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I thought you came here to dance
But it seems you had other plans
What's there to talk about
What's there to figure out
Sometimes I feel like an experiment
Tell me where has the sweetness gone
Where is the loving song
Where oh where in the world
Can't you just spin while I play
Must you come up with a hundred and ten reasons why we're alive today
I don't mind if you probe, babe
Start with my earlobe, babe
And then start whispering to me
Tell me where has the sweetness gone
Where is the loving song
Where oh where in the world
The only reason you used to need
To be around me was me
Tell me where has the sweetness gone
Where is the loving song
Where oh where in the world
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She said love, love, love is everything
I said ok, I guess, whatever
She said what does that mean
I said nothin, it's just good to have a backup plan
She said I guess that means you don't got love
I said maybe I love everyone
She said that's the same as lovin no one
I said ok, I guess, whatever
And I have a dream of a New American Language
One with a little bit more Spanish
I have a dream of a new pop music
That tells the truth, with a good beat and some nice harmonies
I have a dream
Tourist towns are a drag sometimes
But in non-tourist towns you can get beat up
Just for lookin a little different
I guess the thing to do is just stay at home
Yeah but sometimes I think the thing to do
Would be to get a place way out in Missouri
Put down as many months rent as you can part with
Tell everybody else you went to France
I said remember that conversation we had about love
I said well, I think that you were right
She said I don't remember sayin nothin about love
It must have been a fantasy of the moment
I have a dream
I have a dream
I dream of joining the Mafia
And whether people like me is unimportant
I dream of your clock radio
Waking you up with my songs
I have a dream of a New American Language
I dream of new beginnings
I dream of saturation bombing
I dream mostly about love
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While riding down the highway with Cowboy Joe
I met Leonardo DiCaprio
Leo, he's tryin to get away from
The unwanted advances of Eminem
Em's wearing drawstrings and lispin' along
Sayin' "please put me into your highway song"
I say hey, who's goin' my way
On that great Alaska Highway
I would never be so dumb
To say they stole an election
They bought the damn thing fair and square
The emperor's in his underwear
Old King Cole's a merry old troll
Surgeon General smokes Marlboro
I say hey, who's goin' my way
On that great Alaska Highway
Commandent Three says Do Not Kill
Amendment Two says Blood Will Spill
God sits in his rocking chair
With two flat tires and one good spare
Britney Spears joins Cowboy Joe
With a hey and a ho and a do si do
I say hey, who's goin' my way
On that great Alaska Highway
West Palm Beach and Cheech and
Rae Dawn Chong, can't we all just get along
Anchored down in Kodiak
With a heart attack ak-ak-ak-ak-ak
You oughta know by now,
By Joel
While hanging out with Cowboy Joe
Keith Richards stops to say hello
I play my guitar, he plays along
With song after song after song after song
Now that I've played with the likes of him
Ain't never gonna settle for less, my friend
I say hey, who's goin' my way
On that great Alaska Highway
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I met God
On the edge of town
Where the wind meets the stillness
Where the darkness meets the light
Where the ocean meets the sky
Where the desert meets the rain
Where the earth meets the heavens
On the edge of town
I met God
I asked God
Do one thing for me
Send me back in time
Send me to Seattle
Let me go
Find Kurt Cobain
Take away his gun
Take away his bullets
Talk to him
Make him wanna live
Tell him how we love him
Help him see his glory
God Said No
If I sent you back
If you really found him
You would only ask him
If he could
Help you get a deal
If he knows a lawyer
If he can help you
God Said No
I asked God
Do one thing for me
Send me back in time
Send me to Berlin
Let me find
The one they call Hitler
I will stalk him
I will bring him down
I will bring along
A powerful gun
Loaded with bullets
Obliterate his memory
God Said No
If I sent you back
You would get caught up
In theory and discussion
You would let your fears
Delay and distract you
You would make friends
You would take a lover
God Said No
I asked God
Do one thing for me
Send me back in time
Send me to Jerusalem
Let me go
Let me go find Jesus
Let me save his life
As they try to kill him
Let me take him down
Down from the cross
Take the iron from his body
Try to heal his wounds
God Said No
If I let you go
If you really found him
Walking with the cross
You would stare
Your tongue no longer working
Eyes no longer seeing
Ears no longer hearing
God said Time
Time belongs to me
Time's my secret weapon
My final advantage
God turned away
From the edge of town
I knew I was beaten
And that now was all I had
God Said No
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Sittin in that town in New Mexico
Named after a game show
Tryin to decide if I should sell my van
Buy a truck, and drive down to Texas
Sometimes I think I'm gunnin for the big time
Sometimes I think I'm runnin out of time
And that big odometer in the sky just turned over
That big odometer in the sky just turned over
Lately I've been scattered
My attention span is like a three-year old
I pick up my guitar and I set it down
Try reading books; end up going downtown
My friends say relax and slow down
But my insides feel like a ghost town
Tumblin and blowin and all my guts turned over
Like a tumbleweed through an empty town turning over
Turning Over, upside down
Blowing round and round and round
Turning over, wrongside up
Can barely fill my coffee cup
And I can't find me one new leaf worth turning over
I can't find me one new leaf worth turning over
Maybe I should go get in a fight
Look for someone's honor to protect
Maybe I'll go down and drink my fill
Maybe I should go sign someone's will
Out there in the alley someone's tryin'
To start their car but that old thing ain't buyin'
Everytime he tries he scrapes the air
But that tired crate, she's barely turnin over
Turning Over, upside down
Blowing round and round and round
Turning over, wrongside up
Can barely fill my coffee cup
And I can't find me one new leaf worth turning over
I can't find me one new leaf worth turning over
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I been speaking later and later in the day
Most days I don't talk 'til maybe 8 o'clock at night
It keeps me whole
It keeps me holy
It keeps me way up in the mountains even when I'm on the road
It keeps me coming up for air
Keeps me airing out some come
It keeps me cool
And everyplace I go is one less place I could call home
And every girl I kiss, well I just cross her off my list
I don't go far
I just go crazy
I buried all of my old clothes out in some field in West Des Moines
And if you judge me tonight
Judge me by the songs I write
That's who I am to you
And there's a Black Tornado
Black Tornado
Spinning around in my body sometimes
Black Tornado
Black Tornado
Spinning around in my body sometimes
And I could do tonight with something soft and warm and furry
But that ain't likely to occur in southwestern Missouri
It's a day off
It's an off-day
It's a Budweiser, Budgetel, Bukowski kind of night
All I got's what's on my back
Guitar and a backpack
My soul is intact
And there's a Black Tornado. . . .
And everything is changing faster than I can describe
All I really know to do is grab the wheel and drive
I look for love
And some adventure
And I try not to let my own breathing scare me off the road
There is a tombstone
Of my father
I visit sometimes
And there's a Black Tornado. . . .
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I have a friend
Sits in his office
Where he's had his big success
Now he cries all day
He says the Internet
Is stealing his royalties
Talks of his glory days
I say no one cares about your glory days
Backroads New Mexico
There's an old abandoned church
Windows boarded up
Never sees a coat of paint
Sometimes I drive by and dream
Of hearing the preacher preach
But it's a dragstrip for the kids
You can hear their tires screech
Don't let your heart
Get broken by this world
Don't let your heart
Get broken
At the bottom of the ocean
You might find a pearl
Don't let your heart
Get broken by this world
Drop by Albuquerque sometime
When you need to
I'll sing you an Albuquerque Lullaby. . . .
So baby when I close my eyes
You know it's you I see
You know I'm pulling for you
As you go on your way
Don't ever hesitate
To say what's goin' on
Ain't nothin black and white
Always some new place to turn
Don't let your heart
Get broken by this world. . .
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Literally the first minute I come back to town, the cops, they
Shot a crazy lady with a screwdriver in her hand
Maybe we'll have another riot, hey wouldn't that be fun, well,
This time I'll get a VCR and a big screen and a gun
Baby did you get the Tape I sent
Baby did you get the Tape I sent
We bombed the hospital by mistake, too bad, war is hell
And then we bombed the embassy we thought was something else
We might get to see World War Three by Thanksgiving Day
But as long as the turkey's golden brown it's all gonna be ok
Baby did you get the Tape I sent
Baby did you get the Tape I sent
Hush little baby don't you cry
Mama's gonna buy you a .45
And if that .45 gets recalled
Mama's gonna buy you an assault rifle
And if that rifle doesn't fire
Mama's gonna buy you a tight rope wire
To the sun
Y'see everybody's a killer, everyone's deranged
Every mini-mall laundromat is a mass murder waiting to happen
If the Manson gang had done their thing this year, 'stead of '69
They'd be on page eleven, with the rest of the petty crime
Baby did you get the Tape I sent
Baby did you get the Tape I sent
Hush little baby don't you cry
Mama's gonna buy you a pilot's license
And if that license gets revoked
Mama's gonna buy you a periscope
And if that spyglass gets all broken
Mama's gonna buy you a good lotion
For your insides
Well baby will I ever get to spend an hour just with you
I got so much to tell you, there's so much we need to do
When we said goodbye there were too many people around, now I'm gettin' impatient
But I thought that we locked eyes for a minute, was it just my imagination
Baby did you get the Tape I sent
Baby did you get the Tape I sent
Baby did you get the Tape I sent you yet
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Why do you treat me like you do, Honeydoo
Why do you make me feel blue, Honeydoo
I looked all over town
You're the prettiest girl around
So why do you treat me like you do, Honeydoo
How'm I ever gonna get through, Honeydoo
I feel like a monkey in the zoo, Honeydoo
On your throne sits a queen
You're the prettiest girl I've seen
So why do you treat me like you do, Honeydoo
Ooh, say it isn't true
Ooh, tell me no need to cry, over you
Honeydoo
Oh, why do you treat me like you do, Honeydoo
Why do you make me feel blue, Honeydoo
I looked all over town
You're the prettiest girl around
So why do you treat me like you do, Honeydoo
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Sitting in the Church
Of the Holy McDonald's
I took off my shoes
Like the Buddhists told me to
And I make my sacred offering
And I dip my hands in Pepsi
Sailed off to Virgina
And expelled all the Jews
And maybe all the things
You thought you got coming to you
Ain't coming to you
Not in this life
And maybe all the promises
You thought were broken
Were never really made
Promises never made
You say the stars quit shining
Quit shining on your head
Even the moon stopped coming up
Some old streetlight instead
But standing in the fields
Beneath the universe, you hurt
'Cause as the Milky Way whirls over you
All you got is dirt
And don't worry 'bout the Jews
They'll do fine in Lithuania
And bring a picture of the Virgin Larry
To your cousin in Carolina
And maybe all the promises
You thought were broken
Were never really made
Promises never made
And I'm closer to God
Than I've ever been before
Walking the streets of Spain
Painting Karl Marx on every door
Groucho Marx on every door
Mark of the Beast on every door
Santa Maria
Gloria Padre
Holy candy wrapper
'Neath the foot of Sierra Madre
And there's no use even trying
To sing 'til after midnight
Let's start the day with music
And wake up everybody
That's fool enough to try sleeping
Before it's getting light out
It's summer in Toledo
And I saw three ships a sailing
And maybe all the things
You thought you got coming to you
Ain't coming to you
Not in this life
And maybe all the promises
You thought were broken
Were never really made
Promises never made
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He had just returned from Monte Carlo
He was on his way to Japan
And everything they did made me want to emulate them
Made me want to be just like them
And his wife, looking very Japanese
Had never been to Japan
She sang Japanese songs, I tried my best
To sing along
And the sky was gray and it looked like it might rain
And I decided that I was only eating rice from then on
And he spoke of places and of people that I knew very well
And I asked about them, it seemed painful for him to speak
She said maybe later, if we go to the movies you can speak
He was reading heavy books, and seemed burdened by his knowledge, she wore a thin Japanese robe
And the sky was gray and it looked like it might rain
And I decided that I was only eating rice from then on
Hey, sweet dreams, great teacher
Hey, great teacher, sweet dreams
Hey, sweet dreams, great teacher
Hey, great teacher, sweet dreams
I will meditate each morning at the sunrise
I will write down all of my dreams
I will travel on the backroads , I will
Keep myself open to whatever
Every day I will learn a secret language
I will make my living in the casino
With 11 or less against a bust card
I will double down
And the sky is gray and it looks like it might rain
And I've decided that I'm only eating rice from now on
Hey, great teacher, sweet dreams. . . .
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Everybody was ecstatic
'Bout the light show on the farm
And everyone got crazy
And nobody got harmed
And the five televisions
Huge upon the stage
Had come to pay their union dues
And make a living wage
And the bathroom was the clubhouse
Where the colors all got made
And plans were cast in feathers
For the Thanksgiving Day Parade
And the DJ spins his records
From here out to the sun
And he flings them through a big hole
In the ozone one by one
And somewhere beyond Mercury
The wax begins to melt
And we touched a perfect stranger
And we loved the way it felt
And we all hung together
In our crew cuts and our braids
Floating down Broadway
Above the Thanksgiving Day Parade
And you and I were discussing Natalie
As you poised to thrust above her
And I told you how I admire her
And will always need to love her
But I told you how I lost
My best friend Mr. Neill
And we slowly started dancing
And began slowly to heal
And then we all held hands
And no one was afraid
On our way to sell our sculptures
At the Thanksgiving Day Parade
And Michelangelo finally came down
After 4 years on the ceiling
He said he'd lost his funding
And the paint had started peeling
And he told us that his patron
His Holiness, the Pope
Was demanding productivity
With which our friend just couldn't cope
And he rode off on his skateboard
With his brushes and his blade
Muttering something 'bout some food
And the Thanksgiving Day Parade
And we who were born in one millennium
And will die in the next
Are slightly underappreciated
And slightly oversexed
And as the seconds and the minutes
Start to vanish one by one
I'm watching more cartoons
As I get my toenails done
And we went downtown to deliver
Turkeys to people with AIDS
And then we headed uptown
To the Thanksgiving Day Parade
And the music keeps on grinding
And the electrophonic crunch
And my father's hair is thinning
And my mom ate some for lunch
And you, you were my babysitter
And you let me break my tooth
And we sit here tied together
In a bar in the back booth
And the band is in an uproar
Only the drum machine's been paid
And we'll have to bring our own tunes
To the Thanksgiving Day Parade
Australians are the coolest
People in the world
Let's all go down under
With strings of colored pearls
And lay them at the feet
Of the heirs of English crime
And listen to old Men At Work
And have a real good time
And we dug until we hit the rocks
Then we threw away the spade
And built a platform to get a better view
Of the Thanksgiving Day Parade
And I love whoever's next to me
I love them so, so much
They let me lean against them
Like a beautiful crutch
And everyone should come up
On the stage and grab the mike
And tell us one by one
Who they are and what they like
And the babies are the only ones
To have lately gotten laid
And I'm feeling young and eager
For the Thanksgiving Day Parade
And you explained to me that without your fans
You'd be back out on the street
With nothing but chitlins on your plate
And splinters in your feet
And if you die, you're gone you said
And your friends are left behind
And you'll be a statistic
And we'll be deaf and blind
And darkness is a virtue
And molasses is not afraid
To slow down the countdown
To the Thanksgiving Day Parade
And somewhere in the distance
An orchestra shows its face
With Natalie on the oboe
Ty on double bass
John plays the viola
Slik the tenor sax
James he blows harmonica
In vanilla skintight slacks
Hugo oozes alto sax
Ivory the trombone
Masuda squawks the trumpet
Andre xylophone
Ron he shreds the violin
In a green Italian suit
Mike talks on the telephone
On a tape with an endless loop
Geoff he blows the clarinet
With an old-time rockin' feel
Charlie dings the triangle
Dave the glockenspiel
Chris puffs on the tuba
H a big bass drum
Alfonso throbs the cello
Like he would a woman, with his thumb
And high up on the podium
In tails with his baton poised
Banksy leads the orchestra
In a glorious, awful noise
And on a float of dripping oil paint
The orchestra, it played
Kissing the whole universe
In the Thanksgiving Day Parade
And life is like a fairy tale
Every step feels like a dream
That keeps on getting nearer
And more and more extreme
And we just got switched with Venus
And we're closer to the sun
And I got no problem with it
Nor should anyone
And the cops just blew on in here
And we're in some kind of raid
I just hope they will release us
For the Thanksgiving Day Parade
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