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Catechism in Color


(May 31, 2020)

A black man was murdered in the streets
Why oh why oh why?
A black man was murdered in the streets this week
Why oh why oh why?

He was pulled over by the police
Why oh why oh why?

A black man was murdered in the streets
He was pulled over by the police
Why oh why oh why?

They said he used counterfeit currency
Why oh why oh why?
They said he used counterfeit currency
Why oh why oh why?

He'd been drowning in poverty
Why oh why oh why?

A black man was murdered in the streets
He was pulled over by the police
They said he used counterfeit currency
He'd been drowning in poverty
Why oh why oh why?

His grandparents didn't have money to save
Why oh why oh why?
His grandparents didn't have money to save
Why oh why oh why?

The men on the money owned slaves
Why oh why oh why?

A black man was murdered in the streets
He was pulled over by the police 
They said he used counterfeit currency
He'd been drowning in poverty
His grandparents didn't have money to save
The men on the money they owned slaves
Jackson, Jefferson, Washington he
Founded a nation that's never been free
If you claim to be colorblind you can't see
Why a man in blue can't take a knee
On the neck of a man moaning "I can't breathe!"
Why the cities burn and the people scream
While the man in blue gets paid leave
Till the hung white jury can't agree
And the man in blue gets off scot-free
And we change the subject on the screens
Until this horror scene repeats

A black man was murdered in the streets
Why oh why oh why?
A black man was murdered in the streets this week
Why oh why oh why?




The Radicals


(May 1, 2020)

Woody Guthrie was a traveling man, he traveled far and wide
When he saw a wall he climbed the other side 
Wasn't any secret he was singing for the masses
He stuck it right on his guitar: "This machine kills fascists"

We remember "This Land is Your Land"
This land is mine
We forget the radical
On the other side 

Martin Luther King was a preacher's son
He preached about the glory that's awaiting everyone
But he also preached about the conditions of the poor
Capital, material, hypocrisy, and war

We remember "I have a dream"
But that ain't why he died
They were aiming at the radical
On the other side

Jesus was a carpenter, he was a working man
In a land that was ruled by the emperor's command
He walked into the Temple and turned it upsidedown
They marched him up a hill with thorns for a crown

We remember "Turn the other cheek"
But that don't get you crucified
They were silencing the radical 
On the other side

So we forget the radicals
On the other side



 Astronomy 101


(April 22, 2020)

Well the climate's heating up
Glaciers are melting, seas are rising
And a lot of the rich folks who built their fortunes polluting the environment
Are now building rockets in order to establish colonies on the moon and Mars
And I fully support their decision to move to another planet and get off this one
Hell, I'll even help 'em pack
But I know they got a difficult decision ahead of 'em
The universe is a big place, and there's a lotta options out there
So I wrote this little song to help 'em narrow it down a bit

Mercury, Venus, or Mars?
Maybe one of them far off planets flung among the stars?
When the Earth is toast and you're all aboard SpaceX
Which planet will you screw up next?

Mercury and Venus, they're the closest to the Sun

So you got a head start up there, global warming's already begun
And it's only a few hundred million miles over to Mars
For a billionaire, hell that really ain't that far

Jupiter's a giant and Saturn's got them fancy rings
You could build a zero-gravity golf course up on one of them things
But maybe Uranus is where you'll feel most at home
Since you got your head so far up your own 

So is it Mercury, Venus, or Mars?
Maybe one of them far off planets flung among the stars?
When the Earth is toast and you're all aboard SpaceX
Which planet will you screw up next?

Then you got Neptune, seems a lot like Earth, pretty blue and nice
And I can't remember if Pluto is still a planet or just a little ball of ice
But you better get going soon, the universe is an awful big place
And down on Earth we're running outta space

So is it Mercury, Venus, or Mars?
Maybe one of them far off planets flung among the stars?
When the Earth is toast and you're all aboard SpaceX
Which planet will you screw up next?
Which planet will you fuck up next?




Blue Light Blues

(April 18, 2020)

I got an anchor in my pocket, a chain around my soul
No room for nothing new 'cause my storage is full
I got the blue light blues burning through my mind
And I can't stop scrolling though it's slowly making me blind

I gotta check it every second in case I miss some news
Paranoid vibrations from my hat to my shoes
I got the blue light blues burning through my brain
Hope Amazon dot com's got something strong for the pain

I used to smell the flowers, I used to see the sky
I used to talk to people and look 'em in the eye
I used to see the bluebirds, I loved to watch 'em fly
But with my magic blue light they're ain't no reason why 

Wish I could throw it in the ocean and get it out my head
But I can't find an ocean 'cause my battery is dead
I got the blue light blues burning up my days
How can I get right? I better Google all the ways



Embarrassing American Presidents

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(February 17, 2020)

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John Adams was the first one, at the time he was the worst one

Guess he had some pretty big boots to fill

He was smart but he was grumpy, attitude was kinda Trumpy

With that Alien and Sedition bill 

​

The 1850s had about three, hard to find a sadder trilogy

That side of the Star Wars prequels

Bleeding Kansas, rising tensions, slavery and its extensions

They left poor honest Abe with the sequel

​

Throughout our history from every party

Old white men have set quite a precedent

Donald Trump might be the worst but he sure ain't the first 

Of the embarrassing American presidents

​

The Gilded Age was all corruption, bad on bad no interruption

Some so bad we hardly know their names
Roaring Twenties weren't much better, Harding Coolidge Hoover, whether

Or not it's fair they get the Great Depression blame 

​

In modern days there's been some doozies, corporate military floozies

Iran-Contra, Lewinsky, Watergate

Bush was bad but Bush was worse, thought it couldn't get much worse 

Better vote him out before it gets too late

​

Throughout our history from every party

Old white men have set quite a precedent

Donald Trump might be the worst but he sure ain't the first 

Of the embarrassing American presidents 

​

For each Washington and Lincoln there's a handful of 'em stinkin'

Up the pages of our history books

Hypocrites and liars, cheaters, bigots, uninspiring figures

Good old-fashioned power-hungry crooks

​

Throughout our history from every party

Old white men have set quite a precedent

Donald Trump might be the worst but he sure ain't the first

Of the embarrassing American presidents

​

The embarrassing American presidents

​

The embarrassing American presidents 

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Endless War

​

(January 13, 2020)

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The Revolution started with The Shot Heard 'Round the World

We drove old England from our shore

But today there's no invasion, no foreign occupation

No end to an endless war

​

It was brother on brother we fought with each other 

In eighteen-hundred sixty-four

For Union and freedom but tell me the reason

We fight these endless wars

​

Endless war, endless war

Please remind me what they're dying for

When it profits the rich and it's paid by the poor

There ain't no end to an endless war

​

They bombed Pearl Harbor and pillaged old China

Hitler killed six million more

But with all of the killin' now who is the villain

In these endless wars?

​

We occupied Saigon and Vietnam dragged on

Till we couldn't take any more

The children they spoke out, the violence it broke out

To end that endless war

​

Endless war, endless war

Please remind me what they're dying for

When it profits the rich and it's paid by the poor

There ain't no end to an endless war

​

I was only nine years old when those two towers fell

And man I still remember the horror

But it's nineteen years later and our troops are still there

Stuck in an endless war

​

Endless war, endless war

Please remind me what they're dying for

When it profits the rich and it's paid by the poor

There ain't no end to an endless war

​

There ain't no end to an endless war

​

There ain't no end to an endless war 

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When I Find My Way

​

(January 1, 2020)

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When I find my way through this vale of tears

It may be today or in a hundred years

I will meet my Lord and she will finally say

"Welcome home, my son"

When I find my way

​

When you find your way through this shrouded night

When you see a ray from a distant light

And down upon your knees unexpectedly you pray

Mercy she will come

When you find your way 

​

Oh I know my time is comin'

Oh I know it won't be long

Till I hear those angels hummin'

That hallelujah song

​

When we find our way through these twisted times

When the debts are paid for all our fathers' crimes

Then this dark cold night will break upon the day

Glorious and bright

When we find our way

 

When we find our way  

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A Fool's Chance

​

(November 6, 2019)

​

Sun in your hair, you were so unaware

When my soul discovered

A partner in you under skies of blue and gold

​

We strolled by the sea, alone you and me

At summer's ending

We were just friends and the winds were growing cold

​

Left longing for more 

On this lonely shore

I'll sail wherever you roam

That's where I'll find home

​

You boarded a plan and I caught a train

To a distant city

Different loves and different zones of time

​

I met a girl but her hair didn't curl 

Like yours that summer

We were still friends but our thoughts seemed to rhyme

​

Awake tossing and turning

A heart desperately yearning

Asleep you seeped in my dreams

Teasing smiles and moonbeams

Oh how crazy it seemed

To hope you were not just a dream

​

We met again and we were still friends

Just a few years older

With nothing to lose I asked you for a dance

​

And ever since then we've been more than friends

Since that wondrous evening

We broke all the rules and took a fool's chance

​

All I ever had 

All I ever hoped to have

Was a fool's chance 

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Rap on Jack

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(October 21, 2019)

​

Jack hitched back to the railroad track

A pack on his back and God on his mind

Could hardly wait so he hopped that freight

For a first-rate, first-class boxcar ride

 

He slides up the California coast

Metropolis he loves the most

​

San Francisco in a sea of clouds

One step ahead of that restless shroud

At his heel he can feel the shadow cold

No longer young but not quite old

​

Not yet sold his soul to the bottle

A few more years left full-throttle

​

Howlin' and prowlin' the white city fog

Like a wounded, homesick, hungry dog 

From haunt to haunt and bar to bar

Rappin' in back of a stolen car

​

With Neal at the wheel doin' 99

Almost seemed like it was '49

​

But something was missing, some magic lost

Freedom forgotten, innocence tossed 

In the ditch on the side of the road they'd paved

Through purgatory where souls are saved

​

And poems surge in the blood of the night

He swam through the liquor lookin' for the light 

​

But doldrums descended like lead in the sea

And hangovers hung like sap from a tree

The stronger he flailed the tighter he stuck

To the poison, the prison, the mire, the muck

​

But life didn't always look this way

When the mind was blind to the heart's decay...

​

In Lowell streets he'd heard the call

Of the whispering leaves in the dusky fall

The whistle blowin' through the western lands

He swore to serve his soul's commands

​

To drink the cup of life bone dry

To seek the secret spirits high

​

And low in subterranean dens

Deep underneath the current trends 

Where freaks could frolic on parade

And the full white moon would never fade

​

Visions alive in the midnight wind

Words inscribed in halls within

​

Movement, music, mystical lust

Through a culture infected with gangrene rust

Under the radar, far off the grid 

Eluding his captors like Billy the Kid

​

But Pat Garrett came, it's always the same

the frontier flooded with fugitive fame...

​

Now I think back to Jack on the track

Beneath the burden of a heavy pack

But in dreams he seems light as a cloud

One step ahead of that darkening shroud

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On the trail up around the bend

On the road there is no end...

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Talkin' Columbus Day Blues

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(October 14, 2019)

​

Fourteen-hundred ninety-two

Columbus sailed the ocean blue

Headed for old India
Ran into America

​

Just a little east

Ten thousand miles or so

​

Folks there didn't wear too much clothes

They had gold hoops in their noses

So he took some slaves, looked around

Hit those islands up and down

​

A fifteenth-century luxury Caribbean cruise

All the hardtack and gruel you can eat 

​

He sailed on back to the King and Queen

Told everybody what he'd seen

Savages, gold, and land

For every European man

​

A real bonanza

Easy pickings

​

So they rolled in on the ocean breeze

Brought their Bibles, brought disease

Brought their whiskey, brought their guns 

Brought enough for everyone

​

Thoughtful thieves

Conscientious conquistadores

​

After about four hundred years

Plymouth Rock, the Trail of Tears 

The good old great U.S. of A

Announced a brand new holiday 

​

You guessed it

Our man

​

So when I was a boy every second Monday

Of October we got to play

Didn't go to school, didn't have to work

Just another all-American perk

​

Thanks, Chris

State-sponsored hooky

​

But as I got older I caught wind

Of history and all its sin

Now Chris ain't the only one to blame

But he's the one with the famous name

​

That's the way it goes

He had a good run

​

Now it sure might seem like we are stuck

Old Hickory's still on the double sawbuck

Yeah the forecast may look bleak and gray

But we got Indigenous Peoples' Day

 

That's a start

Now how about all them broken treaties... 

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Oh, California

​

(September 6, 2019)

 

The summer sun is sinking down

Behind my hometown, behind my memory

Linger in my mind a while

While I put some miles between you and me

​

Oh, California, I know I don't own ya

Your mountains and your rivers and your coast

Oh, San Francisco, I can feel the fog 

Blowing through me like a song, like a ghost 

​

I drifted and I drowned

Searching for a sound in your savage neon lights

They're all in my rearview mirror 
But the past is still unclear, fading from my sights

​

Oh, California, I know I don't own ya

Your deserts and your stories and your songs

Oh, Santa Barbara, I can see the stars 

Shining in my lover's eyes where they belong

​

Oh, California, I know I don't own ya

But I'll take a piece for the road

Oh, San Diego, I can hear the waves

Softly whisper, "now it's time to go"

​

It's time to go

It's time to go...

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Warm Summer Nights

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(August 2, 2019)

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Warm summer nights, I left my blues in spring

Warm summer nights, I left my blues in spring

When autumn comes a-fallin' I won't regret a thing 

​

My baby wears a blue dress, beamin' sunshine bright

My baby wears a blue dress, she's outta sight

In the morning she is singin', dancin' away the night 

​

California sunshine, sweet Nebraska rain

That California sunshine, sweet Nebraska rain

Poundin' this piano's the only that keeps me sane

​

Warm summer nights, I left my blues in spring

Warm summer nights, I left my blues in spring

When autumn comes a-fallin' I won't regret a thing

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Sleep Loose

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(July 8, 2019)

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Sleep loose my baby, sleep loose my girl

Sleep loose my darling in this dizzy world

Though I may wander wearisome until

I see my sweet angel, I love you still

​

See light in darkness, in splendor dim

In every silence hear that holy hymn

In rags are riches that the rich can't see

Oh my sweet angel hover over me

​

The night is long, the road is steep

I pray this song lays you down to sleep

​

I left my vision, I left my book

I lost my hometown when the river took

All that I counted I thought I owned 

Now I am free here out on the road

​

Nightmares will come, nightmares will go

Always remember I love you so

​

The dawn is peeking beyond the east

Another day, another beast

Be bold my baby in the waking light

Rise loose my lady, don't sleep so tight

​

Sleep loose my lady, don't sleep so tight

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Shackles 'Round His Soul

​

(July 4, 2019)

​

I was born in West Virginia

Before she claimed that name

To a mountain man who tamed the land

My mama kept the flame

​

When the shots rang out at Sumter

We were caught in between

Not North or South but the Eastern gate

To the West where we could dream

​

Of a new land

Where a man might stand

Without chains or slaves or barricades

Or shackles 'round his soul

​

I pledged my life to the Union

My father and brothers did too

But our cousins across the Blue Ridge Mountains

Would not be caught dead in the blue

​

We marched from Harpers Ferry

With the ghost of old John Brown

And through the smoke I saw 

The fallen bodies on the ground

​

In a new land 
Where a man might stand

Without chains or slaves or barricades

Or shackles 'round his soul

​

Blood on the lash must be repaid

With blood on the sword

The sins of the past must be paid back

To a righteous Lord

​

I gave my last full measure 

To a cheap Fort Stedman grave

For the forlorn dream of dignity 

No master and no slave

​

For a new land

Where a man might stand 

Without chains or slaves or barricades

Or shackles 'round his soul 

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It Would Be with You

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(June 22, 2019)

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I ain't much of a settler

This much is true

But if I were to settle down

It would be with you

​

I ain't much of a boxer 
All black and blue

But if I were to step inside the ring

It would be for you

​

Can't trust a soul in this whole lonely L.A. scene

You are the only soul with spirit that I've seen

​

I ain't much of a gambler

All sevens and twos

But if I were to lay down all my chips

They would be on you 

​

I ain't much of a singer
Only know the blues

But If I were to sing a love song

It would be for you

​

I know I got to go and make it on my own

Before I met you I thought I could be alone

​

I ain't much of a settler

I bet you knew

But If were to settle down

It would be with you

​

Yeah, it would be with you 

It would be with you

Only with you 

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My Old Old Man

​

(June 16, 2019)

​

You were forty-nine when I was five

You'd lived almost half a life before I was alive

You'd been traveling hard by the time I arrived 

You were forty-nine when I was five

​

You turned fifty-four when I was ten

Always older than the fathers of my friends

I heard that you had been young and wild way back when

But this was now and that was then

​

They say age is just a number

But we're running out of time

And the years keep getting shorter 

The longer we're alive 

 

So you squeezed a little tighter

Every time you held my hand

I looked up and saw a fighter, a teacher and a writer

And a friend...my old old man  

​

You were slowing down when I left home
Off to follow in your footsteps on my own

I was out at night on the road all alone

You were slowing down when I left home 

​

A letter and a phone call

Holidays in town

I have so much to tell you

And the clock is ticking down

​

So I look a little harder

Trying to understand

How I can be a father with integrity and honor

Like you...my old old man  

​

Now I'm getting older far away

I hope I can be half the man you are someday

When I'm feeling lost your north star guides the way

Now I'm getting older far away

​

Wisdom and compassion

All the gifts you give 

You teach me by example

How to love and live

​

Though you coulda been younger

I would never trade my hand

I will live my life with wonder till the day they call my number

Full of kindness, full of hunger, full of you...my old old man

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Memorial Day

​

(May 27, 2019)

​

He passed through the gate at a quarter to eight

With a hand-picked bouquet of lilies

He trod through the rain, thought not of the pain

Till he knelt at the grave that was Billy's

​

A simple gray stone on a hill all alone 
A name and two dates etched forever

At a soldier's grave, a father he gave

Flowers and tears with the weather  

​

Oh, hey, hey 

Where does he lay

Where does he lay?

​

The storm clouds cleared and he stopped for a beer

At a roadhouse near the river

Red, white, and blue, the patriot's hue

Hung from the rafters like clover

​

Old white men drunk once again
On the fumes of frustration and bourbon

Clung to the bar like bugs to a jar

Hunting for accents and turbans

​

The father's brown face stood out like a case 

Of sanity in the asylum

And his beard made it clear to the regulars here

That he surely came only to rile them

​

He ordered a stout and ignored a shout

From across the smoky room

No strangers' words or ignorant herds

Could pierce his grievous gloom

​

Oh, hey, hey

What did they say

What did they say?

​

A bottle was smashed and the wet jagged glass

Jammed up against his throat

Up against the wall a father stood tall

And reached for the knife in his coat

​

Oh, hey, hey

​

A terrorist dead, so the newspaper said
On a wet soggy morning in May

Father and son buried under the sun

Just after Memorial Day 

​

Oh, hey, hey

Where do they lay

Where do they lay?

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