NEW (ish) SONG LYRICS

Banged out some new lyrics. Okay....slight exaggeration. They've been floating around in my head from anywhere between 2 or 3 months and over a decade. But you know, when you can't get rid of the noise in your head, there's really only one answer, and that's to put it out in the world. Aren't you lucky?

So, officially, then, welcome to the first new blog of 2019....

EVERYBODY KNOWS

Everybody Knows

that the deck is stacked and the pigs are laughing

Everybody Knows

Even the white hats are bought and sold

Everybody Knows

The arc of history is long and pointless

Everybody Knows

all this shit is getting old

Everybody Knows

that it's game over and you get nothing

Everybody Knows

you eat shit at the end of the day

Everybody Knows

that when they smile they're not your friends

Everybody Knows

Past the facade they've got zero to say

Everybody Knows

the temptation's great to pack it in and go home

Everybody Knows

it's too fucked up to work anymore

Everybody Knows

the night won't end but the sun also rises

Everybody Knows

you've gotta find a reason to get out the door

“Everybody Knows” came to me in a dream. Quit laughin', it happens. My zine came to me in a dream, and that was actually a thing for a while. In the dream, I was trying to join my “band” on an outdoor stage. I was having to crawl across this metal grating that was suspended ten feet over the ground and I was having to crawl out on my hands and knees. The band blew through the first couple of numbers in the set while I struggled out, and the bassist, a small woman with a moss green dye-job, took over yelling duties. When I finally made it to the stage they handed me the mic and I yelled this song (note that I always refer to it as “yelling” rather than “singing”), never getting up from my hands and knees. The song has haunted me for a couple of months, now, so there it is. The only line I really solidly had was the last one---Yeah, life is shit but you gotta man up and keep goin'. Existential-Core.

UNDEAD WAGE SLAVE

The speed of the cycle is starting to slacken

the spokes of the wheel are cold and cracking

You don't wanna be the just-home headline

when these defects start to unwind

CHORUS:

And in the night

While you're going to sleep

We come back, we come back

We come back, we come back

The pace of the cycle's too fast to manage

the center of the wheel is hot and damaged

a few more junkers thrown on the scrap heap

one more mongoose screaming for upkeep

CHORUS

If this one doesn't work they can suck me

The center of the wheel is white and fluffy

it ain't like all of the brickbats 'll hurt me

It's coming up on beer thirty

The exit might be a little too bumpy

we go to the ground, it's called winning ugly

If you don't think the dead come alive

You should see the place at quitting time

CHORUS

REPEAT CHORUS

This one's been kicking around my head for well over a decade at this point and it was too strong to resist. The genesis of it was inspired back in the day when the Rude were making the rounds and I'd occasionally try to pen lyrics for them. This one was always floating around just below the surface.

The two songs that actually provided me with rhythmic templates, weirdly enough, were “Bloodsucker” by Deep Purple and “Distant Illusion” by Flipper. Contradictory pairing? Maybe, whatever. It worked for me.

The imagery might seem obtuse and surreal. Most people who knew me back then will read this and know the references and get where I'm coming from because I spent 11 years working graveyard shift in a wheel factory. I think it goes over better if you DON'T know that. “What the hell is this 'wheel'? Some kind of metaphor?!" No----it's just a wheel, ponyboy, but whatever your read is, it's probably more interesting than mine.

WHITE KNIGHT

You're a white knight and you're on the make

but you'll play it cool and you ain't gonna fake

You've got plans

You've got plans

You're gonna treat her right and show you're a man

You're a white knight, regular paragon of chivalry

you've got cred, you even voted for Hillary

You've got plans

You've got plans

You even pimped out your shitty old van

CHORUS:

You're such a nice guy, uh-huh

you're such a nice guy, uh-huh

such a nice guy

'til she tells you “No”

You're a white knight and you've worked on your lines

Cry on my shoulder, baby I got the time

You've got plans

You've got plans

She's gonna be eating out of your hands

CHORUS

You're a white knight with egg on your face

Big night down the drain, what a disgrace

You had plans

You had plans

Now you've gotta a hot date with your right hand

CHORUS

A big trope with the S.E. Apocalypse Krew was a whole slew of Guy-who-can't-get-laid songs. As far as what made it out onto the album, “Keep Walking” is probably the big example. “Melissa” and “First Stare” also edge into that territory but not really. One back in the 80s and 90s we did that also wound up having a couple of different demo versions (of varying quality) was one called “Dog Boy”, which I always jokingly referred to as our “Bon Jovi Song”----it was certainly one of our more accessible numbers---but it kind of tread the waters of “miserable sad sack develops a crush on this chick and gets nowhere”----all done kind of humorously with some great, funny lines (I thought so, anyway). For every “Keep Walking” and “Dog Boy”, though, there were half a dozen similar ideas half-written, with titles like “Looking for Rejection”, “Jeal-Lousy” and “The Night is for Lovers”, which eventually evolved into a short story...we went to that well a lot, and I guess my attitude is, if you're going to go to that well you need to make it a little different and new....

“White Knight” might be kind of a related item and it popped into my head, likewise, late last year and became a thing...so I came up with the idea of a song about “nice guys”, who-----when you scratch the surface just a little, are really just dicks. The title was gonna be there, no matter what, because it was too apropos to leave alone. The obvious tie in with Incel/Red Piller culture is there, and as I've said a few times before, I've got no love for that kind of toxic mindset. But obviously----what can you do? The whole “White Knight” trip is an actual thing----you trot it out and everyone knows exactly what it is and nobody likes it-----even the guys who ARE “white knights” don't like it.

The rhythmic template going through my head for this one was early Plasmatics tunes, primarily ones like “Master Plan”, “Butcher Baby” and “Headbanger”. Ran it by the Missus, who looked at it an immediately identified it as kind of “a kickass punk rock tune....I could see an all-girl outfit doing this, like Easy Hate Coven....”

Yeah, there you go----Happy 2019.

Song lyrics copyright 2019 C.F. Roberts/ Molotov Editions. Extraneous ramblings courtesy of your Mama.

THIS WEEK'S PLAYLIST:

BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE-METHODRONE

BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE-STRUNG OUT IN HEAVEN

BLUE OYSTER CULT-SECRET TREATIES

BLUE OYSTER CULT-SPECTRES