Umbrage and Clarity

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Lyrics

Ape Makes Wheel

Water flows in the natural way
Advantageous, without say

So very threatening in its constitution
Does not make the best solution
Only a better one of fluid motion
Evolution revolution

Moth Man

Bat wings, but like a bird
Flying, soaring

In his eyes a certain look
In his ears sonar sound

Up to You

The good one sees in life
Is relative to the good one does in it
Incumbent on us is to do and define
What is relative and good in life
The living of a good life
Is relative to the good one sees in it

Average Adage

Fear is contagious
Greed is outrageous
War is egregious
Love is courageous

Charity is gracious
Peace advantageous
Beauty is ageless
So say the sages

Floral Pattern

Water very deep, blue on every side
A thousand nights of rain, down came the dark
Death and life are all about us, like an ever-binding wreathe
Water very deep, blue on every side
A thousand nights of rain, down came the dark
But I do not wade into water in which I cannot swim

Articulated Friendship

He is a humanist
Who (he) sings about science

He was a Van Gogh
I was Michelangelo
Painting the Sistine Chapel
With all the words from above

Lewis & Clark

Indubitably suited for the task
Mission secret, Jeffersonian mask
Hopeful waterways, access quest
Economic interests facing west

Log all fauna, flora, folks
Men survive by eating dogs
First to reach the whaler’s coast
Billeted fledgling nation’s hopes

Make all tools, clothes on the way
Not many like them live today

Circus (live in London)

(To crowd: Thank you, thank you, we’ve come a long way
Um, so I’d like to do something new, alright settle down, settle down
Okay, okay, thank you, thank you, we appreciate it
We don’t come out here to these parts that often
But this is a new song that we’d like to do for you
It doesn’t have a name, but maybe you can help us name it
It goes like this)

You know, that’s a lot of sawdust for one circus
So I said, that’s a lot of sawdust for just one circus

That’s not it man,
I walked around behind the tent
Behind the lion cage
Behind the conductor’s train
And I said holy moly that’s a lot of face paint for just one circus
How many clowns are there?
A reasonable question to ask

And it all hit me at once
That’s a lot of sawdust for one circus
That’s a lot of sawdust for just one circus

So I saw the artists, of the trapeze kind
Hovering in the air, balancing in the air
My, they could do the things, they looked like monkeys

(To crowd: alright, settle down, settle down, I’m not getting up there)

My there are a lot of lion tamers here tonight
Are you all lion tamers?
Looks like you might be
Are you in the business of taming lions?
Get in the cage with me

My oh my there is a lot of sawdust, too much sawdust
Way too much sawdust here for just one circus

Yeah, you get it now, don’t you?
There is too much face paint
Too many artists of the trapeze kind
Too many lion tamers here
Too much sawdust for one circus
This ain’t just one circus, folks
It’s got a lot of rings

Anti-Intellectual Fight Back

It’s so easy not to read
Or check all facts, and just believe
Buy in to what stupid says
What stupid does, what stupid is

Arm the Good Then

When the hand grows slack
And the lion’s voice, once a roar
A purr becomes
When the eye fades dim
And the bull’s srength, once in force
Weakens then

One Step Forward

Despite countless generations
Of evolution and much progress

We can’t even get rid of the genes for greed or hate
We can’t even operate
There’s no cure in sight for the cancerous
There no cure in sight for the hate among us

Despite medical discoveries
and advances of all kinds
Despite advances of all kinds

Autumn

In a forest of trees
Can you see the leaves?

Felling Shame Forest

Bare remains now reproaches
First unseen crime encroaches

Axe to trunk
Tree to log
Stack to truck
Fall headlong

Bobbing Order

They said they would seek the serpent aside the shore
Leviathan lurking and glaring aglow alive in lore
Demon-like denizen driven by death and much despised
Craving to kill its chaos-coiled corpse and try to survive

Was the beast they lured and reared from depths inside?
Chaos ebbs and flows with every tide
Did they know “inside” meant deep and dark within?
They did not know to cast and reel it in