2. Her Eyes
3. Heroes And Survivors
4. Hiroshima-Nagasaki Russian Roulette
5. How Could You Be So Kind
Head Full Of Pictures
I just came home with a head full of pictures
and I can’t say, I can’t say
they wake me up screamin’ in the middle of the night
make ’em go away, make ‘em go away
and I might start drinkin’ and I might not stop
I might cross over that line
I just want to get drunk and stay that way
all the time
I’m walkin’ around with a head full of pictures
and you don’t want to know, you don’t want to know
they’re hangin’ right there in front of my face
everywhere I go, where I go
and I might start dopin’ and I might not stop
I might cross over that line
I just want to get numb and stay that way
all the time
nobody should have pictures in their head like I do
nobody should have pictures in their head like me
give ‘em back to the people that wanted this war
I don’t want to see ‘em anymore
I’m livin’ my life with a head full of pictures
from now on, from now on
and I can’t make love to the world anymore
‘cause they’re too strong, they’re too strong
and I might get crazy and I might not stop
I might cross over that line
I might do somethin’ I might regret
sometime
who gave me this head full of pictures
well I think I know, I think I know
some big shot sittin’ in a padded chair
where they monies all flow, monies all flow
and I might start thinkin’ and I might get smart
I might cross over that line
I might do somethin’ about it
sometime
nobody should have pictures in their head like I do
nobody should have pictures in their head like me
give ‘em back to the people that wanted this war
I don’t want to see ‘em anymore
---------
Her Eyes
I saw a woman’s face in the paper
she was from Iraq
I was looking at her
and she was looking right back
her eyes still haunt me
over all of the distance
such a human insistence
demanding answers
asking questions
why have you done this
why don’t you do something to stop it
these briefcase killers
these bureaucrat thugs
these pushers of bullets
and runners of drugs
these colonels and statesmen
these newspaper drones
this idiot system
this heart of stone
don’t look don’t see
don’t hear don’t think
sit back relax
have a smoke take a drink
go to work go home
watch TV watch the game
let them breed dead babies
in your ignorant name
and her eyes still haunt me
over thousands of miles
and millions of agonies
reaching reminding
and tearing the blankness
how can you do this
why don’t you do something to stop it
are we all just pretending
depending on them
to give us excuses
when the going gets grim
to pass resolutions
to make it alright
so that in spite of everything
we can still sleep at night
if we don’t do
what has to be done
we’ll be criminal ancestors
everyone
criminal ancestors
doomed to the dust
and whatever happens
will happen to us
her eyes still haunt me
screaming the silence
all the complicity
of these American hands
I have to answer when she asks me
how can you do this
and why don’t you do something to stop it
I saw a woman’s face in the paper
she was from Iraq
I was looking at her
and she was looking right back
Heroes And Survivors
I’ll tell you a story
all good friends of mine
of the heroes and survivors
of a terrible time
two great peoples
separated by the sea
joined in understanding
of a great calamity
1831
it was the darkest of their years
Andrew Jackson drove the Choctaw
on the trail of tears
with the saber and the rifle
on a thousand mile drive
to the land of Oklahoma
only half would survive
they called it reservation
it was a cage without wire
what a hundred years later
the Germans would admire
surrounded by a state
that held the lock and key
to the vision of their future
and their free humanity
half a world away
in the emerald Irish land
famine stalked the countryside
with doom on every hand
starvation, desperation
driven to extremes
they died eating grass
their mouths stained with green
and it was the British Empire
that held the lock and key
to their island reservation
and their free humanity
across the hungry countryside
they walked a trail of tears
through death and emigration
half the people disappeared
news travels fast
when it goes from hand to hand
all across the mighty ocean
to the Oklahoma land
when the Choctaw heard the story
of the Irish in their plight
they new they were related
though their skins were red and white
and though their hands were nearly empty
and their lands were nearly bare
they collected all the money
that they thought that they could spare
and they sent it off to Ireland
to their unknown new friends
seven hundred dollars
it was a fortune to them then
you may wonder at my story
and you may marvel at it's worth
but I tell you there is goodness
in the people of the earth
and I tell you there is beauty
in the darkest of the days
and a light to come shining
blow the darkness all away
Hiroshima-Nagasaki Russian Roulette
They dropped the bomb in forty-five to end the world war
No one had ever seen such a terrible sight before
And the world watched with eyes wide to see where it would lead
as the politics of power passed around the seed
It was a time to remember that we never can forget
They were playin' Hiroshima-Nagasaki Russian Roulette
They arose like the saviors of our modern human race
with radiation halos that hung above their face
with the key to the sure cure and treatment of our ills
a hot shot of cobalt and a pocket full of pills
Speaking always of the enemy who lurked across the seas
while moving in among us like a carrier disease
Down deep inside the bunkers of the concrete and lead
Einstein's disciples working steadily ahead
Building heavy metal power plants to fire the city lights
and all you hear is the underground, humming in the night
And the walls of tight security circle all around
where they spill out all the poison and they bury it in the ground
Holed up in the harbors, hidden secretly away
the warheads and the submarines await to make their play
And the military masterminds improve on their designs
while the soldiers get all doped up and stumble through the lines
And the leaks in the water get carried by the tide
They call it National Security, I call it attempted homicide
Governors and statesmen on congressional pay
quick to please the hand that feeds, they are careful what they say
They call out experts to assure us and to wave their magic wands
this is the power of the future, and the future marches on
And they gather up their favors and political gains
while the spills fill the rivers and settle in the plains
I know the minds behind them, they are riddled full of holes
They are not to be trusted with their hands at the controls
Their eyesight is twisted with the glory of their careers
and the heaped praise of flattery is music to their ears
And to listen to them talk about how it hasn't happened yet
is like playin' Hiroshima-Nagasaki Russian Roulette
Those who brought the deaths of millions, for it was their stock in trade
they are afflicted with the fallout that they themselves have made
they have sealed their own inevitable doom, and it will surely come
and not even the moons of Jupiter will be far enough away to run
when the world that they've assaulted begins to turn around
and the unavoidable gravity pulls them to the ground
----------------
How Could You Be So Kind
I went down by the monument
to see the eternal flame
for all the souls that came and went
we never even know their names
the sky was dark and cloudy
rain came a-tumblin’ down
that old flame kept a-burnin’
right in the center of town
I took a walk down a side street
past the pawn shops and the bars
windows selling broken dreams
wedding rings and guitars
I heard a jukebox sing a song
about a lonesome cowboy blues
thought about the way that we said good-bye
felt like a stone in my shoes
(chorus)
why did you have to touch my heart
how could you be so kind
so little distance keeping us apart
trouble in my piece of mind
I know a woman with children three
one day her man was gone
left her alone with a family
she had to learn to be strong
she moved away to a foreign land
where people do not hide
felt the touch of a stranger’s hand
kindred to the spirit inside
and I know a people who don’t believe
that love is a thing to be sold
they measure time in generations
a life for the young and the old
there was a battleground one day
and death sang a terrible song
for every soul that slipped away
there was another one to carry it on
(chorus)
why did you have to touch my heart
how could you be so kind
so little distance keeping us apart
trouble in my piece of mind
now I’ll go down by the riverside
maybe rest for a while
think about some of the good times we had
bring a little smile
I coulda said I was a stranger to love
coulda said I didn’t know how
shoulda said I couldn’t stand to see you go
but it’s too late for that now
(chorus)
why did you have to touch my heart
how could you be so kind
so little distance keeping us apart
trouble in my piece of mind
trouble in my piece of mind
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