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Five Exquisite Corpses

by Elegant Mess

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1.
If they took your clothes If they stole your sheets If they took your eyes Or deprived you of your sleep If they held you down If they bit your tongue If they bent your limbs And dragged you through the streets If they broke your heart Or if they stole your love Bide your time in silence, we’ll pay them back with violence They will taste sedition as we break the institution If you have your strength And if you have your wits If you’ve got your voice I promise you’ll be heard If you give your sweat And if you give your blood If you give your life If you give your soul You can have a chance To be the greater good Bide your time in silence, we’ll pay them back with violence They will taste sedition as we break the institution (All men must face things they fear, some men become the things they fear) There’s no more need for you to hide yourself The walls they fell and we have freedom now Day by day we’ll build our lives again And put them back the way they should have been There’s no more need to live our lives in fear But fear is old and sometimes comfortable Bit by bit we’ll make mistakes again As children grow into the men they feared And all men fear
2.
I will rule you if it’s the last thing I do You’ve held me down too long Off with his head! And off with your head! And off with everyone’s head! Everyone’s head!
3.
(Instrumental)
4.
Nothing could save all that I had planned I ended myself before I began I put no foundation beneath the walls I built up the framework and watched it fall (Once it was set in motion, I had no choice at all) Memory is not kind to those that fail and valiant intentions will not prevail With all my defiance left unheard Here I lay conquered by only words Since life’s a song that always gets played wrong When do the mistakes become the part that belong? How do I let it go?
5.
Wind, sea and flame Lightning and rain and swarms of things Wood, steel and stone To call it a home and act like a king Despite the fact that these walls are all that separate me from that world One meager little gate The Earth could tear us all apart It’s been trying from the start When our moment is due Will time take all of the things we knew? When this era is through Our dust will be part of something new Maybe life is just a flicker - probably even less In a flame that keeps on growing And the world goes on without us Erasing every sign we were ever here Nothing ever truly is timeless Cities turn to ivy and buildings fall They’ll be crumbling all around us They’ll collapse until the Earth forgets us all Just like we were never here Don’t be afraid Let’s lie in the mess we’ve made and pretend it won’t disappear Alive for another year
6.
Two eyes no stranger, to bone bitter cold Lifetimes of winter, is all that I’ve known The dogs are at bay At least for tonight This fire burns At least for tonight My belly is full At least for tonight Today the cold wasn’t so bad Today I bathed in the sunlight Today, just one day in my life
7.
Can’t You feel it? A storm is coming
8.
We came to see the humans Yeah we came to see you humans But you’re gone, gone, gone You thought you’d destroyed the planet You only destroyed yourselves And now you’re gone, gone, gone The earth can heal itself You humans were just a disease And now your gone, gone, gone Look at the fossils That’s all that’s left They’re gone and nothing here Can bring them back again They are dead, dead Ah, they’re dead, so dead
9.
(Words by Bukowski)
10.
When I grow old, who will I be? When I look back, what will I see? Everything worth living for ends too soon
11.
Spent my life winning favor But I can’t win my own Give my heart to strangers Still I don’t feel loved A man can play his cards But he can’t choose the deck And it helps if he gambles I haven’t gambled yet
12.
Hope is a glimmer inside an endless tunnel Balance is the vortex in the center of a funnel Reason is looking underneath the question Truth is rarely true Life is so simple So simple that I’ll never understand Everything is complex but nothing is complicated And in the stillness, everything’s still animated It can’t be summed up in a single statement
13.
See you sittin’ real still With a grimace on your mug Just open your mouth Let the words fall out I can’t read your mind By looking at your head So spit that shit out Move the fuck on You’re wasting my time Spinning your wheels So open your mouth Make each word count Just fuckin’ say it
14.
Thank you and goodbye
15.
Heavy breakdown in mood Am I out of control? Am I not in control? Or is it… The sleepiness is consuming everything? All these questions are logical Not impossible Not for you I’m sick and tired of wanting more Than I’ve had before Where’s the line? I’m sideways or upside down, I’m talking to myself Goddamn, how did I end up with broken dreams? Or am I just wrong as usual?
16.
I feel it coming from all sides Trying to find out what I’m hiding Telling me the words that I won’t say But my mouth can’t seem to make a sound My eyes won’t stray far from the ground I’m not sure sure how to keep the wolves at bay The world seems cruel and strange Something I can’t seem to change When the clouds are forming in my mind The feeling leaves me almost blind The light changes from yellow into grey Flimsy and see-through Eyes glazed by granite hue But she gets me to believe I could be free From all the weight that’s on my back The load will lighten when I chose to leave The fear to trust another human being The load will lighten when I chose to leave The fear to trust in me
17.
(Instrumental)
18.
Faster! There’s no time to delay! The days in this life are few But I’m certain I’ll always find a way To doubt what I need to do to keep my troubles from coming to repeat I keep running though the ground has vanished from beneath my feet Don’t look now The sky’s replaced the street
19.
Nothing makes me miserable like money It’s the source of all my worries in some way The hand that’s first to greet you Might be the first to cheat you And it’s hard to find a hand When you’ve got debts to pay There is something is poisonous about money And there is nothing quite as inhumane as greed It gives power to imposters and turns good people into monsters It gets dangled over heads of those with mouths to feed We beg for work so we can waste all our days Trying to earn enough for someone else to take away The lure is sweet but the net is wide And most of us are caught inside With no chance to get away Nothing that you earn can increase your worth The best things are more valuable than money But without it, it can be so hard to breath
20.
I had my two cents and it grew into five Didn’t lift a finger, just had to exist Now I’m lying down in a bed of guilt Feeling I’ve got to prove that a man can provide I’ll say it once and never again I should have started sooner than now It’s never enough when you show what you have People have expectation- fill they’re reached out hands And always someone somewhere has a knife at your back Even if you’ve got money you can still be depressed
21.
Are those that make the machine Worth more than the machine itself? Cities get built on the backs of the many While the mansions and palaces are made from their pennies Surpluses end up with those that have plenty While the scraps that remain are divided in twenty Iron is worth less than gold and blood is worth more than wine And when we get old Nothing is worth more than time Are those that make the machine Worth more than the machine itself? Fortunes are built on the backs of the many While the urchins and paupers are left with their pennies To dream, and work, and dream, and work some more Until the day is done, same as it begun To dream, and work, and dream, and work some more Until our lives are done, same as they begun
22.
Too late, we can’t go back in time We’re stuck, foundation’s laid but we’re broken Cash may as well be our self worth But money’s worth nothing without us giving it value It’s idiotic But we swallow every drop of poison Telling ourselves we’re worth it Capital is like a gold a calf And if we had the chance we’d milk it right to death Capital’s a dirty whore who always steals our wallet But when we get a second chance we jump like we’ve never been laid Those with the most care the least, share the least, give the least

about

This album contains 22 parts comprising five suites. This version features the five suites divided into 22 tracks. An unabridged, five-track version is also available.

An exquisite corpse is a game popularized by surrealists, played by artists and writers for the better part of a century. Two or more people collaborate creatively, each person operating with only the most minimal knowledge of the contributions of the other collaborators. There are often rules and themes chosen prior to playing. The resulting work is sometimes a bizarre patchwork, other times surprisingly unified.

More info can be found here
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse

An example of how this album was written:
Musician One picks a theme and writes an unfinished song. The last ten seconds of that unfinished song is sent to Musician Two, and the theme is told to him. Musician Two takes those ten seconds and writes something to follow it, another unfinished song. The last ten seconds of the second unfinished song is sent back to Musician One and the process is repeated. Only after four parts (or six) are completed is the entire song heard as one piece by both Musicians.

credits

released June 23, 2014

All tracks written and performed by Elegant Mess
Elegant Mess is Howard Buckwold and Preston Gabriel Garland
Recorded, mixed, and mastered at The Mess Hole
Studio Dog: Dharma Dhingo

Drums on "Conquest III: Conquest" by James Bonomo
Drums recorded by Mindy Watts at Meridian House

Album art by Elegant Mess

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Elegant Mess Los Angeles, California

Elegant Mess is the combined effort of recording artists/producers/film music composers/weirdos Howard Buckwold and Preston Gabriel Garland.

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