1. |
Two Things
03:50
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Strangely enough these two things go together
Like heat and fear, and me and you
When we get hot, we’re afraid of each other
And that’s just like these two things, too
Better that we should stay friends
Than go the old way of marriage and hate (mistakes)
That doesn’t mean we can’t have each other once in a while
Why should we wait, when we could take our world by storm?
It’s bad enough we’ve got this storm to weather
Our cold hearts against passion and need
That doesn’t mean we can’t have each other once in a while
Why should we wait?
I’m trying to crucify my bad qualities by esteem,
putting good after bad
Making the bad things good –
that’s the only life that I’ve had
One of my worst faults is working against myself
I hang on to the last breath, and then die before I hit the ground
And I’m cosmically insensible, and frightfully inactive
And I don’t know what I’m doing ‘till I’ve thought about the consequences
Written by Todd Franklin Osborn
©2021 Heaventree Records administered by ASCAP
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2. |
Lover Lever
03:20
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You could have her, or you could heave her.
You could love her, or you could leave her.
You may really want to keep her,
so you choose to be a lover leaper.
Or you might instead just want to drop her,
if you feel more like a lover shopper.
Trade him in for a new guy
who makes you feel just a little high.
Pursuit is so intoxicating;
consummation is so elating.
Take enough time to know him better.
Is he a drab drag or a go-getter?
When you make that choice,
whether you are girls or boys,
there will be a consequence.
It can sometimes seem like such nonsense.
Decision is a balancing act, but it’s all a matter of fact.
What you choose to do might impinge on your happiness,
and your life will hinge.
Oh, you could love her, or you could leave her.
Written by Todd Franklin Osborn
©2020, 2021 Heaventree Records administered by ASCAP
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3. |
Party Silhouette
03:44
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The man in the hat – Tom
Talk about cheesy – he’s the one
He’s the Lampshade Pterodactyl
I’m the party silhouette
In the corner at the party
Take me to the party
He’s the life of the party
Up on the coffee table – polka dot necktie
Breaking the ice - reading James Joyce
“An ambition to squint at my verses in print
makes me hope that for these you’ll find the room…
the Heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit…
I do. You bore me away framed in oak and tinsel,
set me above your marriage couch…
you kissed me in four places.”
Who’s driving?
Arrange a ride, arrange a ride, arrange a ride!
Get me home in four pieces
The party’s over – where does that leave me?
I’m the party silhouette
Written by Todd Franklin Osborn,
featuring quotations from Ulysses by James Joyce.
©2021 Heaventree Records administered by ASCAP
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4. |
Donna Juana
03:54
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Don’t be a bride, Donna Juana!
Be what you wanna be, Donna
Be rude, be a ride – Bride? Wanna?
Steal my heart – steal time, Donna
You are what you are – you are what you will be
You’re cool even when the fun is over
We share a correct history, Donna
Watch the pale moon rise and fall
The day, the night, the day, the night is over
They say you lived in Tennessee, Donna Juana
We called you up in Kentucky, Donna
What’s new with you? What are you gonna
do and with who? Oh, Donna Juana
Do you piece together dreams like me, Donna?
If I could die before I dream I die, I wanna
watch the pale moon – flail my arms
Today, tonight, today, tonight is over
Written by Todd Franklin Osborn
©2021 Heaventree Records administered by ASCAP
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5. |
Mean (Still)
02:26
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In 1961 I wasn’t even born.
No one talked about me. I had no form.
What I am now was yet to be,
but I might have been something else.
There are more things in the world than you know.
It may surprise you to get lost in the flow, but take heart.
I’ve tried to stay out of the details in life,
to skirt the drama, all the struggle and strife,
but to no avail, it just finds me every time.
“Take the path of least resistance,” I say.
You’ll still be standing at the end of the day.
Life seems so pointless sometimes.
There are more things in this life than we see.
Still, it’s so surprising when I always lose me.
Written by Todd Franklin Osborn
©2021 Heaventree Records administered by ASCAP
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6. |
Personal Responsibility
03:20
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It always matters who you are and how you keep yourself.
No matter what you keep inside, and never show anyone else.
Your right to be depends on doing right by freedom –
that’s responsibility.
We’re each an island of mind cut off from other ones.
We only sense the distance, measured across vast oceans,
of those who may not look like us
and those we may or may not choose to trust.
And when I look out from my eyes,
am I susceptible to the lies they offer me?
Do I trust just what I see and hear and feel?
Oh, what is real?
Can I tell that this is no controlling spell meaning to deceive?
I’m actually relieved to find you reeling from the same deal,
the same seeming reality
It’s hard to navigate this plane, this world of loss and gain.
The more intelligent we are, the more acute the pain.
This burden makes some people rude,
who lack the moral fortitude.
Apathy is both the lock and key
that keeps each prisoner bound.
What sets us free is empathy -
it roots us to the ground.
Engage, connect, stay to the course,
and help the ones who show remorse.
Written by Todd Franklin Osborn
©2020, 2021 Heaventree Records administered by ASCAP
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7. |
Homer's Files
03:51
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In this bloody time and place,
in search of my soul, of sacrifice
I’m looking for solid cement in which to stand.
The places that I want to be
don’t ever hold any good for me,
and anyway, instead of holding that,
I’d rather hold your hand.
And if I ever get out of here,
I won’t have to wait another year.
I’d rather cut off one ear to save the whole man.
Time doesn’t stop for anyone –
you can lose yourself in Ironton
or just stay inside your safety in Ashland.
Counting the hours and the minutes –
looking for a world with you in it,
sometimes, it feels like I’m waiting for Peter Pan.
And if I ever get out of here,
I won’t have to waste another year
I’d rather cut off one ear to save the whole man.
And being me is sometimes embarrassing
unless I’m wrapped up in playing and singing.
Oh, please, just tell me why, oh, only if you can.
And God doesn’t grant permits
to jump in a bath and slit your wrists.
One just takes it upon oneself to carry out that plan.
And if I ever get out of here,
I won’t have to waste another year
I’d rather cut off one ear to save the whole man.
Written by Todd Franklin Osborn
©2021 Heaventree Records administered by ASCAP
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8. |
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Sometimes I feel like a fossilized Trilobite,
but right now, more like I have a radioactive half-life,
and I'm not even sure what I mean by that.
I thought this was still the Age of Reason,
but knowledge, unfortunately, is now seen as treason.
A lot of people are trading in a brain for a dunce hat.
Progress is an interesting idea on which to think.
The lack of it will certainly take us
to the brink of extinction,
as sure as eggs is eggs.
But the real dinosaurs are the people left behind
by self-will, brain-washed legacies,
and the direction of time,
as it seems to move past them
like they haven’t even sprouted legs.
Written by Todd Franklin Osborn
©2021 Heaventree Records administered by ASCAP
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9. |
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Now to get to the bottom of this problem
I would suspect that we got to examine
this damning famine of human intellect.
It seems reasonable to assume that knowledge
comes from seeing patterns emerging
in our conscious mind, and what we find
when we bother to notice them
is that we know things then,
and that fate is neither cruel nor kind.
We figure out things that we didn’t know before.
We watch and listen and talk about them.
We pass down the lore.
Causation causes a sensational spate of our senses,
so we write 'em down in books, and we spare no expenses.
We try to move forward, teach it,
teach it in classes, and we try to weed out
all the unwise wise asses who’d rather stay blind,
rather fall behind, and live in the past,
dragging everybody else back past the line.
Living things may all start out slow,
but then they grow, like the rivers flow.
That’s the underpinnings of the principle of progress,
and I can not stress enough that if we rest too much,
we stagnate, our minds denigrate,
and we become a population of degenerated ingrates.
This is what happens when the ruling class rules.
They end up looking like, acting like, and playing the fools.
They don’t want to move forward, or toward anything,
but rather they want to keep things the same,
and keep anyone not white meek and tame.
Progress, to them, is a dangerous idea.
When they lose control, they lose their shit
and hemorrhage money, yelling Mea Culpa!
Well it’s their own damn fault
that they drain their vault,
grinding the pepper and licking the salt.
I abhor the decimation of the population of blacks,
and the Indians being forcibly kept on reservations
(that’s just cracked).
And our whole country has been slowly going up for sale,
And it ain’t gonna stop ‘til we’re well rid of the rich, white male.
Written by Todd Franklin Osborn
©2021 Heaventree Records administered by ASCAP
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10. |
The Desperation Trip
07:54
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I’d give up my right – I’d give up my ride home
Walk this lonely road – this lonely road alone
My father gave me up at the altar,
but he gave up on me at birth – now it’s your turn
I forgot to give my needles, my feelings and problems to you
You thought I’d left you out – let me out of my life
It’s like you sleepwalk – you beat me in your stupor
In the morning you don’t remember – who did this to you?
The only frame of my ground – limit of your gain
Take me from my rightful place
I went home and found my needles, my feelings and problems
and my skin – now you won’t let me in
Written by Todd Franklin Osborn
©2021 Heaventree Records administered by ASCAP
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The Trans Fatty Asses Silver Spring, Maryland
The Trans Fatty Asses made a false start in 2010 when Todd Osborn (drums, guitar, voice, songs) attempted to put a live band together comprised of Bob Crain (drums, guitar, voice), Nick Johnson (Keys, electronics), and Aki Zenji (bass). Zenji had to leave the band, was replaced, but it all splintered after that due to bad timing. Osborn picked it up again as a personal recording project in 2016. ... more
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