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In 1979 4 college students took a road trip from Schenectady (just north of Albany) to Rochester to see a Jethro Tull concert. Got to Rochester, Found out the concert was canceled. (Believe it or not at the show before , someone had thrown a rose on stage in the thorn it Ian Anderson‘s eye, scratching his cornea. I shit you not)
But that’s not what I came to tell you. Seems we were all in high spirits on the way to the show, each bring our own little personal stash of what were at the time slightly illegal substances.
So driving three hours there we were not happy to hear the show has been canceled and we’re driving back, feeling low and mean. I was at the wheel not much the worse for wear but in the backseat , drinking a beer, was a friend of a friend from Virginia, where I guess open beer in the car was not a big thing.
1 mile from our Schenectady exit , cop pulled us over doing 80 in a 60. Peers into the car , looked in the backseat with that friend of my friend from Virginia and his open beer. Asked the rest of us “do you have any drugs“. Guy sitting next to me, classic wise ass, says “no but I wish we did“. Of course all of us were sitting on our personal little dime bags.
Cop never searched us. Gave me a ticket for speeding and a ticket for an expired registration.
Reason I mention the whole thing is…. If you were white in America, you may have a similar story. All of us white guys or most of us anyway, probably have a moment when things could’ve tipped in the balance all sorts of ways. Had we been four black kids, would we be just getting out of jail now? Or worse? I’ll leave it to you to watch the news and draw your own conclusions. Here’s a little song about that:..
Some countries have one justice system, America’s got two
Depending on your race and social class, there are different outcomes its true
It’s a complicated situation, lots of factors, you can list ‘em
But the reality is that equality is still not part of the system
The reality is that equality is still not part of the system
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2. |
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I’ve gotten to a strange new place
When friends my age wake up dead
diagnosis, remission, suspicion, attrition
What the hell lies ahead
We take so much for granted
We think that time always remains
Time has the last laugh
Gives us joy then pain
Chorus
Do we have to keep breaking our hearts (3x)
Till our hearts break open
So many sob’s
live to the age of 99
So many good people that I’ve known
Have died in their prime
I know no one said it was fair
But it’s a farce of cosmic dimensions.
If I met the maker, I’d say you’re a faker
Just looking for attention
Chorus
Do we have to keep breaking our hearts (3x)
Till our hearts break open
Bridge
When our hearts break open, it lets in the sadness
We otherwise would miss
But not letting it in, that way lies madness
We need to feel it to exist
Yeah we have to keep breaking our hearts 3x
Till our hearts break open
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3. |
63
02:17
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63, that’s me, getting older then a middle aged oak tree
63, interesting thing to see, on the whole it ain’t a bad reality
63 don’t come for free, got a few little aches in the joints, in the knees
63 not to speak to graphically, but in the middle of the night you’ll have to go pee
63, still not nearly as bad as it’s gonnna be, as my friend Seth says, ‘its not gonna end well’… I guess we’ll see
Ive been doing these once a year songs for several years now
You would think I would have amassed a whole trove of wisdom in song somehow
You would think…..
My 64th year, ain’t nothing really to fear, though of course things can slide in any direction
I’m not the only one getting older, and the casualties of friends and family slowly piles up and up , against that there’s no protection
Meanwhile I’m still doing my thing, whatever that is, so I guess I’ll just keep on keeping on
And next year you might expect yet another birthday song
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4. |
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What makes one person laugh makes another weep
One throws something the other wants to keep
What turns on person on turns another off
One person yells approval the other starts to cough
It’s a big world and there’s something for everyone
And everyone’s got something
We’re all venn diagrams passing thru the night
Finding that overlap to make that special light
Sometimes a corporate lawyer becomes a pilot in the air force
Sometimes a racecar driver gives it up to ride a horse
Some change their hairstyles, some change their gender
Some pack up their memories and mark return to sender
It’s a big world….
I love it when people get in touch with their different inner self
And find something inside that was frozen
So fly any kind of flag, figure out whats your bag
The more you choose the more you’re chosen
It’s a big world…
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5. |
Fred Mertz blues
02:27
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6. |
Spiral
02:35
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There’s nothing sadder then watching your parents slow decline
Indignities pile up, some of their bodies, some of their minds
I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what to do
And whats happening to them, sooner or later will happen to me and you
Ch
I know its part of life’s journey
But how much longer till they’re lying on a hospital gurney
Sorry to bring down the mood, I didn’t want to be rude
There are plateaus, where they’re doing ok for a while
Then there’s an episode, another chapter in a medical file
Ch
I know its part of life’s journey
But how much longer till they’re lying on a hospital gurney
Sorry to bring down the mood, I didn’t want to be rude
Spiraling down, that’s the direction of travel
Spiraling down, things start to unravel
Spiraling down
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7. |
Three coyotes
02:43
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Three coyotes howling at my door
Past coyote reminds me of misdeeds I’ve done before
Coyote of the present tense looking at me from a picket fence
Third one might be a charm, or just might do me harm
Third one might be a charm, or just might do me harm
I’m not a big believer in fate
I have only 3 coyotes, tho, some folks have 8
Best we do is keep the pace, and for a while win the race
Its gonna go just fine, till coyote gets you down the line
Its gonna go just fine, till coyote gets you down the line
Bridge
We’re dealing with our wild beasts
Howling from below and above
But can you make those noises cease
Turn them to a rhapsody of love?
I know this metaphor is overused
Three coyotes, three ghosts, three verses of the blues
coyote sitting on my fence, sometimes life does not make sense
best I can reckon, coyote wins, I come in second
best I can reckon, coyote wins, I come in second
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8. |
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The resources we use to grow animals as meat
Growing plants is 10 times more efficient
Flying out of season crops worldwide takes lots of oil
So much better to be self-sufficient
Eating is a political act
Mankind was OK with slavery before
Now animal cruelty’s ignored and erased
But if a youtube channel just showed slaughterhouses
Eating meat might be considered bad taste
Eating is a political act
What are we hungry for?
What do we desire?
The taste of animal sacrifices
Burned on a fire?
I have no answers only questions
But evolve we must to survive
The food systems we have are unsustainable
For us all to stay alive
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9. |
Forecast of hate
03:28
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Iowa Nazis call for a day of hate
There’s anti-semitism in every state
You thought attacks on Jews were in the past
Its doubled in the last 3 years and growing fast
Ex-president dines with white supremicists
Fascist wannabees who love an iron fist
You hear it in the margins, in dark internet spaces
Even a member of Congress talks about Jewish space lasers
The oldest conspiracy theory on Earth
Is that Jews two tenths of one percent control the net worth
And when the demogogues sing that as their greatest hits
The next stop Treblinka and Auschwitz
On that bus tour of hatred, some get on at ‘anti woke’
Then start spreading fear about black and latin folks
After bashing gays and trans people, the next stop on their tour
Is hatred of the Jews, its there in their brochure
You hear folks say, maybe they control Hollywood
As if we’re all meeting in a secret neighborhood
It’s the same fucking lies that Adolf Hitler yelled
There’s always people buying, that hatred that sells
You can minimize and say its not really occurring
But there are more and more places where this bullshit is stirring.
How many killed in the Pittsburg synagogue
Take pre-existing hatred and add a demogogue
So as we try to figure out a future forecast
The question is can we escape the hatreds of the past
Anti semitism can’t be ignored or tolerated
Its got to be confronted and repudiated
So as we try to figure out a future forecast
The question is can we escape the hatreds of the past
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10. |
Our very own devils
03:15
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You ever get some unexpected anger from a friend
And think, well, maybe that friendship has got to end
What you said hurt I ain’t gonna lie
The whole thing left me kind of tongue tied
In time my thinkin’ might be more level
I guess we’re all fighting our own devils
Sometimes people you least expect disappoint you the most
Its not just a little reality, more like a lethal dose
Communication sometimes breaks down
And silence is sometimes the loneliest sound
Usually many reasons, not just one but several
And also folks are fighting their own devils
Ah but accountability matters
And if you can’t cop to your part
It might not be so easy
To make a new start
So where does that leave us, where indeed
Give it a little time, plant that little seed
Some plants die, and some plants grow
No one knows exactly how the future goes
In the end we’re all six feet below sea level
After fighting with our very own devils
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11. |
Right now blues
03:28
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The other day I was saying these words to the wife
People are eulogized at the end of their life
You hear it said, ‘they were a big influence
Only when they’re fading, about to be past tense
Amazing expressions, so beautiful and sublime
Deserve to be expressed at an earlier time
Don’t wait, till you hear someone’s demise
To express, how much you idolize
Let’s say it now, go ahead shout from the roof
Life’s too short to stay aloof
Tell someone that you love, what you’re really thinking of
Tell someone what they mean to you right now
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12. |
Sunset
01:50
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I can’t believe you’re not here
Here, where we all met
Now, a sunset
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13. |
One political party
06:11
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One political party, is banning books in schools
Typical authoritarian refuge of fools
God forbid kids learn slavery was evil
Their educational system is medieval
One political party took away womans’ right to choose
Marriage equality might just be the next thing we lose
What happened to the line between church and state
Sorry I don’t want your catholic church to dominate
One political party thinks climate change is fake
Oil companies fund politicians who are on the take
I don’t care how many museums the Koch (coke) brothers donate
Climate crisis must be addressed before it is too late
One political party seems OK with treason
Why do I say that, well here are a few reasons
The Republican election big lie was rejected by 52 courts
January 6 makes me sick, to republicans it was just a sport
One party will not raise the debt ceiling, hey that’s not fair
They did it three times under Trump, for tax cuts for billionaires
They’ve already spent our money, so Elon pays no tax
But listening to Fox news you’ll never get those facts
One political party is ok with lying liars
George Santos a child of Holocaust survivors, pants on fire
While the other political party made Al Franken quit
Just for telling a joke that was off color a little bit
One party’s leader hes a sad excuse for a joke
Dines with antisemites, racial hatred he stokes
After Charlottsville he said Nazis are good folks
They camouflage his hatred by using words like ‘woke’
One political party thinks ‘wokeness’ is a sin
To actually respect other people, they don’t want to begin
They play up phony culture wars in order to keep power
I wish they’d go back to the days of Dwight Eisenhower
One political party, has gone well off the rails
You need a two party system, or things start to fail
You know what to do, you know the solution
Vote for the Democrat and honor the Constitution
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14. |
Theo's winter tail
02:44
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Tadpole Theo was feeling blue
swimming thru the water
supposed to have a tail by now
At least he thought he oughta
His friends and classmates they had tails
By near the end of the fall
But Theo didn’t have one yet
Just no tail at all
When winter came and froze the pond
The tadpoles all did panic
Their tails grew ice like an iceberg does
Like the one that sank Titanic
And off in a secluded part
Of a freezing slushy stew
Theo looked down and there he saw
Something that was new
His tail at last arrived New Year
A happy Theo would hum
This is the biggest change so far
There’s no more ones to come
Fast forward a couple months
Tadpoles all lost their tails
For they had all turned into frogs
Except Theo who failed
The frogs were all captured
By the French Foreign Legion
And sitting in some butter sauce
On plates served on frog season
But Theo the late bloomer
He escaped that sad sad fate
He swam away, and left that scene
What saved him was he was late
He finally turned into a frog
Had a story to tell
Befriended a toad and was written about
By Arnold Lobel
So next time you read Frog and Toad
to your kids, you regale
Now you know the backstory
Of the winter’s tail
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15. |
One more mass shooting
03:37
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One more mass shooting, the third this week
And its only Wednesday
So here’s another song for you fuckin gun freaks
Tho there’s not much more to say
Blood is on your hands, blood on your face
Every time you fight us on gun control
It works in Europe, Canada, hell, every place
But NRA Americans they got no soul
You babble on and on about amendment two
Forgetting the ‘well regulated militia’ part
You parrot fox news, monkey see monkey do
Your arguments make less sense then a monkey fart
How many kids have to die horrible deaths
Before you realize that you’ve been wrong
How many schoolchildren take their last breath
With the hope that one day sanity will come along
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16. |
Bodega
02:40
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the corner bodega, is no longer here
for 30 years they had sold milk, ice and beer
Flowers on mother’s day, valentine’s too
Its where I bought flowers for you
Everyone’s shopping online it seems
Retail’s dead, a too common theme
I used to stop in, get a ‘hi’ or a nod
The silence , well now it feels odd
The shelves are all empty, there’s nothing for sale
Debris of the city piles up, without fail
This vacant store will soon be an eyesore
The corner bodega’s no more
On the wall an old flyer from last year’s election
When the landlord raised the rent there was no protection
The landlord get a vacancy tax break for years
the corner store’s no longer here
Bodegas like this are going away
Faster and faster, what can you say?
All of those doorways, now all padlocked
Its happening on every block
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17. |
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I was living in the suburbs, far from the action
The last train back left at 12:02
So if I was in the city, soaking up urban culture
Too late, there was nothing you could do
Wait till five am for the next train
Or an expensive taxi ride , that’d be insane
What to do, what to do, what to do
Now over thousands of years there’s been some wisdom
About the ins and outs of relationships
Advice in the bible, in Shakespeare, on TV
And on all your relative’s lips
But of all the advice that I’ve heard
The best are these three words
Location, Location, Location
Pick your spouse with location in mind
If your partner has a place in a desirable space
that’s the partner that you want to find
location, location, location
let geography be your guide
if anyone tells you where you live is not important
I can tell you that that person has lied
Its just as easy to love someone
Who lives in the best part of the city
Who wants a mate where the commute is not great
And the neighborhood is kind of shitty?
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18. |
Missing travel
02:56
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I miss travel to far off places
That feeling when you’re boarding a plane
That wide-eyed surprise when you realize
Even the sky doesn’t look the same
I miss gathering travel information
Waking up in a foreign capitol
Visiting the local markets
Dodging the running of the bulls
Jet lag, unpacking the bag
Unfamiliar menu selections
That feeling of adventure everywhere
Don’t matter just pick a direction
I’ve done less travel then many
But enough to feel the allure
One bit of advice I have
Do it yourself not part of some big tour
Life needs its share of accidents
For chance and luck to grow some roots
Plan enough so you don’t spin your wheels
Don’t overplan the route
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19. |
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(instrumental)
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