The Lonetones - Modern Victims

Lyrics from Modern Victims

Loosely Based

(words and music by Steph Gunnoe)

Here’s your chance to love you

And love her again

Go and get her and bring her in

Go and get her again

Tho she reglar offends

She reglar offends

She’s loosely based on the life of a friend

Loose now, take on the life of a friend

She got diseases and reasons too

She’s healed a bit now

She’s wheeled her chair down

She’s come to thank all of you

To thank all of you

Thank all of you

It’s loosely based on something that’s true

Loosely based on something that’s true

So reassign us, cause we’re all here

And no one’s dying

Oh, for eighty long years

Eighty long years

Loosely based on the life of a saint

It’s a loose now take on the life of a saint

Modern Victims

(words by Steph Gunnoe and Black Atticus, music by Steph Gunnoe)

My speakers sound a little lame

They’re loud but you cannot blame them

They’re speaking for the shyest game in the crowd.

Maybe I’m a conflict addict

Channeling your painful static

Easier to tune it out, tune it out

Honey, it’s a violent version

The only savior is a surgeon

Always got to take it out, take it out

I’m singing bout the modern victim

We’re different than the way they writ them

20, 30, 40 years ago.

This is our future on the couch, sitting straight up with a slouch,

It's the greatest story ever told of never ending doubt,

This is brown-bag beautiful, WAR OF THE CUBICLES,

9-5 stressing out; occupy musical -- live and indirect

Jango Fett ain't get no funeral; for 99 PERCENT, this is business as usual,

no new for you, "just what it do", and when it does ya better move,

a better me, means better you; one love instead of two,

take me back to where it's at like snaps in the back of the fishnet cap,

and I'll relax like "hey batter - bat, let's aim for the rack,

aim tracks , aim for the ‘lac with the white on the walls of the wheels,

from the hall to the hill, to the mountain top; and it just don’t stop,

just don’t stop, go beyond,

past the sky, past the stars, past jupiter and mars --

past wait ..hold on…is that too far?

Lord, I love your characters and your plotline

Mine’s a lot like yours

Missions

(words and music by Steph Gunnoe)

Hey Bombay, pretty soon I’m going away

Hey Bombay, did you think that I would stay?

Taking care of all your needs

The missionary won’t succeed with her mission.

Appalachia, find a ref that will be fair

Appalachia, I’ll be watching from back there

Taking care of all your needs

A sweet young hippie won’t succeed with her mission.

Hey you all, I’m avoiding you that’s all

Hey you all, think my life’s about to call.

Taking care of all your needs

Missionary won’t succeed with her mission.

Stirrin’ Up The Dust

(words and music by Sean McCollough)

Big ol’ wheels, spinnin’ round

Muddy blades slice through the ground

Dynamite will make her noise

And ancient rocks will have no choice

Split the mountain to the bone

Hear those diesel engines groan

Fill ‘em up with shiny coal

Now the mountain is the hole

Mountains tremble and tumble down

Wakin’ up the ghosts of the company towns

Listen closely you’ll hear the sound

The Voices from the Mountains, hallowed in this ground

Stirin’ up the dust, Stirin’ up the dust

For 300 million years they’ve weathered on

But once a mountain’s gone it’s gone

You can’t put it back, it’ll never be the same

No matter what they call it, no matter what they claim

Now it’s all or nothin’ in this dirty little tale

Where coal is king and lives are for sale

With a history of crooked lies

And blackened faces and tired eyes

Mountains tremble…

Blair Mountain, Bob White, Kayford Mountain, Fork Ridge, Sarah Anne, Island Creek Zeb Mountain, Black Mountain, Pickering Knob, Montgomery Creek, Huckleberry Ridge, Glen Alum, Marsh Fork, Buffalo Mountain

Lost Mountain, lost mountain, lost mountain, lost mountain

Unprepared

(words and music by Steph Gunnoe)

It’s our first time

Love our hearts

How we sweat

The Lady Parts

We’ve mostly been

The teen-age son

Unprepared

For what you’ve brung

Keep our pictures on yer wall

Everyone is bound to fall

Keep our pictures on yer wall

You were born to love us all

We’ve mostly loved

A teen-age god

Unprepared

For what you’ve got

We were raised

On giant stars

Unprepared

For who we are

Keep our pictures…

When first we came

We played our souls

But we got stuck

In minor roles

We’ve mostly loved

The angry one

Unprepared

For what you’ve done

Keep our pictures…

It’s our first time…

Rendered

(words and music by Steph Gunnoe)

City well, I fell under your spell

From my country slumber

Can I sing a tiny role

If I bring you coal and lumber?

City hell, I fell under your spell

And left my mama to wonder

Broke her heart, I can tell

She’ll resurrect pretty well

Oh Mama listen to the lyrics

I think you’ll recognize our home

I’ve tried to render it so clearly

I’ve rendered it so dearly

I’ve rendered it so long

Written it so long, long, long ooo

Long long long, ooo

Immigrants sing and dance

Like we don’t have a home

City, well, we fell under your spell

Cause you love everyone

Oh Mama listen to the lyrics

I think you’ll recognize the song

I’ve tried to render it so clearly

I’ve rendered it so dearly

I’ve rendered it so long

Written it so long, long, long, ooo

Long, long, long. Oo oo oo

Top Hat

(words and music by Sean McCollough)

In the early morning after – need a little love

Tween the sorrow and the laughter –

need a little love

Hearts are achin’

Reawaken

4 score and so much more – need a little love

midnight on the barroom floor – need a little love

Top hat spinnin

New beginning

And we’re waitin’ and waitin’

and fussin’ and carryin’ on

We’ve been waitin’ and waitin’

and waitin’ for way to long

I don’t know what it’s supposed to be

This damn inertia’s got its hold on me

I don’t know why we’re all hesitatin’

Cause life ain’t waitin round to see

When we have to meet our maker –

need a little love

Even the undertaker – will need a little love

Dedicated

Consecrated

And we’re waitin’…

I don’t know…

Blue skies and cryin eyes – need a little love

Wrap it in the best disguise – need a little love

Music playin

Hearts obeyin

And we’re waitin’…

Alone

(words and music by Steph Gunnoe)

Such a lonely singer

Such a lonely song

Don’t you know it honey?

Won’t you sing along

Sing along

I don’t want to be here

Alone

All my timid habits

Are little liars too

Stubborn power ballads

Hidden from my view

From my view

I don’t wanta live here

Alone

Just a heavy chorus

Just a scary song

It’s got something for us

If we play along

Play along

I don’t want to say it

I don’t want to play it

Alone

Shame

(words and music by Steph Gunnoe)

I come from the mountains

Tho they’re just the gentle kind

They put stories of survival in my mind

Now everywhere I go

Well, I bring this mountain show

It’s the story, the struggle of my kind

Everywhere I go, I’ve got shame

Like a stomper doll

I registered it all

Now everywhere I go, I’ve got shame

I’m ashamed to be rich

I’m ashamed to be poor

But darlin, when I’m happy’s

When I feel it even more

Cause I learned it from their love

And I learned it from the skilled

I drank it in the water of the

West Virginia hills

Everywhere I go…

I come from the mountains

Tho they’re just the gentle kind

They put stories of survival in my mind

A land of roots and seeds

Well, I come from a tradition

That stands for roots

But seeds, they’re banned from their fruition

Everywhere I go…

Who We Are

(words and music by Sean McCollough)

I’ve got ideas

Swell ideas

Some that I just can’t explain

My back up against the grain

And I look around

Through the lost and found

And I’m feelin’ just a little bit different (4X)

This is who we are (4X)

You can call me a hippy, but your words are outdated

Up from the underground, hell yes we’re still around

Maybe we’re even related

And I ain’t got time for your paradigm

I ain’t got time to fall in line

And it ain’t a crime to let it shine

Let it shine (6X)

This is who we are…

We’re anarchist punkers and Sunday school flunkers

And good hearted drunkards it’s true

We’re parents and teachers who sit in the bleachers

And cheer on our creatures with you

We’re loud rockin’ rollers and Wednesday night bowlers

We ain’t holy rollers, I’m sorry

We’re Wall Stree haters and peace crusaders

And sometimes our eyes are still starry

This is who we are…

Non-Stick Girls

(words and music by Steph Gunnoe)

There was a line of sisters

1930s born in Belle

In the state of West Virginia

I can find it by the smell

There was a line of smoke stacks

Called the city of Dupont

Made the nasty necessaries

They’d invent the things we want

We can have good lipstick

We can tame our curls

We can have our nonstick girls

There was a line of train tracks

In the holler where we played

Come to take away the raw stuff

And maybe me some day

We can have…

It’s a dyin’ way of livin’

But I caught it just the same

It’s a dyin’ way of livin’

It was gone before I came

We can have…

A Song’s Just A Song

(words and music by Sean McCollough)

When I wrote you that song for Valentine’s Day

I was takin’ a chance it was a love that would stay

But a song’s just a song, we all know that it’s true

Still there ain’t nothing better than singing with you

Now there’s wood in the cooker and eggs on the stove

And we ain’t got a cent for all the miles we drove

Still after all those miles, I ain’t got a clue

How got so lucky to be drivin’ with you

Now the kid’s are all growin up way too fast

And it’s hard to imagine anything can last

But the world’s still turnin’ and the sky’s still blue

And the sun and the moon and my love for you

Now the years rush by like a whistling wind

And I don’t always like the shape that I’m in

But I still mean, I mean what I say

In that song that I wrote you for Valentine’s Day

Old Lady Industry

(words and music by Steph Gunnoe)

Old lady industry

I could work more efficiently

But I think I have to play yer wayward one

Oo, she died suspiciously

I memorized her history

And I hate to bring her up again

Wasn’t she your friend?

Wild girl among the men

You drowned her in the son

Rounders had a lot of fun

Oh, Mama Kerouac

Pay the rent

I’ll pay you back

If you want me to play yer wayward one

Silly boy dreamt of us

Making bread

On his bus

I can’t fake the baker for your son

Let me go back in

Wild girl among the men

We could be the ones

Beatniks had a lot of fun

Old Lady Industry

I know I’m sposed to work for free

But I think I’d like to play your well-paid friend

Isn’t she our kin?

Wild girl among the men

I found her in the sun

Rich folks have a lot of fun

… Beatniks have a lot of fun