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It was a beautiful day in New York town
Folks jogging, biking, walking 'round
When a couple of airplanes came around
Hit the big towers, knocked 'em down
Worst disaster on US soil ever!
'Course, there's the Indians... a few million slaves... Enron... Anyway, it was worse than Pearl Harbor!
President W. was flying around
Far away from New York town
When finally he came on TV,
He said "Why do they hate us? -- 'cause we're free."
Free to round up dark-skinned bearded guys... Free to detain anyone who might have ties to Osama... Al Qaida... Somewhere in Cleveland there's some guy named Al Kida -- K - I - D - A... He's freaking out!
Congress quickly rang the bell
And tried to fight those terrorist cells
With laws designed to never let
Our country fall to a terrorist threat
Anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone who knows anyone who might be a terrorist -- is a terrorist!
There's terrorists using your email name
Sitting next to you at the ballgame
Terrorists hiding in your bed
Terrorists borrowing your head
Never seen so many terrorists... I had to turn in my own Mom... you know what they say... unpaid parking tickets aids terrorists
There's laws for this and laws for that
To keep those terrorists under wraps
Some folks disagree with these
And talk of civil liberties
But it's like the Attorney General says... If in times like these you can talk about individual freedom... you're probably a terrorist
If you're planning air travel soon
You might want to think about a weather balloon
Nothing gets past those X-Ray Peekers
And don't carry nothing in your sneakers
Sorry for all the delays... if you want to get there so dang fast you oughta take the train... "I have never been so insulted"... "Shut up, Dale."
Well India and Pakistan
Are thinking of trading nuclear bombs
Israel and the PLO --
Suicide's the way to go
Meanwhile the lessons of 9-1-1 are clear... Let's blow up the Middle East... Smoking marijuana aids terrorists... Cuba's our enemy unless we
need a prison camp... John Walker Lindh could be your kid unless we get an economic stimulus package... And let's get that guy in Cleveland - AL KIDA!
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My Little Swastika
the chinese had it for 20,000 years
the nazis took it and made it spell tears
still has power to hurt a little bit
but now I'm decorating my house with it
my little swastika
my little swastika
you can do what you want
but I'm taking it back
it's not yours anymore
it's mine now
well, it stands for john, paul, george, & ringo
stands for groucho, harpo, zeppo, & chico
looks like four sevens which is 28
which is half of joe dimaggio's hitting streak
(chorus)
well, I got me a white one to give to my bride
I got me a black one that my uncle dyed
green means football, that's the notre dame sign
I got me a pink one: gay pride
(chorus)
so if you see me wearing a swastika tonight
don't be angry, don't start a fight
raise your voices up above
oooooh! swastika love
(chorus)
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Jail
I wish you well on your travels
My friends I wish you well along the way
This is the story of how I came to be
In jail for a night and a day
Well I'm driving my '88 Olds Cutlass
It's raining and it's dark
My wipers are beating slow and steady
Like the thump, thump, thumping of my heart
I'm rolling down from up in Colorado
Some little town in Texas tonight
When my rear view flashes blue, blue, blue
It's a cop; my license plate's missing a light
He smells sweet green Colorado
Hidden in the lining 'bove my head
Next thing I know there's four cop cars flashing
And around my wrists are bracelets of lead
Well, take my license, take my fingerprints
Take my wallet that I'll no longer need
Take my belt in case I want to hang myself
For a nickel bag of weed
Then put me in a cell on an old mattress pad
To measure out in minutes this night
One cup of water in styrofoam
Four walls and one fluorescent light
And this is my one phone call
And baby I'm calling you
You tell me, "stay strong boy"
I say "well, I'll do the best I do"
And I wish you well on your travels
My friends I wish you well along the way
This is the story of how I came to be
In jail for a night and a day
Now at first I'm thinking, man, I'm such a fuck-up
My head is lonesome and bowed
Figure I'll join some program, get religious
My abstinence will make my mother proud
And I stare at the stone cold floor
I guess that's what you do in the pen
Then I get to thinking what I'd really like to do
Is to come back here and fight this to the end
Your honor, think of Johnny Cash
And Elvis and Hank Williams too
Whatever it took to go get those songs
Those good old boys would do
If it's illegal, then throw out Blonde on Blonde
And every Beatles song since Hard Day's Night
Go ahead and burn Walt Whitman
Unpaint Starry Night
Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, let 'em burn
Kerouac, Thelonious Monk
Alice in Wonderland, Picasso
Burroughs, Blake, Ginsberg, throw it out, it's junk
Then throw out all your favorite records
Throw your books of poetry away
Close the museums, burn the paintings
Restore us to Galileo's Day
Then to the drug store we will go
For Vicodin and Chloraseptic spray
Scarf a couple Darvocets and Xanax
And then we'll go floating away
Dear Governor, dear Governor, dear Governor
The ultimate enforcer of my fate
Did I interrupt your three-martini lunch?
Are you off on your cigarette break?
Well, I wish you well on your travels
My friends I wish you well along the way
This is the story of how I came to be
In jail for a night and a day
Next day, my buddies bail me out
Toward late afternoon
And the grass, it never smelled greener
Sun drips honey like from a golden spoon
I jump in the car and drive on out of there
Soon I'm miles away
And I get to thinking what awaits me
When I come back some not-so-distant day
Will I stand before the judge
And say, "Your Honor, this law, it is wrong"
Or do I just do the time and pay my fine
Shake this town from my boots and be gone
I wish you well on your travels
My friends I wish you well along the way
This is the story of how I came to be
In jail for a night and a day
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Friends
Where did my friends go
Where did my friends go
Are they in the bar
Or waiting in the car
Or did they just take off for good
An hour ago
Where did my friends go
Where did my friends go
Are they in Duluth
In a ticket booth
Or do they run the fish house
In Key Largo
You were a supermodel
Long and lean
We were particularly low and mean
Low and mean
Some of them died young
And some of them died later
And a couple of them might even get
To bury me
Where did my friends go
Where did my friends go
Floating in the air
Or walking 'round downstairs
Or did they get held up
In the embargo
Where did my friends go
Where did my friends go
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Lithuania
I'd like to be a good American and write an elegy to the automobile
But no matter where it takes me I don't really feel any different
I got one foot in the black and white two dimensional ghosts of Lithuania
And the other foot in sunny California where the people are all friendly
As they drive their Mercedes to the mini-malls and take a lunch
Or network with you or drive past and kill you for no reason
These are my ghosts: Uncle Emmanuel, Uncle Eli, Aunt Mia
And my grandparents, Jenny and Tobias, none of whom I've ever met
I saw some letters once that they wrote to my dad in Palestine in 1940
Not too long before they all were shot
My only link to them is my dad, he knew them, he knew me, now he's gone too
Sometimes I want to get next to them, sometimes I want to drive them all away
Say: You're not my ghosts, I live in Sunny California, I drive a 1992 Red Chevrolet
I drive fast, and I drive as far west as anyone can drive
Eight thousand miles from Lithuania and if I could escape
By driving further then I would, but it doesn't get me anyplace new
I guess if I was a true American, I could write an elegy to the automobile
But when I jump in it doesn't get me any place different
Sometimes I want to dance on Hitler's grave
And shout out: Groucho Marx, Lenny Bruce, Leonard Cohen, Philip Roth,
Bob Dylan, Albert Einstein, Leonard Bernstein, Harry Houdini, Sandy Kofax!
And then I want to sing as loud as I can
Watch the chandeliers sway dangerously overhead
Proclaiming Kristallnacht is over
I say Kristallnacht is over!
The only broken glass tonight
Will be from wedding glasses shattered under boot heels
We're not the ones in the museum, it's you,
Your curious mustache and your chamber of horrors
I've a friend my age whose parents met in Auschwitz on the Day of Liberation
She lives in San Francisco, a good job, just moved into a new house
I've a friend who lies in her hospital bed
After fifteen operations from a botched appendectomy
I go to visit her with a heart heavy from the things on my mind,
And she cheers me up
I saw my dad tell jokes, and teach me how to laugh,
Thirty years after his parents, brothers, and sister were all shot,
Murdered in the streets of Lithuania
I see trees growing tall and the sun coming up, and the ocean roaring home,
And know I must go on I must go on
It would be cowardly to stop
It would be an aberration to do anything else
Amid something you tried to remember for days
The fog is suddenly lifted
The haze is gone from your mind
And its no so much that your memory finally heeded
But you gave up needing to need it
Hey, the fog has gone
Hey, the fog has gone
Its time for you to come out
There's no longer a reason to die
When something is over, something else begins
The end of the century is coming
Like a blind woman relentlessly spinning
But before it's sewn shut
You wanted to scream: Hold on just a minute, was this just a dream?
Or is there something to learn
Besides who got the gold,
And who's been losing and winning?
But a century's a man-made process
An attempt to stick order on chaos
We're born with ten fingers
So we count up to ten
But if everyone counted the cracks on the wall
We might all count to three, and then it wouldn't be
The end of the century at all
Hey hey, the fog has gone
Hey hey, the fog has gone
It showed signs early today
I knew when I woke in my bed
That something was going on
Throw up the window
I want to scream out your name
Hey hey, the fog has gone
Hey hey, the fog has gone
C'mon we'll drive up the coast
Its a Tuesday or Thursday
But I can't remember, and I don't care
We'll drive to Seattle or else Oklahoma
Or else if we wanna boat to Hawaii
Or maybe Japan with the kings of karaoke
Come out!
Come on out girl, you gotta come out now
Maybe the only thing jumping in the car and driving can get us
Is an empty tank of gas
But it sure beats sitting around here
Maybe we'll get lucky, find our own private river valley
Or at least an all-night diner where they know how to poach an egg
Maybe we'll meet some good people along the way
And anyway, you know I'll never leave you
I'll never leave you
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