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"Riding Low" sets the stage for Tales From Earth, Inc. with its look into the minds of those who get caught up in money, money, and more money, at any cost to anyone but themselves. The "evil boss" appears during the song's bridge.
Gotta keep up with the Joneses, gotta keep up with the Smiths
Gotta keep up with Ramirez and that Summer home of his
Gotta buy the biggest TV, finish the basement for the kids
Gotta buy a brand new sports car, impress the folks over at the biz
Riding low and flying high! Accumulate until I die!
Gotta keep up with the Dow Jones, build up that portfolio
Get into big oil, diamond mines and Polly-o
Invest in weapons manufacturing and anything that sells
And tell your sore loser friends they can all just go to hell!
Riding low and flying high! Accumulate until I die!
We’ll sink the competition ’til they can’t feed their kids
Do anything it takes to keep the costs below the lid
Keep the shareholders smiling as they open their returns
Anything cutting into profits is anything that burns
Anything cutting precious profits is anything that burns!
Gotta have a life a thousand times more fancy than the rest
Prove to friends and strangers that our family’s the best
And if you want to be like us and surely that’s the quest
Cut me in and I can tell you all just how you should invest
Riding low and flying high! Accumulate until you die!
There’s even something for you if you don’t want to fuss
Over where the money’s going, you can set up a blind trust
No need to be concerned about where it’s going in the end
Just think about the returns, the rewards are yours to spend
Riding low and flying high! Accumulate until you die!
We’ll sink the competition ’til they can’t feed their kids
Do anything it takes to keep the costs below the lid
Keep the shareholders smiling when they open their returns
Anything cutting into profits is anything that burns
Anything cutting precious profits is anything that burns!
You know I just can’t wait for heaven, gotta have it hear on Earth
‘Cause I’ve earned it with my skills and circumstances of my birth
Buy myself designer suits and Gucci handbags for the wife
Dress her in mink coats and diamonds gonna show her the sweet life
Riding low and flying high! Accumulate until we die...
Don’t worry about the things that you might hear on the news
About all the corporate greed and all the human rights abuse
It’s just a bunch of bleeding hearts who waste their energy
On helping other people instead of you and me
Riding low and flying high! Accumulate until we die!
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2. |
Dam That River
05:29
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Proud citizens, a nation on the rise
The World Cup and Olympics in two years’ time
A few more deaths may be the price to pay
For the stadiums to be ready for the games to play
After banning beer in arenas after deaths at soccer games
We vote for a reversal so our sponsor can proclaim
That cerveja would be flowing in the stadiums again
‘Cause the king of beers it is quite clear has come to take his reign
Oh, here in the Amazon we’ve got some pesky laws
To protect the rainforest but don’t take any pause
Got to build lots of dams for the energy we need
So move the tribes aside and forge ahead with speed
Just use the power bestowed to you and wield the mighty pen
And inconvenient laws are gone ’til we want ‘em back again
Don’t worry about the residents we force to relocate
‘Cause 25,000 Indian votes a president does not make
Oh, dam that river, and dam what they might say
About the Kayapo and anybody standing in our way
Can’t let outdated livelihoods obstruct ambitious plans
Creating two years worth of jobs re-purposing the lands
So get yourselves out of the way and stop blocking the roads
We kindly have provided you with new concrete abodes
The fish have left the Xingu, so take a job among the crew
And help construct the very dam that’s planned to displace you
Oh, what do wind and solar power have to do
With our consortium of hydro plants and fossil fuels?
If you think that we need your blessing, well then please
Ask the U.S., Canada and the Spanish and the Portuguese
You think we must consult you, get permission from your tribe?
Well honorable Cardoso she has ruled quite otherwise
And a re-imagined forest code from Madame President
Makes it quite clear that we can clear you from your residents
So dam that river and damn what they might say
‘bout the Juruna tribe and anybody standing in our way
Can’t let outdated livelihoods obstruct ambitious plans
Creating two years worth of jobs re-purposing the lands
So get yourselves out of the way and stop blocking the roads
We kindly have provided you with new concrete abodes
The fish have left the Xingu, take a job among the crew
And help construct the very dam that’s planned to displace you
Yes - dam that river, and dam what they might say
‘bout the Arara tribe and anyone that’s standing in our way
Got aluminum to smelt and rivers to divert
Might cost more than it saves but it'll be someone else’s term
The fish have left the Xingu, take a job among the crew
And help construct the very dam that’s planned to displace you
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3. |
Cross the Border
05:28
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Hey kid, wanna make some dough?
Just head down South towards Mexico
Get yourself set up with a nice gun shop
The sales are bound to never stop!
For some strange reason there’s no end to the orders
When you set yourself up at the Mexican border
Don’t let the proximity trouble your soul
Leave it up to the folks on the border patrol
Come fuel the slaughter across the border
But don’t you send us your songs and daughters!
If not from you, they’ll get ‘em someplace else
So don’t let the thoughts make you trouble yourself
There’s no way you could know that a piece that you sell
Ended up in the hands of the local cartel
Oh, there’s no need for a background check
No need for a card or a check
Just put out your hands and it’s filled with green
Head into town and make the scene
And fuel the slaughter across the border
But don’t you send us your songs and daughters
Oh how many dead Mexicans will it take
To ensure massive profits from the sales you will make?
‘Cause the newest board member of the NRA
Wants to buy him a yacht, and he wants it today!
So don’t you challenge our amendment rights
‘Cause we’ll fight to protect them with all our might
‘Cause hunting and protections what we’re selling ‘em for
Never told anyone to go start a drug war!
We fuel the slaughter across the border
And don’t you send us your sons and daughters
Oh where will the bullets go?
You’ll never need to know
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4. |
Kimberley
07:31
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The survived the copters, they survived the landmines
But the '47s claimed their lives
And I found myself at the age of nine
Being sent to work at the very mine
Where my parents would dig from dawn to dusk
To find the prize that would deliver us
From a world of abject poverty
In a highly resource blessed country
But Mugabe and friends were of different minds
And decided to take all that we could find
To pay the staggering debts of the ZMDC
They took over the mines and now they've taken me
Oh, Kimberley don't you see? Your rules just don't apply to me
Torn from school to work as a government slave
Dawn to dusk we tear at the lands
So a bride can proudly extend her hand
Unaware of the dogs and the torture and rape
Mugabe and his wife Grace aka dis-Grace
Holes to dig on either side
One for the bodies and one for the mine
Under cover of darkness we would blindly dig
To find a ticket out among the rocks and twigs
But the soldiers won't tolerate any losses
Got to build up a stack to pay their bosses
Unless a pebble or two should happen to slip
Beneath the flap of a sack between their belt and hip
In hopes of finding deportation to a nearby Kimberley authorized nation
Away from the eyes of Robert Mugabe
(n)E(g)LECTED leader of Zimbabwe
Who lives with dis-Grace so exhorbitantly
Oh, Kimberley don't you see? Your rules just don't apply to me
Torn from school to work as a government slave
Dawn to dusk we tear at the lands
So a bride can proudly extend her hand
Unaware of the dogs and the torture and rape
Down in a hole deep inside of the Earth
Searching for diamonds of natural birth
That could be made quite conflict free
In the safe confines of a laboratory
Of equal beauty and composition
Without the need for ammunition
But the brides and grooms feel better knowing
That their gems were many centuries growing
In a veritable ancient garden
Of slowly growing crystal carbon
In lands that must be cleared and torn
And guarded by men in uniform
Oh, Kimberley don't you see? Your rules just don't apply to me
Torn from school to work as a government slave
Dawn to dusk we tear at the lands
So a bride can proudly extend her hand
Unaware of the dogs and the torture and rape
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5. |
Black Gold (Ogoni Nine)
05:38
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Off a dark continent by the edge of the sea
Lies a dark liquid gold waiting to be seized
By whomever has the confidence, by whomever has the might
Irregardless of the consequence, irregardless of the right
Black liquid gold
Worth more than the land that God gave to Eve
More valuable than the oceans and the air we breathe
Worth more than the cries in the middle of the night
Of the widowed wives of those who sacrificed
Black liquid gold
They met you with poise and they met you with valiance
And you met them with charts showing profits per gallons
But the mighty Dutch gilder proved too hard to resist
For the Nigerian generals and the minds they would twist
And like those who came before with only gold on their minds
To the natives and their lands and to their rights they are blind
As history has shown on every continent
Yellow or black gold always leaves a trail of lament
Black liquid gold
As their veins once carried to their arteries
Your pipes now take their blood to your refineries
So it can fuel our cars and our SUVs
But if you look up to the stars then you just might see
Ogoni Nine, Ogoni 9
Unmoved by blackmail, undeterred by death
They forged on for their tribe as your noose stole their breath
As you watched without concern for a Heaven or a hell
Or the lives you sold to Royal Dutch Shell
Ogoni Nine, Ogoni Nine, Ogoni Nine, Ogoni Nine
They Royal Dutch Shell oil company
They weren't what you needed them to be
The Royal Dutch Shell oil company
They weren't where you needed them to be
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6. |
Teotihuacan
05:40
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Teotihuacan – what the heck is going on?
Teotihuacan – what on Earth is going on?
Last time I visited your famous pyramids
I was greeted by such friendly smiles on the faces of your kids
Now as I pull into town, I’m greeted by a sea of frowns
And traffic surrounding a great eyesore in the form of a Walmart store
So, Teotihuacan – what the heck is going on?
Teotihuacan – what on Earth is going on?
As I inquire as to what’s going on ’round here
I hear of tales of bribery, corruption and of fear
False surveys and altered maps and bribes to keep it all under wraps
A trail of bogus documents from every level of government
So… Teotihuacan – what the heck is going on?
Teotihuacan – what on Earth is going on?
Ain’t it nice when the mayor can afford a hilltop ranch?
On a civil servant’s salary of $47 grand?
And as he takes a leisurely hike, down below there’s hunger strikes
And in the market where tradition lives, a cold shoulder was all you could give
So… Teotihuacan – what the heck is going on?
Teotihuacan – what on Earth is going on?
As the backhoes and bulldozers broke into protected ground
The treasures of the Aztec world were waiting to be found
Just slide a nice thick envelope across a shiny desk
And petty laws and history are easy to forget
Yes, petty laws and history are easy to forget!
Teotihuacan, Teotihuacan, Teotihuacan, Te-te-teotihuacan
I guess it was easy enough to buy out Purificacion
When you got the funds to give them everything they want, so now you own
Why play by the laws and rules in a world full of suckers and fools
And people willing to make nice as long as you can meet their price?
Oh, Teotihuacan, Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan, what on Earth is going on?
How much did you have to pay so many authorities?
The zoning and traffic bureaus and the institute of history
The cost of doing business with 250 customers per hour
May be the price of misery when you crave wealth and power
May be the price of misery when you crave wealth and power
Teotihuacan, Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan, Te-te-teotihuacan!
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7. |
Wishing Well
06:13
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As prophetically predicted on the flag of Kiribati
The view of these islands in the next century
A passing bird confounded by its discovery
Of a Sun setting over a lonely vacant sea
In most events you could imagine that you would be quite stunned
To find such a tiny nation placing in at number one
But in the race to see who first will sink below the sea
This tiny island nation has a shot to go down in history
Good-bye dear friends - we wish you will be well
It’s an inevitable outcome ‘cause you know we’ve got to sell
Our inefficient cars from less efficient factories
‘Cause to change would infringe on our dearest liberties
Yeah, the Maldives have a plan to make the future sell
There’s no view like you can get from their underwater hotel
Just slink out of your window in your iron lung and fins
I hope that you like seafood ‘cause you know chicken doesn’t swim
Now it gives a whole new meaning to emerging from a meeting
When the president and cabinet offer their warmest greeting
After taking off their masks after a meeting down below
Where they’ve set up desks and chairs to convene below the ocean’s flow
Good-bye dear friends - we wish you will be well
It’s an inevitable outcome ‘cause you know we’ve got to sell
Our inefficient cars from less efficient factories
‘Cause to change would infringe on our dearest liberties
Wishing well, we wish you well as you sink into the wishing well
Now if you’ve got an extra boat and you don’t know what to do
Get it off to Bangladesh and sell it as a floating school
And if your path gets flooded and you’re feeling pretty hardened
Lighten up and by some produced from a local floating garden
‘Cause when the monsoons come they’ve developed quite a craft
Growing fruits and vegetables right out of seaweed on a raft
But if wading ‘cross the village man, just ain’t your scene
In Dhaka there’s 15 million people that you can squeeze between
Good-bye dear friends - we wish you will be well
It’s an inevitable outcome ‘cause you know we’ve got to sell
Our inefficient cars from less efficient factories
‘Cause to change would infringe on our dearest liberties
Up, up the water goes - when it’s gonna stop nobody knows
Up, up the water goes - where it’s gonna stop nobody knows
Up, up the water goes - when it’s gonna stop nobody knows
Up, up the water goes - where the people gonna live, nobody knows
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8. |
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Another bargain in a Walmart as the register goes "ching-ching"
Meanwhile downtown in New York City, hear the closing bell go "ring-ading"
A crowded factory in South Asia, the alarm sounds "ring ding dingaling"
A plush office suite in Bentonville - record profits make the fat cats sing
'Cause there's no end to the extent to
They are willing to retrench to
Make sure that they pad their wallets
Your life can't stack up to profits
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Another factory in Bangla country - the inspector turns the other way
Knows exactly what he must do to ensure his supplemental pay
Structural soundness, flame retardation - they will have to wait another day
Just like the one in Rana Plaza - can't let safety stand in profit's way
'Cause there's no end to the extent to
They're willing to condescend to
Make sure that they pad their wallets
Your life can't stack up to profits
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
And as the flames start to surround you
Realize it's for a greater cause
And as the walls crash down around you
Comfort yourself with thoughts of profit laws
And as the newsflash covers the story
Don't expect anyone to take pause
Because you know the job providers
Have got to keep down their costs
No need for pesky regulations
No need to have to pay minimum wage
No need to ever have to worry
If workers are above minimum age
'Cause when your racing to the bottom
No regulation standing in your way
Divide your income by a thousand
And the result can be their pay
Back in the land of milk and honey, hear the phones go "ring ring ring-a-ding"
An acquisition, a celebration - change in the pockets goes jing-jingling
And in the factories of Bangladesh you can be sure to expect the same old thing
'Cause after all what would be the chances of more disaster being on the brink?
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9. |
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You know the government, they can't do anything right
So if you want efficiency then you have got to privatize
So in the state of Pennsylvania we two judges did agree
To let the county J.D. hall to close and let an LLC
Called PA Child Care have a complete monopoly
In helping kids to serve rather extended penalties
That we could guarantee with a zero tolerance policy
That happened to provide us with a rather generous fee... yeah
Yeah, zero tolerance - that's the way we role
So you'd better get your teenage self under tight control
You get in trouble in school, you're gonna face the bench
Become the latest corporate facility resident
Shoplifting nutmeg, joyriding mama's car
Made a webpage on your principal? Well, you've gone too far!
If you get into a catfight with some nasty girl at school
Expect a several month long sentence to be in store for you
I don't care if you're eleven, the only thing it means to me
Is we've got to deal quite harshly with your criminal history
So expect to enter teendom in our plush facility
'Cause we've got to cut you off from your immoral family
Who would otherwise provide you with way too much sympathy
And I think it's about time you took responsibility
Instead of running 'round spending your teen years fancy free
We've got a spot for you in medium security
Yeah, zero tolerance - that's the way we role
Better get your pre-pubescent self under tight control
You get in trouble in school, you're gonna face the bench
Become the latest corporate facility resident
Don't want to hear excuses that you didn't have a clue
That your friend was stealing DVDs across the store from you!
You're a liar, an accomplice, you're a looking and a thief
Follow the bailiff as I give a little kickback to the chief!
You know there's no profit in a slap on the wrist
Got to send you away and make you dwell on what you did
Your friends back in school finish out their sophomore year
We've got some wonderful new friends for you to meet right here!
Yes myself and Conahan we conjured up quite a plan
But it wasn't out of greed I hope you all will understand
That Judge Ciavarella always wanted what was best
It just happened to work out we became financially blessed
So as I exit the courthouse do you think I want to hear
How I ruined your son's life, ended his wrestling career?
As I head off to spend 28 years in a prison cell
Do you think my main concern is you want me to burn in hell?
Yeah, zero tolerance, that's the way we roll
Better hope the Lord and Savior will forgive my poor soul
Yeah, zero tolerance - it's quite the irony
When suddenly the theory is applied to me
No JD's at my mercy, no Juris Doctor degree
I'd better show some good behavior if I want to go free
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10. |
Earth, Incorporated
02:01
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Come on in! How wonderful to see you! Welcome to the offices of Earth, Incorporated!
That’s right, we were able to buy the whole planet.
Some socialists tried to stop us by trying to place artificial limits on the amount of wealth a few individuals could control,
but, let’s just say the politicians were on our side.
I know, some people ask how we can be comfortable owning an entire planet when some people don’t even have food,
but we’ve been blessed and we need to enjoy our blessings and be thankful for the riches God has given us.
If you’d like to buy some stock in Planet Earth, now’s a fantastic time to get in.
Climate change won’t reach catastrophic levels for several more years,
so we’re looking forward to steady growth for a good while ahead.
Now if you could just wait a short while,
We’ve got to get to a quick meeting with some world leaders
To make sure we don’t have to pay any taxes on our profits.
You don’t want to tax the job creators!
We’ll be back in just a short while to discuss those stock options!
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Dan Sheehan
Dan Sheehan releases socially conscious music raising awareness of various issues including climate change, gun violence, and more.
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