New Song Lyrics

[Kujjj]

I'll try to do as good a job I can to decipher the song lyrics based off the performances, lyric sheets, and poems.

Revolving Wheel

A revolving wheel of metal chairs
Hung on chains, squealing

Four little children flying out
A blind man sings in Arabic

Hey little children don't disappear
I heard it was 28,000

Lost upon a revolving wheel
I heard it was 28,000

Now you see them now you don't
Children vanish hind the vehicle

Now you see them now you don't
Faces ,limbs , a bouncing skull

Hey little children don't disappear
I heard it was 28,000

All that's left after I leave
I heard it was 28,000

A painted(faded?) face, a trace of an ear
I heard it was 28,000

A ? of the missing
Tied to the government building

A thousand sun bleached photographs
Fading with the roses

Hey little children don't disappear
I heard it was 28,000

Lost upon a revolving wheel
I heard it was 28,000

A painted face, a trace of an ear
I heard it was 28,000

Don't watch them fade out

[Kujjj]

River Anacostia

Oh my Anacostia
Do not sigh, do not weep
Beneath the overpass
Your saviors waiting patiently

Walking on the water
Flowing with the poisons
From the naval yards
Talking to the fallen reeds

Say what will become of us
what will become of us?

Wade in the water
Gods gonna trouble the water

A small red sun makes way for night
Trails away like a tail light
Is that Jesus on the water
Talking to the fallen trees?

Say what will become of us
what will become us?

Wade in the water
God's gonna trouble the water

[Kuk91]

"Medicinals"

I was walking thru the National Mall,
thinking about medicinals, how they used to grow there

When the ground was a marshland
undisturbed by human hands, and I heard their voices:

Sumac said "We're always here"
Witch Hazel - "We're always here"
Sassafras - "We're always here"
Bluestem grasses always here

I looked about, and what I see?
Medicinals grow around me, rising from the gravel
Sumac and the Witch Hazel
Come to soothe our primal (?) sores, come to soothe our troubles

Sumac said "We're always here"
Witch Hazel - "We're always here"
Sassafras - "We're always here"
Bluestem grass is always here

But do you see that woman, sitting in the wheelchair?
With her Redskins cap on backwards
What's that she's singing?
As from inside a paper wrapper
she sips from a bottle
a new painkiller
for the native people.

[Kuk91]

"The Orange Monkey" lyric is ABSOLUTELY IDENTICAL to the poem in the book.

"The Community of Hope"

Here's the Hope Six Demolition Project
switching down (?) the Benning Road -
the well-known "pathway of death",
at least that's what I'm told

and here's one sit-down restaurant in Ward Seven. Nice.
Okay, now this is just drug town, just zombies,
but that's just life

in The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope

There's another (?) pathway of death and destruction
South Capitol is its name
and the school that's looks like shit-hole -
does that look like a nice place?
Here's the old mental institution
and the Homeland Security Base
and here's God's Deliverance Centre
and deli called M.L.K. [Martin Luther King]

and The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope

They're gonna put a Walmart here (×8)

[Kuk91]

"(All) Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln"

All Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln (×4)

At the refreshments stand
a boy throws out his hands
as if to feed the starlings,
but really he throws nothing

It's just to watch them jump
See the people coming
They moving over the grass
to squeze in two plastic chairs

All Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln (×4)

Three notes on the bugle call
A black man in overalls
arrives to empty the trash,
hauls it to all (?) metal hatch
a door (?) that opens off (?)
to the underworld

The boy throws empty hands
and the starlings jump

All Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln (×4)

[Kujjj]

The only thing I see about medicinals I would change is changing singing to swinging in the last part.

[Pollyphoniac]

here's my suggestion for an improved (yet incomplete) deciphering.
(the only part that remains opaque to my hearing is the "A ? of the missing" - where the inaudible word seems to begin with a "t", but I fail to make sense of the whole word)


Revolving Wheel

A revolving wheel of metal chairs
Hung on chains, squealing

Four little children flying out
A blind man sings in Arabic

Hey little children don't disappear
I heard it was 28,000

Lost upon a revolving wheel
I heard it was 28,000

Now you see them now you don't
Children vanish hind the vehicle

Now you see them now you don't
Faces, limbs, a bouncing skull

Hey little children don't disappear
I heard it was 28,000

All that's left after a year
I heard it was 28,000

A faded face, a trace of an ear
I heard it was 28,000

A ? of the missing
Tied to the government building

A thousand sun bleached photographs
Fading with the roses

Hey little children don't disappear
I heard it was 28,000

All that's left after a year
I heard it was 28,000

Lost upon a revolving wheel
I heard it was 28,000

A faded face, a trace of an ear
I heard it was 28,000

Don't watch them fade out

[Pollyphoniac]

this one seems absolutely clear to me:


All Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln (×4)

At the refreshment stand
a boy throws out his hands
as if to feed the starlings,
but really he throws nothing

It's just to watch them jump
See the people coming
They're moving over the grass
to squeeze into plastic chairs

All Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln (×4)

Three notes, a bugle call
A black man in overalls
arrives to empty the trash,
hauls it to a metal hatch
a doorway opens up
to the underworld

The boy throws empty hands
and the starlings jump

All Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln (×4)

[Pollyphoniac]

everything seems clear now, and I'm thankful to Kujjj and Kuk91 for their previous effort (which inspired myself to improve on it here):


"The Community of Hope"

Here's the Hope Six Demolition Project
stretching down the Benning Road -
the well-known "pathway of death",
at least that's what I'm told

and here's the one sit-down restaurant in Ward Seven. Nice.
Okay, now this is just drug town, just zombies, that's just life

in The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope

Here's the highway to death and destruction
South Capitol is its name
and the school that's looks like shit-hole -
does that look like a nice place?
Here's the old mental institution
and the Homeland Security Base
and here's God's Deliverance Centre
a deli called M.L.K.

The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope
The Community of Hope, hope, hope, hope

They're gonna put a Walmart here (×8)

[Kujjj]

Thanks Pollyphoniac, I was sure some of the things were wrong and you seem to have fixed them. Still can't decipher that T word in the revolving wheel though lol.

[Kujjj]

Homo Sappy Blues

A jaw, a leg bone, a reconstructed skull
No contitents or oceans
They died so young

What God sent you
Sent you from your cave
I need your wisdom
Homo Sapiens

Your path of migration
Is lodged upon a map
Looking like a tattoo
On a kid's forhead

What God sent you
Sent you from your cave
I need your wisdom
If only for a day

What God sent you(x2)

They die young around here
With a hunger in their guts
And a taste for vodka
Their friends faces on their shirts

Last year they killed one
Just for his shoes
Tell me what God sent you
I got the Homo Sappy Blues

What God sent you(2)

[Black Hearted Love]

Thanks Pollyphoniac, I was sure some of the things were wrong and you seem to have fixed them. Still can't decipher that T word in the revolving wheel though lol.

Table

[Black Hearted Love]

and the school that's looks like shit-hole

isn't: and the school just looks like shit-hole ?

[Pollyphoniac]

and the school that's looks like shit-hole

isn't: and the school just looks like shit-hole ?

there, I clearly seem to have missed that line, now I agree with you, but I think it should be:
"and a school just looks like a shit-hole"

[Pollyphoniac]

Thanks Pollyphoniac, I was sure some of the things were wrong and you seem to have fixed them. Still can't decipher that T word in the revolving wheel though lol.

Table

yes! that is indeed what it sounds like, and it makes sense too.

so this should be the whole song, fully deciphered now:

Revolving Wheel

A revolving wheel of metal chairs
Hung on chains, squealing

Four little children flying out
A blind man sings in Arabic

Hey little children don't disappear
I heard it was 28,000

Lost upon a revolving wheel
I heard it was 28,000

Now you see them now you don't
Children vanish hind the vehicle

Now you see them now you don't
Faces, limbs, a bouncing skull

Hey little children don't disappear
I heard it was 28,000

All that's left after a year
I heard it was 28,000

A faded face, a trace of an ear
I heard it was 28,000

A table of the missing
Tied to the government building

A thousand sun bleached photographs
Fading with the roses

Hey little children don't disappear
I heard it was 28,000

All that's left after a year
I heard it was 28,000

Lost upon a revolving wheel
I heard it was 28,000

A faded face, a trace of an ear
I heard it was 28,000

Don't watch them fade out (x 16)