After America
from Stopping distance by Jack James
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After America
Written: 2012 - May 2013
Recorded: 31st May 2013 - 18th July 2013
Written: 2012 - May 2013
Recorded: 31st May 2013 - 18th July 2013
lyrics
All words by Allen Ginsberg
America (edit)
America I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956
I can't stand my own mind
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
I don't feel good don't bother me
I won't write my poem till I'm in my right mind
America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
America why are your libraries full of tears?
I'm sick of your insane demands
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?
America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world
Your machinery is too much for me
You made me want to be a saint
There must be some other way to settle this argument
Burroughs is in Tangiers I don't think he'll come back it's sinister
Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
I'm trying to come to the point
I refuse to give up my obsession
America stop pushing I know what I'm doing
America the plum blossoms are falling
I haven't read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for
murder
America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies
America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I'm not sorry
I smoke marijuana every chance I get
I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet
When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid
My mind is made up there's going to be trouble
You should have seen me reading Marx
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations
I'm addressing you
America this is quite serious
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set
America is this correct?
I'd better get right down to the job
It occurs to me that I am America
I am talking to myself again
America (edit)
America I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956
I can't stand my own mind
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
I don't feel good don't bother me
I won't write my poem till I'm in my right mind
America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
America why are your libraries full of tears?
I'm sick of your insane demands
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?
America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world
Your machinery is too much for me
You made me want to be a saint
There must be some other way to settle this argument
Burroughs is in Tangiers I don't think he'll come back it's sinister
Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
I'm trying to come to the point
I refuse to give up my obsession
America stop pushing I know what I'm doing
America the plum blossoms are falling
I haven't read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for
murder
America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies
America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I'm not sorry
I smoke marijuana every chance I get
I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet
When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid
My mind is made up there's going to be trouble
You should have seen me reading Marx
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations
I'm addressing you
America this is quite serious
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set
America is this correct?
I'd better get right down to the job
It occurs to me that I am America
I am talking to myself again
credits
from Stopping distance,
released February 3, 2014
Allen Ginsberg - Samples from "America", Big Table Chicago Read 1959
Jack James - Acoustic Guitar, Accordion, Banjo, Piano, Electric Guitar
Gavin Crawford - Percussion
Allen Ginsberg - Samples from "America", Big Table Chicago Read 1959
Jack James - Acoustic Guitar, Accordion, Banjo, Piano, Electric Guitar
Gavin Crawford - Percussion
license
tags
about
Jack James Glasgow
Rangy songwriter.
“From Neil Young... by way of Bonnie "Prince" Billy, to Arab Strap, without the
charming vulgarity”
-The Herald
"Sounding more like a Scottish Leonard Cohen than ever"
-Scots Whay Hae
"Jack James may be doomed"
-The List
... more
discography
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Oct 2017 -
Jul 2015 -
Feb 2014 -
Feb 2013 -
Dec 2011 -
May 2010 -
May 2009
contact / help
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