this one, by the buckfever underground, paints such an ugly picture of home, lol. but it makes me homesiiiiiiiiiiiiiick.

any songs about where you're from? that really sort capture what it's like? i bolded my favourite bits


the highveld is a shit place to be in winter
the highveld is a big road flanked by roads and towns and cities and smoking chimneys and empty grasslands which are always burnt for our pleasure
I’m always in a car
hands stuck in a cubby-hole
fingers in a tape deck
clothes to my seat
dust and smoke the endless flavour of winter
frozen dogshit in the suburbs where the mornings start white and frosty and the afternoons end white and crusty with streetlamps and Egoli
I panic when I can’t see the stars
I panic when the sun is a central smog
and my direction is a stoned pigeon wrapped in a map
there’s tea and milktart from relatives in cages
good people who sigh in their homes and lock their toilets and hide their doormats under their keys
in the flat parts of the Free State the weavers flock aimlessly under dimmed lights
build their nests dangling from concrete silos and steel pylons
even in the marshes the reeds bend and break on their own under a heavy low sky
waiting for the slime dam to sweep them into definition
farming here is an endless wait for December rains
an endless locking of gates
to keep the cattle in and the locusts out and the violence in the paper
little kids buy ice-cream and Niknaks from the One Stop and their stuffed cheeks full of sharp teeth clatter and glisten and laugh at roadkill
Florida and Philadelphia and Virginia are in the states
Monte Video the capital of Paraguay or Uruguay
so why the fuck also on the highveld
the people here are ugly in their cars and pretty in their bars
where hands are for counting money changing gears throwing signs and clenching fists
life becomes a fiddling for frequencies in between disruptive factories for foreigners and the retracing of daily steps to AllBran Flakes and uncomfortable sex
you’re never on solid ground
there are people everywhere
digging out gold and hiding places and finding bad lungs and unexpected sinkholes in bathtubs
people think of murder when they eat in restaurants
consider rape when they go for a jog
while Golden Retrievers lounge in Northcliff and think of Alaska
the city is littered with untidy people who look at hands on the corners of tables and buildings with the reflection of a cloud framed by a neon triangle
the open veld is rare and littered with derelict pigfarms and sootfilled sunflower fields with only remote aspirations of becoming Floro margarine
the cement is a passive smoker with filters growing on it like disorganised ticks and the red dust mixes with smoke at sunset to become sentimental gravel
I’m never here because I want to
I’m a co-pilot
a navigator
a shotgun-sitter
measuring the miles between historical sites and toilets for my mom
if you sit still for long enough they’ll steal your kidneys and while a friendly nod can kill you a playful wink can cost you a weekend
if I stay here for too long I’ll become an active abuser a topflight loser a succesful gimmick or a professional skunk with labels and a mean piss
the Highveld is a shit place to be in winter

__________________
said thanks for the insults and compliments
you'll never forget my face no more

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Philadelphia

I was bruised and battered, I couldn't tell what i felt
I was unrecognizable to myself.
I saw my reflection in a window, I didn't know my own face.
Oh brother are you gonna leave me wastin' away
On the Streets of Philadelphia.

I walked the avenue, 'til my legs felt like stone,
I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone,
At night I could hear the blood in my veins,
Black and whispering as the rain,
On the Streets of Philadelphia.

Ain't no angel gonna greet me.
It's just you and I my friend.
My clothes don't fit me no more,
I walked a thousand miles
Just to slip this skin.

The night has fallen, I'm lyin' awake,
I can feel myself fading away,
So receive me brother with your faithless kiss,
Or will we leave each other alone like this
On the Streets of Philadelphia

__________________
[ o ]==#

That's the whole trouble. You can't ever find a place that's nice and peaceful, because there isn't any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you're not looking, somebody'll sneak up and write "Fuck you" right under your nose.” - J. D. Salinger

a spiritual being having a human experience

Adelaide
On a plane
Far from the United States
Of LA
Dropping in from outer space
Takes a day
Now I see the bogans
At the motor race
Here you know the world could turn
Or crash and burn
And you would never know it
Going where the air is clear
There's better beer in Adelaide

Charlie L. Smith's forty
Someone spiked my rice
The rest, history
Now I am a fixture down

Rundle Mall
Watching as the locals pass
Silver balls
I can see their eyes around
They're pointed down
They scan the spanning sidewalks
Learning that there is no hurry
Fuss or worry
Adelaide

It's raining
In Adelaide
A face is waiting in a window
A voice says
Why Adelaide
You could live anywhere and I say
Because I want to
Because I want to
I really really want to

And you know the earth could turn
Or crash and burn
And you would never know it
Really got to make it to the finish line
Get the record done on time
Pack the bags
And catch a flight
And you can kiss my ass goodbye
On Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide

haha

Rose Tattoo - Suicide City (about Canberra, Australia)

You're at the end like a lamb to the slaughter
You're comin just to make your way
You don't worry about the future
'Cause the government guarantees pay

65 is the year they got planned out for you to retire
At 65 more dead than alive you'll expire

Suicide City where the girls are so pretty
The boys walk home in the rain
Suicide City, isn't it a pity
Brain drain's the name of the game

In the nerve center of the country
There's so much work to do
They gotta feed the government machine
And it lives off human food

And in the length of boxes, identity's stripped away
When they work 'em, and when they hurt 'em
They just throw 'em away

Suicide City where the girls are so pretty
The boys walk home in the rain
Suicide City, isn't it a pity
Brain drain's the name of the game

I can't take it...Suicide City!

They're tryin' to tell us out our windows
Gonna tell us in the front of the trains
A university diploma
It don't mean that you got brains

They push you to the limit
They push you 'till you drop
They push you so hard, push you so far
Push you over the top

Suicide City where the girls are so pretty
The boys walk home in the rain
Suicide City, isn't it a pity
Brain drain's the name of the game

I can't take it...Suicide City!

Suicide, Suicide, Suicide, Suicide City
I live in Suicide, Suicide, Suicide, Suicide City
Sunshine
Sunshine
Suicide, Suicide, Suicide, Suicide, Suicide, Suicide, Suicide
Suicide City
Suicide City, such a shame, Suicide City
Suicide City, it's such a pity, Suicide City
Suicide, Suicide!
Suicide

thank you merle haggard.

Way out in Reno, Nevada,
Where romance blooms and fades,
A great Philadelphia lawyer,
Was in love with a Hollywood maid.

"Come, love, and we will wander,
"Down where the lights are bright.
"I'll win you a divorce from your husband,
"And we can get married tonight."

Wild Bill was a gun-totin' cowboy.
Ten notches were carved in his gun.
An' all the boys around Reno,
Left Wild Bill's maiden alone.

One night when he was returning,
From ridin' the range in the cold,
He dreamed of his Hollywood sweetheart,
Her love was as lasting as gold.

As he grew near her window,
A shadow he saw on the shade;
'Twas the great Philadelphia lawyer,
Makin' love to Bill's Hollywood maid.

The night was as still as the desert,
And the moon hangin' high overhead.
Bill listened a while to the lawyer:
He could hear ev'ry word that they said:

"Your hands are so pretty and lovely,
"Your form's so rare and divine.
"Come go with me to the city
"And leave this wild cowboy behind."

Now back in old Pennsylvania,
Among the beautiful pines,
There's one less Philadelphia lawyer,
In old Philadelphia tonight.