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Topless at the Arco Arena

by Wonderlick

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1.
WHEN SHE TOOK OFF HER SHIRT A crowd around her, the spotlight found her You could just tell that she loved to dance She's no one special, that's why it's special We're all at the mercy of circumstance As you predicted, I am conflicted It's never easy and it's rarely clear So call me charmless, insist it's harmless But when daylight comes things seem so severe All the planets became aligned And we glimpsed what the gods designed She was just having a good time When 10,000 screams combined How much power did she exert? When she smiled and took off her shirt? We charged unblinking beyond all thinking Perhaps there's no need to understand But I still wonder if we blundered Was it magic or some sleight of hand?
2.
ALL BOYS WANT Her mother says, “That’s all boys want” But the men she meets want more They want to be taken care of And they long to be adored Her mother says Her mother’s wrong It’s not all boys want But all boys want it It’s not all boys need But they always need it She knows they need inspiration From someone who knows they’re tired Who sees how hard they’re working And can make them feel admired They just need someone to tell them That everything’s going to be fine And that’s the kind of person she is She wants to give them everything She wants to be divine And every time she hears that song She knows her mother’s wrong
3.
WE RUN THE WORLD We run the world We shape the earth You can’t even guess How much we’re really worth All of our crimes Are plausibly denied Our portfolios Are so diversified We’re selling short The bubble won’t last long We’re buying up your block We even own this song We run the world We all grew up in Darien But the plans we hatch Are so Wagnerian We run the world Machines of war Are now the cars we drive The scarier things get The more we seem to thrive Miss Nipple Ring Riding on the bus Don’t kid yourself Cause you’re one of us When the bad men come With their dirty bombs Won’t distinguish you From any soccer mom We run the world All the noise you make Has been factored in You’re plotted on our graphs We’re very disciplined We run the world We put our name On your stadiums And no one finds This troublesome We’re leasing space On poorer countries’ flags We’ll rename your kid Cause everything’s an ad We run the world
4.
THE KING OF BAD DECISIONS So bad, so fast It got so bad so fast
5.
FEAR OF CHICAGO Old Jim is hanging in the kitchen Gave up when nothing else was cooking Looks like he’s gonna make the papers now I guess Valerie didn’t love him No one was ever thinking of him That’s changed but he wouldn’t like quite how You’re afraid of the city But you paid to see the show You’re afraid on the drive home So you play the radio Drove straight through from Tallahassee Two days to play for fifty people Mixing flexeril and old warm beer Stopped cold, a blizzard on I-80 Stuck in the Motel Indiana Waiting for the sun to reappear Black ice on random city sidewalks Dark waves on great lakes in a snowstorm Drinking Jaeger free at the Cubby Bear Lounge Ax on breaks swapping shop talk Sweet kids lure your band mates to the girls’ dorm Circling for hours around O’Hare I’m afraid of the city But you made me feel alright So I stayed a little longer And we played another night I’m afraid of the city You’re afraid of the hills We betrayed one another When they played it gave me chills
6.
EVERYBODY LOVES JENNY (EXCEPT JENNY) All the tenured profs love Jenny And the teenaged Goths they love Jenny Even New York cops love Jenny But not Jenny Well the cameraman he loves Jenny 20,000 fans they love Jenny Drummer in the band loves Jenny But not Jenny Love is all you get It better be enough It isn’t always sweet It’s sweaty and it’s rough Everybody loves Jenny Except Jenny The academy loves Jenny High society loves Jenny Everyone agrees about Jenny All the married men they love Jenny And those congressmen they love Jenny Even shy children love Jenny Why not Jenny? Total strangers love Jenny Texas Rangers love Jenny Money changers love Jenny Poor Jenny Well the anchorman loves Jenny Mullahs in Iran love Jenny Duran Duran loves Jenny Why not Jenny? So you got crazy So you made mistakes So what if your reasons Remain a bit opaque?
7.
You First 04:02
YOU FIRST I gave my wife the finger The first day that we met I might not be Romeo But she’s my fucking Juliet The day she said, “I love you” I had the worst reply I should have said it back But all I said was, “Why?” We are scared but we are willing Unprepared and unrehearsed Could be lame or could be thrilling You go first Step off the cliff you might start flying Tell me if you think it’s worse To be selfish or self-denying You go first We’re just like these penguins That I saw on TV They crowd at the ice’s edge Till one falls in the sea
8.
THE CASE AGAINST TATTOOS There’s another man’s name on the small of her back Every now and then they have a fight about that First time was the worst at the beach when she forgot He started freaking out when she took off her top Like a band with one hit that they always have to play Every argument since then must make mention of that day He says, “If you really cared, there are ways to take it off.” She says, “That’s how I got here, by trying to prove my love.” You can’t force yourself not to change They had 7 perfect years, then 3 more almost as great In the 2 since then the passion’s started to abate Even when they argue the stakes don’t seem as high This is just a law of time that no one can defy He wouldn’t say he’s happy but he’s glad he’s not alone After work they put on records, he starts getting stoned She looks for perfect moments inside her favorite song Lives inside of those till the next one comes along You can’t force yourself not to change
9.
THIS SONG IS A COMMERCIAL It's vaguely defined in order to appeal to the maximum number of fans Has parts designed to make you feel That someone finally understands Your rage and your fear and your sadness and your dreams Your dependence on certain lotions and creams Your most beautiful hopes and most terrible pain The urge you have to jump at oncoming trains Your reluctance to sing along now And the reasons you’ll do it anyhow Gimme a kiss, gimme something new now Gimme something real no one can see through now Look at the lady who’s removing her clothes In front of twenty-some thousand fans Is she being used by the CEOs? Or does she simply understand All the times that you’ve lied without knowing why The desire we both share to be purified There is no god but it’s fun to pretend We’ll meet in paradise when the chorus ends You’re reluctant to sing along now Need a reason to do it anyhow Yes it’s true they need to tranquilize you But gimme a chance maybe I’ll surprise you Blumenfield/Quirk copyright 2009 People Still Suck Music (ASCAP)
10.
Fuck Yeah! 05:46
FUCK YEAH! If I’m lucky, if I do it right No one can watch No one should see That would just debase it And make me realize where I am I don’t know or care who or where I am No pretty hooker will fall in love with me But I like my friends Most of my family I need to horrify them To end this misery This isn’t old time rock and roll This goes back so much farther than that Any music will do So long as I don’t think twice about you If I’m lucky, if I do it right No one can watch No one should see That would just debase it And make me realize where I am I don’t know or care who or where I am I want them to want me To be just who I am But that’s the thing about your loved ones They are not supposed to understand This is about this very second This is about how I feel right now This is about not thinking about it This is about “Fuck yeah!” and “Wow!”
11.
Janie Jones 03:53
12.
THE CEO CONSIDERS HIS HOLDINGS At the top of a building far downtown In a world where you and I do not exist Sits a man at a desk in fine attire Slowly checking items off a list Tho he looks out the window now and then No sound rises from the street below While he studies what he owns He’s receiving quite expert fellatio Some rise by sin And some by virtue fall We’re not getting anywhere at all Send our regards To those who work so hard We lack discipline but we have a ball On a sidewalk in that city On the day after the show Jenny found that special feeling didn’t persist As she stepped over the trash that Only ever seemed to grow And graffiti by half-hearted anarchists 41 per cent of the company he founded (that pioneered removing toxic waste) Two hockey teams and the arenas they play in One satellite that’s orbiting in space 950 pages listing varied stocks and bonds 5 houses, 7 buildings and two farms He forgot about the planes and that helicopter There’s no paper trail for the small arms Lots of broken glass The standard fast food wrappers A used rubber and a used tampon side by side Half a dead pigeon One red, lace-less tennis shoe A kneeling man who was oddly dignified A pile of crap far too big to have come from any dog A mattress and a piece of some machine A wet and battered book titled Your Brain is God And a broken silver plastic submarine
13.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF LOVE Just because you're happy don't make your life complete Just because we're naked don't mean we're indiscreet Don't mean to be stubborn, I don't want to offend But look at all those couples can't you tell it's just pretend? I guess that all I'm dreaming of is a different kind of love Just because I'm leaving don't mean I shouldn't have come Just cause I wasn't tempted don't mean I won't succumb Just because they're clapping don't mean you're any good You can make perfect sense and still be misunderstood
14.
Your Majesty 04:40
YOUR MAJESTY High above a crashing sea The waves are whispering to me I get down on bended knee Humbled by your majesty Countless crabs upon the rocks Click off seconds just like clocks Everything interlocks In honor of your majesty Your majesty I went back to my hometown But my house had been torn down There was nobody around To hear about your majesty Spoke no words for thirty days Searching for the perfect phrase Listening to Isaac Hayes Thinking bout your majesty Your majesty Sitting on this balcony Singing bout your majesty Now I'm sipping Zinfandel In a once grand old hotel With the kind of clientele Who do not know your majesty And each evening I'm beset By another damn sunset Trying so hard to forget Your fucking majesty Your majesty Just another casualty Of your supreme majesty Every morning millions kneel Before something that's so unreal But that don't change the way they feel
15.
THE POSSIBILITIES Johnny on Johnny in 1964 Couple years after the Hayride But several years before All the Johnnies started spending And pretending they knew more Than the Johnnies who weren’t famous And the Johnnies who were poor The possibilities… Luther fights the camera The camera always wins He tries rolling his eyes And he tries a goofy grin Marshall’s jumping on his bass But no one looks at him Johnny’s singing bout the Lord But you can see he’s full of sin The picture blurred He fell to his knees Something occurred But it was hard to see She spoke no words Made no guarantees But everyone heard The possibilities… And he’s totally amped up But nobody can tell Cause they have no frame of reference For the things that make him yell And he’s singing bout the old days And he’s bidding them farewell And he looks so goddamn handsome When he looks like fucking hell
16.
Devil Horns 04:15
DEVIL HORNS The original singer has retired to his farm The drummer drove drunk now he only has one arm But they’re still making records They still sell out shows And when they come to your town You really oughta go The service charge will kill you and a T-Shirt’s fifty bucks But there’s something bout a crowd going absolutely nuts You will shout your throat raw Become someone else Let me be more precise You'll meet your true self You will shout your throat raw You will raise your right hand You will make the devil horns You will finally understand That we all have inner demons They’re impossible to kill And keeping them from winning takes magic, love and skill When anything can happen And nothing awful does Be thankful for the blessing And grateful for the buzz You won’t remember this tomorrow Won’t know how close we came You will talk about the lasers But you’ll come back again

credits

released July 7, 2009

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Johannes Luley, mysonictemple.com

Produced by Wonderlick and Johannes Luley

All songs written by Wonderlick
©&℗ 2009 People Still Suck Music (ASCAP)
Except "Janie Jones," which was written by Strummer/Jones and published by Nineden, LTD.

Wonderlick is Jay Blumenfield and Tim Quirk

Design by Jeff Castellana

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