Lake Michigan Lyrics

oh well, the shitpile caught on fire,
it seems like natural selection,
property values were plummeting anyway,
didnt say they hear the people say,
"cant we all just get along?"
sounds good to me as long as you stay in your shitty
and now crispy little town,
whos fault was it when south central burned to the ground?
judicial rape perpetrated by the state?
two hundred or so years of stored up rage?
its something that i think about, how upset people are,
and i havent any reason to complain,
plenty of good food, good friends, a nice apartment to live in,
and still i dont feel all that great,
whell im content but im not satisfied,
it makes it hard to live your fucking life,
a tv and a 6 pack dictate my day,
im stupid, soft and lazy, i forgot how to be brave,
and it looks like ill never have to learn,
complacence is the smoke alarm that insures
that white cities never burn

fall asleep in the living room,
accept your poisoning, subdued by news cops or slogans,
so it aint perfect but i hear this land is free,
but whos so free these days?
not the children who barely eat,
you probably wont find them on the cover of Newsweek,
thrown in a sea of green, the rich stay afloat,
hey im fucking drowning, 150,000 walked these streets today,
thats 150,000 good reasons to scream
but our brain-washed minds are hardened,
hands work and die to keep america rolling,
fabricated crime state rise 100,000 new police,
they dont care about people, just profitable prisons,
drop a bomb every now and then build obediance, patriotism,
too bad the bombs were pointed at civilians,
just like you and me, only overseas,
problems at home remain, murder used to boost the economy,
and their gleaming smiles, help keep you proud,
forget, smile, bow your head down, stop,
admit that theyre killing us, who are you giving all your trust,
breaking your back is that what freedom really costs?
well freedom isnt really begging for your food,
how can you tear down the homes we live in?
build condominiums, theyve got a clean-up crew
and the 5:00 news to reinforce it,
pulling sheets over the sheeps' heads blame the poor,
call the bims and thieves
but do you know who are the real thieves?
white upper class steal everything to maintain this class elite,
they've got us seeing green food and clothing are no privelages,
they are necessities,
dont believe your tv,
its thought control brought to you by nbc

tears are not enough to change a system,
do we want an equal race for education,
shop, buy, comsume, this is what we teach our children to look up to,
economic security doesnt seem to be the meaning of education to me,
we need to teach about diversity, compassion and love,
about the effects of technology,
to be aware that we destroy while we consume,
to question all authority,
no money for public education
but ample funds to keep people in prison,
jails can now be run by major corporations,
prisons offer more and cheaper labor,
found courage in the center of a bomb, green back dollars,
we can blow up anything we want,
since when is national defense more important than teaching children,
im afraid its always been, state of the union,
catch phrase builds public opinion in the closed eyes of a nation,
work around the problem, sweep it under carpets,
lock it up in prisons til its forgotten,
were approaching the millenium,
education is more important than bombs,
more police on the streets isnt solving problems,
who are we going to turn to
to teach our children to question this machine, education,
the dead american dream,
in indiana the number of cells built is determined by
the socio-economic status of a class of second graders,
the cells all must be filled,
with every prison that we build we lose four or five more schools,
tears are not enough

blah blah blah edwin eisendrath blah blah blah cha,
blah blah blah nothings that important to me

hands clasped feet resting in the sink engulfed by silence,
i hadnt seen you for so long, you said,
"stop being so dramatic",
state of drunkeness lines in a play we have rehearsed,
this understanding conversation without words,
this cracking broken feeling was inevitable,
hate to be speechless at a moment like this,
you are compassion,
i am overdramatic, unintentional,
i try to communicate telepathically,
i wonder if you ever hear my voice,
i know things never work out right,
i remember sitting on the back porch drinking wine,
backs to moist grass in the park stars buried in the city sky,
make words bigger than my life,
empty promises like skeletons, reflections of myself,
it never burns away, truth comes spillin out,
what this is all about,
i convinced myself i didnt know what to say

count these days, feel like i ran a marathon,
more like a cigarette-a-thon, one three month day,
six more lanes, so much concrete seems irrational,
i've never felt more unnatural,
i watch exhaust blow,
i see that your dead behind your eyes,
all this convenience could never fill the hole that i've dug inside
real things seem hard to find,
armed to the teeth,
lets kill off every animal, be the only species not extinct,
then well have a feast,
people seem so strange its like they've all been zombified,
blurred street lights fill my crying eyes,
i grew some food from the ground,
one thing that made sense in a world
that seems so fucking upside down,
washed away this winders reoccuring theme,
of feeling lost and incomplete,
another winters under my belt strip malls they buried corn fields
alcohol is burying me, cut me off while my hearts still beating,
all these stupid games with their fancy names
they'll never make you free,
they'll make you numb they dont mean anything

remember the famous last words that someone famous said,
"tell them i said something, dont let it end like this,"
on a re-upholstered leather couch in a cloud of tv,
smoke, and cigarettes, or a mattress on a hard wood floor
and an old acoustic missing stringed guitar
playing that same stupid punk rock song,
"weve been at the end all along,"
a bathroobe in the hall from a long time agos lost friend,
and a note that waited ten years to tell me to remember him,
he said; "its been too long since we had a day together in new york,"
absences as long as life is short,
in the first chapter of the best book that i ever read in my life, it said,
"to be reborn, first you have to die,"
hey, would it be alright if i used your couch to get too drunk tonight?The Broadways - Lake Michigan - http://motolyrics.com/the-broadways/lake-michigan-lyrics.html
i've spent so many days pushing my skies away
so i can keep my sights squarely on the ground,
reincarnations killing me

I've seen the stupid stare on thousands of our faces
watched my thoughts carelessly fall away
while I fumbled for the right words to say
my brain is such a mish-mash of mtv videos and vast and vacant spaces.
And I look around and see 1000 drooling idiots just the fuckin' same as me.
We've been weened on Mr. Rogers
we all worship the tv that sucks our fuckin' imaginations from our heads
and no one wants to see the generation of zombies in their fuckin' sick parade
marching forward to the beat of "house of style" and "singled out"
but i flip to it the same as you bored shitless on my couch
And why am i bored?
it's because when i was growing up i saw everything played out
and i could flip the channel tirelessly
and since I was so capable
my attention span shrunk to fit to the point
where I reject things that aren't syntheic blobs of shit
I want an easy answer I need a fuckin' catch all phrase
I don't have the time or the patience to read a book
and figure shit out for myself
when it's spelled out for me as pain as fuckin' day
and with pretty flashing lights and sounds to keep me entertained.
I'm like a dog trained by a box "like" and "totally" fill my day
and "i think i'm going crazy man," has become fucking cliche
and i think I'm going crazy or was i just raised that way
and I think hard about nothing as I stare off into space
cuz we need to turn our heads on cuz our brains are getting soft,
so exercise your brain and turn the tv fuckin' off, whoa.

i wait for my friends to get off work and stand and smoke
and a crazy man sits next to me
looking down at a pile of his broken dreams
and he won't even look at me i'm still young
and have so far to go
and he says to a passerby with a sad sad smile,
"does anyone know?"
"who do i have to kill to see a familiar face in this town?
it seems like all my old friends have moved awa y"
i feel like i know what he means
will 10 years go by and no one remember my name?
i dont want it to be that way
but it happened to this guy and i'm exactly the same as him
but i'm young and have so far to go
and i've seen what happens to pe ople
it's just years and years of letting lonliness grow he said -
..he means youth doesn't last forever and neither do dreams.

you've been down for so long
the world can really do that to a kid
but you cant dwell on that shit
gotta make the world the best you can
there's no reason for crying whoa oh keep on trying
drink everyday to make the pain feel like it wasnt reall y there
kill dreams in front of tvs
that is just what they love to hear
maybe sometime... i will get off this fucking couch
i wont let this world drag me down
kids like you and me will be FREE
maybe sometime i wont have to wake up
and see another rainy day
a boring afternoon theres no prize at the end of this rainbow
no one to love
no one to talk to
so im gonna grab my umbrella and run outside
no rains gonna drown my ambition
gonna make it this time

3000 years ago the world was a giant place.
expansive forests untouched lands
skies were for the birds, trees were forever
and natures worst invention had yet to form a plan
but our population grew
and with it grew ambition and desire to conquer all we can
own what we cannot, throw the unnecessary away
today only 5% of the forests in our country exist
of what there was just 200 years ago
and beautiful feats of nature formed
by thousands of years of patient practice
are destroyed without a second thought for "precious" resources
that will make the economny grow
my grandparents had never seen a plane,
a skyscraper, or a motor car or a cellphone or tv
my parents worked so hard to destroy the gifts given to us
now my grandchildren will never see a tree
someday i'll take a small child
down to the last grass covered hill in my town
and say "the whole world was once like this and more"
but words and photographs won't make them understand
the dinosaurs have been around for thousands of more
years than we could ever hope to be
and isn't it ironic we're the ones destroying earth
instead of the planet killing me
a friend of mine used to deep sea dive
but he doesn't do it anymore
he gets tears in his eyes when you ask him why and says
"the ugliest stretch of ocean floor 10 years ago
is a thousand times more beautiful than the most beautiful today"
that was just ten years ago
only ten fuckin' years ago

i hardly recognize this place i used to call it my home
now it's filled with so many strip malls
and wendys and shitty mcdonalds
and all the houses look the same
all the people look the same
what happened to my park it looks like a plastic prison
how are the girls and boys ever gonna have fun?
they said it was cheaper this way
but what's more important than children?
all the parks look the same
all the children look the same
can't you see what they've done to us?
they've cloned and reproduced us
made us into fucked up machines
stole our imagination. take off the blind fold
i work from 9 to 5 from 6 to 10 i watch tv
there's millions of others like me
ask yourself how can i be a man?
just be yourself, please
just be yourself, please

let's go down to the lake and take a swim in toxic waste
i dive in the buildings, soar so high i cannot see the sky
there's something strange about this big city
i think i can do without this big city life
i'll move to the mountains and build my own log cabin
and enjoy being alone all by myself
instead of feeling lonely on this crowded train downtown
perhaps it was the industrial revolution that led the way
to the pollution of our planet
that and the evolution of technology
perhaps it couldn't have been avoided
the paradox of technology is that it may save what we've destroyed
but who really cares about having cleaner air
factories roar everyday and poullute the air away
and what about the landfills and the toxic waste
bringing disease to our children, water, and land
when i ride the train sometimes i get a stare
rarely do i get a smile
people are so concerned with their identity
no cares enough to talk as human beings
but how can we find a solution without communication
if it's become too late for our generation
let's go down to the lake and take a swim in our mistakes