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Politics and Promises

from Spintunes by Dr. Lindyke

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This is for SpinTunes 3, Round 3. The challenge is to write a rap. Sooo... we decided it would be most difficult to avoid nerdcore and hit the challenge head-on. So here it is.

Very little of the lyrics are what they sound like. For instance, the "Hyland donor" isn't a drug addict... he's just a poor guy who's donating blood at the Red Cross in Hyland Park. Almost all of it is inspired by actual events, though, including the "billy club" verse (which also intended to replace the famous (and now worn out) Rodney King "can't we all just get along?" sentiment).

Production-wise, absolutely nothing went our way this week... the instrumentation entirely unlike what we had hoped to do, but we make do when things fall through.

lyrics

POLITICS AND PROMISES
==================

Politics and Promises
I lie awake each night
And think of all the lucky men who died before the fight
And those who still are with us
Who revel in delight
To use our simple apathy to get ahead in life

Six a.m.Thursday how late this city sleeps
A stray dog chases pigeons up and down the empty streets
There the Hyland donor wrenches out his wrinkled hands
Counting all his needle marks and wishing they were friends

Just up the street, on 23rd and Main
There stands an all glass building where our laws are made
Transparent to some, mirror-like to most
Who cater to the press and wear those fancy clothes

[Instrumental break]

You can sing me to sleep
With your billy club in hand
But does the riot become quiet
With the silence of just one man?

Breathe your words on me
Have me lay my weapons down
Find a compromise to satisfy
The hatred we found.

I can take a piece of you
You can take a piece of me
Someone dies - someone cries
Maybe friends or enemies.
Brother let me tell you now that your hatred is wack
If it's ok to you then you're on the wrong track.

[instrumental break]

Beside the all glass building there stands a golden steeple
A symbol of religion to all god-fearing people
People who confuse beliefs and making laws
Who bend the system far enough to grease some local palms

Yeah, go ahead, does it make you feel better
Read a selection from the Good Book's letters
Read me the part about love thy neighbor
And read me the part about a baby saviour
But read for your own how to cast the stones
And read for your own how friendship is sown
So yeah, go ahead, did it make you feel better
Did the baptism take or just make you wetter?

[Instrumental break]

Broken glass promises
In the shadows of the Big House
The White House
It doesn't matter what louse
Is makin' 'em
they're fakin' 'em
they're takin' 'em
they're breakin' 'em
they're tellin' us
they're savin' us
and all the while
they're playin' us

Six a.m. Thursday how late this city sleeps
The politician awakes from his adulterous deceit
Political ambition taken from the donor's hands
And the promise of reform ain't gonna change his plans
(and he's got plans, baby)

Politics and Promises
I lie awake each night
And think of all the lucky men who died before the fight
And those who still are with us
Who revel in delight
To use our simple apathy to get ahead in life

credits

from Spintunes, released January 26, 2013
Lyrics by William Hoover & Dave Leigh
Music by Dave Leigh
Chorus sung by Katie Prince

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Dr. Lindyke Union

"Dr. Lindyke" is the nom de plume of William Hoover and Dave Leigh. William writes lyrics; Dave writes music. Though we write a lot, neither of us are really performers, and we LOVE it when people cover our songs. Please do.

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