1. |
Lone Ranger
04:25
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Lone Ranger
Didn’t feel the danger
Watching the Lone Ranger
On TV
Johnny Depp was Comanche
A cultural vigilante
On TV
It was Good vs. Bad
Followed by an ad
For repression
Of Depression
Side effects include
Vomiting, erratic mood,
Disorientation
Didn’t feel the danger
Watching the Lone Ranger
On TV
Johnny Depp was Comanche
A cultural vigilante
On TV
The railroaders squeezed
Injuns and Chinese
Death or cheap labour
Those businessmen missed an
Idea that was Christian:
Love Thy Neighbor
Every month for 19 bucks
Help these children that are stuck
With cancer
In eight more ads, we’ll be right back
To question Fiction vs. Fact
With no answer
Didn’t feel the danger
Watching the Lone Ranger
On TV
Johnny Depp was Comanche
A cultural vigilante
On TV
A disease I never heard of
Now you can get cured of,
Call this number
Can’t sleep at night?
This pill just might
Help you slumber
Tonto was crazed
His village was razed
To the ground
His scheme seemed absurd
He wore a dead bird
Like a crown
Every month for 19 bucks
Help these pet dogs that are stuck
With abuse
We think it’s gone, but it’s on the track
The railroad’s here, but we’re looking back
From the caboose
Didn’t feel the danger
Watching the Lone Ranger
On TV
Johnny Depp was Comanche
A cultural vigilante
On TV
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2. |
Rinse Cycle
04:53
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You got pushed into the machine
Slammed against the walls
You got more washed up than clean
Too beat up to take your calls
Up, down,
Round and round
Take a look over the suds on your beer —
I’m here
CHORUS
I’m in the Rinse Cycle with you
I feel everything you’re going through
And while it’s your turn to be blue
I’ll be spinning,
Spinning
In the Rinse Cycle with you
This isn’t the door you put your keys in
There’s nothing you can do
There’s no rhyme, there’s no reason
Sometimes shit just happens to you
Up, down,
Round and round
I can help you to stand
If you grab my hand
CHORUS
RINSERLUDE
CHORUS
I’m in the Rinse Cycle with you
I feel everything you’re going through
And there’s nothing that I’d rather do
Than go spinning,
Spinning
Spinning
Spinning
In the Rinse Cycle with you
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3. |
Vulnerable
04:12
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Got outta my school
Got away from my dad
Got outta my town
Got through some times that were bad
But I’m still vulnerable
Made my own money
Went under the knife
Made a fire in the rain
Made my own life
But I’m still vulnerable
You gotta be scared
If you wanna be brave
If you wanna feel alive
Just put a foot in the grave
And if you don’t wanna fake it
Get naked…
INST. BREAK
I opened my heart
I opened my mind
I can read the air now
I used to be blind
But I’m still vulnerable
Don’t mind the dark
Don’t mind the light
I can beat the Devil
If I have to fight
But I’m still vulnerable
When Babe got the news
That the Crown Prince died
He took it like a man
He broke down and cried
Vulnerable
Now I live in a tower
I’ve hired some guards
You gotta take off your shoes here,
In my house of cards,
Give up your guns,
I’m vulnerable
See, I’m vulnerable
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4. |
Wakey Wakey
06:25
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Wakey Wakey!
It’s time to rise from your rest
Wakey Wakey!
Time to greet the day with your best
You start with a Test!
To check the algebra you know
Don’t test too fast or test too slow
Just make the logic in you glow
Just solve for x and find the quo…tient
Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal
We all know tests are not what’s real
So now that you know how we feel
It’s high school that you must appeal… to
So Wakey Wakey!
[SOLO]
Wakey Wakey!
It’s time to wipe that morning dew
Wakey Wakey!
Time to stand with the Proud and the Few
At the Interview
You’ll blow their minds with your precotion
Just keep in mind to curb your motion
And any anti-social notion
That you might harbor on your ocean… floor
Don’t sweat it, it’s just conversation
Like ones we have while on vacation
Don’t talk about your nightmares of cremation
Or your theories of Creation… ism
Wakey Wakey!
It’s time to jump up and take flight
Wakey Wakey!
Time to blink up to the light
Wakey Wakey!
Time to wake up, busy child
Wakey Wakey!
To traffic and weather on the dial
Smile!
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5. |
Throw Off That Jinx
05:48
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Throw off that jinx
It’s just the devil keepin' busy
Throw off that jinx
It’s just the devil keepin' busy
Throw off that jinx
It’s just the devil keepin' busy
Throw off that jinx right now
I went to town
With the devil in my belly
I went to town
With the devil in my belly
I brought rage in my head
That was older than my soul
Lived in a cage that fed
The fire that smoldered hot like coal
Nothin’ was right
I could not let go my fist
Nothin’ was right
I kept adding to my list
Nothin’ was right
Everything I touched got broke
Until I heard the words
That Brooklyn angel spoke
Throw off that jinx
It’s just the devil keepin' busy
Throw off that jinx
It’s just the devil keepin' busy
Throw off that jinx
It’s just the devil keepin' busy
Throw off that jinx right now
SOLO
She lit the light
That was older than my soul
The light
That made me bold
She bowled my head
And washed away my petty grief
With what she said
Sweet mercy and relief
Throw off that jinx
It’s just the devil keepin' busy
Throw off that jinx
It’s just the devil keepin' busy
Throw off that jinx
It’s just the devil keepin' busy
Throw off that jinx right now
Throw off that jinx right now
Throw off that jinx right now
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6. |
Lunch With George
06:00
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I had lunch with George
It was just a dream
But it was real
I walked through a garden
Like a forest unfurled
And came to a clearing
Where George lived in the material world
There was a Rolls in the drive
In front of the mansion
The driver said, “We’ve been expecting you,
You’re right on time. Take my hand…”
Tasty simple food was on the table
But everyone was waiting as
Dani passed the ladle
To George,
Who smiled and prayed a prayer for prayer
It went into the air
And we had lunch
Looks were exchanged
For crooked, sly grins
Ukeleles and tablas
Were brought out of the bins
It was hard to contain
My overflowing spirit
So I let it go
To anyone who came near it
I’ve been dreaming ever since
Of the music that I make
Thanks to George and the
Day I fell awake
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7. |
Death of a Buffoon
07:37
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“What makes a man a man?”
Asked the clown, gun in hand.
It was aimed at his own head
Cause his jokes had gone dead
But the teardrop on his face was only paint
“What makes a clown a clown?”
Asked a man looking down,
At the show, his vertigo, made him faint,
And the Bearded Lady sang a slapstick tune,
The Death of a Buffoon
As a boy, the world was funny
Every thought could make him laugh
Even when they made him cry
Even when he got the shaft,
He used to dance to Eric Dolphy
The called him “faggot” in his school
Crazy was as close as he could get
To being cool
His world got funnier and funnier, then stopped
Like a popped, balloon…
The Death of a Buffoon
He learned his parents’ flaws
He played with breaking little laws
He was young and knew that everything would change
He had a kind of magic
He could transform something tragic
Into something that was humorous or strange
Fishy stuff, it always gets harpooned
The Death of a Buffoon
The girls he gave his heart to
Took his smile to be a smirk,
He started out as funny
But ended up a jerk,
The jobs he couldn’t hold
Became a string of quick one-liners,
His girlfriends started out as fun,
But ended up as whiners
They left him in his desert, wild-eyed and marooned
The Death of a Buffoon
The war was soaring on the Dow Exchange
There was no room for clowning on the firing range
But a funny guy never grows up
Dancing like a spaz in a field of mines
Just to get a laugh from both of the front lines
Before everything blows up
How can you bring honor back to that platoon?
The Death of a Buffoon
She said he giggled in his sleep
He joked that he wasn’t too deep
The way they vowed to keep, till death did them part,
She had The Guy Who Never Laughed, on the side,
They got serious together, and knew how to hide,
The cuckold joker knew the deal — it broke his heart
She’d spike his drink and take off with the goon
The Death of a Buffoon
“What makes a man a man?”
Asked the clown, watching sand
Pour through his hourglass like wine
“What makes a clown a clown?”
Asked the nurse, to patient found
Undressing a banana in pantomime
He slipped on the peel, like a cartoon
The Death of a Buffoon
What’s the moral of the story?
What’s the point? Where’s the glory?
This loser is so sad, it brings you down.
Don’t be confused,
It isn't true,
He isn’t sad, he’s just amused
At all the dues
You have to pay when you’re you
Or when you’re me, you see,
We’re always gonna be somebody’s clown.
Posthumously he rose
In the hearts and minds of those
Like myself, whose lives he lifted just a little
We chuckle when we think
Of his living on the brink
And his dedication to jokes that were so brittle
We hardly knew ye, ye left us all too soon,
The Death of a Buffoon
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Nick Balaban Brooklyn, New York
While Nick Balaban is mostly known for his music for children's tv (Blue's Clues, Word World, Bubble Guppies, etc.), he's recorded/worked with everyone from Ray Charles and Patti Labelle to David Murray and Speedball Baby. This is his debut album for kids his own age. Check out his website and sign up for his mailing list at www.nickbalaban.com ... more
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