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Good Riddance
Operation Phoenix
"When we look at modern man we have to face the fact that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stand in glaring contrast to its scientific and technological abundance. We've learned to fly the allied bird, we've learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven't learned to walk the earth as brothers and sisters."
These walls keep closing in
I'm just a mannequin -- Oh! It's time to go
Don't come too close to me
Can't find no space to breathe -- Oh! It's time to go
My touch the kiss of death
More sick with every breath
I just can't seem to slow it down now
Why line up to conform
Why wear a uniform
To grow old and die in this same fucking town
Obsessed with misery
Life holds no joy for me -- Oh! It's time to go
No colors only gray
Die a little everyday -- Oh! It's time to go
My touch the kiss of death
More sick with every breath
I just can't seem to slow it down now
Why line up to conform
Why wear a uniform
To grow old and die in this same fucking town
Born wrong, too dead to feel
Wake up it's all to real -- Oh! It's time to go
Switched off there's no more pain
Padded walls I'm half insane -- Oh! it's time to go, go, go
My touch the kiss of death
More sick with every breath
I just can't seem to slow it down now
Why line up to conform
Why wear a uniform
To grow old and die in this same fucking town
I've been set up to take the fall
Tried hard not to lose it all, but
Shot straight right from the start
A slow death from a broken heart, but
It doesn't mean a thing
Cos my heart's in the songs we sing
I've seen so much change
Still the strength remains
Our words bounce off your heads
You don't hear a fucking thing we've said, man
I know your type and I can't relate
A small mind filled up with hate, but
It doesn't mean a thing
Cos my heart's in the songs we sing
I've seen so much change
Still the strength remains
You try to act so satisfied
Like you've somehow won
No rewards for the ones who try -- try
To get things done
Just to survive -- it's hard to learn this game
Won't be the first to take the blame
The pressure builds up day by day
We've worked too hard to throw it all away
Away
The strength remains
Used to think you were on my side
Never found a place to hide
Let it go on too long like so many times before
Don't know where I should start
Seems like the hardest part
To take your pretty world and tear it all apart
Two -- Three -- Four
Let it go
I can't fix you anymore
So let it go
Time to be stronger than before
So let me go, let me go
Crying all the time
Just let it go, let it go
Trust me
I'm not worth your waste of time
For the sake of sanity
Let's erase those memories
There's nothing left here that will take the pain away
There's no more mystery
Just too much history
Someday you'll understand it's really for the best
Two -- Three -- Four
Let it go
I can't fix you anymore
So let it go
Time to be stronger than before
So let me go, let me go
Crying all the time
Just let it go, let it go
Trust me
I'm not worth your waste of time
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
Connection
Rejection
Your tears won't carry me home
Completely
Forget me
Just let it go now it's time to move on
Every interaction tainted with objectification
Does it make you cool to put her in her place?
How would you feel if it was your sister?
You're a poor excuse for a man
"- Where's the fucking money Keith?
- Dad calm down! Listen to me, the money is not important here.
- You don't know what's important! You don't know what the hell you're talking about!
- You know what the hell I'm talking about, you just never listen to me! I'm not gonna go to college. The money is
gone, you can't get it back, it's over! This whole dream; it's not what I wanted, it's what you wanted, I never wanted it
I just didn't have the guts to tell you.
- Ah! Your only eighteen years old for christ sake!
- Then I'm nineteen and I'm twenny, when does my life belongs to me?"
Look or what you've left for me
Now that you've moved on
Won't pass for therapy
Just one more scar that's never gone
You tried to break me down
Time and time again
Rejection feels to scream
But I can't make a sound
It's me you tried to hide
As I hold you in my arms
As I feel your body broker
Is this just a dream?
Disappointment follows me
It's always just behind
Self doubt bred solitude
Frustration robs me blind
No pain, no part of me
I have grown numb & cold
Self-centered fantasy
Obsessed with self control
It's me you tried to hide
As I hold you in my arms
As I feel your body broker
Is this just a dream?
This is your worst fucking nightmare
One chance, a clean break
Much more than I can take
Lies cast shadows
Dark things nobody knows
You've lost, who's won?
My revenge has just begun
I've just begun
And I'm coming home
And I'm coming home
I'm coming home
I'm coming home
I've just begun
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
My revenge has just begun
Words spoken monotones, there's violence in your pretty homes
Unfaded memories of the times we used to play
No colors anymore, there's laughter locked outside the door
The trucks go rolling by on the freeways just behind you
It's a self-fulfilling catastrophe
Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Come take a look at me I'm the poster boy for sympathy
Can't find my way out of this place I've spent my life
It's a self-fulfilling catastrophe
Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Watch your problems disappear
Then reappear as mine
Some things we never tell
Looking back it's just as well
No comfort from anyone
A frightened child with no place to run
Can you hear me
Calling out your name?
Calling out but nobody's there
"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even partially take part And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears & upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apperatus and you've got to make it stop and you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless your free the machine will be prevented from working at all."
Crawling through the mud all night long
Hunted like rats by the Viet Cong
Fields of death, bodies piled up higher
Through the silence of the Tet cease fire
The will to fight seems so long gone
While back at home they sing a protest song
They burned them once then they shot them twice
Shot three times for the blood of christ
Sun sets on the days of rage
What's said and done by the chosen ones
Sun sets on the days of rage
As your cities burn the revolution comes
Crowd control becomes a police state
Streets of Chicago, 1968
Last call for civil liberty
The Black Panthers versus O.P.D.
Berkeley campus to the fields of Kent State
National guard must retaliate
Guardsman smiled said he had as choice
All he could see was the blood of christ
Sun sets on the days of rage
What's said and done by the chosen ones
Sun sets on the days of rage
As your cities burn the revolution comes
You should see the things they've done today
Our national guard firing into an unarmed crowd
What about our human rights? What about our sense of community?
First California then the world
"All of it begin the first time some of you, who know better and are old enough to know better, let young people think that they have the right to choose the law they would obey as long as they we're doing it in the name of social protest."
Try
To turn away
From the spectacle of living everyday
The fear
You cultivate
The jingoist hysteria, the lust for blood, for God & state
Indoctrinate the children with your vitriol and lies
Then poison their humanity, put blinders on their eyes
Flesh blood, burning lights, a propaganda scam
Sequestered & obedient to God & Uncle Sam
First
We need a threat
To the democratic interest we protect
Create
An air of fear
So we can vilify then justify, support the troops who fight & die
Indoctrinate the children with your vitriol and lies
Then poison their humanity, put blinders on their eyes
Flesh blood, burning lights, a propaganda scam
Sequestered & obedient to God & Uncle Sam
They lie
We die
They lie
We die
Clear heads you filled with lies
How dare you look them in the eyes
I used to want the things you had
Now I know it was just a fad
You lied
And I'm still fucking waiting
And you
You still talk your shit, your shit
I thought we stood side by side
To make a change I know I tried
Boasting heart that wasn't there
You raped the scene that thought you cared
You lied
And I'm still fucking waiting
And you
You still talk your shit, your shit
In it for the cash right from the start
Now you're all washed up and you've got no heart
I can still
See you hide
Inside your shell of delusion not fooling yourself
I can still
See the sarcasm on your face
As you say that you're doing it "for the kids"
Nothing mattered but the money and lies
Now we all see through your pathetic disguise
And we'll watch you fall
I thought we stood side by side
To make a change I know I tried
Thought we stood side by side
You fucking lied
So many things I never said
Those regrets & broken promises
Would it have mattered if I had
Told you everything I felt
Admitted I was scared of losing you
Would you have understood?
Remember when you said you'd wait forever
And I thought it was true
And as my broken heart just keeps on beating
I'll send these letters home to you
Cos I don't know what else to do
I'll wait for you
I guess it's been seven weeks
And I still got you on my mind
When will I find my way back
To where we were when I left
The tape you sent, my pillow's drenched with tears
Confirmed my worst fears
Remember when you said you'd wait forever
And I thought it was true
And as my broken heart just keeps on beating
I'll send these letters home to you
Cos I don't know what else to do
I'll wait for you
"I'm just wondering, do you even remember when you first sold out?"
The distance
Between the things you say
And your actions tell me everything
You never could so I'll keep my grip and stay away
Why should I
Waste my time when you can't tell wrong from right?
If you had your way
I'd embrace convention and lose my will to fight
Distractions
Keep me off my game
But I can't help wonder if it was you
Would you still feel the fucking same?
So why should I
Waste my time when you can't tell wrong from right?
If you had your way
I'd embrace convention and lose my will to fight
Closed out, shut down,it doesn't matter to me -- I've got the truth
Sick lies, close ties, your cheap talk ain't enough -- we've got the truth
I've got no time for narrow minds just playing the role -- you played the role
Played out your self doubt is gonna force you to fold -- to fold
Cos you got caught up playing the role
I told you twice to stay away
I know the games you're gonna play
I'm trying to walk the straightened line
I don't need your problems killing my time Hey! Hey!
Sometimes I feel just like a puppet on a string
Everybody talks so loud, I can't hear a thing
Each day I find away
To keep myself away from you
Don't you try to comfort me
I don't need your sympathy
This is how it's supposed to be
Looking through your jaded eyes
Oh! It's so easy just to criticize
I'm trying to do the best that I can
I don't expect you to understand, no!
Don't mean a thing to me you run around like rats
Speak with authority but never with the facts
I've been afflicted
Yeah! I'm addicted to you
Don't you try to comfort me
I don't need your sympathy
This is how it's supposed to be
To be
Yesterday Died-Tomorrow Won't Be Born
There's something lost somewhere inside
Another darkened room where dreams all go to die
Once more a tear drops slowly to my feet
Again I recognize the triumph in defeat, so tell me
What can I do -- when it all falls apart?
Torn straight through -- tell me how to feel
My broken dreams -- a life in disarray
I shut my eyes -- my silence is my cell
Cold sweats and nightmares keep me awake
The time keeps running down on how much I can take
Ripped myself to pieces on the fragments of a dream
Grim retrospective of a life torn at the seams, so tell me
What can I do -- when it all falls apart?
Torn straight through -- tell me how to feel
My broken dreams -- a life in disarray
I shut my eyes
When the emptiness becomes too much
The voices lie, can't trust my touch
The pain of living the fear of death
You choose
"We're dealing with real human being, who are suffering & dying & being torture & starving because of policies that we are involved in. And what the media are doing is insuring that we do not act on our responsibilities and that the interests of power are served, not the needs of the american people, who would be horrified if they realised the blood that's dripping down from their hands because of the way their allowing themselves to be deluded & manipulated by the system."
Yeah!
When might makes right, you want to bet
The U.S.A. is a terrorist threat
Free elections, another casualty
On the covert war on freedom & democracy
Spray paint walls, fading light
Death squads coming to your town tonight
M-16 to your head
Lie through your teeth or you might end up dead
Those stubborn peasants remain opposed
To the western puppet that we've imposed
Not to worry they'll see it our way
The C.I.A. trained death squads will crush the coup within a day
Blood stained walls, fading light
Death squads coming to your town tonight
M-16 to your head
Lie through your teeth or you might end up dead
Yeah!
You're fucking dead
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Laugh it away
You're making friends with the U.S.A.
A clear conscience when the price is right
After all who needs human rights?
Police state now you rule by fear
To stabilize this hemisphere for what?
I've played off devastation
Told you it didn't mean that much
But this world keeps on closing in on me
Whenever we fall out of touch
Those subtle differences
Keeping up appearances... for what?
It gets the best of me
Sometimes it's better not to know
I've tried so many times
To tell you how I feel
Forever's such a long, long time
And this apology's for real
Those subtle differences
Keeping up appearances... for what?
It gets the best of me
Sometimes it's better not to know
Now there's a time & a place
For saving face
There's a time when it's all too much, hey!
Through the hardest times
Through the, the thick & thin
I've always played it off
And kept my grin
But this life's too short
To waste on pride
This is the time & the place for me
To clean up my side
It streaks across the sky towards Bethlehem
A shining star filled with hope and love
It's a second coming
The new christ won't survive
It's a second coming
The new christ will die
He thinks he'll rid the world of it's sins
But he'll feel the nails go right into his hands
It's a second coming
The new christ won't survive
It's a second coming
The new christ will die
Think about the first time that he came
All the millions that died in his name
The apocalypse is oh! so near
Soon enough we'll be in darkness
When the world finally gets wise
He got a spear right into his side.
It's a second coming
The new christ won't survive
It's a second coming
The new christ will die
Like rats from the wreckage
We patrol the decay
Through the ash & the darkness
The scavengers pillage what's wasted away
Power
Corrodes & compromises
The hands once held so high
The lies, the vain plead for their very lives
No sunlight or shadow
Just the rotting remains
Of the clergy pariah
And the millions of sinners shackled in chains
Drowning in blood & holy water
The bombs turned the battlefield to dust
So what's left
Of the world
To divide
And to dominate
And rape
And defile
Or oppress
Or discriminate
It's all over
It's all over
Did anyone get their way
My war
You're one of them
You say that you're my friend
But you're one of them
You don't wanna see me live
You don't want me to give
Cos you're one of them
My war
You're one of them
You say that you're my friend
But you're one of them, them, them, them, them, them
War
You're one of them
You say that you're my friend
But you're one of them
I might not know what a friend is
All I know is what you're not
Cos you're one of them
My war
You're one of them
You say that you're my friend
But you're one of them, one of them
I have a prediction
It lives in my brain
It's with me every day
It drives me insane
I feel it in my heart, that if i has a gun
I feel it in my heart, I'm gonna kill some
I feel it in my heart, the end will come
Come on!!
My war
You're one of them
You say that you're my friend
But you're one of them
Tell me that I'm wrong
Try to sing me your ego song
Cos you're one of them
My war
You're one of them
You say that you're my friend
But you're one of them, one of them, them, them, them
You're one of them
I can't believe it
And you're one of them
You're one of them
You're one of them
You're one of them
And you're one of them
And you're one of them
My war
Good Riddance.
Russ Rankin tries to yell in key & is a Gemini.
Luke Pabich plays the guitar & is a Leo.
Chuck Division plays the bass & is a Libra.
Sean Sellers plays the pretty red drums & is a Taurus.
Mario "Razor" Reza sells T-shirts and love the L.A. Kings, he's a Gemini.
Backing vocals: Chuck, Russ, Luke, Kira Holder, Jason Livermore, Eli Atkins, AJAX.
All songs written by Russ
Except for 30 Day Wonder & After The Nightmare, music by Luke & lyrics by Russ
Second Coming by Battalion Of Saint.
Recorded february 1999 at the Blasting Room Ft. Collins, CO