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1. |
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Yeah, I'm stealing cigarettes
Selling them off to friends for rent
Plus a pay check and still in debt?
I'm asking how could it be?
I know they know I'm beneath them
Even homeless assholes know my name
Now it's "urban flight" or a cell for the night
You know it's all the same
One can tell themselves about when going gets rough
Determination just ain't enough
When your overtime defines your life
This American me
Tradition tells us home own
But the time card's saying no go
Now the suits are talking foreclose
From sea to shining sea
Time was a war time economy
Was a silver lining to tragedy
But even those with homes are now those alone
In the land of the free
I asked for nothing and I got it in spades
Worked for a living and I earned a cage
They say I look old for my age
This American me
This American me
This American me
This American, this American, this American
This American me
This American, this American, this American
This American me
This American, this American, this American
This American me
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2. |
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They called it faith
They called it fair
They called it resolution
I call it shit when we were alone
They simply paid no mind
You'd suffered such a crime
Then there you were
A mother way too soon
They said you'd made your bed
Then they filled your head
With the sound
The bells of a cathedral
You say you're still ashamed
I wish that I could make it stop
Like salt thrown over shoulder
A coin tossed in a fountain
Not unlike a knock on wood
You said only in as much
As you were sensitive to touch
Did you feel like a human when they spoke
And so you hid your life
All bottled up inside
Just enough to make
Your angels choke
You took all you heard
And tried to make them your own words
Only deafened by the sound
The bells of a cathedral
Now you hate yourself and I wish that I could make it fucking stop
All my life
Surrounded, unfounded
Teachings thought as threats
I won't forget
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3. |
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Sometimes it's simple things that make it hard
Spoiled baby T's with credit cards
Overtime always on my mind
Could have been's eat away in side now
Praise God and pass the bottle of Beam
Because tonight I can't seem to say what I mean
Don't know if I would even if I could, Amen
Somehow this seems like borrowed time
Pay it no mind, everything is fine
But sometimes I'd rather hear laughter while this whole place died
A johnny jump-up is a lovely thing
A pint of cider and some whiskey
I had four dead inside of me
Just to hear this jackass sing his line about
How he used to hang out somewhere "back in the day"
Knowing terms only that an asshole would say
So I sat there drinking more
Thinking about drinking more
Nelson Algren came to me
And said celebrate the ugly things
The beat up side of what they call pride
Could be the measure of these days
God save Otis Redding because I know he's never gone
As sick falls from this mouth hear me sing it wrong
Is it "Cigarettes and Coffee" now or "Dreams to be Remembered"
I'll leave regrets for dead and sing along
So I'm reaching for the phone I don't want to be alone
I want to get some friends here tonight
I got a basement full of booze and some blues to lose
I'll ignore the whole world tonight
It will be alright
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4. |
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It's all wrinkled elbow shirts and poker faces on this bus
Back to a niche, dug just like a ditch in this city's weathered crust
But there's something about the city's gray that seems to say all there is to say
Riddled with regiment, vindictive intent, faking loyalty and getting paid
Fuck 'em all
Fuck 'em all
Fuck 'em all
Fuck 'em all
She keeps the Variety section and then gives the rest to me
She says she remembers when buses were nicer, "no dignity in plastic seats"
But there's something about the way she said, "the only good boss is one that's dead"
Broad shoulders giggled all over the bus and work ethics crumbled into "them and us"
Fuck 'em all
Fuck 'em all
Fuck 'em all
Fuck 'em all
And all these spectres of the workplace
Turned from effigy back to reality
And yeah, I wish it was that simple
To think a belly laugh is really all we need
But it's the slow decay of the day-to-day
That says take your paycheck
Accept your place and fade away
But there was dignity in plastic seats that day
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5. |
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We were raised to be just what we are, in case you didn't know
If I offered up to you some proof, would you let your anger show?
Or would you put your mind to sleep, kept warm by simple novelties
And a history that's really not your own?
Is freedom just a privilege of hatred guaranteed?
Is compassion just a second thought of hope brought to its knees?
Can dignity see fit to work past all it doesn't want to see?
Seven guns for degradation
Three cheers for cruel tradition
Red, white, and black eyes forever
Somewhere south of respect tonight, this tension's wrapped up nice and tight
The static's felt but never makes a sound
A man finds nothing left to eat, another sells his body for a place to sleep
As Klansmen flood a conference hall downtown
This TV has the answers, let fashion have your eyes
This job is your achievement, this Bible is your pride
Can dignity see fit to try and fix what it knows fear can't hide?
Seven guns for degradation
Three cheers for cruel tradition
Red, white, and black eyes forever
I think of a story my father told me
About a fella he know in the Army
The Pentagon traded him checks for both his legs
"Fuck the States" was the last thing father heard he had said
Still it's said that this war was won
Well, I refuse to be just another dead nation's bastard son
I have eyes that see, I have a mind that thinks
I have a mouth that speaks and goddamn, it will
Because I've had enough of all this shit
About making do and playing ball, the way things are and dealing with it
Mixing pop and politics
He asks me what the use is
I'm not into making excuses
And I'll die the day I find them fucking useless
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released October 23, 2020
