Get all 6 ACLU Benefit releases available on Bandcamp.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Suicide: The Best of, For True Fans Only, LOVE and FAME, Live with Amanda Palmer, ACLU Benefit Awkwardly Performs with his Ex-Girlfriends, Live, May, 2010, at Silent Barn, Ridgewood, NY, and ESKEMO.
1. |
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g-bm-g-c
It's a lonely lonely world (3)
g-bm-c
when you're shy
g-bm-g-c
You go out to the show
'cuz you're tired of staying in
but you feel like a loser
no matter what you're doin'.
You're alone at home,
or you're alone on the street,
'cuz you just don't know
how to find a friend to meet.
(chorus)
You're surrounded by the best
the world has to offer,
but you get so depressed
with no one to talk to.
In Paris for a week,
I didn't kiss anyone,
'cuz no one would talk to me.
It's so hard to have fun
in this lonely, lonely world (3)
when you're shy.
When you don't know what to do
and you think you should just quit,
someone shares food with you
and you feel such love from it
that your heart explodes with hope,
as you rise from where you sat.
When someone helps you cope,
it no longer matters that
(chorus). (2)
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2. |
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(G-em-c
G-em-c-am)
Darling, Please come over
I'm tired of sleeping alone
cuz these eyes really miss you
and my bed is too cold.
And darling, my hands won't go wandering,
down your body's beautiful form
I'll wrap my arms around your stomach
so gently
and keep you warm
cuz darling
it's getting so cold now
and sometimes all a man needs
is a woman
to hold him tightly
cuz any man, alone, is weak
and I promise,
that tomorrow,
we'll go out all over town
but tonight
I'm just so tired
so come lay down
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3. |
BS Model
02:30
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(G-D)
A bullshit model (2)
It is time for a bullshit model!
(Am-G)
AHHHH
(3)
(D)
(repeat all for 45 minutes)
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4. |
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(C-em-am-g)
There's a tear in my beer and I don't know where to go
to complain, 'cuz my pain can't explain this so
(am-f)
goddamn the waiters!
Goddamn the bar!
Goddamn the cleaners!
Don't they know what their jobs are?
There's a tear in my beer and I don't know what to do.
I clink my drink but never think of you.
Goddamn the bouncers!
Damn the busboys!
Goddamn the servers!
I wont let them destroy my joy!
(whistle solo)
There's no more beer, only tears, and the glass is half empty.
I can't hide my insides so I guess I'd better speak.
You made me sad.
You broke my heart.
I feel so bad
now that we're apart.
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5. |
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(capo 3)
G-em
You can't touch me anymore.
G-C
I am walking out your door.
G-Am
It took awhile, but now I'm sure.
D
You can't touch me anymore.
You can't hold on to my hands.
I am no longer your man.
I hope you can understand:
From my life you're forever banned.
You don't get this body, it's gone,
and you have to stop loving me.
Don't be sad, just say "so long,"
and you'd better keep me out of your dreams.
(whistling solo)
You can't touch me anymore.
Even if I get lonely
as a leper on the shore,
I still wouldn't let you hold me.
G-em
You can't listen to me sing
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6. |
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there's no wrong way to beat a drum!
just sit there and hit it or listen to the hum!
you can hit it hard or you can hit it soft!
you can hit it low you can hold it aloft!
there's no wrong way to beat a drum!
don't listen to your music teacher!
there's no wrong way to play a guitar!
if it sounds good to you then you'll go far!
there's no wrong way to play those notes!
if you don't wanna use the strings then don't!
there's no wrong way to sing a song!
make up the words or sing along!
you can hit the notes!
or you can make them up!
then you got a new song!
that's even better stuff!
the only thing about music
is that you have to like it!
if what you play sounds good
then you're doing what you should!
there's no wrong way to beat a drum!
play it like they do
or make it hum!
you can hit it in 3s you can hit in 4s!
you can hit it with no time of course!
you can hit the top or you can hit the bottom!
just do what sounds good and then you got 'em!
there's no wrong way to beat a drum! (4)
don't listen to your music teacher!
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7. |
Why Aren't I a Singer?
02:54
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(F-C-Em-Am-C)
Ooooh
Why did I go to college, mom?
Why didn't I sing?
Why did I re-enroll, not love everything?
Why am I a teacher and not a star?
Yes I might be a singer but no one knows who we are!
Ooooh
Mom why did I try to please the people I hate?
Why didn't I pursue my determined fate?
Was I too scared to do it or did I just not know how?
Did I not get the encouragement that'd make me feel allowed?
Why didn't I do the one thing that I love so much?
Why didn't I keep on reaching for the one important touch?
Ooooh
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8. |
Why Aren't I Famous?
02:09
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I’ve played with
Adam Green, The Dresden Dolls, and Ian Svenonius,
Kevin Mahon, The Gossip, and Jeffrey Lewis,
Das Racist, and Bomb! the Music Industry,
Herman Dune, Hooray for the Riff Raff, The Handsome Family,
Mount Eerie, Jad Fair, David Peel, Calvin Johnson,
World/Inferno Friendship Society, and Kimya Dawson
Why aren’t I famous? (2)
Is it because I’m not shallow don’t care about sound or appearance?
The production on my records highlights the lyrics.
Or 'cuz I don’t believe in marketing I think it’s evil
mental rape forcing you to ruin whats beautiful?
Or is it 'cuz I don’t try to appeal to teenagers,
the only group for whom music really matters?
(Chorus)
And yes I wish I had more fans
And maybe it’s that i don’t have a band
'cuz morons love rock bands the most.
That stuff is so boring I don’t care about those
who’d rather hear me play Tool songs in a bar,
get drunk and not listen. Then I’d go far.
But I won’t compromise and play bullshit
that I think is boring, maybe that is it.
Or is it 'cuz I'm interested in instantaneous gratification?
I don’t care about the stuff you haveta' listen to again.
'Cuz I always figured if I gave you an endless supply
of awesome entertainment your love for me would never die.
(chorus)
Maybe I brought this on myself
because I don’t appear to need your help.
I look like I'm okay, I’ll tell you the truth, I'd love to be a different way.
I love playing songs to 20 people every night
but id rather play to packed houses under stage lights.
I'd rather quit my job as a professor and just do this all day 'cuz this is what I was born for.
But I'm not complaining
'cuz I love performing
and entertaining
and I make a good living.
I get the groupies
and some of them love me
But (Chorus)
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9. |
Country Suicide
04:05
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(this song is in drop-d. pick 4th, 3rd and 2nd strings for verse)
(D-G/B-Asus)
Life sure had its moments, but now it's time to move on
and don't think of it as dying, think of it as graduation,
cuz after a certain age, you hope for a living wage, that's all,
and living without passion like I am's hardly living at all.
(open 4th string
Low string: 5-7-12-10)
So what's the difference if I go now or in 2020,
when I look back at the last 7 years and don't see any reason to stay here?
(Low string: 3-0)
(D-G/B-Asus)
But before I go I'm gonna do some things,
and I don't mean like catching up on my reading,
'cuz when you know you're about to die you can get away with anything.
There's so much you can do when you're not worried about losing,
like insult people a lot more or take things from the corner store,
or pee in my hallway, mostly being a jerk is what I have planned for my last days.
So maybe you won't mind as much when I go 'cuz I'll be such
a bastard that you won't miss me and then my plan will have worked perfectly.
(open 4th string
Low string: 5-7-12-10)
'Cuz what's the difference
if I go
now or in 2020?
Or maybe
3010
'cuz who knows what the world will be like then?
(open 4th string
Low string: 0-2-7-5)
I think I know.
It'll be the same,
but a little worse just like every day.
And no,
I don't think
I'm gonna miss anything but drinking.
(4th string:12-11-9-12-11-9-7-5-4-7-5-4-2
open 6th string)
(open 4th string
Low string: 5-7-12-10)
So what's the difference
if I go
now or in 2020
when I look back at the last 7 years and don't see any reason to stay here?
(Low string: 3-0)
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10. |
Sorry, Rimbaud
02:46
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(c-f)
ooooo
wind's blowing light,
warm sunshine
feather in flight,
smell of pine
field by the track,
no one's allowed
i'm on my back,
smiling up at clouds
taste the air,
the bees sing
no one will care
that i'm sleeping
pills fall down
my bed of flowers
I'll be underground
in 10 hours
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11. |
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(G-Em-D)
We Will Hold You When You Fall Down
(verse lyrics improvised every time)
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ACLU Benefit Boston, Massachusetts
Noah plays guitar and sings. Now known as Request Freebird.
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