Dollars is the Only Constant
Recorded primarily as a response to the RPM Challenge, Dollars is the Only Constant took about two months to complete. Most of the songs were written within the months of February and March 2007, and virtually all of the lyrics were finalized right before hitting “record” (and some were changed while I was singing the song, because I realized mid-sentence that the original version sounded dumb).
Also, in case I’ve made it unclear, I totally missed the deadline for the RPM Challenge.
01 - Change
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You put the dollar down and made a bed in which you had lie
You overlook the oversight and overcompensate with smiles
And change won’t come
And change isn’t made
And change is lost
And change is afraid
And change feels cold
And change feels loose
And change is a gun
And change is a noose
I’ll push myself inside your skin
until you admit that I am right
I’ll push my war up a hill until all of us have died
We’re in it now
Erase your doubt this will make sense in the end
Because when it all comes down you’ll see I did this as a friend
Why can’t we be friends?
02 - Dollars
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The bell rings and my heart starts
To beat again
I can feel the Euro competing with the yen
And as the sun sets each day
The markets close down on me but
Dollars give me shape
And dollars can erase
My mistakes
I’ve got currency in my veins
It makes me move it helps me see how all this change
Is a ride that I can’t stop
Hurtling down to/from the top but
Dollars give me shape
And dollars can erase
My mistakes
It’s strange that a coin can make me feel like less
Than the metal upon which an image is pressed
Of presidents past and animals roaming free
The extent of my worth and the scale of my size
Are dictated by electronic bits and bytes
That inform my creditor of my fiscal history
But that’s not me
the road is nothing but forks
The dollar is trending up
And trends can be enough
to break my will
To break the bank
To break the next big thing
I am the next big thing
I am the next big thing
03 - American
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I’ve got a friend
He makes it hard on me
He makes it hard
I breathes up all the air in the room
He breathes it out
He breathes it up
He breathes it in
I don’t think he knows why he’s like that
Let’s blame
his mom
And his dad
But he’s got books on tape
That tell him that he’s great
For reasons big and small
He is the American
I see a woman on the train every day
She must be
She must weigh 300 pounds
She takes up all
the space on the bench
In the car
In the train
In my head
I don’t think she cares that she’s like that
She was here first
Don’t want to stand
I know I shouldn’t be mad
But surely you understand
Fun to take fun to judge hard to share
She is the American
I watch the news on the TV each day
I prop up my feet and have a snack
There’s so much death
And devastation in there
Without hope
Without end
Without prayer
I shake my head and say “oh, that’s a shame”
I cut a check to liberal youth
And it’s so easy to feel
While I grossly consume
And take up all the space others give
I am the American
Could say something that would make me feel alright, but that’s not the way this song ends
04 - Summer Camp
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Met a girl at summer camp
In July of 1989
The war was ending
She was alive
And I was sending
My parents a note
to pick me up
She held my hand and walked with me
down the hall
to the nurse
I had a cold
Trouble breathing
It’s getting worse
I’m scared of leaving
Of being left to my own ways
Of being left
She said,
“Energy is wisdom
even if you don’t know which way to go
which words to write
or which songs to sing”
Her parents sent her off to boarding school
In the fall
She grew up
Started a family
That’s not enough
For people like me,
Who take advice from little kids
And believe in what they say
05 - Never Enough
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Didn’t have the time to get it right
The threat was real and it kept you up at night
Any time at all
You know
It could happen
Any time at all
You know
Invective flies but it’s never enough
Enemies die but it’s never enough
You tell a lie but it’s never enough
Now the road is nothing but forks
You stay on point until your brain gets hoarse
Any time at all
You know
It could happen
Any time at all
You know
Invective flies but it’s never enough
Enemies die but it’s never enough
You tell a lie but it’s never enough
Out of luck and out of time
Back against a wall
Your plans have come
Unglued and out of line
Questions abound but you’re
Starting over
Now
Any time at all
You know
It could happen
Any time at all
You know
Invective flies but it’s never enough
Enemies die but it’s never enough
You tell a lie but it’s never enough
06 - Anna
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Anna
I made some time for you
I cleaned my whole house
With my mom
After school
Anna
You came to me for help
With the books on the shelf
With the man in your room
But if you keep saying “I’ve gotta get my head right”
then I’ll keep trying my very best to forget
that we’d been happy
For so long
Anna
You learned how to drive
And we spent all of our time
Finding towns on the map
Anna
All the plans that we made
All the tricks of the trade
Were a lie that we told
But if you keep saying “I’ve gotta get my head right”
then I’ll keep trying my very best to forget
that we’d been happy
For so long
Anna
I woke up in the back
In a car on a path
To a dry, sunburned lake
Anna
Your father opened the door
then threw me to the floor
And said “Boy, your whole life’s a mistake”
But if you keep saying “he’s gotta get his head right”
then I’ll keep trying my very best to forget
That he’s been hating me
for so long
07 - Concrete
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Lying on the concrete
bleeding from my head
hoping someone’s watching me
hoping I’m not dead
it’s hard to fall asleep
it’s hard to breathe
i’d rather be the one to lie
than the one to leave
It’s so easy not to walk
Cement the same mistakes
Outline my silhouette in chalk
And refuse to stay awake
Oh
Lying on the concrete
But it hurts to move
Setting in the memory
It dried too soon
How to escape the past
How to let go
How to tell her that I
Can’t be her soul
08 - Greenocratipublicist
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You’ve got my vote
But I have some suggestions
A few corrections to your platform
I’ve made some notes
About your image and your ideas
I’ll bend them to a place where you’ll perform
You’ve got my vote
But all the same
You should know
I’m throwing stones
I’m breaking bones
In your name
I’ve made a list
of loaded phrases you can use
To justify our rights abuse in stride
Greenocratipublicist
The shape of words can shape the truth
When phrased with the appropriate insight
You’ve got my vote
But all the same
You should know
I’m bleeding stones
I’m eating bones
In your name
What do you say now?
Can you just up and leave?
Or keep your head down
And trust in your belief
The bullets ring out
As history repeats
You can’t afford doubt
You might be blind but what is there to see?
I’ve got your vote
Every time you shift your feet
You give up a little ground to me
09 - The Pulse I Found
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“we are not response for any belonging”
I forgot
the pulse I found
in the flight and falling
“NOW AVAILABLE”
written on the wall
makes me feel possible
It’s possible
The street’s a blossom
I can feel the bloom
When I’m out walking
We have found
we won’t be consumed
by the sky and squalls and shining
“NOW AVAILABLE”
written on the wall
makes me feel possible
It’s possible
The city crackles with energy
My friend laughs and says its the humidity
Either way I guess I’m glad I feel
It’s very easy to give into routine
To let the hole convince you you’re sitting in it
Instead of realizing that you’re looking down
Learn functional English in three months
Lose all that weight in two
Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m from New Orleans
Every body is trapped in a motion
I’m on an island surrounded by ocean
Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m a young entrepreneur
We are counting on all of your eyes
A highly visible display of force
Ladies and Gentlemen, can I present to you
10 - False Echo
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Time to forge ahead
Cut off these feet of lead
Embrace the fear and
Ignore the false echo
Trying to turn off
The noise and the mess
A sentiment of loss
a feeling of less
Awake from the lull
I shake from the pull
Of you
Trying to turn on
My mad scientist
So desperately alone
So angrily amiss
Accidental death
Everything since breathes
Of you
Time to make a break
From my own hateful ways
Embrace the faults and
Ignore the false echo
Time to find a home
Remember what I’ve always known
Embrace the change and
Ignore the false echo