tear the glue
All of the grief we never ever knew
We had it all along
Now it's smoke
The things we've written in it
Never really happened
All of the people come and gone
Never really lived
All of the people have come have gone
No one to forgive smoke
We will never write a new one
There will not be a new one
Another one, another one
Here's an evening dark with shame
Throw it on the fire
Here's the time I took the blame
Throw it on the fire
Here's the time we didn't speak
it seemed for years and years
Here's a secret
No one will ever know the
reasons for the tears
They are smoke
Where do all the secrets live
They travel in the air
You can smell them when they burn
They travel
Those who say the past is not dead
Stop and smell the smoke
You keep on saying the past is not dead
Come on and smell the smoke
You keep saying the past is not even past
You keep saying
We are, smoke

Rage Against The Machine-Bullet In The Head

This time the bullet cold rocked ya
A yellow ribbon instead of a
swastika
Nothin' proper about ya propaganda
Fools follow rules when the set
commands ya
Said it was blue
When ya blood was red
That's how ya got a bullet blasted
through ya head

Blasted through ya head
Blasted through ya head

I give a shout out to the living
dead
Who stood and watched as the feds
cold centralised?
So serene on the screen
You was mesmerised
Cellular phones soundin' a death
tone
Corporations cold
Turn ya to stone before ya realise

They load the clip in omnicolor
Said they pack the 9, they fire it at
prime time
The sleeping gas, every home was like
Alcatraz
And mutha fuckas lost their minds

Just victims of the in-house
drive-by
They say jump, you say how high

They load the clip in omnicolour
Said they pack the 9, they fire it at
prime time
The sleeping gas, every home was like
Alcatraz
And mutha fuckas lost their minds

No escape from the mass mind rape
Play it again jack and then rewind
the tape
And then play it again and again and again
Until ya mind is locked in
Believin' all the lies that they're
tellin' ya
Buyin' all the products that they're
sellin' ya
They say jump
Ya say how high
Ya brain-dead
Ya gotta fuckin' bullet in ya head

Just victims of the in-house drive-by
They say jump, you say how high
Yeah
Just victims of the in-house drive-by
They say jump, you say how high

Ya standin' in line
Believin' the lies
Ya bowin' down to the flag
Ya gotta bullet in ya head

Ya standin' in line
Believin' the lies
Ya bowin' down to the flag
Ya gotta bullet in ya head

If I saw you now
Could I look in your eyes?

Do you think of me
Like I dream of you?

Do you wish you were here
Like I wish I was with you?

You've loved me before
Do you love me now?

from Do You Love Me Now? - The Breeders

lie to me
make me think
that at the end of the day
some great reward
will be coming my way

come on and lay with me
come on and lie to me
tell me you love me
say i'm the only one

feel the bitterness. depeche mode, 1984.

Please Please Please Let Me get What I Want - The Smiths

Good times for a change
See, the luck I've had
Can make a good man
Turn bad

So please please please
Let me, let me, let me
Let me get what I want
This time


Haven't had a dream in a long time
See, the life I've had
Can make a good man bad


So for once in my life
Let me get what I want
Lord knows, it would be the first time
Lord knows, it would be the first time

That's a lovely song, hurts. It just worms its way right into your heart, doesn't it?

Like so much great 80's music, I first heard it on a soundtrack album, as unhip as that may make me. In honor of its posting, I shall now go learn it on guitar. Thanks for reminding me of it, and take care.

Ah yes. And the 'Lord knows, it would be the first time' really clinches the irrational mopiness of it, doesn't it? It is a lovely song. I'm a big smiths fan. I discovered them from a local artist that played at the indie shows I went to as a kid, he used to cover them sometimes. Once he said (and this seems to sum up my feeling about them too):

"I hate to admit it, but the older I get, the more I like The Smiths."

He was a 35 year-old guy playing to a room full of teeny boppers, few of whom knew fuck-all about the smiths. His name, for reference, is Jamie Stewart.

i spent three hours cleaning my friend's house (for money) last week listening to the smiths.

my sister introduced me to them when i was 10 (and she 15)

to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die

You make me feel terribly old, you know, when I think I followed all the Smiths and Morrissey career live on the radio (and one live gig).

So in revenge, an older oldie (and terrible earworm). Ah, the memories!

Forever Young

Let's dance in style, lets dance for a while
Heaven can wait we're only watching the skies
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst
Are you going to drop the bomb or not?

Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power but we never say never
Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip
The music's for the sad men

Can you imagine when this race is won
Turn our golden faces into the sun
Praising our leaders we're getting in tune
The music's played by the mad men

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever? Forever young

Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later they all will be gone
Why don't they stay young

It's so hard to get old without a cause
I don't want to perish like a fading horse
Youth's like diamonds in the sun
And diamonds are forever

So many adventures couldn't happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams swinging out of the blue
We let them come true

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?

José