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grenadine records american devices 25th anniversary cd lyrics in order of appearance:
1) BAY OF PIGS (INSTRUMENTAL)
(1980)
2) COALSHAFT
Racing down a highway with my head out a window,
Somebody had told me that that's America,
Racing down a highway with my head out a window,
Somebody had told me that that's the world,
There she was in a flash, testing the foundations to her new home,
Her husband took her picture, underneath the Arizona sage brush,
She died there; her house collapsed, an underground coalmine,
That was sold at a loss to some mobsters out of Vegas,
Nameless bodies in an open grave,
Nameless bodies saying we weren't saved,
Little people making up this country,
Little people in the schools & factories,
Little people making up this country,
Little people with all the money,
You better watch yourself, you better watch yourself sink.
(1981 Rob Labelle)
3) GOT THE FEELING IT'S...
Got the feeling it's a crash & a scream,
Got the feeling I'm a fucking asshole,
My name comes up & I feel put down,
Silhouettes in the dark makes a difference to me,
Treading lightly on things we have to say,
Voices cracking in a maze, got the feeling it's me,
Got the feeling it's around & around,
Got the feeling I'm a fucking asshole,
Give it up this way, go to work one day,
"We do it all for you" makes a difference to me,
Got the feeling I'm a clown of a clown,
Stacking tables in the rain, got the feeling it's me,
Well it's a rainy day, & it's a Saturday,
Well rainy day feeling making me go away,
Saturday low vision driving me unsafe.
(1981 Rob Labelle)
4) HITLER (INSTRUMENTAL)
(1979-1983)
5) MEANING OF LIFE
A song singing this moment, dismantled before it happens,
Me given one more chance before Nosferatu's door opens & time always wins,
Scratching my face with bandaged fingers on eleventh-hour stubble,
While elephant stories weigh down on my memory & I kneel with new demeanor,
Fill my trunk with sand balloons,
What is the meaning of life? There is no solution; we're all tiny animals, living out their own conclusions!
What is the meaning of life? There is no solution; we're all tiny animals, living in confusion!
(1979-1983 Rick Trembles & Rob Labelle)
6) THE DRUGS WE TAKE
The drugs we take have made all my decisions,
Follow everything I do & say & act so blindly,
In the field where we were stationed, forever,
The drugs we take have made all your decisions,
Follow everything I do & say & act so blindly,
In the field where we were stationed,
The radio couldn't pick up any stations,
The drugs we take have made all my decisions,
Follow everything I do & say & act so blindly,
In the field where we were stationed, forever,
The drugs we take have made all our decisions,
I'm feeling so upset, the days & nights we spend so blindly,
In the field where we were stationed,
The radio couldn't pick up any stations,
Around the corner is a banker with a motorcar,
The little children laugh at him behind his back,
And though it feels as if she's in a play,
She is anyway.
(1982 Rob Labelle)
7) SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION
The breakers on the beach stopped bringing me news,
About the new Reagan cuts and the same old bruises,
I got stuck on the ice like the Eskimo aged,
I stepped foot on a nation, spontaneous combustion,
So I tried to light a fire with the coals of my eyes,
But the books that I read had let my vision run dry,
I took a grain elevator to the fourth of July,
I stepped foot on a nation, spontaneous combustion.
(1980 Rob Labelle)
8) SOMEONE WE ONCE KNEW
Well it don't happen too often, My recollection of who we once were,
I said that I'd change it, my habits, my growth rate,
My patterns of speech,
All I have are changes on the outside,
The inside's left up to someone we once knew,
Well it don't happen too often, do a double back-flip,
Or watch a stone angel sing, I said that I'd change it, my habits, my growth rate,
My patterns of speech,
We're doing things like someone says we have to,
The choices left are that or being on my own,
All I have are changes on the outside,
The inside's left up to someone we once knew,
Do I know someone like, someone you should be talking to?
Do you know someone like… you know that someone might be you.
(1981 Rob Labelle)
9) TRIGGER OFF
I don't know what I'm missing when you keep things to yourself,
I wanna learn how to fool like that so I can get things somewhere else,
Children should be seen & not heard so they can learn how to cover up pain,
Now every day's an adventure for me I keep looking inside my brain,
When I'm imagining things they're not too kind & the kid in me says fine,
But when I'm working on you & everything's true the kid gets left behind,
Please bring out that kid in me before it grows up into a monster,
To kill you once & for all you see making you just another,
Trigger off something special it'll close up those open sores,
Trigger off something special because they've turned out to be bores.
(1983 Rick Trembles)
10) SEE MY WORLD
You gotta see, gotta see my world...
(1980 Rob Labelle)
11) PARTY POOPER
Charm works better when you are unaware, so go & set yourself up a couple of secret dares,
I'll take good care of boasting about having not yet been proven wrong,
That I'll be leader of what's happened only once it's been done & gone,
Simplest things used to make me happy, then you had to come & tell me
so much more would be nothing new to you,
Now I want you to be concerned without that consenting that we've earned,
no more apathy inducing cries for pity too,
Getting together with nothing to ask is trying to tell me what's not the answer,
why doesn't it make me do something new?
Wasting away without the know-how to capture what's recognized as a good escalator,
I never fucked anyone that feared me through & through,
Big daredevil on an escalator, I just took the stairs so I'll see you later.
(1986 Rick Trembles)
12) SUCK MY ROCKS
"I am a rock," says sixties songs & sick corporations,
Suck my rocks,
Everybody knows that's where life on earth came from,
The slanting rays of the setting sun,
Reflecting down on our early lives you know,
The slanting rays of the setting sun,
Casting doubt on American history,
Sodomy & Gomorrah, I'm alright,
Looking back towards tomorrow, stay out all night,
"I am a nation," no, no, nineteenth century navigation,
Suck my rocks,
Everybody knows that's where life on earth came from,
I remember one time when I was,
Skipping off school one day,
British bulldogs in my way,
And from then on I realized,
Inanimate objects possessed all the life they needed,
To put out my lights,
I am an insect crawling through mirrors of scrapbook generations,
Suck my rocks,
Everybody knows that's where life on earth came from.
(1983 Rob Labelle)
13) UXB
Looking out the window of my happy home,
Can't describe the reason I remain alone,
Nothing seems to work, at least it's the thing I remain above,
I know at least it's love,
Growing up all over in my own backyard, I fall inside a moment there,
A moment unaware, doesn't seem to care,
Nothing seems to work, at least it's the thing I remain above,
I know at least it's love,
Even though I know you can't see what you planted in me,
It's a UXB,
My little feelings grew from winter to September,
Got me seats on the bus like the Tropic of Cancer,
Exotic disease that's always well disguised,
Even though I know you can't see what you planted in me,
It's a UXB, Unexploded bomb.
(1982 Rob Labelle)
14) DECENSORTIZED
Iddy biddy power lovin' liberator, doing you & me a favor.
In this institute of harm avoidance hurting's just an intuitive annoyance not always mutually synchronized,
And so we ask not for confessions of any personal recessions,
beneficial or bourgeois but that we all be equalized. Liberation, liberation, liberation... liberate me!
And at your disposal are sensations of generic stock penetrations groping at some sort of duty memory,
Instead keep on sustaining cum-pensation, go & redefine some dead-ication,
And all the while do not prolong puberty so free & strong. Liberation, liberation, liberation... liberate me!
Neuter-lize my cerebellum with your quality truth serum. Decensortized, decensortized...
And so this will provide us less, much less, yeah...
Newfangled morals to confess, much less, yeah...
Not always mutually synchronized,
Why second guess & go defend what's best unseen,
Be more than willing make room for what's obscene. Liberation, Liberation, Liberation.
(1990 Rick Trembles)
15) SPACEY SEASICK
Stay awake, I don't know why you wanna go home,
There's no one there, so what you do you do on your own,
Libraries & pieces, pages,
Floating underneath the covers of your bed, awake,
I don't know why you wanna go home,
Walking over all other nations, here comes Spacey Seasick,
Radios & pieces, pages,
Floating underneath the covers of your bed,
Someone heard, someone said,
What is gone is gone,
What goes around comes around again,
I want a confrontation matching my sense of frustration,
I know it sounds emotional but now I'm talking from the one,
Now I'm talking in the very first person,
I woke up this morning & I found out I was thirty one,
Then I lost my job & now I'm camped out on the Whitehouse lawn.
(1990 Rob Labelle)
16) DEUSEXMACHINA
As the plot sickens & it's taking up some time, explanations & excuses getting harder to find,
Wondering if it's worth all the trouble to rewind or if the best thing to do is to leave it all behind,
Just one thing I would like to underline, I'll have to wipe you right off the face of my mind, just for a second...
I'm gonna pluck, pluck... You. All. From. Here. Plop you... Where. Ever. I. Want. Pluck, pluck. Plop, plop.
Something that I can't control, I've got no choice, no responsibilities & no remorse,
I know I'm interfering with nature's course but my mind from that important fact can quickly divorce,
Just one thing I would like to underline, I'll have to wipe you right off the face of my mind, just for a second...
No, no, don't pluck me out yet, I'm not finished! Shut up, your time has come, you had your chance,
But you don't understand, I got a certain way! Shut up, the day has arrived where I take my stance. Just for a second...
I'm gonna pluck, pluck... You. All. From. Here. Plop you... Where. Ever. I. Want. Pluck, pluck. Plop, plop.
Please... please... "stance" without the "sub" in front,
Take my stance, please.
(1992 Rick Trembles)
17) NAMBY PAMBY
Someone looks at you and they seem to say I love you, Or feed me well and I'll defend what you belong to.
Then I'll do the same and I'll look into your canine brain, You're telling me that summer's almost gone.
Oh my baby, you're a dandy, you're a namby pamby scene, A handy Andy in my pantry, I'm a mister in between.
And we did just what we wanted with our relations.
I feel your round jelly belly in the small of my back, I think I'm choking on our love, you pull me thru with heimlich.
Ding dong, left right, left right, sing this song, Ding dong, left right, left right, wrong.
You wanna know something? No, everything. O.K., Just wanted to be the smaller part of larger scene, you and me.
Now I been thinking, X-pectations are written on the back of a cigarette pack. Now I know...
The jelly-fish are sprouting all over the bed, I got another generation sprouting in my head.
Child beating parents say they don't know what they're doing, Got no way of controlling themselves.
While the wounds they inflict are meticulously covered, So the passer-by can never really tell.
Oh my baby... (repeat).
(1996 Rob Labelle)
18) WETMARE
Yes or no? Not that I know of. And by that I mean: You should know better.
If the gift of gab could make me blab, I wouldn't know how not to brag,
About the things that make me glad, have I been had?
No adequate disguiser for this phallic attitudinizer, no temporary curbing of this singular desire,
Lurking underneath where it won't get tired, 'til it's too late to flourish but that'll concentrate it higher,
Looming overhead, hovering up above, waiting to be jarred from the sleepiness it loves,
Kinda smug, kinda tall, no it hasn't done it all cuz it forgot to include me into it's tales so tall,
Memories keep haunting me of things fickle & sublime & I know that they will be replaced by newer ones in time,
Maybe in the absence of the old ones I will find the reasons why they wouldn't let me leave them all behind,
If the gift of gab could make me blab, I wouldn't know how not to brag,
About the things that make me sad, have I been had?
Yes or no? Not that I know of. And by that I mean: You should know better.
(1998 Rick Trembles)
19) SUDDEN DEARTH
Suddenly. Suddenly the earth. Was revolving around & around.
That mercenary attitude isn't helping me delude, it's just got to go, I don't mean to be rude,
Sudden dearth, sudden dearth. Join the army of reluctant abductees, not unnecessarily an endangered species,
Lead me off a cliff as if it makes a dif, push me, push me, push me, push me, push me, push me, push me, push me off!
Because it's my creation, because it's my creation. And I mean to be greedy & I want you to see me,
Taking over the gist of the collective proceedings,
Watch me now...
I was walking down the street one day,
When suddenly. The earth. Was revolving around & around:
Me.
And your seeds of trepidation planted inside my exclamation will take root only if we neglect that sensation,
Sudden dearth, sudden dearth. Join the army of reluctant abductees, not unnecessarily an endangered species,
Lead me off a cliff as if it makes a dif, push me, push me, push me, push me, push me, push me, push me, push me off!
Because it's my creation, because it's my creation. Let it sink in for good, time will tell me what it should,
As if it makes a dif, as if it ever could. "C", "R"..."E", "A"..."T", "I"..."O", "N"...
(1996 Rick Trembles)
20) FIFTY/FIFTY
My prized possession isn't following me home anymore,
The walls are closing in on all those puckering open sores,
We're only stalling for highs & lows, we got the gall nobody knows,
Excuses, excuses; fatal blow.
My prized possession isn't following me home anymore,
The walls are closing in on all those puckering open sores,
Stare at the wall the doors are closed,
Think of us all like you're supposed,
Excuses, excuses; fatal blow.
Used to think I was transparent so I could never tell a lie,
But that was all before we learned to die, now I lie.
(2004 Rick Trembles)
21) BIG BROWN WORLD
everything's crumbling around me down into the big brown world,
everything's become a jigsaw brownie ever since i started,
tried to be a part of, had to be a part of this world,
and i've been floating on a sea of faces in the land of the setting sun,
though i know we're all quite replaceable,
something tells me somewhere's gotta be the one.
emmanuel said to danté get out of the underworld,
danté said i can't, i'm non communicaté ever since i started,
tried to be a part of, had to be a part of this world,
and i've been floating on a sea of faces in the land of the setting sun,
though i know we're all quite replaceable,
something tells me somewhere's gotta be the one.
and it's not really cloudy, it's hazy, but rainy in my mind,
and I'm not really happy, despite my education,
gimme, gimme all the time.
everybody's trying to tell me something, pointing to the end of the world,
sending tiny cracks through the rock of gibraltar ever since i started,
tried to be a part of, had to be a part of this world,
and i've been floating on a sea of faces in the land of the setting sun,
though i know we're all quite replaceable,
something says this summer's gonna be the one.
And it's not really cloudy, it's hazy, but rainy in my mind,
and I'm not really happy, despite my education,
gimme, gimme all the time.
(2004 Rob Labelle)
22) BUNCO UNCTION
I'm going to invade you & you're gonna like it too,
From my candyglass-bottomed boat in a moat, my bottom feeders can cope,
I'm going to invade you & you're gonna like it too,
From my candyglass-bottomed boat in a moat, where "bigger is better" is rote,
Open your mouth & close your eyes & you will get a big surprise:
American Device.
Can't see the forest for the trees, what my brain thinks it sees,
From my fishbowl built to appease, makes me quite ill at ease,
Open your mouth & close your eyes & you will get a big surprise:
American Device.
Bunco!
I'm going to invade you & you're gonna like it too,
From my candyglass-bottomed boat in a moat, close up the drawbridge & mope:
American Device.
Can't see the forest for the trees, solution is a breeze,
Hair of the dog that bit if you please & then get on your knees,
Open your mouth & close your eyes & you will get a big surprise:
American Device.
(2004 Rick Trembles)