3 Wheels 9 Lives (2012)

Stepping over, stepping light
I’ll discover, I don’t need to fight
The mantras chanted, the rite complete
There’re only ashes at my feet
It’s out of my hands now

I’ll hand over, I’ll let go
What’s forever, I’ll never know
Give it all up, give it away
Don’t take it back, that’s what they say
And it’s out of my hands now

Worry, it’s scary
Too much care
Losing my hair
Trying to prepare
For something I can’t see or hear or smell or even know…
There’s only now
Only this note
Only this moment, take a bow
Or should I surrender

Is there chaos, is there a plan
Random patterns for every man
Invisible wires and a safety net
Or only freefall space cadets, freefall
And gravity always wins

I know the G word, I know it well
They say it’ll keep me for going to hell
Whatever works, makes you content
Lets you deal with how insignificant, you are, we are, we all are
And suddenly we’re gone

Worry, it’s scary
Too much care
Losing my hair
Trying to prepare
For something I can’t see or hear or smell or even know
There’s only now
Only this note
Only this moment, take a bow
Should I surrender

Three wheels, nine lives
Ready meals, day by day
I put my hand out, no need to shout
I’m going green and public today
Finding all the gaps in this black-and-yellow trap
With city-breath blowing in my hair
Don’t fire me I’m late, blame it on my fate
This life, this life is so unfair
Still got to pay the auto fare

Money to burn at a shallow soiree
Got to get the old wheels out of the covers tonight
But the plugs are shot, and all I’ve got
Is just one chance with her to make it right
Called a no-show cabbie, just made me crabby
All dressed up and nobody cares
She didn’t bring it on, with my three-wheeler con
This life, this life is so unfair
Still got to pay the auto fare

Meter Mele One-and-a-Half!

So here I am, lost and alone
In a shortcut, roach-bitten cabriolet
Dead air on the cell, this is a party, a party from hell
So I tell the man “stop, and ask for the way”
Three or four gents, kindly souls all
Get their hands on the vehicle and put on a scare
I was relieved, my cards and cash called,
This life, this life is so unfair
Still got to pay the auto fare

Meter Mele One-and-a-half!

Noisy world, I am curled
Safe and warm I’ll come to no harm
Do I have to go, I know the flow
Drive right along, with the radio song
I can’t wait, to see her…

My billboard bride
Won’t be denied
Immortal plastic armour hide
My billboard bride
Flashing on the side
Together lover sanctified

Maybe lady wrapped in candy
I’m so tired of my own company
Electric voice and freedom of choice
Cold as ice and tired of nice
You’ll be, you could be my consolation prize

My billboard bride
Won’t be denied
Immortal plastic armour hide
My billboard bride
Flashing on the side
Together lover sanctified

I’ll make love to you
Drive-by love is good
Your face might change it’s true
You’re just misunderstood

My billboard bride
Won’t be denied
Immortal plastic armour hide
My billboard bride
Flashing on the side
Together lover sanctified

We were safe, protected
Wrapped up in our love
Anything the world could say was twisted
Just words we didn’t know the meaning of
Just words we didn’t know the meaning of

Is everything different now
Is everyone changed
Am I inside out
Outside in
Am I de-arranged

What would it take to make us right
When I don’t want to be believe that we went wrong
What would it take to make me see
That I’m broken inside
And I need you…

Lost in the stereotype
I wear my stone face
And I’m so sorry, so sorry
Your storms are my grace
And soon, so soon
The crack will run with clean rain, clean rain

Is everything different now
Is everyone changed
Am I inside out
Outside in
Am I de-arranged

What would it take to make us right
When I don’t want to be believe that we went wrong
What would it take to make me see
That I’m broken inside
And I need you…

Is everything different
Is everyone changed
Am I inside out
Am I de-arranged

Here or there is all very well
But in between is where the time will tell
Straight or late in a Crimson view
Talking to the wind blowing all through you

Jupiter burning in the sky
Giant storms a lifetime away
Here in the middle just a riddle why
I’m here my love I’m half the way

Half the joy may be half the way
But the middle isn’t just one place
It’s a whole ocean, an entire space
And for years you can try to stay
Right in the middle

Get in the middle
Get in the middle
Get to the beginning of the center of the circle of the stars
Get to the end of the edge of the box of the time

Cards make a house, but love makes a home
Man makes manners and in Xanadu a dome
The image makes god and I make it real
The sound makes music and I make it feel

Start in the middle with everything main
Then like Coltrane, go both ways at once
Start in the middle with everything main
Then like Coltrane, go both ways at once

I want, I want my birthday
To be a space and not a time
Are we there yet?

Can this air
This chair
That space downstairs
Can they be my birthday

Can I open the gifts of my eyes
And be in my birthday

Sing nonsense songs
And run all day
Eat what I like
It’s all a game let’s play

I want my birthday
To be a space and not a time
Are we there yet?

Can I open the gifts of my eyes
And be in my birthday

Time only makes you old
Time only draws the lines
Time’s something on a clock, love
And space is what defines
Space is what defines

I want my birthday
To be a space and not a time
Are we there yet?

Some folks never get hitched
Some get a few along the way
Some find too many
Just can’t seem to give it away

Some stay married forever
And hate every minute they’re in
Some lose the love of their lives
Before their lives begin

Love life,
No strife
Seems so rare
All smiles
High fives
Just an ordinary affair

Some men want taken women
And the mistress never gets her man
Married men envy bachelor boys
Footloose and free
Some pick the best from the worst
And stay with the one who cares
But soon the best cant be told from the worst
And yours is an ordinary affair

Love life,
No strife
Seems so rare
All smiles
High fives
Just an ordinary affair

It’s terrible trouble
Oh it’s terrible trouble
Look any which way
It’s terrible trouble

There she goes now
There she goes now
You’re ready to explode
But she’s going anyhow
Try to make it easy…

You’re tied up inside
You’re screwed up inside
You’re screaming ‘why me?’
Nowhere to hide
Try to make it easy…

I know it’s a-where you’re coming from
Maybe you should smoke some
You’ve got to take a different view
See what you’ve become
Try to make it easy…

I won her heart fairly
I’m not an also-ran
Don’t you think it might be
Part of a bigger plan

Terrible trouble
Oh it’s terrible trouble
What will they all say?
It’s terrible trouble
Try to make it easy…

I know it’s a painful mouthful
But don’t take it so hard
You really can be too careful
Just give us a start

Sweet time, memory
Coming back home
Cool, clear, slow and cloudy
Watching Bangalore flowers

Simple, smiling, windblown
Sipping Southie coffee
By my side, I’m not alone
Around Bangalore flowers

Everywhere this land I go
I’m weary, I’m worried, I’m craving
Back on the road, up the plateau
For this bearable lightness of being

*    She’s a flower, a Bangalore flower
She’s got me in the zone
She’s a flower, a Bangalore flower
She’s got me in the zone
No up-market paint job, no cover-ups
She keeps me on the phone
Flower, Bangalore flower
She’s got me in the zone

Days, minutes, hours
Going to the shows
Talkies, music, first-day covers
With Bangalore flowers

Pulp fiction in the green
Stories intertwine
Times change, brand-new scene
Still, Bangalore flowers

Everywhere this land I go
I’m weary, I’m worried, I’m craving
To be back on the road, up the plateau
For this bearable lightness of being

*

No poster on my wall
No stuck-up intellectual
Just a Bangalore flower
No high-fly Barbie doll
No need to have it all
Just a Bangalore flower

If the blues is a bottle, then I’m not getting very far
If the blues is a bottle, then I’m not getting very far
You can keep all your whiskey,
Just give me back that old shiny guitar

If the blues is a sinner, then why am I standing high and dry
If the blues is a sinner, then why am I standing high and dry
Is anybody here gonna save me
Or do I really really have to cry

If the blues is a woman, then I want some more
If the blues is a woman, then I want some more
If the blues is a woman, then I really want some more

If the blues is made of sorrow, then why does it smile on me
If the blues is made of sorrow, then why does it smile on me
I’m a brown man from a strange land
But it sure is the colour of my misery

Sad moon
Old moon
You hide your smile tonight
Caught in a web of city light
The stars are gone
The stars are gone

The cow she jumped
That holy heifer of the heavens
It was her best bet
To chew through the net
But the stars
They did not return.

Sad moon
Old moon
You hide your smile tonight
Caught in a web of city light
The stars are gone
Your friends are gone

And men have grown so tall so tall
To reach out and touch your constant face
But the telling of this tale, it had to fall
To a child in a moment of grace

Sad moon
Old moon
You smile again so bright
Caught in a web of city light
On one small friend
You can depend
For a song and a story tonight

Eyes closed fingers poised
Flowers strung about Adonis
The words below go around the sun
The Cat, always deep, always fun

A quiet calm in a wild world
A friendly voice, a seeker’s curse
A faraway look and a searing vision
The Cat, he sang his simple verse

*    I think I heard him right, I heard him young
The patterns still a desert haze
Before the moulds are made and the lines are strung
Before grown-up good sense betrays
The Cat; and all the stories sung

So ask the questions even if
You have no answers
Tell your wide-eyed tales
For the Cat, he never made the sale

He loved his dog, he got on a train
A stranger in a known land
The words they stuck and the tunes remain
The Cat, he took another stand

*

But he sure could dance
He sure could dance
You know the Cat always lands on his feet
Watch him move…

*

I am speed
I need to lead
The questions are forgotten
Snatched away forgotten
Second wind in my hair
Racing the shadows with watering eyes
Under the Rain Trees
In between falling leaves
Between dreams

I’m aerodymanic
I’m totally ecstatic
My music’s eclectic
My mind’s electric
I make them all, I make them all so frantic
‘Cause I’m aerodymanic

Maybe I will
Remember today
Maybe I still
Forget to say
Please and thank you
But this love this fierce pride
Of staying up on two wheels to ride
Somewhere in my middle ear
They said it would always be clear

I’m aerodymanic
I’m totally ecstatic
My music’s eclectic
My mind’s electric
I make them all, I make them all so frantic
Cause I’m aerodymanic

Muscle and balance
I’m above the street
Just a bruise away
If I’m not fleet
Long afternoons
Short roads for me
Alone I may be
But I’m in good company

I’m aerodymanic
I’m totally ecstatic
My music’s eclectic
My mind’s electric
I make them all, I make them all so frantic
Cause I’m aerodymanic

Grab your biggest problem
By the words it can be written with
Put it down
Put it down
On the coloured paper
Don’t save it for later
Put it down.
Now your fingers
Can delicately fold and crease
And quietly release
The wonder
Hidden in the paper
So fine…

I looked at you and thought
Just how am I going to find
Some words tonight
I should’ve
Put them down
And got them just right.
Then I could watch your eyes
Grow wide open green surprise
Unfold this heart of me
From some silly origami
So fine…

The paper is the door
The paper is the window
Welcome to the fold
There’s such a long way to go

Just take this paper heart and remember
All the places you’ve been in my mind
We used to know how to make
A paper swan
Is it gone…
Oh to be young again

Can you keep up with this geometry
The shape of all our memory
So go ahead, and fold me
Into your silly origami, so fine
Hold me, fold me, love me

Now your fingers
Can delicately fold and crease
And quietly release…

I don’t have the time
There’s water in my hourglass
And the sand is in my eyes

I don’t have my mind
There’s flickering lights in my head
And my reasons are all lies

Today is just the same old same old
Too many teeth behind those smiles
And I don’t care about the stories told
If it means more, more, more,
More frequent-flyer miles
More secretary smiles
More…

*    I’m dangerous, I’m your best friend
I’m a colour-blind chameleon
I’m moving up, I know what’s going down
I’m just an urban
Super human
The consumer and the consumed…

I don’t have the reasons
I lost them in the fire
Of my ambition to be
Something, somebody not me

I don’t have a saviour
I’m too smart
To be taken in by
Your prayers and your incense and that round-trip to heaven

Today is just the same old same old
Too many teeth behind those smiles
And I don’t care about the stories told
If it means more, more, more
More frequent-flyer miles
More secretary smiles
More…

*

Dangerous mind, so clever so cool
Above it all, a madman, a fool
A wisp of the will, an opera phantom
Singing of sheep while pulling the wool

Silence! I shout, I try to be still
Show me your papers, your license to kill
Have you no respect, no love, or no wall?
The murk deepens, the clear water is still

*    I am I am I am I am I am
A dangerous mind am I am I am I am I
A dangerous mind…

Have faith in science, and ask for no proof
Have a reason for god, then make him aloof
Find a way, a path, a narrow dotted line
Souls for sale, and bottle the immortal wine

Dangerous mind, crying for war
A babe in the woods with an old bowie scar
A moment of peace, a figment of fortune
A time to bide, but no bridge too far

*

It’s early, it’s late
We’re playing with fate
We’ve given we’ve given we’ve given it all
Halfway up we go and twice as far we fall
We’ve Googled and froogled and inveigled and wheedled
We’ve mingled and sidled and played the second fiddle
So now, tell us, tell us, tell us

*    Who do we have sex with?
Who do we have sex with?
We’ve tried all the other stuff
Hope the bed is big enough
Who do we have sex with?
Who do we have sex with?

If we push, we’re pushy
And if we’re chill we’re lazy
We work, work, work and we make ‘em all friends
When they pick up their phones they sell us dead ends
All our buddies think we’ve gone from ‘what da’ to agenda
And our long suffering families want to put us in the blender
So now, tell us, tell us, tell us

*

They’re all in bed
Pillow talk will get you ahead
Sing the same songs
But it’s not your nicely rounded diphthongs
That get the gongs…

*

I draw a line in the sand
And you hate me
I make a face in the water
And you drown me
I carve a God from cold stone
And you bury me

But I
Won’t stop.

I open your eyes to the colours
And you blind me
You hear my voice in the darkness
And you strangle me
I give you a taste of tomorrow
But it never comes for me

But I
Won’t stop.

Small, we are so small
And it boggles my mind
That your mind
Could be smaller

Cold, in the end it’s so cold
And all we have
Is the time
And a spark
From the fire…

I draw a line in the sand
And you hate me
I make a face in the water
And you drown me
I carve a God from cold stone
And you bury me

But I
Won’t stop.

I remember so well
I forget too easily
But the tracks of memory
Are so freely
Burned with pain

I forgot the words
I bury the meaning
I keep a dry heart
But the tears keep coming

It was something you said
It was a little thing but it fed
The spinning wheel in my head
And a part of me was dead
It was something you said

The letter in a bottle
Washed up on my beach
It was a picture
Of water, of love
So out of reach

So far so near
My fingers grab
Dancing in the light
I’m wound up so tight

It was something you said
It was a little thing but it fed
The spinning wheel in my head
And a part of me was dead
It was something you said

If the ground is a hard place
Stay above it
If the sky is full of rain
The trees will love it
If the journey takes too long
Don’t forget to enjoy it
And if you don’t get
Where you’re going
Don’t you worry about it
And if you don’t get
Where you’re going
It’s where you got to be

If your time has not yet come
Don’t be late
If your story’s not been told
Don’t believe in fate
If you think you haven’t got enough
Why don’t you eat what’s on your plate
And if it only takes a minute
Don’t you let it wait
And if it only takes a minute
Don’t you let it wait

I bite my lip and watch the parade
It’s a long line from the stockade
There’s twenty-four spangled horsemen
It’s like there never was a better charade

And on the top is the dubyaman
He’s sitting mighty pretty, feeling groovy
He’s never been called to the flush line
He’s all left feet but how does he do the boogie

Mighty strange and vaguely deranged
I’m fighting the rising bile
In the wreck of my mind is the sorry starship
Carried me over every jungle mile

It’s late in the evening and the hooter girls
Are flashing in the corner of my screen
As I jack into another download whirl
Oh brother just where have I been

Flying fingers tremulous and free free
Tapping on the plastic menagerie
Why does it always get so clear
When the cricket song dies of morning fear

Mighty strange and vaguely deranged
I’m cruising the jet speed high
And the blinkety blink of the magic line
Is hypnotizing cauterizing and very alive

In every song and every spin
Is the pattern of the older lie
All I do is watch the river flow
The river flow the river flow

Mighty strange and vaguely deranged
I’m burning out it’s very cool
I’ll have to do this again with the balls of light
Get moody blue and play the fool

One small breath
One small word
One small man
One small space
Can be everything
In a tired world

One small glimpse
One small truth
One small cry
One small change
The leaves they turn
And slowly I learn

It’s such a big deal
Oh a pretty balloon
Blow it up make the steal
We’re all in
We’re all in
And there’s no getting out

I’m such a big man
Take a look at my shadow
I’ll make my last stand
It’s all right
It’s all right
‘Cause suddenly I know

How
One small time
One small kindness
One small light
One small darkness
Can be everything
In a tired world

We made a big splash
But the well ran dry
We smoked the big cash
Light it up
Light it up
At least we didn’t lie

And it’s
One small breath
One small word
One small step
One small love
That’s everything
In this tired world

Don’t stop me
Because I’m going anyway
Don’t stop me
You know I’m going anyway
I’m going to that special place
You know it’s not so far away
Where the state has no name

You can’t hear me
I’m not speaking your words
You can’t hear me
’Cause I’m not speaking in your words
I live in that, that special place
You know we’ve cut it up with our swords
Where the state has no name

Where the state has no name
Borders like boulders thrown
In a laughing God’s game
Where the state has no name
The dice fall in unkind spots
In a land of polyglots
Where the state has no name
Where the state has no name

You can’t love me
I’m not from where you are
You can’t love me
I’m not from where you are
My DNA is mine, I’m a lonely fish
Happy as can be in my Petri dish
Where the state has no name

It’s one thirty o clock in the morning
Woke up late last night
If that isn’t right
To start the blues bar
Then the sorry girls are winning the fight

Feeling mighty high and low
Just like I did some crooked lines
Funny because I’m clean and dry
Never needed any joy juice to get high

I play in a cool smart rock n roll band
It’s like the only thing that makes it go round
Been everywhere but the big time lover
Somewhere this ruby yacht ran aground

Grab me by my fingertips and take me off this page
Dance me to the ground it’s lover-ly
How lots of chocolates can mystify the mage
I’m just about to shake my cage
Losing my mind with the daily wage

I get home early, shut off my head
And fire all my synapse slaves
It’s pleasant and even mildly euphoric
Oh these after-burner polychrome waves

Rise up with the sorry sunlight
That bleeds all over the floor
The shadows shrink as I pour my first drink
It’s a Boost in the mug with no happy encore

Grab me by my fingertips and take me off this ride
Dance me to the ceiling it’s lover-ly
How honest work can crucify my pride
I’m just about to set aside
A modicum of love and a paisa-worth of bromide

Can we save
this fragile world
We shout, we sing, we wave, we stand to be counted
With our new cars, new phones
New plug-and-play
Steel-and-glass duplex
And that burning desire to be green and grounded

It’s taking too long, and time’s running out
We still don’t understand what this is about
Is this somebody else’s problem
Another tired case of us and them
Or is it time, time, time, to

*Clean up
Clean up this gig
The holes we dig
Are our very own
Time’s up
Time’s up today
Too late to pray
Now we are alone
Wise up
Don’t you see the sign
Mother Earth, she’s got time
Bury the whole race
After all, a short phase
Give Her a million years and She’ll be just fine

Do we see
Do we see our world
As something we borrow from our children
We go with the flow
Love the status quo
Do we really know
How quickly we can be forgotten

It’s taking too long, and time’s running out
We still don’t understand what this is about
Is this somebody else’s problem
Another tired case of us and them
Or is it time, time, time, to

*

Are we gonna clean up, clean up?
Do we know that time’s up?
Are we gonna wise up, wise up?
We’ve got to see the sign

Dear Sir, We wish to inform you
That the last date
To pay your tax is through
Now you have to wait
For your inevitable fate
And all we want
Is all you’ve got
Is that so much to ask?

Where are you my number man
I thought you knew the bigger plan
The way you make those figures dance
A mystery ballet a calculated romance
You spoke so eloquently
I know, I know, you’re so sorry for me…

Oh lady, Won’t you reconsider
This is the last time
I promise forever
Can we try another rhyme
I’m sure it is no crime
And all you want
Is all I had
Is that so much to ask?

Where are you my mystic friend
Are you reading another strange godsend
The way you drew those pentagrams
The sun and the stars were your anagrams
You threw some magic dust
And promised us bites of the upper crust
I know, I know, you’re so sorry for me…

Dear Lord, Do you really listen
To bruised knees
And donations I have given
Is there some larger fee
To get your blessed decree
And all you want
Is all I am
Is that too much to ask?

Where are you my holy brother
Is it another sheep that you deliver
The way you twist that guilty knife
In my greedy guts and my sorry life
I thought you were heaven sent
And now I really do repent
And I know, I know, you’re so sorry for me…

Under the table and over the counter
I feed you, I grasp your greasy fingers
The goddess of riches, yes you have found her
But the stink of your lust, it lingers

Uncommon Wealth is the denominator
You divide your spoils by one
I may be common, I may be the giver
Now I’m going to get a gun

Kickbackistan!
Let the games begin
Kickbackistan!
Let the shame begin
Porky players line up
Let the lions feed
We the rabble rise up
We will watch you bleed
And fling our funny money
Funny money!
It starts with the license for learners
At eighteen was I soiled with your touch
It never ends, from PM to preachers
Uncommon wealth, it’s never too much

Uncommon Wealth is the denominator
You divide your spoils by one
I may be common, I may be the giver
Now I’m going to get a gun

Kickbackistan!
Let the games begin
Kickbackistan!
Let the shame begin
Porky players line up
Let the lions feed
We the rabble rise up
We will watch you bleed
And fling our funny money
Funny money!

Common are these games, these games of wealth
Common is the shame this country has felt
Often we have run, hands on our face
Uncommon wealth, and a common disgrace

Kickbackistan!
Let the games begin
Kickbackistan!
Let the shame begin
Porky players line up
Let the lions feed
We the rabble rise up
We will watch you bleed
And fling our funny money
Funny money!