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Whose World Is This

by Jim Page

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1.
four winds, seven seas relative humanities everywhere I look I see some one looking back at me nation states and border lines divided states of mind politics comes to blows and everybody wants to know whose world is this? First World riding high Second World standing by Third World under fire funny how we all conspire we don't know 'cause we can't see how such a way could come to be riding on a spinning wheel soon enough will be revealed whose world is this? what kind of world will our children receive after all is said and done? what kind of creed have we come to believe that they may never receive one? what kind of world will our children receive after all is said and done? what kind of creed must we come to believe if they are ever to receive one? four winds, seven seas relative humanities everywhere I look I see some one looking back at me
2.
let’s take our culture back let’s take our culture back get the monkey off of your back and take our culture back we’ve been here for a million years music fillin’ up the people’s ears and we always sang our own song until the music business came along now, I don’t know, I could be wrong but I ain’t about to just tag along behind somebody with a bankroll hangin’ out tellin’ me what I can sing about they got the radio, they got the TV screen they got the great muddy waters of the main stream with a dollar bill hangin’ on to every word you’re never gonna get your message heard but some little buddy with an extra buck can buy a transmitter and try their luck pirate airwaves democracy that seems like a good idea to me Hollywood spectacle and promenade think of all that money just waitin’ to be made an all you gotta do is go and you’ll be sittin’ up pretty on gangster’s row well, it ain’t smart to be misled by some Beavis and Butthead you can have your hip Seattle slacker just give me a good computer hacker you gotta get inside to break it out you gotta be outside to know what I’m talkin’ about two heads and a million eyes and we can cut this thing right down to size now, culture is a weaponry in all our great humanity and survival is a counter attack so let’s take our culture back
3.
Righteous 04:52
here's a little song that you might get along with all about a natural seed growin' wild by the side of the roadway its nature's wonderful weed been around so long it's hard to tell why anyone would think its new love it or hate it, however you relate it I'll leave that up to you (chorus) isn't that righteous isn't that good enough ain't that just the way it oughtta be isn't that righteous isn't that good enough righteous is good enough for me history's locked in a cardboard box and it's hard to take a look with side-track frills and fantasies all written all over the book everybody tells you what to think and they've got their reasons why you gotta pick reality up by the scruff of the neck and look it right in the eye the same people that are spreadin' the fear are the same people that scare me the most some of 'em look like they'd just as soon like to hang you from a lamp post they talk about what it does to your brain well I just have to react 'cause Hitler never touched the stuff and that's an actual fact George Washington was the father of our country and he had a hemp plantation Betsy Ross used it to make the flag that flew above the baby nation they wrote their declarations on paper from that same hemp fiber press I don't know what they smoked when they were takin' a break but I got a pretty good guess it'll calm you down when you're too up tight and it just might make you smile use the seed oil in your engine it'll lubricate the miles glaucoma and chemotherapy they say it smoothes out the track so next time you meet a cancer patient ask 'em what they think about that I don’t know why some people get so upset when you say to legalize it they'd rather build more jails, arrest more people and spread more crazy lies, it's like talkin' to a brick wall you know they just don't get the facts I think they oughtta try a little of that Betsy Ross it just might help 'em relax so I'll be on my way now guess I've taken just about enough of your time I know there's a lot of people out there just don't like my state of mind but I got mine and you got yours we give what we can take so next time I need a breather I'll might just take a little smoke break
4.
I took a bus to Broadway to see the street lights shine the rustle of the windy breeze and the shadows in my mind feelin' like a stranger in my own home town I knotted up my collar and I walked it around oh stranger can't you see there's a stranger in me open up the door don't be a stranger anymore lately I been thinkin' about the holes inside of me and what it takes to fill 'em up and keep 'em company everybody needs to know the difference it can make but such a stubborn disposition is a hard one to break last time I saw your face you were turning it away my mouth was empty, there was nothing I could say with you away in your world and me away in mine we coulda crossed it over but we never took the time standin' at the crossroads, whichever way you go some one will be waiting, maybe some one you should know everybody is a stranger here, we're wrapped in our disguise reflecting faces from the mirror of our eyes
5.
my grandfather's hands were so high strung just like that old German wall clock I saw when I was young and I remember looking up from the place where I would stand at the shiny bright silver dollar in my grandfather's hand he was the first generation in the City By the Bay raised up on the hard work and judgement day and about the old country little much was said you gotta leave it all behind sometimes if you want to get ahead then came the Great War, America was fighting over seas and his own son, my father, in the skies over Germany back home you had to hide your ancestral seeds you had to pledge allegiance to the shiny bright creed you had to prove yourself over and over again his first wife went crazy from the visions that she saw his second wife was stronger, we called her Grandma and maybe times were better then, and maybe they were best he always drove a brand new car to prove of his success and he held on to the dream when even it was jaded and he wrapped himself around it till all his feeling's faded he never gave it up, even when it disappeared in smoke and in a last brittle moment it broke we never talked about the old folks much when I was young it was pretty much a mystery for all that we'd become but I'll always remember though I may not fully understand the shiny bright silver dollar in my grandfather's hand
6.
the car’s gassed up and I'm ready to roll I got one eye open for the highway patrol I got the other eye open for the freeway sign 300 miles and I’m makin’ good time my stomach’s growlin’ but my head’s been fed I'm goin’ down to Eugene to see the Grateful Dead tape deck’s blowin’ out a rattlin' sound in a sympathetic rhythm to the wheel-go-round sports cars eat me up half-alive this thing don’t do more than 55 but I can sleep in the back, it’s a roadside bed I'm goin’ down to Eugene to see the Grateful Dead everybody needs a little break sometimes life gets too precise put a little twist in the old straight line and take some strange advise rollin' into town I'm all eyes and ears look at all those people I ain’t seen in years tripped out hipsters, rag and bone young neophitic tie dye, cellular telephone Sister Salina and her Uncle Fred they're goin’ down to Eugene to see the Grateful Dead there's 40 thousand people in a great big bowl they're all rockin' to the rhythm of the roll some are fallin' in love, some are countin' their money some are spinnin' in circles till their eyes get funny ain't it just about the way they said I'm goin’ down to Eugene to see the Grateful Dead goin' into the parkin' lot I might get lost best place in the world to get your wires crossed reality shatters when you leap and shout some people go in and they never come out ain't never been the same since my senses fled goin’ down to Eugene to see the Grateful Dead everybody needs a little break sometimes life gets too precise put a little twist in the old straight line and take some strange advise now you can take my work week and throw it away I’ll put a penny in a parkin’ meter any day hang out the phone bill and let it fade landlord’s gonna have to wait to get paid I ain’t got no use for your overhead I'm goin’ down to Eugene to see the Grateful Dead my stomach’s growlin’ but my head’s been fed I'm goin’ down to Eugene to see the Grateful Dead
7.
all these years, I still don’t know crossroads standing wherever you go my maps of astronomy, I steer by the stars the humming of the universe, the sound of a guitar I was raised in a box of artificial life too young for wisdom, too scared to face the knife I remember the first time the walls began to bend it was only a sound but it was my best friend somebody had to take the chance to roll the magic dice to peek behind the curtains of impossible paradise no one knew the danger, we could never see that far all we knew was unknown but the sound of a guitar coming of age in the 1960’s there were no limits that we could not assault danger and euphoria, the genie in the bottle seemed like the whole world was living on an earthquake fault 30 years later and the bottle gets broken ceremony of the word is spoken you are the genie, I am the genie and the genie is us time passes slowly as the cycle unwinds and some people go and leave the others behind goodbye to a lover, goodbye to a friend farewell to a journey when it comes to an end the news came early on a sad summer’s day and we cried in our laughter as they laid him away and we danced to an orchestra of shimmering stars and all the world was music and the sound of a guitar
8.
9.
its fun to be a ganster when you're a kid just think about what Al Capone did all that fast life, guns and money shootin' people down 'cause they look at you funny like a big shot way high up on a stump you can snap your fingers and watch everybody jump it's a power dream sometimes comes true 'till you meet somebody's got more power than you do it feels good to be bad when its right to be wrong and a life sentence don't seem so long its a hard world, concrete and steel and it' hard to know just how you feel when every other hero on the movie screen is an action man with a killing machine you see the mighty muscles flex and flaunt seems like they get almost anything they want politicians in plain criminal view and if they can do it why not you it's a childhood world of walled-off yards metal detectors and armed guards cops patrolling the hamburger stand seems like almost everybody's got a gun in their hand you come rollin' up in your rap machine adrenalin pumpin' the excitable scene you can feel the action, you're catchin' the buzz you gotta make your move before somebody else does you get caught struttin' down that criminal line they gonna put you away for a long time now why'd you want to go and let them lock you down you know it's the biggest business around they don't care about how you rehabilitate you're just a cash-flow, like real estate three strikes you're out, that's what they say somebody's gonna get rich while you whither away when I was a kid I was real dumb I had no idea how a puppet got strung I thought I had my own point to prove I didn't know there was somebody makin' me move now after all those years apart now it's time for the puppet to start to get smart put down that pipe and pick up your brain we're gonna have to re-invent the rules to this tired old game
10.
it was April 19th, I remember it still when the bomb went off and all the people were killed in Oklahoma City in the early mornin’ gone without a warnin’ some short time later and they had their man he was a right wing with a military plan a Gulf War veteran come to call he gave his name, rank, and serial number, and that was all and the big mouth says “not me, oh no I’m only talkin’ on the radio” when he was in high school he learned to play with guns surfin’ on the internet just for fun he found some people that he’d like to know and the chip on his shoulder started to grow he joined the army in ‘88 he got a bronze star in Kuwait he read The Turner Diaries when his time was free and the chip on his shoulder got an ideology and the big mouth says “not me, oh no I’m only talkin’ on the radio” back home in stateside in ‘93 he found organized hatred was the place to be and the rage that had no focus before now joined up in the so-called patriot’s war with a crazed mythological state of mind Jewish conspiracies and Armageddon times he swore an oath with a solemn look and he built himself a bomb just like it said in the book and the big mouth says “not me, oh no I’m only talkin’ on the radio” now I don’t know, I ain’t all that smart but I think I can see when things are startin’ to come apart and everybody’s callin’ everybody else names and there’s a real mean streak in the game and the radio talks out a constant noise with a backroom club of good old boys Oliver North and G. Gordon Liddy you can hear ‘em all the way to Oklahoma City it’s like hatred’s climbed out from under its rock it’s got a radio show and it’s learned how to talk and talk ain’t nothin’, like the big mouth said until a hundred and sixty eight people are dead and the big mouth says “not me, oh no I’m only talkin’ on the radio”
11.
a thousand years of darkness fell upon the human race supernatural architects with a shadowy face put the devil in the ground and the watcher in the sky the eternal paranoia of an over-hanging eye when they first came to this continent it was foreign to their eyes so they peopled it with demons that they could recognize and they killed as many of them as their reason would allow they say it's all over but I think about it now fear is such a powerful thing you can make almost anyone do anything there’s a ghost in the heartland beating on a little tin drum to resurrect the Inquisition when the time comes and in the corridors of power where the politicians play there’s invisible fingers in the modelling clay see the strange man calling for the righteous to rise see the armies of a god with blood in his eyes a doctor to the clinic on his way to face the day passed the lines of danger where they kneel to pray and no one saw the gunman ready to attack until the angel of no mercy shot the doctor in the back fear is such a powerful thing you can make almost anyone do anything I demand a better future, much more beautiful by far with nothing in between us and the nature that we are tear away this skin of shame that ties us to the rack I demand a better future and I will never go back love is such a powerful thing you can make almost anyone do anything
12.
Tina 03:38
hands so gentle, eyes so wise a woman I loved beneath the wild western skies way out in Duck Valley where the high winds fly a woman I touched and was taken and somewhere a wild horse wakens how I remember the life we made the eyes of society so afraid that we might see behind the darkened shade secrets supposed to be hidden and somewhere a wild horse listens and she smiles so reassuringly across the distant visions of my memory "you have the eyes, my friend, you can surely see, don't let me down" and she smiles, eternity expanding in her hand sunrise, moonrise, grains of sand "comes a time, my friend, we all must make a stand, don't let me down" Tina, pretty woman, indigina red unraveling confusion's heavy thread entering and leaving, the living and the dead spirit weaver, your love has spoken and somewhere a wild horse will not be broken somewhere a wild horse will not be broken
13.
it's raining outside and the wind blows, oh what a watery squall rainwater blow through my windows and in through the cracks in the wall I been all night on the lookout, but I can't remember what for I can't remember much of nothin' these days now that I'm missing you more I had a good home but I lost it, there at the dock of the bay I woke up one mornin' and the money was gone and the banker come and took it away left me outside on a limb, sleepin' on the neighborhood floor thinkin' 'bout somewhere that I'd rather be now that I'm missing you more the veteran plays the piano in varying tonal degrees when the drink gets down to his fingers the music is there in the keys and I feel like that in the meantime, when doing without is a chore I'd rather be doing with some one like you now that I'm missing you more the sound of a whistling song bird, a look in the eye of the moon a spark in the heart of the underdog to laugh at the face of doom having something worth having depends on what you're having it for and I think I may've just found that out now that I'm missing you more the lights are all on on the causeway, the city is a glittering sight everybody's running in circles, some people never do get it right me I'm gonna follow my senses and try for the unopened door I think I know what I'm missing now that I'm missing you more
14.
Beautiful Tear there’s another one gone another sad song another great acre of rage it’s a mystery tree why’d this happen to me a tragedy played on a musical stage the innocents dance take their love if by chance with a glance at eternity’s treasure planting a seed with no warning or heed it’s a weight that’s too heavy to measure and all of the world’s water could never rain such a beautiful tear I held you in my arms last night and this morning you’re no longer here oh I stood in the rain and I whispered your name and I almost thought that you answered but it was only a feeling my dizzy head reeling I never was much of a dancer last time I saw you you didn’t see me your terminal eyes were unfocussed like a shadow of smoke when the bubble was broke you’ve gone to the plague of the locusts and all of the world’s water could never rain such a beautiful tear I held you in my arms last night and this morning you’re no longer here ------------- The Billion Dollar Jaw I’ll tell you a story ‘bout a talk show host who’s riding the airwaves from coast to coast rakin’ in the money like a royal flush always in a hurry, that’s why they call him Rush he’s gotta make it to the mic, make it to the phone he’s mister personality from flesh to bone he’s got answer for anything you might want to know and if he doesn’t well, hey, it’s his radio show Rush Limbaugh, the billion dollar jaw Rush Limbaugh, there oughtta be a law his fans are legion I’ve heard it said and they call themselves “Ditto Heads” but a ditto is a repeat down to the bone so a head with a ditto ain’t nothin’ but a clone he pushes all the buttons that are feedin’ the fear crawlin’ like a maggot in your inside ear if brain cells were made out of papier mâché he wouldn’t know what to do with ‘em anyway Rush Limbaugh, the billion dollar jaw Rush Limbaugh, there oughtta be a law now, it’s a funny kind of cult-like radio thing some middle-aged frat rat pumpin’ for the right wing and all those cloned-out echoey heads hangin’ on to every other word he said take Mussolini, give him a microphone let him loose with a show of his own and like everybody’s favorite brown shirt clown he’ll have you sidetrack laughin’ when the ax comes down Rush Limbaugh, the billion dollar jaw Rush Limbaugh, there oughtta be a law some people really love him and they can’t get enough buyin’ T-shirts, bumper stickers, all that stuff he’s got a best seller on the New York Times I guess some people just don’t have a lot on their minds now he’s a household word, a household name just like the hair in my bathroom drain like some kind of weird radio lobotomy but I can tell you right now he ain’t talkin’ for me Rush Limbaugh, the billion dollar jaw Rush Limbaugh, there oughtta be a law I’m gonna shut my radio and send it south I’m gonna get me some fly paper and put it over his mouth I’m gonna disconnect his company store so I don’t have to put up with that kind of stuff anymore and I’m gonna find me a place where people have brains and they don’t put up with these virulent strains and I’m gonna open up, I’m gonna settle down and if Rush shows up I’m gonna run him out of town Rush Limbaugh, the billion dollar jaw Rush Limbaugh, there oughtta be a law

about

Recorded at David Lange Studios, Fife, WA, 1995
Recorded and mixed by David Lang
Produced by Orville Johnson
All songs copyright Jim Page, Whid-Isle Music BMI
except Tina, lyrics by Jim Page and John Trudell

Jim Page: acoustic guitar and vocal
Arne Livingston: bass
Dale Fanning: drums
Will Dowd: percussion
Grant Dermody: harmonica
Erin Corday: vocals and recorder
Don Pawlak: pedal steel
Tommy Creegan: uillean pipes
David Lang: swishing things
Juan Barco: bajo sexto
Henry Castro: button accordion
Orville Johnson: vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, lap steel, dobro, banjo, temple bell

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released April 14, 1995

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Jim Page Seattle, Washington

Named by Seattle Metropolitan Magazine as “One Of The 50 Most Influential Musicians In Seattle History.” Originally from California Page has called Seattle and the Pacific Northwest “home” since 1971. Songs covered by The Doobie Brothers, Christy Moore, Dick Gaughan, Michael Hedges, and Roy Bailey. Utah Phillips: “If you’re ever going to get the message, this is the messenger to get it from.” ... more

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