Pra “comemorar” a Semana Santa, vamos às letras do último álbum do BAD RELIGION, True North, ainda deste mês. ‘Tô ouvindo direto e sou muitíssimo suspeito pra falar qualquer coisa do BR, mas o que digo por ora é que ‘tá muitíssimo superior ao anterior, The Dissent of Man, de 2010 (cujas letras podem ser encontradas neste post).
BAD RELIGION
TRUE NORTH
2013
TRUE NORTH
(Greg Graffin)
Unrepentant vagabond
Plot the new coordinates and cast the map aside
Now I gotta ramble on
Navigate the pitfalls and cross the great divide
The mapmaker’s legend gave direction and a key
He set the declination but what good is it to me?
I can’t see the rationality
The world’s not my responsibility
And happiness isn’t there for me
But maybe I’ll inch closer to the source
When I find true north
(with or without a friend. Keep searching ‘til the end.)
Tempting fate and cheating death
No one ever told me it was going to be like this
Contemplate the randomness
When the mind is willing it gets downright perilous
Overburdened, underwhelmed, their ethical decree
That’s your moral compass but what good is it to me?
I can’t see the rationality
The world’s not my responsibility
And happiness isn’t there for me
But maybe I’ll inch closer to the source
When I find true north
(with or without a friend. Keep searching ‘til the end).
When I find true north.
PAST IS DEAD
(Greg Graffin)
Solemn regret, transgressions fill my head
A measure of success is how well to forget
And the past is dead
Strewn about the battlefield of life are the remainders of history
When convenient we exalt them and pay them such respect
As if we’re all in an equivalent trajectory
And trash piles high in the rubble we forgot
The angels of our nature just sit and watch it rot
Now, the past is dead
Let’s focus on tomorrow instead
Oh the tragic present said
The past is dead
Who can say what constitutes the most important sector of society?
The dominant portion seek an instant gratification
And are proud of intellectual poverty
I’d like to be empathetic but I can’t
The jeopardy is too great to make a stand
Now the past is dead
Good deeds won’t help you get ahead
The modern signpost read the past is dead
My next great decision is just lying in wait
The action might turn out to be the world’s most grievous mistake
The past is dead
More veritable words have never been said
The tragic present said the past is dead
ROBIN HOOD IN REVERSE
(Brett Gurewitz)
Here is the church
There is the steeple
Open up the door
Corporations are people
Wait what did he say?
What the fuck did he say?
It couldn’t last
They had to crash
Some partys are just made that way
But when the bell rings
The boys will sing
Swing low sweet precariat
Let’s say we try to get this right
Said the plutocrat to jesus christ
And when the old fox fearing the worst
Made his entrance in a hearse
Then the nine in black robes all went berserk
This is a tale of robin hood in reverse
Citizens united
I was excited
When the kids are united they can never be divided
But that was yesterday
There’s a brand new sham to today
Let’s say we try to get this right
Said the plutocrat to jesus christ
Snd when the old fox fearing the worst
Made his entrance in a hearse
Then the nine in black robes all went berserk
This is a tale of robin hood in reverse
LAND OF ENDLESS GREED
(Greg Graffin)
I don’t really care what other people may say
I’ve gotta go on living my life anyway
Everything is golden, everything’s for sale
I’m done with unsubstantiated fairy tales
But out here in the lap of luxury
Unlimited guarantee for your insatiable need
In the land of endless greed
In the emerald forest hear a nasty sound
The big rigs and the miners come and shake the ground
On the field of plenty the grazers gather ‘round
To watch the game of supply and demand go down
But out here in the lap of luxury
Unlimited guarantee for your insatiable need
In the land of endless greed
I don’t really care what other people may say
I’ve gotta go on living my life anyway
The poor don’t have to struggle in dismal poverty
Anyone can be the way they want to be
Out here in the lap of luxury
Fortune bears no scrutiny
What you want is all you need
In the land of endless greed
FUCK YOU
(Greg Graffin)
Everybody needs a slogan in their pocket or two
It never hurts to have a strategy you can go to
Sometimes I have no sense at all
As most flawed men are wont to do
Just say fuck you
Pavlovian rude
A menace too
Pay homage to
Your bad attitude
You can even get cerebral if you want to
Make a radical assessment that sticks like glue
Sometimes it takes no thought at all
The easiest thing to do
Is say fuck you
Pavlovian rude
A menace too
Pay homage to
Your bad attitude
The reaction it brings, just one of those things
Your friends might not want you around
If the impulse is right you might get in a fight
Even though you can’t hold your ground
But all rest assured, sometimes just a word
Is the most satisfying sound
Sometimes it makes no sense at all
The easiest thing to do
Is say fuck you
Pavlovian rude
A menace too, pay homage to your bad attitude, just say fuck you...
DHARMA AND THE BOMB
(Brett Gurewitz)
Wasted days and cigarettes
Cracked cement and palms
Bodhidharma has gone fission
With your vedic mom
Yeah the Sergeant Major is dreamin’ of genie
And she’s armed with a borrowed polka dot bikini
Oh yeah tomorrow's coming down like dharma and the bomb
Falling down
Falling down
like dharma and the bomb
Falling down
Falling down
Like dharma and the bomb
The shallows seem evangelical
When you’re slammed up against a wall
And your stoked to watch all creation go over the falls
Yeah Kali is coming and you’d better believe it
That girl’s got the atom and the Bhagavad Gita
Oh yeah samsara’s coming down like dharma and the bomb
Falling down
Falling down like
Like dharma and the bomb
Falling down
Falling down like
Like dharma and the bomb
HELLO CRUEL WORLD
(Brett Gurewitz)
I can’t stop the way I feel
But I can penetrate your religion with a nail
You are mine and we are twine
When we radiate in waves together everything is fine
Hello cruel world do you know that you’re killing me?
I don’t mind but I could use a little sympathy
I’ve been blind as a fool can be
My dear cruel world do you ever think about me?
I can feel so alone with you right here
And yet I turn to you for comfort in my despair
You are dust and I am bone
And I will love your endless gaze of madness until I turn to stone
Hello cruel world do you know that you’re killing me?
I don’t mind but I could use a little sympathy
I’ve been blind as a fool can be
My dear cruel world now I know you are my everything
Please forgive me
Hello cruel world do you know that you’re killing me
I don’t mind but I could use a little sympathy
I’ve been blind as only a man can be
My dear cruel world now I’ve made a mess of everything
VANITY
(Brett Gurewitz)
I’ll strike it if I don’t like it
Gimme a club and I will have myself a riot
I’m a monkey with a brick on my shoulder
And I’m getting bolder
Let’s deny and defame
Let’s destroy and recreate in our glorious name
And when the joke of our centrality is upon us
Grovel and decry
Our vanity
Disgraced to face our own humanity
In a world that mocks our tragedy
Hyper-aware and impaired
Terrified by natures mocking stare
Yearning for significance beyond our animal ken
On which we do depend
Such vanity
Isolated with our own inanity
Entangled by our callow gravity
Disgraced to face our own humanity
IN THEIR HEART IS RIGHT
(Greg Graffin)
There’s something pathetic in the world today
And I don't know how it all began
As if all the shame and punishment will finally make me understand
A word means nothing wanting action
Intentions are valuable as deeds
And a wound can dog you for a lifetime
Unless it only makes you bleed
Everybody knows what’s in their heart is right
I’m just a termite on an ant hill
I think about it every single day
A senseless being lacking inspiration
Just waiting to be blown away
Everybody knows what’s in their heart is right
CRISIS TIME
(Greg Graffin)
There’s a feeling about myself that I can’t understand
It’s a foreboding sense that I see all around the land
When the wheel of fortune turns progressively depraved
It’s the manifestation of a biospheric decay
Keep yourself in line, there’s no design
The new paradigm is crisis time
Luxury was privilege and I knew it all along
But to let human reason get trumped by emotion is wrong
All the bonds were broken when I said I loved you so
But rejection of a fantasy is just a way to help you grow
Keep yourself in line, there’s no design
The new paradigm is crisis time
There’s a feeling about myself, I feel it oh so strong
It’s a romantic notion and I've cared about it far too long
On the crest of progress we can’t balance on the wave
If the measure of success is only tallied in the lives we save
Keep yourself in line, there’s no design
the new paradigm is crisis time
DEPT. OF FALSE HOPE
(Brett Gurewitz)
Welcome my son to where the work is never done
And the hungry are seldom ever fed
The department of false hope is a proving ground for dopes
And they’ll grind your tiny bones to make their bread (Hosanna)
So hold your head up high forgotten man
Tomorrow won’t be made for you
And everybody’s gotta try to lend a helping hand
For god and man there's nothing more to do
It crackled on the radio through bright plumes of the sun
The announcer said the age of faith was dead
Though the adolescent nation was just looking for salvation
The beast of reason reared it’s ugly head (Hosanna)
So hold your head up high forgotten man
Tomorrow’s not for me and you
And everybody’s gotta try to lend a helping hand
For god and man there's nothing more to do
From your cradle of destruction
With the poorest of instruction
And the merest sliver of a tune
You managed somehow to muddle through
So hold your head up high forgotten man
Tomorrow’s not for me and you
And everybody’s gotta try to lend a helping hand
For god and man there’s nothing more to do
There is nothing more
NOTHING TO DISMAY
(Greg Graffin)
Now, there’s a list of catalysts that hold the heart at bay
They grip the mind and sap the soul and feed on your dismay
And I never understood why you can’t see the world this way
The lines are drawn at the break of dawn there's nothing to dismay
It’s no, no, no security
No, no no security
No, no no security
Nothing to dismay
The dissonance runs deep in me resort to weak applause
Associate and denigrate the root without a cause
And just because the overwhelming odds are stacked away
What good is should if at most I would? But nothing to dismay
It’s no, no, no security
No, no no security
No, no no security
Nothing to dismay
Well, it’s just a solo journey
Bewildered and astray
But pay no mind to what you find
There’s nothing to dismay
No, no, no, no, no, no, nothing to dismay
No, no, no security
nothing to dismay
POPULAR CONSENSUS
(Greg Graffin)
Some people are almost impossible to live with
Some people have faith in the craziest things
They follow outdated conventions that were recorded
But most of it to me all sounds insane
Maybe that’s what you need to get you through the night
Maybe you’ve seen the light
But you know that popular consensus doesn’t make it right
Nothing can go on while forever increasing
The universe expanding is a different thing
But to turn a nasty habit into a virtue
Can’t replace the need for charity
Maybe it’s what you need to help you through the night
Maybe you’ve seen the light
But you know popular consensus doesn’t make it right
Like the seed of all creation or a doomsday scheme
The future might be bright or bleak
But you know popular consensus doesn’t mean much to me
MY HEAD IS FULL OF GHOSTS
(Brett Gurewitz)
My head is full of ghosts
But I’m no revenant
Despite my resident’s rivalry
And I’ll be the faithful pilot
On our blind trajectory
Do you want to know a secret
Will you hold it close and dear
This will not be made apparent
But you and I are not alone in here
My head is full of ghosts
No apparition
A partition from the host
A temple of cognition
And forbidden to approach
Oh to hell with superstition
There’s a stranger in the house
I don’t need no exorcism
I need a key
And the lock is inside out
Now meta-cognition is just intuition
And dreamers we’ll bark at the moon
The weaver’s unknown by the loom
My head is full of ghosts
And I’m the pilot
Of ultra-violent ancestry
And I’ll destroy these passers-by
With zest and artistry
Ghost!
Part apparition
A partition from the host
A temple of the hidden
And unbidden to approach
THE ISLAND
(Greg Graffin)
There’s a world outside but I can’t really make it
There’s a life to lead but I can’t exactly fake it
Yet the mood feels right
But my island is sinking out of sight
I made jetties so they’d catch all the sediment
Removed the rocks and every impediment
But the tide’s rising high to wash away my island in the night
The sheltering sky was to be my everlasting lullaby
They said that islands were solid as bedrock
Standing firm forevermore
But over time even basement wastes away to the unrelenting shore
There’s a lonely seed waiting to be planted
I’ve instructions but desire is wholly absent
I’m just a petrel in the storm
My island can’t protect me anymore
CHANGING TIDE
(Greg Graffin)
Every day’s the same routine of endless chores and boring details
And you know you’re waiting for the perfect condition for your ship to set sail
But of course the climate’s always changing
Clining to the past has got you straining
Comes the recognition now you're on a mission that is born to fail
(Leave it!)
Brothers say goodbye
Sisters don’t you cry
All embrace the times
Wade into the changing tide
Searching for philosophy of life can be a drag on the soul
Nowadays we pick and choose the pieces from other people’s wisdom of old
But of course the climate’s always changing
Clinging to the past has got you straining
Realizing all your most cherished beliefs are subject to rot and mold
(come on!)
Brothers say goodbye
Sisters don’t you cry
All embrace the times
Wade into the changing tide
Bis zu dem breakin fuckin neuen Post!