1. |
Beauty & Pedigree & Bank
03:13
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I can’t help but be suspicious
Of anyone who’s had the world handed to them
Like a planet-sized safety net below
Can’t help it, can’t stop it, can’t fight it, no
Beauty and pedigree and bank will get you everywhere
Beauty and pedigree and bank will win out every time
I figured it too late to do anything about it
I can’t help but wonder if I’m a little culpable
A small percentage
Oh, the places that I never traveled to
Reading through my walking papers
Found an errant mark, an extra space
A second and a half of satisfaction
It’s my time to get out there and
Be magnetic and unstoppable and
Let me have a drink and think about it first
Words and music by Mike Benign
©2019 Varicose Music (BMI)
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2. |
Bonafide Americans
02:55
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The candy goodness melts in your mouth
A fairy princess on a unicorn of sorts
But real Americans love this shit
Maybe it’s me and I’m a bitter, angry shell
Doesn’t it set off some emotion that you can’t control
Bonafide Americans calling you home
Let’s thank the sellouts to the ends and means
The ones beholden to the twenty-six percent
It’s entertainment now, it’s entertainment now
Dear Leader’s faculties are here and then they’re not
We’re fatigued and that’s how they wanted it
We’re fatigued but we’ve got to fight
Whoever said “that joke’s not funny anymore” was right
Let’s raise a glass and toast the end of days
And hold our loved ones tight before they slip away
Try to remember how we used to feel
Try not to think ‘bout where it’s going to go from here
Words and music by Mike Benign
©2019 Varicose Music (BMI)
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3. |
Let It Rain Or Let It Be
03:55
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People so close to the end of their lives
For some reason hanging around
Oh, it’s the sound of boredom
My grandparents’ deities said “let it rain” or “let it be”
Frankly it confuses me to no end
I’ll give you a minute if you let me put my face in it
Moments are my jam I’m all about them
I would love to listen but I’ve got something to say about
Everyone, everything, every time
I get a warm feeling
When that cute old couple’s around
Though it’s The Land Of Boredom
Yeah, I’m guilty of these crimes:
The sickest beats, the dopest rhymes
Man, we live in crazy times
I love them
If you see the Buddha
If you see the Buddha yo
Tell him that I say hello
Words and music by Mike Benign
©2019 Varicose Music (BMI)
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4. |
The Bombs Rain Down
03:25
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We’re all bruised and yes, we all hear voices
Shake them away when no one’s looking
Invite them in when no one’s home
The bombs rain down
So predictably, so predictably
The bombs rain down
And my mind’s a mile out in front of me
Doesn’t it make you long for dumber times?
I can ride these ups and downs forever
Give them their day then wall them airtight
Let’s have a drink and change this song
It’s enough for me to be
In my view from the margins
I can see for miles and miles
Close enough to the garden
To imagine smells and smiles
I can see for miles and miles
But I can’t touch a thing
Words and music by Mike Benign
©2019 Varicose Music (BMI)
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5. |
Heaven Knows What
03:12
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I want to live with abandon but I don’t know how
I fell asleep at the switch and I woke up just now
All my life I’ve waited for, all my life I’ve waited for
All of my life I’ve been waiting for heaven knows what
I used to play well with others who lived in my head
I used to play well enough
But I don’t see me there again
You live a lifetime of waiting to turn back the clock
And every time that it feels like the bottom it’s not
Words and music by Mike Benign
©2019 Varicose Music (BMI)
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6. |
These Heroes
03:19
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Heard a band we’d long adored planned to play a record store
So we got the kids some food before we headed in
And we were in the line trying to pass the time
And me: I’m all about the words, but not a thing to say
We’ve got a common enemy in Time
These heroes of mine
For the most part they seem like they’ve figured it out
Oh yeah
And the next night at the show
Tried to close my eyes and go to years like 1991 and 1993
If a day was terrible they would make it bearable for me
With beautiful and smart and next to Godliness
We’ve got a common enemy in Time
These heroes of mine
For the most part they seem like they’ve figured it out
That’s what I would have said back then
I’m somebody else on the outside these days
Words and music by Mike Benign
©2019 Varicose Music (BMI)
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7. |
Olivia Rainmaker
03:17
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She says “I’ve got to think you’ve seen this enough
To know what was coming next”
But it’s someone else’s tragedy until it’s yours
Olivia Rainmaker you sold me
Olivia Rainmaker you soaked me
It’s the end of the road
And I don’t have a clue what to do with you
I say “I’ve got a bag of time tested tricks
Sit down, let me walk you through
All the battlefields and all the ones who moved along
I can take a beating or so I’ve proven
I can bite my tongue and hold my breath
I’ve got tricks and techniques you haven’t seen yet”
Words and music by Mike Benign
©2019 Varicose Music (BMI)
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8. |
Bobby May's Holiday
02:43
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Start the day at dawn
Put your helmet on
Tell yourself you’re happy like a man
Someone else’s dream
Take one for the team
Do it pretty much because you can
Bobby May’s holiday needs protecting
And we all can do our part
Bobby May’s holiday’s
Going down in flames before it starts
Find your stock in trade
Ply it unafraid
Better furniture will soon ensue
The medication fits
Your liver goes to shit
That’s the way it works, what can you do?
And he dreamed of beaches with a sun overhead
Now he only dreams of being left alone
Words and music by Mike Benign
©2019 Varicose Music (BMI)
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9. |
I'm Sorry For Everything
02:52
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Fruit flies in the kitchen at one point or another
You leave a mess and circle back or don’t
I’m sorry for everything I ought to be
And the very day you get it right
You get it, right?
You put it down on paper
In the days there were erasers
You’d circle back and take it out or not
You see the ones you need to notice
Looking elsewhere and you wish it were a dream
Too bad so long your shininess is gone
You know it and you wish it were a dream
And if I’m a spectacle
Every man’s a spectacle unto himself
At one point or another
Words and music by Mike Benign
©2019 Varicose Music (BMI)
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10. |
Manchild
02:48
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You’re a little precious
I wonder if you know it
I’m a little lost when you claim the moral high ground
You’re a manchild
You should admit it
Maybe you suspect you’re still a little boy
But you would rather not know for sure
You avoid the conflict but love to talk about it
And the eye-to-eye
Is something you have yet to try
Get down on your knees and bow to the tastemakers
They love that you sneezed and shit
And slept where the cool kids do
There’ll be more there’ll be more there’ll be more
There’ll be much more for you
Words and music by Mike Benign
©2019 Varicose Music (BMI)
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11. |
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I see you behind that lamppost there,
End Of The World Kind of Feeling
I ought to say “I told you so,” but I can’t say I care
When last we met you walked me through the reasons
That dream I dreamed in truth was laughable
Now you know more than you’re letting on
I see you’ve changed since we last met
End Of The World Kind of Feeling
No longer lobbing jokes around the luncheonette
“This world,” you say, “is ripe for escalation
Everything old is new again
Been here before but in better hands”
Wait ‘til they get a load of me
End Of The World Kind of Feeling
Meet me at the entrance to the pharmacy
Stand up sit down this mass is never-ending
Everything old is new again
Let them seek comfort in ceremony
Words and music by Mike Benign
©2019 Varicose Music (BMI)
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12. |
Set For Demolition
03:04
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When the old people get back together
They eat the ancient foods
And lament about things that we consider unsavory today
Hope, you torment them, you do
Wheeled into a corner all alone
And dreaming dreams of you
When the old music’s on I get weepy
Like all setting sons
And lament about the genius of my heroes: irrelevant today
Like a coat on the hook of a door in a building
Set for demolition soon
And if there’s any more bile down there
You need to let fly just do
Another summer’s now slipping away from me
When the old masters get back together
We make mental notes
And lament about moments that we blundered
Still with us today
Clock watch and drift off, we do
Racing toward a future in a stupor dreaming dreams of you
Bracing for a future in a stupor dreaming dreams of you
Like a coat on the hook of a door in a building
Set for demolition soon
Words and music by Mike Benign
©2019 Varicose Music (BMI)
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The Mike Benign Compulsion Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The Mike Benign Compulsion:
Four pop rock vets from Milwaukee, Wisconsin with pretty decent musical pedigrees who know their way around a song.
The Mike Benign Compulsion recommends:
Fookin' brilliant record.
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