Life these days can be so complex we don't make the time to stop and relfect I know from first hand experience one can go delerious seriously it can be like that But before I put my foot in my mouth 'cause that's what I'm about to start talkin about please let me confess before all the rest that I'm afflicted by this addicted like most in the US It's tough to make a living when you're an artist It's even tougher when you're socially conscious Careerism, opportunism can turn the politics into cartoonism Let's not patronize or criticize Let's open the door and look inside Pull the file on the state of denial
Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury Raise the Double Standard
The bass, the treble Don't make a rebel Havin' your life together does AMERICA has an image of a young one fast livin' not give an expletive no respect for his or the lives of those around him Suicidal, homicidal or at very least extremely unbridled How convenient for those who would like to destroy him The problem has never been our political logic but the way we enact it We can imagine a perfect society but can't maintain a decent relationship The failure found in the luxuries not in the hardships
Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury Raise the Double Standard
In the 1970's The OPEC nations began to dominate The world's oil economy In the 1980's Japan became the world's Number ONE ecomonic power In 1989 the nations of Eastern Europe Attempted to restructure While in the United States civil rights have Collapsed at the hands of fundamentalists And national insecurity's at an all time high
Exxon and on and on and on The ministers of double speak New meaning of clean they Tried to teach us They staged the phoney shampoo of the Valdez greases Completely jheri curled the beaches Pipe bomb for the NAACP And a hit on Salman Rushdie The Berlin Wall comes down and the U.S. cracks down On illegal aliens Ban the freedom of choice for those Wanting abortion And enforce capitol punishment Twenty four hour radio ban For indecency determined by the F.U.C.C. Why are we so anesthetized to the lies Because we do it in our own lives We believe all the things that we want to hear But then we also love to criticize
Bail-out the banks loan art to the churches Satanic Reverses
In 1992 the European economic community will reform In 1997 the city of Hong Kong will become a part Of the People's Republic of China In 1999, and this is no coincidence, The nation of Panama will control it's own canal While in the United States civil rights have Collapsed at the hands of fundamentalists And national insecurity's at an all time high
Helms said ban the photograph Of the piss Christ It's sacreligious not an art peice While we all try to discern between Our cup of tea and what we call obscenity The house's legislation Ripped the phoney foundation Off what we thought inherent Sent Joey to the Supreme Court
'Cause he made a statement They called it desecration Of the symbol that was meant to represent The freedom of so called choice and dissent They almost had me believing it They were bleeding him He said, "Burn baby, burn" 'Til the street samurai Said to my face that Any flag that's worth a shit Was woven from fire in the first place.
Bail-out the banks loan art to the churches Satanic Reverses
(Chorus:) What will we do to become famous and dandy, just like Amos 'n' Andy (2x)
It's quite a spectacle to see us land in waste receptacles as if we've planned it We're never skeptical when we get branded Then disrespectful cause we feel abandoned The height of mediocrity is the challenge Crawling through the entrails of imbalance We learn to like to be the heroes We learn to lie to the brand name negroes We learn to laugh to avoid being angry We learn to kill and learn to go hungry We learn not to feel, for protection and we learn to flaunt when we get an erection
(Chorus:) What will we do to become famous and dandy, just like Amos 'n' Andy (2x)
We're born believing we're greater than circumstance Infinitely stronger than chance As our first breath is handed We taste the double standard the need to wear the mask And with society's nurturing The psychic plastic surgery begins to take effect As our souls watch astouned Our characters flounder duplicitous identity Diction and contradiction have become the skills of assimilation Razor honed to perfection From the moment of creation It's gone from identity crisis To survival slingshot to rifle Sin to revival Try to get looked at but not poked in the eyeball Warned of our impurities Afraid of insecurities Real life experts of the artificial Athletes and entertainers have become the minstrels on commercials
(Chorus:) What will we do to become famous and dandy, just like Amos 'n' Andy (2x)
On screen or off we can be rented to perform any feat And we reflect the images presented by the media's elite Positive or negative attention is viewed as success U.S.D.A. African American Beef is seen as progress We never ask ourselves too many questions too much thruth in introspection Maintain the regimentation and avoid self-degradation We act out all the stereotypes Try to use them as decoy and we become shining examles of the system we set out to destroy Cause even in the most radical groups you will find that when you stray from the doctrine you'll see hard times
(Chorus:) What will we do to become famous and dandy, just like Amos 'n' Andy (2x)
Being kicked in the mouth or smiling with no teeth They're both choices, yes but it's impossible to eat Uneducated, underdeveloped Undisciplined but mostly unaware We join the flavor of the month club We swallow the flavor of the month Well holding our crotch was the flavor of the month Bitch this Bitch that was the flavor of the month Being a thug was the flavor of the month Then no to drugs was the flavor of the month Kangol was the flavor of the month Rope gold was the flavor of the month Adidas shoes was the flavor of the month Then bashing Jews was the flavor of the month Gentrification was the flavor of the month Isolation was the flavor of the month My pockets are so empty I can feel my testicles cause I spent all my money on some plastic African necklaces and I still don't know what the colors mean... RED, BLACK AND GREEN
(Chorus:) What will we do to become famous and dandy, just like Amos 'n' Andy (4x)
One Nation under God has turned into One Nation under the influence of one drug
Television, the drug of the Nation Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
T.V., it satellite links our United States of unconciousness Apathetic therapeutic and extremely addictive the methadone metronome pumping out a 150 channels 24 hours a day you can flip through all of them and still there's nothing worth watching
T.V. is the reason why less than ten percent of our Nation reads books daily Why most people think Central America means Kansas Socialism means unamerican and Apartheid is a new headache remedy
absorbed in it's world it's so hard to find us It shapes our minds the most maybe the mother of our Nation should remind us that we're sitting to close to. . .
Television, the drug of the Nation Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
T.V. is the stomping ground for political candidates Where bears in the woods are chased by Grecian Formula'd bald eagles
T.V. is mechanized politic's remote control over the masses co-sponsered by environmentally safe gases watch for the PBS special
It's the perpetuation of the two party system where image takes precedence over wisdom Where sound bite politics are served to the fastfood culture
Where straight teeth in your mouth are more important than the words that come out of it Race baiting is the way to get selected Willie Horton or Will he not get elected on . . .
Television, the drug of the Nation Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
T.V. is it the reflector or the director? Does it imitate us or do we imitate it Because a child watches 1500 murders before he's twelve years old and we wonder how we've created a Jason generation that learns to laugh rather than abhor the horror
T.V. is the place where armchair generals and quarterbacks can experience first hand the excitement of video warfare as the theme song is sung in the background
Sugar sweet sitcoms that leave us with a bad actor taste while pop stars metamorphosize into soda pop stars You saw the video You heard the soundtrack Well now go buy the soft drink Well, the only cola that I support would be a union C.O.L.A. (Cost of Living Allowance) On Television.
Television, the drug of the Nation Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
Back again, "New and Improved", we return to our irregularly programmed schedule hidden cleverly between heavy breasted beer and car commericals
CNN ESPN ABC TNT but mostly B.S. Where oxymoronic language like "virtually spotless" "fresh frozen" "light yet filling" and "military intelligence" have become standard
T.V. is the place where phrases are redefined like "recession" to "necessary downturn" "crude oil" on a beach to "mousse" "Civilian death" to "collateral damages" and being killed by your own Army is now called "friendly fire"
T.V. is the place where the pursuit of happiness has become the pursuit of trivia Where toothpaste and cars have become sex objects Where imagination is sucked out of children by a cathode ray nipple T.V. is the only wet nurse that would create a cripple
Television, the drug of the Nation Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation On Television . . .
The first day of school was always the hardest The first day of school the hallways the darkest Like a gauntlet the voices haunted Walking in with his thin skin lowered chin He knew the names that they would taunt him with Faggot sissy punk queen queer Although he'd never had sex in his 15 years And when they harassed him it was for a reason And when they provoked him it became open season for the fox and the hunter, the sparks and the thunder that pushed the boy under, then pillage and plunder It kind of makes you wonder how one can hurt another But dehumanizing the victim makes things simpler It's like breathing with a respirator It eases the conscience of even the most conscious and calculating violator Words can reduce a person to an object, something more easy to hate An inanimate entity, completely disposable, no problem to obliterate (CHORUS:) But death is the silence in this language of violence Death is the silence But death is the silence in this cycle of violence death is the silence It's tough to be young, the young long to be tougher When we pick on someone else it might make us feel rougher Abused by their fathers but was at home though so to prove to each other that they were not homos The exclamation of the phobic fury executioner, a judge and jury The mob mentality, individuality was nowhere Dignity forgotten at the bottom of a dumb old dare and a numb cold stare On the way home it was back to name calling Ten against one they had his back up against the wall and they reveled in their laughter as they surrounded him But it wasn't a game when they up jumped and grounded him They picked up their bats with their muscles straining and they decided they were gonna beat this fella's brain in with an awful, powerful, showerful, an hour full of violence Inflict the strictest brutality and dominance They didn't hear him screaming, they didn't hear him pleading They ran like cowards and left the boy bleeding in a pool of red 'til all tears were shed and his eyes quietly slid into the back of his head dead... (CHORUS) (2x) You won't see the face 'til the eyelids drop You won't hear the screaming until it stops The boy's parents were gone and his grandmother had raised him She was mad she had no form of retaliation The pack didn't have to worry about being on a hitlist But the thing they never thought about was that there was a witness to this senseless crime, right place wrong time Tried as an adult one of them was gonna do hard time The first day of prison was always the hardest The first day of prison, the hallways the darkest Like a gauntlet the voices haunted Faggot, sissy, punk, queen, queer Words he used before had a new meaning in here As a group of men in front of him came near for the first time in his life the young bully felt fear He'd never been on this side of the name calling Five against one they had his back up against the wall and he had never questioned his own sexuality but this group of men didn't hesitate in their reality with an awful, powerful, showerful, an hour full of violence Inflict the strictest brutality and dominance They didn't hear him screaming They didn't hear him pleading They took what they wanted and then left him bleeding in the corner The giant reduced to jack horner But dehumanizing the victim makes things simpler It's like breathing with a respirator It eases the conscience of even the most conscious and calculating violator The power of words, don't take it for granted when you hear a man ranting Don't just read the lips, be more sublime than this Put everything in context, is this a tale of rough justice in a land where there's no justice at all ? Who is really the victim ? Or are we all the cause, and victim of it all ? (CHORUS) (2x) You won't see the face 'til the eyelids drop You won't hear the screaming until it stops
It all seemed so idiotic all the accusations of unpatriotic The fall we'll always remember, capitulating silence election November before the winter of the long hot summer Somewhere in the desert we raised the oil pressure and waited for the weather to get much better for the new wind to blow in the storm We tried to remember the history in the region the French foreign legion, Imperialism, Peter O'Toole and hate the Ayatollah were all we learned in school Not that we gave Hussein five billion Not of our new bed partner the Syrian and of course no mention of the Palestine situation It was amazing how they steamrolled They said eighty percent approval but there was no one that I knew polled No one had a reason for being in the Gulf We waited for congress to speak up illegal build up But no one would wake up Our representatives were Milli Vanilli's for corporate Dallas Cowboy Beverly Hillbillies With perfect timing the politicians rhyming their sentiments so nicely oil gold and sand my sediments precisely.... We regretfully support the lunacy I'm afraid there is no time for more scrutiny National unity preserve our community Teflonⓒ election opportunities were in profundant abundance
On January second the Bush administration announced a recession had stricken the Nation the highest quarterly earnings in ten years were posted by Chevronⓒ Meanwhile a budget was placed in our hands as the deadline in the sand came to an end so much for the peace dividend one billion a day is what we spent and our grandchildren will pay for it 'til the end When schools are unfunded and kids don't get their diplomas they get used for gun boat diplomacy disproportionately black or brown we see bullet catchers for the slave master
Then the conservatives called up reservists to active service left families nervous but more importantly broke nine hundred a month but the check came late, army red tape you see, this golden opportunity We watched the tube and read the newspaper The propaganda of the gas masked raper was the proper slander to whip up the hatred
The stage was lit and the lights were all faded The pilots in night vision goggles Kuwaited and generals masturbated 'til the fifteenth two days later they invaded Not a single t.v. station expressed dissension or hardly made mention to the censorship of information from our kinder and gentler nation blinder and mentaler retardation DISORIENTATION The pilots said their bombs lit Baghdad like a Christmas tree It was the Christian thing to do you see they didn't mention any casualties no distinction between the real and the proxy only football analogies
We saw the bomb hole We watched the Super Bowl We saw the scud missile We watched Budⓒ commercials We saw the yellow ribbons Saw pilots in prison We never saw films of the dead...at eleven Angela Davis addressed the spectators and shouting above a rumbling generator said if they insist on bringing us down then let's shut the whole country down Marching through the downtown A hundred thousand became participants and we heard the drums of millions off in the distance rushing through the cities some of them did things that weren't so pretty most were there for primal scream therapy news men concentrated on the negative liked the jingoists more peaceful protesters ended up on the cutting room floor Nintendoⓒ casualties of the ratings war More bombs dropped than in World War II on in both Asian invasions, new world order persuasion, Business as usual for our nation Could you imagine a hundred fifty thousand dead, the city of Stockton coffins locked in when we clocked in...not to mention civilians The loss of life on both sides pushed the limits of resilience The scent of blood in our nostrils fuel of the fossil land of apostle The blackness that covered the sky was not the only thing that brought a tear to the eye or the taste of anger to the tongues of those too young to remember Vietnam
Is heroin better in a veteran's mind than the memory of the dying laying in a line Is it the smell or the shadows heaving and weeping that keeps the soldier from sleeping as he sings the orphan's lullaby When the soldiers put down their bayonets the strings are chained to the marionettes Emir of Kuwait gets back in his jet we replace the dead with new cadets will we hate those who did the shelling or will we hate those who weren't willing to do the killing when the leaders of the bald eagles come home to roost will we sing a song of praise and indebtedness for our deliverance from evil or will we sing a song of sadness for the dreaded debt this mess delivered us PEOPLE.
Life these days can be so complex we don't make the time to stop and relfect I know from first hand experience one can go delerious seriously it can be like that But before I put my foot in my mouth 'cause that's what I'm about to start talkin about please let me confess before all the rest that I'm afflicted by this addicted like most in the US It's tough to make a living when you're an artist It's even tougher when you're socially conscious Careerism, opportunism can turn the politics into cartoonism Let's not patronize or criticize Let's open the door and look inside Pull the file on the state of denial
Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury Raise the Double Standard
The bass, the treble Don't make a rebel Havin' your life together does AMERICA has an image of a young one fast livin' not give an expletive no respect for his or the lives of those around him Suicidal, homicidal or at very least extremely unbridled How convenient for those who would like to destroy him The problem has never been our political logic but the way we enact it We can imagine a perfect society but can't maintain a decent relationship The failure found in the luxuries not in the hardships
Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury Raise the Double Standard
If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics I would tell you that sometimes it?s easier to desire And pursue the attention and admiration of 100 strangers Than it is to accept the love and loyalty of those closest to me
And I would tell you that sometimes I prefer to look at myself through someone else?s eyes Eyes that aren?t clouded with the tears of knowing What an asshole I can be, as yours are
If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics I might be able to listen in silence to your concerns Rather than hearing everything as an accusation Or an indictment against me
And I would tell you that sometimes I use sex to avoid communication It?s the best escape when we?re down on our luck But I can express more emotions than laughter, anger, and let?s fuck
If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics
If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics I would tell you that I pooped in my own dog dish And sometimes I would rather face not eating Than face licking it clean and admitting when I?m selfish
And I?d tell you that I?m suffering from the worst type of loneliness The loneliness of being misunderstood Or more poignantly the loneliness of being afraid To allow myself, to be understood
If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics I would tell you that the personal revolution Is far more difficult And is the first step in any revolution
If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics If ever I would stop thinking about music and politics
I would tell you that music is the expression of emotion And that politics is merely the decoy of perception
One Nation under God has turned into One Nation under the influence of one drug
Television, the drug of the Nation Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
T.V., it satellite links our United States of unconciousness Apathetic therapeutic and extremely addictive the methadone metronome pumping out a 150 channels 24 hours a day you can flip through all of them and still there's nothing worth watching
T.V. is the reason why less than ten percent of our Nation reads books daily Why most people think Central America means Kansas Socialism means unamerican and Apartheid is a new headache remedy
absorbed in it's world it's so hard to find us It shapes our minds the most maybe the mother of our Nation should remind us that we're sitting to close to. . .
Television, the drug of the Nation Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
T.V. is the stomping ground for political candidates Where bears in the woods are chased by Grecian Formula'd bald eagles
T.V. is mechanized politic's remote control over the masses co-sponsered by environmentally safe gases watch for the PBS special
It's the perpetuation of the two party system where image takes precedence over wisdom Where sound bite politics are served to the fastfood culture
Where straight teeth in your mouth are more important than the words that come out of it Race baiting is the way to get selected Willie Horton or Will he not get elected on . . .
Television, the drug of the Nation Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
T.V. is it the reflector or the director? Does it imitate us or do we imitate it Because a child watches 1500 murders before he's twelve years old and we wonder how we've created a Jason generation that learns to laugh rather than abhor the horror
T.V. is the place where armchair generals and quarterbacks can experience first hand the excitement of video warfare as the theme song is sung in the background
Sugar sweet sitcoms that leave us with a bad actor taste while pop stars metamorphosize into soda pop stars You saw the video You heard the soundtrack Well now go buy the soft drink Well, the only cola that I support would be a union C.O.L.A. (Cost of Living Allowance) On Television.
Television, the drug of the Nation Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation
Back again, "New and Improved", we return to our irregularly programmed schedule hidden cleverly between heavy breasted beer and car commericals
CNN ESPN ABC TNT but mostly B.S. Where oxymoronic language like "virtually spotless" "fresh frozen" "light yet filling" and "military intelligence" have become standard
T.V. is the place where phrases are redefined like "recession" to "necessary downturn" "crude oil" on a beach to "mousse" "Civilian death" to "collateral damages" and being killed by your own Army is now called "friendly fire"
T.V. is the place where the pursuit of happiness has become the pursuit of trivia Where toothpaste and cars have become sex objects Where imagination is sucked out of children by a cathode ray nipple T.V. is the only wet nurse that would create a cripple
Television, the drug of the Nation Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation On Television . . .
