Artist: Operation Ivy Album: Energy {1989}

I know things are gettin' tougher
When you can't get top off the bottom of the barrel
Wide open road my future now
It's looking fucking narrow

All I know is that I don't know
All I know is that I don't know nothing 
All I know is that I don't know
All I know is that I don't know nothing 

We get taught to decide
Just like as if I'm not gonna change my mind

All I know is that I don't know
All I know is that I don't know nothing 
All I know is that I don't know
All I know is that I don't know nothing

Whatcha gonna do with yourself, boy
Better make up your mind
Whatcha gonna do with yourself, boy
Running out of time

This time I got it all figured out

All I know is that I don't know
All I know is that I don't know nothing 
All I know is that I don't know
All I know is that I don't know nothing
All I know is that I don't know
All I know is that I don't know nothing 
All I know is that I don't, don't know
All I know is that I don't know nothing
And that's fine

Sound system gonna bring me back up, yeah
One thing that I can depend on
Sound system gonna bring me back up, right
One thing that I can depend on

Try to describe to the limit of my ability
It's there for a second
Then it's given up what it used to be
Contained in music somehow more than just sound
This inspiration coming and twisting things around
Cos you always know that it's gonna have to go
You always know that you'll be back in the cold
Point of departure sublimated in a song
It's always coming to give me that hope for just a second
Then it's gone, but

Sound system gonna bring me back up, right
One thing that I can depend on
Sound system gonna bring me back up, yeah
One thing that I can depend on

Static pulse inside of music bringing us escape
It's always temporary, changing nothing in its wake  
Just a second where we're leaving all this shit behind
Just a second but it's leaving just this much in mind
To resist despair, that second makes you see
To resist despair, because you can't change everything 
To resist despair, in this world is what it is, what it is, what it is to be free

Sound system gonna bring me back up, right
One thing that I can depend on
Sound system gonna bring me back up, yeah
One thing that I can depend on
Sound system

Sound system
Sound system

Wake up turn my box on
Bust the shade, let the sun in
Times getting tougher bout time to start runnin'
Box in my hand, music by my side
Skankin' to the rhythm of the music by side

Sound system gonna bring me back up, yeah
One thing that I can depend on
Sound system gonna bring me back up, right
One thing that I can depend on
Yeah

Sound system gonna bring me back up, right
One thing that I can depend on
Sound system gonna bring me back up, yeah
One thing that I can depend on

Sound system
Sound system

Something breaks inside of you
With the spectacle of all the shows
Fifteen fights and your six bucks
Has gone up some promoter's nose
Jaded eyes see clearly, but only half of what's there
Good old days are far behind, what's left is boredom and despair

Sometimes every once in a while
Sometimes every once in a while
It's beautiful, I would say
I wouldn't have it any other way
If I said different that would be a lie
If I said different that would be a lie
Be a lie

What was once rebellion is now clearly just a social sect
Or are you just upset cos your own social clique has left
Leavin' you want, because I know that someday I will too
But I won't burn my bridges and be just another jaded fool

Sometimes every once in a while
Sometimes every once in a while
It's beautiful, I would say
I wouldn't have it any other way
If I said different that would be a lie
If I said different that would be a lie
Be a lie

It's beautiful, I would say
I wouldn't have it any other way
If I said different that would be a lie
If I said different that would be a lie

Listen up
Take warning, take warning
Really gotta take warning

Stand by your friends, wrong or right
Can't call that justice if it's just a stupid excuse to fight
Single out and attack ones who got no defense
You call that a new way of thinking, I call it regression to ignorance

Take warning, take warning
Take warning, take warning
New generation coming and we really gotta stand up to them
Take warning, take warning

No one's got a thing against you less you've got something to prove
We don't need no new set of standards, we don't need no new set of rules, man
Heard all that shit before about stomping out any difference
We say stand together - not to fight just to exist

Take warning, take warning
Take warning, take warning
Intimidation coming and we really gotta say no to them
Take warning, take warning

Enough is enough is enough
Why don't you just ease up
I saw another beat down last night, take warning
Who's the next to hit the ground tonight, take warning
Take warning

Take warning, take warning
Take warning, take warning
Intimidation coming and we really gotta say no to them
Take warning, take warning

Wrenched into the world, deanesthetized
Blurry images fight their way through halfway opened eyes
Awakened by alarm, fifteen minutes of hygiene
Twenty minutes of eating, thirty seconds to the door

I looked outside, I looked into the eyes
Of the impersonal mob I've seen a thousand times before
Feelings under cover like books on a shelf
If we're scared of one another must be scared of ourself

More, just another crowd
More, just another crowd
More, just another crowd
More, just another crowd
We need a gathering instead

Drink, drink in the badlands
Liquid bread for the poor
Another member of the crowd goes down
To drown at the liquor store
Choose your escape in the heartlands
Of product and demand
When you feel like a wasp in the swarm
You gotta get away anyway that you can

More, just another crowd
More, just another crowd
More, just another crowd
More, just another crowd
We need a gathering instead

More, just another crowd
More, just another crowd
More, just another crowd
More, just another crowd
We need a gathering instead

She, she, she, she's a bombshell
She, she, she, she's a bombshell

Down in South Oakland off East 14th it's raining
Six AM on Sunday, bums are praying
Met her at a party drunk, now sober
She said, "It's cold, got long walk home, come over."

She's a bombshell
She's a bombshell
She's a bombshell

I've retraced my steps a thousand times
Seems like I've spent hours asking all my friends about her
Been six months, I'll never be the same
Nobody remembers her name

She's a bombshell
She's a bombshell
She's a bombshell

Oh, yeah

She, she, she, she's a bombshell
She, she, she, she's a bombshell, oh yeah
She, she, she, she's a bombshell
She, she, she, she's a bombshell, yeah
She's a bombshell

There's a war comin' down between my brothers tonight
I don't want no war goin' down, goin' down tonight 

Stop this war
Stop this war

Civilization, ha, I call it as I see it 
I call this bullshit, you know, I still cannot believe it 
Our evolution now has gone the way of hate 
A world evolved resolved into its stupid fate 

Stop this war
Stop this war

All so different, yeah, I say we're all the same 
All caught, you know, in the division game 
Self destruction fast impending like a bullet 
No one can stop it once it's fired, no one can control it 

Stop this war
Stop this war

A final word, wait it's not a call to action 
We ain't no sect, no, this ain't no fucking faction 
Unity, unity, unity - you've heard it all before 
This time it's not exclusive - we want to stop a war 

Stop this war
Stop this war

Ain't nothing wrong with another unity song
Ain't nothing wrong with another unity song
Ain't nothing, ain't nothing wrong
Ain't nothing, ain't nothing wrong with a unity song

Stop this war
Stop this war

Unity - as one stand together
Unity - evolution's gonna come
Unity - as one stand together
Unity - evolution's gonna come
Unity - as one stand together
Unity - evolution's gonna come
Unity - as one stand together
Unity - evolution's gonna come

I saw this guy go down
Wasn't time for fear before his body hit the ground
Our vulnerability is all our insensitivity

Car that hit him pulled to a stop
Driver hid his bottles - he anticipated cops
Our vulnerability is all our insensitivity, oh yeah

Crowd assembled to take a look at death
Shattered skull, fragile body, blacktop running red
Our vulnerability is all our insensitivity

People looked bored like expecting more
People looked bored like expecting more
Our vulnerability is all our insensitivity

And sympathy is only friendship's whore, ya know
And maybe we don't know who we are anymore 
Another spectacle and it's respectable 
Take it lightly like another TV show 
So desensitized, so dehumanized
Why stop and think when you can find someplace to go 

We're drowning
We're drowning
Our vulnerability is all our insensitivity
We're drowning
We're drowning
Our vulnerability is all our insensitivity

And it's gonna be the death of us just you wait and see

One, two, three, four

Bankshot

Bankshot

Bankshot

These boots were made for walking
And that's just what they'll do
One of these days these boots are gonna walk over you
Walk all over you

These boots were made for walking
And that's just what they'll do
One of these days these boots are gonna walk over you
Walk all over you

Alright, get out the way

Walk all over you
Walk all over you
Walk all over you
Walk all over you
Walk all over you
Walk all over you
Walk all over you
Walk all over you

Back in school you ever get busted for tryin' to walk
And have some administrator tell you
"Son, you can shurk your obligations
Try to be different from your peers, but responibility, your future."

Gonna find you, gonna find you
Gonna find you, gonna find you

Well I saw this kid get beaten down cos he was out of luck
The lottery of acceptance in the school of growing up 
Saw a bunch of convicts doing time inside a cage
Got locked in factories within the school of paid wage 

Gonna find you, gonna find you
Gonna find you, gonna find you

Saw this boy so strung out that his body sweats and shakes
From his field education in the school of cheap escape
Got told the school of human thinking teaches only truth
And one of its educations is gonna find you

Gonna find you, gonna find you
Gonna find you, gonna find you

Saw a civilization where grabbing onto wealth 
Was the only guarantee of freedom, peace and health 
Dollar sign value system upheld as a truth
If you can't find a place it's gonna find you 

Saw the paranoid response to all of the examples 
The ones who don't fit in this way of living getting trampled 
Success is obedience to a structured way of life
Can't ignore the structure cos we're all within its sights

Gonna find you, gonna find you
Gonna find you, gonna find you

Let's go

They call it a scene, I call it disaster 
Down here the kids grew up faster 
Scared, they're scared to the bone 
Pack of wolves they don't run alone
One on one they won't look you in the eye 
But when the pack's together there's a battle cry 
I saw it, fifteen on one 
The crowd dispersed, the kid was done 

No, no more
No bad town
No more bad town
No, no more
No bad town
No more bad town, yeah

Down there you gotta have a label 
Just like cattle in a stable 
Knee jerk reaction, I call it violence 
Why speak out when you be silenced 
Down there out on the dance floor 
Too much violence, I don't want more 
Down there, out on the street 
I can see the air, I can see the heat

No, no more
No bad town
No more bad town
No, no more
No bad town
No more bad town
No more bad town

No, no more
No bad town
No more bad town
No, no more
No bad town
No more bad town, alright

No, no, no more bad town
No, no, no more bad town
No, no more
No bad town
No more bad town
No, no more
No bad town
No more bad town
No more bad town
No more bad town

Smiling friends watching you

At the party, at the bus stop, at the bar
You're lookin' at women because your score is under par
When you find her it doesn't mean anything
You wonder why your life is so boring

Mind is a terrible thing to waste
You would gladly waste it just to save face
Desire is your wish and without it you are lost
Integrity is fragile but you ignored the cost

Smiling when your friends are watching
Smiling when your friends are watching you
Smiling when your friends are watching
Smiling when your friends are watching you

One night stand, car keys in hand
You've fulfilled your gender's sexual demand
Are you feeling insecure and empty
When you're rushing to report to your peers

Mind is a terrible thing to waste
You would gladly waste it just to save face
Desire is your wish and without it you are lost
Integrity is fragile but you ignored the cost

Smiling when your friends are watching
Smiling when your friends are watching you
Smiling when your friends are watching
Smiling when your friends are watching you

Smiling when your friends are watching
Smiling when your friends are watching you
Smiling when your friends are watching
Smiling when your friends are watching you
Smiling when your friends are watching
Smiling when your friends are watching
Smiling friends watching you

Caution is a word that I can't understand
Caution is a word that I can't understand

C,A,U,T,I,O,N was a word I could not understand
Walked the dog with a real short leash
Turned around, saw the dog walk me

Stainless steel and painted glass give me
Pulse like a hammer and mind to match
No relief, no food, no sleep
When you're king for a day
You're a whore for a week

Caution is a word that I can't understand
Caution is a word that I can't understand

C,A,U,T,I,O,N was a word I could not understand
Walked the dog with a real short leash
Turned around, saw the dog walk me

Stainless steel and painted glass give me
Pulse like a hammer and mind to match
No relief, no food, no sleep
When you're king for a day
You're a whore for a week

Caution is a word that I can't understand
Caution is a word that I can't understand

I didn't get it then
I think I got it now
Caution my friend
Don't step in the water till you know you can swim

Caution is a word that I can't understand
Caution is a word that I can't understand
Caution - can't understand
Yeah, caution - can't understand

Empty factories to the east and all our waste
The shape of things that came shows on the broken worker's face
To the west you'll find our silicon promised land
Where machines replace our minds for systematic profit plans

The course of human progress staggers like a drunk
Its steps are quick and heavy and its mind is slow and blunt
I look for optimism but I just don't know 
Its seeds are planted in a poison place where nothing grows 

It's 1989, stand up and take a look around
Weather's bitter tension it seems is sinking down
Drunk with power and fighting one another
Every hour shows the winter getting harder

There's a freeze up
There's a freeze up coming
There's a freeze up, freeze up coming
There's a freeze up
There's a freeze up coming
There's a freeze up coming

One nation stands the tallest radiating blinding light
Plastic and fluorescent energy robbing us of sight
Set in our way, content with our decay
We wave the flag of freedom as we conquer and invade

Ever ask yourself where's my place in this hell
But no one's there to tell you cos they don't know that themselves 
Well rehearsed lined from our elated politicians 
No longer offer solace we can see the self destruction 

It's 1989, stand up and take a look around
Weather's bitter tension it seems is sinking down
Drunk with power and fighting one another
Every hour shows the winter getting harder

There's a freeze up
There's a freeze up coming
There's a freeze up, freeze up coming
There's a freeze up
There's a freeze up coming
There's a freeze up coming

Just one political song, just one political song
To drop into the list that stretches years and years long
Just one political song, just one political song
To drop into the list that stretches years and years long

Static and division is increasing like a storm
We are shelter, we are forwarned
Nothing can be changed except ourselves
Nothing can be changed except ourselves

There's a freeze up
There's a freeze up coming
There's a freeze up
There's a freeze up coming

There's a freeze up
There's a freeze up coming
There's a freeze up, freeze up coming
There's a freeze up
There's a freeze up coming
There's a freeze up coming

Got a song about some love that's gone away
Sometimes his eyes shed tiny teardrops when he plays
His touching feelings are just sitting there to buy
They call it music but it seems more like a lie

Artificial life in the market
Artificial life in the market place
Artificial life in the market
Artificial life in the market place

Epic ballads by the musical whores
Life is boring so project theirs onto yours
Hear the anthems of the Pepsi Generation
See the martyrs of our spiritual degradation

Artificial life in the market
Artificial life in the market place
Artificial life in the market
Artificial life in the market place

American culture, Disneyland freakshow
Screen in your living room, a window for your tomb
You can't compare the world sitting there
Repress your insecurities, watch and escape

Give me artificial, give me superficial
Give me a commercial life that can't be bought
This I say to you, what I say is true
Emotions aren't a product to sell and be consumed

Coming attraction it's coming real soon
Prince is having lunch with Pat Boone
Want to know where all the bullshit goes
It goes down the sewer to be disposed

Artificial life in the market
Artificial life in the market place
Artificial life in the market
Artificial life in the market place

Artificial life in the market
Artificial life in the market place
Artificial life in the market
Artificial life in the market place

Artificial life, artificial life
Artificial life, artificial life

The position being taken is not to be mistaken
For attempted education or righteous accusation
Only a description, just an observation
Of the pitiful condition of our degeneration

Walls made of opinions through which we speak and never listen
Ceiling made of pride, vicious and self-satisfied
Door that's made of rage, hard and slowly aged
Always closing tighter with every war we wage

In this room without a window, can't see out
Room without a window, can't see out, can't see out

Floor is made of lives we'd gladly end to stay inside
Corners made of borders and borders made of law and order
Painted with the words of politicians and religion
Plastered with the wreckage of our cultural division

Room without a window, can't see out
Room without a window, can't see out, can't see out

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
Oh, we're so stupid, killin' each other
Don't we learn nothin'

Gotta room inside our mind, yeah
We gotta, we can't see out because we're blind
But we got to show
Gotta make us feel safe, alright
From the room without a window to a different way to see
Gotta room inside our mind, yeah
We gotta, we can't see out because we're blind
But we got to show
Gotta make us feel safe, alright
From the room without a window to a different way to see

The position being taken is not to be mistaken
For attempted education, righteous accusation
Only a description, just an observation
Of the pitiful condition of our degeneration

Room without a window, can't see out
Room without a window, can't see out, can't see out
Room without a window, can't see out
Room without a window, can't see out, can't see out

Concrete and chaos rise up
Spiderweb across the land like a giant rash
Forests lie down below
Foundations of buildings in a bed of ash

People here got it real good
Cos the glass towers bring prosperity
And ther people starve in tne street
Concrete knows no sympathy

Big city, big city
Big city, big city
Big city, big city
Big city - it's a wishing well
Big city - it's a living hell

This town, it's fucking insane
One will starve and another will gain
It's like a giant mechanical brain
And the people are cells and the streets are veins

Thinks only of itself
A thousand limbs crawling it expands and grows
And still the concrete sits there
Sits there, stark grey and cold

Big city, big city
Big city, big city
Big city, big city
Big city - it's a wishing well
Big city - it's a living hell

And I think I wanna be a brick layer
So I can put another brick in the wall
Sanitary, rational and happy and sane
Growing like a flower to surround us all

Big city, big city
Big city, big city
Big city, big city
Big city - it's a wishing well
Big city - it's a living hell
Big city, big city
Big city, big city
Big city, big city
Big city - it's a wishing well
Big city - it's a living hell

I start it, I end it
I kill and words defend it
Got big plans, blood stained hands
Wanna see my name on the map
On my way to save the world
On my way to save the world

Got a brand new set of words and the going rate is cheap
Unconditional devotion, unquestioning belief 
Words carved in stone, chiseled with sharpened bones 
Ones who thought my righteousness was something to oppose 

I start it, I end it
I kill and words defend it
Got big plans, blood stained hands
Wanna see my name on the map
On my way to save the world
On my way to save the world
Missionary

Can you see the flag rising up beyond the smoke 
Dying authors burning books, was the problem what they wrote
The flag is hard to read - all flags start to look the same
Covered with the blood of the faithless and insane

I start it, I end it
I kill and words defend it
Got big plans, blood stained hands
Wanna see my name on the map
On my way to save the world
On my way to save the world
My world, my world

On my way to save the world
On my way to save the world, let's go

Man of many names, but the motives stay the same
My actions are the means to the end
My actions are the means to the end

On my way to save the world
On my way to save the world
On my way to save the world
On my way to save the world