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Good Riddance
Symptoms Of A Leveling Spirit
"- You talk funny, where're you from?
- California.
- I hate California!"
Forgotten stories of excess both real & fiction
Too many hollow lives spent chasing benediction
We plummet to the earth like scores of fallen angels
Play out our tragedies on empty, weathered stages
But before we lose it all
The final curtain call
Conflicted & dejected
And dejected
Beware the opulence inherent in confusion
When reality's obscured by clouds of disillusion
Held under far too long by the weight of our existence
We labor fruitlessly against both time & distance
But before we lose it all
The final curtain call
Conflicted & dejected
What's in the past can't be undone
You've got to separate to become one
Your indecision hides
The guilt just underneath your clouded eyes
So sick you'd sell your soul
For another fifteen minute lie
Yeah! You don't speak not a single word
Can't correlate a single thing you've heard
You just erase all the things we've said with a mask of disapproval
And it's always about you
Convinced yourself there's better things to do
Like building a wall. Hey! Hey!
You double up at the thought of fun
You're not concerned about anyone
You're alone when the sun goes down like a cold, forsaken shadow
And you're traped inside yourself
Nothing can reach you nobody matters anyway
Just building a wall. Hey! Hey! Hey!
Taking a fall. Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
And it's always about you
Convinced yourself there's better things to do
You're looking outside
For purpose & piece of mind
And you may never find
You'll never find
Freedom
Running short on imagination still we waste it all on word
Spoken without the benefit of our minds
The candle burns the edges fray
Our best intentions waste away
And everybody loves the things you've done and on and on and on
Life appears weightless
For everyone but me
This world grows heavier everyday
Deterioration
Growing old before my time
Nobody cares never mind
We all prey on our vain condition and the hopelessness of it all
These days there's nothing we can trust
The dreams we made we've seen them fade
Trampled by our sade parade
Yet we're so pleased with what we've done and on and on and I'm done
Life appears weightless
For everyone but me
This world grows heavier everyday
Deterioration
Growing old before my time
Nobody cares
The mind breaks down when it dies
Our machine's doubled in size
To orchestrate the grand collapse
I see us all trapped in it's path
There was a time we were unbound
As if we'd never hit the ground
But just like rain we can't keep from falling
What's worth standing for something with true strength & heart
But the old manifesto has splintered apart
Driven from homes to the depths of despairs
Hear the cries of the innocent ring through the air
Genocide - the new class warfare
Pushed aside to make all the people one
Drop dead - because freedom's a cancer
And state-sponsored terror's the new land reform
Blinded by pride & national impulse
Weaned on the doctrines of Lenin & Marx
A blood red scar on the new face of China
Exploding like tinder too close to the spark
Genocide - the new class warfare
Pushed aside to make all the people one
Drop dead - because freedom's a cancer
And state-sponsored terror's the new land reform
This time it's genocide and the terror comes from within
Nobody's safe from the latest wave as the new republic's in
We'll do away with agrarian notions bleed the population into fear
You can't stop our populist expansion cos you've got no freedom here
An infant reared on hatred never learns
To hold diversity inviolate
While so-called moralists proclaim they've got the test
To monitor the ways
Our love's expressed
So just think it through
Hatred is the stillborn child of ignorance & boredom
Such a narrow view
Means seeds of tolerance are sown by those who can't afford them
What will you do?
It's not too late for you to change your xenophobic point of view
Now your pontifications leave us draped in disbelief
Why should we suffer for the fear that's underneath?
If we could learn to cherish what sets us apart
Keep love instead of fear
Within our hearts
So just think it through
Hatred is the stillborn child of ignorance & boredom
Such a narrow view
Means seeds of tolerance are sown by those who can't afford them
What will you do?
It's not too late for you to change your xenophobic point of view
Big fuck man contestant in a freak show
So quick to terrorize someone you hardly know
Don't see the pain, when will you realize
That love is never wrong, just learn to empathize
I've been put down, been pushed around
But they won't break me, I still believe
Been cast aside, stood up for ridicule
But I'm still here, I feel the same
This one's for those who'll never understand
It's not a blueprint or a master plan
All I know is nothing that I've done before
Held me so strong, never steered me wrong
And with every passing day
Distills my dedication
In a clouded world you kept me clear
And there's a part of you in all I've done
Been second guessed, thought immature
But for what it's worth know that I'm still here
I wonder what I could have done instead
To quell the anger boiling in my head
Unlike so many things you've never let me down
Never steered me wrong
And with every passing day
Distills my dedication
With you I've never felt alone
And as I stumble through these days
I hope you'll understand
It's so much more than a phase
It's everything I am
When I've strayed in darker times
When I'm feeling left behind
You're always there
The music somehow seems to get me by
What does it mean when you're sixteen
The world's a cold & lonely place
But you're still kicking every door down in the place
The war of words they're so uptight
You pass a hundred sleepless nights
And the worst is yet to come or so they say
Here comes seventeen and just beyond there's tolerance & empathy to protect you from them all
A stand of evergreen, just like the places we would always talk about, to catch you when you fall
You hear a knock outside the door
It never rains here anymore
So now there's nothing new to wash away the pain
A frightened face your clouded mind
The memories you've trailed behind
And seventeen still feels light years away, away, away
Here comes seventeen and just beyond there's tolerance & empathy to protect you from them all
A stand of evergreen, just like the places we would always talk about,to catch you when you fall
Nobody seems to understand you as your grasping for that innocence sequestered in your mind
Was it guilt or were they blind
All this time
A frightened face your clouded mind
The memories you've trailed behind
And seventeen still feels light years away, away, away
Here comes seventeen and just beyond there's tolerance & empathy to protect you from them all
A stand of evergreen, just like the places we would always talk about, to catch you when you fall
Cos trash like you will never have the means with which to live
In any modicum of luxury or vague derivative
Of comfort don't stray beyond your class
You'll never crack this ceiling made of glass
Oh! Just live to work and then expire
Keep your mouth shut you might retire
With something more than debts stretched far beyond your means
Pledge allegiance to the corporate machines
Don't you dare step out of line
Everything will be just fine
But you'd better mind your place
Just learn to be a good consumer
You're now a number
You've no longer gotta face
Oh! Let my anger be my declaration
My dissent my participation
Resistance isn't any use
Just consume, obey & reproduce
The next working class who'll shoulder your burden of despair
Your empty cries for a living wage our system doesn't care
We don't care - That our system won't provide for public health
We don't care - That you're left out in the cold all by yourself
We don't care
A fools crusade, a proxy war
We justify, we keep the score
With millions dead too blind to see
The cryptic clash of World War III
Did your country's sons & daughters
Die to make this world a safer place
Or do we just defy
Flesh & blood become one
The stakes keep rising, the time has come
The band performs a martyr's verse
And the dominos fall in reverse
Did your country's sons & daughters
Die to make this world a safer place
Or do we just defy
The line are drawn don't you see
It's too late to turn back now
We won't abide a stalemate
The end is predicted on the lost of life
What's so sinister?
We're only trying to do what we think is right
Conscience administered
By the ones with the shortest sight
"This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it."
The sense of fear on which we feed
When the people can't believe the things they read
We've been brought up to feel left out
Eclipsed by the shadows of our doubt
The pieces rise & rearrange
And all the smiling faces seem so strange
With tacit symmetry & prose
I feel the doors behind me close
You're here alone inside this crowd
You've faced the world and made us proud
But when the bitterness returns
There's nothing left to hide the burns
I've waited
I've written on promises & dreams a thousand times
Still relegated to these lines
Like water
Untainted the sad quixotic trail I've left behind
Somehow it echoes in my mind
And it almost feels like coming home
"Think I'm gonna like this democraty stuff."
Once lost we will never find our way
Shutting down we're devoid of things to say
Prospects are growing worse with every hour
With no voise it seems we've got no power
Overcome by headlines we believe what isn't true
You've got no empathy for anyone but you
Moral contradictions & subjective, hollow tomes
Perpetuate the fear asphyxiating us at home so
Seems like there's no place left to hide
From the cold, amorphous dread that we all feel inside
Actions might dictate who survives
The hopelessness which punctuates our empty lives
Could there be something
I need a reason
Could there be anything at all
Systems of technology which once kept us imformed
Now endeavor to perpetuate the norm
Privatization of concentrated wealth
While millions still suffer in dilapidated health so
Who cares to calculate what indigence will cost
How can we replicate urbanity that's lost
The curtain falls on the ultimate disgrace
We hunger for equality though we've never had a taste so
Seems like there's no place left to hide
From the cold, amorphous dread that we all feel inside
Actions might dictate who survives
The hopelessness which punctuates our empty lives
Could there be something
I need a reason
Could there be anything at all
The irony will make you laugh
Intervene on our behalf
To undo this mask of false complicity
The right-wing, despotic government
Has manufactured our consent
Can we entrust ourselves
To transform their doctrine to dissent
All The Joy You've Never Known
When there's something
That won't let you sleep
Can you live with
The secrets you keep
All the pain, all the pride
All the poison you've taken that's killing you inside
There's a manifested bitterness
In all the joy you've known
There's no point in redemption
Some things are better left alone
I've waited
From freedom, from bondage of self
Grown tired of everyone else
Grown cold
Grown sick of the doctrine, the lies that I've been told
There's a manifested bitterness
In all the joy you've known
There's no point in redemption
Some things are better left alone
Outlived a wasted live
Too soon to say goodbye
One plot to call your own
Now it's our turn to cry
I've been through this before
These things are hard to take
Was it too much to live for
One choice you felt you had yo make
And I've pissed my time away
Through countless life long wasted days
Why are all the simple things so lost in sorrow
And my perspective so unclear
Life's cold & thick with lies
Seen through the blue black eyes
We squander as we smile
Things which once appeared worthwhile
How views on life distort
When we see a life cut short
No cause to calculate
Absentia renders no debate
And I've pissed my time away
Through countless life long wasted days
Why are all the simple things so lost in sorrow
And my perspective so unclear
Through pain I've grown to learn
Just as long as life still burns
Won't sit around & wait
Until I burn down heaven's gates I know
And I've pissed my time away
Through countless life long wasted days
Why are all the simple things so lost in sorrow
And my perspective so unclear
"Eh! We must therefor insure that those idiots out there don't get into trouble, you know, by actually using there theorical right to vote to interfere where they don't belong, like in the public arena."
Rejection
Like a promise unfullfilled
From an emptyness distilled
As one final sign
Perpatuates our slow decline
We've failed
The systems we've created drag us down
On crowded streets
We'll die alone
Our dreams are only flesh & bone
One day, some way
When you fall apart & waste away
You'll see no doubt
This world is gonna spit you out
Drained
No sign of life
This world of lies
Is gonna cut you down to size
One day, some way
When you fall apart & waste away
You'll see no doubt
This world is gonna spit, they'll spit you out
Like a spoke in their machine
Some people break like glass
It just might be your final chance to feel
Can you distinguish fate from what seems real
Enamoured by the romance of regret
Good Riddance.
Russ Rankin -- vocals.
Luke Pabich -- guitar.
Chuck Division -- bass.
Sean Sellers-- drums.
Mario "Razor" Reza -- grand tourismo.
All songs written by Russ
Except for Fire..., Enter... & Spit You Out, music by Luke & lyrics by Russ
And Blue Black Eyes, music by Chuck & lyrics by Russ.
Recorded at the Blasting room, Ft. Collins, CO 2-01/3-01.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this album will be donated to:
| Multiple Sclerosis Service Society
550 Coal Valley Road Jefferson Hills, PA 15025 1-800-542-2413 www.mspittsburgh.org |
The Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County
P.O. Box 990 Watsonville, CA 95077-0990 1-813-722-7110 www.thefoodbank.org |
Also please see:
www.veaganoutreach.org
www.peta.org