Get all 10 Ross W Berman IV releases available on Bandcamp.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of VEILED PROPHETS, Beyond Caring, Been On The Job Too Long, Where The Light Don't Reach, The Only Answer, This City, Keeping Kayfabe Blues, DIY I: White Nonsense, and 2 more.
1. |
Medical Card Blues
03:45
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Give me Red Bull when I'm weary, Reefer when I wanna get high
Give me my baby when I'm lonesome, sit her right down here by my side
I woke up this morning, I had those medical card blues.
I was born under a bad sign, so the clinic sent me home with no excuse
I rolled and I tumbled, I cried the whole night long
I've been moaning after midnight, since my Mary Jane picked up & gone
Those clouds look lonesome, look at how they shine above the sea
I wanna see those big grey clouds in front of my TV
It's 4:20, and every single pipe I've got is dry
I don't even have a hit of resin, I can scrape to smoke and try to get me by
I'm gonna get high, just as sure as you know my name
I'm gonna stick to my red bull & reefer, I ain't gonna mess around with no cocaine
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2. |
I'm Gonna Eat The Rich
01:44
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I'm gonna eat the rich, fry them up in oil
Rip the meat off their bones, but it in a pot to boil
Gonna cut up some potatoes
Gonna cut up some leeks
Gonna eat the rich, gonna be full for weeks
I'm gonna eat your brains for my lunch
I'm gonna make a snack of your fingers & thumbs
I'm gonna put you in a slow cooker
Cover the lid
I'm gonna eat the rich, like my forefathers did
From Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine
We're gonna eat the rich, then we'll eat them again
Hush little children
You'll understand
I'm gonna eat the rich, won't you lend me a hand
For the Jews & The Gypsies
The Blacks & The Gays
I'm gonna eat the rich, gonna kill the old ways
Come senators & congressmen, what do ya say?
There's a mighty strong wind and its headed your way
You wanna save the country?
You wanna stop the war?
Give back the money, don't be rich anymore
You wanna save your hides?
You wanna stop the war?
Give back the money, don't be rich anymore
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3. |
The Accidental Fascist
03:13
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I didn't wanna be a fascist
I wanna make it on my own
I didn't wanna be a fascist
I just didn't wanna be full grown
I just wanted the trains to run on time,
and for everything to go my way
But I'll be judged like a fascist on my judgement day
I didn't wanna be an asshole
I wanted to speak my mind
I didn't wanna be an asshole,
but research takes so much time
I just wanted to speak my truth until
there was nothing left to say
But I'll be judged like an asshole on my judgement day
I didn't wanna be a bastard
I had to look out for myself
I didn't wanna be a bastard
I couldn't count on anyone else
I wanna start at the bottom, and reach the top
and at the top I'll stay
But I'll be judged like a bastard on my judgement day
I didn't wanna be an Isaac
I wanted to be Ishmael
I didn't wanna be an Isaac
The son you could've killed
Now my blessings will be stolen,
as I blindly give them away
But I'll be judged like Isaac on my judgement day
I didn't wanna be a white guy
but I'm not looking into my past
I didn't wanna be a white guy
but struggle seemed so low class
I've been killing the poor for centuries
to wash the past away
But I'll be judged like a white guy on my judgement day
Well nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah
I'll be judged like a fascist
judged like an asshole
judged like a bastard
judged like Isaac
judged like a white guy
on my judgement day
I'll be judged like a white guy, which means I'm gonna get away.
credits
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4. |
Hold Nothing Sacred
03:10
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I'm all used up. I'm too strung out
I've been luckier than even luck can allow
I don't know how to show, so I gotta tell
I don't fit in in Heaven, so I'm preparing for Hell
Don't you try me, don't you test me
Don't you dare
I hold nothing sacred and, honey,
I don't scare
I'll make you do my work, make you pay my debt
Work for me for thirty years, boy, and a watch is all you're gonna get
I wipe my ass with the Bible, and twenty dollar bills
And I'll shut down the reservoir, when I get my fill
I'll turn the sky to mud, make the dirt turn dry
I'm the dust in the wind, and I'll get in your eye
I've got a golden tomb. I'll live there when I've died.
If you helped me build it, I'll seal you inside
I'm God & I'm The Devil, and I'll turn you to Job
You can try to run from me, but folks like me run the globe
Life's full of choices, that's what they say
But those choices are few, when I get my way
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5. |
Leonard Cohen Is Gone
02:50
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I was standing on a corner, and the sewer sang Sinatra
And the wind smelled a little like the blues
I was standing on the corner, on the border of Forever
When I felt the past leave my body, through my shoes
You're gone like Dylan Thomas
Gone like Janis Joplin
Gone like the cobblestones in the street
You're gone like Brendan Behan
Gone like Nancy Spungen
Gone just like time beneath my feet
I was standing on a corner, and the Chelsea Hotel's shuttered
Because its getting a full gut rehab deluxe
The guitar store's now just coffee, and Queens is for the artists
But love lived here, you sang about it once
I remember it well, your song of the Chelsea Hotel
And those secrets that you couldn't keep to yourself
I remember it well, your song of the Chelsea Hotel
But now its bought, and sold, and bought again, its a temple to some wealth
Gone
Gone
Gone
Gone
So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye
I was standing on a corner, and the Chelsea Hotel's shuttered
Because its getting a full gut rehab deluxe
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6. |
Legal Tender Raga
05:14
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Money
Cash
Credit
Debit
Get it
Money Makes The World Go Round
I Got a Euro, and a Yen, and a Buck, and a Pound
I got a whole lotta cash and a whole lotta credit
and I spend it how I like
I got a brand new suit, got a whole lot of swagger
and I use it how I like
Euro, Yen, Buck, Pound
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7. |
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You can be a content creator
You can find a way to make a buck
You can thrive
You can survive
You can maintain
You can even backslide
And if you really wanna,
You can just give up
You can move to New York for the money
You can move to LA and do a shit-ton of cocaine
In this life,
you can feel
anything you wanna feel
As long as you learn
how to profit off the pain
Content creator, write me out of this life
I wanna be an artist, somewhere new
Content creator, write me out of this rut
I wanna be an artist through and through
I wanna be an artist, just like you
You can rot to death inside a cubicle
You can work your hands down to the bone
You can fuck
Make your own luck
You can be the best
You can even suck
And if you're really lucky
You can be tough
You can eat caviar in an alleyway
You can smoke crack in the Presidential Suite
In this life
You can feel
Anything you wanna feel
As long as you understand
Its brutal and its brief
You can hurt a person with compassion
You can heal a person with the blues
You can abuse
You can misuse
You can sell your soul for shiny shoes
You can take an offer
You'd otherwise refuse
You can stumble into the future
You can hold on tightly to the past
You can carve your face
In a mountain
Fly in space
But even the stars up in the sky
Aren't gonna last
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8. |
This Land (21st Century)
04:33
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9. |
The Holy Mountain
04:02
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I've been living with the world these days
I've been thinking thoughts so bleak
The TV is just a hurricane
And the news is on repeat
I've broken every story
I've seen the larceny at its core
I never let it change me
And that's what a story's for
I'm still flipping channels
I still turn the other page
I'm living wit the laziness
I'm living with the rage
I'm angriest at things
I convinced myself not to do
I'm angriest that I'm angry
And that's no place for me or you
But the world is in my living room
The world is in my bed
And the world is just a picture
That I've got inside my head
I want to keep that picture clear
As it fades into the past
But the blurry truth is proof to me
That nothing human lasts,
Amen
I was king of the hill
Until I saw the holy mountain
I sat there on my hillside
And my tears pooled to a fountain
I loved the weary journey
I hated the rocky climb
I cursed my feet beneath me
Just like I did last time
I'm not a dancer, I'm a journeyman
In this funny stage of life
I don't want to purge my sorrow
I don't want to best my strife
I want to walk beside it
I want to show it I am meek
I'm not the man I thought I'd be
But that don't make me week
Eternity's a lie,
but time's gonna last that long
A hymnal is a lesson
Masquerading as a song
The holy led the layman
Now the layman pays it back
Your fever for faith & love
Has been broke by the cold hard fact
That every sinner has a future
Every saint has got a past
And the holy men know all too well
Nothing holy lasts,
Amen
But the world is in my living room
The world is in my bed
And the world is just a picture
That I've got inside my head
I want to keep that picture clear
As it fades into the past
But the blurry truth is proof to me
That nothing human lasts,
The holy led the layman
Now the layman pays it back
Your fever for faith & love
Has been broke by the cold hard fact
That every sinner has a future
Every saint has got a past
And the holy men know all too well
Nothing holy lasts,
Amen
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10. |
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I am a poor, wayfairing stranger
I'm traveling through this world of woe
But there's no sickness, no toil, no danger
In that bright land, to which I go
I'm going there to see my father
I'm going there, no more to roam
I'm only going over Jordan
I'm only going over home
I'm going there to see my mother
Back to the only home I've known
I'm only going over Jordan
I'm only going over home
I am a poor, wayfairing stranger
I'm traveling through this world of woe
But there's no sickness, no toil, no danger
In that bright land, to which I go
I'm going there to see my family
And sing with them, the songs of old
I'm only going over Jordan
I'm only going over home
I'm only going over Jordan
I'm only going over home
I'm only going over Jordan
I'm only going over home
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11. |
Not As Broken
04:50
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When that mad and ripping rain keeps pounding at your brain
When the clouds won't turn around, and summer sinks
The darkness won't turn back, but it will surely, swiftly pass
You are simply not as broken as you think
When you ain't gotta friend, and your rope is at an end
When the world feels like it slapped your belly pink
You'll put forth a caring hand to a fellow grain of sand
You are simply not as broken as you think
And maybe I won't feel this way tomorrow
But I will not drown myself in sorrow
When my thoughts have all turned blue,
I will sit back and think of you
and every crazy little thing, that this world has put me through
When you've simply had enough
of this petty thing called love
When your gutter for a mouth won't even sing
Your melody lives on, even when the rhythm's gone
You are simply not as broken as you think
When you got those suffocating blues,
When the only way out is through
When the gossip, that's called news, has you at your brink
There's a method to the mad, and there is laughter in the sad
You are simply not as broken as you think
When that sleeping, creeping sorrow,
slides across your face tomorrow
When your eyelids are too fried to even blink
You will open your eyes wide, even if it makes you cry
Because the world is not as broken as you think
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12. |
All I Want
02:52
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These hills don't sing to me like your hills
This cider ain't as sweet as your breath
I wish that we were laughing 'til we're shaking
And then I'd lay my head upon your breast
I'm many miles from the bottle rocket border
I'm just as many miles from Vermont
I may be stuck here, in Onondaga County
But the Queen of the Northern Grove is all I want
You're all I want
This home cooking, it don't satisfy like your love
No it ain't your mix of sticky, sweet, and tart
I'm breathing and my lonesome heart is beating
But I die a little every time we part
I'm leaving on a jet plane, through the sunset
Even if there ain't that much to do
I'll sit, staring, looking out the window
Dreaming of coming home to you
These are the same chords I use most of the time
But that's how much you're on my mind
Because you're all that I want
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13. |
The Only Answer
04:14
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I don’t mean to raise hell, but I’m a hellraiser.
I’ve been one since the day that I was born.
Many times, I’ve scared my parents breathless,
and many times their love has kept me warm
And it's true, that love’s the only answer
And it's true, that sometimes family hurts
And it's true, that I was bullshit’s last disciple
but it's true that even the wicked do love’s work
I tore down my hometown in my memories
I burnt my school to ash upon the soil
I bit every single hand that fed me
And now I bite my own hand while I toil
And it's true, that love’s the only answer
And it's true, that sometimes family hurts
And it's true, that I was bullshit’s last disciple
but it's true that even the wicked do love’s work
I held the truth so loosely that I lost it
I told the lie so hard that I believed
And now I let the wind tear at my bare skin
To prove that I have nothing up my sleeve
And it's true, that love’s the only answer
And it's true, that sometimes family hurts
And it's true, that I was bullshit’s last disciple
but it's true that even the wicked do love’s work
Someone told me God’s the only answer
but they were the type to worship a quick fix
I’ll never know if God is just a story
but I know for certain love exists
And it's true, that love’s the only answer
And it's true, that sometimes family hurts
And it's true, that I was bullshit’s last disciple
but it's true that even the wicked do love’s work
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14. |
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I’m going down that old dirt road
to find my burying ground
Jesus, he said, that he’d make my dying bed
but they killed him for those other things he said
I found a temple, but it was a wall
What was on the other side, I never saw
I know I’ll die before I get there
Before I find my burying ground
So I’ll see you all down that dirt road
As we go into that foggy world unknown
No more sickness, no more sorrow
Since I laid my burden down
I was raised like I was chosen
Like I made the world go 'round
But now every man's a king
Since I laid my burden down
I got sisters, I got brothers
on every end of town
I got sisters, I got brothers
Since I laid my burden down
Though the road, it might be rocky
and though my blood might stain the ground
I'll be beaten, and beleaguered
'till I lay my burden down
Though the wind, it might get wilder
Though the rain, might start to pound
I know that I'll be bone dry
When I lay my burden down
I have wandered, I have rambled
I've been lost, and I've been found
I'll have walked in every footstep
When I lay my burden down
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Ross W Berman IV Chicago, Illinois
Chicago-based-wrestling journalist-musician-playwright-raconteur
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