Get all 146 Bill White releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of State of the Heart 4, Human Music, radio art -sightlines, Songs for Kelly, Footprints, Brothers and Sisters, BROTHERS, SISTERS, and 138 more.
1. |
God of the Machine
05:03
|
|
||
the gods leaving these mountains
have thrown down crowns for kings
now the kings have been beheaded
and we worship the god of the machine
knock and it will open
seek and you will find
am i getting closer to god
or further from my own kind?
the road not taken
is the road unseen
by those to be martyred
to the god of the machine
that god worships no planets
that god worships no stars
the man of the mountain
has left nothing but scars
no jacks no jokers
no kings no queens
all tribute is due
to the god of the machine
it is a fool who says in his heart
there is no god
but it is a bigger fool
who says he knows god
and to those who say
man has invented god
i say the opposite is true
god has invented man
and like it or not
hes got you in his hands
man has invented the machine
and man is the god of the machine
but what will happen to man
when the machine no longer believes
and that is a foolish machine
that says man does not exist
because man holds the strings
and he could kill you with a flick of the wrist
|
||||
2. |
X-PANDED MINDS
02:27
|
|
||
he says hes got a lizard brain
because its easier to be dumb
that to face the possibilities
that a human mind can plumb
IT IS EASIER TO REDUCE A BOULDER
TO A GRAIN OF SAND
THAN TO IMAGINE A GRAIN OF SAND
AS A BOULDER
my body tried to kill me
so i plugged it with my mind
it gained me a couple of years
but the contract went ununsigned
REDUCTION IS SAFE
EXPANSION IS FRIGHTENING
WITH REDUCTION
WE SIMPLY DISAPPEAR
WITH EXPANSION
WE COULD WIND UP ANYWHERE
the forbidden fruit of eden
was a psychedelic drug
that expanded the mind too quickly
so then he swept it under the rug
|
||||
3. |
|
|||
i want to hear the planet sing
in all its joy and misery
the tears of the tarantula
the laughter of count dracula
the arias of empty pews
the harmonies of morning dew
the trolley going ding a ling
i want to hear the planet sing
i want to hear the planet sing
the punches in a boxing ring
the seesaws and buzzsaws and birds
the cha chas the by laws and herds
of caskets and cradles and cries
the songs oozing out of their eyes
the sadness that the postman brings
i want to hear the planet sing
i want to hear the birds and whales
Willie Loman and Soupy Sales
Lonesome cowboys Joe and Bert
The soldiers when they hit the dirt
The hound dog singing in the shower
The fart inside the seat of power
The cops when they take LSD
i want to hear the planet sing
I want to hear the planet sing
strangled on a hanging swing
The botwots and pot snots and cows
imbo who limbos his brows
the tortoise the porpoise the snake
the cook and the parakeet cake
the bees buzzing backwards in spring
ii want to hear the planet sing
i want to hear the river tell
the fishermen to go to hell
to watch the levetated lakes
puncture the air with ice cream stakes
i want to hear the gasping oil
vomit back into the soil
the arm daydreaming in a sling
i want to hear the planet sing
|
||||
4. |
One Percent
01:38
|
|
||
Most every day at the city center
You get a chance to become
a significant member
Of what they used to call the ninety nine
They don’t have many brains
at the ends of their spines
But that never stopped an illiterate mob
From stacking ideas like a shish kabob
And comparing their relative poverty
With the bank accounts of the powers that be
But every disinherited one gets more to eat
Than the Indians down on Yesler Street
And if you look at it all with a global intent
You see that even the bums are in the one percent
Worldwide that is
Compared to the Ethiopians
Hooverville is like Beverly Hills
Without the swimming pools
Now you are the One percent
|
||||
5. |
You
03:09
|
|
||
because I have not seen God
i do not see God in everything
but I see you in everything
because I have seen you
i have seen you at the mirror
and I see you in every mirror
and every dress contains you
i do not hear God in every sound
because I have not heard God
but I hear you in every sound
because I have heard your voice
and I cannot hear music
without hearing you
and I cannot hear laughter
without hearing you
and every sound of love
is the sound of you
in a cathedral’s sacred ruins
a fallen priest has forgotten God
had I known God
i would not have forgotten Him
I would see Him in everything
but I have not known God.
I knew you
|
||||
6. |
QUEEN KELLY
03:46
|
|
||
Don’t tell me about happy endings
let us have
Another happy beginning
To another happy year.
To which there can be no end.
Happy day happy day happy anniversary queen kelly
happy anniversary my love
Two people now
Much greater than then
On the last day before love
Changed the world
Was it simply a moment
In Love’s eternal day
Or was it always like this
The only way
In days when we were lost
But lost together
Without voice or image
Of the other
But we were pursuing
each other even then
When such pursuits seemed fruitless
And pulled us beneath unkind waves
Before I found a reason To start growing again, …
Before I found a reason…to start knowing again….
|
||||
7. |
The Second Shell
01:42
|
|
||
Birth is the opening
of the first shell
to the dark,
we bid farewell
Out of the water
Into the light
Deprived of the
comforts of the night
Love is
A second shell
another cave
in which to dwell
Protecting
Those who would flee back
into the egg
After it cracks
|
||||
8. |
Dress in Resin
03:25
|
|
||
snarl yourself up
in big ideas about yourself
connect the patterns
through your seasons of hell
fashion a fiction
from disconnected events
but there isno life story
when nothing in your life makes sense
so go ahead and fade like sunlight
disappeaR beneath the sea
or you can dress in resin
plant yourself like a tree
but if you dress in resin
you will never be free
thread yourself in
with maple-flavored plastic
deep into the roots
of moldy elastics
elixers of brixton
soaked up by the bees
leaving a slippery glue
across the limbs of the trees
|
||||
9. |
Inside Out
02:34
|
|
||
after sixteen daring passes
she was the first to arrive
at the light when it turned red
she could not be revived
because a flashing green light
split apart her insides
where a billion deadly cooties
gnawed at her and thrived
Inside Out
Its worse, without a doubt
then the outside in
when they give you seven days to live
it used to be jumping or falling
that she found so appalling
off a cliff, off a bridge
or getting locked in a fridge
Getting smashed in a head on collision
flatlining after incisions
is better than a billion cooties
Raising hell up in your booty
Inside out
her booty gave a shout
its not what coming in
but whats being taken out
Inside out
Thats worse, without a doubt
Than the outside in
When they give you seven days to live
|
||||
10. |
Kit Kat Klub
03:41
|
|
||
the housewives who pursued us
and the muses who confused us
were dime girls up for rental
their needs were elemental
so quickly satisfied
you wonder why there is no answer
from yesterdays pole dancer
from the ditch where you shoved her
in the dawn after you loved her
and then let it slide
rub a dub dub in a hot tub
where nothing leads to nothing
and life is just an endless night
at the kit kat klub
the lies that time allows
where are your lovers now?
you count them as you fall to sleep
a life lived low and on the cheap
how many still remember
a love exchanged for tender?
now brutally forgotten
the flesh was always rotten
|
||||
11. |
Bride of the Ripper
03:51
|
|
||
some people got no bed
just a mattress on the floor
that is where i found her
when i came through the open door
im a cop without a badge
working on a personal case
i can tell how she suffered
just by looking at her face
i know the peddlers of the flesh
and what they do to strippers
nobody knows a thing
about jack the ripper
she would take off her sandals
but could never be a wife
she was a poor little rich girl
getting high on the low life
now shes just another body
with an ID tag
they took her off the mattress
and put her body in a body bag
she could do the hokey pokey
and the gentlemen would tip her
but she couldnt break her date
with jack the ripper
he can pull a long name
off a register so short
it would drown a drunken sailor
before he left the port
he loves the feel of her body
through the black and white dress
as he pushes a well placed ice pick
through the back of her neck
We all know whose foot
will fill the slipper
but nobody knows anything
about jack the ripper
Five months I walked
This London beat
since I lost my license
On the Manhattan streets
They think I am hunting
Somebody else
But the truth is
I have been hunting myself
In the sky i espy
two contrasting dippers
Down here its just me
And the bride of the ripper
|
Streaming and Download help
If you like Bill White, you may also like:
Bandcamp Daily your guide to the world of Bandcamp