1. |
Good For Business
04:15
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Laws are inverted
You might say perverted
When you are a monger of song
When the whole human escapade
Is your stock-in-trade
You can hardly go wrong
Bad is good
The worse, the better
Horrible news and horrible weather
When life gives you a spank
You’ll be crying all the way to the bank
The mood descends
As our scene begins
From strained to estranged
It’s hard to fathom
How nothing can happen
And somehow everything can change
Words fly and plates fly
Cue the slamming of the door
And then someone gets to sleep
In a crumpled heap
On the living room floor
But it’s good for business
This drama business
Thrown together and blown apart
It’s tough to live this
But it’s good for business
Good for business
But it’s hard on the heart
You yearn, you yearn
The question burns
Are we having fun yet?
The sneaking suspicion
That something is missing
Keeps you on the run
Born to nurse
Unslakable thirst
And outrageous appetite
You prowl the streets
Like a cat in heat
Howling in the night
But it’s good for business
This longing business
Where you approach
But you don’t arrive
The road is endless
But it’s good for business
Good for business
But it burns you alive
A sharp decline
A flawed design
Engineering spotty
Who put this five dollar valve
In this million dollar body?
Pipes leak and pumps weaken
The enterprise is running on fumes
And then the screen dims
The planet spins
And eternity resumes
But it’s good for business
This dying business
We’re in the black
But it takes a toll
It’s tough to witness
But it’s good for business
Good for business
But it’s hard on the soul
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2. |
This DNA Stops Here
03:29
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Behold the human
What a species
What a range, from demi-gods to beasts
Say what you will
But god dammit
We sure know how to populate a planet
But are we just these clumps of cells
Our genes use to replicate themselves?
A self-perpetuating evil
Like the virus and weevil?
So let’s form a delegation
To end this exploitation
And let me volunteer
Hip hip hooray
I’m gone to stay
This DNA stops here
I am the final iteration
In chain of countless generations
A legacy of spawning
Unbroken since the dawning
Let us not fret
Let us not freak
Let’s celebrate this massive winning streak
This billion year endeavor
Were you thinking that it would go on forever?
So raise a cheer
And raise a beer
As I make my exit
Free and clear
Hip hip hooray
I’m gone to stay
This DNA stops here
And as it turns out
The sun is gonna burn out
In the course of time
I’m just happy to be here
There’s so much to see here
On this side of the line
I’ve set the stage
and screwed up my courage
I’m going out with a grand artistic flourish
My final act you will not want to miss
A triple backflip into the abyss
We’ll have no weeping
There’ll be no crying
As the final notes are dying
And sure, I’m sure I shall not be reborn
But the matter will shatter
And the atoms will reform
So raise a cheer
And raise a beer
As we turn this paradigm
On its ear
Hip Hip Hooray
I’m gone to stay
This DNA stops here
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3. |
Joy, Like the Cockroach
05:08
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With all of our genius and determination
And all of our talent at extermination
You’d think we’d succeed
As hard as we’ve worked
At driving its kind
Off the face of the earth
Bodies are crushed and ground to dust
And blood runs dry
But joy, like the cockroach
Refuses to die
We’ve marshaled our forces in a deadly alliance
Called in the generals and the best minds of science
We’ve littered the land with poison and traps
And ridden its ranks to the brink of collapse
Cornered and cursed, it has taken the worst
Of our terrible will
But joy, like the cockroach
Cannot be killed
There’s no end to heartbreak and devastation
But every nine months there’s a new generation
Crawling with life and feeding on hope
Breeding potential exponential
A nuclear winter, all ashes and rust
Uranium rain on plutonium dust
Clouds smother the sky in a sickening blot
Acres of grey, too toxic to rot
But out of the darkness, out of the dregs
The shuffling motion of six little legs
Scuttling down through valleys of ruin
Humming along to an old, unstoppable tune
Through fission and fusion and phosphorus
And all things infernal
Joy, like the cockroach
Springs eternal
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4. |
There Goes the Sun
04:30
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Those winter nights
Were long and hard
You emerged intact
If not unscarred
Came spring, a hope
You dared not speak
You turn your head
And you’ve passed the peak
The days are getting shorter
Now that summer has begun
There goes the sun
There’s loads of time
And it’s still warm outside
And there are still hours of light
In the evening sky
But once you’ve known
The end of spring
A thread of loss
Runs through everything
Days are getting shorter
But there’s so much left undone
There goes the sun
The world evolves
In loop-de-loops
Spheres in spheres
And hoops in hoops
And some things whirl
Around a track
And some things twirl
And don’t come back
The song has barely started
But the song is almost done
There goes the sun
There goes the sun
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5. |
I Smell You Everywhere
03:29
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I spent a desperate weekend
Following my nose
Looking for a trace of you
In a pile of my clothes
Trying to raise a sense of you
From the last remaining scents of you
In a molecule of oil
Vague and volatile
A few fading pheromones
And I was on my own
But I did not despair
‘Cause now
I smell you everywhere
I roam the town
A feckless hound
Reading the wind
Chasing after particles
That brushed against your skin
On a crowded avenue
I get a whiff of you
I inhale and I am on the trail
And all I want to do
Is chase it back to you
Back into thin air
‘Cause now I smell you everywhere
Implausible though it might be
It has occurred to me
This perfume might be coming from within
Though I have naught of you
The very thought of you
Is pouring through the pores of my skin
I do not speak of you
But I reek of you
Note that you have rendered me
A raving synesthete
Tripping down the median
Barking in the street
In the outline your hip I see
The outline of a melody
I taste you in the light
Taste you in the night
And, yes, I’m well aware
That you are never there
But I’m in too deep to care
’Cause now I smell you everywhere
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6. |
Little Rough One
04:08
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I won’t keep it hid
I’m worried for you, kid
It seems like a lot to live down
Too many big nights
Under the bright lights
To settle back in your home town
And while it could be forever
It’s true, whenever
Somebody steps on a plane
I’ve a vague premonition
When you leave the Mission
I will never see you again
Though I’m certain to hear it,
The arc of your spirit,
Flickering wherever I go
After the long goodbyes
And you take to the skies
After you’ve slipped back to Sligo
It’s been a tough one
For you, little rough one
After all that you’ve sought
After all of your travels
To have it unravel
And your labors all come to Con-naught
You’re doing the right thing
It’s no slight thing
Makes me proud to say it
I’ve got no advice
But there’s always a price
I just hope it won’t kill you to pay it
I know you will start
With an ache in your heart
But, hey, what do I know?
Well might it suit you
To be back where your roots are
Once you’ve slipped back to Sligo
There’ll be tears when you show up
And they see how you’ve grown up
The years of your exile over
You’re heading back
To the cross and the craic
To shamrock and thistle and clover
I’ll picture you smiling
On the edge of the island
Out on the dark green sea
The boundary waters between
The land of “Our Fathers”
And the land of the quote unquote free
A voice, a face
These time will erase
But not before I go
Long after the haze
Of those mythical days
Before you slipped back to Sligo
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7. |
I Can See You From Here
04:07
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Hello, Dear
I know you’re there
I’d recognize you anywhere
Especially in this house we share
Surrounded by these walls
I run into you all the time
Without even trying
The other day your hand brushed mine
When I passed you in the hall
From where I am
To where you are
As the crow flies isn’t far
Nearer than the nearest star
Or Jupiter to Venus
We used to interact
We used to be quite close, in fact,
For twenty years, if you’re keeping track
Nothing came between us
And mind you
I know where to find you
If it comes down to it, dear
My eyes are open
My view is unbroken
I can see you from here
Lately it’s been awfully quiet
Now that we no longer fight
Branches rustle in the night
And crickets creak
And while it’s temporary, dear, it’s
Spooky living with a spirit
Though I’m certain I would hear it
If you were to speak
The day is done, the sun has set
But darkness isn’t total yet
I can still make out your silhouette
Moving across the floor
And in the fading light
A memory of a warmer life
A future former wife
Heading towards the door
And so, I’ll be the first to know
When you finally disappear
You’ll catch my eye
If you wave goodbye
‘Cause I can see you from here
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8. |
Front Row Seat
05:20
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The view from the top and from below
Can’t get much starker, can it?
We might as well be gazing out
At separate planets
When the curtains rise
And you open your eyes
On this earthly existence
Orchestra or balcony
Can make a world of difference
As for the stunning spectacle
Lighting up the sky
No one has a better view
Than you or I
No second class
No backstage pass
It’s the same for everyone
In our gravity boots
And our birthday suits
With our front row seats on the sun
In every town
With heads bowed down
The same distressing scene
Microscopic dramas
On tiny little screens
So taken with the lights we are
So flattered by its charms
We hardly bother looking past the
Ends of our arms
But out beyond the atmosphere
A bigger picture beckons
Aligned to blow your mind
In nanoseconds
The night’s sublime
It might be time
To exit the cocoon
As you scan the skies
with your jelly eyes
from your front row seat on the moon
Hurtling in a convertible
Doing donuts around the sun
Through meteor showers
At 60,000 miles an hour
How could this not be fun?
Riding the rubble
A rock in a bubble
Surfing on surface tension
Set your soul on cruise control
And gaze into another dimension
Far from here
Giant spheres of hydrogen implode
And out across the vacuum
Streams of photons float
Day and night
At the speed of light
It took them years to get you
Where they await
No greater fate
Than to dance across your retina
The clouds are gone
The curtains drawn
Are you ready for your screening?
You and the milky way
With nothing intervening
There is that chance
A wayward glance
Reminds you where you are
As you face the maw
With slackened jaw
From your front row seat on the stars
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9. |
The Mortars
04:09
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Weasel company caught a round
On a routine training mission
Took out half the guys in the patrol
And no one here will talk about
Our perilous position
But the borderlands are out of our control
A piece of flying metal
Last Thursday afternoon
Dispatched a medic in the neighboring platoon
We put on our brave faces
We go through the paces
With what’s left of our composure
While the mortars keep falling
Closer and closer
The struggle, as we call it
Has been smoldering for years
They say my great granddaddy was a partisan
But all I’ve known was rumbling
From some far away frontier
Some fireworks away on the horizon
Now when the wind is quiet
You can hear across the sands
The terrifying rattle
Of the enemy’s advance
We hunker
In the bunker
Cause we can’t outflank disaster
And these mortars keep falling
Faster and faster
Sitting in a well-lit, immaculate, corporate
Weapons factory by the sea
There’s a shell,
A slice of hell
That’s earmarked just for me
We stare into the blackness
Timing the contractions
Looking for patterns in the violence
Between the screaming
And the screaming of the sirens
And the screaming silence
We sing hymns to the resistance
Our rifles in our hands
But we know that the resistance
Never stood a chance
We defy it
But we can’t deny it
It’s not even safe in the enclosure
And the mortars keep falling
Closer and closer
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10. |
This Train Runs on Pain
04:09
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Late nights in the workshop
I have been on a mission
It’s a miracle of science
And it’s ready for ignition
They said it’d never work
They said it wasn’t doable
We’d never find a fuel source
So readily renewable
This train runs on pain
These regrets will feed the jets
Disgrace burns with no trace
This train runs on pain
Get it in your tank like sugar and salt
It can bring your rig to a grinding halt
But tinker with the timing
And advance the spark
It will burn hotter
Than a plasma arc
This train runs on pain
This disturbance will drive the turbines
Turning blues into BTUs
This train runs on pain
Coast to coast
Sea to shining sea
Agony to energy
Mired in depression?
Grounded by aversion?
Check the compression
And make the conversion
Open up the throttle
And see how she runs
Like a genie in a bottle
Or a thousand suns
This train runs on pain
These regrets will feed the jets
Disgrace burns with no trace
This train runs on pain
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11. |
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What a nice surprise
To close my eyes
And find you there
You know, it’d been some time
Since you crossed my mind
But that only goes to show
How deeply you are woven
Into the fabric of my being
But you stayed the night
And you bathed me in your light
Thanks for dropping in to my dream
Waking life is rife with rules
For keeping things in place
You can’t just go around breaking laws
Of time and space
If you knocked on my door
At quarter to four
There would have been a scene
But it’s easily arranged
When you’re moving through the astral plane
Thanks for dropping in on my dream
Well could you say
That this is all a play
Of my own creation
I wrote the script
And read both parts
Pure imagination
But the radiant spirit
That paid me a visit
And wrapped itself around my soul
Well I got that from you
The you I knew
Thirty years ago
We always swore
We’d live next door
It was our little running joke
Stop by at any hour
For a cup of flour
We are old and broke
But our times, no doubt
From here on out
Will be few and far between
It was short, but it was sweet, dear
Our dance across the ether
So thanks for dropping in
We may never meet this way again
Thanks for dropping in to my dream
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12. |
The King is Dying
05:24
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What is all this clamor in the market?
Why is all this money changing hands?
Don’t they know the king is dying?
Why is there not a pall across the land?
Where is all the weeping and the wailing?
It’s not as if they’re paralyzed with grief
The center of the universe is failing
And it doesn’t seem to move them in the least
The king is dying
He’s lying there alone
With mind ablaze and body burning
The king is dying
He’s dying on the throne
And a world, untroubled, keeps on turning
When he’s cold, do we not shiver with him?
When he moans do we not feel it in our bones?
When he fades will he take out the solar system?
Is this the end of life as we have known it?
And down below the towers of the palace
These peasants live their lives unchanged
His life is hanging in the balance
Have they no sense of shame?
The king is dying
He hasn’t got a prayer
Awake and staring at the ceiling
The king is sliding
Into thin air
From a world indifferent and unfeeling
It’s quiet in the kingdom
Through a night that’s dark and long
A nightingale will sing him
Into a final dawn
But there’s no strange stirring in the southland
No cataclysm looming in the west
If the sun makes it over the horizon
He’ll be forgotten with the rest
The king is dying
He’s lying there alone
With mind ablaze and body burning
The king is dying
He’s dying on the throne
And a world, untroubled, keeps on turning
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13. |
For Surya
04:59
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Hush, little baby, don’t scream
No one here can help
If you want to learn to fly this thing
You must learn to soothe yourself
You can fight and you can fuss
You can piss and moan
But it’s the same for all of us
We had to learn it on our own
These words, it’s true,
Mean less to you
Than the cackle of a crow
Find the peace inside this tune
And take it wherever you may go
And years from now when you’re lying in your bed
And your mom and dad have gone
You wake up with a soul that’s soaked in dread
And miles to go before the dawn
You must return to what you learned
Back when you were a little kid
Take your time and learn it well
You’ll be glad you did
Hush, little baby, don’t scream
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Larry Gallagher Sligo, Ireland
Larry Gallagher is a man of many interests, skills, and guitars.
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