TIM ARMSTRONG - INTO ACTION
(featuring Skye Sweetnam)

Let’s get moving into action
Let’s get moving into action
If your life’s too slow, no satisfaction
Find something out there, there’s an attraction
If you hesitate now, that’s a subtraction
So, let’s get moving girl into action

We take the 43 bus, we got no plans
The girl in the miniskirt, her name’s Suzanne, right
The one with in high heel boots is Sharon
And Karen is the one with the blonde wig on
And with a bullet, man, we’re going number one
And we don’t need any money to have any fun

Let’s get moving into action
Let’s get moving into action
If your life’s too slow, no satisfaction
Find something out there, there’s an attraction
If you hesitate now, that’s a subtraction
So, let’s get moving girl into action

We take the Trans-Bay Tube on the Richmond line
Leave S.F. at eight, East Bay by nine
We may run out of money tonight never out of time
Harmon street we kick, it going to Adeline
It’s anybody’s guess how late were gonna run
We go all night alright to midnight just begun

Let’s get moving into action
Let’s get moving into action
If your life’s too slow, no satisfaction
Find something out there, there’s an attraction
If you hesitate now, that’s a subtraction
So, let’s get moving girl into action

Well when we showed up on the scene, we tried to warn them
That your days were over and the ship was sunken
Respect to New York, respect to London
But we’re from California and our State is Golden

We’re gonna dig dig dig in deep hold our sacred ground
When the music come playing then you jump up, jump down
If you hook up the speakers, man, we’ll bring the sound
And the music will be heard from miles and miles around
We got songs of redemption, songs of war
We got songs like this that can pack the dance floor

Let’s get moving into action
Let’s get moving into action
If your life’s too slow, no satisfaction
Find something out there, there’s an attraction
If you hesitate now, that’s a subtraction
So, let’s get moving girl into action

ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT

Jazz radio on a midnight kick,
Round about Midnight.

Sitting on the bed,
With a jazz type chick
Round about Midnight,

Piano laughter, in my ears,
Round about Midnight.

Stirring up laughter, dying tears,
Round about Midnight.

Soft blue voices, muted grins,
Excited voices, Father’s sins,
Round about Midnight.

Come on baby, take off your clothes,
Round about Midnight.

  — Bob Kaufman (1925 - 1986), Beat poet.

Within an enormous vacuum, an enormous space, enormous outer space, you begin to experience the dawn of enlightenment — just the dawn. You get the message that the sun is going to shine, purely because there is a little glow in the east. The dawn of enlightenment in the Buddhist tradition cannot take place unless first there is a sense of desolation, meaninglessness, and being a fool, to begin with. Then the dawn of enlightenment can actually take place properly. You begin to experience what we might call, from a traditional Western reference point, the Star of Bethlehem. The birth of something is taking place. There’s a star in the midnight sky. The sky is black, deep blue, but there is a star shining in that sky. There is hope in the positive sense. There is something taking place. Such a thing cannot happen unless there’s nightfall and darkness … We have already understood that there’s no me, no self, no ground. That nonexistence begins to make sense. That non-existence of self, of ego, becomes the Star of Bethlehem, and the dawn of enlightenment begins to take place.

  — Chogyam Trungpa (1939-1987), From “The Dawn of Enlightenment,” Talk Five of MEDITATION: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, July 8, 1974, Naropa Institute. Edited from the transcript.

JOHNNY CASH - GOD’S GONNA CUT YOU DOWN

You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler,
The gambler,
The back biter
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down

Well my goodness gracious let me tell you the news
My head’s been wet with the midnight dew
I’ve been down on bended knee talkin’ to the man from Galilee
He spoke to me in the voice so sweet
I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel’s feet
He called my name and my heart stood still
When he said, “John go do My will!”

Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler,
The gambler,
The back biter
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down

Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down

You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin’ in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light

You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler,
The gambler,
The back biter
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut you down

Words by Langston Hughes, from Jericho-Jim Crow: A Song-Play (1963)