A Dance for the Dying
As the sun revolves around the world; turning for better days, Can't help but weep when you see heaven and earth and the parting of the ways, Everything changes; it just depends on your point of view, What you’ve done seems like the prison of what you do, There’s a way out but it’s best if you just don’t come in, I thought it was my salvation but it was my greatest sin.
How could you dance while I’m dying, How could you sing while I’m sighing, How could you fly while I’m falling, You only come when I’m not calling.
The rain pummels down on my head I just can't stop the rain dance, Is this the state of the world or just too much romance, I’m just passing thru in a world that's here to stay, I take my life for granted as it slowly slips away, Stepping into the darkness to look for the light, I gave all I had to the morning now I’ve got nothing left for the night.
How could you dance while I’m dying, How could you sing while I’m sighing, How could you fly while I’m falling, You only come when I’m not calling.
All things I know remain in god, But why do we live in the land of Nod, Why do we fight the river's flow, Will we every learn to just let go.
When you feel like this the world laughs in your face, A dance for the dying seems so out of place, I watch it from my death bed without the strength to move, Though I still can hear the music; I still can feel the groove, But the world just will not be bent by my will, Beautiful killer be swift with the kill.
How could you dance while I’m dying, How could you sing while I’m sighing, How could you fly while I’m falling, You only come when I’m not calling.
April 90
She, My Wine
She was in the third pew; I was sixteen years old, She had the beauty of fortunes untold, My mother saw me looking at her and just smiled a pretty smile, But I know she was praying lord let the boy be a man for a while, Her pink dress and her lace sleeves and her shiny yellow hair, Her presence seem to give the church its holy air.
But why did she make me feel like crying, Did she know it was her I loved most, Yet why did she make me feel like I was dying, She seemed much more mystic than the holy ghost.
I study her moves; the way her brows knit in comprehension, And when they relaxed in understanding oh I felt such tension, Her delicate hands could help the poor; could cure disease, A bird landed in my soul as we sang Precious Memories, I’d never known such life in my soul but my heart balked at the living, I couldn’t go on it seemed to be taking more than it was giving.
But why did she make me feel like crying, Did she know it was her I loved most, Yet why did she make me feel like I was dying, She seemed much more mystic than the holy ghost.
I wanted to be alone with her in some perfect silence, But when I looked around we were surrounded by such subtle violence, The service was a passion Jesus at Canna turned the water to wine, Oh I know it must be and how could I make her mine, After the service I wanted to talk to her but I didn’t know what to say, I never saw her again and I’ve never been back to church since that day.
April 90
The Rainbow
I see a little girl; stubborn and proud, Not afraid to speak her most private thoughts out loud, She’s her daddy’s pride and joy and she knows it, But he cannot bear the fact when she out grows it, The organ music in the old mystic church fills her sacred heart, In the enchanted forest alone she’ll walk till dark, She sees all the beauty in the world and she wants it to fill her life, She says a women is more than just a man's wife.
Ursula you can't have the rainbow, Ursula you only get one kiss, Ursula you can't have the moon, Ursula all you get is this.
Passion explodes upon a young lady’s skin like flame, There’s a whole new world within this woman’s frame, A kiss in the church; oh most holy vow, Her religious heart is hungry; there is only now, She meets other hungry lips and feeds with kisses, The feminine palette of the Earth and other delicate dishes, So wild and free like the animals that she loves, But when the world comes to push; everybody just shoves.
Ursula you can't have the rainbow, Ursula you only get one kiss, Ursula you can't have the moon, Ursula all you get is this.
So she settles down to teach and learns a thing or two, But she won't back down she’s gonna make it thru, Democracy is for the monsters who kick and claw their way to the top, Man set the machine in motion now it just won't stop, She sees the world how it is and how it could be, Man lives in tethers when man could be so free, Like wild horses from some nightmare chasing you up that hill, And when you wake up the world is there still.
Ursula you can chase the rainbow, Ursula you can hope for one true kiss, Ursula you can want the moon, Ursula all we have is this.
April 90
Based on the D.H. Lawrence novel The Rainbow and
Ken Russell's wonderful movie.
Another Day Older
I was in all the way up to my neck, And the only way out was to go deeper in debt, I know I will even if you won't, Because I’m damned if I do but I’m fucked if I don’t, Ten years ago I thought I was paving a road to paradise, The gods all favored me; every evening I burned a sacrifice, Now I’m standing at this deserted alter with my broken prayers, And all I want is my share of the shares.
I swear all I do is turn up the heat and my house just gets colder, I used to expect so much from tomorrow; now all I get is another day older.
She keeps our wedding picture around her neck in a locket, I keep my suicide in my wallet in my back pocket, I don’t have the guts and I never did, It’s easiest to find what we try so hard to keep hid, Drinking so much is really hard on your liver, But offer no resistance and you just get dragged downstream by the river, I’m a dreamer who dreams to be a man of action, This unsatisfied soul just wants for one simple satisfaction.
All I wanna do is warm my hands but the world just gets colder, I don’t know wether to jump for joy or writhe in pain because I’m another day older.
Every answer seems to end in a question mark, For every moment of light I spend days in the dark, An impartial judge could never decide this case, An untrained eye could never see the sarcasm in her face, It’s so easy to forget to forgive, It’s so easy to go thru life and never live, Tomorrow is just a gamble; today is just a bet, You load sixteen tons and what do you get?
Nov. 87
Herald
The apocalypse has been herald; the unbelievers have been warned, Living in the days of the calm before the storm, The last apple has fallen from the tree of life, The last temptation has been taken; Cain has made his wife, We lie in the bed of the unforgiven; treat hope like the last great sin, We just don’t do nothing; wouldn’t know where to begin.
I can take the fact that we destroy and pollute the air, I can except the fact that all four tires are flat and we haven’t got a spare, But the fact that people just don’t seem to care, Is more than I can bear.
As the media performs its usual overkill, Lord knows the media is guilty of inventing the issues but this one's for real, The poison has left us living yet has killed our souls, So we just keep on living in these lifeless bodies and ask not for whom the bell tolls, Some say it’s god's will but man has designed his doom, This is the reality of man’s world not some superstitious gloom.
I can take the fact that we destroy and pollute the air, I can except the fact that all four tires are flat and we haven’t got a spare, But the fact that people just don’t seem to care, is more than I can bear.
When life is a fairy tale untold by the stagnate earth, There’ll be a thousand years of silence and then slow rebirth, But all that will be left of the human form will be the crash landing of ashes and dust, Here lies mankind who lived for charity and died for lust, Mankind you face nothing but the mirror; can you stand your sight, Can you face your shadow without a light.
To the children of future ages; are you there?, If you are I’m glad I don’t have to face your cold hard stare, But I sing in the voice of one who really did care, But the fact that that's all I did is more than I can bear.
April 90
Measure for Measure
I made it thru the desert, Just to get stuck in the pass, My head is utter chaos, My soul is shattered glass, It’s hard to live your life, Without the world getting in your way, But now I got my money, Just tell me who to pay, Tell me about your faith, I’ll tell you about your pain, Tell me about the rainbow, I’ll tell you about the rain, You say you’ve got to move on, Got so much to do, I say hey where you going, You haven’t got a clue.
There ain't no way around it, You can try to go thru it, This shallow grave mystery, There ain't nothing to it.
As habit takes dictation, Memory calls the tune, Use to dance all night, Under a different moon, The waters shimmering surface, Forgives the rivers deep, Just another promise, No one knows how to keep, All this apprehension, Working on my brain, The sloppy sanity of the world, Is driving me insane, At first you fight to change it, At last you just don’t care, When you move a muscle here, They just move a mountain there.
There ain't no way around it, You can try to go thru it, This myth fed mystery, There ain't nothing to it.
All these dreams you dream of, Just put them on the shelf, Don’t try to please nobody, Can't even please yourself, All this funky weather, It’s just not fit to fly, You best just ask how, There ain't no reason why, Forget your fairy tales, The world is much less real, You're in for a crash landing, If you don’t know how to deal, Far be it from me, Far be it from you, Could this be heaven’s earth, We haven’t got a clue.
There ain't no way around it, You can try to go thru it, This fairy tale world, There ain't nothing to it.
May 90
Blues Factory
On the production line of life where all is haste, We turn out one part product and nine parts waste, Everything moves in circles as we try to buy back what we sell, But you can't build heaven with bricks made in hell, It’s hard to know which vision is real when your seeing double, Underneath each stone of contentment and joy lurks toil and trouble, We wonder about this while we take care of that, We know where it is we just don’t know where it’s at.
But all this work; that’s just playing around, It’s life that’s a job, We’re all making shoes in the blues factory.
We can build a space shuttle but we can’t build space, We can build churches but we can't manufacture grace, And after all the time is wasted will there be anything left at all, Will the soul cut thru the darkness like the spring cuts thru the fall, Paradise is just an overgrown jungle we sleep in now, With the patience of a saint we wait for somehow, There are a thousand paths but there is only one way, And that's the way we go day after day after day.
But all this work; that’s just playing around, It’s life that’s a real job, We’re all paying dues in the blues factory.
Our reason is the only reason; we never come clean, But that's just the things we say; it’s hard to say what you really mean, They say you never even know what’s going on in the catacombs of your mind, All the dark details stand flexed and ready to unwind, So don’t forget the joke is always on you, Just laugh along with the rest that's about all you can do, Because seeking perfection is a most perfect mistake, In the assembly line of your mind that's one thing you’ll never make.
With all this playing around we ain't getting no work done, It’s life that’s your job, We’re all making screws in the blues factory.
March 87
Fairy Tales and Crash Landings
Send me all your armies; send me all your men, Gonna try and put Humpty Dumpty back together again, His guts are strewn all over the city of broken dreams, His mind haunts the dwellers in semiconscious streams, Keep this all your beauty; know it by your heart, Cryptic way of life man's most hideous art, The shadow it has ruptured and is bleeding light, She just shrugs her shoulders let's live it up tonight.
Catch this dream it’s falling it’s falling, Cage this bird it’s flying it’s flying, Hear this voice it’s calling it’s calling, Life by numbers it’s dying it’s dying.
Send me all your poets; send me all your lawyers, Send me all your Hitlers; send me your Tom Sawyers, We can work some reason into this rhyme, Stop this making money; spend a little time, Rivers still are flowing mountains still hold treasures, Desolation still breeds pain beauty still brings pleasure, We seek and do not gather the fruits of our true labor, We do not know our soul and blame it on our neighbor.
Catch this dream it’s falling it’s falling, Cage this bird it’s flying it’s flying, Hear this voice it’s calling it’s calling, Life by numbers it’s dying it’s dying.
Send me your best future; send me your worst day, We’ll memorize them both then we’re sure to find our way, All this truth and logic is working on our sense, We believe in truth at our on expense, Dream it like a child; feel the fire die, This life is just a living this song is just a sigh, Send me all your builders send me your best plans, God’s world is a masterpiece we’ve got to work on man's.
Catch this dream it’s falling it’s falling, Cage this bird it’s flying it’s flying, Hear this voice it’s calling it’s calling, Life by numbers it’s dying it’s dying.
April 90
The Problem to All Your Solutions
Well you think you’ve got it all figured out, You’ve considered every factor except the factor of doubt, It’ll be easy a breeze nothing to it, If something gets in your way you’ll just go thru it, It’s your game now you make the rules, You don’t care about the facts; facts are for fools, Justice is on your side now; it’s the blind leading the blind, I don’t know what your looking for but I know what you’ll find.
Nothing works forever something always gets broken, The most important words never get spoken, Undermining schemes and careless retributions, And that's the problem to all your solutions.
You could be a martyr for your cause, Or you could learn to live without the laws, But when you fight fire with fire you just get a bigger fire, And when you reinvent the truth you turn the truth into a liar, You're just the creation but you long to be the creator, You want to be the main attraction but you're just the spectator, You punish yourself for wasting a little time, You treat death like a sentence and life like a crime.
You let your mind go and then call it back, There’s no satisfaction for what you have just envy for what you lack, You can't give a little but you’ll gladly except contributions, And that's the problem to all your solutions.
Now the days seem to take more than the night can give, You can never ever get back the life you forget to live, Seems like you can't even make a success of a mistake, But it’s easy to pretend your not a fake, So you just open your mouth and close your eyes, And get ready for your big surprise, You thought the world was here just for you, But it still wasn’t enough after you did all you could do.
A little man has to live in such a great big shadow, And this shadow blocks your light and you can't grow, You tried to fit your ideals to fit the institution's, And that's the problem to all your solutions.
Nov. 89
Tangled Roots
I was lost but I knew where I was, I was feeling wrong just because, Curious fascination, Desperate investigation, Maestro; I called the tune, Howling in the season of the moon, Fearless gladiator, Careless navigator.
Drive the nails, Bear the cross, Christ my lord, The pain.
I was looking but I knew what I’d find, I was tempting matter over mind, Superfluous intentions, Dangerous inventions, I was dying for the thunder root, I was shedding my birthday suite, Inglorious fabrication, Esoteric isolation.
Just to feel, Just to touch, Just to know, The pain.
I was hurting but I knew I could cure, My heart was lusting but my soul was pure, Unholy attraction, Unmanly satisfaction, I was living on yesterday’s wine, But the age is what makes this taste so fine, Irrational liberation, Unheeding meditation.
Love this life, End my dreams, Make me see, The light.
April 90
I Dreamed, I Dreamed, I Dreamed
I dreamed I was the fisherman, I dreamed you were the sea, I dreamed you kept your treasures, Especially for me, I dreamed I was the spirit, Of your windy breath, I dreamed I was living, On the bread of your death.
I dreamed I was the pilot, I dreamed you were the sky, I dreamed I tried to touch you, But I couldn’t fly that high, I dreamed I saw the angels, And you were among their kind, You set my soul to sleeping, And gently woke my mind.
I dreamed my dream was over, I dreamed my dream came true, And you took my dream from me, And I took your dream from you, And slow with steady walking, We’ll slowly pass the way, And I’ll take my rest come evening, But I’ll dream no more today.
April 90
Crazy Jane on God
Words by W.B.Yeats. Music by M.M.
June 90
Released 01 August 1990
All Songs Composed, Performed and Recorded by M.M. Except - Crazy Jane on God, Words - W.B. Yeats, Music - M.M.
