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Song Lyrics

THE SURFER
The Surfer | Domingo Hirsch and His Internal Flying Circus | September 30th 1955 | The Creator | Apache Strobe Light | 18 Dover | Makeshift Militia | Meat on the Major's Mind | Interstate Prayer | In Your Stars | I Dream of Wires

THE SURFER
Blusher | Kaleidoscope | In B For Backward | Tell Me Something I Don't Know | Are We There Yet? | You Might Be Right | Catch You On The Way Down | Mussolini's First Crush |

THE SURFER
Surfing underneath a west coast sun
Water washing over everyone
Keeping out the ultra-violet rays
Neath the shelter of a late breaking tidal wave
 
Ain’t  no better time to be alive
Every year is 1965
California girls are all I hear
Singing on the radio
 
I get around
My seaside town
 
I know everybody here by name
Everything will always be the same
Things that I don’t want to here about
People have been whispering
 
All over town
All overtown
All over town
All over town
 
About how…
 
The circus is coming to town
It’s gonna be a freak show
They’re bringing the elephants and clowns
They’re keeping the price low
 
The circus is coming to town
It’s gonna be a freak show
With ions and tigers and bears
Everything must go
 
The circus is coming to town
It’s gonna be a freak show
They’re bringing the elephants and clowns
They’re keeping the price low
 
The circus is coming to town
Its gonna be a freak show
With ions and tigers and bears
Everything must go
 
I’m caught in the undertow
With the waves crashing down
It’s not that I want to go
It’s pulling me out

DOMINGO HIRSCH AND HIS INTERNAL FLYING CIRCUS
That guy is turning into a flower
I can see him right through the window
Or maybe I’m imagining it
I stand then I sit
 
There’s something I was supposed to remember
Or something I was supposed to forget
I know that it was one of the two
I may have already done it
 
Can’t you see them in the back seat?- They’ve been lifting up their shirts.- They’re shouting stuff  in different languages but very few of them know what they’re saying.- I know that I’ve been living her on and off for months and I’ve never had a problem.- Not like this.
 
I just can’t handle all of the beauty
The overwhelming mind-splitting beauty
I keep it in the tiniest box
Beneath my sweaters and sox
 
They say that when you loose the connection
You end up like a clown in a circus
That’s in a town that nobody sees
No not only me
 
There’s a midget doing cartwheels and a leopard playing tennis. – I’ve got a good mind to let you in for free but I don’t know if I’m aloud to do that. – This is the end of an era; the sights, smells and sounds of some sort of revolution
 
He’s got a friend in fifth grade English
Who gives the answers to the Amish
He’s got a friend he never tells on
Silently sitting there with bells on
 
But he knows
There’s someone he used to be
In a world that he once did know 
Before the big show
 
You’ve got a nerve you’ve got a muscle
You’ve got your thoughts all in a tussle
The girls are getting sentimental
But it’s not emotional it’s mental
 
Don’t be sad
There’s nothing to weep about
Cuz soon we’ll be getting out
Like summer vacation

SEPTEMBER 30, 1955
Woke up had a cigarette near the window
Phone call and the argument I got my way
I made up my mind I’m taking the Spyder
Perfect day to drive around with the top down
 
Hey!
It’s you and me kid
Making history
One way or another
 
Chevron station coming up their on my left
Old man waving from the grass beside the road
Whizzing trees, 80 degrees, a clear blue sky
Veering slightly then I move toward impact
 
Hey!
It’s you and me kid
Making history
One way or another
 
James I don’t know, I’ve got a feeling
It’s all gonna blow if we keep pushing
James I don’t know, what’s your feeling?
Are we over our heads?
Are we over our heads?
James in my gut, I’ve got a feeling
Maybe we shouldn’t go
Maybe we shouldn’t go
James I don’t know what you’re feeling 
Are we loosing control?
Are we loosing control?
Are we out of control?
 
Hey!
It’s you and me kid
Making history
One way or another
 
Hey!
It’s you and me kid
Making history
One way or another

THE CREATOR
I guess it must be true, I saw it in the newspaper
The karate instructor weighed well over three hundred pounds
He took one of his students, drove him off and showed him how to kick like he means it
He did it on a whim nobody has heard from him since
 
He made it up as he went along and now he’s gone
He made it up as he went along and now he’s gone
 
She packed everything up and headed south on I-25
She leave it all behind looking for a new labor force
Thumbing her nose at the monk with the hose watering his garden in winter
“Nothing will grow like that!”  She shouted driving by in her car
 
She made it up as he went along and now he’s gone
She made it up as he went along and now he’s gone
And when she sings the company song she gets the chorus wrong
With everybody singing along
Cuz it’s a sing-along
 
An invisible man who showed everyone how to proceed
He got us to this point, died and left no one at the wheel
 
He made it up as he went along and now he’s gone
He made it up as he went along and now he’s gone
Now who’s gonna tell us right from wrong
And left from right
He made it up as he went along
And now He’s outa sight

APACHE STROBELIGHT
 
The captain’s phaser
A broken arrow in the sand
A stack of pornos
A leather bracelet on a hand
A can of soda
Some kind of nuclear device
A child’s notebook
With scribbled suggestions
 
That was all we found
Do we still get payed the same?
No one was around
No one saw us there
 
We stopped for pancakes
With buffalo wings on the side
C’mon for Christ’s sake
I didn’t know that they could fly
Quick grab the camera
That there is an ancient burial site
They put up Christmas lights
So you can see it in the night –
 
 It gets cold
And darker than it used to
Like everything else
It takes time to get used to
 
But with morning
Came the sun
Like a Strobe Light
Flickering on
What was left of
The landscape
You and I danced
To old cassette tapes
We’re kissing through
Our face masks

18 DOVER
 
Shadows
Pulling down the shade on window
You’ll pick it up again tomorrow
It couldn’t have been more than an hour ago
That we were talking
On the telephone
“Hello” you said, “Who is it?...She’s not home!”
 
But you were
A blurry outline through plexy-glass
And 27 yards of cut grass
Every seventh day the magenta dress
And your hair pulled back
Makes you look much older
Better when it cascades down your shoulder
 
“hello”
 
Hi miss
We’re offering a special service
For those who have been feeling nervous
About all the creepy business
In the neighborhood
So you’re at 18 Dover
We’ll send one of our men right over
 
“Thank you good bye.”
Sooner than you know
“Thank you good bye.”
Sooner than you know
“Thank you good bye.”
Sooner than you know
“Thank you good bye.”
Sooner than you know

A MAKESHIFT MILITIA
Marching to the beat of a distant drum machine
Drawing up a plan during the approach
Playing it by ear
This could be our year
 
Following a hunch and a lingering reverie
Reconsidering now would be ill-advised
Better to proceed
We’ve got all we need
 
Nothing wrong with improvisation
We could make it up as we go along
We’ve got no time for hesitation
This is what we’ve all been waiting for
 
Aiming toward the east at the new horizon line
Shooting from the hip at whatever moves
Playing it by ear
This could be our year
 
Nothing wrong with improvisation
The moral is up and the will is strong
We’ve got no time for hesitation
This is what we’ve wanted all along
 
Seems like the limit is the sky
Putting it together on the fly
 
Holding down the fort with a team of specialists
Answering the phones, straightening up the mess
Keeping home base clean
For the new home team
 
Nothing wrong with improvisation
We could make it up as we go along
We’ve got no time for hesitation
This is what we’ve all been waiting for

MEAT ON THE MAJOR'S MIND
Double deals on ferris wheels with men from from Mars
Fallen popes do horoscopes in family cars
Quiet kid with candy bar wishes on stars
 
Holy water swimming pools are catching fire
A lifeguard sleeps in an army jeep, the major drives
Gritting his teeth at fields of sheep on which he thrives
 
There’s Meat on the Major’s Mind, look into his eyes
(Battle lines, bodies in their prime)
Watching him jump the gun that shoots at the sun
(The bull’s eye, see it open wide)
There’s meat in the Major’s eyes, they fall and they rise
(Some resign, while others plot their climb)
There’s Meat on the Major’s Mind, from the dawn of time
(Swinging from vines, quoting the divine)
 
Kids carouse the money house for picture frames
For photographs of chimpanzees, all toilet trained
In freshly laundered underware which does not stain
 
He’s got’m in spades
He shoots bows and arrows
He’s got friends out in the yard
 
There’s Meat on the Major’s Mind, look into his eyes
(Battle lines, bodies in their prime)
Watching him jump the gun that shoots at the sun
(The bull’s eye, see it open wide)
There’s meat in the Major’s eyes, they fall and they rise
(Some resign, while others plot their climb)
There’s Meat on the Major’s Mind, from the dawn of time
(Swinging from vines, quoting the divine)

INTERSTATE PRAYER
Where to begin?
He could feel the cold coming in
He knew that it was time to embark
On the road trip
 
He’d read about it in books
His friends and family giving him looks
When you’re a rebel
They do that
 
He put in gasoline
For where he’d never been he was bound
Out on the open road
Embracing the unknown as his own
 
He’s been gone for a while
He’s lost track of the months and the miles
But he knows he’s coming up on something
 
And when he wants to turn back
He just thinks of Alan and Jack
And other pioneers like Carnegie
 
They all hung in there
And eventually mad a name for themselves
There’s a new frontier
Haven’t found it yet but I know it’s here
I could use a hint or a clue
Some kind of sign showing me what to do
 
Where is my north star?
Guiding me home
Where is my north star?
Guiding me home
Where is my north star?
Guiding me home
Where is my north star?
Guiding me homer

IN YOUR STARS
Hands on your head, what Simon said you didn’t catch
Walked when they ran, your shirts and pants never quite matched
Pledge of allegiance, not again, you called in sick
For which it stands, open your hands and drop those peanuts
 
There’s something else In Your Stars
Can’t you see the signs
It’s your birthright baby
 
Giving you looks, bishops and rooks protecting kings
Mowing the lawn, a lowly pawn, at least you can sing
Driving a car and turning on the radio
At the top of the charts they’re breaking hearts and selling sofas
 
There’s something else In Your Stars
Can’t you see the signs
It’s your birthright baby
Wait it out a while
And I will guarantee
 
That you’re gonna be a smash
Breaking up the monster mash
That you’re gonna be a smash
Breaking up the monster mash
That you’re gonna be a smash
Breaking up the monster mash
That you’re gonna be a smash
Breaking up the monster mash

I DREAM OF WIRES
I am the final silence
The last electrician alive
And they called me the sparkle
I was the best I worked them all
 
New ways, new ways
I Dream Of Wires
 
We opened doors by thinking
We went to sleep by dialing 0
We drove to work by proxy
I plugged my wife in just for show
 
New ways, new ways
I Dream Of Wires
 
So I press C for comfort
I dream of wires
The old days
 
New ways, new ways
I Dream Of Wires

BLUSHER Virgin bride. Nearly twenty-five. Spends her time manning the front line. Mary drove back in a cadillac toward the enemy troops ammassed on the border. Little red shack, they were about to attack, when they dozed off in alphabetical order. The whites of their eyes. The delicate way she mowed them down. Bathroom eyes. Shower curtain thighs. Ah you guys, young naked and shy. Sally got smacked with a blue napsack just before she passed out from blood-loss and boredom. She had just packed and was about to go back when she opened the boys bathroom door and saw them: unbuttoning their flies, to piss into holes cut in the ground. Such sensitive guys. Too red-faced and shy to turn around. Blusher! Mother Theresa. Dancing on the head of a pushpin. Penetrating your moist skin. Caught you blushing Blusher!

KALEIDOSCOPE (Do You Recall?) Did we just go south? Don't feel like sleep. Did I go under? Warm wind on skin. Here I have been. All so familiar. Under big yellow sun. Instead of walking we run. All the way to the Sunday school bus. This is where we lived. This was my house. These were the colors: orange, sky-blue, green. Smell of gasoline. And grass from a distance. Under big yellow sun. Instead of walking we run. All the way to the end of summer... I must be dreaming. Do you recall no fear at all? Stained-glass windows. And puppet shows. Rows of houses. Mother's blouse... All the things that we've done. And everything we'll become. Present, future and past move as one. Do you recall no fear at all? Stained-glass windows. And puppet shows. Rows of Houses. Mother's blouse.

IN B FOR BACKWARD Tyrannosaurus makes its way across the divider. Just as a robot nun driving a bus runs a light. I've got a feeling that something's gone wrong with the visuals. This is some kind of upside-down religious place. That's not what it said on the flyer. It seems that I've been led astray from the start. Please don't ask me any questions when I'm concentrating. When I am turning the dials or blowdrying my hair. Cuz you've gotta focus and you've gotta stick to the ritual. If you want forces that can come to your aid to care. It seems like the movie is playing backwards. But no one is saying anything. Is it me? If you're lost just act like all the others and no one will notice. If you're lost just act like all the others and no one will notice. If you're lost just act like all the others and no one will notice. Ironically I do mean every word babe. And I feel some kinda presence everywhere. Now it could be the wind or the messiah. If it was either one would you care?... really?

TELL ME SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW (7th and 8th lines tweaked and stolen from Benb Gallaher's poem 'New Math') You could climb up to the top of the world. Still can't see over the sun. Got a smile on your face like in Tears of A Clown. Ain't gonna fool anyone. Energy's equal to mass times velocity squared. But relative to what? Subtract the quotient from itself and you'll get - nothing to show for it. Tell Me Something I Don't Know (tell me something). Tell Me Somehing I Don't Know (I don't know). Surf's up in summer, tip your cap to the moon. Its gravity keepin ya down. Mixin' up the X and Y, glimmer in your father's eye. They're doing it all over town. Check the yellow pages under world in distress. There's no one ta help with the mess. Some folks believe in a world they can't see. Won't somebody show it to me. Show me something I don't know (show me something). Show me something I don't know (I don't know). If you're hiding it then let it show (let it show). It could work out in the end. See that the signal you send is what you intend. Ahh ahh ahhh ahh ahh. Tell Me Something I Don't Know. Tell Me Something I Don't Know. Tell Me Something I Don't Know.

ARE WE THERE YET? Are We There Yet? Are We There Yet? I've been in the back seat. Can't see for the sights. Blocking everything behind them. Things like my ship coming in. On the cluttered horizon. Girl in the boat baked me a fruitcake."Its your favorite!" she'd say. Are We There Yet? Are We There Yet? I'm not feelin' sad. Its just the wind in my eyes. We must be doin' fifty easy. Is this Portugal? We aimed for Spain. Close in every way. But still wrong. Where's the finale. Thirty year intro  - ohhh.   Are We There Yet? Are We There Yet? Been drivin' and drivin'. Been passin' things twice. But I'm not worried cuz - in the end they arrived. Remember in the movie. In the end they arrived. Rememberin the movie. In the end they arrived. Remember in the movie. In the end we arrive... somewhere. Are We There Yet?

YOU MIGHT BE RIGHT (male voice) Don't worry babe. You won't remember half of it anyway. This thing you did will fade away like things do. You'll wake up one day and everything will be ok. (female voice) You Might Be Right. (male voice) Count on it baby. (female voice) You Might Be Right. (male voice) No doubt in my mind. (female voice) I hope you're right... This thing I have done. In the name of fun. Causes me concern. What about karma? What about forces that we don't see? With a mistake of this magnitude, do you think there's a chance that I'll get away with it? (female voice) Will it be alright? (male voice) I think so honey. (female voice) You Might Be Right. (male voice) Relax now will you. (female voice) I hope you're right. (male voice) Hey-Ho, open up a window let the breeze blow - in, just keep youself cool. See no shadow. Hangin over your head. You are free. So just Let it be. Best option ya got. At the end of the day. It's really the only way' So suck it up and forgive yourself' (female voice) You Might Be Right. (male voice) We're goin' places. (female voice) You Might Be Right. (male voice) We'll leave no traces. (female voice) Way out of sight. (male voice) Where they don't know our faces.(female voice) I hope you're right.(male voice) Don't worry babe. You won't remember half of it anyway.

CATCH YOU ON THE WAY DOWN I ate from the tree and now I've got a mouth full of ideas Been losing the thread Yeah that was what your Dad said lookin' me over I got out of line Feel kinda queer out here I'll Catch You On The Way Down b vocal: Fallen Goin' my way dear I'll Catch You On The Way Down b vocal: Angel Goin' My Way "You can look but don't touch Don't think on it too much" is what they say and such Don't give me that look! You go by the Book - That doesn't interest me I woke up today with something to say, hey hey I'll Catch You On The Way Down b vocal: Fallen Goin' my way dear I'll Catch You On The Way Down b vocal: Angel Goin' This Way I'll Catch You On The Way Down b vocal: Fallen Goin' my way my dear I'll Catch You On The Way Down b vocal: Angel Goin' My Way

MUSSOLINI'S FIRST CRUSH It isn't anything in particular. She just has this way about her. On her bicycle in summer. She's from the better part of town for certain. Sometimes I dream this dream that she and me, that she and I, are living off in some little villa. Sometimes I go to church just to watch her pray. Kneeling there all devoutly. Kneeling there all devoutly. Give me some of your attention. Before I lose all sense of proportion. There isn't anything I wouldn't do. Look at me! When I'm thinking of you. And so things go on like this. With her passing by on cobblestone streets in summer. On hot days before there was air-conditioning. Sometimes I go to church just to watch her pray. Kneeling there. All devoutly. Ah, but I'm not convinced of your conviction. Give me more than just a genuflection. I'm waiting on your undivided attention. Look at me! When I'm thinking of you. Oh mom, Oh mom.