FLY IN THE BATTER 8.2000

I can't believe it - uh - why didn't I ever leave it?
The situation went from bad to worse to shit.
There was nothing I can do - the power of 1 can only come from 2
But you can't break me - you're fake and you can't handle it

Yeah, it doesn't matter - another fly in the batter
Ya don't matter - swatting flies…

It doesn't matter - I wave my hands and they all scatter
Flies in the batter - they take the rise out of my cake
It doesn't matter - I've eaten shit that's gone much flatter
Flies in the batter - I let them in - it's my mistake

Ya circle, then ya come down
But once you're in, you can't get out
In struggle you cover and can't fly
With regret I watch you slowly die...

No I aint cryin' - just cleansin' myself of the lyin'
Anger's inspirin' - I greet it when it comes to be
Nothing matters except for shiny silver platters
Maybe to you but that shit never worked for me

Ya circle, then ya come down
But once you're in, you can't get out
In struggle you cover and can't fly
With regret I watch you slowly die...

It doesn't matter - I wave my hands and they all scatter
Flies in the batter - they take the rise out of my cake
It doesn't matter - I've eaten shit that's gone much flatter
Flies in the batter - I let them in - it's my mistake

It's my mistake…

Somewhere in the forest
I took a break to take my sweet time
Alone in the forest
A man laid himself down to die

Don't know if I ever made it out
Or if the day just turned to night
Had I found up was down
So lost I crossed to the other side

I dug my name in the dirt
Placed below it the date of my birth
The Earth wore my epitaph, it read:
"We make plans, and God laughs."

We make plans - God laughs.
God laughs - we ask why
Alone in the forest
A man laid himself down to die.

*

2nd verse - truth is my curse
Words carry like the buried from the hearse
We make plans - God laughs.
Naked on paths that turn to broken glass

And God laughs - we ask why
But no one hears above the wind as she slips through the trees
Footprints in blood behind me
A man lays down and he sleeps.

Gonna shoot ya - with my raygun
Comin' at ya - nowhere to run
She treads in blindness - shy silhouette hides, and shadows run from ya
I'm so loaded - and I, I want ya
Gonna shoot ya - yeah
I think we're gonna blow - look out...

Gonna shoot ya - with my raygun
Comin' at ya - nowhere to run - here I come
She waits in silence - she invites me
On full blast now - can't stop firin'
Gonna shoot ya - look out
We're gonna blow - gonna get ya good

(instrumental)

Vernon Reid (guitarist of Living Colour) was going to be a guest on this track, but he just started touring with Living Colour and we couldn't make it happen.  We were discussing his plans to make a fundraising CD for the refugee children of Sierra Leone.  I dedicated this song to them.

I recorded most of the songs on this album at an old cultural center, built in 1833 as the final resting place for dying naval officers - set up a temporary studio in one of the buildings.  The deep marching drums were recorded by mic'ing the 100-foot hallway outside the studio door.

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"Originally a song I wrote for my first trip to Holland to play a guitar show in September 1998...

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Also recorded at the old cultural center. When people would visit the studio, they'd always say they had a feeling like there were ghosts everywhere, without knowing the history of the place..  Everyone would feel it in the hallway - recorded this song in the hallway...

A little girl up on a ledge
Lookin down from on top of the world
Ready to take a step into waiting arms
To hold her as her body falls
There's a little girl lost
Somewhere on top of the world

She wants to lay her head on a pillow of clouds
And pull a blanket of sky over her head
The world spinnin and crashin into her all the time
But this time (it's her instead)
Standin on the edge
Lookin down from on top of the world

SOLO 1

She says goodbye to all the beautiful things
And closes her eyes and listens
To the water passing under the bridge - reminds her
Of the whisper of a man she was once missin'
Only in the past will time forever last
And she's gonna fly (Dweezil now say goodbye...)

SOLO 2 (Dweezil)

Little girl up on a ledge
Lookin down from on top of the world
She steps forward
And her breath connects to the sky as her body curls
She smiles as all wishes are granted - to fly
Like she does in that recurring dream.

Free.
Collision.
Shock.
She shatters, opens, becomes the river.
But for a moment, she was on top of the world.

She ends.
Like a song, we end.

(instrumental)

Originally on the French version of the 'Uncool' CD released Sept. 2000.  The name "R2" refers to my friend Ralph Rosa, who started the MS Research Foundation, an organization that arranges shows and donates all the money to Multiple Sclerosis research.

TIME 2.1999

Wrote this song in the home of Chris Godin, the night before we would play together at the Astaffort music festival in February 1999.

I thought I could find my reflection off the inside of a blind eye
But all I had to go by were the lying images
Breaking with the fading ripples of time

I can only give what I got
But all I have is what I wanna see
So you can ask for anything
But I can't give an invisible piece of me
Like a mask - the inside is the opposite face from the outside
And the tougher the skin, or the brighter the grin,
The more we shelter from the world - or maybe just from ourselves

So when ya pulled the trigger, thought it made ya bigger
Only from where you can see
Ya think the bitter cold is being bold
But all y'are is frightened of your own humanity

*

Half my friends are dead
The other half are living off their piece of borrowed time
All I can do is pray for you
And hope you seek out what ya need to find:
Time

Ya killed time
Ya got time
Now it's your time
And ya gotta find a way to stop time