NO MORE, NO LESS (Nerves) Forestville CA 1 January 2001
[intro]
Never use the world 'desultory' in a song
They'll only get it wrong...
-
No less time, no more time, no sure time
No lost time, no past time, no pure time
No fast time, no slow time, no more time
Just the time we make for ourselves
With our sweat, our blood, our nerves
-
Some hot words, some hot loves, some hot nights
Your hot kiss, your hot love, your hot hate
Always clear; alway close; always hot
Just the heat we make for ourselves
With our hearts, our hands, our nerves
-
The last days of youth, of truth, of beauty
The lost heat of fear, of fame, of duty
No more heat, no more time, no more truth
Just the truth we make for ourselves
With our blood, our strength, our nerves
RUBBLE BOUNCES IN JERUSALEM Forestville CA 2 January 2001
[14/16 time, percussive/scratchy]
Rubble bounces in Jerusalem (da da da da da)
Another day, another bomb (da da da da da)
A few more dead Palestinians (da da da da da)
Rubble bounces in Jerusalem (da da da da da)
-
Shells kick up hot dust in South Gaza (da da da da da)
Another sortie, another house blown (da da da da)
Another compound in flames, smoking (da da da da da)
Rubble bounces in Jerusalem (da da da da da)
-
Shoot some more suspected terrorists (da da da da da)
And torture some foreign journalists (da da da da da)
Interrogations are so much fun (da da da da da)
Rubble bounces in Jerusalem (da da da da da)
-
[break]
Kill the fockers, kill the fockers, kill the fockers (da da)
Kill the fockers, kill the fockers, kill the fockers (da da)
Kill the fockers, kill the fockers, kill the fockers (da da da)
[instrumental]
-
Blow a wall, blow a bus, blow a school (da da da da da)
Retaliate, retaliate, yeah (da da da da da)
Keep the civilians on the run (da da da da da)
Rubble bounces in Jerusalem (da da da da da)
Rubble bounces in Jerusalem (da da da da da)
Rubble bounces in Jerusalem (da da da da da)
DEPLETED URANIUM [echoey] Forestville CA 5? January 2001
Depleted Uranium in my bones
Depleted Uranium in my brains
Depleted Uranium in my genes
-
Depleted Uranium anytime
Depleted Uranium anyplace
Depleted Uranium anyname
-
Depleted Uranium - is it life?
Depleted Uranium - is it death?
Depleted Uranium - is it breath?
-
Depleted Uranium
Depleted Uranium
Depleted Uranium
HOW IT GOES Forestville CA 13 January 2001
Lost in transcendental vegetation
The metallic tang of nervous tension
A horrible prehensile sincerity
Prolonged television is devouring me
Prolonged television is devouring me
-
I'm dressed in ordinary tourist tech
Plastic zories and a Hawaiian shirt
A fine-art viewer in the land of the free
Compulsive television is empowering me
Compulsive television is empowering me
-
[break]
Crouched in the shadows like gargoyles
Feasting on planetary turmoils
Happy with our share of the spoils
-
The home of the brave and the heart of the zone
I don't remember a single microtone
Be all that you can be, do all you can do
Infinite TV is transforming you
Infinite TV is transforming you
-
Lying in a lounge of bio-morphed manure
Holy props for playing at living in the future
Your body surrenders to gravity
The relentless energy is charging me
The relentless energy is charging me
-
[break][instrumental jam]
-
Your face is a sundial, a shadowed smile
Your breasts are inscribed with indigo spirals
Your laugh is atomic and your tears glow blue
Gamma radiation is revealing you
Gamma radiation is revealing you
SHE'S SO INTENSE Santa Rosa, CA 15 January 2001 *
[folky doo-wop, open guitar, doubled bass]
She wants to pa-ar-ty out
She's takin' chemicals, right up her snout
She wants to dream a dream a dream of you
She's gonna (gonna) make that dream come true
She's so intense, yes, she's so in-te-ense...
-
She wants to go on a yuppie hunt
She's got her spy-scope and a yuppie gun
She's using bullets that're D.U. tipped
Commits a war-crime if her finger slips
She's so intense, yes, she's so in-te-ense...
-
[break] But after the dream, what does she see?
After the dream, there's just you and me
After the dream, it's just reality-ee-ee...
-
She laughs and loops, she spins and runs
A broken architect of broken dreams
She bathes in a fluorescent flood
She's pretty crude, but she's pretty good
She's so intense, yes, she's so intense,
oh, she's so in-te-ense...
LOOK AT US Santa Rosa & Rohnert Park, CA 27 Jan 2001
Look at you, you've got a new program
Look at me, I'm just here for cheap sex
Look at us, we're so complimentary
We're in it up to our necks
-
We fly across the countryside
We roll from tree to tree
We're in it for the smoke and blood
We're in it up to our knees
-
I wrecked my karma, I drove it off a cliff
You wrecked the spaces 'tween your dreams and your thighs
We wrecked the tidal flow that kept us alive
We're in it right up to our eyes
ANOTHER NIGHT Forestville CA 4 February 2001
It's only the smallest of mortal tortures
The slightest of pains almost lost in the wash
Stay another night in the Nazi Love Motel
Sitting at the crossroads, in the path of evil
Running up the fast lane in the path of all pain
Hosing down the afterglow of memories, memories
-
It's only the experience of being peeled raw
Major tranquilizers don't grow on trees
Being dipped in hot wax isn't quite enough
Gallons of formaldehyde don't preserve the pain
The memories don't dissolve in a wash of acid rain
Pissing on the afterglow of history, history
-
Time circles over like a hawk in the morning
There's something here and it's almost translucent
Ya hardly even notice that yer guts have ripped out
Yer smile flashes quickly with crystalline jerks
The scarab beetles are already at work
Rolling up the afterglow of therapy, therapy
-
[instrumental weave]
And after the bleeding, there's another bleeding
And after the needing, there's another needing
And after the night, there's another night
TINKERING Forestville CA 4 February 2001
She's building the future and we don't even notice
She sculpts deathray stations in stucco and tile
She's erecting guard towers for visiting aliens
-
Her heart is immersed in the shape of the future
Her heartbeat's sucked out by the wallpaper patterns
Her heat's diffusing in invisible currents
-
Her models suppose a new height of affluence
Her hands are describing new spheres of influence
She's rebuilding us for a better bright tomorrow
IT'S BURNING Forestville CA 4 February 2001
I moved thru an industrial wasteland
Fast-food factories like beached destroyers
-
The toxic dump's now a nature preserve
Deer glow and mutate in the warm moonlight
-
Watching the sun like the end of darkness
Hearing a song like the end of the world
-
The rain's sour and acid, the color of piss
The ground writhes in shapes I hardly believe
-
Somewhere there's a new dispensation
Surrounded by streamlined chrome fixations
-
Here is now. Now is here. So what?
The architecture of shattered dreams.
-
We live in a future that never happens
Take another look at your intentions
INFERNO Forestville CA 5 February 2001
She glided through the upper levels of Hell
Past virtuous pagans and upbaptized children
Hardly sparing them a glance
-
She swam through a submarine half-life of bottles
Fast glassware, slow swirls of second-hand smoke
Girl of moments, whirls of dance
-
She pushed on thru the circle of the carnal
Flashing with hard downshifted energies
Hardly acknowledging questing hands
-
Her skin was the green of young corn in summer
The hust half stripped away - she was early
With sweet butter dripping past
-
She ignored the gluttons, the fields, the furies
She washed her face in the fountains of Cerebrus
Reflecting wrathful, sullen trances
-
She tasted the dancers of death and life
Tumbling apart in a pink cloud of fluids
Settled with the ashes of chance
-
She gazed in the mirror of her destination
Rows of bottles occluded her breasts
Salvation in a thin gown of glass
-
She's fiery, she's free, she's you, she's me
Note: Some lyrics on this page are adapted from lines
written by William Gibson in his book BURNING CHROME
and are used with attribution but without permission.
This does not apply to the following song, inspired by
a news report on public radio.
I LIVE ON A SERVER FARM Forestville CA 5 February 2001
I live on a server farm
We raise lotsa nice net servers
Hosting lotsa nice websites
-
We got lotsa C.G.I's
We got lotsa X.M.L's
We are fully integrated
-
I live on a server farm
We've got good security
Keep your worms from breaking loose
-
I live on a server farm
It takes lotsa energy
California's draining dry
-
Electrons flow in golden waves
Data swirls and data saves
Stock options for priveleged slaves
-
I live on a server farm
I live on a server farm
I live on a server farm
THEIR FAULT, ALL OF IT Forestville CA 14 Feb 2001
They threw us into cages, they threw us into bars
Tried to kill us with kindness, tried to kill us with cars
-
They scanned our hatreds, measured all our chad
A yardstick for lunatics, a jump for the jihad
-
[chorus]
But what matter does it matter if it doesn't matter? No matter
But what difference is a difference? Small difference, no difference
-
They didn't negotiate, they didn't try to dance
I never had a lover, I never had a chance
-
We wandered thru dim passages - we screamed and laughed
Our neurons cried for severance, and mostly escaped
-
[chorus] [instrumental]
-
From the dingy counterpoint, nothing emerged
Have they ever felt the infection of words?
PETALUMA GIRL [harvest folkie acoustic] Downieville, CA 19 Feb 2001 *
O the Sunnyvale girls, they've got their chips plugged in
It's like a second skin, they've got electric lives
And the Frisco girls, they're deep into the Web
Ain't heard a word you've said, unless you said it online
Then the Berkeley girls, they're covered up in beads
They'll tell you of their needs, while they watch your eyes
-
[chorus] Give me a good old Petaluma girl [3x]
-
O the Fremont girls, under grey suburban skies
They'll give you gray suburban eyes, to look into their souls
And the Palo Alto girls in their Beemers and their Mercs
They're always looking for the perks, along Executive Row
Then the Oakland girls, they wear their clothes right off the rack
They'll keep a shotgun in the back, in case you get too close
[chorus]
-
O The Vallejo girls always think that they're the best
They're caught 'tween East and West, and thinking that they're free
And Pescadero girls, they're staring out to sea
Like a mermaid on the moon, don't pay attention much to me
Then those Dublin girls, running thru their sunny malls
Always got me by the balls, and smile so tenderly
[chorus]
-
[break]
What can I say about the Santa Cruz girls?
Or the Gilroy girls or the Novato girls?
What can I say about the Fairfax girls?
Or the Santa Rosa girls, staring out their bedroom doors?
What can I say about the Pleasant Hill girls
That you haven't heard a million times before?
-
[instrumental & chorus & fade]
WERE YOU EVER KISSED? Downieville, CA 19 Feb 2001
I never paid attention, never listened to your threats
I thought you were dysfunctional, I thought you had Tourette's
-
[chorus.1]
But now you've made it real to me, a face like a clenched fist
What sex were you originally? And were you ever kissed?
-
I've never been too technical, don't depend upon machines
I never tried to infiltrate your shattered walking dreams
[chorus.1]
-
I never noticed watching eyes, the syrup of surveillance
While cattle mutilations swept the land, I tried to dance
[chorus.1]
-
[chorus.2]
And now what are you gonna do with me?
Do you worship blue mirrors and geometry?
Does your lost sect sacrifice with dignity?
-
[instrumental]
-
Her voice was like an animal's, so beautiful, symmetrical
Her voice was rich and raspy, simple, cunning, two-dimensional
[chorus.1]
-
I never went to Spadra, never shuffled thru your files
Did your fantasy childhood wither underneath the stars?
[chorus.1] [chorus.2] [instrumental] [fade]
AIN'T NO GODLINGS Downieville, CA 19 Feb 2001
She don't care what anyone say
She threw a rock against the sky
She ran shouting at the break of day
She never was afraid to die
Ain't no godlings good enough for me
Ain't no godlings good enough for me
-
She's crouched like a gleaming scorpion
She's risen like a cheap holy hologram
We searched the floor for the severed hand
She's colorful as a butchered lamb
Ain't no godlings good enough for me
Ain't no godlings good enough for me
-
[break] Not for us, not for me, not for her, not for thee
-
She moves that way, rhythm of a new age
Fast and dreamy, lost in exile
A pulsar Heart with a capital 'Aich'
She manufactures madness with her smile
Ain't no godlings good enough for me
Ain't no godlings good enough for me
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