top of page

RIOT ON SPAGHETTI DRIVE

 

COOKIE JAR

Well I work
At the pizza house downtown
I administer the meatballs
With some measure of renown
When the floor gets dirty
I take out my trusty mop
And watch you through the window
Over in the cookie shop
Now I love the way that apron
Hugs your little hips
And I'd love for you to hold me
Like you hold those chocolate chips
I'm standing in the window, baby 
Turn around and take a look
Maybe we can get together
One of these days and cook

And I know
My sugary dreams have gone too far
I gotta go
Roaming through your cookie jar

Now I know it's gonna be tough for me
To get my point across
You don't want your sweet, sweet fingers
Getting messed up with tomato sauce
You prefer that fine French pastry
With that fancy filling inside
That stuff might look good
But it won't keep you satisfied


Chorus

My heart's burned in the third degree
Split open and unpeeled
I just want to rest my head
In the flower of your field
You've got my system spinning 
On a lemon drop alert
I'll be your crunch
I'll be your cream
I'll be your one dessert


 

EVERYBODY WOKE UP GREEN

It happened overnight
No one knows quite why
Maybe all that ozone
Missing from the sky
But come the morning hours
By the dawn's early light
Every face looking in the mirror
Got a most surprising sight
Green, green, green
Everybody woke up green

Now the cops out in Los Angeles
Angrily confessed
They said how the hell are we
Gonna know who to arrest?
And all across America
They said hang on a second wait
How we gonna know
Who we're supposed to hate?

Green, green, green
Everybody woke up green

Now the conservatives blamed the liberals
Who blamed the government
And the government said
We will we won't, it's kinda hard to say
But there's gonna be some action soon
Right after the first snowfall in June
Just wake me up baby, please, on election day

Now questions they come easy
But answers they come hard
'Cause everyone wants justice
But not in their backyard
And nothing's really changed
Since these strange events
Because there is no proper color
To cover ignorance

Green, green, green
Everybody woke up green


 

LIVIN' LIKE A KING

In the morning
You'd be stomping through the kitchen
In your combat boots
Burning the last stale bit of bread
You'd insist I eat your cooking
But when you weren't looking
I would dream about
Making it myself instead

In the evening
You'd propagate misinformation
Through your crooked yellow teeth
Thinking I believed you when I did not
Were you caught off guard and unaware
When I pushed you down the stairs
Laughing with every little bump you got

Since you've been gone
There's been a lot of change
The coldest days of winter
Are the newest days of spring
Since you've been gone
Everything is rearranged
And I've been living like a king

'Cause I am free
Your occupation it is ended
The cavalry is gone 
And I'm marching to the beat
Of my own drum
Could you sense all my frustration
Caused by your strangulation
Of everything
I ever wanted to become

Chorus

I don't need
A castle with its battle flags
I'll live out on the plains
And what's in the corner of my eye
Is evergreen

I am my only majesty
The lord of all my liberty
And if that's not paradise
It's the closest thing I've seen


 

AM I IN LOVE (WITH SOMEONE LIKE YOU)

In a dirty nasty part of town
The kind of place they'll cut you down
And leave you bleeding on the ground
Alone and left for dead
There was a guy who knew his chemistry
They say he had a PhD
Or maybe some kind of degree
In things we'll leave unsaid

And so much better than cocaine
He made a drug to kill the pain
The pain left by a lover
That can tear someone apart
It could empty from your mind
Any thought that you might find
Any feeling that might bind
Someone to your heart

Am I in love
Am I in love
Am I in love
Can this really be true?
Am I in love
Am I in love
He called it Am I In love
With Someone Like You?

Things went well he had to laugh
He hired an accounting staff
He sold ten million and a half
His first week in circulation
A small amount, not a lot
Usually less than a shot
And those who drank it they forgot
All of their aggravation

He made some waves
He made a scene
The cover of Time magazine
And everybody took the stuff
Even those who did not need it
The Surgeon General was sure
The drug was rotten and impure
He made them label it as such
But no one stopped to read it

Chorus

He sold it for a couple of bucks
He sold it out of ice cream trucks
Made it easy never hard
To purchase it by credit card
Any way, any means
Over the phones, vending machines
And people fought to buy it all
In stores down at the shopping mall

No one thought to expect
The powerful after effect
The day comes when you can't connect
The laces to your shoes
Your body shakes you don't know why
You fall down screaming at the sky
Call your attorney but you die
Before he gets to sue

This sort of thing I must admit
It slows sales just a little bit
But profits they are up
This quarter of the year
They do it when they drive their car
They do it at the local bar
They do it every night
With their cigarettes and beer


 

LOST IN THE MOUNTAINS

You've got me climbing
Straight up toward Heaven
You've got me reaching
Between the cracks
And though it's so steep
I will not falter
Right up the side, babe
I'm making tracks

Take me
Away with you
Drown me
In your eyes of blue
'Cause I know
I'm the one you're thinking of
So hold out
The long arm of your love

And darling
Don't leave me hanging
For so long
'Cause I've been lost
In the mountains
For so long

When I get there
At the top dear
I will soak up
The view so fine
I will unfurl
My wind ripped banner
I will survey what is mine


 

FORTUNE SMILES

The rain it falls from the sky like nails
And cuts lose on its brother
The thundering sea
But I am never the one it impales
'Cause fortune is smiling on me
And the houses they burn
Right down to the earth
And leave ash in the eyes
Of all those who see
But I feel the fiery hand of rebirth
'Cause fortune is smiling on me

I am unheralded
I am unarmed
Btu strong like a fortress
I cannot be harmed
And you my friend
You could be my brother
On a mountain unnamed
By prejudice and fear
That's stood through the storms
Of millions of years
A blackbird scream a song out like no other

And the wind it pummels the stone into sand
Like a hammer so powerful tall as a tree
But I hold contentment right here in my hand
'Cause fortune is smiling on me


 

RIVERS OF BLOOD

A firefly in the summer sky
Looking to land in someone's eye
A dollar-fifty valentine
Backstabbing piece of porcupine
A tricky, sticky acid bath
A double dealing psychopath
A piece of poisoned birthday cake
A cross-eyed chunk of rattlesnake

Oh baby
Don't say maybe 
Tell me this time
It's more than just a fling
Oh honey
It's kind of funny
The way you make me love you
When you ain't worth a thing

But I'd swim rivers of blood for you
Rivers of blood for you
Rivers of blood
Rivers of blood
Rivers of blood for you

You did not shanghai me to here
I came a fool, a volunteer
You speared me to that bottom line
And the way it reads
The fault is mine
But I know I can blast a dent
In your wall of punishment
It's the best damn thing I do
The way I give I back to you

As long as I've been living
True love is forgiving
And I still want you
Every second of the day
I know you're a liar
A live electric wire
A greasy little nightmare
I want to carry you away
And I'd swim rivers of blood for you
Rivers of blood for you
Rivers of blood
Rivers of blood
Rivers of blood for you

Do I love all your tendencies
Because I suffer from the same disease?
I'm the best guy that you ever had
I'm just like you
I'm just as bad
I'm a no good, nothing, lying cheat
I'm a slug that slithers in the street
And that's what you like that's why you care
That's why we're such a perfect pair

But I'd swim rivers of blood for you


 

NASTY LITTLE GIRL

I have seen your fortress
And all that it disguises
I'v been down in your dungeon
Where you dig up your surprises
I've seen Cupid's crooked arrows fly
The tools of your attack
It's all a game as you take aim
And shoot them in the back

What makes you such a nasty little girl?

Did your parents make you what you are?
A high priestess of pain
Make you gobble up raw meat
They dangled from a chain?
Your fingerprints are everywhere
At the scene of every crime
I know your kind of torture
'Cause I see it all the time

What make you such a nasty little girl?

Is there any mercy written
In your constitution?
Will you be eating popcorn
At my execution?
Do you poison all your passion
To check out my reaction
Put me in a seizure 
Just to give you satisfaction

It's said I am the best of fools
It's said I'll never learn
And like a starved mosquito
I know I will return
And you'll shoot me down
You'll swat me off
I do believe it's so
But before that final curtain falls
There's one thing I wanna know

What make you such a nasty little girl?


 

THE TOAD MACHINE

The Toad Machine was born
In 1995
Somewhere close to city hall
It kept itself alive
it was not toxic waste
It was not radiation
it grew from the grave of a homeless drunk
Beneath the railroad station
Didn't need no family friends or money
Jut a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20
Where the free from sin ain't never been
Where the streets are paved with heroin
Quick as a flash, like a bomb explodes
It starts generating toads

Now at first nobody noticed them
They stayed down in the grime
In that part of town just being a toad
It ain't much of a crime
They stayed down in the sewers
They grouped down underneath
All colors and all sizes 
With several rows of teeth
Their plan was simple
Their plan was fine
To eat everybody over the poverty line
They exploded one night like dynamite
And started killing everything in sight
Congress knew they could not hesitate
So they scheduled a date for a debate

Wherever you might wander to
Wherever you might roam
Just remember, baby
You can't escape the toad

They ate this senator's wife
They figured they'd start with style
From the screams I heard I'd say
She enjoyed it for a while
They descended on Los Angeles
Ate everyone of fortune and fame
Some movie stars tried to buy them off
But they ate them all just the same

Well someone screamed
How dare you smear
My cashmere sweater with blood
But they ripped her eyeballs from her face
And tossed then into the mud
Attorneys coast to coast
Were roasted on a spit
But they didn't taste too good because
They all were full of shit
Wherever you might wander to
Wherever you might roam
Just remember, baby
You can't escape the toad

The Toad Machine was born
In 1995
Somewhere close to city hall
It kept itself alive
If you've got everything
And then a little more
Don't be surprised
When the toads
Come breaking down your door


 

I HATE EVERYTHING

Woke up
With an aching in my head
I must have been delirious
Sometime before I went to bed
Don't see no fried egg
Don't see any bacon
Light bulb in the ice box shows me
All the food's been taken

Tell me why
I hate everything
Oh yeah
I hate everything
Tell me why
I hate everything
Oh yeah

Uh-oh
Here again we go
The paper is so full of things
That I don't want to know
And my woman she keeps complaining
About the way we have to live
Everybody want and wants
No one's got anything to give

Tell me why
I hate everything
Oh yeah
I hate everything
Tell me why
I hate everything
Oh yeah

I ain't talking about
Just now and then
I don't want to be a good citizen
Got no VCR, no remote control
I don't even watch
The Superbowl

Some say
I take it way too far
But I
Don't want to be particular
'Cause this whole planet earth
Needs some kind of revolution
Stinking up the universe
Like a big ball of pollution

Up and down
Hers and his
Doesn't matter what it is
Blue and gold, red and green
All the colors in between, oh yeah
I hate everything, oh yeah
I hate everything, oh yeah


 

RIDE THRU WYOMING

So this is all there is
I finally can see
They tell me no but they're the ones
Who've lied so much to me
About every mother's baby
Having an equal say
About the righteous hands of Superman
Giving every dog his day

Gonna get out there tonight
Gonna ride thru Wyoming
Gonna watch the sun set like
A great big apple pie
Gonna get out there tonight
Gonna ride thru Wyoming
Gonna kiss this whole wide world
Bye bye

She has legs so firm and strong
So long and lean and true
Eyes in focus all of the time
A deep narcotic blue
She rides with me across the plains
As the moon begins to rise
Her kisses like courageous thoughts
That will not compromise

Gonna get out there tonight
Gonna ride thru Wyoming
Gonna watch the sun set like
A great big apple pie
Gonna get out there tonight
Gonna ride thru Wyoming
Gonna shout into the wind
Bonsai

Don't look back
She says don't look back
This is all there is
This is all there is
And there's nothing else
We can believe

Gonna get out there tonight
Gonna ride thru Wyoming
Gonna get out there tonight
Baby, yes I
I'm gonna get out there tonight
Gonna ride through Wyoming
Across the plains of justice I will fly

bottom of page