music and lyrics by Dan Smolla c2004
1 River of Love
2 Remember Me
3 The Rain Can See (If It Wants To)
4 It Can Happen
5 Under the Rainbow
6 Peace (for 45 Seconds)
7 Prison Letter
8 Use That Energy
9 By the Way
10 Angels and Entropy
11 Stars
12 Kathy’s Clown
13 The Drive
14 Howard Zinn
15 Take This (Dream)
1) River of Love
Nothing’s been handed
here we’ve all landed
Here on this planet
See what’s granted to us
With our sacred smile
It ought to last a while
Just point me home where the river flows
What the river feels the river knows
Little bit of laughter little bit of tears
Wash these bones like a water spear
Sometimes even the river of love
Needs more rain to give you a shove
With enough force to wake you up
That you might enjoy the dream
Of the river of love, the river of love
Just like a water spear
It takes you through the years
Dream
You can just point me home where the river flows
You can just point me home
River of love
2) Remember Me
My daddy left home early I was barely four
When I was ten I quit school when I was twelve I worked the streets
Oh me my mo I made some nice money
I made ends meet
Don’t forget remember me
The next time you decide
You gonna let your love
light
You gonna let your love
light
at night you shut your eyes but you can’t shut out the night
especially when you hear an old man singing like a broken bone
outside your window and you know he’s cold
yeah he got crack yeah he got crazies
but it’s just real plain
you can hear it in his voice
hungry, cold
Don’t forget remember me
The next time you decide
You gonna let your love
light
You gonna let your love
Light
See
someone somewhere some how
gonna see
3) The Rain Can See (If It Wants To)
You are the rain falling down down down
And the rain can see
If it wants to
Cycle of the sun gonna pull you up
Back to the sky
And your heart is the sun
And your heart is the sky
And your heart is the sun
And your mind is the sky
And your heart is the sun
4) It Can Happen
It can happen
Peace
It’s gonna take a whole lot
Of give and take
And injustice is gonna have to be your business
now
And until the day you die
Baby don’t you know
That until we know
That the prisons will grow, grow, grow
By the way in my dream you’re beautiful
5)Under the Rainbow
What are we doing to the soul of now?
Can you even turn yourself around?
I think we think to think of things
To make us ring the bell of white
Under the rainbow
I think we think to think of things
To make us ring the bell of white
Meaning
Leaning
Against the chimes of the mighty
Magnet of now
That’s how
We make it
(after all we’re all under the rainbow)
that’s how
we like to shape it
against our fears
that’s our favorite beer
we like
to shape ideas against out fears
spear the beast of now
6) Peace (for forty-five seconds)
(And by the way you’re pretty band at pretending)
Peace
We are little children with the power of gods
And hearts as hared as a rock
Maybe love shouldn’t be
A political question
We are little children with the power of gods
And hearts as hared as a rock
The only thing that make me want to separate from you
Is the fear that if I don’t I wont exist
But what exists to be
What I see as me
Also exists as you and as we
So lets just sit
Right down on these chairs
Try not to judge each other
For forty-five seconds
We’re gonna make mistake we’re gonna hurt each other
We’re gonna make mistakes in fear and hurt each other
In our fear we’ll try to control
And we’ll hurt each other
But I think that we can get past this
I think that we can outlast this
I think that love is forever
And I think we’re hear to remember
What we forgot before
7) The Letter
There’s a man tonight in a Louisiana prison
Scar on his neck that’s shaped just like car key
He’s obsessing on Minneapolis tonight though he’s never been there
But that’s where his girl lives
The one who stopped writing him letters
They caught him selling fists full of fun--
Ecstasy and Marijuana
He’d always called them drugs of love
They called them them
Whatcha got whatcha got on ya
The first letter he wrote her from prison
He said my my my
I know I love you now
My my my oh Bri I love you now
Just help me keep you in my mind
She moved up North about a month or two later
With a man who had a job as a driver
Before you know it they had gotten married
When she finally wrote him
All she could talk about was the snow
She said the snow
The snow
Its fall all day it falls all night
The snow
The snow
Shines like diamonds
Helps you keep quiet inside
Tonight he’ll tape up that four inch window
If you don’t tape it up
The mice will our through that little window
But you gotta wake up early enough
In the morning
To get that tape off
Because that’s the window the guard uses
To give you that coffee
The first letter he wrote her from prison
He said my my my
He said my my my
I know I love you know now
He said Bri
My my my
Oh know that I love you now
Please help me keep ya in my mind
At least once a day some days twice
Hell pull out that letter
That she wrote him from Minnesota
It helps him get to 2005
On the inside time is different
Then the time that lines your life on the outside
Some of the guys inside are always high
Some of the guys just get more and more violent
He tries to read his letter
He tries to read his letter
From the snow to the night
From the snow to the night
8) Use that Energy
Sure makes sense what the mystics say
Night is the east
West is the day
East is the heart
West is the head
Now is a great time for them to be wed
Rich or poor we use the same door
You can stumble with lead
or stand up in bed
but don’t give advice
just feel your own life
just feel your own life instead
and I know you can’t stand yourself
and if it didn’t hurt it might even help
if a few people could just agree
don’t give advice
just feel your own life
deep
feel your own life now
deep
you can use that energy
9) By The Way
Right or wrong at least you tried
The mind is long and the mind is wide
Nothing lasts forever in the land of time
Looking for the signal is itself a sign
I feel your rhythm I feel your tide
(by the way in my dream you’re beautiful)
All real beginnings need false ends to unwind
I play with riddles you just sigh
I love the danger of mercury wine
Light moves the giver to witness and shine
And if we never shivered we wouldn’t be alive
Paradox is a mystery and reason is a lie
Logic is falling
Projects are calling
Teenagers malling
Bible belt shalting
(and you make me high)
Pride is appalling
Fear is a walling
Trifles are smalling
What’s the big difference between Buddha and Christ
What’s the big different between you and the sky
Let me let me let me let me
Have one moment
One real moment with you
Bible belt shalting you make me high
Pride is appalling
You make me high
Please forgive me if I say it twice
teenagers malling
but you make me high
all previous mischief fall through the lines
forming our bodies softly in time
I met what we already said the first time with our eyes
Walk with me we will see
What will be will be
By the way in my dream you’re beautiful
10) Angles and Entropy
Angels beneath the bombs of silver skies
Angels beneath the poverty of silver lies
Angels beneath the apathy of silver ties
Angels beneath the lack of wondering why
Angles watching, watching without bodies from the sky
Beneath the entropy of us not asking why
Angels beneath the bombs of silver skies
Angels beneath the poverty of silver lies
Angles beneath the apathy of silver ties
Angels beneath the entropy of not asking why
Angles beneath the entropy of not asking why
Angles beneath the entropy of not asking why
11) Stars
Outside
We got sky
And stars
Dreamin in holy fire water (wide awake)
Screamin it’s all right
Outside
Sky goes up and up sky goes up and up
(in in in in in in in in )
and we born with and we born with sky
We got sky
And stars
Dreamin in holy fire water (wide awake)
Screamin it’s all right
Star star star sign sun
12) Kathy’s Clown
I got five dollars
gonna scream and holler
I was thinking vanilla
Now I’m thinking quinella
And I’m gonna bet it on Kathy’s Kathy’s Kathy’s clown
I been on a tare cause you’re everywhere
And every place I go there’s such a glare
And I would shut my eyes I would shut my eyes
I would shut my eyes but you’re there too
Did you hear the weather honey? Tomorrow’s sposed to be sunny
I’ve hated the zoo for ages lets go take down their cages
The put the money on Kathy’s Kathy’s Kathy’s clown
(If you come over you can meet my dog rover)
See my plate from Dover and we can play in the clover)
And I know I’m gong straight down with out a clue
But baby let me break it down in the sun with you
Kathy’s Kathy’s Kathy’s clown….
13) The Drive
Never too soon for June in the Runes
To take the singin sideways
Your bent harmonies and the sing in your peace
And your river keeps being my way
Cleveland never saw a man wander the busy streets at night
Like this and you should have seen
The way your sister Doreen
Rolled up her sleeves and laughed in the face of Little Linda
And laughed in the face of Cue Ball Steve
And you ex boyfriend Grant could only stare into the slant of his hands
When I told him I had had the money but I already spent it to buy you some tea
And a new set of keys and a fake brown rabbit fur map
The space between the bars opened so far it gave me ringing mind waves
You laughed cause we live
You smiled just to give a shiver to the river and the smoke
And the drive
Across Veteran’s Bridge and she squinted at the lights of Terminal Tower
She thought about his pawning the tv and the computer and wondered if he was right
She wondered how many things in a row
Would have to happen
How many good things in a row
Would have to happen for him to change his mind
And they drove and they drove and the rain and the rain
And he sang part of that Hip Bone Willy song
“Waitin on the Governor’s Call”
He sang it softly and out of tune
And she touched his arm
And tapped his elbow
When he tried to hit that high note
14) Howard Zinn
Bread and life
Children wanting
Bread and life
children trying to hang on
til the water arrives
til the bread can rise
the resurrection happens everyday
someone finds the nerve to say
my soul can’t be bought
my soul can’t be bought
and my heart
my heart
lives in wanting
more
more like Jefferson
and Lincoln
and Dylan
and Howard Zinn
and Crazy Horse
the resurrection happens everyday
someone finds the love to say
the resurrection happens everyday
someone finds the love to pray
my soul can’t be bought
my soul can’t be bought
and my heart
my heart
lives in wanting
more
more like Jefferson
and Lincoln
and Dylan
and Howard Zinn
and Chavez
and Howard Zinn
15) Take This (Dream)
The baby’s sleeping on the mother’s breast
and the mother is dreaming of a shadier rest
And by the lake at night her man stands
watching in wonder as the lake expands
And then she whispers and he hears
all her secrets and all her fears
And then he goes home, goes home
and admits it may not be what it seems
But he says I will take this dream
And I was the tiger who shot the lamb
just to feel the sensation of blood on my hands
Had to put my fingers deep down my mouth—
swallow and give it back up
Til there was a carnival in the clouds
they say after you wake up there’ll be a shake up you gonna make up your own mind
they say after you wake up there’ll be a shake up you gonna make up your own mind
artists talk to artists about artist things big
while butchers talk to butchers about the price of pigs
what can you do except to put your night clothes on,
hum your favorite rock and roll song like a marching four four psalm
cause we gonna go home go home no matter what it seems
and as we go home we gonna take this dream
we gonna take this dream
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