1. |
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It Ain't What You Is, It's What You Ain't
Words and Music © Mokai
Little Sue is much smaller than you
She’s got a tiny hat and a itty bitty shoe
She works short shifts and she lives off her tips
She makes small talk, takes baby steps when she walks
She’s got a heart big as a lion
She’s got a big appetite
I told her I’m buyin’.
Old Buddy is a funny somebody
He’s tall and thin and he’s got cruddy skin
He looks like a jerk and his teeth need work
His posture’s bad, his wardrobe is sad
He’s got a heart pretty as a poem
He’s just a mess o’ tangles, waitin’ for a comb.
Sooner or later, brother, we all discover
You can’t judge a book by its cover
Would you be surprised to find that things are disguised
And they’re often not what you surmised
Crazy Granny is quite uncanny
She’s become untamed, she don’t remember her name
Everything was fine ‘til she started crossin’ state lines
But now she can’t get far ‘cause they took away her car
She’s got a heart, pure as a saint
Sometimes it ain’t what you is
It’s what you ain’t.
No, it ain’t what you is, it’s what you ain't
Ain't what you is, it ain't what you is, it’s what you ain't
What U Ain’t
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2. |
Try (a little harder)
02:28
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Try (a little harder)
words & music © Mokai
When you go for broke and you end up broken
Try to drink life to the dregs and end up chokin’
Say somethin’ serious, everyone thinks you’re jokin’
Or else they act like no one has spoken
Try a little harder, a little harder now
Try a little harder, a little harder now
You gotta swim but you keep on sinkin’
Want to relax but you can’t stop thinkin’
You gotta grow but you keep on shrinkin’
Want to clean up your act but it just keeps stinkin’
Try a little harder, a little harder now
You could try a little harder, try a little harder now
You reach out; you get bent
You lash out; you don’t make a dent
Say what you mean, no one gets what you meant
Or else they mistake your intent
Try a little harder, try a little harder now
Try a little harder, try a little harder now
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3. |
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TREADMILL
words & music © Mokai
Treadmill / lesson learned /over and over
Past tense / present / future / tension
No release / pressure / no relief
The same pain / relived / again and again
Power / to decide / raped by power
To divide / again and again / until
The piece left is so tiny / you can’t see it
you only know it’s there
Falling through time / the quark
at the center of the universe
The first dogbark / that strikes the night / sparking
Inevitable reply / unrestrainable / howl
Irrepressible hope / another time / around the
Treadmill / brain probing with eye / stalking with thighs
Burning / lungs / constricted
Heart / hurt / hunting
Hungry / semi-conscious / lagging
Toe dragging / step by step / by step
This one like the first / indistinguishable from the next / the same step
Over and over / and over / on a
Treadmill / mass produced / batteries not included
Government issue / made by prison labor / some assembly required
The upgrade / costs extra / your life
Remote controlled / mandatory / sentence after sentence
Words / thoughts / uncontrollable Treadmill
Treadmill
Treadmill / speeding at a standstill / departing nowhere
Arriving late / tired / broke
Stammering out a lyric / offering a rhythm / hoping to get paid
Getting laid / an orifice / an opening
Crawling through / garbage in / garbage out
Wet with impatience / blood red / coming
Over and over / again and again /
dying the same death
A phosphorescence / spirit or sperm / illuminating
The next body / lover / friend / enemy / the next unique
Retread / blowout / and it cycles round
And I’m still here / treading / on this
Treadmill / trailing in this / roadrace
Waltzing on the bride’s train / digging open graves / picking at scabs
Running on empty / praying for rain / not passing for straight
Passing on the right / braking for sunrise / stealing bases
Putting my best foot forward / everytime / walking on the sunnyside
All the time / wondering / where I am
All the time / wondering / where I am
Wandering in the wilderness / whistling in the wind / pissing in the pool
Going through the motions / playing some / role
Blowing the punchline / standing in the soupline / doing the time for the crime
All the time / wondering / how do I get off this
Treadmill?
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4. |
World Without War
03:39
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World Without War
words and music © Mokai
C G Am G Am Em
Raise your voice against the silence,
C D
If only to hear your own cry;
C G Am G Am Em
Don’t sup port the violence
C D
That perpetuates a lie.
G Bm
Paint your colors on the darkness,
C G Am G D
No mat ter what the risk;
G C G C
Light a candle in the tempest
G D G
To show you exist.
G C G C
Because if you’d only sing your song
G Am G D
Louder than be fore,
G C G
We can make a world without war.
C G Am G Am Em
You can’t count the dead;
C D
You can’t count the tears
C G Am G Am Em
Or all the blood that’s been shed
C D
Throughout the years;
G Bm
You can’t justify the carnage,
C G Am G D
Can’t jus ti fy the pain;
G C G C
In every conflict through the ages
G D G
They all have died in vain.
G C G C
But if you’d only sing your song
G Am G D
Louder than be fore,
G C G
We can make a world without war.
C G Am G Am Em
Live your fullest in this moment,
C D
As you plant your seeds;
C G Am G Am Em
Don’t be scared by the tyrants
C D
Who want to control your needs.
G Bm
Help somebody with their burden,
C G Am G D
Let them share your load,
G C G C
Because we are all on one journey,
G D G
we are all on one road.
G C G C
So if you’d only sing your song
G Am G D
Louder than e ver before,
G C G
We can make a world without war.
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5. |
Pick Up the Pieces
04:09
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Pick Up the Pieces
words and music © Mokai
I looked at your track record,
I checked with the fact checker,
Nobody knows what you were paid.
You fooled the investigator,
You broke the lie detector,
And threw yourself a parade.
But the day’s gonna come
When the sky falls in and
Who will be there to
Pick Up the Pieces
Of the mess you have made?
I took the trouble
To sort through the rubble
Before your trail could fade.
Discontinued spare parts,
Discarded broken hearts,
And other telltale of your trade.
Can’t you see that I am free?
You have no power over me.
I’ve gone somewhere I’d rather be
Where you can never follow.
All the bet takers,
All the movers and the shakers,
Are in a panic now.
It’s a fact
Your balancing act
Is gonna end somehow.
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6. |
You Fly Like a Swallow
04:37
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You Fly Like a Swallow
You Fly like a Swallow
Zig-zaggin’ through the light
You fly like an arrow
Straight and true in its flight
You’re as cool as the mornin’ breeze
Open as the sky
Graceful as a passing cloud
When you spread your wings to fly
Eyes of mountain dew
Hair of golden grain
Lips like sun ripe cherries
With kisses of gentle rain
Wind and willow in your voice
Flower petal skin
A love as strong as the poundin’ surf
When the tide is comin’ in
Wild as the northwoods
Wild as the wild west
Sure as sunrise in the east
You’re tougher than the rest
Grapevine grows around the oak
In a land way down south
You’re so sweet the honeybees
Just swarm around your mouth
You fly like a swallow
Zig-zaggin’ through the light
You fly like an arrow
Straight and true in its flight
Fly around my blue eyed girl
Fly around my daisy
Fly around my blue eyed girl
You know you make me crazy
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7. |
Trouble Is Coming
04:50
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Trouble Is Coming
words and music © Mokai
Trouble is coming but you turn away
Pretending that you’re too busy today
Trouble is coming, you know it’s true
Whoa-oh Trouble!
Trouble!
Yeah, Trouble!
For me and you
Trouble is coming but you close your eyes
Pretending that you don’t realize
Trouble is coming—it’s right outside
Whoa-oh Trouble!
Trouble!
Whoa-oh Trouble!
There’s no place to hide
It’s gonna take a long time for change to come—
I guess that things will have to get worse.
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8. |
Standin' At a Crossroads
04:19
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Standing at a Crossroads
words and music © Mokai
Standing at a Crossroads, looking for a sign
Something to tell me which way is mine
People passing by, they don’t see me
They’re all hurrying somewhere they’ve got to be
Standing at a Crossroads, I cover my eyes
I cover my ears so I don’t hear the lies
People passing by, they don’t see me.
They’re all looking for something. What can it be?
Mass delusion, cause confusion
I’ve got no illusions of any kind
Standing at a Crossroads
I’ve got to go and I’m wondering
What I might find
Standing at a Crossroads, I hold out my hand
I ain’t got no country. I don’t own no land
People try to tell me what’s right for me
I try to show them but they don’t see
A teardrop hits the sidewalk. A coin hits a cup
Do what you got to, don’t ever give up
People passing by, they don’t see me
They’re all looking for something. What can it be?
Mass delusion, cause confusion
I’ve got no illusions about mankind
Standing at a Crossroads,
I’ve got to go and I’m wondering
What I might find
Standing At A Crossroads
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9. |
The Last Wild Creatures
06:33
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The Last Wild Creatures
words and music © Mokai
They’re gonna’ regret it, woah, this thing that they have done
Yeah, they’re gonna’ regret it, when the last wild creatures are gone
A millennial silence broken by a thundering gun
The hide-stripped carcasses rotted in the sun
The terror and the pillage had only begun
Those angry men, they took from the earth
Traded her riches for less than their worth
Made the red people prisoners in the land of their birth
But they’re gonna’ regret it, whoh, this thing that they have done
Yeah, they’re gonna’ regret it, when the last wild creatures are gone
In my worst nightmare the world that I see:
Eight billion humans not one of them free
And not a wild animal or an old growth tree.
A river that flows when the fish are gone
A land that grows only mono-crops and lawns
A wind that blows no bird aloft in the dawn
To the Grizzly and the Cougar, we’ve done great wrong
For the Elk and the Salmon I sing this song
I know that I’ll be missin’ them my whole life long
Spirits of the wild, I know you can’t understand
The violence you’ve suffered at man’s hand
Now you’re gone and I’m so lonely in this barren land
They’re gonna’ regret it, woah, this thing that they have done
Yeah, they’re gonna’ regret it, when the last wild creatures are gone
Yeah, they’re gonna’ be lonely
Yeah, they’re gonna’ be lonely
Yeah, they’re gonna’ be lonely
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10. |
Out to the Woods
04:18
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OUT TO THE WOODS
words and music © Mokai
When we were kids havin’ fun
Out to the woods we’d run
Playin’ games and tellin’ jokes
Down by the creek, climbin’ the oaks
We’d go out to the woods
We’d go out to the woods
As we grew, we’d depend
On the forest as a friend
The animals and the birds
Taught us lessons without words
We’d go out to the woods
We’d go out to the woods
Then one spring, bulldozers came
And life would never be the same
That day they killed a child’s dream
Beneath the chainsaw’s scream.
The trees roots are in my bones
My blood runs in the stones
Oh how it hurts us all
When the forests fall!
We’d go out to the woods
We’d go out to the woods
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11. |
Resist
04:18
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Resist
words and music © Mokai
You can yield to love
You can yield to the power of the spirit within
But when you yield to oppression
You’re just givin’ in
When you yield to oppression
You’re selling your children as slaves
When you refuse to resist,
You’re diggin’ their graves
Resist
Stand with your sisters
Stand with your brothers
Resist
Stand with one another
For so many years now
That things have not been right
Yet it’s so hard, so hard
For the people to unite
So caught up in just tryin’ to survive
That you got no time to live
And all the while you’re working for a boss
He takes more than he gives
Resist
Take your dreams for reality
Resist
Set yourselves free
For so many people
The choices are few
Like a single mother in the inner city
Now, what’s she supposed to do?
Tryin’ to keep her children safe
In a violent world of concrete
Working her fingers to the bone
Just to get them something to eat
Resist
You know you would,
You’d have no other choice
Resist
Raise your voice
It hurts the heart
It pains the soul
It numbs the mind
Thinkin’ of the horrors
They’ve unleashed on humankind
Strange forms of pollution
And weapons of megadeath
All the while they’ve got you in their chokehold
Only one way to get your breath
Resist
You know you should
You have no other choice
Resist
Raise your voice!
Resist
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12. |
Throbbin'
02:33
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Throbbin'
words and music © Mokai
This throbbin’ in my heart, it is no ruse
If I explode it’s ‘cause I lit the fuse
If you must suffer to know joy, it’s still joy I would choose
If you’re askin’ life for love, why would love refuse?
Oh if life was made for sorrow, who could that amuse?
My heart just keeps throbbin’, all that does is confuse
Lately I seem to let things get extreme
Stand back, I’ve got to let off a little steam
If you’re scared of wakin’ up to find life is a dream
It’s really realer than it may seem
When I was born, they say, I was nude
Well I believe that I felt gratitude
If I formed expectations I hope that wasn’t rude
Nobody ever warned me things would get this crude
So all right you spend a third of your life sleepin’ and the other third gettin’ your food
Tell me why should all the rest be platitude?
The rabbits and squirrels all run around and frolic
Somehow the people seem melancholic
What once was plain livin’, now it’s diabolic
Happiness has become symbolic
So I just keep on tryin’ to grow from the muck
I’ve learned to do it without a buck
Just don’t try to tell me modern livin’ doesn’t suck
You call it progress when you’re just plain stuck
So what society keeps hurling at me I’ll keep tryin’ to duck
Ooh I’ll get by with any luck
One of these days I’m gonna get out from under
Growin’ at ease in pure wonder
One of these days, man, if I don’t blunder
I’ll rise and blow these blues asunder
Lyrics and Music © 2002 Marc De Polo
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Mokai San Francisco, California
Mokai adds a dose of contemporary attitude to roots music. He's known for his authentic folk-blues picking and eclectic
originals.
His guitar style and technique were mentioned in the January 2013 issue of Acoustic Guitar Magazine.
His roots sound and original guitar style echoes his deep connection to the playing of seminal folk artist like Big Bill Broonzy and Dave Van Ronk.
... more
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