Day in America

Deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook
On Valentine's Day yesterday in Florida, it tore legs
It’s 5:30 AM, the news has been on since I've been home
Since one o'clock in the morning
I’ve been wakin' up every hour or so, lookin' at the CNN TV glow
Came home, opened my email
My friend Kevin asked, "How are you processing this?"
I said I was in the studio gettin' ready to sing
Then the drummer walked in and said, "Hey, did you see this?"
I said, "What?"
He said, "Looks like another high school shooting"
I said, "Where?"
He said, "Looks like it happened about an hour north of Miami"
I said, "How many?"
He said, "It looks like fourteen, or something"
I told Kevin, from that point on
My band discussed it for maybe 20 minutes
Donny said, "Why don't they just get rid of the guns
Like they did in Australia?"
I sat there befuddled and said, "I don't know what to tell ya
But the Republicans like having their right to bear arms
Even if it blows kids off the planet
They spend rest of their lives without their legs and arms
The Republicans believe in their right to bear arms
No matter the rising death toll
And the amount of harm it causes to innocent people
They have their right to bear arms"
And, honestly, from that point on, we picked up our instruments
I got three musicians out here from New York
And we're here to play music, and they were on the clock
So until I got home tonight and saw your email
All the thoughts about the Florida shooting, I blocked

Another player had joined us last night around 6 or 7
We were improvising on a piece of music
That he said sorta reminded him of Bill Evans
It sounded good to me, it sounded like a slice of Heaven
Jim was playin' his drums but Donny wouldn’t play
And after about 15 minutes of this beautiful piano playing
Donny stood up and said
"You guys, this doesn’t sound like Bill Evans"
I said, "What do you mean?"
He said, "This is Bill Evans"
I asked the drummer, "Did you notice?"
He said, "Yes"
And I said, "Well, what in the fuck are we doin'?"
I said to the player who had joined us
Here for fifteen solid minutes
I was like, "Damn, this piece of music is genius"
And he said, "Well, like I said
It’s this left-handed thing in the style of Bill Evans"
I said, "But Donny and Jim said it actually is Bill Evans
And thank God they were here to tell me this, thank Evans
Or I would have released this beautiful song
And someone would have called me out
And said, "You ripped off Bill Evans"

I asked the guys, "Who is this guy, anyhow?"
"It's Bill Evans," he said
"One of the most famous jazz pianists in the world"
I said, "I think I may have heard of him
Or maybe I'm getting him confused
With the chain food restaurant Bob Evans
Bob Evans, yeah, I got that association, Bob Evans"
I was with my friend's sister Debbie
When I was 18 in Ohio at a local thrash metal show
We walked outside to have a cigarette
It was freezing outside, the ground was covered in snow
When a girl confronted Debbie outside and said
"You think you’re so fuckin' cool
With your nose in the air, don't you?"
Debbie said, "What are you even talkin' about?
I've never even met you"
The girl said, "You're a fuckin' snob
I've been standing around and observin' you all night
With your dyed black hair
You think you're too cool for school, don't you?"
Debbie got tense, raised her voice
And said, "So I've traveled a bit
What do you know about anything? What do you know?"
Debbie's tone was getting aggressive and escalating
She said to the girl "Where in the fuck have you ever been to
In this world besides Ohio?"
The girl just stood there and got this big smirk on her face
And I thought, "Oh no"
And she sucker punched Debbie
Knocked her ass down to the ground
And spit in her face and walked back to the thrash metal show

I lifted Debbie from the snow
And she stood there sobbing and sobbing
Her brother came up to me and said, "Mark, what's goin' on?
What happened to Debbie?"
I said, "Man, it all happened so fast
I'm sorry I didn't do anything to protect your sister"
He pulled me aside, he said, "Let me tell you something, Mark
Don't worry about it, she's always had a mouth on her"
I said, "I know, but she's your sister, I've got her back
You enjoy the concert, I've got it from here"
And I said, "Don't worry about this, Debbie will shake it off
Now let's get the fuck out of here"
We got in her car
And I told her I understood this humiliating feeling
Oh, I got knocked out a few times myself
And I know it's humbling and embarrassing
So we went to Bob Evans and sat and drank coffee
And I tried to talk Debbie into a calmer state
She was so distracted and I tried to console her
But she was clearly hijacked
In too much emotional pain for conversation
Said, "Debbie, drop me off"
And from that point on, I don't think I ever heard from her again
I think it's because she associates me with that bad night
That ended at Bob Evans, and I understand

And on the way home, I said to my friend
"Why'd you kick off tonight with the Bill Evans song?"
He said, "I was just tryin' to ease into things"
I said, "That's cool, but we're not a cover band
We're here to make an album of original songs"
He said, "Yeah, I guess that was wrong"
I said, "Yeah man, everything is sort of anticlimactic
When you try to come up with fresh ideas after playing Bill Evans"
He said, "Yeah you're right, I don't know what I was thinking"
I said, "Hey don't worry about it
Everything else you played sounded amazing"
So anyhow, I came home and I turned on the news
Angry as I always get when these things happen
Tryin' to think of what I could do
To help the cause, to influence people
To do what I can to change gun laws
For starters, I'm gonna dedicate a song
To the kids from Florida who didn't live long, whose families grieve
While the rest of the world gets on their phones
And their lives go on
And maybe in the song, I'll share my own private thoughts
In fact, I think I will
I think they should go Django Unchained on the killer they caught
Hang him upside down and cut off his balls
Bleed him to death and let him bleed a slow, bloody death
When 17 kids are murdered, you skip due process
I don't care if he was vulnerable
In a home full of drug abuse and incest
Or allegedly brainwashed by white supremacists
Whatever the case may be for him
Yeah, it's very sad and unfortunate
But escorting this man from the planet
Is in everyone's best interest
When a guy can kill 17 kids, dispose of him quick and fast

I live in San Francisco
And my thoughts on this might go against the flow
But yeah, I think they should torture him to death
With whatever the methods may have been used at Guantanamo
Make an example of him and hang him up to dry
I say more aggressive action
Should be taken against mass shooters, at least give it a try
Anyone who maps out the death of innocent kids
Should not have the privilege of bein' alive
Maybe the parents of the kids will get together
And kill him vigilante-style
Maybe somebody down in the local jail
Will meet up with him in the infirmary and stab him 17 times
And justice will prevail, and that'll be the end of the story
Of the Valentine's Day killer's miserable life
So I asked Kevin by email, "By the way
How are you processing this?
It's gotta be harder for you than it is for me
You got a 13-year-old kid"
But Kevin's on New York time
And it's 6:30 AM, and so far from Kevin no reply
Another day in America, another day in the life
Another day in America, another day in the life
Another day in America, another day in the life
Another day in America, another day in the life
Republicans will say, "This is been a sad day in America
We're sorry for the families of the dead children"
Then they'll go on about second amendment rights
And stand there with their white dicks and their white hands
And stand next to their white wives
Another day in America, another bag of white rice

I just woke up this morning, February 15th
I had a dream about AR-15s, probably based on the news
That said eight million Americans own AR-15s
And I dreamed I was doin' vocals
I asked my engineer what kind of mic we're usin' today
And he said, "An AR-15"
I said, "Isn't that the name of the gun
That did the killing at the school yesterday?"
And he said, "No, that was an M-49"
I said, "I thought we normally use the U-47"
He said, "Sometimes, other times we use an Audio Technica 4060
Or the Shure SM-7"
I said, "Well, they all sound like automatic weapons to me
That send innocent kids off to heaven
So I prefer if we don't use the AR-15"
And he said, "But it's the best microphone this studio has available"
I said, "But that microphone
Is what politicians use at press conferences"
Then I woke up from the dream
So that's it, I got out of bed and took a bath
And got ready to go to the studio
And I got Kevin's reply by email
I called him up and asked if he would kindly read it to me

I don't think I am processing it
Unless reading about it on the internet counts
Reading it and internalizing what's
Being written about it and tweeted about it
Which is that nothing ever changes
And that another shooting will happen every 16 hours
That Columbine was 20 years ago now
It was in the news at that time for months and years
But Parkland will likely disappear from the news cycle in a week
George Carlin used the expression "circling the drain"
Circling the drain to describe the human condition
I believe the, our, this ceaseless, endless madness and violence
And the resulting information overload
And the subsequent collective amnesia
Has to mean we're so close to the drain at this point
Circling it so intensely at this point
That the experience can no longer be processed
Because we're moving too fast
And because we're being processed
Pulsed, like vegetables