| lyrics archive: against the blinking green |
| track list (click a song to listen) 1. santa fe song 3:31 2. $elling tear$ 4:04 3. under the mailbox 2:24 4. daddy's song 3:52 5. cliche cruci-fiction of the facts 2:37 6. over here and over there 3:54 7. the clock 2:59 8. remembrance #9 4:19 9. two dollars and a notebook 3:56 10. paint the day 5:23 11. whiteboy blues 2:34 12. shades of gray 3:35 13. i always cry in libraries 5:39 14. angry political song (live) 6:01 |
| track 1: santa fe song (c) 2003 evan greer and causeless riot records well the world's been hard on him so he has taken it to town and he never gave up or let it get him down well his hands are made of stone and his mind is made of clay and he can't stop moving or he's gonna fade away [chorus] travelin' tim is gonna walk again today he's got fifty-seven miles in the mirrors of his eyes and if you don't care how it's supposed to be then you won't mind when things don't go the way they're supposed to go. well the man says we ain't supposed to sit together or gnaw on the same white bone me a rich white kid from boston him a man without a home but forget the man and his ideas we're sittin' and we're talking here and god forbid i actually learn what freedom is. well life is pretty simple for a man with nothing to prove it's just one foot then the next one he kicks aside the borders as he moves. and there's really no reason why he shouldn't keep on walking and forget the time and leave me on the sidewalk writing my rhymes, it's allright. |
| track 2: $elling tear$ (c) 2003 evan greer and causeless riot records don't ask too many questions we don't want none of your suggestions can't you see we're tryin' to run a country? this ain't no easy job we got a lot of things to think about we're pretty sure that you wouldn't understand. [chorus] so take it from us, we know what's best we've got some information that we can't release so take my word as a politician we need every ounce of that ammunition if we're gonna make the economy grow defend democracy and texaco then we gotta rememember what wrong and right is we all have to make some sacrifices so be afraid, but don't worry too much just sit back and leave it to us. i hear a few of you think this ain't a good idea it's a good thing we don't have to listen to you because one thing i've learned along the way is that democracy is not much more than the lies that tell in school and if you would tend to disagree we have our very own article 43 and you can disapear it's so easy when the country is in fear and the press will just shut their ears they're too busy selling tears. selling tears. yeah. with your green crosshair a-flashin' and that goddamn yellow scrollin' telling lies and your american flag a-waiving telling me who the good guys and the bad guys are and what to buy you tell me what to buy but i ain't buyin' your shit anymore no. no more. on behalf of the president i'd like to thank you all for voicing your opinions, you're all really cute good thing the cops kept you all in line and threw tear-gas bombs from their hazmat suits. it's only normal terrorist detection they're only there for your protection we'd sure appreciate your vote in the election we are only human too we make mistakes just like you. |
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| track 3: under the mailbox *(c) 2003 evan greer and causeless riot records raingone-mud crawls up between my tows, singing me a sweet and earthly song, malina smiles down and the world glows, helios and aten had stayed too long, (chorus) and there�s a dry patch, baby, under the mailbox, where i can sit and watch the curving of the sand, i wanna grow up to be just like the rain, so i could make the whole world dance, yeah i could make the whole world dance. artwork from the past on the back of a postcard, but it ain�t got no address. i�m here alone don�t know where everybody�s gone, got a feeling they know even less. |
|
|
|
| track 4: daddy's song (c) 2003 evan greer and causeless riot records you fought then for your fellow man but now you turn your back away you're too afraid to take a stand what would other people say? and i'm sick and tired of hearing "i remember when" if you've forsaken it now, then what the hell does it mean? what the hell does it mean? you told me i'll understand when i'm older but you can't see since the cold war it's gotten colder and maybe i've still got a thing or two to learn or maybe you'll understand when you're younger i might as well have been talking through the wall i mentioned it for weeks but you heard nothing at all when you finally realized what was going down you just asked me jagged questions said goodbye and defended the crown you defended the crown you might say it's just youthful ideology while you keep your businessman's facade but remember what a famous man once said "los locos y los inocentes dicen la verdad" "dicen la verdad." |
|
|
|
| track 5: cliche cruci-fiction of the facts (c) 2003 evan greer and causeless riot records a gentle tempest rocks me slowly i am standing on the brink i have been to the eye of the storm and it looked at me and winked i held the darkness in my hand smiled and let it go i had to crawl i was too strong to stand and i could see by the light of my own shadow i could see by the light of my own shadow. |
|
| track 6: over here and over there (c) 2003 evan greer and causeless riot records everybody�s talking on the thoroughfare, about, �over here� and �over there� but there must be something that I just don�t see because these two places look the same to me. (chorus) we all believe in something we can�t prove to be true and we�ve been told to hate the �over there�s� so we do, but over in that land of recurring despair, they tell their kids the same thing over there, that we�re the cause of their endless nightmare, but that�s no different over here. we say that they�ve gone and stepped on us, i hear it every day when I watch the news. but we�re too busy, blind and studious, to check beneath the bottoms of our own damn shoes, but over in that land of moral disrepair, everything is run by some millionaire, and there�s so much fighting but nobody cares, but that�s no different over here we�ve already killed for what we know is right, we can determine everything and its worth, and we can say there should be day where there was night, because we�ve become the gods of the earth. the gods of the earth. and over there there�s a grisly sight, there's innocent children being forced to fight, well I�m almost eighteen, they could draft me tonight, it�s no different over here. and over in that land where nothing�s the same, there�s a little boy who�s just learnin� the game, he doesn�t know where his father is, but he knows who to blame and that�s no different over here. |
|
|
|
| track 7: the clock (c) 2003 evan greer and causeless riot records i�m only six months younger than you, but sometimes you make me a scared little boy. you have so much emotional power, sometimes i find myself just running to catch up with you and your eight-cylinder heart (chorus) ohhhh we are just a circle and i'll see you on the other side i just need something that i�m sure about. that�s why I carry this red bandana. maybe when i'm older i won�t even need it. but for now it�s just nice to blow my mind. the clock is always our worst enemy. ticking away the moments �till i leave you, i guess he must not like me much but he hates you more |
|
| track 8: remembrance #9 (c) 2003 evan greer and causeless riot records postcard schoolyard nobody knows how hard it can be i watch this boy sitting all alone away from the boys who wish that they were men how can he be at once older and younger than them? (chorus) and the brown-eyed boy sits all alone on his trampoline of promises he touches no one and no one touches him his ignorance is his only sin. when your friends are plastic quickly gone for homework done, music listened, clothes worn. if nobody knows you when you're down and out then i've been down and out since the day that i was born. but that was so many years ago surely all the tears are spent i've been livin' in this dream world so long got my lease on life and i forgot to pay the rent. |
|
| track 9: two dollars and a notebook (c) 2003 evan greer and causeless riot records remember that day back in '92? crackerjack crayons on the first day of school livin' in a haze of rainy playground days can be so cruel. in a newsprint classroom that i couldn't understand, i knew how to fly, but not how to land and i could count my friends with the fingers on one hand but that was then, or is this then and that was now? (chorus) now i sing my happy song me myself and i we all get along but the other guy never keeps his side of the deal and i've been a skeleton in too many closets to ever hope to ever hope this could be real. well i busted into boston at the age of 23 my wallet gettin' light and my guitar gettin heavy and i had to bum a dollar to take the t so i could go nowhere. in an orange chair on the red line i asked an old man if he had the time and he said: kid, i've got more than you will ever know. i'm pickin' up the pieces of a jigsaw jumble but they keep slippin' through my hands i was too far upside down to take a tumble i was too far rightside up to dance sometimes life is a book with the pages stuck together from some gum that you left there when you were ten but i know that if i don't find it i will still know that my god writes in pen. he writes in pen. |
|
 |
| listen to this song |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| listen to this song |
| listen to this song |
|
| listen to this song |
| listen to this song |
| listen to this song |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| go to the album page: |
 |
|
|
| track 10: paint the day (c) 2003 evan greer and causeless riot records a blue bottle floats on a yellow pond, the sun watches as the children play, and she smiles as she thinks to herself: �i painted a beautiful day.� �i painted a beautiful day.� workglove man out there on the street, thinks that his lonely life has got him beat, little does he know, there�s a man round the bend, looking for a friend. looking for a friend. (chorus) and this old world, it ain�t so bad after all. there'll still be spring and winter, there'll still be apples in the fall, and the leaves�ll turn, and the sun will burn. and we�ll be all right after all. we�ll be all right after all. we�ll be all right after a---ll. we�ll be all right after all. and a mirror still shows you what it wants you to see, today a little more of the world became mostly free, and the brown-eyed boy climbed out from under his bed, he has found a friend. he is his own friend. and this song it ain�t no metaphor, ain�t got nothin� to do with the war, no, i�m just lookin� back and sayin� �hey,� �i painted a beautiful day� �i painted a beautiful day.� this old world, it ain�t so bad after all. there will still be spring and winter, there will still be apples in the fall. and the leave�s turn, and the sun will burn, and i�ll be ridin on the back of an earthworm. free as a salesman as my hair squirms, an annelid desperado, on my way, to buy some paint for a brand new day. |
|
| track 11: whiteboy blues (c) 2003 evan greer and causeless riot records well let me tell ya, 'bout my bad blues. well they're so bad that every label has refused. yeah lemme tell ya' 'bout the white-boy blues. well there's nothin' here for me, i'm bound to lose, cuz nobody wants to hear a white-boy sing the blues. i went to the doctor to cure my blues. said, "doctor doctor, gimme some good news!" and he told me, and he told me the truth: "you ain't got the soul for it, better find yourself a day job kid." nobody wants to hear a white-boy sing the blues. i went to the reverend to find my soul. maybe i'll have better luck with rock and roll, well he told me, well he told me the truth. "you'll never make the ringer, you're obviously a left-winger. you could find a job as a folk singer." nobody wants to hear a white-boy sing the blues. |
|
| track 12: shades of gray (c) 2003 evan greer and causeless riot records life is just a bumpersticker, on the side of a cereal box, and it keeps messin� with my head if a scholar is an apple picker, purple tree down by the docks, why can�t orange and yellow make red? concrete jungle, petrified penthouse, whatcha gonna do today? rooftop graveyard coliseum closed down, what would your mother say? chrystalline criss-cross, wanna make your best toss? i bet i can find a way. suicidal cupcake, rabbit late for a date, hoppin� on the interstate, i don�t care anyway the whole world is just shades of gray, slowly starting to fade away, and there�s nothing, that i can do for you. and there�s nothing, that i can do for me. and some time, someway, somewhere, somehow, we�ll all be free. a boy found himself in a picture, he could see by his bright brown eyes, a cowboys t-shirt and a baseball cap, completed his middle school disguise newsprint alibi, homeless housefly, long distance local call, conservation carnival, freshwater barnacle, a quiet day at the mall, alone in a crowd, what�s goin� down? you watched me drown. feelin� okay, it�s a two-tear day, nothing to say, i don�t care anyway rollerskating on the rails of a rollercoaster, is how she gets her kicks, sittin around doin nothing all day, now that�s what makes her sick. monolith meltdown, monkey in a wedding gown, born with a flag in his hand, pause button overplay, go ahead anyway, a dove suffocatin in the sand, bi-polar polar bear, standin� in his underwear, don�t look like he�s gonna pay, metamorphic metaphor, l-m-n-o-p-q-r, never had a drink but i�m messed up anyway. |
|
|
|
| track 13: i always cry in libraries (c) 2003 evan greer and causeless riot records well i know there's no time left for leaving what a great day for soaking in the rain sunlight off these leafy groves is gleaming and the apples on the shelves will never change (chorus) i know what i will not know and i do know what i know but i don't know there's a place i always go to let your fingers find my hand come on, let's go. under watch of alexandria we held eachother close and met the street and the shadows deep inside me fled from your light in their defeat. there's nothin' to worry about but that's never stopped a man from trying to think about things that he can't understand when i am with you nothing could be wrong another day another song. i wrote this song before i learned to play guitar i guess that's a lie, but you know what i mean in a way when i started out i knew i wouldn't get very far because words were meant for people with nothing to say. you say everything true and here i am looking through you and everything is just as you said it would be. as snow spreads like butter on toast warmed by the missiles that are crisping the coast. the poor man dies while the rich man says, "ain't it a shame?" but all of that's in the back of my mind while you and i are laughing at time nothing can hurt us because a window feels no pain. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| liner notes: i wrote this song about a homeless man that i met in santa fe, new mexico. i had been street performing all afternoon, and he listened to me play. i asked him where i could get something inexpensive to eat and he offered to take me to the supermarket and give me one of his foodstamps. i was awed by his selflessness and unconditional generosity. i declined his offer, since he could certainly use the foodstamps more than i, but i left my guitar with him while i went to get something to eat. society would tell me that he's exactly the sort of person you should not leave an expensive guitar with, but i trusted him a hell of a lot more than any of the tourists wandering around nearby. tim made me rethink what the true heart of anarchy really is: an unconditional love and caring for your fellow human being. |
| have you read manufacturing consent by noam chomsky and edward herman? if you haven't, you really should. this song is about a lot of things--clearly it's kind of an anarchist anthem--but the part that sticks out for me is about the media, and the way it controls the information we receive. the title "against the blinking green" sort of comes from the bridge in this song. anyhow, the mass media in the us is incredibly right wing and biased, so check out www.indymedia.org or www.infoshop.org for what's really going on. i didn't hear it until after i had written this song, but if i had it would have been a major inspiration. david rovics has a song called "pirate radio show" which is simply awesome. fuck the fcc. p.s., that horrible scratching sound you hear in the background is not someone playing percussion on a washboard. it's just me playing a second guitar and doing it with horrible rhythm. |
| i wrote this song for molly hannah, a beautiful artist and an amazing person who touched me though i barely knew her. her life will be cherished. |
| track 14: angry political song (live) (c) 2003 evan greer and causless riot records recorded live at the mugar center for the performing arts throw a question at a monkey and it always ducks, slap a flag on a t-shirt you can make a few bucks, and i�m not sayin� that i don�t hate him too, but we�ve got red blood, white hands and i�m feelin� blue people disapearin�, tell me where did they go? the melting pot melted about 9 months ago it don�t lower the death toll when more people die, In this war against who, what, where, when, and why? why why? please mr. president, tell us what to do cuz we�ve got red blood, white hands, and we�re feelin� blue. bush kills a tree, but it�s in the name of the war, and those lousy immigrants better not knock on our door, suspect your neighbor if he don�t own a flag he�s probably one of them no good commie fags! Watch for people singin� too loud about something wrong "speakin� of which sir, do we have a file on the kid that wrote this song?" red blood, white hands, feelin� blue soothing secretarial soliloquy keeps our country calm, i just hope i�m not here when they drop the bomb, and i hope they havn�t already pushed the button when they finally get a clue, cuz we�ll have red blood white hands and we�ll be feelin� blue i�ve been thinking and i have my doubts, is it worth protecting if we have to turn it inside out? you're either good or evil there ain�t no in between, so stand over here, shut your mouth and pick up an M-16. you little boys with guns just say goodbye to dad and mom, and you'll go marching into our brand new vietnam! [spoken] remember vietnam? how many men didn't have to die? how many children didn't have to cry? and how many more times will the politicians lie? no more say it, no more! because we're not gonna find democracy in washington; we're gonna have to bring it with us. democracy is only found in the streets, with the people. but this country seems to have a serious problem with democracy right now. our faithful leader president bush has decreed to all of us that "you're either with us, or you are the enemy." i am the enemy. i am the enemy. we the people of the united states of america vow to withstand tyranny and imperialism in all of its forms. no. |
|
| evan greer -- [email protected] cell: 978-852-6457 |
| listen to this song |
| listen to this song |
| evan greer -- [email protected] cell: 978-852-6457 |
| the first time i was ever involved in an act of civil disobedience, my parents sort of flipped. i wrote this song for the sole purpose of pissing off my father. |
| this is a fragment of a much larger (and better) poem that i threw on the album at the last minute to show that i actually can play the guitar. |
| this is undoubtedly the most popular song on the album. it was also one of the first songs that i ever wrote. i wrote it on the night that the united states began its bombing campaign in afghanistan. the campaign that killed 3,674 innocent civilians, which is more than died on september 11th. the last verse is the most powerful to me. it tears apart bush's claim that our state wars will end terrorism; it's clear that they will only create more terrorism. |
| this is as close as i get to being emo. |
| well, maybe i could get a little closer... this song is about how much middle school sucked. it's based off of an essay that i wrote after observing some children in a playground for a while. maybe i'll post the essay when i get around to it. you gotta love the guitar solo though... right? |
| when i first wrote this song i thought it was complete trash. total cliche. but everyone i've played it for has really liked it, so... yeah. it's also about how much middle school sucks, but it also looks into the future. |
| it's hard to write happy songs. i mean, i'm not a depressed person by any means. but when i go out with my friends and have a blast at protests and be all happy and subversive, it just doesn't always lead to effective songwriting. the message in this song is really important, though: do everything you can to change the world, and remember, in the end it will all be okay. |
| one of the first... |
| i tried... |
| i wrote this song on a plane on the way to tennessee. it kind of annoyed the people sitting next to me, since i was working out the melody by humming to myself. i can't really tell you what it's about... it's about a lot of things. past, present, future. essentially, though, it is a journalistic song. i wrote what i saw. and no. i was not on drugs when i wrote this song, nor have i ever been on drugs, believe it or not (other than the adderol that i have to take.) however, this does not mean that i am "straight edge." i'll do my thing, you do your's. that's the best way for us all to get along. |
| i kind of hate this recording. the "crowd" that i performed in front of when i recorded was extremely small, and that took a lot of energy away from this song. the reason i wanted to record it live is because it is such a wonderful song to do in front of a big crowd. when i performed it in front of about 150 people at the Not My President's Day concert on Feb 26, 2003, I had the whole crowd screaming "NO MORE!" and cheering at the end of each verse. the spoken-word section at the end is always improvised and often changes. it depends on how i'm feeling when i play it, and what's going on in the world at the time. |
| feel free to download these songs and burn cd's for your friends. i could care less how many copies you make, so have a blast pirates! |
|
| listen to this song |
|
| listen to this song |
|
| listen to this song |
|
| listen to this song |
|
| listen to this song |
|
|
| listen to this song |
 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |