BAD RELIGION – TRUE NORTH – 2013

Ouvindo: Bad Religion, True North, 2013

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!