Ghost

I am the ghost
Of the child i once was
On this train
We ghosts ride daily on

The memories of the past
The pure thing once called me
That’s the real thing
that I’ll never again be

Unfettered by memories

I am a ghost of what i was and what ill never again be
Erasing the mistakes of my memories

My fellow faces
They’re lined and aging
But in their minds
And into their mirrors

They are restaging
De-aging, from clouds they see
What are our joys
But those future ghosts to be

I am a ghost of what i was and what ill never again be
Erasing the mistakes of my memories

Little children
Try to hang on tight
Little children
It might be alright

Lully Lullay

Sometimes I think
That demons walk the earth
If I forget
How much our lives are worth

Oh forgive me Lord
Oh forgive me Lord

Sometimes I think
That demons walk the earth
Taking the precious
Grind it into the dirt

Oh forgive me Lord
Oh forgive me Lord

Lully Lullay

Sometimes I think
The demons walk the earth
But for Your grace
I’m just a pile of dirt

Oh forgive me Lord
Oh forgive me Lord

12.14.12

Killing Marx with Marx

Near 200 years
Your kite has flown
Forget the bodies
Of the hundred million
Forget the wars
You goaded on
Just look at
The exploitation

You equalled nothing
You abolished nothing
You destroyed nothing
You just changed hands

You overcame nothing
You settled nothing
Your kampf only birthed
A new bourgeoisie

Here’s my second demo for the Lead’s upcoming reunion EP. I think the song works out well so far but I’d really like to hear it with Rob on drums as opposed to a generic dance drum loop.

Anyway you can download it here, read the lyrics here, and stream it here.

(1/11/12: cleaned up last verse)
(3/11/12: changed one line)

Religion No Rite (In Your Face Again)

Once upon a time the fall from grace
The Father said get thee from my place
Became the Son, came down, died in your face
Cleared the way back to grace through faith
Spirit-filled martyr’s blood soaked the ground
Buried in rags they stayed down
The kings stepped in put in their claims
Forced their rules upon the game

So once upon a time later today
You sign up for the fire escape
Get rewarded with a clean slate
The Blood is strong it covers your hates
But verse upon verse upon verse upon verse
Aimed at you and not the cursed
Not being deceived and God not mocked
The weight of the cross for you to take up

Religion no rite
Gun you aim for the mind of Christ
Didn’t take long to lose sight
In the halls of the councils high

No fire doesn’t mean that higher
There won’t be a reason to cry, or
That you will not be standing trial
Watching tape of every mile
And so worship and worship to taste
One thing proves if you worship to waste
Windows dressed as you see fit
But the valley before you how do you cross it?

Moral dilemmas: prepare, they’re coming
And there’s no room left for running
No slippery slope temptations
But painted corners, no win situations
Just one chance, happiness at stake
A heart you love you must break
Choices consequences how do you withstand them
And still obey His commandments?

Time to get in your face again

Religion no rite
Gun you aim for the mind of Christ
Didn’t take long to lose sight
In the halls of the councils high

By popular request (and permission from Nina and Rob), the first of my two songs for the Lead’s upcoming 4-song EP is available for download at Area 1234. I actually wrote this in 2000, and even back then I thought I could eventually record it with the Lead since the lyric is based on something that happened to the Lead.

Back in 1985, shortly after we put out our first EP,  I sent a check and an ad to the yet-to-be-legendary #1 punk political rag Maximum RockNRoll along with a review copy of said EP. I got the ad and check back from already-infamous publisher Tim Yohannan along with a note declining to run the ad. Of course I wrote a letter back to Yohannon in a futile attempt to save his soul (and a successful attempt to dis Castro and the Sandinistas), and we traded a couple more letters. Old Warrior from The Past Behind was the first response to this.

As the years seasoned my perspective a bit, I realized that I had no reason to brand Yohannon’s rejection of the ad as censorship. In fact, as the nominal owner of his business (although I’m sure he’d bite, kick, scratch and scream saying it’s not a business), he was perfectly within his rights to refuse to deal with us. So I wrote this other tune basically calling him out on being a Stalinist Pharisee while saying (as he did in his letter to me) that he had no tolerance for people with other beliefs but the same intransigence. All well and good, except Yohannan was already dead and gone as of April 1998.

Lyrics- written in 1999 and revised in 2011:

What I Should Have Told Tim Yohannon in 1985

Good evening old warrior the muzzle fits just fine
Before you go back to the rag my I have a little of your time?
Your morality’s direction as you made me understand
Abhor every intolerant and dogmatic command
And you went on and described the zealots
And, so naively, yourself
The minds in your hands never did know
Shouting I think for myself but you – you will never know

Sheep of another color are sheep nonetheless
The way it will be will be the way that it is
Your worldview these days only seems to sport false teeth
The guns and the wars are tiring of propping your beliefs
You’re printing and we are moshing
Mommy’s got our bed for after the slogans
The system you decry is keeping you afloat
You are part of the machine but you – you will never know

You say no rules while you make rules yourself
Falling into your toilet with everything else
What is good to you you have the right to say
And the right to say that it is the only correct way
But my religion that you hated for its ways
Bore the precepts you so embrace
Erase it from the earth-your dream come true
Take Him away from this world – but you’ll never think it true
What hope left for you?

2000 March 2, 11, 17, 20
2011 June 2