Flobots – Survival Story

HANDLEBARS(FWT)

(c) 2005 James A. Laurie

Handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
Look at me
look at me
hands in the air like it’s good to be
ALIVE
and I’m a famous rapper
even when the paths’re all crookedy
I can show you how to do-si-do
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And I can almost put it back together
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to “De Colores”
And “I’m Proud to be an American”
Me and my friend saw a platypus
Me and my friend made a comic book
And guess how long it took
I can do anything that I want cause look

I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome
No metronome

I can see your face on the telephone
On the telephone
On the telephone

Look at me
Look at me
Just called to say that it’s good to be
ALIVE
In such a small world
All curled up with a book to read
I can raise funds open up a thrift store
I can make a living off a magazine
I can design an engine sixty four
Miles to a gallon of gasoline
I can make new antibiotics
I can make computers survive aquatic conditions
I know how to run a business
And I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance

I can change the nation with a microphone
With a microphone
With a microphone

I can split on atom of a molecule
Of a molecule
Of a molecule

Look at me
Look at me
Driving and I won’t stop
And it feels so good to be
Alive and on top
My reach is global
My tower secure
My cause is noble
My power is pure
I can hand out a million vaccinations
Or let’em all die in exasperation
Have’em all grilled leavin lacerations
Have’em all killed by assassination
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don’t like’em and
I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command

I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite
By satellite
I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope
Through a telescope

I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handle bars
No handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
no handlebars

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Album – Fight With Tools – 2007

Lyrics

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echo echo one-nine
hear the call through fault lines
smoke signals old rhymes
shorted lights in store signs
spelled in a broken code
find that it is time to
breath build bend and refine you
we sky tenants
give it all but wont give up
radio soul antennas
radio to lift spirits
call sign commando
m.o. is independence
scream till the walls fall,
dissolve all the limits

occupied minds
unemployed skills
desolation
worn out
torn down
just for now thrill seekers
slanging
test tube babies in beakers
where gun blasts pump straight from the speakers
the system where the
poor get poorly paid
to hold the ladder
where the rich get ricocheted
into the stratosphere
and in between people are rushin’ like vladimir
with metals to make their status clear
get us out of here

we need heroes
build them
don’t put your fist up
fill them
with our hopes and our hearts and our hands
we’re the architects of our last stand

there’s a war going on for your mind
those who seek to occupy it will stop at nothing
the battlefield is everywhere
there is no sanctuary
there are no civilians
you have two choices
surrender or enlist

what kind of person are you
always the first to argue
or never down to stick your neck out
cause it hurts you far too much
to see your rep suffer
set you up a buffer
well neither is enough for us cut from a tougher brand of duct tape
the propaganda’s stuck on us like sock pajamas
spread like a virus
through accepted thoughts and proper manners
but off the cameras
something’s simmering across the land
about to bubble up
and knock the lids off of the pots and pans

we are non stop juggernauts
stomp ziggurats
spit manifestos
by terabytes and gigawatts
shock paradigms
give sense to a score
throw thoughts through the sky
activate twenty more
in these high and dry times
expectorate on dogma
pragmatic sycophants
divide and conquer
we build bridges offer
hard work and prosper
as hand made heroes brought to you by no sponsors

all free minds to the front
all free minds to the front
we call upon women
we call upon children
we call upon the handicapped
the infirmed
the week of heart
we need your courage
your dedication
your passion
your commitment
gather up your platinum
melt it down
gather up your gold
melt it down
gather up your bronze
your silver
your aluminum
melt it down
melt it down
melt it down

-
Album- Fight With Tools – 2007

Lyrics

-

Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
If you’ve got more to give then you’ve got to prove
Put your hands up and I’ll copy you
Stand up We shall not be moved
Except by a woman dying from the loss of food
If you’ve got more to give then you’ve got to prove
Put your hands up and I’ll copy you

We still don’t understand thunder and lightning
Flash back to when we didn’t fund the dam
Didn’t fund the damn levi? No wonder man
Now our whole damn city’s torn asunder man
Under water but we still don’t understand
We see hurricane spills over on the land
Through gaps you couldn’t fill with a 100 tons of sand
No we still don’t understand
We’ve seen planes in the windows of buildings crumbled in
We’ve seen flames send the chills through London
And we’ve sent planes to kill them and some of them were children
But still we crumbling the building
Underfunded but we still don’t understand
Under god but we kill like the son of Sam
But if you feel like I feel like about the son of man
We will overcome

So Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
If you’ve got more to give then you’ve got to prove
Put your hands up and I’ll copy you
Stand up We shall not be moved
Except by a woman dying from the loss of food
If you’ve got more to give then you’ve got to prove
Put your hands up and I’ll copy you

I said Put your hands up and I’ll copy you
Put your hands up and I’ll copy you
If you’ve got more to give then you’ve got to prove
Put your hands up and I’ll copy you

We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
Except by a woman dying from the loss of food
Except by a freedom fighter bleeding on a cross for you
We shall not be moved
Except by a system thats rotten through
Neglecting the victims and ordering the cops to shoot
High treason now we need to prosecute

So Stand up
We shall not be moved
And we wont fight a war for fossil fuel
Its times like this that you want to plot a coo
Put your hands up and I’ll copy you
So Stand up
We shall not be moved
Unless were taking a route we have not pursued
So if you’ve got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up and I’ll copy you

I said Put your hands up and I’ll copy you
Put your hands up and I’ll copy you
if you’ve got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up

Now shake, shake
A Polaroid dream
nightmare negatives develop on the screen
We sit back and wait for the government team
Criticize they but who the fuck are we
The people want peace but the leaders want war
Our neighbors don’t speak, peek thru the front door
House representatives preach “stay the course”
Time for a leap of faith
Once More

Put your hands up high if you havn’t imagined
Hope that the pen strokes stronger than the cannon
Balls to the wall, Nose to the grindstone
My interrogation techniques leave your mind blown
So Place your bets lets speak to the enemy
Don’t let em pretend that we seek blood
And who’s we anyways Kemo Sabe?
Mighty warlord wanna-be street thug
a threat for a threat leaves the whole world terrified
blow for blow never settles the score
word for word is time need clarify
We the people did not want war

So Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
If you’ve got more to give then you’ve got to prove
Put your hands up and I’ll copy you
Unless were taking a route we have not pursued
So if you’ve got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up and I’ll copy you

I said Put your hands up and I’ll copy you
Put your hands up and I’ll copy you
if you’ve got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up

-

Album – Fight With Tools – 2007

Lyrics

Somewhere between prayer and revolution
between Jesus and Huey P. Newton
that’s where you find Jonny 5 shoot shootin
water guns at the audience while ya scootin’
your gluteous max due to the fact that I’m tootin’
on the horn gonna warn you that I’m rootin’
for the other team in the culture wars
so I stab the beast belly while the vulture roars

YO JOE!

let it blow with convulsive force
til walls fall off their false supports
til Jericho’s aircraft carriers alter course
and all brave young Americans are called ashore
cause we’ve already lost the war they keep wagin
splattering the streets in battles that keep ragin
bloodyin each page of the story that we’re studying
each day the same just the names keep changin

Hook:

saying the same things over again
repeatin the same slogans we don’t know where we’ve been
We’ve been all over the globe on our government’s funds
leavin man woman and child dead bloody and numb

saying the same things over again
repeatin the same slogans we don’t know where we’ve been
we’ve been overthrowing leaders with legitimate views
democratically elected but we didn’t approve….
verse 2

How many times can the line divide
how many wars to uphold some pride
fears uncontrolled just swoll the tide
of blood in the streets while the people die

Ima keep on tryin
longs as suffering’s multiplyin
and why not
souls get tossed and left out to rot
my backs broad enough to help left your cross

as long as you help with mine
the process of healing will take some time
to see the pain on your face is the same as mine
not a game or a race but the stake is high
we maintain our mistakes for the sake of sides
as long as it takes I”ll say it one more time
as long as it takes I’ll say it one more time
as long as it takes I’ll say it one more time

Hook

verse three

we need money for healthcare and public welfare
free mumia and Leonard Peltier
human needs not corporate greed
drop the debt and legalize weed

we say yes to grassroots organization
no to neoliberal globalization
bring the troops back to the USA
and shut down guantanamo Bay

the same things over again
my throat’s so sore from shoutin no war for the soldiers again
lookin for cloud cover when the explosions begin
lookin the crowd over wonder if you where we’ve been
we’ve been all over the globe Iran to Nicaragua
guatamala Angola grenada

Dominican republic Haiti chile

It don’t stop and it won’t stop unless we keep
Hook
Who let’em overthrow Jacobo Arbenz

Who let’em overthrow Mohammad Mosaddeq

Who let’em assassinate Salvador Allende

I didn’t let them but they did it anyway

Who let’em overthrow Kwame Nkrumah

Who let’em overthrow Aristide

Who let’em assassinate Oscar Romero

I didn’t let’em but they did indeed!
don’t let them assassinate Hugo Chavez

don’t let them assassinate Evo Morales

bring back Martin, Malcolm, Medgar,

Hampton, Goodman, Schwerner, Chaney

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(c) 2005 Jamie Laurie & Stephen Brackett

Lyrics