Bad Religion

[barbarin]

The Resist Stance

The Resist Stance

Seeds of rebellion lay outside your front door. If you nourish them and water them they’ll grow
into a healthy “what for?”
And if revolution isn’t what’s in store, how can you care anymore?

It’s a dangerous slip, a conscientious shift. In the spirit of resistance you gotta hold your grip lest
the state of your resolve makes you quickly devolve to a fundamentalist.

You’re an archetype that they can pin to the wall when you cling to your convictions like a farm
animal in its stall, never thinking of the bigger world outside, as they take you for a ride.

It’s a dangerous slip, a conscientious shift. In the spirit of resistance you gotta hold your grip.
Because passion unabated can be readily conflated with belligerence.

It’s a dangerous slip and a conscientious shift. In the spirit of resistance you gotta hold your grip.
And the verdict won’t be kind, cuz they’re desperate for a viable alternative.

Take a stance. The resist stance. Take a stance. The resist stance. Take a stance. The resist
stance. Take a stance. The resist stance!

 

[barbarin]

Won't Somebody

Won't Somebody

Out in the cold like a bundle of coal
little packets of darkness wanting to glow
well there's nobody home and there's a wreck in the yard
well maybe they're coming back
if we wish really hard

If we wish real hard now

Won't somebody please come up with something
‘cuz jesus just don't seem to be impartially working
And all of the rest are really down in the ratings
so everyone is gonna keep on waiting

Waiting for peace at the end of the street
back behind our apartment and in passenger seats
just a moment of bliss amid all of the waste
the despair and oblivion of our precarious race
it's ours to face now

Won't somebody please come up with something
cuz jesus just don't seem to be impartially working
and all of the rest are really down in the ratings
so everyone is gonna keep on waiting

Now I know nothing lasts forever
so we might as well wish for a goddam fix of this toxic changing weather

Won't somebody come up with something
cuz Jesus just don't seem to be impartially working
and all of the others can barely stay in the running
but everyone is still right here waiting

Won’t somebody please come up with something

Won’t somebody please come up with something

Won’t somebody please

 

[barbarin]

The Devil in Stitches

The Devil in Stitches

hey angels fall down without warning
cherry lipstick on their teeth and all dangerous curves
she had a bullet proof mind and big pawn shop eyes
and nothing you could say would get to her

so don't look homeward angel from that rumble seat
I can strum twice and make it all go away
we'll tap every last drop until that beating stops
and let the devil come join us dancing

Across the yellow sun
We'll run
because the devil in stitches only has his fun
performing for the chosen one
we can run

She was living on the edge of a knife
his head was filled with restless ghosts
it's so easy to love a bringer of destruction
she said darling "I love you madly"

black tear stained cheeks behind her shattered window
prayin' for a song to save her life
I had a paperback crime running straight down my spine
and let the devil come join us dancing

Across the yellow sun
We'll run
while devil in stitches goes and has his fun
performing for the chosen one
we can run

wild in the street like a formal procession of love and deceit
I will carry you home like a bride from the wreckage
here's your punch drunk cupid knocked clean out of his senses

I know he drove her out out to the brink
that's where they stood and looked down
right then he made a decision
that's where they made a division
declaring war on the weather

a reckless pact with forever
so come on sing hallelujah
come on and sing it
right now

 

[barbarin]

Pride and the Pallor

Pride and the Pallor

Papa had a wife and kids he kept them on a leash and he bid them all to do his every deed.
When he was a kid he was treated just the same so he hid his feelings from the family.
Lost as an island out at sea, resistant to the gentle waves of empathy.

Papa and his family always on parade. Tearing through the turnstiles, a weekender’s charade.
But time will tell, as their world crumbles to hell.
What they created was a family story no one will tell. It’s a photo album too terrible. But the
pride and the pallor continue to swell. And the matron silently prays.

Junior resented the tradition they upheld and it ate him up inside most every day.
Silence was golden and they kept him to his word. So bewildered when he finally ran away.
Oh, obligations never cease. Oblivious of the ways to give his soul some peace.

Yeah, Papa and his family always on parade. Passing through the turnstiles, a weekender’s
charade. But time will tell, as their world crumbles to hell.
What they created was a family story no one will tell. It’s a photo album too terrible. But the
pride and the pallor continue to swell. And the matron silently prays.

“Get me out of here, someone’s got to save the day.” The children are reminded to do it for the
daddy’s sake. And happiness is ever so far, far away.

Yeah, lost as an island out at sea. Resistant to the gentle waves of empathy.
Papa and his family always on parade. Tearing through the turnstiles, a weekender’s charade.
It’s just a sick calamity that fatherhood made, but time will tell, as their world crumbles to hell.
What they created was a family story no one will tell. It’s a photo album too terrible. Still, the
pride and the pallor continue to swell as the matron silently prays.

 

[barbarin]

Wrong Way Kids

Wrong Way Kids

stop them from shimmering away
on blank sidewalk glittering asphalt somewhere summer days
the wrong way kids were something more than friends
navigating a sprawl without end

Did you ever want to take bad advice
did you ever want to go and take it twice
do you remember when the world began to put up its thorny fence
right you are my friend
so what’s wrong with them
there go the wrong way kids

singing whoa oh whoa oh whoa oh ohhhh

singing whoa oh whoa oh whoa oh ohhhh

whoa oh whoa oh whoa oh ohhhh
and they call them the wrong way kids

The kids today are gone away petitioning the dust
with nobody to look up to because they're looking up to us
just misfit melancholy dregs gone lost in the mall
wanderers to nowhere at all

Did you ever want to take bad advice
did you ever want to go and take it twice
do you remember when the world began to put up its thorny fence
right you are my friend
so what’s wrong with them
there go the wrong way kids

singing whoa oh whoa oh whoa oh ohhhh

singing whoa oh whoa oh whoa oh ohhhh

whoa oh whoa oh whoa oh ohhhh
and they call them the wrong way kids

 

[barbarin]

Meeting of the Minds

Meeting of the Minds

In 325, the Council devised a set of sacred testaments, transparent and wise. The truth is only
ever relied on that which we agree and abide.
At the meeting of the minds. Reading of the times. Open the blinds. To our complicated lives.
We all need some kind of creed to lead us to light.

In old Tennessee, the last century. All scopes were fixed on legal tricks and whether or not we
should teach kids natural philosophy, despite uncomfortable verity.
At the meeting of the minds. Reading of the times. Open the blinds. To our complicated lives.
We all need some kind of creed to lead us to light.

There’s a beacon that shines in the night, a dark pitch though it may be. And the halcyon fields
of opportunity turn out to be consensual and arbitrary.

Today on my ride I witnessed a guy complaining about how a so-and-so had lied. No longer will
the market decide what the government should provide.
At the meeting of the minds. Sign of the times. Open the blinds. To our complicated lives. We
all need some kind of creed to lead us to light.

 

[barbarin]

Someone to Believe

Someone to Believe

Dark, frozen, hibernation held at bay as your mind, left behind, lost another day.
But finally there’s someone to believe.
Anti-social boredom is all the rage but the time comes when you gotta turn the page and then
finally there’s someone to believe. And now you walk with confidence and ease.
And there’s no call to sell your soul or confess or drop down to your knees.

Who, what, or where made you change your mind? Doesn’t matter anymore ‘cuz you’ve seen a
sign. And now finally there’s someone to believe.
Searching for the answer’s a lonely quest but the act is liable to bring out your best. And then
finally there’s someone to believe. And now you have a purpose to perceive.
And you find out the baggage that you discarded, you didn’t even need.

No one can deny a return to form irrespective of the morass, shame, and scorn. But then finally there’s someone to believe.
Ready to emerge and direct your fate as the self-determination radiates because finally there’s someone to believe. And now you walk with confidence and ease
And it feels like the spring equinox after a long winter’s sleep.

Finally, there’s someone to believe.

 

[barbarin]

Avalon

Avalon
As the sun comes creeping up the mountain and the wind blows over from the sea.
Hey, we’re brought into this land like tiny particles of sand, unsure of who we’re smarter than, or what we’re meant to be.
Oh the grains sift coarsely through the hour glass and collect like their victims in the bowl.
The ungodly force of change erodes all sense of earthly gains. While tending to the mundane will terrorize your soul.
And it’s no! It’s no use thinking that you’re wrong. The past is old and gone. It’s best to move along and find your Avalon.

Well, I wish that I could tell you it was easy, just take the paved road right to paradise. But the
truth is my friend, the pain and suffering never ends. Make amends with medicine, amnesia, and lies.
The grains sift coarsely through the hour glass and they pound like boulders on the brain.
All those things you did for fun, never hurting anyone, careless shadows in the sun, just empty and lame.
And it’s no . . . it’s no use thinking that you’re wrong. The past is old and gone. It’s best to move
along and find your Avalon.

So now the day races from the twilight. How the fields are enveloped by the shade. And the story
that you’ll tell, inventory of your well, crack the shell and find the mortar silted and decayed.
And it’s no! It’s no use thinking that you’re wrong. The past is dead and gone. It’s best to move
along and find your Avalon. It’s best to hurry on and find your Avalon.

 

[barbarin]

Cyanide

Cyanide

well let me bend your ear
because I'm never really there
when shadows turns to light
and hope into despair

there was an only one
but the broody skies above
brought down a shameful stain
and not a single drop of cleaning rain

let me say
oh oh well there's no place left to hide
oh oh from the loneliness inside
the road to you is paved right through with bloody good intentions
and missin' you is like kissin'

Cyanide

Well in this world of things
one of them is lost
I've been it in my dreams
but not without a cost

down a lonely street
it was our destiny to meet
nobody asked you twice
we found purchase then with no requite - nothing nice

oh oh well there's no place left to hide
oh oh from the loneliness inside
the road to you is paved right through with bloody good intentions
and missin' you is like kissin'
Cyanide

Would you believe in something good that's so wrong
and have you worshiped our invention
I've paid my debt in coin and sweat with trifling hesitation
because the road to you is paved with good intentions

oh oh well there's no place left to hide
oh oh from the loneliness inside
the road to you is paved right through with bloody good intentions

and missin' you is like kissin'
Cyanide
Cyanide
Cyanide
Cyanide
Cyanide
Cyanide
Cyanide
Cyanide

 

[barbarin]

Turn Your Back On Me

Turn Your Back On Me

I've been searching for so long
now the search party is gone
won't somebody tell me what the hell went wrong
we started out so strong

I never wanted to hurt you
I didn't plan to desert you
I couldn't possibly express how much I care
So turn your back on me

Come on turn your back on me
To survive turn your back on me
we're the same as far as I can see
so come on turn your back on me

If I could I would stand outside myself
And pretend that I was looking back at somebody else
If I could do it again would I merely defend it all to the end?
or do the ends justify themselves?

I never wanted to hurt you
I didn't plan to desert you
I couldn't possibly express how much I care
So turn your back on me

Come on turn your back on me
To survive turn your back on me
we're the same as far as I can see
so come on turn your back on me