1. |
End Of The Empire
02:56
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I'm a Kid from the turn of the century
predisposed to addictions and fantasy
I've been handed a world without tact or fact
I've been handed a burden that I can't hand back
Living in the end of the empire
Living in the end of the empire
look at all this money just fueling the fire
Oh I'm living in the end of the empire
The debt that we carry
the likes of which you've never seen
has corrupted the dream
I hope the wealthy will soon come to see
the state of the world we'll be inheriting
Living in the end of the empire
Living in the end of the empire
look at all this money just fueling the fire
Oh I'm living in the end of the empire
Can't talk to my parents because they can't understand
It's a new kind of war that we're fighting
And I hope we can find a new kind of creed
One that puts Need above greed
And maybe it's time for it all to burn to the ground
so we can bury the gold
so we can bury the crown
Living in the end of the empire
Living in the end of the empire
look at all this money just fueling the fire
Oh I'm living in the end of the empire
I'm a kid from the turn of the century
predisposed to addictions and fantasy
I've been handed a world without tact or fact
I've been handed a burden that I can't hand back
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2. |
Blood And Money
03:17
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Father, I know you've fought this fight before
You went to war
You built a house for me
and after all You've done how could it be
after all You've done how could it come to this?
History repeats itself:
Blood and Money
Blood and Money
Blood and Money
Mother, I know you've fought this fight before
You waded through a mire of shovenists
and after all You've done how could it come to this
after all You've done how could it come to this?
History repeats itself:
Blood and Money
Blood and Money
Blood and Money
19 on a C-135
too young to drink but not to die
18 in the bottom of a Boston basement
a Warrior of Choice even then
Another Single Mother puts a star up on the flag
after all she's done how could it come to this?
History repeats itself:
Blood and Money
Blood and Money
Blood and Money
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3. |
Forgiveness
03:19
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Peacemaker
with a button in his lip
bears the brunt of what his mother said
He's got some secret vices but they don't fulfill the need
Lover
behind her swimming eyes and innocence and willingness to still believe
but on her Jim Beam legs she can't find the balance that she needs
There are no strangers to the pain of living
only strangers to forgiving
There are no strangers to the pain of living
only strangers to forgiving
and you can love anyone once you know where they're coming from
Preacher
with a cigarette lit sets fire to his lungs and his ire
chimney-ed desperate proclamations of the one and only truth
the proof is in his misery and the mysteries in the proof
Senator
what gives value to a man
is it the money he can spend?
Well, you're too young to die but too old to understand
yes, you're too young to die but too old to understand
There are no strangers to the pain of living
only strangers to forgiving
There are no strangers to the pain of living
only strangers to forgiving
and you can love anyone once you know where they're coming from
It seems we can no longer read
the sand-written poems the earth would leave
to court the human heart
so I'll sing what I see written in the Red Canyon cliffs:
The feeling that all hearts seek is Love
and love is found in Forgiveness
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4. |
Change
01:52
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Another Persepolis of Mid-century west
broken shacks at the edge of a dried up sea
stand like ruined temples to a long lost god
long lost promises
old abandoned hopes and dreams
Sentiments that turned to salt
now season a scorched white earth
some clingers-on though still remain
they slide through the tattered shadows
worn sheer by neglect and study me
with vulture curiosity
Change is the language of God's mind
and resistance to it is the root of all our suffering
I descend into this jewel-box city
high-rise housing for the orphaned hearts
they're looking for their parents in the steel and the glass
something tells them this all should last
Rust blood stains on the gutter spouts
clocks drum against the rain
anxious love
cogs and brains
Willingness like a salmon run
suited in the street
except that there's no river or no sea
I'm a man of constant wonder
Change is the language of God's mind
and resistance to it is the root of all our suffering
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5. |
Planting Trees
02:28
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I dream of planting trees
but when I wake, in my memory,
I see their roots turn to snakes
The humble mystery of the seed
immortal rock
yet when I wake I see it bleed
I tried once to understand,
but the world turned me away
My faith is with the unseen
but I chose to love also man
Well:
It's the artist's job to be misunderstood
Yes, it's the artist's job to be misunderstood
and God I'm at odds with the religion of this town
I will forever be
beneath algaeic arches
marveling at our blue epistemology
That great tectonic shift that broke the rib
and birthed this earth
this garden we call Eve
I tried once to understand,
but the world turned me away
My faith is with the unseen
but I chose to love also man
Well:
I't's the artist's job to be misunderstood
Yes, it's the artist's job to be misunderstood
and God I'm at odds with the religion of this town
The Lion lay beneath lightning gray skies that bring rain
to his arid dominion
I'm just a shadow
I can see it in His eye
as He turns away to smile at the Sky
I tried once to understand,
but the world turned me away
My faith is with the unseen
but I chose to love also man
Well:
I't's the artist's job to be misunderstood
Yes, it's the artist's job to be misunderstood
and God I'm at odds with the religion of this town
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6. |
Take The Land Away
03:24
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Today I stopped speaking in a language of wounds
I stopped self soothing with anger
They drilled a hole in my soul
But I won't let it happen again
No I won't let it happen again
When they come to take the land away I'll stay
Sing my prayers to the Eagle and the Rain
The grieving mind is quick to find false comfort in blame
But blame and acceptance are not the same
In times like these some count the money others count the bodies
Humanity's not an ends to a means
When they come to take the land away I'll stay
Sing my prayers to the Eagle and the Rain
Peace be still peace be still
Hold the roots and bless the leaves
Peace be still peace be still
Protect the crown that we've been given
When they come to take the land away I'll stay
Sing my prayers to the Eagle and the Rain
Today I stopped speaking in a language of wounds
I stopped self soothing with anger
They drilled a hole in my soul but I won't let it happen again
No I won't let it happen again
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7. |
Special
03:15
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Millions of misunderstandings
congresses of deluded minds
so many silently repeating
an unearned mantra that's defined our times:
I am special
We've come to find every town has it's compass
every town has it's own true north
a kind of honesty backs their currency
and there's always a prospector looking to score
he silently repeats:
I am special
It's easy if your smart to lie
but in your heart's eye you should see
the wealth of the world is found in loving the meek
This is the era of The Taker
our architecture is just bent that way
Escher ladders lead in circles
and heartless hunters take the honest as their pray
they say:
I am special
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8. |
Cocktail
02:13
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Cat scratch screech becomes a preach
from the pulpit of the Night
alleyways are like mazes for the mind
The city speaks with serpent teeth
hissing gently in the rain
Memory the fog in trees
and gold daylight
remind me:
it was always a choice to fight
The wind claws at my window through the vine and lemon tree
hanging in the balance all that I could ever see
It was dark and my heart was wide
Cocktail for the spirits just outside
The veil is always thinner when I sit down to write
and lately the weight of the world licks at the windows with the night
some fundamental spark to escape my circumstance
makes me think of all the places that I will never see
and all the lotteries I've won that have made me me
Carving windswept bridges
making evidence of time
we climb to ring the bell and we do despite our trying
oh it had stormed and the rocks were blood
I watch the world slip away with the flood
God holds our hand
but who covers our eyes?
I can't remember what it was that I left behind
sitting in the bottom of an ancient sea
love and turtle shell rattles
husks of whittled sound
remind me that life is forever weaving though the ground
I pressed my hand into the clay
I made an honest mark beneath the overhang
they say one good thing becomes another
Faith is the womb
and Mystery, Mystery is the Mother
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9. |
Angel
03:27
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Blasting Eagle-eye plow
metalphone stone in the cosmos struck
are we alone?
All of it slipping away
billowing to a great castle of stars
are we alone?
Man is a sense of distance
Love
the defiant invocation
brings darkness to it's knees
that's who you are to me:
a loving light against all dark
Little moments
when you're standing in my doorframe
take my breath away and make my heart exclaim
How could it be this angel has landed
out of all of time and space here with me
Embittered Fate embrace your taste
How was there ever doubt?
Out of all the shifting reds and blues
moving evermore towards the past
the mind looks to the sky for a mask
How could it be this angel has landed
out of all of time and space here with me
Blasting Eagle-eye plow
metalphone stone in the cosmos struck
are we alone?
All of it slipping away
billowing to a great castle of stars
are we alone?
Man is a sense of distance
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10. |
Miracle
03:21
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You wrote me saying that you're trying to
make it back from the land of lost souls
that someone had burned your ego
and that an act of God has taken away your home
that then a great rain came
and washed the ash away
yes, it washed away whatever you had known
The snow falls slowly in Colorado
and you're a little bit closer now to God
and in that winter scene
beyond your window pane
you can hear St. Peter saying:
“It's not yet time to receive your Soul.”
So,
Don't give up before the Miracle
No,
Don't give up before the Miracle
It's hard sometimes to think about you
would be easier to just let go
but I admire your resiliant heart
and your stubborn soul
and anyhow we're all taking the long way home
yes, anyhow we're all taking the long way home
Shouting questions to the sky
beneath eternal Moon
meeting in the muddy troughs of this lifelong road
So,
Don't give up before the Miracle
No,
Don't give up before the Miracle
Well, the snow falls slowly in Colorado
and you're a little bit closer now to God
and in that winter scene
beyond your window pane
you can hear St. Peter saying:
It's not yet time”
Oh no,
“It's not yet time -
to receive our Soul.”
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11. |
Kid Lightning
03:45
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Son of the Sun,
Son of the Moon,
one short life and a return to you
a return to you
Cassiopeia let his blind heart see
its one short life and a return to you
Kid Lightning rides again
defiance made him a fighter
surrender made him a man
Son of the Sun
Son of the Moon
one short life and a return to you
a return to you
The first stone cast made the fatal wound
one short life and a return to you
a return to you
Kid Lightning rides again
defiance made him a fighter
surrender made him a man
No more track marks in the holy land
Ridgeline breaks a promise yet again
An old old adage rides high on the westward wind
One short life and a return to you
Kid Lightning rides again
defiance makes him a fighter
surrender makes him a man
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12. |
Moonwalking
02:36
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One more step into the great unknown
I'm learning the language
beginning to see the poem
Is this denial or something else babe
Is this a pilgrimage of fate?
The girl who fell from the sky
cures my once blind eye
find the pieces of my lost divinity
her love sets me free
Moonwalking with Buddha
crying with Christ
sparring with Atlas
flying with Icarus
music made my angels hiding in the curtains
ease my pain and close my eyes
One more step into the great unknown
I'm learning the language
beginning to see the poem
Is this denial or something else babe
Is this a pilgrimage of fate?
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Kid Lightning Los Angeles, California
Son of the sun, son of the moon. A Kid from the turn of the century. Folk for an empathetic future, theme songs for the end of the empire.
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