Tears of Rage

Way of the world - Max Q

You are born into this world
Looking down the barrel of a gun
And those who hold the gun
Want you to work fast and die young
And if you don't work
If you don't obey
They'll make you live in fear till your dying day
Those who govern hold the gun to your head
With religions, corporations, proud of blood
They've shed

CHORUS:
Whether it's God or the bomb
It's just the same
It's only fear under another name
(x2)

And the corporate snakes coming in to feed
On that pathetic fact known as human greed
Skin and bone being raked over those hot coals
This dump never seems to give time for human soul
And all those things that we have learnt
No time for questions, you'll just get burnt
You'll just get burnt

(CHORUS x2)

And those words crush you flat
Like your skull's under a brick
And the fear's so damnned strong
That it makes you sick
And you can see right through those eyes
That make you fear, that make you lie
And you're taught to hold high
Yet you wonder why
Dumb values forced upon you by the
Living lie

(CHORUS x5 to fade)

Johnny Cash - I Never Picked Cotton



(Chorus) I never picked cotton Like my mother did Or my brother did Or my sister did And my daddy died young Workin' in a coal mine

When I was just a baby Too little for a cotton sack I played in the dirt While the others worked 'Til they couldn't straighten up their backs I made myself a promise When I was old enough to run That I'd never stay a single day In that Oklahoma sun

(Chorus) Folks said I grew up early And that the farm couldn't hold me then so I stole ten bucks and a pickup truck And I never went back again Then it was fast cars and whiskey Long legged girls and fun I had everything that money could bring And I took it all with a gun

(Chorus) It was Saturday night in Memphis And a redneck grabbed my shirt When he said go back to your cotton sack I left him dying in the dirt They'll take me in the morning To the gallows just outside And in the time I got There ain't a hell of alot That I can look back on with pride

(Chorus)

Going Going Gone - Dylan

I've just reached a place
Where the willow don't bend.
There's not much more to be said
It's the top of the end.
I'm going,
I'm going,
I'm gone.

I'm closin' the book
On the pages and the text
And I don't really care
What happens next.
I'm just going,
I'm going,
I'm gone.

I been hangin' on threads,
I been playin' it straight,
Now, I've just got to cut loose
Before it gets late.
So I'm going,
I'm going,
I'm gone.

Grandma said, "Boy, go and follow your heart
And you'll be fine at the end of the line.
All that's gold isn't meant to shine.
Don't you and your one true love ever part."

I been walkin' the road,
I been livin' on the edge,
Now, I've just got to go
Before I get to the ledge.
So I'm going,
I'm just going,
I'm gone.

A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes

A bunch of lonesome and very quarrelsome heroes
were smoking out along the open road;
the night was very dark and thick between them,
each man beneath his ordinary load.
"I'd like to tell my story,"
said one of them so young and bold,
"I'd like to tell my story,
before I turn into gold."
But no one really could hear him,
the night so dark and thick and green;
well I guess that these heroes must always live there
where you and I have only been.
Put out your cigarette, my love,
you've been alone too long;
and some of us are very hungry now
to hear what it is you've done that was so wrong.

I sing this for the crickets,
I sing this for the army,
I sing this for your children
and for all who do not need me.
"I'd like to tell my story,"
said one of them so bold,
"Oh yes, I'd like to tell my story
'cause you know I feel I'm turning into gold."


L Cohen

No More Heroes
Stranglers

Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?
He got an ice pick
That made his ears burn

Whatever happened to dear old Lenny?
The great Elmyra, and Sancho Panza?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?

Whatever happened to all the heroes?
All the Shakespearoes?
They watched their Rome burn
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?

No more heroes any more
No more heroes any more

Whatever happened to all the heroes?
All the Shakespearoes?
They watched their Rome burn
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?

No more heroes any more

No more heroes any more

Sing Another Song, Boys

(Let's sing another song, boys, this one has grown old and bitter.)
Ah his fingernails, I see they're broken,
his ships they're all on fire.
The moneylender's lovely little daughter
ah, she's eaten, she's eaten with desire.
She spies him through the glasses
from the pawnshops of her wicked father.
She hails him with a microphone
that some poor singer, just like me, had to leave her.
She tempts him with a clarinet,
she waves a Nazi dagger.
She finds him lying in a heap;
she wants to be his woman.
He says, "Yes, I might go to sleep
but kindly leave, leave the future,
leave it open."

He stands where it is steep,
oh I guess he thinks that he's the very first one,
his hand upon his leather belt now
like it was the wheel of some big ocean liner.
And she will learn to touch herself so well
as all the sails burn down like paper.
And he has lit the chain
of his famous cigarillo.
Ah, they'll never, they'll never ever reach the moon,
at least not the one that we're after;
it's floating broken on the open sea, look out there, my friends,
and it carries no survivors.
But lets leave these lovers wondering
why they cannot have each other,
and let's sing another song, boys,
this one has grown old and bitter.

L Cohen

Ball And Chain
Social Distortion

Well it's been ten years, and a thousand tears
And look at the mess I'm in-
A broken nose and a broken heart,
An empty bottle of gin
Well I sit and I pray
In my broken down Chevrolet-
While I'm singin' to myself
There's got to be another way

chorus:
Take away, take away
Take away this ball and chain
I'm lonely and I'm tired
And I can't take any more pain
Take away, take away
Never to return again
Take away, take away
Take away this ball and chain

Well I've searched and I've searched
To find the perfect life-
A brand new car and a brand new suit
I even got me a little wife-
But wherever I have gone
I was sure to find myself there-
You can run all your life
But not go anywhere

chorus:
Take away, take away
Take away this ball and chain
I'm sick and I'm tired
And I can't take any more pain
Take away, take away
Never to return again
Take away, take away
Take away this ball and chain

Well I'll pass the bar on the way
To my dingy hotel room-
I spent all my money
Been drinkin' since a half past noon-
I'll wake there in the mornin'
Or maybe in the county jail-
Times are hard getting harder
I'm born to lose and destined to fail-

chorus:
Take away, take away
Take away this ball and chain
I'm lonely and I'm tired
And I can't take any more pain
Take away, take away
Never to return again
Take away, take away
Take away this ball and chain

Underground Network
by Anti-Flag

The national media cover Clinton/Lewinsky
While the world's governments sellout millions on the issue of free trade
But somewhere in the night - a force is not asleep
And a massive organization plans to rise up to its feet
It does it like this

A pirate radio voice transmits into the night
And from D.C. to Peking email warns of lost global rights
And the hoax the world's leaders, wanted no one to see
Comes crashing on their heads from grass roots - striking it down -
the blows coming from the worlds

(Chorus)
Underground Network- alternative communication
Corporate media can't keep us beat down, brain washed, enslaved
`Cause of our Underground Network- alternative communication

They try to blind us but we
STAND UP AND FIGHT! STAND UP AND FIGHT!
They try to keep us ignorant but we.
STAND UP AND FIGHT! STAND UP AND FIGHT!
They want to take our rights away so
STAND UP AND FIGHT! FIGHT!

Just take a look around the world and you're going to find that nearly all mass media
is owned and controlled by a handful of conservative capitalists. We must devise and
implement alternative methods of distributing our news, our information, our ideas-
people worldwide working together to take a stand, to tell the truth!

Blind Willie McTell
Bob Dylan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Seen the arrow on the doorpost, sayin', "This land is condemned.''
All the way from New Orleans to Jerusalem.
I travelled thru East Texas where many martyrs fell
An' i know no one can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell.

Well, i heard that hoot-owl singin' as they were takin' down the tents
The stars above the barren trees was his only audience.
Them charcoal gypsy maidens can strut their feathers well
But nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell.

See them big plantations burnin', hear the crackin' of the whips
Smell that sweet magnolias bloomin', see the ghost of slavery ships
I can hear them tribes a-moanin', hear that undertaker's bell
Nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell.

There's a woman by the river with some fine young handsome man
He's dressed up like a squire, bootleg whiskey in his hand
There's a chain gang on the highway, i can hear them rebels yell
An' i know no one can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell.

Well, god is in his heaven an' we all want what's his
But power an' greed an' corruptible seed seem to be all that there is
I'm gazin' out the window of the St. James hotel
But i know no one can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell.

Dear Mrs. Roosevelt
Woody Guthrie


Dear Mrs.Roosevelt, don't hang your head and cry.
His mortal flesh is laid away but his good work fills the sky.
This world was lucky to see him born.

Now he went up to grade school and he wrote back to his folks.
He drew such funny pictures and was always pulling jokes.
This world was lucky to see him born.

He went up to Harvard to read his books of law.
He loved his trees and horses, he loved everything he saw.
This world was lucky to see him born.

He got struck down by the fever and it settled in his leg.
He loved the folks that wished him well and everybody did.
This world was lucky to see him born.

He took office on a crippled leg and he said to one and all:
Your money changing racket, boys, sure enough got to fall.
This world was lucky to see him born.

I voted for him lots of times and I'd vote for him again.
He tried to find an honest job for every idle man.
This world was lucky to see him born.

He helped me to build my union and he learned me how to talk.
I could see he was a cripple but he learned my soul to talk.
This world was lucky to see him born.

I was a GI in the army the day he passed away.
And over my shoulder I could hear some soldier say:
This world was lucky to see him born.

I know this world was lucky just to see him born.
I know this world was lucky just to see him born.
This world was lucky to see him born.

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Death of a Ladies' Man

Ah the man she wanted all her life was hanging by a thread
"I never even knew how much I wanted you," she said.
His muscles they were numbered and his style was obsolete.
"O baby, I have come too late." She knelt beside his feet.
"I'll never see a face like yours in years of men to come
I'll never see such arms again in wrestling or in love."
And all his virtues burning in the smoky Holocaust
She took unto herself most everything her lover lost
Now the master of this landscape he was standing at the view
with a sparrow of St. Francis that he was preaching to
She beckoned to the sentry of his high religious mood
She said, "I'll make a place between my legs,
I'll show you solitude."

He offered her an orgy in a many mirrored room
He promised her protection for the issue of her womb
She moved her body hard against a sharpened metal spoon
She stopped the bloody rituals of passage to the moon

She took his much admired oriental frame of mind
and the heart-of-darkness alibi his money hides behind
She took his blonde madonna and his monastery wine --
"This mental space is occupied and everything is mine."

He tried to make a final stand beside the railway track
She said, "The art of longing's over and it's never coming back."
She took his tavern parliament, his cap, his cocky dance,
she mocked his female fashions and his working-class moustache.

The last time that I saw him he was trying hard to get
a woman's education but he's not a woman yet
And the last time that I saw her she was living with some boy
who gives her soul an empty room and gives her body joy.

So the great affair is over but whoever would have guessed
it would leave us all so vacant and so deeply unimpressed
It's like our visit to the moon or to that other star
I guess you go for nothing if you really want to go that far.

It's like our visit to the moon or to that other star
I guess you go for nothing if you really want to go that far.

It's like our visit to the moon or to that other star
I guess you go for nothing if you really want to go that far.

The Window

Why do you stand by the window
Abandoned to beauty and pride
The thorn of the night in your bosom
The spear of the age in your side
Lost in the rages of fragrance
Lost in the rags of remorse
Lost in the waves of a sickness
That loosens the high silver nerves
Oh chosen love, Oh frozen love
Oh tangle of matter and ghost
Oh darling of angels, demons and saints
And the whole broken-hearted host
Gentle this soul

And come forth from the cloud of unknowing
And kiss the cheek of the moon
The New Jerusalem glowing
Why tarry all night in the ruin
And leave no word of discomfort
And leave no observer to mourn
But climb on your tears and be silent
Like a rose on its ladder of thorns

Oh chosen love, Oh frozen love...

Then lay your rose on the fire
The fire give up to the sun
The sun give over to splendour
In the arms of the high holy one
For the holy one dreams of a letter
Dreams of a letter's death
Oh bless thee continuous stutter
Of the word being made into flesh

Oh chosen love, Oh frozen love...

Gentle this soul

And We Thought That Nation-States Were a Bad Idea
by Propagandhi

"Publically subsidized, privately profitable!"
That's the anthem of the upper-tier (the puppeteer untouchable)
We focus a moment, nod in approval,
And bury our heads back in the barcodes of these neo-colonials.
While our former nemesis (ah, the romance!): the nation-state,
Now plays fund-raiser for a new brand of power-concentrate.
Try again, but now we're confused--what is class war?
Is this class-war?
Yes, this is class-war.

And I'm just a kid
I can't believe that I gotta worry about this kind of ****!
What a stupid world!
Yeah, this is just beautiful--no regard for principle
What a stupid world.

(We're) Born, hired, disposed,
Where that job lands, everybody knows,
And you can tell by the smiles on the CEOs,
Enviromental restraints are about to go.
You can bet that laws will be set,
To ensure the benefit of unrestricted labor-laws,
All kept in place by displaced government death-squads.
They own us.
They produce us.
They consume us.

Can you fu cking believe this?
What a stupid world.

Fu ck this bullshit display of class-loyaties!
The media and "our" leaders wrap it all up in a flag
their fu cking ****-rag,
Hooray!

Oxygen
Willy Mason

Album: Untitled EP
Year: 2004


I wanna be better than oxygen
So you can breathe when you're drowning and weak in the knees
I wanna speak louder than Ritalin
For all the children who think that they've got a disease
I wanna be cooler than t.v.
For all the kids that are wondering what they are going to be
We can be stronger than bombs
If you're singing along and you know that you really believe
We can be richer than industry
As long as we know that there's things that we don't really need
We can speak louder than ignorance
Cause we speak in silence every time our eyes meet.

On and on, and on, and on it goes
The world it just keeps spinning
Until i'm dizzy, time to breathe
So close my eyes and start again anew.

I wanna see through all the lies of society
To the reality, happiness is at stake
I wanna hold up my head with dignity
Proud of a life where to give means more than to take
I wan't to live beyond the modern mentality
Where paper is all that you're really taught to create
Do you remember the forgotten America?
Justice, equality, freedom to every race?
Just need to get past all the lies and hypocrisy
Make up and hair to the truth behind every face
Look around to all the people you see,
How many of them are happy and free?
I know it sounds like a dream
But it's the only thing that can get me to sleep at night
I know it's hard to believe
But it's easy to see that something here isn't right
I know the future looks dark
But it's there that the kids of today must carry the light.

On and on, and on, and on it goes
The world it just keeps spinning
Until i'm dizzy, time to breathe
So close my eyes and start again anew.

If i'm afraid to catch a dream
I'll weave your baskets and i'll float them down the river stream
Each one i weave with words i speak to carry love to your relief.

I wanna be better than oxygen
So you can breathe when you're drowning and weak in the knees
I wanna speak louder than Ritalin
For all the children who think that they've got a disease
I wanna be cooler than t.v.
For all the kids that are wondering what they are going to be
We can be stronger than bombs
If you're singing along and you know that you really believe
We can be richer than industry
As long as we know that there's things that we don't really need
We can speak louder than ignorance
Cause we speak in silence every time our eyes meet.

On and on, and on, and on it goes
The world it just keeps spinning
Until i'm dizzy, time to breathe
So close my eyes and start again anew

Thanks, endymion. It's a good 'un.

Sam Stone
By John Prine

sam stone came home to his wife and family
after serving in the conflict overseas
and the time that he served had shattered all his nerve
and left a little shrapnel in his knee
but the morphine eased the pain
and the grass grew round his brain
and gave him all the confidence he lacked
with a purple heart and a monkey on his back

(chorus)

there's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes
jesus christ died for nothing i suppose
little pictures have big ears
don't stop to count the years
sweet songs never last too long on broken radios
sam stone's welcome home didn't last too long
he went to work when he'd spent his last dime
and sammy took to stealin' when he got that empty feelin'
for a hundred dollar habit without overtime
and the gold rolled through his veins
like a thousand railroad trains
and eased his mind in the hours that he chose
while the kids ran around wearing other peoples clothes

(chorus)

sam stone was alone when he popped his last balloon
climbing walls while sitting in a chair
and they played his last request while the room smelled just like death
with an overdose hovering in the air
cause life had lost it's fun and there was nothing to be done
but trade his house that he bought on the g. i. bill
for a flag-draped casket on a local hero's hill

(chorus)

The Hollow Men

T. S. Eliot (1925)
I


We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar


Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;


Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us -- if at all -- not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.


II


Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.


Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer --


Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom


III


This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.


Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.


IV


The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms


In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river


Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.


V


Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.


Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow


For Thine is the Kingdom


Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow


Life is very long


Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom


For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the


This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.