Money; The root of all evil

"Artists Are Lonely"

Artists are lonely
We've been known to go insane
We feel so much our hearts confuse the brain
Minds clogged up without a place to drain
Accepted only if we entertain

Artists have talent
Which all too often is abused
Laugh all you want but I'm un-amused
When money and emotions are fused
My abilities are better left unused

Artists are happy
In the worlds that we create
In my world I reshape the shapes I hate
Where greed and pride cannot penetrate
Where colors aren't forced to segregate

(jj johnson)

"Artificial Artists"  

My words are not written for me to make a profit
Nor do I profess to be a spiritual prophet
I just want a gallery to display what I create
Just a place where no one's counting up the gate

You have confused God with your Almighty Dollar
And sold your soul for some artificial power
Inside you're already equipped with all that you need
I won't be bought 'cos I've closed my eyes to the beauty of greed

Fools will compare music of yesterday and today
Technology can't make up for words without a way
If a song's natural strength is not strong enough
Why soften it by stuffing padding in the fluff?

I hear a lot of slick production on the radio
I really think the rock has gotten out of control
I have seen the artists struggling in smoke filled bars
And now in my visions I can see beyond the stars

All I ever hear these days are sopped-up smoothie tunes
Rising up the charts as fast as full hot air balloons
Even if you don't hear music from my point of view
Stop polishing the rock, don't let it roll over you

You're making lots of dollars but you're not making any sense
Your smoothie tunes lack the passion that makes a song intense
Believe the words you sing or the song is finished from the start
Stop writing from your wallet, let it flow from in your heart

Put some soul behind your roll and find the spirit that you lack
Once it's sold you can't buy it back even with your endless stack
In spite of all you've made, it's a fact you can't dismiss
Art flows from within, not the corporate edifice

Record company politics and artists just don't mix
The ones who steal the money have one name, "666”
Pride won't buy your dinner but inside is where it pays
Despite the Record Biz, one song has several ways

I don't want to become anyone’s hero
But I wouldn't be here now if mine added up to zero
I don't want to dictate the style of music that you do
I just want to hear something a little bit more true

I could go on and on and on and I think I will anyway
Until someday when it's you in your music I hear you play
Can it really be so hard to feel and write down what you think
Or is there something wrong, is your pen filled with phony ink?

While it may be ok for you to live your life a lie
Your fans worship you and I can't help but wonder why
You have worked so hard to be what you wanted to be
But to be yourself, you shouldn't have to try

Time after time you sing and yet your song remains unsung
Show us your true colors, expose your insides to the sun
Songs are more than simply words for you to sing
Will you ever understand that money isn't everything?

I spin the radio dial and hear the commercial pioneers
Every radio station is poison to my ears
That isn't the kind of artist that I want to be
All I really want is for my music to be me

And so the con-artists continue to sell out their souls
While mine's committed to making sure the rock still rolls
And there is only one way to get back what they have lost
But the barrier between greed and visions must be crossed


(jj johnson)

"Artificial Artists (X-Reprise)"

Have all the sex you want but not with old St. Nic
He won't come down your chimney with his toys or with his prick
You're like The Ghost Of Christmas Past 'cos you're easy to see through
Santa may not be an artist but he's more real than you

I wouldn't want your sex if you sat on me and whirled
It's easy to get caught up in the material world
Greed is a temptation I found hard to rise above
But even Mr. Number One knows money can't buy love

Compared to your record sales you're just a song and dance
So buy a baggy pair and stop grabbing at your pants
It's hard to feel reality even in the end
When the world that you live in is nothing but pretend

One day you'll realize there is no surgery
That can alter what we hear or the man we see
I may have two but that's the other side of me
At least both of my faces reflect what's inside me

For all I care you can freeze yourself for a thousand years
I'll be dead but even in my grave I'll still plug my ears
I'll never let you buy the rights to any of my songs
They came from inside me and that's where ownership belongs


(jj johnson)

All Grown up

Flimsy dust,
Penetrates my horizon,
Floats across
My thinking,
Lost days,
Of nothingness
Acceptance,
Dilutes,
Internal dreams
Summer is gone
Everything turns
To squelchy muck
Of pointless wisdom
Delusional freedom
Enslavement,
Pay your
Fuckng bills
Empty pocket,
Glory,
Shackled to modernity,
I hate it.

......

frequent flyer mile restrictions

I shudder beneath my blankets  

And there she is again  

that girl  
in that little village  
that has no clean water  

I laugh  

a minute ago  
it was the great wandering dog  
without a home  

it melts away  
and she and her cub will drown  

or starve  

or both  

too much  
too little  

but what am I to give  

a fuck  

sorry I don't  

just $1.25 a day  
he says  
the price of a cup of coffee  
saves the girl  

and her family  

$2.00 for the bear  

my Glivec is $298 a day  

$79 in Mexico  

I guess we all live in the wrong place

Covet  
(from the mind of too many who obsess only about themself)

I don't care how much more I'll need
To buy that mansion on the hill.
Or anything that I can do
To get away and have it all.

No matter what, no matter how
I'll break every law if I must.
I'll stop at nothing
Short of homicide.

No wait, I change my mind.
I'll go all the way in my greed
To get rich quick and stay that way
I don't give a damn what you need.

I'll do whatever it takes my friends
To fill my bags with coins of gold.
I love the sound and feel the weight,
To get away with even more.

Of stacks and stacks of crisp greenbacks
Of any denomination.
And act'ally I'm not greedy
'Cause after all it's meant for me.

I won't apologies to you,
I'll swipe what's not nailed down for free.
I need the cash much more than you,
And don't come to me for a loan!

Thanks for the nod ... Bravo! LBV ... Cool ink from Ms. Rocky Jackson ...

thanks G!

congrats to all you guys

The rich need more
The poor just need

the simple truth is written in the simplest way, bravo !