Days of Rage

Rebels Sing

The story is about Chiapas and the Brazen Mohawk roar and all the love filled soldiers who who’ve lived and died for more
They’re the ones among the crowd that won’t back down the stories and legends that humble us all

For dreams of justice, brave romantics with amazing will of heart and purpose
They speak to us say, “own your fear”. The words of these warriors have rung in my ears for years

I fought the way it was but I’m not a hero I just stood up when no gambler would take those odds

Like tiny alpine flowers on a wasteland of battered soil all they need is the smallest piece of ground to live their lives
But those with too much have the only means to take it all. Who can face that challenge? Who can see what’s wrong?

Brasilia’s workers, Sandinistas, Peoples army ragtag rebels
Tiny Diggers, smaller chances will they be forgotten no I don’t think so

I fought the way it was but I’m not a hero I just stood up when no gambler would take those odds

Wolverine is not far away he’s in our hearts he’s on this stage
Wolverine is not make believe he can’t be held back he’s in a rage
We do what we do straight out of love and not for anything else and that’s why rebels sing

Hacksaw

Even the night air was like a blow drier so in the daytime he’d stick to the canyons between the buildings where the anomie is enough to send you reeling
But in the evenings he found a scene where this didn’t matter
Maybe 200 people and some old amplifiers and when he was among them he was someone at last
And among this little scene people recognized the mind of poet and a prophet with some wisdom for the world

I’m at war with the liars I’m a war with the thieves I’m at war with all this hatred all I want is peace. But I can’t find the truth there is politics to these streets, there’s a cop in every one of us and I am an urchin thief

The other side of this glorious life was the true credibility of being dirt poor. You can’t get a job if you can’t get a shower besides there’s no fuckin grandeur in being a slave.
So his favourite transgression was big overstocked stores it seemed much less harm than robbing more poor. It’s not up to us to question the way that he lived but I’ve got a huge problem with the way that he died

I’m at war with the liars I’m a war with the thieves I’m at war with hatred and all I want is peace. But I can’t find the truth there is politics to the streets, there’s a cop in every one of us and I am an urchin thief

Some Sunday evening he was caught in an alley with his namesake in one hand and a new pup in his coat
The cops shot him in the face they said he was armed. He was just a scared kid holding a hacksaw.

Just another street kid wasn’t worth a thing
Nothing more just go on with your day
Listen late at night you’ll hear the streets ring
The sum of all this conflict and all he had to say was,
“all I want is peace”

December 8, 1980

1980 Regan is sworn in and he promises to make America strong again
Build up the military rid all the Communists start an arms race only he can win
West 72nd street Manhattan Mark David Chapman with a gun in his hand
A Manchurian candidate on a star struck date who’s body is a tool for a for the CIA

As he looks up from the sidewalk his surroundings come into view his eye track back down past his wrist, his mind is not his own nor is the gun that he’s holding and he has the strange sensation of wondering what he will do

Lennon wanted a revolution and that was more than they could take
The Republicans needed a solution aggression is how they communicate

1980 christmas not too far away a songwriter crawls dying in the night
Four 38s caught in his back and a black-op pawn rewrites Catcher in the Rye
Not a worldwide leader but a worldwide motivator of anti-war activism with the power to cause peace
When 5 years in hiding only makes your legend stronger there is only one way to stop you imagine what could have been

Never before or since has one person held influence on so many people
to move toward peace and all that it means then put your self in Reagan’s shoes, what would you do?

Lennon wanted a revolution and that was more than they could take
The Republicans needed a solution aggression is how they communicate

Justify the slaughter in Nicaragua, El Salvador and the death in Guatemala a threat to you and how you control.
You use fear you use hate your use terror you use pain
Take a deep breath, 2 hands on the revolver, cock the hammer, don’t pull squeeze the trigger
John Hinkley jr. my hero. Shoot straight next time, shoot straight next time, shoot straight

Lennon wanted a revolution and that was more than they could take
The Republicans needed a solution aggression is how they communicate
Lennon wanted a revolution and that was more than they could take
Lennon wanted a revolution

Sullied Graves

The strobe of explosions lights the terror on your face and I can’t see my feet through the dust that chokes the streets
When it all has settled they’ll find bodies that won’t exist though we’ve repeatedly been told that were safer in this place
Hold my hand dear sister they can’t fall like this forever Run! run Run! run
The bombers aren’t like soldiers they haven’t got their own minds but they were fuelled and reloaded. How’s it gonna end?

If it ever ends
I imagine whole armies on trial
You're guilty by your apathy and complicit in your simplicity don’t try to blow it off as too far beyond your means I will repeat myself until these ideas are heard I’ll write about disorder and murder driven by simple greed

Now change places I’m still not awake and landing lights brush past my face/ a soldier here I feed the planes
Illuminated by diodes close enough to burn my skin. There is also a pale yellow glow but that comes from within
“Snap out of it kid, you’re gonna lose your head”. Stupid motherfucker I never owned it anyway
The big Bomber is fuelled and the turbines whine its dirty claws rake the sky scars in the form of jet streams

Oh tell me not to leave for the hills this place is lost we’re gonna let ‘em burn
I’ll take the kind we’ll save ourselves but leave the trapped to die I know that’s not right
It seems we’re overrun and this chapters nearly closed it can’t happen fast enough it’s all gotta go
Giving up on everything is as bad as giving in you’ve got a voice let’s hear you throw it in

All the tired sceptics say how’s this gonna end

If it ever ends. I imagine whole armies on trial
You're guilty by your apathy and complicit in your simplicity don’t try to blow it off as too far beyond your means
I will repeat myself until these ideas are heard I’ll write about disorder and murder driven by simple greed
Don’t accept your place in a place where slavery is sold as freedom while children beg for water.
Lay down your arms when those who follow orders like they’re not responsible lay in shallow sullied graves!

The Strikers

Clock strikes 5 end of a bloody shift knees are weak and fingers are stiff
And as the men step outside and wipe the sweat from their eyes it’s time to decide to go home or fight. The chief turned and spit then wiped his lip and said there’s no way to stop us now.

Their will was strong and their fists were stronger 60 odd men packing crowbars and hammers marched back through the gate for that last goddam day negotiations would not placate it’s the habit of management to wait and wait and then give us just enough that we don’t walk away

The Strikers were a rock smashing a chokehold and tearing the shackles off
They could not be stopped with the boot off their necks the fire had come back
They fought ‘til dawn they all found themselves while some of them lost their lives
The story goes you can only oppress for so long and then you will be left burning

You’ve got something to say so say it you’ve got something to do so get up

Clock strikes 5 end of a bloody shift the knees are weak and the fingers are stiff
Their fists strong were but their will was stronger 60 minds set packing crowbars and hammers marched back through the gate for that last goddam day negotiations would not placate it’s the habit of management to wait and wait and then give us just enough that we don’t walk away

The Strikers were a rock smashing a chokehold and tearing the shackles off
They could not be stopped with the boot up off their necks the fire had come back
They fought ‘til dawn they all found themselves while some of them lost their lives
The story goes you can only oppress for so long and then you will be left burning

I Was There

When we started out they said you can’t change nothing but we could all see that we were gonna have to do something
The years continue to pass and the change has been hard fought and to the person in the moment nothing seems to move.

But if you look back past the limits of your time you can see that things are better now
Decades and decades of back and forth have resulted in a steady shift
A better place is an is and epoch off but the numbers have grown and increased the pace
As long as you’re involved you’ve earned the right to say

I was there on the day it all went down
you’re making a big mistake if you think were fuckin around
you say it can’t be done and try to fade us out
I was there on the day it all went down

They say that we owe them but we don’t owe them nothing don’t ask us to play along in the choice of no choices
We’re putting down our popcorn and standing in our chairs please remove me from this movie my eyes can’t take the glare

I resent your attempt to bury me I’m angered by the disease you weave
and I see the futility of passive means we all know it’s an action scene
and like some kind of super-squad we made things move against the odds
we were there we will be here

You say we that we owe you but we don’t owe you nothing you put us here and kept us here with that choice of no choices As the world boils to war it’s easy to despair It doesn’t mean that anyone wants this it just how strong the trap is.
The genius who brought this can’t excreted from office because the methods they offer aren’t meant to change a thing. It’s moved and it’s building because people are seeing that revision is not an answer we’ve earned the right to say

I was there on the day it all went down
you’re making a big mistake if you think we’re fuckin around
you said it can’t be done and try to fade us out
let’s bring it home we’ve got something to tell them

4:30am

Another sleepless night about a winless fight I’m thinking maybe I’ll just pull out but how do you say goodbye when you don’t know how to talk.
So I know I can’t walk cause this is all that I know and it’s not that I don’t care but things are fucked up and I don’t know what else to do

4:30 AM I still haven’t slept I’m thinking what is it that I have kept locked up inside of me so tight that it makes me scream my mind and drive all night.

There’s a million kids in a thousand dimensions and if there not like you you gotta hold it against them. Try to remember we’re all in a time where it’s forbidden to talk
I gotta figure out what I’m trying to say because all that comes to mind in the middle of the night all alone in the dark is waaa haa hey

I know that I’ve said before but I’m gonna say again that it’s a long walk home
And I know that we’ll make it in if we can recognize that we’re long lost friends.
If they have there way that is if we let them hold sway they’d fill us with hate and say we’re not the same
But I know that if we don’t give in we’re gonna find a song that we all can sing

I know that I’ve said before but I’m gonna say again that it’s a long walk home
But I know that if we don’t give in we’re gonna find a song that we all can sing

4:30 AM…

Truth Crew

Is it in you heart is your heart in it what do you give when you do what you do

Me and my crew are like a bunch of kids in a tiny fort in a tattered tree that’s forgotten about it’s roots but I can still see the ground
And what of us up so high does it mean we’re something divine nope see it just means I’d rather not hear your lies

Who’s true? Truth crew. Who’s true? Truth crew. Who’s true? Truth crew. Don’t make me ask again
Who’s true? Truth crew. Who’s true? Truth crew. Who’s true? Truth crew. now lets go back to the start

I don’t care what you have to say unless you really believe it anyway and so check your self when you sing does the truth come out when you sing does the truth come out
And if it doesn’t then look around and ask yourself if you’ve found the key to your empty life.

The words of my prophets all ragged with lies honestly Jane I don’t know any more

Who’s true? Truth crew. Who’s true? Truth crew. Who’s true? Truth crew. Don’t make me ask again
Who’s true? Truth crew. Who’s true? Truth crew. Who’s true? Truth crew. Take it down for a minute

Sit With Me Anger

Sit with me anger it’s just you and me let’s clear this up I can’t let you leave
Something’s not the same though I said I’d never change- All this talk is losing steam, rants become a drone
I need the clarity you bring, so the drive can stay cause now I stand and philosophise while the world moves away
It’s chaos that fuels me outrage that feeds me the simplicity that frees me and not moving is gonna beat me

What if I thought about things? What if they were things that can’t be? What if I cried for change? Could I teach anyone to see?

Everything I learn says you can’t win and all that it takes is the march of time
How can you be so sure on a path, it’s not a simple world but the confusion falls away when you break things down to right or wrong
The contrast is high between move and rot the more you’ve got the more you want to stop
What happened to you, you no longer want anything so much like me you’re tempted by sleep

What if I thought about things? What if they were things that can’t be? What if I cried for change? Could I teach anyone to see?
What if it was I’ll I could do? What if I needed my rage and what if no-one else could be bothered to care. What if it tried to leave me?
Then the only question left to ask was, “What if I fail?”

And…Why the lost cause? Why’d I choose this? What can I do? What if it mattered to me?
What if I fade? Why should I try? Why the questions?

There was a time we hadn’t even met so long ago I can’t even remember it
But I didn’t need you I had the clarity of youth, a narrow perspective and the faith that I could.
But age tends to jade eyes and skin turns to leather concrete waivers and knowledge shows a lack of it all kinds of questions about perfect directions confuse the thinker. And it just doesn’t get better

Oh my friend I’m in a cold dark night your existence has always been my fire and light
But now you’ve been doused by a confused mess. Still, I’d fall and drown if I let you go
But I can’t and I won’t so keep me warm there is a brutal doubt trying to break me down for a time I find the strength and then comforting voice like a sirens song says you’ve got it all Lay down.