All lyrics are copyright Gary M Hall (unless otherwise noted) at various years thru the millennia.
All rights reserved, violators will be persecuted and prosecuted!
Test Yourself
by Gary M. Hall
I see the man of nine to five, paper eyes, half alive,
I want to leave him far behind in the ruins of his mind.
The size of his catastrophe is not so very hard to see,
He searches for his soul in an economic hole.
The fire is a friend of mine, promises, cruel and kind,
Eagerly she leads me in, never to turn back again.
Sitting in a room of flame, imploding my cosmic game,
Nuclear collisions, my fiery religion.
Return me to the world, a free man with a pearl,
But the market isn't open yet, students waste their time in school.
There’s a stone dam by the forest road you’ve seen it now tell of it,
There are lands spread under me you’ve seen them now tell of them.
I flew over the mill and now I dream of the far away,
I flew over the mill and I dream of far away.
Leaping down the stone dam rocks sharp as the present shocks.
Sailing in the dead tree’s cove my mind leaves the room a thousand times.
But the body won’t leave pity my will a thousand times.
I flew over the mill and now I dream of the far away,
I flew over the mill and I dream of far away.
In the days of expansion, we listened all the time.
We’d dial up that number, and recommit the crime.
It was everything we wanted, ‘lumination day and night.
And finally you reach the point of oversight.
The cactus and the chemicals, the blotter and the pipe,
And all the other flavors and everybody’s hype,
Smoke signals, forest fire, call it overkill,
Put away the bottle, you don’t need another pill.
Through windowpane eyes we all kissed the skies,
And ate our herbs in brownies, cakes, and pies,
Those vitamins were worthy for the bigger world they bring,
But once you know the song, you just have to sing.
There’s no hurry when she gives herself
My ice is always hers to melt
The darkness, the last beat will not pull us apart.
Forever hold the woman in the center of my heart.
Across the world in the sable night
Yesterday a continent apart
She comes in dreams and like the sun she’ll rise
I long to see her loving eyes.
The stars are winking out in heaven
The wind is closing every door
Curtain’s falling on the final show
The last wave laps upon the shore.
My coal now faded to an ember,
Search for that familiar spark
At last the morn, I awake, it’s then that I can start
And find it in the high road in the arms of the woman who’s forever in the
center,
the center of my heart.
Redude has stringy hair, kind of a scary stare.
His pockets are full of eels, or anything else that he can steal.
Redude, he can croon, he’s fallen from the moon,
Girls all start to swoon, and here’s that swingin’ tune.
Every boy and every girl, fantasize around the world,
Every woman, every man, want to take the redude’s hand,
Redude, Redude.
Now you see him walk away, not like any other day.
It’s not a thorn in his crown, not a smile, not a frown.
He’ll never turn his back, he’ll never give you slack,
Never ask him how, ‘cause you’re the redude now.
You’re the redude now.
You’re the redude now.
You’re the redude now.
Lili waits and waits until the wind comes down the rocks,
Then she waves her lily face, then her pretty locks,
She is always in the light, even when it’s dark,
Singing silent somethings in rhythm with the lark.
O Lili, O Lili, O Lili, O Lili, O say,
O Lili, O Lili you will bloom today.
Lili of the valley, colors all ablaze,
Flowery friends all standing in the incandescent haze.
Always in the moment, always here with me.
Forever in the valley, she is all I see.
O Lili, O Lili, O Lili, O Lili, O do,
Cover me out in the meadow the whole night through.
Lili stands beside the pond, yellow in the blue,
Radiating like the heaven’s sun when it was new.
She can cure all maladies, when she is alight,
Deaf men hear her music, and all men leave the fight.
O Lili, O Lili, O Lili, I never will go,
This valley will never be frozen by ice or by snow.
Slippery like a jelly eel, and harder yet to hold,
It makes a mighty filling meal, or so I have been told.
I see it in a sudden flash, and in the context of my life.
I hear it in my daughter's voice, and feel it through my wife.
East is east, the sunny beast comes up most every day.
Westward ho, my heart, my soul, is bound to have its say.
Every day is like the rest, but not in the same way.
I've never seen the difference between our work and play.
The sun goes down, the sun comes up, it's night and then it's morn,
A winner is the sinner who knows when he is born.
Jesus had a bit of soul, Buddha had some, too,
Allah had a bit to spare, Muhammed gives to you.
And every single little man, and every woman, too,
And every cat and every gnat are connected through and through.
North is south, and south is north, and that's the middle way
To find what you are looking for, without further delay.
Run away and you will find you run right to your heart.
The more you try to slip away, the more you play your part.
Each little speck that makes you up, that you use for camouflage,
Makes you fully visible, a luminous corsage.
And there is here and then is now, there never was a gap.
I am no wiser than I was, though I'm a grizzled pap.
I rise and shine, and feel the heat, in the kitchen every day,
I'll always be both you and me, there ain't no other way.
East is east, the sunny beast comes up most every day.
Westward ho, my heart and soul iIs bound to have its say….
trip away…work and play…sin and pray…bark and neigh…night and day…
I’ll never have to tie my shoes again.
I’ll never have to wear these working shoes again.
I ain’t gonna put on this noose of a tie again.
I’ll never have to tie my shoes again.
I’ll never do all those things you want me to do again.
I’ll never file that report in quadruplicate again.
I’ll never have to punch that early sassy clock again.
I’ll never have to tie my shoes again.
I ain’t gonna put the car in the driveway and keep it out of the flowerbed.
I forget what you told me to do last Friday, but I’m never gonna do it. No, sir...
And I’ll tell you another thing I’m not gonna do:
I’m not gonna walk that yappy little dog around the neighborhood.
That dog is scared of cats.
I’m not gonna set my alarm.
That causes physical and mental harm.
I’m not gonna, I’m just not gonna.
I’m gonna get up, have a slow cup of coffee, walk outside barefoot, and sit down.
You’re not gonna see me click my heels to any boss again.
Never find the perfect match, the egg will never hatch
A proposition wasted, no silver lining there, one heart is sometimes better than a pair.
Better to be alone than to give love every night to someone who’d rather fight,
Better to be alone.
No friend, sweet and fair to fill that empty chair
Get it in your mind, you’re not the coupling kind, it’s way too late for you to find.
Better to be alone than to beat your bleeding drum, two may not be the perfect sum,
Better to be alone.
In the forest of delight, fruit’s no longer ripe,
The trees are pointing out of here, the wind is blowing frozen, dear,
Take that lonely walk, your mind will clear, it’s all in the song, so listen, hear...
Better to be alone than to tie the knot too tight to someone on the wrong side of right,
Better to be alone.
I find I sin by growing weeds my dandelions they go to seed
Once this was sung today and my bird shrill notes held dogs at bay
But then I found I lost the tune and barely rhyme the moon in June
Love and everything
I find I sin by copping looks and ogling naked picture books
Once this was brought today and I gave to you tossed dimes away
But then I learned the money cost and mourned the copper disks I’d lost
Tin and everything
I find I sin imbibing rum and banging on a skinless drum
Once this was felt today and I meant the tears formed from my clay
But then I found they turned to sand and now I cry a wildcard hand
The joker’s everything
I find I sin by touching lamps and feeding them my sparkless amps
Once this was thought today and the future brainchild spoke the way
But then I found it was a bust my patterned ways a lazy lust
Songs and everything
I find I sin by gassing cars and gazing into single’s bars
Now all that stuff y’all done when you was young.
Now you’re old enough now to know that it was all wrong.
You know the difference between a bark and bite,
you know eggs lead to dynamite.
Evil, evil, evil, evil . . .
Don’t play with the evil, don’t dance with the night, ‘cause you know eggs lead to dynamite.
Don’t play with the evil, don’t dance with the night, ‘cause you know eggs lead to dynamite.
Don’t play with the evil, don’t dance with the night, ‘cause you know eggs lead to dynamite.
Don’t play with the evil, don’t dance with the night, ‘cause you know eggs lead to dynamite.
Don’t play with the evil, don’t dance with the night, ‘cause you know eggs lead to dynamite.
I know when one is dead, and when one lives;
She’s dead as earth.
Lend me a looking-glass;
if that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
why, then she lives.
This feather stirs; she lives!
If it be so, it is a chance which does redeem all sorrows that ever I have felt.
A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!
I might have saved her; now she’s gone for ever!
Cordelia, Cordelia! Stay a little.
Ha! What is’t thou say’st?
Her voice was ever soft, gentle, and low, an excellent thing in woman.
I kill’d the slave that was a-hanging thee.
Did I not, fellow?
I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion I would have made them skip:
I am old now, and these same crosses spoil me.
And my poor fool is hang’d!
No, no, no life!Br>
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, and thou no breath at all?
Thou’lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!
Pray you, undo this button: thank you, sir.
Do you see this?
Look on her, look, her lips,
look there, look there!
I knew there was a reason that I didn’t like to get it cut.
When my father’d take me down to the barber hut.
A butch or a flattop was always my worst fear,
Even way back then I held my hair so dear.
Better grey than gone on my cranial lawn,
It can be any color, I’ll have more fun,
I prefer it on my brain, not on my brawn,
I’d always rather be more grey than gone.
It used to cascade down my shoulders, Niagara of the locks,
I had enough to use to knit at least a hundred socks,
And I’m sure the birds and bees and other beasts of the air,
Could have built a really sizable nice nest or hive in there.
And sadly what used to be, per inch, a thousand strands,
Have begun to go away and leave some shiny pinker lands.
But a tuft or two’s still growing, a goodly pace for my age,
And even it it all falls out I’ll just be a balder sage.
Better grey than gone on my cranial lawn,
I like it when I still see sprouts every dawn,
I only need a couple pounds, I don’t need a ton,
I’d rather be more grey than gone.
I like to have some flora on this crusty ol’ faun,
I’d always rather be more grey than gone.
Though it doesn’t make a difference to my wife or my spawn,
I’d always rather be more grey than gone.
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