1. |
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If I die before you
You can have my records
You can give my books away
If I die before you
You can burn my journals
I don’t care what they say
Don’t you cry, if I’m the first to die
I’ll try to get assigned a post close by
If they let me be a ghost
I’ll be a friendly one, and float by you in the dark
Or if I’m reincarnated as a squirrel or a pigeon
I’ll find you in the park
Or if they chose to let me decompose
I’ll tickle your toes from underneath the ground
Oh I’ll still be around
If I die before you
Don’t be sad for too long
Nobody likes a crybaby (no, missy - nobody likes a sissy)
If I die before you
You have got to move on
You’ll find another fly baby (yo kiddo, everybody loves a widow)
Don’t be low if I’m the first to go
You’ve got a funeral to throw, you know
Make sure there’s a brass band
Like they have in New Orleans
Nobody wearing black
And everybody dancing
Everybody, everybody dancing
Everybody, everybody dancing
Everybody dancing
If you die before me
Should I play your records?
Should I give your books away?
If you die before me
Wherever you end up
Save me a seat
I’ll be there someday
I’m gonna love you to death
So after my last breath
I can die happy
I can die happy
I can die happy
I can die happy
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2. |
HUDDLED MASSES
04:07
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There once was a little boy
Who dreamed of preaching a gospel truth
He lived in a country with an evil king
Who was killing all the youth
His family fled the country
In search of freedom’s flame
He was raised a refugee
Jesus was his name
Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses on your teeming shore
Yearning to breathe free
Send them all to me
Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses on your teeming shore
I lift my lamp beside the golden door
Remember what I stand here for
There once was a little girl
Who dreamed of being a writer
She lived in a country with an evil king
Who burned people who prayed like her
Her family tried to flee it
To keep their kid alive
Anne was raised a refugee
Just her diary survived
Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses on your teeming shore
Yearning to breathe free
Send them all to me
Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses on your teeming shore
I lift my lamp beside the golden door
Remember what I stand here for
There once was a young man
Who dreamed of earning his degree
He lived in a country with an evil king
Who bombed his family
He flew to reach our border
To start his life anew
He’s detained today at JFK
We did not let him through
Oh, let him come through
Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses on your teeming shore
As it’s always been
Let the people in
Welcome all Muslims, Christians, Jews and more
Every child fleeing hate and war
I lift my lamp beside the golden door
And I’ll forever lift my lamp beside the golden door
Remember what I stand here for
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3. |
WHERE ARE THE GROWN UPS?
02:38
|
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|
The bully has taken the playground
The smallest are trembling in fear
Everyone’s yelling and shoving
And I’m standing here
I’m waiting for them to come running
Aren’t they supposed to arrive?
Where are the grown-ups?
To save the day?
Where are the grown-ups?
To whisk us away?
Somebody’s gotta come clean this mess off the floor
Where are the grown-ups we’ve been waiting for?
Where are the grown-ups?
The bully is building a fortress
For only his friends at the top
He’s slamming the rest into lockers
Please make him stop
I’m looking around for an answer
I thought they’d be here by now
Where are the grown-ups?
To make it okay?
Where are the grown-ups?
To show us the way?
Somebody’s gotta come clean this mess off the floor
Where are the grown-ups we’ve been waiting for?
The kid on my lap won’t stop crying
She’s scared of the man on T.V.
Her small eyes are widened with worry
She turns to me
She’s looking for some kind of answer
And now I have mine
We are the grown-ups
To save the day
We are the grown-ups
To show us the way
We’re not gonna take this bully’s shit anymore
And we’re the grown-ups we’ve been waiting for
My god
We are the grown-ups
We are the grown-ups
So what are we waiting for?
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4. |
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Nevertheless
Elizabeth
She took the floor
Then she took a breath
And read without qualms
A letter Coretta Scott King wrote Strom
They censored her
The congressmen said:
‘The Senator will take her seat.’
And all through the chamber spread heat
She was warned
She was given an explanation
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
Malala
She wanted to be a scholar
The Taliban banned
Girls education
She took a stand
It caused a stir
They got on the bus to silence her
The gunman said:
‘Who is Malala?’
She bled
She was warned
She was given an explanation
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE
If you think you've heard this before, yes,
You've seen this in hashtag form, you heard it first on the Senate floor
He thought he was silencing
But instead he penned a hook we may be licensing
Our volume he was heightening
You can try to turn our track down or off, belittle or scoff
But our transmittal is cyclical, generational
Waves of being hushed then a crash of sound
The tide of justice comes around
We're gravitational
We could fill all these bars on Joan of Arc Harriet Tubman Alice Paul and Rosa Parks
Sonya Sotomayor, Anita Hill, Hillary Rodham, Hermione and Leia,
Bessie and Nina, your mama's abuela’s mama
The first female president is alive at this moment
In a classroom raising her hand
Standing on the shoulders of a miss on this list
And Nevertheless she gonna persist
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, NEVERTHELESS, NEVERTHELESS
SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED
SHE PERSISTED
SHE PERSISTED
SHE PERSISTED
NEVERTHELESS
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5. |
FAMILY PLAN
02:48
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|
I’m leaving the family plan
It’s high time I pay my own damn phone bill
Down on Atlantic Avenue
At the Verizon I realize
This is the last thing connecting me to you
I’m leaving the family plan
We decided over email
Like business associates
Instead of child and parent
Who’s the child now?
I don’t know where you’ve been living since you left
I get missed calls from an unknown 802
Is it you?
You got a new family plan
So do I
You at sixty-one
And me at twenty-five
Was the last time I saw you the last time I’ll see you alive?
I wait at the counter
I sip my water
I sign the paper
I’m no one’s daughter
I always knew, I always knew, I always knew
I never thought, I never thought, I never thought
One thing I still don’t understand
You were married for eight years before we were born
Were you happy back then?
This can’t have been the family plan
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6. |
HOLY OLD CITY
03:47
|
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|
I see a soldier with a gun slung on her shoulder
And a grandpa with a toddler on his knee
Here across the sea
A siren warning blares against the call to prayer
I hear a foreign and familiar harmony
Here among the fossils of apostles
And the remnants of descendants
Where centuries are circles and eternity’s a day
In this holy old city
In this holy old city
A cloud of smoke beyond the hilltop from a headline horror
Just beyond a border from me now
I do not know how to reconcile the beauty I am witnessing
With all the hatred on the screen I’m scrolling down
Do I kiss the ground beneath my feet
Or kick the hot tin can down the old dirt street?
Here in the desert where my mother wandered
I am wondering
In this holy old city
In this holy old city
Up on the roof, the mosque, the wall, the church
Seem all from the same heart
But down below the bloodlines boil in the sand
As gods and kings demand that scrolls and slabs of stone
Say if this land is their land
While folks from every stripe and creed
Live in hope and fear and need
Peace is the common language
And we’re all fluent, but speechless
Peace is the common language
And we’re all fluent. but speechless
Peace is the common language
And we’re all fluent, but speechless
I am fluent, but speechless
In this holy old city
In this holy old city
Holy old city
Holy old city
A group of travelers stop to photograph themselves
Already desperate to remember what they’ve yet to see
A girl whose face is covered by a veil is walking up ahead
She looks a lot like me
I will walk this ancient land
I will search for what is true
I will try to understand
Then I will come back home to you
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7. |
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Winterize a dirt road maze
Make a fort a fortnight stay
Snow begets a morning wise
How immense and slight my size
And why my eyes don’t recognize me here
I want everywhere and nowhere as home
I want every time and never all my own
I want everyone and no one within range
I want everything and nothing to change
I want everything and nothing to change
Took me three times there and back
Now I’m mapless in pitch black
Lay where gracious ghosts have laid
Hunting for who I have made
And where did I fall inside me here?
I want everywhere and nowhere as home
I want every time and never all my own
I want everyone and no one within range
I want everything and nothing to change
I want everything and nothing to change
Go away
Go away
Away away
Away with me
With me
With me
I want home
I want my own
I want
I want
I want
To want
To want
To want
To want
To want
To change
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8. |
2 CAPTAINS
02:38
|
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|
I’m a ship with 2 captains
One envious and insecure
One gracious and sure
I'm a ship with 2 captains
Both keeping an uneven keel
Asleep at the wheel
Who will steer today?
Who will steer today?
Who will steer today?
On my ship with 2 captains
One ready for an odyssey
One under the sea
On my ship with 2 captains
One tryin to throw an anchor down
One starting to drown
Who will steer today?
Who will steer today?
Who will steer on my ship with 2 captains?
If I surrender
I'm left unmoored
If I mutiny
They throw my head overboard
They throw it overboard
They throw my head overboard
They throw it overboard
On my ship with 2 captains
One everybody loves and knows
One that never shows
On my ship with 2 captains
What will it take to turn the tide
When will I decide
When will I decide
Who will steer today?
Who will steer today?
Who will steer today?
Who will steer today?
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9. |
OUR SOLITUDE
03:37
|
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|
You don’t have to be brave
You don’t have to be scared
You don’t have to be broken
You don’t have to be repaired
You can be quiet with me
You can rage
You can write in blood
Then rip up the page
I will stand at your gate
I won’t let the demons intrude
I will share your silence
I will guard your solitude
I will share your silence
I will guard your solitude
You don’t have to reveal
You don’t have to hide
You don’t have to be near
To be by my side
You can fall apart
And not know why
You can take your time
So will I
Will you stand at my gate
When I need my own interlude
Will you share my silence?
Will you guard my solitude?
Will you share my silence?
Will you guard my solitude?
Can we travel together in parallel lines that intertwine? That intertwine?
Can we travel together in parallel lines that intertwine? That intertwine?
As we guard each other
As we guard our solitude
We will guard each other
We will guard our solitude
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10. |
YOUR OLD GUITAR
02:08
|
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|
I sold your old guitar
The one you gave me on my birthday
The year before you left
I bet you get sentimental
Picturing how I’ll pass it down someday to my own kid
Do you think its vintage strings will fix the things you never did?
For years your old guitar laid against my wall unplayed
As I waited for amends you haven’t made
I remember how you used to
Take it with you in a fit of rage and drive away
Gone drinking with your friends
I lost count of the times you walked out on us
But you could never bear to leave your old guitar
I considered smashing it into a thousand pieces
As though the shattered wood would give me peace of mind
But I’m so tired of destruction at the hands of my own kind
I couldn’t keep inheriting your hard case of regret
I couldn’t keep resenting every unforgiven fret
So I’ve accepted your apology I’m never gonna get
And I sold your old guitar
So I sold your old guitar
I hope it’s somewhere in the backseat of a car
Riding far away
Far away
From me
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11. |
STILL I WILL LOVE
03:33
|
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|
ON THE HEAVIEST DAY, ON THE BITTEREST NIGHT
STILL I WILL LOVE
STILL I WILL LOVE
WHEN I’M TIRED AND HUNGRY AND WE’RE IN A FIGHT
STILL I WILL LOVE
STILL I WILL LOVE
AS WE CHANGE AND WE GROW, AS WE RIPEN AND ROT
STILL I WILL LOVE
STILL I WILL LOVE
WHEN NOTHING TURNS OUT QUITE THE WAY THAT WE THOUGHT
STILL I WILL LOVE
STILL I WILL LOVE YOU
WHEN I’M SCARED TO LAY BARE ALL THE PAIN IN MY CHEST
STILL I WILL LOVE
STILL I WILL LOVE
AT OUR BRAVEST AND WEAKEST, OUR WORST AND OUR BEST
STILL I WILL LOVE
STILL I WILL LOVE
WHEN WE LOSE ALL OUR HAIR AND OUR TEETH AND OUR MINDS
STILL I WILL LOVE
STILL I WILL LOVE
WHEN THE SCENERY FALLS AND I MESS UP MY LINES
STILL I WILL LOVE
STILL I WILL LOVE
I MAKE A PROMISE (I MAKE A PROMISE)
I MAKE A VOW (I MAKE A VOW)
TO MYSELF, TO YOU, TO EVERYONE RIGHT NOW
WHEN THE WORLD TRIES TO TEAR US APART AT THE SEAMS
WHEN LIFE MAKES IT HARD TO KEEP CHASING OUR DREAMS
WHEN WE’RE MESSY AND WEEPY AND FEEBLE AND OLD
WHEN WE DON’T HAVE A CLUE WHAT THE FUTURE WILL HOLD
STILL I WILL LOVE
STILL I WILL LOVE
STILL I WILL LOVE
STILL I WILL LOVE
STILL I WILL LOVE
STILL I WILL LOVE YOU
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12. |
INEVITABLE
03:29
|
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|
As the summer will await
As the subway will be late
Inevitable
My love for you
As the young ones run away
As the old ones smile and say
Inevitable
My love for love for you
Birthdays, taxes
Sun in your eyes
Mondays, goodbyes
With you, fact is
I never question why the whiskey will relieve
Why a child will just believe
Inevitable
My love
Oh, my love
With you, fact is I never question why
Too linearly run my veins
Circularly it remains
Inevitable
My love for you
|
||||
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