Side One

LOCAL MAN

There’s a guy next to me - Look for a way in

A girl next to him - Wants to get going

A girl next to her - Shaking to start

A guy next to her – Wants to be a part

If you believe your life’s your own and no one owns you

But time keep rolling on and no one’s getting through

You’re tired and frustrated from waiting for your turn

Chorus-

Local Man - Makes good

Local Man - Gets caught

Headlines blare - Someone’s nightmare

Disconnected from my reality

Local Man - Gets married

Local Man - Passes on

They bury the lede - Where no one will read

Life keeps rolling for the local man and me

There are a people out there - Asking for a favor

And people out there - Looking for a savior

And people next to them - Flexing their might

And one out there - Itching for a fight

If you believe we’re all connected and no one goes alone

The news keeps coming in but not in our zone

No notices nothing, the storm clouds that have settled on

Local Man - Makes good

Local Man - Gets caught

Shuffle the name - But the story’s the same An endless stream of revenue

Local Man - Wins the lottery

Local Man - Loses their job

They bury the lede - Where no one will read

Nothing ever changes for the local man and you

We build a Promised Land for those alive

Those who don’t understand enjoy the ride

We will build this Promised Land so while we grow

Just watch your Local Man and enjoy the show

There’s a girl next to me - No plan today

A guy next to her - Just wastes away

Both got their pills - Paid with a blue card

They have their ration - Tied to their front yard

They’ve been left on their own but cannot break through

The years keep rolling on where can they go to?

Others shake their heads and hope they just go away

FINAL NAIL

She woke up this morning and put back on her evening gown

A woman with the power to take any building down

She never wields the force she treats like leprosy

Seduces her prey instead with unrequited clemency

He found it amusing; he's a savior without a Holy Ghost

Compassion has no essence when untethered to a post

He made the law his gluttony and will surely come to rags

Unpitied, unaccounted, and seven sins fly the same flags

Chorus-

Destiny's bookie runs a numbers game

Inmates come & go - the cell remains the same

let the living bury the dead & the youth prevail

Put a lid on this mess - and drive the final nail

He measured his responses and lit out before dawn

As the right thing to do and damned the situation

The judgments of the actions are not his to deny

It requires faith in process and strength to turn a blind eye

He left her with her accusers a trial without a chaperone

He left with the satisfaction the same as he has always known

To their crosses they obediently and willingly acquiesce

They differed on pity and objectivity but shared the righteousness

He was pleased with the verdict it matched his balance sheet

She was more than kind to her convictors and knelt to wash their feet

Their kind spawns when it stands alone an infection of the blood

Rain down from high mountain peaks and cause a lowland flood

Trying to rule the world comes with costs you must absorb

You put a price on the air and the water and the loam of our only orb

You're compensated with the basics and a drop of the state's payroll

They choose the experiment's variables and you remain the control

An hypothesis to move us forward reject all conclusions from before

Progress is in letting subjects alone and not by grabbing more

The pauperized are empathized and they are happy for you to share

The feeble is more agreeable in a box secured and square

But what about the children! Oh, for the children we must serve

And what about the rising seas and the land and we must conserve

But the children just get glassy eyed and the odds all but disappear

And why does the green man prefer the suit of a global financier

I could go on all day enumerating the piled failures of their rule

It's a lumbers game shooting sleepy ducks in a kiddie pool

Well they both came together it was as natural as it was rare

You can't have one without the other it was quite the love affair

Sustainability is at issue when the bookies needs an edge

They pick your pockets of silver and gold as you fall from the ledge

We lose when our first inclination is to be fair and nice

We were the frog in boiling water but punching back is the new device

Ruefully we watch that train go into the wrong tunnel pass

They’ll burn this whole f**ker down and we can be the pain in their ass

Destiny's bookie runs a numbers game

Inmates come and go but the cell remains the same

Let the living bury the dead and the youth prevail

Take your flawed experiment and drive the final nail

KIDS IN THE SUN

Little red rose - I watch how it grows

In the sidewalk under my window

Little red rose - Summer sun glows

On the sidewalk under my window

Little red r-whoa-oh–ose(x2)

Two kinds of people in this world

One's got a job the other don't know

How the bills will get paid

Eats them up every second of the day

Me and my little bro at the top of a plateau

Our bikes primed for the sharp decline

Me and my little bro down the hill we go

Alive and laughing in the sunshine

And from my brother to my son

We’re all just kids in the sun

Little red rose - When the bloom shows

Clipped and pressed in a book

Little red rose - The future is froze

And forever there for a look

Little red r-whoa-oh–ose(x2)

Two kinds of people in this world

One's got their health the other don't know

If the pain will go away

Eats them up every second every day

My son’s out the door a world to explore

I raise him on the free range

My son’s out the door I’m nervous more & more

Be careful but please don’t change

And from my brother to my son

We’re all just kids in the sun

Little red rose I watch how it grows

In the sidewalk under my window

Little red rose - Summer sun glows

On the sidewalk under my window

Little red r-whoa-oh–ose(x2)

Two kinds of people in this world

One's in love the other don't know

if the loneliness is to stay

Eats them up every second every day

A couple stands too much time on their hands

They got hooked on junk

The law turned the screws the kids on the news

Dazed and shoulders sunk

Eyes squint real bad neither angry nor sad

Like aliens lost in space

They’ve been shaken & something’s been taken

That no one can replace

And for brother and for sons

We’re all just kids in the sun

The little red rose - Here’s how it goes

There's just one kind of person I know

Little red rose - All move to and fro

Between comfort and pain we go

Little red r-whoa-oh–ose(x2)

IN A BETTER PLACE

A certain population believes in cessation and it all ends in the grave

But there are those in the congregation avoiding damnation got a soul to save

I got my opinion but as for this dominion under man’s control

We should agree that being free is our shared priority the primary goal

It’s enough to embrace our mission to defy the history of the whole human race

It’s all we can do in this space just to leave our children in a better place

In a better place - In a better place

The history of man as we all understand has relentless recurring waves

We are kin to the sin and the fact is that we all are descendants of slaves

From the time of the first stroll the first man took control and put in a claim

He found in the murk someone to do his dirty work and shoulder all the blame

Disease made its way from the roots to the leaves of the whole family tree

And on the shoulders of giants a few were defiant and demanded to be free

Thomas Aquinas saw our fineness and affirmed we don’t share one soul

The Magna Carta to the Declaration but three fifths still wasn’t whole

We know oppression is the legacy of the whole damn human race

And we keep a simple focus to leave our children in a better place

In a better place - In a better place

The tricks of the trade already played I say beware of the kind

Who offer you justice and trinkets when you support ‘em and follow behind

Let’s agree I don’t trust you, and you don’t trust me, but that's not the bottom line

If I can be allowed to have a home and go there on my own then we should be just fine

That may not be a lot to ask but it's not the norm in history

“For ourselves and our posterity” requires an informed citizenry

Because we’re swimming against the natural state of the human race

It’s all we can do just to leave our children in a better place

In a better place - In a better place

We can get wise and organize and establish rules as a shared culture and nationality

Go do your own dance and take whatever chance, until it runs up to me

But if our eyes get crossed and our ties get tossed and nothing tethers us together

We will welcome our conquerors go on no further, and get chained to a legacy of surrender

Through many a millennia we could lose ground, yes, it could happen today

To restrict us they trick us to buy us for a penny and make us all just go away

Brain drained grads gone bad thinking Utopia is just a dead straw man away

Conductors for their own destructors If only History 101 was still in play

It’s enough to embrace our mission to defy the saga of the whole human race

It’s all we can do in this space just to leave our children in a better place

In a better place - In a better place

Side Two

ONE SHOT OF PITY

She told me to get out in the nicest way

She said to either go drink or go pray

So I’ve come in here but I won’t stay long

Confession reflection - then I move along

And so there was this day she didn’t feel right

We found out and we began our fight

Hope is tough when you only hear no

They put a time on our time - but what do they know?

Chorus-

So give me - One shot of pity

And a chaser of “fight on”

You mix strength and faith

Til the pity is gone

From the - Fears at midnight

To the first light of dawn…

I’ll take that one shot of pity

And then I gotta move on

Relentlessly, every day we have to climb

I wonder how we used to pass the time

Cause there’s one focus all night and day

We could use a moment to just get away

Our little girl she’s the toughest of ‘em all

She’s the first to rise and the last to fall

Funny you say that, she said that, too

My God, I don’t know what I’d do

—Chorus—

There’s a force pulling me back out that door

To go face the reality that we can’t ignore

But I’ll tell you a secret – it’s what I suppose

I think we’re winning - and it ain’t even close

LEVEL-1 RESET

So it goes every morning of every day

I need to get back to where I begun

To start all over all over the same way

Send me all the way back to level one

I put in the work try to get ahead

Money comes in but it’s already spent

Forward steps just go back instead

Forces working against my best intent

Chorus-

They’ve sliced me up into

A thousand segments

I was twenty more coins

From a badge achievement

Then my password I did forget

I’m a level one reset

She calls me up just to shoot the breeze

She says I’m her one and only lover Romeo

But the very next day I get the cold freeze

What happened to that girl I used to know?

Chorus-

It doesn’t matter if I get on a roll

This escalator goes on without end

I never make it past the first goal

Sent back to prove it all over again

DEATH WEED

Yes I do sincerely know you did not want to go

Birthdays, graduations a day at the beach

Here’s to those moments you will never reach

Chorus-

In the middle book - On the middle shelf

In the middle room - All by itself

Is the death weed - Is the death weed

No words spoken - The end of a sad day

Take off the black suit -Light up drift away

On the death weed - On the death weed

No need to be forgiven

The fault was not your own

It was a body that broke down

And though you tried to postpone

You said, “I just really want to see

One grandchild graduate”

Though you fought your disease

You could not fight your fate

Chorus-

Yes I do sincerely know, you did not want to go

Didn’t want to change the course of rivers

Or roll back the hands of time

A taste of golden rays of your golden days

To look back and appreciate your climb

Chorus-

FOREVER AND RISING

My father’s father’s father had a desire

Escape the upstate Pennsylvania coal fire

Scrap parts he got on Diamond Avenue

Each piece he put together the legend grew

Built it to cross from Broad Mountain to where the Lehigh flows

Gave her gas & a name; called her Philly Rose

Forever and Rising

Built to endure with metal and might

Put it to the floor and raced into night

Forever and Rising

My father’s father was a small time knock about

A petty crook from Overbrook looking to get out

Shop in Delco where he wheeled and dealed

Left the car to die in a weedy Tinicum field

He split with a wad of bills and a suitcase of clothes

Grandma told her son your sole inheritance is the rusty Philly Rose

Forever and Rising

He was sure he could make it right

Put it to the floor and raced into night

Forever and Rising

My father had a place at the Jersey Shore

Kept it in the garage waxed and well cared for

He died when I was 20, they tossed me the keys

Said no one wants it, do with it as you please

Saved it as a bank roll if I got in some woes

Made sure to take her out, me and Philly Rose

Forever and Rising

Those days the world was oh so right

Put it to the floor and raced into night

Forever and Rising

My son and his girl are stuck on the final grade

Wasting time I can’t stand watch ‘em drift + fade

Gave him the car and he went to work:

Blew out the engine built it back up new

New paint job, new leather too

Possessed and determined every day

To get the engine spinning and get away

Yea and he got it running...

He pulled up to her place slammed the breaks

Shadow start moving the curtain starts to shake

Nothing comes from nothing and they sure were a sight to see

Sparks fly as the jets cry and they lit out together set free

They head into a future that nobody knows

Just the three of them: he she and Philly Rose

United and Shining

She’s out the door and dressed in white

He put it to the floor they race into night

Forever and Rising

LOVE IS NOT A SAFE SPACE

Well, baby I’m standing here / No net to break my fall

I’ve broken out from my fear / It’s you or nothing at all

(But what about the heartbreak?) / That kind of thinking is gonna lose

You can’t live to avoid a mistake / And living is what I choose

Chorus-

Do you, do you wanna take a shot? What love is and what it’s not

It’s a chance to make a start / It’s not for the faint of heart

Do you, do you wanna take a shot? /What love is and what it’s not

It’s time to wear a brave face / Love is not a safe space

I‘ve seen you standing tall / Coming out of a bad year

Whispers - you hear them all / Means nothing with you right here

(But what about Facebook?) / We can’t fall to the hangers on

Don’t give them a second look /Live our lives on our own

Chorus-

And do you, do you wanna take a shot?

FIRST DANCE OF OUR SECOND CHANCE

Do you remember the time?

And the time it wasn’t right

We met and said good night

I watched you walk away

And there was that other time

It happened many years ago

I just could not tell you so

Or hear what you wanted to say

Chorus-

Light comes to those who believe in it

All goes darkness and quiet but then

Night drums beat if just for a minute

I know this chance may not come again

I find the courage to ask..

Can I have this first dance

Of our second chance

Do you regret those times?

Lonely nights in a crowded bar

It all adds to who we are

And that’s who I want to be

So raise a glass to the times

That seemed to never end

Nothing that we need to defend

It ended with you here with me

Do you remember the time?

And the time it wasn’t right

We met and said good night

I watched you walk away

WHAT IF I HAD KISSED YOU?

History - Is fine to me

Held tenderly – Alone to see

A keepsake book I keep in my mind

History - Differently

What wouldn’t be - You and me

A keepsake story we left behind

What if....what if...what if...

What if I had kissed you?

Do you think of it sometimes, too?

Testosterone - We were alone

Intentions known - Hushed baritone

I may have been young but I wasn’t blind

A chilly breeze - Made you sneeze

Still unease – Made me freeze

Suddenly I needed to leave it behind

What if....what if...what if...

If we kissed? - What would exist?

I wouldn’t have been worth the find

What if....what if...what if...

What if I had kissed you?

I wouldn’t be worth the time to you

You were whisper close

Never to be as near

Frozen in time

Words still echo in my ears...ears...the years...