The Lyric Poetry of Greg Greenway "race is a myth, pure is a lie"

G/C tuning (CGDGBD) no Capo
I will hold on for you
when the world is letting go,
shaking heads and saying no,
I will hold on for you.
In this building of bad dreams,

blank walls, and strange machines.

Then I cry behind the steering wheel,
when it’s closest to me, and it washes right through me.
And I’m alone behind the dark windshield, afraid.
There’s no driving this pain away.

I will still say the words
in places where no one will speak,
hesitant and incomplete.
I will still say the words,
that reach out like fingers
when silence remembers.

Chorus

Chorus

It’s over our shoulder, it came uninvited,
looming like a shadow in the corner of the room.
Huddled together, together we’ll fight it,
find a peace in the moment we can hold onto.

Chorus

C9 tuning (CGDGCD) Capo on 2nd fret
They cut off Mussolini’s head
it sprouted roots in the warm spring rain
and grew shaved heads and swastikas
that blindly shouted out his name
mindless of the history
in an ignorant and empty praise.
In love with the simplicity
of finding someone else to blame.

Race is a myth. Pure is a lie.

They cut off Mussolini’s head
it was spit on by the passersby
in the square where thousands once had cheered
and raised his fascist banners high.
Like lovers drunk on promises,
seduced by overwhelming need.
Awakened to the light of day,
enslaved by the reality

Race is a myth. Pure is a lie.

They cut off Mussolini’s head,
it sprouted roots in the warm spring rain
and lives to bloom another day,
encoded in our reptilian brain.
that formed in shadows of the past,
the forests of antiquity,
instinctual, the strong, the fast,
eat or be eaten, fight or flee.
On this ancient wiring, Mussolini’s head relies,
that those reduced to primal fear
will trade their freedom for their lives.
And worship an invented god,
slaughter sacrificial goats,
and fervently repeat the lie
that keeps the dagger from their throats.
I pledge allegiance, in god we trust,
I have seen the enemy and it is us.

Race is a myth. Pure is a lie.

They cut off Mussolini’s head,
it sprouted roots in the warm spring rain.
It comes wrapped up in the flag,
and hides behind familiar names.
The slight of hand of twisted men
that hide the fine print on the wall.
Read between the magic words
“liberty and justice for all” except you.
Except you for the color of your skin,
except you for what you believe,
except you because of who you love,
except you because you disagree.

Race is a myth. Pure is a lie.

When I hear of Jewish graves
spray painted with the broken cross,
I think about some vented spleen
more for the effect that the cause.
It’s the white white noise of angry boys.
Race is a myth. Pure is a lie.

Gm/C tuning (CGDGBflatD) no Capo
Desire won’t ask, it wakes you up at night,
and speaks in strange voices wild words.
I fell into desire like I fell into the sea
willingly falling, free.

Desire takes me away,
down in my heart I hope that someday,
somehow love will bring me safely home.

You used to stand, and walk your widow’s walk,
and watch me go wander the world.
And wonder what desire pulled me like a wooden ship
beyond the horizons of love.

Desire takes me away,
down in my heart I hope that someday,
somehow love will bring me safely home.

C9 tuning (CGDGCD) Capo on 2nd fret
The scars of all my failures are buried well beneath my skin.
Old fossil bones of creatures that met with an untimely end.
Fallen and broken, my hands can feel them there beneath.
We dig them up together like archaeology.

And some days we must go there, beneath these soft

museum walls.

Walk among the skeletons, stand before once deadly jaws,
fearsome, forgotten, the crumbled remnants of my dreams.
We put them back together like archaeology.

And the words, “I love you” surround me like the dessert

sands.

The ashes of the phoenix. Death by fire, birth by pain.
Golden, triumphant, if only for your eyes to see.
You put me back together like archaeology

C9 tuning (CGDGCD) Capo of the 4th fret
Tear down this building. Set these bricks free.
These walls so familiar, this old house of dreams.
Get on with this journey, get out on the road.

Cause I’m breaking, I’m breaking out.
I’m making for holy ground.
I’m breaking, get me free
I’m going to tear down these wall around
that are holding me.

I’ve carried my own dream til I’ve dropped to my knees.
When I could not stand up, that dream carried me.
It won’t let me stay here, it won’t let me sleep.

Chorus

When that door shuts behind me,
with the click of the latch,
I’m going to walk down that hallway.
No looking back.

Goodbye to this building that once took me in.
These walls so familiar, I wear them like skin.
A skin that needs shedding, that’s holding me down.

Cause I’m breaking, I’m breaking out.
I’m making for holy ground.

C9 tuning (CGDGCD) Capo on 4th fret
Where do I put my feet
when the ground is still moving.
Where do you go
to give sight to the blind.
What do you do
to give power to the powerless.
How do you turn back time.

I know what it means
to be tried and convicted.
No judge, no jury, guilt by decree.
Sentenced to wear the mask of your
demons.
It’s all you will ever see.

What about me,
do you ever think about it?
What about me, do you hear what I say?
What about me,
the way you look right through me
it’s like you don’t even know my name.

How do you know
when bending is breaking.
When the last thread
has tattered away.
Because then you know
when it’s down to survival
there’s nothing much left to say

Chorus

C9 tuning (CGDGCD) no Capo
Once my voice would not work.
It would not recognize my songs.
It wandered off and lost it’s faith.
What went wrong?

And then I dreamed a voiceless song
that did not need me to get along.
When I woke up what was gone
had all come home.

Once my words would not work.
They held no meaning I could hear
and walked away misunderstood.
What went wrong.

And then I dreamed a wordless song
that did not need me to get along.
When I woke up what was gone
had all come home.

The fruit of my own brother’s life
put a needle in her arm.
A puppy drawn to a ball.
This ball has a chain.

I cannot sleep to dream away.
She needs someone to get along.
All my voice, my words can say
is will she ever come home?

Please, please come home…

C9 tuning (CGDGCD) Capo on 3rd fret
I’m not a bitter man.
I don’t spend much time wondering
“what if?”
As much as I hold to these moments,
they come and they go and they’re gone.
I’ve given in to the wind that calls my name.
I’ve given in to the stars that move me.

Chorus

I am a simple man.
I don’t need alot of things to tell
me who I am.
As much as they buy and they sell you.
It comes and it goes and it’s gone.
I’ve given in to the girl with electric skin.
I’ve given in to the touch that moves me.

And the waters rise.
And the moon comes out.
I’m pulled like a creature of night.
I still don’t know what this is all about,
but, I’m on my way to find out.

Without forgetting the words that are
leading to “Who are you?”

I’m not a driven man.
I don’t lead my life by some best laid plans.
I still see the moon through my window,
as it comes and it goes and it’s gone.
I’ve given in to the song that calls my name.
I’ve given in to the words that move me.

Chorus

And the seasons change
and the world turns round.
I wake up each morning surprised.
I still don’t know what this is all about,
but, I’m on my way to find out.

Gm/C (CGDGBflatD) Capo on the 4th fret
It’s a photograph kept in a drawer,
from the south of France, from a stolen car.
Funky leather coat, tanding by the oceanside,
smiling, alive, arms open wide.

Who is this guy I’ve barely known a week.
All he ever asked of life was everything.
You want to make him king,
you want to ring his neck.
You want to tip your hat sometimes
out of shear respect.
Smiling, alive, arms open wide

Into the wild why not,
into the wild why not we go.

That’s the way it was.
I shake my head sometime.
You could change the whole world
just by changing your mind.
I never laughed so hard,
I’ve never been so scared.
I’ve never been so close to nowhere
and didn’t care.
Smiling, alive, arms open wide

Chorus

And when I heard the news,
you know it took me back
to a wild, wild ride and a photograph.
And it ends too soon.

Into the wild why not,
into the wild why not we go.

Gm/C tuning (CGDGBflatD) Capo on 4th fret
Four in the morning wide awake.
Waiting as another world takes it’s turn.
and mine the only light I see
from my window view
at this hour when dream
seems so true.

Four in the morning wide awake
staring at the shadows on my crowded floor.
A man in a sleepless night
sorting out his days.
Looking there for signs of something more.

Take me higher, take me higher
these quiet hours cry.
remind me of promises made.
Take me higher, take me higher
than this endless stream of days
conspiring to be my passageway.

Some days there is magic in my mind
and a warm fire dancing in my lover’s eyes.
And some days I’m blind
to the world beyond my door.
And the circles seem to say there’s
nothing more.

Chorus