Magnified (2012)

CD label rev 2 FINAL

Jump to the lyrics…
[mp3]

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TALENTED
OBVIOUS
PAY TO PLAY
MERCURY RISING
4 KATRINA
LAND OF THE FREE
9-11
THE CLICHE SONG
SELF-MADE
WORKING CLASS
SUGARCOAT
IN A SONG

TALENTED
He does things well he’s a talented boy
Give him a ball play the game for joy
Once a kid now so much more
A talented boy we love to adore

Talented, so talented
She said, “You’re just my type”
Talented, so talented
Well I say—“Don’t believe the hype”

King of the hill look what he found
Everybody tries to knock him down
From those who wish and those who hate
A talented boy has to keep it all straight

Talented boy beat the rap
Warp speed ahead without a map
Talented boy has no greed
Talented boy gets what he needs
He’s a talented boy he’s seen it all
Talented boy knows what’s wrong
Talented boy sees the truth
Talented boy keeps his youth

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OBVIOUS
If I sang for something else
Love of money but not myself
Hollow anthems I would mimic
Give the warning inexplicit lyric

I look straight at you and I can see right through
I listen up for you and I can see right through
Maybe one of these days you’ll come up with something new
So when I listen to you, I won’t see right through

A toothless song an indentured voice
Crank it up bring the noise
I look at you and I’m not impressed
With second rate or second best

See right through you
Yes I do
So sad to say
So sad but true
Yeah

I can laugh as I sing to you
In a voice that could be improved
Rich, stoned, fake-rock superstar
Love of money is who you are

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PAY TO PLAY
We’ve got a brand new one for you, it’s called “Over & Over 24/7” from The Payolas, so listen up they’re gonna be huge and remember you heard first on you newest hit source WPAY radio.

You know it’s pay to play
It’s always been that way
Up and down the dial
Choose any style
From the classic rock
To adult contemp
The oldies station
To the country twang
Easy listening
New wave grunge
And the fresh white pop
To the black hip-hop

And the beat goes on
That radio song

You see the radio station is a big sellout
Make a lot of money that’s what it’s all about
So if you want your song on the MTV
Just listen to me and do like I say
You gotta play it loud but don’t offend
And act so serious while you pretend
Add a whole lotta reverb to the drum machine
With a synthesizer to make it sterile and clean
And when the meaning’s gone and there’s a steady drumbeat
They’ll put you on the air with plenty of hype
And a whole lotta coke and a fistful of cash
For the heavy rotation we’ve got an instant smash

And there’ll be plenty of units at the record store
And there’ll be plenty of units flyin’ out the back door
And for twenty bucks a pop you get to be their whore
Because the record companies they get their rake
And the music programmers they’re always on the take
And the management team they collect their cut
And the record chains mark it up
And the music bands get jerked around
To get what’s left of their radio sound
And if the hits don’t come they’ll cancel you
Your contract’s void another legal screw

And when the kids get bored the sound no longer fits
Just package it up call it The Greatest Hits
And when you’re all used up from living in this sewer
Well they can bring it all back for the reunion tour!

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MERCURY RISING
I can’t see the sun through the smoky haze
Near Daytona Beach the brushfires blaze
It’s the talk of the season the folks are amazed
Their swamp is burning these are brave new days

Wildfire burning out of control
It’s the hottest year on record I’m told

It sure is hot it gets hotter each year
Responsible men tell us not to fear
It’s just a trend it’ll disappear
Turn the A/C up it’s getting hot in here

Global warming and an ozone hole
The ice caps melt burning coal
Fossil fuel and gasoline
It sure is hot what could it mean?

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4 KATRINA
The happiness of mankind is in our reach if we realize
That the means to attain this is to come together and socialize

In the classroom we are graded A to F one by one
No one cares that all together we are much greater than our sum
In isolation we are just atoms disconnected lost at sea
By reaching out and joining hands we are a stronger community
Full of immigrants and the poor disenfranchised working labor
Everyone is good at something every culture a different flavor
So if I asked you to help me would you stand up and be my friend
Whose self interest was simply becoming human, again

Achievement in athletics grace and beauty with the drive
That goes into perfect performance distills the best in what’s alive
Strip off the team names and the countries and the sponsors and the spread
Leaving the athletes whose abilities we can enjoy and comprehend
Without the chauvinism and the booing that mars the beauty of the game
Without the chemical enhanced performance that makes us cynical and kill the flame
And when they grow old they aren’t forgotten when their feats have been surpassed
The standard that they once set is inspiration meant to last
A higher level of execution from today and way back when
Should inspire us toward improvement make us more human, again

Mr. President how about we drop you into the middle of a disaster zone
Where a hurricane has devastated and destroyed a million homes
We’ll have you stay there without your privilege and learn to feel people’s misery
Without water, food and electric or any basic necessity
And as our leader you shall remain until everyone is accounted safe
Might make you care or at least wipe that sadistic smirk off your face
This won’t be punishment for your ignorance or your crimes against mankind
It’s just that leaders need experience that builds compassion in a mind
The kind of learning which teaches that everyone is a friend
The kind of living that sets a goal of becoming human, again

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LAND OF THE FREE
Oh say can you see said Scott Key in a song
While their bombs are bad ours they’re never wrong
They burst in the air with red glare so gallantly screaming
While we hail ramparts when we don’t know the meaning
It’s a risky proposition to question the banner that waves
In the Land of the Free where they killed all the braves

It’s true

In the Land of the Free where they killed all the braves
We fight for the rights of oil companies send our boys to their graves
They get sick with some syndrome feel weak start to fade slowly die
While leaders ignore their pleas as they stall and deny

Hey, hey it’s the truth so true yeah, yeah it’s the truth I don’t lie
Hey, hey it’s the truth so true cross my heart hope to die

Hey Mr. President, can I vote by saying “Fuck you?”
Can I sing about the flag from a different point of view?
I’m not whining hear me explain I don’t care what’s considered okay
In the Land of the Free where they killed all the braves

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9-11, 2001
Does anyone remember how it begun?

9-11 it was a terrible scene
9-11 what did it all mean?
9-11 crashed out of the sky
Although statistics had proven it was safer to fly
9-11 I think intention was clear
Surgical strike and a climate of fear
9-11 it was an unfair tactic
To hijack and crash commercial air traffic

9-11 is was a fatal sign
It was organized it was by design
9-11 it was a TV show
The more you watched the less you know
Where investigators say there’s hardly a trace
Broadcaster reports with a solemn face
It’s those dirty Arabs it’s a pretty clear case
All over the news what a bloody disgrace

The president said we will retaliate
This cowardly act we mustn’t tolerate
These are worthy dead not acceptable losses
We’ll punish who did this whatever the cost is
Afghanistan is where the terrorists hide
Let’s launch an attack and win back our pride
We keep upping the stakes with no going back
Never checking ourselves before we react

And a word or two for the commercial airline
Committed to profits and arriving on time
Are the airlines safe? We ask the FAA
Spokesperson response: It’s not appropriate to say
It just seems to me they could shed some light
With fanatics hijacking planes left and right

9-11 many didn’t survive
Osama bin Laden wanted dead or alive
9-11 it’s a terror war
Nothing like this had ever happened before
It’s out in the streets it’s up in the sky
These people are serious and they’re willing to die
9-11 and it wasn’t a joke
Thousands left dead under the rubble and smoke
In the heaps of slag and the mountains of ash
What does it all mean, does anyone ask?

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THE CLICHE SONG
When I was young knew what I wanted to be
Sing my rock & roll song and be totally free
Now some sing their clichés to be run of the mill
And some repeat their clichés until they’re over the hill
And some lip sync pop songs don’t mean no harm
And some sing rock & roll songs stick needles in their arm
And some sing rock & roll songs because they’re gay
So listen to those rock & roll fags they’ve got something to say
And some sing rock & roll songs when they get pissed
And some sing rock & roll songs head banging fist
And some sing rock & roll songs then blow off their head
Kinda changes the meaning of everything he said

Well I sing rock and roll songs
To hear, not to cheer; is that clear?
To spear not to shear; is that clear?
To jeer not to smear; is that clear?
To sneer not to fear; is that clear?
(Or vice versa)

And I sing rock & roll songs in a time that’s hard
And I smoke marijuana in my backyard
Don’t give a fuck what the critics say
Because none of them wrote a decent song anyway

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SELF-MADE
New day morning wake up time
I resolve not to stand in line
Or be afraid to make mistakes
Take a chance on something great

When it’s time to be a star
Take a chance it’ll take you far
It’s who I am not who you know
I’m self-made a one-man show

I’m self-made, made for today
I’m self-made, born yesterday

Extract this song from my brain
What comes out it’s never quite the same
Bits and pieces lost on the way
That’s how it goes that’s the price of fame

Close my eyes so I can see
The earth and moon and sun and sea
I’ll enchant you with my gift of song
I take for granted until it’s gone

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WORKING CLASS
I know a song that never gets too old
I know that song is rock & roll

I’m working class work for myself
For those I love no one else
A hard-work song for a hard-work life
See what’s wrong, try to make it right

And I’m working class I’ll kick your ass
Made to outlast I’ll run you through
Up on stage no fits of rage
This rebel song a thoughtful tune

Don’t worship stars they hardly work
Too afraid to try or to make it hurt
Aerosmith call it a day
Ancient Stones should roll away
They stood for something once before
They got rich and they got bored

Jackie Robinson was working class
Had to withstand racist attacks
As Jim Crow baseball scorned its first black
For two long seasons he could not hit back
Hate of a nation cut to the bone
Out in the field he was alone
Stood their with courage did it with grace
Determination in your face

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SUGARCOAT
FM grunge rock cranked up loud
Radio has bottomed out
Sugarcoat punk rock & roll
Disco’s come back don’t you know?

So don’t sing those words to me until you look me in the face
When style triumphs substance its meaning is erased
Yeah punk rock once was cool but now it’s just cliché
We threw away its guts and played for something safe

Husker Du and Sonic sound
Revolution underground

Alternative nation
“To what?” is the question

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IN A SONG
Guitar man, take me along
Sing me away with a new song
Make it honest, twist a phrase
Make it real without clichés
Broadcast a wavelength all your own
Don’t try to hide when your cover is blown
An honest heart only means that you care
About and human rights and being fair

Say what you mean in a song
Sing it clearly in a voice that’s strong
Listen closely hear the truth
Voice of America in its youth

Leaders today let people die
Tomahawks out of the sky
Third-world nations raped to the bone
All its wealth they call their own
What is right? Are you still not sure?
Truth isn’t simple it’s rarely pure
What can you do, so far away?
Become a socialist start today

Teenage kids I’m talking to you
Rise above and follow through
When I’m gone, buried in the ground
One of you will be my sound

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Magnified Liner Notes

Rock music should be fun, exciting, loud, free-spirited, and in your grill. It should explode out of the speakers and inspire young kids (and anybody else) to make their own music. Maybe, if it reaches the level of true art, it will make people think about the world a little differently. The highest essence of inspiration is to spark a creative urge in others. To inspire others to act upon that impulse, and become something better than they are today is the ultimate goal of this music. From that, we can start to build a better world for all of us tomorrow. I hope you love listening to this music as much as I loved making it. If you do, then help in spreading it far and wide.

Talented The single. The video. Are you good at things? Naturally gifted? Do you find yourself surrounded by flatterers? Do you actually take them seriously?

Obvious The entertainment industry is full of self-satisfied stars. Isn’t it painfully apparent that most of them are in it strictly for the $$$?

Pay to Play Its institutionalized payola that gets your song promoted on the air– plain & simple. Let me explain…

Mercury Rising How come no major artist has written a serious song about one of the most important environmental issues facing mankind? Do these self-satisfied poseurs really believe global warming doesn’t affect them?

4 Katrina There are so many ways for us to lose our humanity. This song is about finding ways to regain it.

Land of the Free Are you sick of being made to conform by standing to salute the flag during the National Anthem, Pledge of Allegiance, God Bless America, etc…? Does it really deserve our respect? This is a fair question to ask.

9/11 Perhaps the defining single event of our epoch, and yet no one has written a believable song with any insight about this day in history. The events leading up to this day have never been adequately explained to the American people, and yet every attack on democratic rights domestically, and imperialist intervention internationally, uses 9/11 for its justification.

The Cliche Song For what reasons would you become a musical artist/rock star? Most of them are silly and selfish.

Self-Made It’s who I am, not who you know.

Working Class The working people of the world are the only political force capable of leading humanity out of the abyss that capitalism is hurling us towards. Working people of the world– know your strength and unite!

Sugarcoat Punk rock once was cool, but now it’s just cliché. We threw away its guts & played for something safe.

In a Song My version of The Carpenters. Now go out and write yours.

All songs written & performed by Ric Size, Infinitelink Records 2012

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An Essay on Art, Truth and Socialism

Art can only be meaningful when it aims at truth. There is no point in trying to be artistic without understanding this concept. An artist walks a fine line between wanting their work to be well-received, while also challenging the audience to meet the work and the ideas behind it on its own terms. At first, the public may often be hesitant to follow the artist into deeper water, especially with serious art that questions generalized conceptions. Unfamiliarity has the tendency of making people reluctant, but eventually, if the artist has succeeded in penetrating to the heart of the matter, society will find its way to the deep end of the pool.

This music is imbued with socialist consciousness. It understands that the world today is a terrible mess, and therefore it follows that anyone who calls themselves an artist can not think otherwise. This is a world of criminally imperialist wars whose purpose is to conquer and loot under the guise of ‘freedom’, ‘democracy’, and ‘homeland defense.’ It is a world where domestically, there is a wholesale offensive by the ruling class on jobs, wages, living standards and democratic rights directed against the working class. A revolutionary socialist knows these are merely two sides of the same coin. The level of decay and corruption isn’t hard to realize—just take a look around. There’s plenty of work that needs to be done—everywhere—and there are armies of unemployed, able-bodied workers; and yet we have a capitalist system that is incapable of putting the two together. This is because the only time any kind of large-scale productivity is allowed is when an elite ruling class is there to exploit and profit from the labor of those less fortunate.

Some who call themselves artists claim to be ‘neutral’ when it comes to all this. Pacifists and liberal reformists fall into this group. For them, it seems much easier to pretend that they exist in a vacuum without these uncomfortable realities affecting them. This is delusion at best and deeply cynical at its worst. The fact is this– there is no neutrality concerning any of this. It is up to each of us to either accept the conventional wisdom of capitalism’s apologists, with its mantra of ‘free enterprise’ as the Holy Grail of human achievement, or reject it by understanding the fact that the problems and issues of today are global and therefore cannot be seriously addressed (much less solved) in an antiquated system of competing nation states that divides each population into economic classes with diametrically opposed interests.

No, the ‘free market’ is not the pinnacle of human culture, in fact it is now the leading cause of its profound decay, as the point where capitalism shifted from being an engine of progress to that of being a brake is long since past. Today the stalwarts of capitalism can only promise us more wars, more misery, and more inequality– that is if they could allow themselves to speak honestly. To those who say you can’t change the way the world works, let it be noted that history shows otherwise.

The United States of America became a nation from one of the great bourgeois revolutions of the 18th century. Nearly a century later the U.S. Civil War, often referred to as the Second American Revolution, ruthlessly determined which mode of production would predominate—wage labor or slave labor. Wage labor won, in short, because it produced guns and butter more efficiently. Today we are living in an era similar to these examples; an epoch where the existing social, political and economic order has become increasingly unsustainable.

This is a pre-revolutionary time in history, and the working masses of the world have a date in the near future with international capital and its well-paid representatives. The task now is to prepare for it with the understanding that a socialist world (and it can only be global as the failure of the USSR proved) means the elimination of want and privation, and the freedom for everyone to live their lives in peace and harmony with others, in dignity as equal members of the human race which has barely begun to achieve the greatness that is its true destiny.

These are the ideas that are at the heart of this music.

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