Ströer lyrics album

Ströer Bros. & Fine - Voodoo Travel (2010)

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DAY BY DAY WE DRIFT AWAY
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Day by day, we drift away.
We stay, we play,
we try to be the ones we are:
Ain't we all, ain't we all?

You can journey
past the limits of time and place,
but there ain't no escaping
from the human race.
Can nothing stop this madness
but a stone that falls from space?
How can mankind ever recover
from this endless fall from grace?

Cave bear's claw caught
great-grandpa's nape.
It's natural law,
there's no escape.
'Cause when superman
casts off his cape,
he's just another naked ape.

Eyes unclosed, jaws agape,
lies exposed on videotape.
Can nothing stop this madness
but a stone that falls from space?
How can we ever recover
from this endless fall from grace?

Kill the lights, see the sights:
Pilgrims ride beyond inside.
The dream we dream
is the world we make,
we sew her seam
each breath we take.

Spheres unknown
we roll and riddle,
joyful moan of Voodoo Travel.
In bus we trust, ain't that enough?
There is no bus
'cause the bus - is us!

Day by day, we drift away.
We stay, we play,
we try to be the ones we are:
Ain't we all, ain't we all?

You can journey
past the limits of time and place,
but there ain't no escaping
from the human race.
Can nothing stop this madness
but a stone that falls from space?
How can mankind ever recover
from this endless fall from grace?

Kill the lights, see the sights:
Pilgrim ride beyond inside
The lives we led
seven roads to take,
let's spin new thread,
for heaven's sake.

What's mis-sewn we two unravel,
joyful moan of Voodoo Travel.
In bus we trust, ain't that enough?
Don't need no bus
'cause the bus - is us!

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INBREATH OUTBREATH
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The collective suicide has been
averted. Whew, that was a close
call. Glad we made it. So break out
the peanut butter and the bourbon
whiskey. We've earned ourselves a
little snack, folks!

Inspiration, expiration:
A little death ends every breath.
Till diaphragm descends anew
and belly-breath delivers you.
Beyond first gasp, past last sigh:
Livingdying I and I

Brind blood brew ebbs and flows,
each inbreath outbreath
star to toes.
Further south, out the mouth,
everybody's body comes and goes.

Inspiration, expiration:
A little death ends every breath.
Till diaphragm descends anew
and belly-breath delivers you.
Beyond first gasp, past last sigh:
Livingdying I and I.

Breathless, deathless,
on the threshold,
specious epos Adam's flesh told
Homo sapiens' flash in the pan:
Amphigory story of man.

Phantasmagoric allegory
Gory glory great die-off
Drab smack dab
in Peak Petroleum:
On the brink,
I think we're going extinct.

Inspiration, expiration:
A little death ends every breath.
Till diaphragm descends anew
and belly-breath delivers you.
Beyond first gasp, past last sigh:
Livingdying I and I.

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THE ORACLE HAS ANSWERED
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The oracle has answered
in words no tongue can speak.

I met a sage, who said, "To tell the
truth, the heaven of age is the hell
of youth."

He said,
"Some get old, some get high,
some give up before they try.
Some love a lot, some love hype,
others rot before they're ripe.
Some live alone, some live a lie,
some start to moan before they
cry. Some take a chance, some take
their time, some learn to dance,
some yearn to rhyme. Some turn
the page, some turn the cheek,
some burn with rage, some learn
to speak. Some seek a light they
can never find, carry the night in
their own mind. Some seek treasure
some seek gain, some find pleasure
in another's pain. I said some seek
treasure, some seek gain, some find
pleasure in another's pain."

The oracle has answered
 in words no tongue can speak:
None but the voice of the trumpet
can give you what you seek.

Low-life seeking creatures,
walk on, by the end of the line.
Low-life seeking creatures,
jumping out, cutting the time.

Are you on the phone
more than on your own?
To which virtual vices
are you habitually prone?
When they speak with you in
counsel
by what name are you known?
If it's answers that you're seeking
you shall find them in your bones!

Low-life seeking creatures, walk on,
by the end of the line.
Low-life seeking creatures, jumping
out, cutting the time.

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STAY ON COURSE TOWARD THE SOURCE
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All we gotta get is out,
out of our own way.

Are you still a pilgrim
or have you become the path?
If you meet the Buddha, ask him
how to soother Jehova's wrath
and end the ancient riddle
of the empty sentient middle.
Stay on course toward the source.

Thirsty for salvation, we're the
thirst and we're the cure,
living lives as fish or fishers when,
in fact, we are the lure.
By force of faith or fate,
we struggle to endure;
far fiercer love than hate,
long muddled shall be pure.

What role does the body play?
Never the same as yesterday.
Body's where we live and die;
this is the seer, this is the eye.
Lourdes and Mecca, Wailing Wall,
Timbuktu, Katmandu:
Each one waits in bone and cell
Heaven is here and so is hell.

Are you still a seeker
or have you become the sought?
If you meet the seller, ask him
how to lose the self you bought
and become the deathless dancer's
beatific breathless answers.

Stay on course toward the source.
We'll stay on course.
Winged horse, wisdom's source.

Pining for enlightenment
we're the patient and the leach,
repeating lives as learners though
there's nothing left to teach.
Snatch at phantom straws
floating out of reach,
natural fairy law's
impossible to breach.
What lock fits no-mind's key?
Ever the game of "You and Me."
No-mind's free to laugh or cry,
savannah tree: that ape am I.

Lourdes and Mecca, Wailing Wall,
Timbuktu, Katmandu:
Each one waits in bone and cell,
heaven is here and so is hell.

Outer space fuels inner flight.
Way out of sight.
One last chance to set it right.
Way out of sight.
We've got to get
out of our own way.
Outside, way out of sight.

By force of faith or fate,
body's where we live and die.
This is the seer, this is the eye.
By force of faith or fate,
are you still a pilgrim
or have you become the path?
And solve the endless riddle
of the awesome breathing middle.

Outer space fuels inner flight.
Way out of sight.
One last chance to set it right.
Way out of sight.
We've got to get
out of our own way.
Outside, way out of sight.

Third eye open, second sight.
Way out of sight.
One eye, body full of light.
Way out of sight.
We've got to get
out of our own way.
Outside, way out of sight.

Stay on course toward the source.

All thats implode in only this, nursed
and cursed by the spoken word.
Oh mother tongue! Not forked,
but double-edged. The poet, talking
about the moon, is not the moon:
or is he? It's easy to be in two places
at once when you're already
everywhere. If Taliesin could do it,
we can, too. So we gotta geek asking:
Who, who, who am I? working in
the grime, lurking under rhyme,
hurting all the time even when it feels
good. Go ahead and groan with the
goddamn pain of it all. Take it in,
chew it small. Take what you need,
make it part of yourself... and let go!

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ON THE SHORES
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This is the bliss we're feeling.
This is love when it turns to speech.
This is the kiss of healing.
This is wholly withing our reach.

All along the black sand beach,
all along the white sand beach:
Dreamwaves wash up toys
to amuse us here.
Sorcery is the source
of the urge to search,
discovering the disc
of the mind's mandala.

This is the bliss we're feeling.
This is love when it turns to speech.
This is the kiss of healing.
This is the message from all to each.

Sun and stars looking down,
looking in, looking out...
Looking on in, looking on out.

Eggstones caught in cliffcave crack.
Sea-edge seals afloat in surf.
Tidal talk, the lunar machine.
Planet pulse, the ultimate bass.

La maison inconnue,
la belle mer m'a reconnu.
Angels hover over Eden
with their Persian eyebrows raised.
La maison inconnue
la belle mer m'a reconnue.

We grow like berries,
wear our bower, clad in love.
This is the bliss we're feeling.
This is love when it turns to speech.

She'd love to share her secret,
but cannot break the spell,
so she sits inside her seashell,
where it roars, where it roars.
She dreams beneath her apple,
while the cat combs out his whisker.
And no doubt she knows the answer
to the question no one asks her.

But the box cannot be opened
until the word is spoken.
So in the nevermorning,
in the watches of the starnight,
she must sleep inside her seashell
and dream of mares and stallions
on the shores, on the shores,
where it roars, where it roars.

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NEWS FROM NOWHERE
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Hungry roaring metal birds
exhaust the naive sky, perch on
grassless welts of ten-lane dead-end
runway. Concrete scars cross
fertile bulgeland, bury living
ghostfaces in a pavement race to
nowhere.

Take your sorrow to the sun.
Give your tears back to the moon.
Have you heard the news
from nowhere lately?

Welcome to the oracle,
ask the sibyl what she says:
In the fusion of communion,
when the I becomes the We.

A cherished chance
or a charity case,
a dizzying dance,
a call from grace:
Lift faith's veil
and kiss fate's face -
outrageous dangerous
fall from grace.

No longer elsewhere seek the light.
That lie is wearing thin.
The distant destined pilgrim site
can be revived within.

The miracle that conquers fear:
Wield the power of the seer.
That voice that all first die to hear
whispers in your ear.
Truth shall tell the turtle's shell,
spell words birds write
while in flight.
Tongue the honey of the only,
when the lie ceases to be!

Next stop: the swimming hole.
Be sure to take your sunglasses, folks,
and don't forget to leave an offering.
You can hang your wet underwear
over the grille of the buss if you get
back here soon enough.
So soak away your sins in the
soothing sulfur springs.
Welcome, folks, to Aqua Caliente!

A cherished chance
or a charity case,
a dizzying dance,
a call from grace:
Lift faith's veil
and kiss fate's face -
outrageous dangerous
fall from grace.

What we craved is what we thought
could soothe us in the grave.
Thought bravely sought, all came to sought,
'cause what we got is what we gave.

Take your sorrow to the sun.
Give your tears back to the moon.
Have you heard the news
from nowhere lately?
Welcome to the oracle.
Be like sibyls, dare to see:
When the I becomes the We.

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WORDLESS LOVE
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Unloved, to drift through life's my fate;
Of rights deprived, in disrespect,
Exiled forever from Love's fair state.
On Love's fairest I dote: damned and elect.

Never my feeble tongue reveals
Nor may a stolen glance confess,
No sigh escapes this breast that feels
What pauper heart dares to possess.

Solace in stranger night I take,
When the long void day expires;
To the dark I confide my secret desires.

Nightwatch creeps past, in dreams I wake,
When the long void day resumes;
While wordless Love, murderess Love, my heart consumes.

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GHOST TOWN SQUARE DANCE
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Old sagging flesh so lame
Oppose attriting time in vain
To Love and strive
A losing battle - still - will
Undefeated - struggles hard
Resistance is its own reward
Incarnate again - familiar grind
Chart the changes, tame the mind
Choose your partners,
darn your gown
It's the only dance in town.

Double-wide trailers,
straighten your bola tie.
Population, elevation:
take your pick.
Girls in pink pinafores
and boys in clean jeans.
This hotel's a hellhole
and your host's a ghost.

Our pate's short shorn
'cause we're native-born.
Sippin' hundred-proof corn
from dusk to morn.
We dug gold ore
till there was no more.
shut the general store
and barred up the door.

Call it civilization
or whatever you please:
Greed past need's
a pandemic disease.
We got boot-cut jeans and SUVs.
Park your truck in the shade of the cottonwood trees.
Just a fly swat, flea bit,
used to have a name:
Nobody but the bedbugs
and yourself to blame.

Hey hey hey hey
We dug for ore
Hey hey hey hey
Till there was no more

So we furled the flag
and hobbled the nag,
stuffed the calico cat
in the carpet bag.
Hooves, boots, eighteen-wheelers:
Hundred years
just a flash in the pan.

Moccasins, boots, eighteen-wheelers:
A hundred years
just a flash in the pan.
Ping sequined suits,
users & dealers,
hunger, fear,
lust & passion of man.

Sippin' hundred-proof corn
from dusk to morn,
tumbleweed, Bibles to read.
We needed dough
and we baked our bread.
We needed to go -
and now we're dead.

Hey hey hey hey
We dug for ore
Hey hey hey hey
Till there was no more

Speak, speak freely,
in our own rhyme and time,
in our own place and music,
with the angels, divine:
We're not here to be all alone.

Tumbleweed, Bibles to read,
preachers and prisons
and god-awful words,
passenger pigeons
and buffalo herds.
So we furled the flag
and hobbled the nag,
stuffed the calico cat in the carpet bag.
Call it civilization
or whatever you please:
Greed past need's
a pandemic disease.
We got boot-cut jeans and SUVs.
Park your truck in the shade
of the cottonwood trees.
Population, elevation:
take your pick.
We needed dough
and we baked our bread.
We needed to go -
and now we're dead.

Speak, speak freely,
in our own rhyme and time,
in our own place and music,
with the angles, divine:
And the lion shall lie down
with the lamb!

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THE GOAL OF SOUL
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Knees black and blue, crawling to you:
It's the sound we make, every breath we take.
Please take us through, calling to you:
Mournful sound we make, every breath we take.
Hate cannot last for long:
Like the violence of the wrong,
Hubris of the strong.

Ease on the ground, peace all around:
No more sound we make, but the breaths we take.
Separateness cease, egos release:
No more sound we make, but the breaths we take.
Love's been here all along:
In the islands of the dawn,
Eyelids of the fawn.

We hide in a crowd, fly on the dance floor,
All we can hope for is now to be found;
We ride on a cloud, our tongue is a trapdoor,
All we can hope for: know the Oversoul.

We ride on a cloud, rightly deserving,
Nothing reserving, proud to be loud;
We stride down the aisle, our bride's by the altar,
Love is what rap's for: she's the goal of soul.

It's always on my mind.
It's always on my mind.
It's always on my mind.

Tranquility is an ability, a karma-burning skill,
So lose those shoes and chill;
Serenity weds eternity, black-wholed into bliss,
So hug this Third Ball Out world,
Shed head, come taste Earth's kiss.

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SPEECH SURRENDERS
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I met a raccoon, his face a mask,
he said,"The answer you get
is the question you ask.
'Cause just like a butterfly
caught in the net,
the question you ask
is the answer you get."

There came a dove, astride a steed,
she said,"The flame of love
is the power you need."
I met a bat with leathern wings,
said,"This and that:
not two different things."
I met a cat, she made me an offer,
"I bet you a song for a single pauper."
Met a mockingbird
with a feathered cap,
said,"The slickest word's
the stickiest trap."
Met a crow with a robin's egg,
said,"Starve or steal, but never beg.
Only a fool is afraid to ask
whose tool he is, and for what task."

Caught each thought, packed it dense.
Beyond the sound is found in sense.
Sought the sound
and found the sense.
Where speech surrenders,
song begins.
It's a zero-sum game, everybody wins.
Speech released and song began
when first we realized:"Yes, we can!"
Now release the though
and set it free,
least mind be caught in poetry.
We're all pilgrims on this big ball:
I said my piece, now heed the call!

Speech surrenders, zero-sum game,
everybody wins.
Speech surrenders, beyond the sound
is found in sense.
Speech surrenders.

Brujo raccoon removed his mask,
quipped,"The answer you get
is the question you ask."
Caterpillar cocooned
in Psyche's net,
rapped,"What you're not's
what you ain't yet."
Met a snake, we made a slow deal,
"Swap an acre of fake
for a snowflake of real."
Met a mockingbird
with a feathered cap,
said,"The slickest word's
the stickiest trap."
Supersonic bat on silent wings
meant,"Mind & matter
ain't different things."
Shrieked a chimp downhill
in a shopping cart:
"Ain't no stopping once we start.
Only a fool is afraid to ask
Whose tool he is and for what task.
So blithely chirp like cheery birds
wisely perched
past reach of words!"

Speech surrenders, zero-sum game,
everybody wins.
Speech surrenders, beyond the
sound is found the sense.
Speech surrenders.

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MERGER WITH THE VOID
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Stardust! The Vishnu aspect. My
continued existence depends upon
and is made possible by an ongoing
creative act. The Big Bang is now,
too. The elements of my body are
the elements of the cosmos. the
environment and I are not two
different things. What I do to the
Earth, I do to myself. What I do to
myself, I do to the earth, to the
water, to all my relations

Cast away.. Merger with the void.

Stardust! Radio tuned to eternity.
Hearts impaled on pairs of legs in
the cannibal banquet of being in
flesh. Everybody's somebody's
breakfast someday.

Out of the boat, out of the craft,
alone with my thoughts
Out of my heart, out of my bones,
far from the start

Out of the boat, out of the craft,
alone with my past
Out of the world, out of my mind,
away from my kind

Sudden sunray sears my iris,
Stars wheel in endless whirls,
Pierces my egg of eye,
Wonder if I'm here at all.

Wind blows as well without me,
Stars whirl if I'm here or not,
Sun and moon immune to mercy,
Don't care if live or die.

Heaven rocks with rolling thunder,
Stars wheel in endless whirls,
Wake us from the spell we're under,
Wonder if I'm here at all.

Wind blows as well without me,
Stars whirl if I'm here or not
Sun and stars immune to mercy,
Don't care if I live or die.

Sudden sunray sears my iris,
Stars wheel in endless whirls,
Pierces my egg of eye,
Wonder if I'm here at all.

Wind blows as well without me,
Stars whirl if I'm here or not,
Sun and moon immune to mercy,
Don't care if I live or die.

The elements of my body are the
elements of the cosmos. The
environment and I are not two
different things. What I do to the
Earth, I do to myself. What I do to
myself, I do to the earth, to the
water, to all my relations.

Cast away. Mu!

Phoebe picks my brains. Deep
breaths. Beyond Inktomi Spider is
the void. Spider mother is a form.
The void is formless, mother of all
forms. Merger with the void. Mu!

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DARWIN'S MASTERFUL STUNT
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We copulate and populate, clustered in cluttered colonies like cultures of bacterial clones.
Let's graduate and adulate no longer self-made gods, defeat our nether nature and beat
overwhelming odds. Our world is well aware of us, but are we well aware of our world?
So seldom do we dare or care to play or stray or stay away,
beyond the hives and lives we make, beyond the dates and mates we take.

Keep the jobless pacified with late-break heart-break tabloid news of celluloid
android screen queens' plastic-surgered lip & nip & nose jobs.

Hi, we're zombies!

Keep the jobless gratified, lip-served fast-fed soundbite clips of video prefab look-alive jive
'bout the larger-than-life-size cyclamate sex lives of wide-eyed citified politicians' wives.
What they don't know won't help 'em, so...

Oho, tease our curls, please our pearls, zombie girls.
Oho, make more noise, break more toys, zombie boys.

Justice, love and rage: all blind.
Lost in the loop of eye-for-eye mind.
Tooth for tooth makes men's jaws blunt.
Nasty Darwin's snazzy masterful stunt.
Hi!

Keep the jobless zombified, hypnotized, anesthetized & uninspired, real lives, wasted, pasted,
wired, glued to glowing scene screens, all the while ill-informed about the real facts of life.
Hi, we're zombies!

Let's graduate and adulate no longer self-made gods,
Defeat our nether nature and beat overwhelming odds.
Those sacred cows, those vows we broke:
Is Job just Jehova's practical joke?
Past measure is the pleasure when we heed the call:
Quit sinning, get grinning, on our spinning ball!

Oho, close my eyes, lose my lies, proselytize.
Oho, well I wake, spell I break, hell forsake.

Justice, love and rage: all blind.
Lost in the loop of eye-for-eye mind.
Tooth for tooth makes men's jaws blunt.
Nasty Darwin's snazzy masterful stunt.

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PIPEDREAM'S PUFF
********************************************************************************************************

When I first plied this pilgrim's trade,
Amusement was the game I played;
All jest and zesty cavalcade,
Of consequences unafraid;
A merry marching masquerade
Of maidens who could never fade;
In answer to the prayers I prayed,
Odd plod: toward God, all promenade.

When I first plied this pilgrim's trade,
Amusement was the game I played;
A merry marching masquerade,
In answer to the prayers I prayed;
But now that welcome's overstayed:
Meek mud regrets the escapade.
All jest as zesty bets are laid,
Of consequences unafraid.
Odd plod, toward God, all promenade
And none can shun the cavalcade.
But now frail prayer's unheard, unprayed:
Meed mud regrets the escapade.

Life is brief.
Time's a thief.
Sweet to live.

It's our chance to take.
It's our choice to make.
It's our voice to wake.
It's our woe to slake.

What do wolves dream about? Wolves dream of hunger and running.
Wolves dream of the good old days, when the Milky Way was bright
in the speckled sky. Wolves dream of weeping and licking wounds.
When wolves' dreams come true, paradise returns.

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FRUITFLY, MULTIPLY!
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From the nameless edge of the universe,
To the utmost depths of bad to worse;
From the painless hope of voodoo curse,
To the horseless rider of zombie hearse.

Now I lay me down to sleep, pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I die before I wake, pray the Lord my soul to take.
And if I wake before I die, may this word be the reason why.

Space womb cradle crib highchair chair rockingchair wheelchair gurney...

Fruitfly, multiply! just do it - don't ask why.
Fruitfly, get up high - come on, it's worth a try.
White row, tidal flow - how low can we go?
Test screen, plastic gene - bye-bye, Holocene.
Fruitfly, multiply! just do it - don't ask why.
Fruitfly, get up high - come on, it's worth a try.
Black owl, prefab soul - fly by, tell us why.
Test screen, plastic gene - bye-bye, Holocene.

When two lovers each go their own way,
Nothing left to salvage, nothing left to say,
Only that we loved and lost,
Now we count the cost,
Only that we tried and failed to last another day.

When a heart breaks in a thousand bits,
Can't be reassembled, can't be coaxed to fit,
Only time and tears to cry,
Rhymes all say goodbye,
Only empty afternoons and nights that just won't quit.

When it's over, what else can we do?
Sift through heaps of falsehood searching for the true.
While each memory slips the hand,
Hopes all built on sand.

Fruitfly, multiply! just do it - don't ask why.
Fruitfly, get up high - come on, it's worth a try.
White row, tidal flow - how low can we go?
Test screen, plastic gene - bye-bye, Holocene.
Fruitfly, multiply! just do it - don't ask why.
Fruitfly, get up high - come on, it's worth a try.
Black owl, prefab soul - fly by, tell us why.
Test screen, plastic gene - bye-bye, Holocene.

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I WAS DOWN ON THE EARTH
********************************************************************************************************

What sort of shrine did you have in mind? I can guess the thoughts you're thinking!
Wouldn't you rather drive a Lincoln? The chasm between us is the dream we share.
Crawl to the edge, take a peek, if pilgrimage is what you seek. You and your money
already are parted. Will you end up whole or brokenhearted?

If life's too fast reset the pace: another rat, another race. Sagebrush around us,
mesas on our minds, tuned to cosmic channels, we're all feeling fine. "Quiet out here,
ain't it?" Sure was, till you broke it.

Now I'm here, to come along,
Show me the face before I was born.
Walking out, in the sun, today.
Now I'm here, I've been around,
Coming from the underground.
Straight I'm walking here this way.
Have you seen my time machine?
Flying me right in the scene.
Soon I'll be going back down and away.

In the time when the nights were dark.
I was down on the Earth.
When the bite came before the bark.
I was down on the Earth.
In the days before Noah's ark.
I was down on the Earth.
Sing in praise of the cartilage shark.
I was down on the Earth.

Now I'm here to come along,
Show me the place where I was born.
Walking out in the sun, today.
Now I'm here, I've been around,
Coming from the underground.
Straight I'm walking here this way.
Have you seen my time machine?
Flying me right in the scene.
Soon I'll be going back down and away.

The earth that trickles through these hands ain't worth a
nickel, understand? And yet, though fickle, life is grand.
So when it tickles, join the band. We're all just pilgrims
on this big ball. I've said my piece, now heed the call!

Asleep awake, it seems so deep. Is it real or is it fake?
Stay attuned and learn to feel. Kiss the wound so it can heal.

In the time when the nights were dark.
I was down on the Earth.
When the bite came before the bark.
I was down on the Earth.
In the days before Noah's ark.
I was down on the Earth.
Sing in praise of the cartilage shark.
I was down on the Earth.