The Burning City Smoking-Kevin Devine

[ti:The Burning City Smoking] [ar:Kevin Devine] [al:Put Your Ghost To Rest] [by:] [offset:0] [00:00.00]The Burning City Smoking - Kevin Devine [00:11.74]Forty million refugees with no place on this earth to call their home [00:17.89] [00:19.64]One for every aimless graduate with nothing else [00:24.27]To show for it but loans [00:26.52] [00:28.52]And those of us who make a mark using someone else's blood [00:33.35] [00:34.10]Our western stain won't wash away won't vanish in the flood [00:38.91] [00:39.59]It's just deeper with each hurricane and tidal wave and war [00:46.12]Oh whoa oh woh [00:47.56] [00:49.38]We want everything we see and once it's gone we just want more [00:55.13] [00:59.94]Atlas had those shoulders we've got [01:02.72]Ambien and Jamesons and blow [01:06.03] [01:08.03]To bind us in a bubble [01:10.40]Keep the newsprint nightmare distant and remote [01:14.42] [01:16.42]But when we wake in guillotines and pitch our screaming fits [01:21.35] [01:22.10]When the Governor strikes up [01:24.60]The band and gags our parted lips [01:27.04] [01:27.66]When the worst case shows up dressed [01:30.29]And dazzling ready for the ball [01:33.54] [01:34.16]Oh whoa oh woh [01:35.62] [01:37.50]Boy that bubble's bound to burst [01:40.19]And what a tragic way to fall [01:42.69] [01:47.69]The tabloids tell us hate the rat [01:50.31]Who strikes those subways closed and puts you out [01:53.98] [01:55.72]Forget those 50-hour tunnel weeks [01:58.91]Inhaling steel dust poison through his mouth [02:02.55] [02:04.49]Well if he don't deserve a pension that makes his family feel secure [02:10.05]If we're now so disconnected it's our relfections we ignore [02:15.61]And if our constant choice is skimming past the writing on the wall [02:22.13]Oh whoa oh woh [02:23.61] [02:25.55]Then I'm sad to say we're lost and I'm embarrassed for us all [02:30.74] [02:35.73]So most days I can't put to rest the burning city smoking in my mind [02:42.08] [02:44.20]And I play pretend the principals are nothing [02:48.07]More than actors running lines [02:51.07] [02:52.57]And I stumble through a movie set where torture victims laugh [02:58.15]At abandoned journalist who juggled knives and daggered glass [03:03.78]While they entertain the marble Heads of State and CEO's [03:10.48] [03:11.04]Oh whoa oh woh [03:12.08] [03:13.51]I stagger past anarchist extras through saloon doors painted gold [03:20.75] [04:11.50]So I turn and I see Uncle Sam [04:14.52]Walks out of wardrobe ready for the shoot [04:18.03] [04:19.97]So I walk right up and talk to him [04:22.84]I tell him that I'm scared and I'm confused [04:27.39] [04:28.83]While they test the cameras out [04:31.27]And get the lighting right while catering fills coffee cups [04:36.93]And carves up apple pie [04:39.19] [04:39.75]And while the stylists trim his beard and straighten those lapels [04:46.56]Oh whoa oh woh [04:47.93] [04:49.74]I ask was it pies that made him drive us straight to hell [04:54.94]And as my daydream ends he stands there [04:58.33]Shamed a shocked and shattered shell [05:00.60]But there's never any answer for my starving tongue to tell [05:08.44]Oh whoa oh woh oh oh [05:09.93] [05:10.50]Cause the director's shouting action [05:13.50]And from off set it's just as well