Wasteland
Dan Bern
I saw the best of my generation playing pinball
Maked up and caked up and lookin' like some kind of china doll
With all of Adolf Hitler's moves down cold
As they stood up in front of a rock and roll band
And always moving upward and ever upward
To this gentle golden promised land
With the smartest of them all moonlighting as a word processor
And the strongest of them all checking ID's outside saloons
And the prettiest of them all taking off her clothes
In front of men whose eyes look like they were in some
Little hick town near Omaha watching the police chief
Run his car off the side of a bridge
I saw men with dreams like the ones I'd had
Beg quarters outside the 7-11
Till it got so they didn't affect me anymore
Then the mailboxes I'd passed 'cept that sometimes
I'd put something in the mailbox
I'd had the wind at my back
Now I felt it cold in my face
And for an awful long time now you were the only one who ever
Called me late at night and I really never noticed till after
You stopped calling and the emptiness, silence got so heavy
Broken up in the wasteland
Broken up in the promised land
Broken up in Disneyland
Broken up in the plastic land
Broken up in the wasteland, broken up in the wasteland
Broken up in the wasteland
I saw dead Marilyn Monroe strung up on every street corner
In Hollywood like some two bit whore offering a discount rate
And I wondered how Joe Dimagio (sp??) felt
I saw dead James Dean's ghost wandering the sidewalk
Looking troubled and I wondered how his mama felt
I saw signs that said head shots done for cheap
Signs that said extras wanted top dollars paid
Signs for haircuts signs for manicures and
Signs for tanning salons and signs for wardrobe specialists
Signs for cosmetic surgery and signs for assertiveness training
And I stopped to read them all
And every single block looked like every single block
Looked like every single block looked like every single block
Looked like every single block but you kept driving
Cause everyone else kept driving and cause gridlock
Is evil and not knowing your way is evil
And those that had money looked good but weren't too happy
And those who didn't have money didn't look so good
And weren't too happy either and in a city of three million
two hundred and sixty nine thousand nine hundred eighty four
Everyone was lonely
Broken up in the wasteland
Broken up in the promised land
Broken up in Disneyland
Broken up in the plastic land
Broken up in the wasteland, broken up in the wasteland
Broken up in the wasteland
And I watched as everyone I knew spent their lives
Trying to be watched on a stage or watched on a film
Or listened to on a record and they thought well maybe
That way I could get a little love out of this life
And I watched as the best of my generation abandoned their dreams
And settled for making a little money
And I watched TV and read the papers and listened to the radio
And made all the fancy scenes and said all the right words
And wore all the right clothes and knew the names of the hip people
But I still felt out of touch so I stopped watching TV
And reading the papers and listening to the radio
And making the fancy scenes and saying the right words
And wearing the right clothes and knowing the names of the hip people
And I felt more out of touch than ever but I didn't care anymore
And I felt you slipping away, and I felt myself slipping from you
And I wanted more than anything else for it to rain for one
Whole day like it used to but all there ever was was sun
Relentless sun hot beating sun and everyone wore their
Sunglasses and walked around like flies under a magnifying glass
With their eyes removed
Broken up in the wasteland
Broken up in the promised land
Broken up in Disneyland
Broken up in the plastic land
Broken up in the wasteland, broken up in the wasteland
Broken up in the wasteland, broken up in the wasteland
Broken up in the wasteland
After The Parade
Dan Bern
I shot two men in a military car
On a road in a country I can't pronounce
I saw their eyes when I pulled the trigger
Then checked the back seat for the body count
I know I'm lucky, I could have been
The one beneath the clover
But who do you think will push my chair
After the parade is over
A three star general at my back
And another one up at the microphone
They call me a hero
And sing 'say can you see'
To the pole where the flag is flown
Everyone stands when my name is called
I alone must sit in the god damn sun, and
Who do you think will push my chair
After the parade is done
Maybe I'll go to college
GI bill
GI bill
Maybe I'll go into politics
Yes I will
Yes I will
I'm glad for the disability benefits
I'm glad for the medals and the ribbons and the songs
I hope the blisters on my fingers
Turn into calluses before too long
I'm glad my mother could be here today
I'm glad somebody drove her
And maybe she will push my chair
After the parade is over
Maybe she will push my chair
After the parade is over
Wasteland is obviously a play on Ginsburg's Howl. In the late 1960s, the Fugs recorded Howl as a song. I still play it once in a long while.
edgarblythe wrote:Wasteland is obviously a play on Ginsburg's Howl. In the late 1960s, the Fugs recorded Howl as a song. I still play it once in a long while.
not heard the fugs version, but you're right on with bern's nod to ginsburg
At least I know songs with food in them.
edgarblythe wrote:At least I know songs with food in them.
Yea, I din't even try that one.
probably already posted this one, but it's good enough for a second go round
Dear God
XTC
Dear God,
Hope you got the letter,
And I pray you can make it better down here.
I don't mean a big reduction in the price of beer,
But all the people that you made in your image,
See them starving on their feet,
'Cause they don't get enough to eat
From God,
I can't believe in you.
Dear God,
sorry to disturb you,
but I feel that I should be heard loud and clear.
We all need a big reduction in amount of tears,
And all the people that you made in your image,
See them fighting in the street,
'Cause they can't make opinions meet,
About God,
I can't believe in you.
Did you make disease, and the diamond blue?
Did you make mankind after we made you?
And the devil too!
Dear God,
Don't know if you noticed,
But your name is on a lot of quotes in this book.
Us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look,
And all the people that you made in your image,
Still believing that junk is true.
Well I know it ain't and so do you,
Dear God,
I can't believe in,
I don't believe in,
I won't believe in heaven and hell.
No saints, no sinners,
No Devil as well.
No pearly gates, no thorny crown.
You're always letting us humans down.
The wars you bring, the babes you drown.
Those lost at sea and never found,
And it's the same the whole world 'round.
The hurt I see helps to compound,
that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
Is just somebody's unholy hoax,
And if you're up there you'll perceive,
That my heart's here upon my sleeve.
If there's one thing I don't believe in...
It's you,
Dear God.
I probably posted this one, too.
BLOW UP THE OUTSIDE WORLD - Soundgarden
Nothing seems to kill me no matter how hard I try
Nothing is closing my eyes
Nothing can beat me down for your pain or delight
And nothing seems to break me
No matter how hard I fall nothing can break me at all
Not one for giving up though not invincible I know
I've givin' everything I need
I'd give you everything I own
I'd give in if it could at least be ours alone
I've given everything I could
To blow it to hell and gone
Burrow down in and
Blow up the outside world
Someone tried to tell me something
Don't let the world bring you down
Nothing will do me in before I do myself
So save it for your own and the ones you can help
Want to make it understood
Wanting though I never would
Trying though I know it's wrong
Blowing it to hell and gone
Wishing though I never could
Blow up the outside world
Since you like Janis Ian, Edgar, here's another from her latest CD:
Danger, Danger
You got Ma Rainey talkin' 'bout a jelly roll
Chuck Berry workin' on a mojo
Bessie Smith singin' Bull Dagger Blues
Elvis twitching on the evening news
Danger, danger, can't you see
that sex should stay a mystery
so ban that music, yessirree
That's what America means to me
We're gonna ban Walt Whitman, and Jean Cocteau
All the queers will have to go
Mr. Tennessee Williams, Plato too
You got to give J. Edgar Hoover his due
Danger, danger, can't you see
They're in your local library
so ban those authors, yessirree
That's what America means to me, yeah
We're gonna ban all the dagos,
the wops and the kikes
Gonna ban all the chinks and the towelhead types
Ban all the wetbacks, ban all the fags
Wrap it up tight in the American flag
Danger, danger can't you see
It's dangerous when they are free
so ban those lazy refugees
That's what America means to me
I watched the news last night at nine
Saw a head blown off somebody's spine
The women moaned and the children screamed
Doesn't anybody else think that's obscene?
It ought to be a felony
to practice such stupidity
but it's my right, as you can see
That's what America means to me
djjd62 wrote:probably already posted this one, but it's good enough for a second go round
Dear God
XTC
I know I've posted it a least once. Snap!
great minds as they say :wink:
We always break out Shawshank Redemption style....
'Nite boys. It's been fun.
I'm raging tonight, man. I'll be back.
Rape Me
Nirvana
Rape me, my friend
Rape me again
I'm not the only one
Hate me
Do it and do it again.
Waste me
Taste me, my friend.
My favorite inside source
I'll kiss your open sores
Appreciate your concern
You'll always stink and burn
