American Bands

"And then my idols walk next to me I look up at them, they fade away It's a destruction of a mystery The more i listen to what they say So does that mean that there's no more doin' And there's no more thinkin' And there's no more feeling 'Cause there's no right opinion So can you tell me what I'm supposed to do?"

"I like them, but I don't see how they're in any way a manifestation of the blues."

"The White Stripes were part of a wave of retro-minded young bands who gave rock music a much-needed jolt in the first few years of the 21st century, but they're less nostalgic bashers than a brilliant conceptual creation: a divorced Detroit couple who masqueraded as brother and sister, named themselves after their band (or vice versa), wore alternating white-and-red outfits, and rewired the blues for the new generation."

"That would break up the thing of vocals, guitar and drums. Somebody else there would bring this fourth component. If you're going to have four components, you might as well have 20, y'know?"

"Downtown Detroit has more vacant buildings over 10 storeys than any city in the world. Tons of skyscrapers with nothing in them. [The flag] is the idea of rooting for the underdog, because Detroit has such a bad reputation."

"Well, in every complicated situation there's a human relation Making sense of it all takes a whole lot of concentration Well, you can blame the baby for her pregnant ma And if there's one of these unavoidable laws It's just that you can't just take the effect and make it the cause"

"This gal she fainted and cried bloody murder, Called for her sons and gathered them all, Christopher swore he'd go no further, Till he had revenge at Flannigan's ball"

"Two-headed boy She is all you could need She will feed you tomatoes and radio wire And retire to sheets safe and clean But don't hate her when she gets up to leave"

"And when we break we'll wait for our miracle God is a place where some holy spectacle lies And when we break we'll wait for our miracle God is a place you will wait for the rest of your life"

"And in my dreams you're alive and you're crying As your mouth moves in mine, soft and sweet Ring of flowers 'round your eyes and I'll love you For the rest of your life (When you're ready)"

"And she was born in a bottle rocket, 1929 With wings that ringed around a socket Right between her spine All drenched in milk and holy water Pouring from the sky I know that she will live forever She won’t ever die"

"I know they buried her body with others her Sister and mother and 500 families And will she remember me 50 years later I wished I could save her in some sort of time machine"

"Goldaline my dear, we will fold and freeze together Far away from here there is sun and spring and green forever But now we move to feel for ourselves inside some stranger's stomach Place your body here, let your skin begin to blend itself with mine"

"Semen stains the mountaintops"

"The Earth looks better from a star That's right above from where you are"

"Now she’s a little boy in Spain Playing pianos filled with flames On empty rings around the sun."

"Catching signals that sound in the dark we will take off our clothes And they'll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine And when all is breaking, everything that you could keep beside Now your eyes ain't movin' Now they just lay there in their climb"

"How strange it is to be anything at all"

"Oh, how I remember you How I would push my fingers through your mouth to make those muscles move That made your voice so smooth and sweet."

"And one day we will die And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea But for now we are young Let us lay in the sun And count every beautiful thing we can see Love to be In the arms of all I'm keeping here with me"

"I will shout until they know what I mean."

"I love you, Jesus Christ Jesus Christ, I love you, yes I do"

"And your mom would stick a fork right into daddy’s shoulder And dad would throw the garbage all across the floor As we would lay and learn what each other’s bodies were for."

"And this is the room, one afternoon, I knew I could love you And from above you how I sank into your soul Into that secret place where no one dares to go"

"When you were young, you were the king of carrot flowers"

"I'm watching Naomi, full bloom I'm hoping she will soon explode Into one billion tastes and tunes One billion angels come and hold her down They hold her down until she shines"

"Follow me through a city of frost covered angels I swear I have nothing to prove I just want to dance in your tangles To give me some reason to move"

"And I don't wish to taste of your insides Or to call out your name through my phone For the glory boys at your bedside Will love you as long as you're something to own"

"All I could want is silver and spinning out from your arms And into the pretty pit of your heart So simply and softly we'd flow, but I let you down And swollen and small is where you'll find me now With that silver stripping off from my tongue you're tearing out And you'll never hear me talk"

"Someone is waiting To swallow all the halos out of you As your face blows through my windows Sending pieces flying all around the room"

"The Dropkick Murphy will come and get you if you don't go to sleep tonight ... It's a rehab center, I think it's in Connecticut. I think it was the guy who used to come around late at night for all the drunks, like if you were too drunk to drive home, he would come and get you and put you in this hole that you couldn't get out until you were sober enough, I don't know. There's a bunch a story, it's also a boxer, a bunch of things, a rehab center in Connecticut, grandparents used to scare kids with it."

"Sometimes I feel like I'm repeating myself over and over again to educate the public that not all skinheads are racist, and as a matter of fact there's a large majority of them that aren't."

"We go over to Europe and people go ‘So you guys are from Ireland.’ We go ‘No, we’re an American band. We’re not interested in being from Ireland. That’s not what we ever sung about. We don’t romanticize about being from Ireland.’ I’m not even Irish. I’m Scottish-German. That’s not even important."

"19 men were tried and fired, August 26th through 29th For violation of rule 35 -- the forbidden right to organize They suffered the loss of their livelihood that night. A city in terror on the thin blue line. A thousand-plus walked off the job to support their brothers' cause, The anti-union prohibition clause."

"You said we die alone, in this case you were right. No friends by your side or family in sight. There'll be no talking your way out this time. So don't count the cash cause you leave it behind"

"Billy was the bright oneTommy's off his headmother loved them both the same, at least that's what she saidI don't predict the future, I don't care about the pastsend them both to DSS, now you had your chancethe poison took your babiesthe judges took your rightsyou can have your children or the night!"

"She had excuses and she chose to use themshe was the victim of unspeakable abusesher husband was violent, malicious and distanther kids now belong to the state of Massachusetts."

"See, we had each other / it was us against the world / famous for nothing / Yeah, nothing was our world"

"Oh the day was dying and the wind was sighing, As I lay there crying in my prison cell"

"And I can't help but wonder oh Willy McBride. Do all those who lie here know why they died? Did you really believe them when they told you the cause? Did you really believe that this war would end wars? Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame. The killing and dying it was all done in vain. Oh Willy McBride it all happened again. And again, and again, and again, and again"

"Come decimate dictatorships and overthrow regimes In exotic far-off places the vacation of your dreams You'll assemble puppet governments and play the hand of God We're an equal opportunity crime fighting squad Citizen CIA"

"Well it's all gone to hell now, even the wimps have gangs Pop punk tough guys with neck tattoos Well if you guys are hard then I'd rather be soft"

"It's another murderous night Another left hook from hell A bloody war on the boardwalk And the kid from Lowell rises to the bell."

"We are the ones who will never be broken We are the ones who survive."

"I can bench press a car, I'm an ex football star with degrees from both Harvard and Yale. Girls just can't keep up, I'm a real love machine I've had far better sex while in jail. I've designed the Sears Tower, I make two grand an hour I cook the world's best duck flambé. I'll take the pick of the litter, girls jockey for me I don't need these lines to get laid."

"So give me one more chance to prove these problems and frustrations aren't just manifest in memories we're destined to repeat. A second chance to prove I know right from wrong. I swear I'll do things different but can't promise to be strong."

"By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young man calling Nothing matters, Mary, when you're free Against the famine and the crown, I rebelled, they cut me down. Now you must raise our child with dignity."

"If they can make a law Then I can break a law If I can break a law Will the law break me?"

"And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war Who's given a gun and then pushed to the fore And expected to die for the land of our birth Though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth?"

"In the factories and mills, in the shipyards and mines We've often been told to keep up with the times For our skills are not needed, they've streamlined the job And with sliderule and stopwatch our pride they have robbed."