2007. Produced by Jack Hayward at Little J Studios, Oakland, CA.
Jack Hayward, keyboards
Eric Matsuno, bass
Andrew Griffin, drums, percussion
Lani Michele, vocals
Kali Chow, vocals
Alex Dolan, vocals, guitars
Like the child of Julius Caesar and Cassius Clay
I flew into it bold with my American thunderbolt
Striking through the frantic panic of electric static
I’m coming on in coming on in
In through the clouds into the crowds
And I’m stunned by the foreign sensations
But I shout out loud
This is older than America
A colossus - I feel the need for authority set to scale
Something unsettling to settle down
The bubbles of my fleeting ruminations
And me the arrogant American
Imagined the Oldenburg version of myself
He was smiling on down
To the cradle of my own germination
A respiration as an Etruscan
A respiration and even the air that I breathe
Endows me with a sense of this
This is older than America
There was a secret, even the Tower of Babel effect
Of every language and dialect couldn’t keep it
I touched down in it, I found it, now I’m bound to it
And I know that my residency, even the Presidency
Makes me hesitant to smuggle it in, the trouble it brings
But this revelation passed from generatio
Until it finally got to me
So I got to tell you there are things...
This is older than America
Baptized into the world you got soul
Can’t wait for what awaits me when I go
I’m humbled by the very thought of you
In contemplating every history of what preceded me
I’m humbled by the very thought of you,
it's
the thought of everything
The very thought of you, the very thought of you
Will these words eat me alive of purify
Can wait for what awaits me when I die
I’m humbled by the very thought of you
In contemplating every history of what preceded me
I’m humbled by the very thought of you,
it's
the thought of everything
The very thought of you, the very thought of you
The very thought of you, it's the very thought in me
It's what is feeding me, and what is bleeding me
It feels the greed in me, but fills the need in me
It’s the thought of everything.
Born into the place where the teeth don’t bite
but still can cut you down
Into the city where the lights don’t flash
but still can burn you out
You say your man left you,
A free-thinking college girl
Say you’re the only one left all alone
With a hole in your heart
That’s big enough to swallow the world
Still I hope that sweet salvation bends on down
to kiss your wounded hand
But you lay there tucked in your blanket,
afraid to go out and find another man
Count them all they drop off one by one
Until there’s no one left out there but him
There was no beginning for you
When you think about it
It feels like there was no end
Think of the time you spent, so long
So why’d he have to say so long
Still I hope that sweet salvation bends on down
to kiss your wounded hand
But you lay there tucked in your blanket,
afraid to go out and find another man
Still I hope, don't you know that there will be hope again
Can I get an Amen - Bad news, you died,
Bright side - you're alive again
Graduated, you were emancipated
You soon found love, you should’ve been elated
But you lit the wick, and then you fueled it up
But then it burned too quick and then you burned it up
Exhausted, you lost him, a cold night in Boston
Gathered up the photos and clothes, then you tossed them
Same for the girls out here in California
It’s easy to hate him now that he’s gone, but you’d a sworn
He was the alpha omega, the maha, the raja
The family bond, he was the Eva the Zsa-Zsa
The Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria
Well come on out girl, God damn, we want to see you
No end and no beginning, never is
In a way, I got to go down
To pride me up again
Drop the gun, down goes the chump
I knew the fun stopped when he came back running
He robbed the bank, had me to thank
For staying back in the car to keep the chariot humming
Then, tsunamis of bullets and sirens,
Private first-class marooned at Paris Island
He ran back, got shot by a cop
I heard the thunderclap boom of a pin-drop
Hal, you got a funny way of looking at my face
When you’re bleeding from a bullet in your head
And Hal, you got a funny way of sleeping in the back
All still with the seat turning red
Took the car to sweet Providence
I think I finally lost my innocence
There was a warehouse, where I knew to hide
I dumped Hal in the trunk and I went inside
In the warehouse, in a large wooden room
Was a baby in a basket and my heart went zoom
No privacy, fixing her eyes at me
Left here to die was this fruit of the womb
Was shy, when she cried
In my arms, it brought me down
Between life and death, there’s breath
And I snatched it from the jaws
that would drag her underground
Only you can say
If the thing that brings you pain
Is the thing that keeps you sane
The end of it all will own us
The death of it all will own us
The tears of it all will own us
The end of it all
Once was raining pink champagne
Now has crumbled into shame
And the victim can’t complain
When there’s no one left to blame
This one’s for you kid
This one’s for you kid
Thought you would grow up
You'd be the genius
They never seen this
You be the new kid
Turn off that CD
Turn down that TV
I’m going to strum one
Then you can hum one
You’re going to feel me baby
You’re going to feel me
Well just a few years ago
I thought I’d make a change
Isn’t it strange I thought I’d be free
Not just another rotten apple from the tree
This is the real one
This is the real one
Bring up the lights
Baby why don’t you sing one
Dig it down deep baby I want to feel one
Sing til your throat quits
Sing through the smoke kid
Sing for the folk kid
Scream until you wake em
If they don’t move make em
Use your fingers man
Play until you break em
Well just a few years ago
I thought I’d make a change
Isn’t it strange I thought I’d be free
Not just another rotten apple from the tree
Said it was you but you know it’s me too
Same old game we only win if we’re free
We’re only free if we choose
Cut loose from the siamese twin
Dust myself off didn’t know where to begin
I was naked and hungry and born into sin
Wanted money and fame and most of all women
Wouldn’t give up until you all knew my name
I was humbled and crumbled but still people came
On the nights I was playing I heard people saying
Sometimes I sounded good sometimes I sounded plain
But the main thing and the strange thing
When I walked up on the stage it all changed for me
When the lights burned down they were a glistening
It was a Christening into the life of my choosing
And I ended up winning even when I started out losing
All I know is what we're told
And how we'll die when we get old
Before we do our hearts explode
With all the things that make us rotten
Every day the night will fall
Eventually it kills us all
Before it does
I'll sing my song
So all the dreams won't be forgotten
Before I die, before I do
I'll still be here, I'll be with you
And in the morning when you wake
I have left my soul to take
I gave it all, my soul to bear
For you my dear, to you my dear
And in the morning, when I'm gone
Lived my life and now it's done
So raise a glass and sing this song
So all the dead won't be forgotten
And when we die, and when we do
We'll still be here, we'll be with you
And when we're gone, and when we're dead
Gone from your lives, and from your beds
And when we're stone, and when we're bone
We're in your hearts and in your heads
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