Sun_Power_lyrics

John Newlands

Sun Power lyrics

recorded at home in the fabulous West End of Sudbury, Ontario

1 The World

guitar, drum loop, bass, synth, voice, drum kit, percussion

...all of this is boring ancient history for those who hold the clubs, but not for their victims,
or for people who prefer to understand the world. -Noam Chomsky
http://www.zcommunications.org/imminent-crises-threats-and-opportunities-by-noam-chomsky

In cartoon physics, hammerspace is a reality-defying area where a character can access weapons,
props, disguises, etc.

If I take what I'm given
I get taken
Taken in
To put the sun and the stars
Into the same painting

Another pretty face
Comes out of hammerspace

I prefer to understand the world

Dressing up the illusion
Now it's green
And hands-free
Orwellify the confusion
Call it the information age

Another scary face
Comes out of hammerspace

I prefer to understand the world

Future so near
Present so far away
Future so near
Present so far away

I prefer to understand the world

Future so near
Present so far away
And the past is waiting
At the end of every day

2 Dive Into The Stars

guitar, drums, bass, maracas, hands, voice, synth, cowbell, other guitar, glockenspiel, drum box, tambourine, bongos

This song was inspired by the perfect stillness of a Northern Ontario lake on a clear summer night.
If you've been there, you know. If not, you should go.

All is quiet on the beach tonight
We reached the end of the trail
At the end of the day
Now we're alright
Alright
I pour us some wine
The campfire shines outside of time

Dive into the stars
Cannonball the moon
Dive into the stars
You realize the place where you are

All is quiet off the grid tonight
Find the heart of your life
In the heart of the land
Yeah we're alright
Alright
No billboard
No fence
No trusting in fake benevolence

Dive into the stars
Cannonball the moon
Dive into the stars
Formed by the place

Where you are

Dive into the stars
Cannonball the moon
Dive into the stars
Formed by the place where you are

Dive into the stars
Cannonball the moon
Dive into the stars
You realize the place

3 My New Machine

drumbox, guitar, bass, badly tuned upright, voice, drum kit, a second drumbox, bongos, synthesizer

There is an unrelenting propaganda campaign that aims to convince us to first consume to excess,
and then to distract ourselves with the devices we've bought. It's nothing more than an update of the
concept of divide and conquer.

My new machine
For light and sound
The billboard promised sexiest thing around
Keep me in the right mood
Help me troubleshoot solitude
Is there anything better?

My new machine
I thought that I might
Not leave it plugged in distracting me all night
But the kid at the store
Said it might not work anymore
After such a transgression

How fast how final when we lose
The power to think
The chance to choose
All the wireless volunteers
Run from any place called 'here'
Where they want you
Yeah they've got you
Where they want you
Yeah they've got you

A dollar bill
Makes a lousy map
Points to a store called Obligatory Crap
And the clown on the screen
Wonders where the hell I have been
And you know it's just business

4 Here Comes The Sea

sampled electric piano, drums, bass, guitar, percussion, vocals, a talkboxed Casio SK-1, dopplerpiano

Notwithstanding that rising sea levels constitute a scientific fact, the rising sea of cultural junk - resulting
from the destructive practise of wholesale extraction and expenditure of every last natural resource - is also quite real.

What my shadow does behind my back is none of my concern
My tan turns to a burn
Here comes the sea
There's a book(*) that I read after school, just some crank's bad dream
I guess he is redeemed
Here comes the sea

Here comes the sea
Salt for your wounds
Smart money's on the moon
Not the beautiful, the wild, the free
Here comes the sea

Where the echo of my laughter flies is beyond my control
My mind's a barber pole
Here comes the sea
From the treehouse we can see the need drowning in the lust
In made up shit we trust
Here comes the sea

Here comes the sea
Everything is spoiled
But they had to get the oil
Or let the other side destroy the world
Here comes the sea

What my shadow does behind my back...
Where the echo of my laughter flies...

*The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham

5 The Grace Of Howard Zinn

sampled piano, voice, drums, maracas, fuzz acoustic guitar, bass, synth, electric guitar, multiple tambourines

Two lessons to take from Howard Zinn: we should always suspect anyone who has a ready answer to
the world's problems; and, it requires a tremendous amount of courage to act against the dominant system.

http://www.howardzinn.org/zinn/bio

All of the things that you leave out in the rain
Til the sun shines down in vain
Your coat's so small for this far north
We're in for a lonely fight

All of the dreams that you keep out of the night
Track you down in broad daylight
Your heart's so big for this far down
We're in for a lonely fight
We're in for a lonely fight

It's too easy to say I wish we all would play fair
We go looking for answers and what we get is a dare
It's too easy to say I wish we all would play fair
We go looking for answers and what we get is a dare

None of your rights will be won by asking nice
There will always be a price
They'd have you trade your life for dirt
We're in for a lonely fight
We're in for a lonely fight

6 Home

bass, drums, synthesizer, drum loops, guitar, drumbox, JX-3P

An atheist anthem.

We don't need a bible
Nature's not our rival
It's our home
It's our home
When the fear gets tidal
Work for our survival
In our home
In our home

Asses nailed to the cheapest seats
Building smashed from under our feet
Nothing is what we're told now
Nothing is what we think
But it's better to know
It's better to know
The next world is oblivion
The next world is oblivion

We don't need a bible
Nature's not our rival
It's our home
It's our home
When the fear gets tidal
Work for our survival
In our home
In our home

We pay for dreams they can't afford
The sky holds out no great reward
Yeah it's lovely to look at
But that's all that it is
There's only down here
There's only down here
Lose that deadly notion
Lose that deadly notion

We don't need a bible
Nature's not our rival
It's our home
It's our home
When the fear gets tidal
Work for our survival
In our home
In our home

7 One Girl Band

voice, guitar, acoustic bass guitar, drum loop, sampled e.pno, synthesizer, percussions, fuzz guitar

A variation on the Mother Earth metaphor. I nicked the line "Dissent is what will save us" from Amy Goodman.

Amy Goodman is here: http://www.democracynow.org/

They want to tell us how to do it
Then tell us that it can't be done
They'd like to bottle our sunshine
Or just block out the sun
But what they don't understand
Is that they'll never break up our one girl band
No they will never break up our one girl band

There's no more West to be won
But they still need their guns
All their guns
They'll get no bullets from you
Just a light on the hill
And the breeze off the lake
Dissent is what will save us
Dissent dissent

We used to run in that field
Now it's a palace of deals
What a steal
We won't fall under the wheels
Get that root cellar full
Put tracks in the snow
Dissent is what will save us
Dissent dissent

8 Perfect Distance

voice, sampled piano, une Gibson non-affectée, synthesizer

Not often mentioned in the talk about the search for exoplanets is the fact that for life to have any
chance of starting, it needs a star about the size of our sun that is pretty much 93,000,000 miles from
a planet about the size of Earth. Which explains why women are not from Venus and men are not from Mars.

I breathe the April air
As it blows through your hair
Perfect distance from the sun
Perfect distance from the sun

Dance with Northern lights
Snow angels at midnight
Perfect distance from the sun
Perfect distance from the sun

We can measure it all we want
And race it as we please
But just how rare this is
Makes me weak in the knees

And there's a reason
You were born in a green world
Green is the colour
That warmed the world so we could be

Shades of a painter's field
Rolling the water wheel
Perfect distance from the sun
Perfect distance from the sun

Sit by a driftwood fire
Wake to a raven choir
Perfect distance from the sun
Perfect distance from the sun

We can measure it all we want
And race it as we please
But just how rare this is
Makes me weak in the knees

And hell and heaven
Are such deadly distractions from
The saving promise:
"We will give it all to you
We will give it all to you
Because we got it all from you"

9 Sun Power

guitars, voices, basses, drum kits, acoustic guitars, bongos, synthesizers, sampled Mellotron, drumboxes, sampled piano

Renewable energy is the only way forward. Not as a device for gradually weaning ourselves off finite energy,
but as the only way to survive. Today. Read Hermann Scheer.

Sun power is right here where it's always been
So tear down that war machine

Leave the darkness in the ground
Catch the daylight all around

We won't have creaking empire
We won't have to foot the bill
We won't have your terrorism
General Kill2Drill
General Kill2Drill

Wind power is all around and it will always be
That bon vent is gonna set us free

And when the dirty engine fails
You'll remember how to sail

We won't have chartered violence
We won't have slavery mills
No buying useless bullshit
Beneath our will
Beneath our will

Hey tell me can you hear
Above instructed fear
The ones compelled to say
We won't go on this way
And yes the king well knows
In his defiant pose
His profit system's closed
So let's not waste our breath
While Wall Street rates our death
We've got to take it back
We've got to take it back
Acre by acre
Lake by lake
Cloud by cloud
Hour by hour

Sun power is right here where it's always been
So tear down that war machine

Leave the darkness in the ground
Catch the daylight all around

We won't have chartered violence
We won't have slavery mills
No buying useless bullshit
Beneath our will

We won't have creaking empire
We won't have to foot the bill
We won't have your terrorism
General Kill2Drill
General Kill2Drill
General Kill2Drill

Everybody needs to make love to the world
Hippie daisy Monday come one come all

Everybody needs to make love to the world
                  Sun power is right here
Hippie daisy Monday come one come all
                  So tear down that war machine
Everybody needs to make love to the world
                  Wind power is all around
Hippie daisy Monday come one come all
                  That bon vent is gonna set us free

Everybody needs to make love to the world
                  Sun power is right here
                                    Leave the darkness in the ground
Hippie daisy Monday come one come all
                  So tear down that war machine
                                    Catch the daylight all around
Everybody needs to make love to the world
                  Wind power is all around
                                    When the dirty engine fails
Hippie daisy Monday come one come all
                  That bon vent is gonna set us free
                                    You'll remember how to sail

Everybody needs to make love to the world
Hippie daisy Monday come one come all

John Newlands