The Complete Works (American Lights)

Undercover agents, over the radio:
Turn the sound up, the lights down low
Here’s a boy of seven years
Train him in the trade of tears
For Imperial & Texaco.

There’s ‘Retha, Buck and Muddy
They pour half the Mississippi in his Coke
Up all last night gettin’ the feed up
While daddy’s dusty tapes like fire escapes in Brooklyn heat up
 
Here is your future, your future
The ghosts just whisper and lurk
Here’s the introduction to the complete works of the man
Where ev’rything is unraveled

Trust the process! 
Follow the mission!
Join this cosmic rodeo ride,
chasing the highs,
American Lights.

Your Arms, your Soul
The Allied Control
An Empire of Plains & Blues. 
Rainbows and Raves
Graceland to the grave
Now, What have you got to lose?
And when you dream of Anarene, you’re home.

Starry-eyed and kind of blue
Leave this sunset schoolyard view
For a cornfield and train tracks
Or a bus depot bench morning with nine stories of old paperback

Black eye patch on the left
Sinks a hook into his heart
Now Huck Finn’s goin' electric
Gettin’ Religion from the Red Lake to the Red Light District
 
It ain't no Storyville, my friend
where you're hangin’ with the cool, cool jerks
Feels like the Holy Bible
It’s the complete works of the man
While ev’rything is unraveling
Trust the process! 
Follow the mission!
Join this cosmic rodeo ride,
chasing the highs,
American Lights.

Your Arms, your Soul
The Allied Control
An Empire of Plains & Blues. 
Rainbows and Raves
Graceland to the grave
Now, What have you got to lose?
And when you dream of Anarene, you’re home.

A prayer verse on a Christmas card
Some pick-me ups when times are hard
This pick-up and sixpacks,
pedal steels & trucker caps
Down Alis Lesley Boulevard

And in the darkness there’s a picture show
Look who’s back, front left, third row
This is the image you thumb through for
In the complete works of the man
When ev’rything is unraveling
Trust the process! 
Follow the mission!
Join the cosmic rodeo ride!
American Lights.

Your Arms, your Soul
The Allied Control,
An Empire of Plains & Blues. 
Rainbows and Raves
Graceland to the grave
Now, What have you got to lose?
Your Arms, your Soul
The Allied Control,
This Empire was made for you. 

And when you dream of Anarene, you’re home.

(c) Maks van Houten 2024

The Complete Works (American Lights)

And So It Goes (Billy Joel Cover)

Feminist Cowboy Boots

You’re a small town kid, you’re from the Nineteens
Now you get your kicks on South Audre Lorde Street
To raze the master’s house, you brought all the tools to class
And boots to march this path, wired on Kristeva math

Your ex suspects you genuflect, when sex and power intersect

Oh you were born a cowboy – with Jane Canary eyes!
In your feminist guise and desires taped to your thighs
For a tightrope walk on heartbreaks and high hopes,
along a crooked line.

Death rattle twists and shakes, they still can break our bones
In gaslit battles in the dark, in glass houses and concrete homes
You want to worship and play in peace, this superposed ID!
And boots to climb this hill and praise for your empathic skills

But with lust & language in effect, I recommend you disconnect

Oh you were born a cowboy – with Jane Canary eyes!
In your feminist guise and desires taped to your thighs
A tightrope walk on heartbreaks and high hopes,
along a crooked line.

A tightrope walk on heartbreaks and high hopes,
along a crooked line.

(c) Maks van Houten 2024.

Feminist Cowboy Boots

Romeo and Ophelia

Romeo and Ophelia were dancing outside a cocktail bar
To some swinging 40's tune that sounded like the moon
Shining through an old valve radio
There were tears in her ocean blue eyes, I'd say
But it was hard to tell that way, dancing cheek to cheek
'Til Romeo started to speak ‘bout that laughable imitation of fate

Ophelia, oh I feel you haven't got the nerve no more
Can't say that I'm still standing rather stranding at your shores
Was it just bad luck and timing?
Oh Romeo, my Romeo, here's just not where I belong
All your dizzy declarations, how I loved them, but it all felt wrong
Though I wanted to believe you
Though I tried and tried
Oh how I tried and tried

There is one last thing, Romeo said, please never ever you regret
This peculiar time, I thought you were meant to be mine
What a laughable imitation of fate
Oh, such a laughable imitation of fate!

Romeo!
Whoa, Ophelia!
Romeo!
Whoa, Ophelia!

(c) Maks van Houten 2024

Romeo & Ophelia

שׁוֹשַׁנָּה (Shoshanna, Shine On)

You flowed from every ion, every crystal and grain
From collisions and loss, you will grow and gain
You are one thing that’s been missing among these stars,
one thing that will never be again

So Shoshanna, shine on

You traveled eons of darkness, to this bonfire by the sea
You’re dancing matter, and that’s all you can be
You are the reason the light is winning
There’s an X marked in time and space for you, but no Why

So Shoshanna, shine on

You flowed from every ion, every crystal and grain
Twist and shout and jump for joy, for sunlight and rain

Shoshanna, shine on

Here I am, here we are
There’s a reason, you are the reason

Here I am, here we are
There’s a reason, you are the reason

There’s no why, there’s no why  
but there’s a reason: You are the reason.

Shoshanna, shine on

(c) Maks van Houten 2024

Shoshanna, Shine On

שׁוֹשַׁנָּה (Shoshanna, Shine On)

Yea, and sleep went to slaughter, I saw you drift away farther and farther
My eyes pinned like diamonds, head of smoke for days
I loved you
... but loving you was easy, the easiest thing in the world.
___________________________________________________
A Thousand Ghosts. (SOUNDTRACK TWENTY SIXTEEN.)
___________________________________________________
I (speak into the silence)
BURIAL “Come Down To Us” x FRANK OCEAN “Nikes” 
BON IVER “22 (OVER S∞∞N)”
MODERAT “Bad Kingdom”
TAME IMPALA “Eventually”
BOOK OF FEARS “The Water Lets You In”
NITIN SAWHNEY “Water Transition 3” x SCOTT WALKER “Cutting Flowers”
PABLO NOUVELLE feat. LULU JAMES “All I Need”
RAGZ NORDSET “You Started It All” (Ron Basejam Rework)
FRANK OCEAN “Nikes”
MIND AGAINST “Gravity”
LYLE LOVETT “Loretta”
BURIAL “Hiders”
JOY WELLBOY “Lay Down Your Blade”
SOLANGE “Cranes In The Sky”
ME & MY DRUMMER “Don't Be So Hot” (Tale of Us & The/Das Alternate Remix)
__________________________________________________
II (touching heaven)
LELAND RIIIVR: SiR “Love You” x BOXCUTTER “Vatic Dreams” (Defcon Remix)
INGRID LUKAS “We Are” (Manuel Tur Remix 3)
LEONARD COHEN “Anthem”
ALTON MILLER & AMP FIDDLER “When The Morning Comes” (Rampue Remix)
MACEO PLEX “Mind On Fire” x LEN FAKI “Rainbow Delta” (Ambient Mix)
THE KOOKS “Creatures of Habit” (Jack Beats Remix)
__________________________________________________
III (nothing left)
JIM MORAY “The Week Before Easter” 
KURIOSE NATURALE “Madame Psychosis”
LEONARD COHEN “You Want It Darker”
NICO “Afraid”
THE MONKEES “Me & Magdalena” (Version 2)
DAPHNE B “Wien nach 10”
ALICE BOMAN “Waiting” (PAL Remix)
MARK KOZELEK “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”