1. |
All fall down
02:51
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Silent shadows marching slowly
Creeping fear of the unknown
Just after certainty evaporates
We realize we’re on our own
Ring around the rosy, pockets full of posy
Ashes ashes all fall down
No return to last year’s normal
Where things fit or so it seemed
Just agreed upon illusions
One part real, one part dream
Sometimes the questions have no answers
Except those we don’t want to hear
Embrace the hurricane and live a while
Until our landmarks disappear
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2. |
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In a Trumpian world of runaway fear
Most things are worse than they appear
The statue of liberty sheds a tear
In a Trumpian world of runaway fear
In a Trumpian world of stupidity
brain cells are bursting with bigotry
I don’t even have the energy
In a Trumpian world of stupidity
In a Trumpian world of ignorance
Half of this country is four times as tense
What passes for wisdom is Mike Pence
In this Trumpian world of ignorance
In this Trumpian world of total disgrace
Justice these days must hide its face
Democracy dies without a trace
In a Trumpian world of total disgrace
In a Trumpian world of stone-cold lies
With hatred and racism on the rise
The highest office criminalized
In this Trumpian world of stone-cold lies
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3. |
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I found a copper wheat penny From a long-ago year
Sitting in my pocket What was it doing here?
All the way from 1911 It had come into my possession
Its gone thru world wars, thru the great depression
now its sitting here, visiting for a spell
what wisdom can it bring, what stories can it tell
Will it tell of floods and earthquakes, and flu epidemics
There was a big one in 1918, that’s not so academic
will it talk about divisions, fathers fighting sons
or figuring what unites us, in the long run
When it was forged the Titanic was yet to see the ocean
So much has changed but we’re the same with similar emotions
We’ve still got jealousy, for things we don’t possess
We still all want a hug, a kiss or a caress
We don’t suffer fools gladly, ignore what we don’t want to see
And wax somewhat nostalgic for the way things used to be
oh tell me piece of copper, what’s waiting in the hopper?
That copper penny’s been thru so much history
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4. |
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Is there any way to have a conversation with
Death
About the time you think you’re drawing your last
Breath
Can you bargain with the author of the final act
Can you sign a deal in blood and make a binding pact
What are your options, what have you got left
When in the room walks death
Is there any way to have a conversation with
Father time
Can you get a little more, turn the clock from midnight
To just past nine
Can you figure out a way to make it all last forever
Is there a door you can open, push a button or a lever
Is there a magic word, or some type of line
When you’re dealing with time
Well death can’t be cheated and time can’t be bought
But you can do this
Treat every moment like the time that you got
Your first kiss
It won’t last forever but everything’s gotta end
Try a little less break and a little more bend
But hey what do I know, I’m just trying to make it rhyme
Dealing with death and time
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5. |
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Hendrix on a Tuesday the year is 2020
Waiting for the grandchildren to come home from school
Basement with the white Strat, playing thru the Marshall stack
Waiting for the grandchildren to come home from school
Making up some flapjacks, the kids they like a big stack
When they come home hungry from school
Hendrix on a Wednesday, drivin to the doctor
Talk about cholesterol and PSA
Then the crosstown traffic, drivin to the meeting
He’s the treasurer at large at the PTA
Money for the art supplies, sell a line of purple ties
And ice cream flavors, my favorite is Voodoo child
Hendrix on a Thursday, drivin’ to the supper club
Putting on a show, with your choice of entrée
Playin just the oldies, they all want the oldies
That album of polka never sold much anyway
The show is just an hour, ends with all along the watchtower
He’s gotta get up early to get the grandchildren to school
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6. |
Please come home
03:10
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Aren’t you exhausted by the thousands of lies
Aren’t you tired of having to always rationalize?
Aren’t you sick of the casual racism?
Aren’t you embarrassed by the endless narcissism?
Come home, oh come home
Aren’t you concerned by the rising temperatures
Aren’t you suspicious of someone so insecure?
Aren’t you informed about the witnesses blocked
Isn’t there anything that makes your shocked?
Aren’t you ready for another approach
Would you take this behavior from a teacher or a coach?
What’s it gonna take to stop supporting a dictator
You gotta wise up now cause there ain’t gonna be a later
Come home, come home
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7. |
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Timpani bells ringing in a golden silver sky
Piccolo moon setting in three quarter time
Balancing on the edge of the dusk of dawn
Saffron scented memories extolling a mood
Jubilation streetlights dance in the mist
Light and dark shake hands in the silence of a dream
Framing all the questions as not needing answers
Finding all the movement in invisible dancers
Rain falls from the Earth to the sky above
Colors move their place of birth to inside your heart
The river moving wisdom to a new home in the stars
Framing all the questions as not needing answers
Finding all the movement in invisible dancers
(lyrics by Mike Skliar & Nancy Rost)
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8. |
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Reelect the president, so he feels more like a king
With his big brain its only sane to give him everything
Why should he be distracted, by congress or the courts
Everything is wonderful as Fox news now reports
Reelect the president, give fascism a try
Put more kids in cages and make more liberals cry
Screw our allies, screw the planet, for another four years
But Two terms is for losers, they whisper in his ear
Reelect the president, for life this time for sure
Why subject him to those damn elections anymore
The press they got it wrong, take away their credentials
Do away with Medicare and other non-essentials
President’s a small word for such a big big man
King is good but emperor, now that’s a better plan
Democracy’s too messy, and Putin he no like
Let’s renew another season of the American third Reich
Don Jr and Ivanka, get ready in the wings
For you’ll be taking over when the fat man-lady sings
So re-elect the president if you want this to come true
Cause this is just a warm-up of what they’re gonna do
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9. |
Weeping willow tree
02:23
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I am you
And you are me
We are all just branches of
a weeping willow tree
Countries, borders, fences and walls
Can’t be seen from space
If there’s a truth, this is all
We all share the same space
The wind will blow
The sun will bake
Together we weather the storm
Apart we break
I keep you
We keep us
Only works if we turn suspicion
Into trust
Countries, borders, fences and walls
Can’t be seen from space
If there’s a truth, this is all
We all share the same space
Talk leads to talk
Smiles to laughter
We gotta focus on
What comes after
I am you
And you are me
We are all just branches of
A weeping willow tree
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10. |
Corona is coming
03:16
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Corona is coming
Do I need a mask?
Are you feeling unwell?
Should I even ask?
Are the people in charge
Up to the task?
Remains to be seen
The virus is here
Might be little or immense
I’m not shaking hands no more
Call it self defense
Will we all get crazy
or have some common sense
remains to be seen
the history books
will have a chapter or three
on what our response was
to this new reality
what kind of future
do you foresee
remains to be seen
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11. |
Passenger Pigeon
02:12
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If the passenger pigeon
Was revered by religion
It wouldn’t have gone extinct
Its history and ours are linked
We hunted it for meat and sport and feathers for hats
There were millions of birds
Disappear? That’s absurd
But hunted to extinction it was
Before conservations laws
We shot the last one in 1901, and sadly, that is that
At the natural world, look around
Millions of species that we have found
but to make the case very succinct
Humans have made so many go extinct
And one day if we’re not careful, we’ll be the ones that go splat
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12. |
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Look for the helpers you find
look for the ways to be kind
look for connection
thats the direction
if it's human then its mentionable
if its mentionable then its managable
sick of division
sick of subtraction
try a new vision
try a new action
if it matters then its mentionable
if its mentionable then its managable
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13. |
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One day you’ll think of us like dinosaurs
Cause we were all raised as carnivores
The future belongs I think to vegetarians
Who one day will think of us as vulgarians
There’s a big world of plants, but meat is too tasty to abandon
But if we all don’t change our ways, very few’ll be left standing
The production of cattle, pigs and chickens
Causing our sick planet to further sicken
19 billion chickens, 7 billion humans
Theres a lot of damage from all of that consuming
There’s a big world of plants, but meat is too tasty to abandon
But if we all don’t change our ways, very few’ll be left standing
Now I don’t practice what I preach, maybe just a bit
Steak, fish, butter, eggs, I like it all I’ll admit
I’ll take a little less, I can’t just go cold turkey
Alright, I’ll cut out eating beef jerky
There’s a big world of plants, but meat is too tasty to abandon
But if we all don’t change our ways, very few’ll be left standing
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14. |
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Writing about love- Is like dancing about architecture
to write about love is like naming the color of air
You can read all the books and attend all the lectures
the only way to get close- Is to just be there
da da da da da da da….
Trying to describe love is like the taste of a sunset
The feel of a symphony, or the smell of a prayer
The feeling’s inside but the words are somewhere in Tibet
The only way to get close is to just be there
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15. |
Any good news blues?
03:29
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Can anyone give us some good news
something to lift our spirits
somebody somewhere must have something good to say
i'm afraid i just can't hear it
we've been sliding to the right
soon we will crash and burn
that barrier was designed as a last chance guard rail
we thought from history we had learned
there's got to be some way out of here
but only jokers are answering the thief
until i saw all this with my own eyes
i would have said it was beyond belief
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16. |
The big 60
02:13
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February 3 is a birthday- mine
Also Norman Rockwell, and Gertrude Stein
James Michener , Pretty boy Floyd
February 3’s what they enjoyed
Shelly Berman, Nathan Lane
Their birthdays just the same
Horace Greeley who wrote ‘go west young man’
And composer Felix Mendelssohn
Joey bishop and Amal Clooney
But not Mickey or even Andy Rooney
Some singer named Daddy Yankee
And Victor Buono, king Tut on TV
All with the same birthday as me
But sadly he died at 43
I’m not sharing the same sad fate
Cause on that sacred February date
I’m turning sixty, the big six oh
As Homer Simpson once said ..’d’oh!”
But the alternative, not really realistic
So while every year feels futuristic
A new age, a new era, new reality dawning
I’ll wrap this up quick, I can see you yawning
I just want to say on this February date
So far it’s mostly been nothing….. but great
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