Subject:  Youth/Growing Up

TAILWHIPS & CURB ENDOS

What could you do as a Cold War kid

In a life and death game between super foes?

Wondering what the hell you ever did

To inherit the nuclear threats in silos

Amy and ice cream, bare feet burning hot

Warm winds and weeping willows

Practicing stunts in the pool parking lot

Tailwhips and curb endos

What could we do?

Life was so new

chorus 1:

Under the threat of a nuclear hell

How could we cope but defy and rebel?

Cutting out early from homeroom class

Spring days too good to let pass

Endless distractions to fill the voids

Star Castle and Asteroids

Learning the riffs and the drum solos

Tailwhips and curb endos

What could you do as a latchkey kid

Coming home to an empty house after school?

Smoking the stash we so carefully hid

Organizing a band for our chance to be cool

Aimlessly daydream to hours of Rush

Signals and Power Windows

Performing our stunts in view of our crush

Tailwhips and curb endos

What could we do?

Love was so new

chorus 2:

Watching the tide of our social decay

Plotting escape somewhere far and away

Born vagabonds of the neighborhood

Always out late and up to no good

Meet at the fields or convenience store

Searching for gold on the streambed floor

Time ever so quietly ticks and flows

Tailwhips and curb endos

(fade out):

What could we do?

Time ever so quietly ticks and flows

What could we do?

Tailwhips and curb endos

What could we do?

Learning the riffs and the drum solos

What could we do?

Warm winds and weeping willows

What could we do?

THE DYNAMO

Breathless from the run

We eyed the atmosphere

All above condensing and churning

Two hearts, we flee as one

So freshly driven from

Our prisons of silence and yearning

I can hear the low-pitched hum

Feel the built up momentum

Of the dynamo toiling and turning

The school day flows and nobody knows

Of our brazen truancy

So many ways to release the days'

Pent-up energy

Bounding down the hill

Spirits running high

Pass the ancient mill

Decrepit and run dry

The dead leaves clog the floor

Of the dried up river bed

The foreman's by the door

Of the grey utility shed

She can feel the low-pitched hum

Sense the built up momentum...

chorus:

Our eyes are galvanized

By the gleaming power source

And the music of mechanics

Wields a mighty force

New found energy

Unlimited and free

Applied thermodynamics

Works its worldly course

The old foreman says "The world won't be the same"

As we bid goodbye and brace to brave the rain

Electric flashes charge the skies

In a fusillade of spears

The lightning echoes on her eyes

Then thunder in my ears

Stately power lines

In dynamic pose

Trace our headlong flight

To where the power goes

On the outskirts of the town

The company linemen pause

For a hearty, homespun round

Of rainy day applause

(chorus)

The old foreman sees the price of progress high

And the impact on society so large

Now we market electricity to buy

When the beating of our hearts is free of charge

I can hear the low-pitched hum

Feel the built up momentum…

KEEP YOUR COOL

All those years and drugs you took

The schoolyard bullies went off the hook

Medicate the victims who protest?

But not the thugs who target and molest?

"Someone show the latest chump

Our psychological garbage dump

Make sure our new friend gets the royal tour

Let's see how much their psyche can endure"

chorus 1:

Character assassins mixed within our ranks

Won't let the little misfits play

The epitome of cool but they can't realize

"The bully" is an old cliche

Voodoo doll of the spirit -

The cool kids curse - the misfits fear it -

Separate the ones who've had enough

"It's just some insignificant kid's stuff"

All year long they wear the tags

Of psychological punching bags

Analyze the ones about to snap

"The guidance counselor's fed up with your crap"

(chorus 1)

chorus 2:

Character assassins mixed within our ranks

Won't let the little misfits play

The epitome of cool but they can't realize

"The bully" is a dead cliche

"The bully" is a dead cliche

"The bully" is a dead...

Keep your cool

I don't want to learn that in school

I don't want to learn that in school

I don't want to learn...

Keep your cool

And if I have to learn that in school

If I have to learn that in school

Then I don't want to learn...

tag verse:

And we'll never call on ourselves

And we'll never open our eyes

Until the "gun" word shows up on a list

Of back-to-school supplies

abrupt fade out line:

Character assassins mixed within our ranks...

SUPERVISION

When our children make us proud

It's the values we imbue

But when they shame the family name

There was nothing we could do

We claim credit and control

If they get the right results

Children until they snap and kill

Then we try them as adults

chorus:

Our supervision was always somewhat blurry

It's supervision on the verge of going blind

No time to focus, adults are in a hurry

Another problem child far too gone to find

They need our expert guidance

And constant supervision

But when they make a big mistake

It was solely their decision

We oversee their actions

We command them to obey

But claim no voice in their wrong choice

When the trial's underway

(chorus)

Their growing minds don't know enough

To dress or fix their meals

And yet they're held accountable

For life and death ideals

And haunted by the memory

Of a baby in their lap

You think these model parents would

Even ask to take the rap?

(chorus)

COPYRIGHT

All songs are copyright protected. The right of Michael Centra to be identified as the author of these works has been asserted by him in accordance with Copyright, Design and Patent Acts.

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