The Trump Treehouse of Tall Stories, Treason & Tyranny: Musical Interlude - "It's A Trump World We're F****d And We Know It (And I Feel Stein)" - The Lyrics

(The Official Secret Clubhouse of the He-Man Truth & REM Haters Club)

So the other night, when I was sleeping (kind of - sleeping, actual sleeping, is not really a skill of mine) the chorus hit me. Then last night I sat down to write out some new lyrics and thought of my old friend Rick and one of our local bands at the time, The Issue. I'm sure you all have had that band, college or otherwise, that just meant a party any night they played, at whatever dive or backyard they were gigging at. THAT band that you just HAD to see at this dive or backyard for fear of being the only person who wasn't there come Monday morning's stories. Ya didn't want to be the one lonely outcast over that day's start of coffee and still lingering headache did ya?

Rick was the editor of the WVU school newspaper, a must read for every student on campus because he made it so. I approached him at the office of the paper, not long after I arrived at WVU and also after I started working for the college radio station, an award winning place that still earns the cred, about writing for him. I had written a column for my college paper, undergraduate at Waynesburg College, just north of WVU, just south of Pittsburgh and I brought some of those columns with me. I don't recall him being overly impressed. But he was a fan of the radio station, would eventually gain his own place there, and he gave me a chance, allowed me to continue my adventures of Earl & Jamm in a new spot, two idiot suspect genius roomates, believe it or not titled "My Name Is Earl" way pre-TV show (yes, Wayne & Garth "way"). The column ended up being pretty popular on campus for my short time there and Rick became a friend who did more for me then than you could possibly imagine. He became the friend who took that extra step when it comes to what you hope could come from a friendship and impressing him with whatever my latest column was, was huge to me. He was also a pretty humble guy, not quite reserved, he had very vocal opinions, often about movies, but still not a guy you would ever have expected to stand up in front of THAT band at the dive or a backyard and sing "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (and I feel fine)". Nobody knew all the words, other than the arena chorus, let alone had the ability to sing them at the frenetic pace they are sung. Hell, I'd be surprised if Michael Stipe himself has ever gotten them all really right live. But Rick? He never missed a hectic word or beat.

I've listened to the song now, in pieces, as I tried to get the timing down, more times than I thought humanly possible, even moreso than that tune, as a kid you thought was the greatest tune in the history of tunes (until the next one) and repeated ad nauseum until mom was actually ad nauseum outside your bedroom with a gun...or knife or vodka. Whatever was on hand.

I've sent him this "draft" of my new imagining of the song, a current screwed up world take on it, to check my lyrical/musical math as he was the expert. I'm still hoping, almost 30 years later, that he is impressed.

I'm going to try and sing or talk this one out in my little studio soon, it just depends on whether I have the breath for it. The hubris of youth's imagined immortality, and thus stupidity, has taken some of that breath away but I'll try. It'll surely be exhausting, as the song is. Apologies ahead of time.

(Note to Michael Stipe in this revisiting, all these years later? Absolute and prescient fucking brilliance)

"It's A Trump World We're Fucked And We Know It (And I Feel Stein)" 

Not great it starts with a Trumpquake
Snakes breed Snakes, a new filled swamp, Kanye West should be afraid.
Lies form a hurricane, listen to his bluster churn
Trump serves his own needs, asks you of your loyal deeds
Speed them up a notch, ring, blind, bow, kiss, no
Safety net you splatter with the lies of the right, downright
Dumpster fire only help that you can hire must be true, true to sire's white combat house
Democracy is burning in a hurry but there's truthies
Breathing out real news
Trumpy team believers baffled, truth, sends their world stop
Must send blame...anger...hate
Uh oh, info flow, population, cannot know
What Trump'll do to save himself save himself
Trump serves his own needs listen to a country bleed
Tells you he's been God sent a chorus of the right, leans right
You hypocritic Patriotic 5 time dodge but
We're feelin' pretty white

It’s a Trump world we’re fucked and we know it
It’s a Trump world we’re dumb and we show it
It’s a Trump world he won and we blew it
And I feel Stein

5 am, Fox and Friends, a Trumpy Street day begins
Lefty burns, return, always loves himself in turn
Throw him in a big parade, bombs bursting, flags wilting
Every truth a danger now, lies must escalate
Build a fire, blame the fire, ride horse, ride horse
Trample on a flag's trust use it as a prop must
Wrap himself in fake's lust
Call the news the bad trust
Repeated calls, chilling calls, calling of  their "lies"
He offers no solutions, only state news fake productions and I decline

It’s a Trump world we’re fucked and we know it
It’s a Trump world we’re dumb and we show it
It’s a Trump world he won and we blew it
And I feel Stein

(Music...)

(chorus again)

It’s a Trump world we’re plucked and we're naked
It’s a Trump world we somehow let him take it
It’s a Trump world we're blind and we hate it
And I'm not mine

In daylight we de-cide whether we should fight or hide
Try to turn the tide, GIVE THE TRUTH A RIDE, Martin King, George Carlin, real news,
Protest party, bubblegum, apple pie, Grandma, Ellis Island
We symbiotic, realistic slam dunk humans?
We're right...Right?

It’s a Trump world we’re fucked and we know it
It’s a Trump world we’re dumb and we show it
It’s a Trump world he won and we blew it
And I feel Stein

......

It’s a Trump world we’re fucked and we know it
It’s a Trump world we’re dumb and we show it
It’s a Trump world he won and we blew it
And I feel Stein

It’s a Trump world we’re plucked and we're naked
It’s a Trump world we somehow let him take it
It’s a Trump world we're blind and we hate it
And I'm not mine

......(fading)