William Holden is a soldier
and Nixon will not send him home
with every card game he gets older
so when on leave he needs to roam
don’t judge him by his desires
the puppet wires
are strong
oh

William Holden is a BART rider
bound for Hong Kong or Seoul
William Holden holds a token
and asks
“Does this plane flow to tokyo?”
in his nightmare she’s a vampire,
and an empire,
and a song oh
but when he wakes up
there ain’t no Suzy Wong
no
there ain’t no Suzy Wong

William Holden is a brush fire
and only ghosts will walk him home
and in his horror movie quagmire
the truth got stripped right to the bone
he never was much of a listener
he needs a prisoner
to go with his war
oh
so come along
on the search for Suzy Wong
there ain’t no Suzy Wong
no

Hans moved back to live in Hamburg
he bought a wife,
didn’t you know?
she does the unthinkable absurd
she nails him to a pedestal
in his nightmare free of feeling
he is kneeling
at her throne
and she holds a cold revolver,
a problem solver,
her chaperone
and you and know this is not right
but after midnight
your halo’s gone
one suitcase into the street hurled
and half of his world
is still Viet Cong
oh, don’t you sing along

there ain’t no Suzy Wong
no
there ain’t no Suzy Wong
no
there ain’t no Suzy Wong

from the new Making It. Buy it on Amazon MP3 or iTunes

Demonically Energized

L.A.’s ruled by gurus,
and New York’s ruled by shrinks:
at least that’s what my uncle,
in Kansas thinks.
He’s got all my records;
they’ve been thoroughly analyzed.
He’s come to the conclusion
I’m demonically energized.

He said “If you choose to engage,
in experimental sex,
or write freakish novels that are
willfully Pynchon-esque,
you can do all these things,
but don’t be surprised,
if you awake
to find yourself
demonically energized.

He said “You can sing and joke about,
painful drug addictions;
and make no effort to resolve,
the looming contradictions;
you can do all these things
but wait till I close my eyes;
sin takes its toll
and now your soul’s
demonically energized.

“If alcohol abuse
is something,
you choose to make light of
and common decency
is something,
okay to lose sight of,
indulge your freakish whims
in spite of how you’ve been advised.
Sin takes your soul
and now your soul’s
demonically energized.

“If you choose to poke fun
of this country’s racial tension
and sing of things
that Nat Cole King
was far too nice to mention
if you’ve got devil’s catechism
thoroughly memorized
he’s achieved his goal
and now your soul is
demonically energized.

“Now if you choose to travel
to exotic places,
and if you choose to sit
on exotic faces,
if you think it’s cute
that a prostitute
is in song canonized,
he’s achieved his goal
and now your soul is
demonically energized.”