LYRIC: You Are Now In Bedford Falls (December)

The lights twinkle in the dark

But the mist makes it hard to see

It makes the lights feel so far away

Too far away to break through this pitch winter black.

You are now in Bedford Falls

Covered in snow

It’s tattoed on my arm

To remind me

Of Christmas

To remind me

That it is a wonderful life

To remind me

Of Christmas

To remind me

That it is a wonderful life

The cold cuts you to the bone

Feels like you might never feel warmth again.

There’s too many Old man Potters in this world

And not enough George Baileys

to make a difference

You are now in Bedford Falls

George has given up

So that we don’t have to

To remind us

Of Christmas

To remind us

That it is a wonderful life

To remind us

Of Christmas

To remind us

That it is a wonderful life

Teacher says every time a bell rings

There’s an angel that’s getting its wings

But I would say every time a teacher says stupid things

that the forces of ignorance win

Every time a bell rings

it only means

Somebody has bought some more things

You hear that noise - those ringing bells?

It’s the sound of us going to hell

You are now in Bedford Falls

Running past that

wonderful old building and loan

To remind you

Of Christmas

To remind you

That it is a wonderful life

To remind you

Of Christmas

To remind you

That it is a wonderful life

No man is a failure who has friends

No man is a failure who has friends

No man is a failure who has friends

But sometimes the friends don’t show up

Until the end

LYRIC: Ian Malcolm and the Anarchists (November)

In the cracks

Life finds a way.

Ian Malcom and the anarchists

Got it right.

There is a seed beneath the snow,

And it is Blooming out of sight.

We are not waiting for your

permission.

We’re just doing something better

To prove it can be done.

That everything

could be different.

If we wanted.

That there are other worlds than this.

A million little victories

Seen just by those victorious.

Away from prying eyes

They nourish something beautiful.

Prefigurative

proof of concept:

The revolution

Is already here

Taking place within the shadows

Creating something new

Within the carcass of the old.

Within the carcass of the old

Within the carcass of the old

So Fuck your world cuz we’re building a better one

LYRIC: The Electricity Doesn’t Like The Man (October)

There was a witch once told my mother

The electricity doesn’t like the man

But was she a good witch, or was she a bad witch?

And was my father, or I, the man?

At home our lights would flicker

Our bulbs would burst, our fuses short

I thought witches were just in books

So I gave her words no further thought

Oh!

The electricity doesn’t like the man

The man!

A friend once tried a ouija board

But thought he’d let something evil in

Speaking in a different voice he said to me:

‘there’s now you, there’s now me, and there’s him’

My friend begged us to kill it

Though we were not holy men

We hoped our exorcism worked

And never ever spoke of it again

The electricity doesn’t like the man

The man!

My sister would sometimes hear someone coughing

When in the house and all alone

Tell me please who could have been coughing

When there was no one else at home?

It was only when we’d moved out

That we learned that in that room

A previous owner had lost their life

Coughing blood from a fatal flu

The electricity doesn’t like the man

The man!

My first home after university

We had this lovely big spare room

But no matter how well you lit it

You couldn’t ever seem to shake the gloom

Friends seldom stayed a second night

We didn’t need to ask them why

We knew that was the room in which

The landlord’s dear old mother died

The electricity doesn’t like the man

The man!

Halloween movies I watch them in the dark

As I ignore the broken switch

And pretend the lights are off by my own choice

Trying not to think about the words of that witch

I don’t believe the dead can talk

Despite the things I’ve heard and seen

The electricity didn’t like the man

But was dad the man, or was the man me?

Oh was it me?

The electricity doesn’t like the man

The man!

The man!

LYRIC: Until it Doesn’t (September)

I feel the world falling further away today

I see the norms we once cherished before start to fade

I see there’s some kind of catastrophe on its way

But there’s nothing I can see I can do or can say

To make it all ok

Life goes on

Life goes on

Life goes on

Life goes on

Until it doesn’t

Until it doesn’t

Until it doesn’t go on

Anymore

All the old institutions we made were a lie

What we thought was salvation was our suicide

Structures made to protect have allowed us to die

As atrophied intellects ask the wrong questions why

Trapped in their web world wide

Life goes on

Life goes on

Life goes on

Life goes on

Until it doesn’t

Until it doesn’t

Until it doesn’t go on

Anymore

LYRIC: Worm in their Head (August)

Did you think you could get rid of me so damn easily?

Did you think that because I’m not there they’ll forget about me?

I am oh so much more than your petty attempts to control

I am an idea that cannot be destroyed and has taken hold

I am the worm in their head

Did you think it enough to pretend I’m inappropriate?

That by saying I’m not welcome here that they might just forget?

Can you not understand I was there long before you took charge?

That I am the essence, repressed, of who they really are?

I am the worm in their head

Did you think you could trick them forever with divide and rule?

Did you think that they wouldn’t notice how you played them like fools?

Every time you used force to shut down those who wouldn’t let go

I simply bided my time to rise up another tomorrow .

I am the worm in their head

Did you think they would never notice how you always win?

Did you think that the comfort you felt wasn’t luring you in?

To that false security that comes when you think you’re on top

The illusory silence just before the other shoe drops

I am the worm in their head

LYRIC: To Greet My Noise (July)

Isn’t it funny how long we wait

For so very little?

Shouting out our words loudly into the dark

Sharing ourselves into the void

Hoping for an echo back

To at least acknowledge all the effort

Put into making a sound

But once again I find myself waiting

And hearing only the rush of blood

In my ears

That greets

That greets my noise

How many signals do you need

Before you start to pay attention?

That there are no connections to be made.

No kindred spirits out there.

That your singular voice speaks only

To itself

And though you know you’d do it anyway

Even if nobody cared

You can’t bring yourself to admit

The truth that maybe no one does?

And once again I find myself waiting

And hearing only the rush of blood

In my ears

That greets

That greets my noise

How many signals do you need

Before you start to pay attention?

I reached the finish line, alone.

With no one there to celebrate,

I cheer my own success

In the silence of an empty room.

And move on onto the next fight,

Convincing myself that this next one might…

Might finally be worth it

That this next one might actually count.

And once again I find myself waiting

And hearing only the rush of blood

In my ears

That greets

That greets my noise

I do it for myself.

I do it by myself

But still I’m doing it for you

To greet my noise

LYRIC: Much Too Busy To Write (June)

I’m much too busy much too busy to write

I’m much too busy much too busy to write

I’m much too busy much too busy to write

I’m much to busy and it just isn’t right

LYRIC: And We Dance (May)

The rain it started falling wrong

Too much, too little

Floods and droughts

Where did all the seasons go?

And I’m trying to watch the news less now

Curating only positivity

I like to look at pretty pictures

Watch my sports

Listen to podcasts that only cater in nostalgia

So we can dance and we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance

At the end of the world

And we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance

There used to be this thing we called the truth

At least that’s what I’m choosing to believe

It might have been some dream I had?

It might have been some fucked up fantasy?

I can’t remember the last time I checked the facts?

I can’t remember the last time you checked the facts?

I can’t remember the last time we checked the facts?

I can’t remember how we ever used to disagree?

So we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance

At the end of the world

And we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance

At the end of the world

Why do my feet feel sore?

Why do my legs hurt so?

Why can’t I stop myself?

From dancing

Please help me - I can’t stop dancing…

We barely even notice anymore

When a bomb drops and gives birth to war

Grumble on about the price of gas

And set our eyes towards a screen

Advertising’s noticed less than war

We sold our right to privacy if we ever had that right before?

And turned ourselves into our brands

To sell the nothing we have left of ourselves right into their hands

And we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance

At the end of the world

And we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance

Heatwave one week, snow the next

They said it only takes a few degrees

Before it cannot be undone

We laugh at references to once before

The things we watched when we were kids

Distracting us so they could steal

Everything that we once held so dear

While our minds were so diverted that it felt like progress as they took our souls

Leaving us with nothing more than scraps

of broken promises and pairs of too-tight dancing shoes

So we can dance and we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance

At the end

(why do my feet feel sore?)

of the world

And we dance and we dance

(why do my legs hurt so? )

and we dance and we dance and we dance

(why can’t I stop myself from dancing?)

At the end

of the world

And we dance and we dance

(Please help me! I can’t stop dancing!) and we dance and we dance and we dance

At the end of the world

(why are my feet so sore? Why do my legs hurt so? Why can’t I stop myself from dancing? Please help me! I can’t stop dancing!)

And we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance

At the end of the world

(Please help me! I can’t stop dancing!)

And we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance

At the end of the world

(Stop dancing)

And we dance and we dance and we dance and we dance

(Dancing)

and we dance

At the end of the world

(At the end of the world)

LYRIC: Anarchist Atheist Punk Rock Teacher (April)

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

Middle fingers in the air

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

No exams are never fair

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

I want the system smashed

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

But I can’t be late for class

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

No masters and no gods

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

Surviving against the odds

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

I hate school uniform

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

Don’t ask me to conform

I always hated my school when I was younger

Yet back I go each day

Don’t advocate hierarchy, power, or authority

But kids do what I say

I teach them religions I don’t believe in

Ideas I think do harm

And they look at me strangely when they see

All the tattoos on my arm

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

How did I end up here?

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

There must be some mistake

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

I feel like I’m a fake

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

I’ll help you to go far

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

But I’d rather play guitar

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

Teaching the lyrics to Crass

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

How long do you think I’ll last?

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

This system must be stopped

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

I’m in charge but I’m not

Those who can do something useful

The rest of us we teach

I’m corrupting youth like Socrates

But your hemlock’s out of reach

Subverting the system from the inside

at least I try my best

That my students learn to be their own selves

Is their only worthwhile test

I’m an anarchist, atheist, punk rock teacher

How did I end up here?

LYRIC: I Can’t Be Every Day (March)

I can’t be every day just focusing on what went wrong

I can’t be every day putting frustrations in a song

I can’t be every day just cataloguing misfortune

I can’t be every day if every day is another day of woe

A day of woe

What is the point of life when nothing feels it’s going right?

The point of life is recognising there’s no point of life but life without a point is still alright

I can’t be every day making bold statements such as these

I can’t be every day developing new philosophies

I can’t be every day considering mortality

I can’t be every day exploring your hypotheses

I can’t be every day if every day is another day of woe

What is the point of life when nothing feels it’s going right?

The point of life is recognising there’s no point of life but also recognising that’s alright

That life without a point or plan

Without a God to hold your hand

Without meaning beyond meaning you give yourself…is alright

The human mind creates constructed realities

The more depressed you are the more accurately you see the world

The aim therefore isn’t for truth, but for fiction

That allows us to live in peace

Our minds carefully construct beautiful fantasies to save us from the awful truth

And philosophers - supposedly smart people - destroy those fantasies with the blunt force of logic and then wonder why their wisdom didn’t leave them happy?

We are not creatures designed for truth

We are creatures designed to share stories and make believe

We are dreamers, who unravel each day’s events only under cover of darkness and in a cloak of the unreal

Who cannot confront the specifics

And circle round subjects with therapists

There is no world as it is

There is only the world as it is to you.

And together we negotiate

A mutually agreed story

that makes the world

The best it can be for all of us

As best we can imagine it to be

Knowing no one person has the privilege

Of having all the answers

But we all can share our stories

For the only answer is that we don’t know

And that we don’t need to know

That we haven’t got the tools to know

Only to create

What is the point of life when nothing feels it’s going right?

The point of life is recognising there’s no point of life but also recognising that’s alright

That life without a point or plan

Without a God to hold your hand

Without meaning beyond meaning you give yourself…is alright

LYRIC: Make Friends With My Dread (February)

Well I’ve played with having plans

And seen them crumble in my hands

I don’t know how this project ends

But I’m not too afraid to start

I don’t know if these notes sound right

But I just feel them with my heart

I don’t know how to play these instruments

But I’m gonna play them anyway

I don’t know how to live a life

But I just take it day by day

I’ve been intolerant of uncertainty

And I’m pretty sure it wasn’t good for me

I don’t know what I’m doing here

But then does anyone know why?

I don’t know if I am fulfilled

But I won’t know until I try

I don’t know how to do this job

But I am sure I’ll work it out

I don’t know if I quite belong

But I’m content to live with doubt

I’m learning

to make peace in my head

I’m learning

to make peace in my head

I’m learning

to make friends with my dread

I don’t know what I want to say

But I speak even if the draft is rough

I don’t know what I should believe

But I’ll believe, until you call my bluff

I don’t know what my dreams should be

But that I dream at all is surely good enough

There is only just one certainty…

That what we plan will likely never be reality

I’m learning

to make peace in my head

I’m learning

to make peace in my head

I’m learning

to make friends with my dread

I don’t know how this all turns out

But that’s the point - nobody ever can

I don’t know what tomorrow brings

But today is right here in my hand

LYRIC: Pulse (January)

Another night my mind again won’t let me sleep

I lay awake just listening out to my heart beat

You’d have thought

after all these years

I’d get used to it

Anxiety

Too many in the grave all dead before their time

Genetic legacy: I’m scared their fate is mine

But when they were alive my fears were much the same

I can’t recall the last time I felt fully sane

You’d have thought

after all these years

I’d get used to it

Anxiety

They say that mindfulness helps

Focus on my breathing -  in and out

They say that mindfulness helps

But all it helps me do is focus on that frantic beating pounding pulse

As soon as life is good my mind sends it to hell

I only fear I’m dying when I’m living well

You’d have thought

after all these years

I’d get used to it

Anxiety

Just when I think I’m out that’s when it pulls me in

I think I’m doing fine then find I’m listening

To self-destructive thoughts, the pulse beats in my ears

Next thing I know I’m once more drowning in my fears

You’d have thought

after all these years

I’d get used to it

Anxiety

They say that exercise helps

Endorphins keep the demon thoughts at bay

They say that exercise helps

But all it helps me do is focus on that frantic beating pounding pulse

LYRIC: Too

Too many observations

Too many notebooks filled

Too many creative outlets

Too many darlings killed

Too many lyrics sang to no one

Too many words unread

Too many ideas unwanted

Too much repeating what I said

Too much repeating what I said

Too free to be worth buying

Too hard a friend to keep

Too blunt in conversation

Too much the grandson of a priest

Too canary in the coal mine

Too much the spectre at the feast

Too straightedge for your parties

Too many questions probing deep

Too many questions probing deep

Too broken to get better

Too hopeful for despair

Too jaded by the bullshit

Too stubborn not to care

Too stubborn not to care

Too lacking references and mentors

Too few accomplishments of note

Too many other candidates competing

Too many of us stuck in the same boat

Too out of practice for the journals

Too everyday and imprecise

Too radical to take a chance on

Too much lost to a different life

Too much lost to a different life

Too honest for the classroom

Too much daily mental toll

Too few visions of what comes after

Too much losing of my soul

There’s too much losing of my soul  

Too much damage to stay longer

Too many things this system lacks

Too many structural complications

Too many years I won’t get back

Too many reasons for inaction

Too much I’ve sweat and too much I have have bled

Too used to comfort and to routine

Too easy staying ‘til I’m dead

To whom it may concern

Too often now I feel such dread

Too many sleepless nights

Too much repeating what I said

Too much repeating what I said

LYRIC: The Christmas That I Could Have Died

Last Christmas I had COVID 19

And the very next day I still had COVID 19

Because it turns out that motherfucker stays for a while

This Christmas as the tree lights shine

And Cliff Richard sings of Mistletoe and Wine

I can’t help thinking ‘bout the Christmas that I could have died

It’s been nearly two years since this virus first arrived

And it’s easy to forget we’ve been lucky to survive

So far

So far

Last Christmas there was no vaccine

And very few treatments waiting under the tree

So I’ll raise a glass that my white cells did their job

This Christmas I’m at least double vaxxed

But the variants are coming out thick and fast

And I can’t help thinking ‘bout the Christmas that I could have died

Because all around me at this special time of year

Masks start to slip to sing a song of Christmas cheer

Too close

Too fucking close

Last Christmas I had COVID 19

And the very next year there is still lots to fear

But you wouldn’t know it from the tinsel on the street

This Christmas I’d love to let go

But the daily infection numbers grow 

And I can’t help thinking ‘bout the Christmas that I could have died

Trying to eat a mince pie with no smell or taste

Hoping I wouldn’t be the next they’d ventilate

Too many Christmas dinners have less mouths to feed

This year

But we’ve survived 

So far

LYRIC: Condemned To Repeat

Sometimes poetry just obscures

What should be simply said

When fuck the police says it all

Why use more words than are needed?

When you mean to say

fuck the government

Why say anything else

Than fuck the government?

When you just want to tell racists

to go and fuck themselves,

Phobics, incels, sexists and fascists

Why bother couch it in rhyme?

Metaphor can muddy the waters

So let’s now be crystal clear

Some lyrics are for high theory

But you’ll find none of that here

Just Fuck the police

Fuck the government too

To the racists, and sexists, and fascists

Fuck you

Fuck our silent politeness

Fuck my privileged whiteness

Time to say what we mean

In a world that’s obscene

Fuck you sad homophobics

Can’t you recognise love?

Fuck you bi and transphobics

Ain’t life hard enough?

Fuck your gods and your masters

unmasked anti-vaxxers

Fuck all the blind eyes

To our climate disaster

Fuck the billionaire bastards

Leave them all up in space

Fuck the phone in our hands

For the time that it wastes

Fuck all systems of oppression

history’s unlearnt lessons

We’re condemned to repeat/ Condemned to repeat

LYRIC: I’m Sick of All the Hustle

I’m sick of all the hustle

Life shouldn’t be this hard

It isn’t admirable 

how close to the line you are

Or how much you may have struggled

Your way up from the streets

Because everything you needed

Should’ve already been on every street

Right from the start

We shouldn’t celebrate this 

badly broken system

By making role models of 

The ones who wouldn’t let it kill them

Ignoring all the others

Too tired to take up arms

The ones without a choice but

To succumb to its harm 

Forty years of nine to five

You never missed a single payment

But you missed a whole lot of birthdays

And you never spent a single day fulfilled

We glorify this bullshit

How hard we work to make ends meet

How long we fought to make it 

The things we did so we could eat

And it serves only the system

The one that fails us every day

A fairy tale pretending

Things can’t be another way

Than the way they say

All we ever needed

Already it exists

But has been stolen from us

For somebody’s profits

To keep us all exploited

As if it is the natural way

But we could change the whole world

By changing everything today

But I’m sick of all the hustle 

LYRIC: Alternatives To Extinction

Eyes feel like they’re bleeding

Sucked dry by hungry screens

Lost with my attention

I’ve no more fucks to give

The sheer fucking stupidity

Of basically

everyone

Makes it very very hard for me

To want to see

Alternatives to extinction

I have to remember

It’s not entirely their fault

Advertising works

And it shits in your head each day

Don’t believe me?  Well I wrote this song

On an expensive phone

That I didn’t need

After playing mindless video games

On a new console

That I could not afford

More shoes than I have feet

More wants than I have needs

When the headlines sell you

Distorted narratives

And when your best friends share you

Propaganda clips

What chance have you got to know a thing?

Beyond echoing

The way that choirs sing

The conductor’s baton’s tightening

It’s so frightening

How much we are losing

The sheer fucking stupidity/ Of basically/ everyone/ Makes it very very hard for me/ To want to see/ Alternatives to extinction

ALTERNATIVES TO EXTINCTION

LYRIC: Profitganda (The New Variant)

I’ve been told to go to work and that it’s not a threat

By the propaganda spewed by business and government

We must do our jobs but not ask the reasons why

To keep our masters rich so many might have to die?

Essential work must still be done 

so society can run

Inessential work, meanwhile, 

exposes exploitation’s smile

We were told two metres – 

then just one inside a shop

Consume just as you did before, 

until you start to cough…

Think twice about the information you’re fed

Whose interests is it in?

It’s profits over people in the modern age

Do you think they care if you die?

It’s their money they want – not you – the money not you

Are we being told the full story?

What’s being kept out and what’s being put in?

The state controls the information and they want you back at work

If you believe everything you read you’re likely to get hurt

We’ll just tell them it’s safe now, 

But we can’t quite explain how

Take your masks off to eat out, 

but it’s not you who it helps out

We were told to stay at home

but not how we’d pay the bills

Forced the poor out into harm’s way 

so friends’ pockets could be filled 

Refused to learn from the past

Put us at risk to do pointless tasks

Eased the lockdown too fast

Encouraged not wearing masks

When you read more than briefings say

And listen to scientists

The evidence just overwhelms

How badly our government fucked this

Think twice about the information you’re fed

Whose interests is it in?

It’s profits over people in the modern age

Do you think they care if you die?

It’s their money they want – not you – the money not you

I won’t die to increase your wealth 

Hands/Face/Space/Stay Alert

LYRIC: Stay Alert

Stay alert

Stay alert

Incompetence is coming for our life

Stay alert

Stay alert

To how they’re making us a sacrifice

Stay alert to their propaganda

Bold faced lies told with fake candour

In the name of ideology

Stay alert to manipulation

Distortion of the situation

Put us at risk for their economy 

Stay alert

Stay alert

To how the world transformed so easily

Stay alert

Stay alert

To all they do not want for us to see

Stay alert to the latest branding

Designed to twist our understanding

Repeat their slogan in our Twitter feed

Stay alert: their green and yellow warning

Suddenly the truth is dawning

They do not give a shit about you or me

So Stay Alert

LYRIC: With Burning Anger

With burning anger I

Sing songs written in my youth

Furious that the 

lyrics still apply

Police brutality, government lies

Capitalism Sucks, innocents die

The Profitganda media march us to war

The rich getting richer the poor staying poor

With burning anger I

Watch the daily proof

A vindication I wish 

I wish was not the truth

Same ideologies/different hairstyles

Progress Ever Backwards for another few miles

Fat on Junk Food News and Culturally Dead

I Fear For The World, cuz it’s losing it’s head 

Is This What Democracy Looks Like?

Surely There Must Be More Than This To Life?

Or are we Too Lazy To Live?

With burning anger I

Write another song

Familiar lyrics

Until the problem’s gone

I stared at my navel but now I am back

To point out our failings and show where we lack

I play this guitar with burning anger 

We’re still Not The Good Guys

And we never were