1. |
Look Up!
03:32
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Shock me, shock me, I need the noise
I go numb without my toy
Can’t take boredom, I’ll attest
I live my life amused to death
In a haze, in a trance
In the maze behind the glass
Liking you liking me
Make our own reality
CHORUS
Look up!
Head in the Cloud but life's a swirl around you
Look up!
Pandora's Box has come under our thumbs
Look up!
Eye of the storm but blind to all that might astound you
What surrounds you
Maybe lost and found you
Yeah
Look up!
Gotta raft, gotta piece of cyber-turf
Keeps me from drowning in the surf
Satisfaction, distraction, all the same
Swipe left, swipe right, don’t take no names
So much text, I’m reeling
Smiley face is healing
Just to I know what I'm feeling
Need a mirror on the ceiling
CHORUS
Traces of us wherever we roam
Pinch, drag, click to find your way home
Who’s afraid of IRL?
Virginia Woolf in heaven or hell
CHORUS
Look up!
Head in the Cloud but life's a swirl around you
Look up!
Pandora's Box has come under our thumbs
Look up!
You might be surprised to see that something that astounds you
What surrounds you
Maybe lost and found you
CHORUS
Look up!
Head in the Cloud but life's a swirl around you
Look up!
Pandora's Box has come under our thumbs
Look up!
Eye of the storm but blind to all that might astound you
What surrounds you
Maybe lost and found you
Yeah
Look up!
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2. |
What's Done Is Done
03:45
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You might have said something better left unsaid
Regret swirls round and round in your head
Drowning and frowning in your crown of thorns
A captive of regret in a prison of remorse
Can’t let your life become a lament
Better to say, “Je ne regrette rien”
To set the past on fire is to be reborn
Coulda woulda shoulda, no time to mourn
The hands of time are never kind
There’s no way to press rewind
CHORUS
What’s done is done
It can’t be undone
No looking back
What’s done is done
Once the song is sung
It can’t be unsung
No looking back
What’s done is done
Better to be sorry for something that you did
Than for something that you kept hid
The dream you never followed, all you didn’t do
Nothing worse than indecision haunting you
The hands of time are never kind
There’s no way to press rewind
CHORUS
BRIDGE
Can we ask ourselves what we can’t see?
Is there escape from fate or only destiny?
Can we control life’s dominoes?
Maybe to be free is to let them fall
CHORUS
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3. |
House On Stilts
03:50
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We're like a house on stilts, perched high on a hill
Rocks stacked and balanced, resisting a spill
Limbs and emotions, entwined in a stance
Shuddering muscles, defying collapse
We're like a house on stilts
We're like a house on stilts
Perched high on a hill
We're like a house on stilts
Rocks stacked and balanced
Resisting a spill
We're like a house on stilts
We're like a house on stilts
In this match of stares are we stale mates?
Will Gravity's pull finally seal our fate?
Are these stones a temple?
Will they topple soon?
Then a shrine or a cairn
Marking love's tomb
We're like a house on stilts
We're like a house on stilts
Perched high on a hill
We're like a house on stilts
High on a wire
No net below
We're like a house on stilts
We're like a house on stilts
Still water glistens
Like a sheet of glass
But underneath the stillness
The swirling morass
Pitiless elements
The wind and the rain
But nothing is forever
Not even love and not pain
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Helpless to put us back together again
Let’s unfreeze the ballet
Re-animate the dance
Stop holding our breath
It’s our only chance
We're like a house on stilts
We're like a house on stilts
perched high on a hill
We're like a house on stilts
Rocks stacked and balanced, resisting a spill
We're like a house on stilts
We're like a house on stilts
High on a wire
No net below
We're like a house on stilts
We're like a house on stilts
We're like a house on stilts
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4. |
I Don't Need To Be Happy
02:52
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I don’t need to be happy
There’s so much more that I could be
Lose the fear of loneliness
And dare to be free
I don’t want to be happy
I’m here to reach beyond my grasp
You gotta try, you gotta fail, you gotta fail better
The obstacle is the path
CHORUS
I don’t want to be happy
I don’t need to be happy
I’m happy not to be happy
BRIDGE
A friend of mine says
The getting is easy if you know what you want
Be careful what you wish for
Is really really what you want
Not some kind of self-taunt
I don’t need to be happy
A Wilde man said to you:
There’s one thing worse than not getting what you want
And that’s, when you do
What does it mean to be happy?
Gotta want to be what you are
We’re all in the gutter but there’s no better place
For looking at the stars
CHORUS (double)
BRIDGE
CHORUS
I don’t want to be happy
I don’t need to be happy
Is anybody happy?
I’m happy not to be happy
So much pressure to be happy
I don’t need to be happy
Is everybody happy?
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5. |
She Is Her Game
04:32
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Everyone says to stay away
Everyone knows not to play
Her mad eyes, should they fix on you
In her thrall, you won't have a clue
Not a clue
Everyone's seen, she is no romance
You're gonna wanna sit out this dance
But she's light of foot, got you out on the floor
Falling free, through her trap door
Two journeys colliding on one boat
In her tunnel of love you’re about to float
CHORUS
She is her game
Add to her fame
She can't be claimed
She is her game
Sunshine in vain
She is her game
She can't be blamed
She is her game
She’ll share her beauty, she’ll confess her sins
Bracelets and garlands you’ll lay by her skin
She can’t remember what she can’t forget
Abject love sleeps in her bed
And soon will come the end of this Little Death
These journeys colliding on one boat
In her heart of darkness can you stay afloat?
CHORUS
Death-pale faces of princes and kings
In dreams warn you of the song she sings
On the cold hill’s side you awake
But everyone knew it’s not your heart she wanted to take
She sets the terms in her search for grace
She is for no one but you paid your dues
Gone forever but forever your wild muse
A belle dame sans merci but no fatal femme
Your best enemy or your worst friend
Reliving trauma or reliving loss
Everyone knows she never gets too close
CHORUS (double)
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6. |
Democracy In Burlesque
03:18
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Disparity, calamity, organized insanity
Some watch it like a show
Kafka-esque, no arrest, democracy in burlesque
Many just don’t bother to show
Legalized corruption, obstruction, dysfunction
Imperative consumption and all this damn construction
The miserable, invisible, should not be permissible
We only reap what we sow
CHORUS
More and more things just make no sense
Everyday I understand less and less
Sometimes the best I can do is just take a guess
Be my guest
Democracy in burlesque
Journalist, moralist, fabulist, a corporatist
Everything is Breaking News
Captivate, speculate, saturate, don’t deviate
Don’t kill the golden goose
Wallow in distraction, divided into factions
Nah nah nah nah nah, heedless satisfaction
Spectacle, hysterical, everyone susceptible
Don’t buy the golden ruse
CHORUS
Monkey see, monkey do
Mr. Berry said too much ado
But we are all involved
No privacy, society, guarantied anxiety
Is this how we think we evolve?
Freedom’s wane, confusion’s reign, try in vain to keep sane
Unemployed, null and void, opioid, life destroyed
Are these problems meant to be solved?
CHORUS
Everyday I understand less and less
More and more things just make no sense
Sometimes the best I can do is just take a guess
Be my guest
Democracy in burlesque!
More and more things just make no sense
Everyday I understand less and less
Sometimes the best I can do is just take a guess
Be my guest
Such a mess, I confess
Oligarch, patriarch, Bonaparte a world apart
They’re feeding at the trough
Economy, lobotomy, larceny, inequality
Too, too, too, too much has never been never enough
Occupy didn’t lie, deplorables gone awry
Audacious pomp, drain the swamp, heed the man from Vermont
Climate change, living wage, need a sage to turn the page
Will there be time enough?
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7. |
Living The Life
03:52
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I won't scratch your back so you won't have to scratch mine
If we're asking for nothing nobody has to be kind
Commandments and morals have taught us what to do
But living for others is paying devil's dues
Spooks of the mind have turned us into fools
We need to find the truces in the war of all against all
CHORUS
Living the Life
Just the way that we want to live
Living the Life
Obligation free
Living the Life
Won't expect for you to do or give anything, anything, not me
Some say to do unto others as you'd have done unto you
But the Golden Rule has taken on meaning anew
The myth that we think of as society
But individuals are its reality
Punishment comes to all for all good deeds
Can anybody know what anybody else needs?
CHORUS
Living the Life
We were taught we deserve to live
Living the Life
Obligation free
Living the Life
Won't expect for you to do or give anything, anything for me
Hear the siren call you can’t you resist
Joining the ranks of the Union of Egoists
Your excuse to do only what you want to do
Don’t give a damn about me and I won’t worry about you
CHORUS
Living the Life
Only one that I've got to live
Living the Life
Obligation free
Living the Life
No one asks for you to do or give anything, anything, no no no
Living the life
The life!
Living the life
The life!
Living the life
The life!
Living the life
Obligation free
The Life!
Living the life
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8. |
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When I saw her
It was the end of October
A tall order
Theda Bara was never bolder
Angel or demon
Pilgrim or heathen
Searching for meaning
Her words were revealing:
We’re born into this world
Naked and the same
The rules have all been made
And you’ve been given a name
Left to chase yourself
Out of your hardened shell
A living ghost behind your human veil
CHORUS
Your face is a mask, is a mask, is a mask
It’s our best disguise
Everyone hiding, hiding in plain sight
It’s how we advance, how we advance
But the truth beams from our eyes
Everyone hiding, hiding in plain sight
Sleepwalking through the day
The waking dream at night
Measure the price you pay
To lead the double life
Learning to stay afloat
In the sea of doubt
Liberation comes from the inside out
CHORUS
BRIDGE
Everyone hiding, hiding, hiding
Everyone hiding, hiding, hiding
Everyone hiding, hiding in plain sight
Is anyone who they seem to be?
Is everyone who they want to be?
CHORUS
BRIDGE
Everyone hiding, hiding in plain sight
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9. |
Break Into Your Heart
03:34
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I’m not a bandit
I’m not a thief
But I’m not above using a little deceit
To steal your sadness
To rob you of grief
Gonna soothe your madness
You’re gonna wanna love this thief
CHORUS:
When I break into your heart
Gonna break into your heart
Maybe I’m a gambler
Les jeux sont fait
Embrace the thrill and let the chips fall where they may
I’ve got the combination
Gonna crack the safe
Gonna breach your fortress
Make my way through the maze
CHORUS
BRIDGE:
Chamber to chamber
Beauty in the beat
Crimson tide’s pumping
I’m a prowler in the heat
Will I find your rhythm?
Or will I be laid to waste?
My pulse is racing
Gotta latch on to your pace
No time for hesitation
It’s time to sink or swim
No room for deviation or to act on a whim
Yes, I’m on a mission
Can’t give in to fear
I’ve got an amethyst to keep my head clear
CHORUS
BRIDGE 2:
Chamber to chamber
Beauty in the beat
Crimson tide’s pumping
Am I a prowler in the heat?
Transfixed by your soul and its shape
Even if I wanted there’s no way to escape
CHORUS
Gonna break into your heart
When I break into your heart
Break into your heart
When I break into your heart
I’m not a bandit
I’m not a thief
I’m not a bandit
I’m not a thief
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10. |
Why Would You Do It?
02:47
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Why would you do it
What made you do it
Why would you do it
I can’t know
Why would you do it
What could bring you to it
Why would you do it
Should I know
Don’t know what I’m saying
‘Cause I, don’t know what to say
Wouldn’t make a difference, anyway
Why would you do it
What makes you do it
Why would you do it
I can’t know
Don’t know what I’m saying
‘Cause I, don’t know what to say
Doesn’t make a difference, anyway
You saw through so much
But you couldn’t see your way through
Your special touch touched everyone
But it all got to you
Was it a moment
When all was black or white
No one to take your hand
And help you with the fight
Don’t know what I’m saying
Is there anything to say
What would I know, anyway
Maybe it’s just the next stop
The last part unknown
But there can be no comfort
In your spirit having flown
And even though you’re gone
I still long to hear your voice
Robbed of your clarity
Why would you make this choice
Why would you do it
What could bring anyone to it
I guess I should hope
I’ll never know
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11. |
Salvation's Victim
03:54
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Salvation's victim
Salvation's slave
Nothing comes easy
Especially not being saved
How deep is your conviction?
How deep is your need?
Is it friend or foe in the mirror?
You've gotta look to see
CHORUS
Nothing anyone can tell you
That you don't already know
Don't let anybody sell you
Something you already own
Repeat the dictum
But don't repeat after me
Advice is nostalgia
Is it ever free?
Capere daemonium
Seize the day
Only you can you know your demons
And get out of your own way
CHORUS
BRIDGE
You might catch your face on the still of a pond
Get mesmerized, don’t fall in love
Don't trick yourself, don't f*** yourself, no
In case my point is missed
We don't need more narcissists, no
Know thy self don’t lie to yourself
CHORUS (double)
Salvation's victim
Salvation's victim
Salvation's victim
Salvation's slave
Nothing comes easy
Especially not being saved
Line up your demons
Get your ducks in a row
Only 12 steps needed
How many more to go?
Salvation's victim
Salvation's victim
Salvation's victim
Salvation's victim
Repeat the dictum
Salvation's victim
Salvation's victim
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Joe Mardin New York, New York
As a producer/coproducer and/or arranger and/or songwriter, Joe’s credits include Chaka Khan, Jewel, George Benson, Raul Midón, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, Elliott Sharp’s Terraplane, Aretha Franklin, Paul Carrack, Corey Glover, Paul Rogers, Paquito D’Rivera, Carlos Santana, Vince Gill, Toots Thielmans, Whitney Houston, a-ha, Hubert Sumlin… ... more
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