Will you get better this way
If you make me stay
Erase the chalk decade
You will call and answer the sound of a gun with the beat of a drum
Let's have some fun
You will walk, you will talk
There is a bed waiting under you when you fall
Remain and build up the wall
No one can get over
No one can get under
This time we'll make it better
In metal

We haven't been out for days
The light, the sun, the rays
They come from the store
They're stockpiled in the drawer
You want some more
That's some flavor you pour
Call us to our corners
We shout, we sleep, we fight, we make out
We feign the rest of the bout
Cameras up
Cameras on
This is what I'll remember when you're gone
How seventeen years wasn't long
I'll be back
I'll behave
We'll shut the door, look outside and we'll wave
The walls keep us tight
Low got it right
I'll make everything ok
I'll go back and keep you safe
In metal

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments | voice

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | lyrics | mastering | mixing | production | recording

Have you got a light
I've seen this door a hundred times
Touched this railing like a hundred hands
Seen these faces rage and fade
And crumble into lonely age
I know what it's like to be a liar
When everyone around you is a fire
I think you know it too, don't you
Let's have a drink or two
We're not rebels, we're not heroes
We're just here, we're just queer
The fuzz can smell our fear
The cameras are rolling when they pull us apart
We didn't know this was how it would start

Break down, silent sister
Look out the bars for the one you lost
All we have are shadows and shame
What's your name
Will you stay
Before they take us away

We saw them throw stones
We buffered our bones
The whip cracked
The jail cell full of queens of all sizes and colors
You weren't there
They dragged you by your hair
This beautiful boy
Taken away in rags
Taken away in bags
The cops went home to their wives and their steak knives
And we screamed for years

We felt the sting privilege had pried from us
We were the faraway boot-crushed boys
We want it us over them
We take the bullets and grin
We saw our faces in films and photographs
We were the martyrs for progress
What was your name again

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments | voice

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | lyrics | mastering | mixing | production | recording

notes:

Samples from "United in Anger: A History of ACT UP" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrAzU79PBVM), Sylvia Rivera's "Y'all better quiet down" monologue (https://videoactivism.net/en/yall-better-quiet/), footage from the 1968 Democratic National Convention protest (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_9OJnRnZjU), Advise and Consent (clip from The Celluloid Closet, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL_vrb4-6_0), Jean Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsbrRAgv1b4).

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

michael ambro: guitar

paul ambro: guitar

dennis harvey: keyboards

composition/production:

michael ambro: composition

paul ambro: composition

jason harvey: composition

dennis harvey: composition | mastering | mixing | production | recording

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | mastering | mixing | production | recording

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

michael ambro: guitar

paul ambro: guitar

dennis harvey: keyboards

composition/production:

michael ambro: composition

paul ambro: composition

jason harvey: composition

dennis harvey: composition | mastering | mixing | production | recording

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

omran shafique: guitar

jon beal: keyboards | voice

dennis harvey: drums

composition/production:

jon beal: composition | lyrics | mixing | production | recording

jason harvey: composition | mixing | production | recording

omran shafique: composition | mixing | production | recording

dennis harvey: composition | mixing | production | recording

extra composition/production:

harry o'hanian: production

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | mixing | production | recording

Bittersweet creature comforts are here
Masquerading in this atmosphere
As shelter and enviable needful things
Bridges crumbled long before now
Manage to seem new again somehow
Needful things surround us when love can’t be found

Crisis and secrets and skeletons fill
Our best-kept crawlspaces
Where an iconic treasure trove may bend our will
It can’t match the love it replaces

Love in your thought word and deed
These are needful things

Set in motion each has sired
Rapture ruptured and set on fire
Sex and venues races and structures
Religion fashion form and culture

Love is all we have to give
Trust takes more than getting used to
Love is all I’ve left to give
I’ll take more than getting used to

Hungering for blessed mercies
Needful things devour the proceeds
Restraining love from withholding
Diligent disorders from building
Flourishing at best in turmoil
They backlash with a wicked recoil
Hallowed though are these
In this house are needful things

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

david beck: drums

mohadev bhattacharyya: guitar

jon beal: keyboards | voice

composition/production:

jon beal: composition | recording

david beck: composition

mohadev bhattacharyya: composition | recording

jason harvey: composition | mixing | production | recording

extra performance:

dennis harvey: noises

extra composition/production:

dennis harvey: mastering | mixing

take these words
out of my mouth
use them
to paint your portrait
i never spoke
or sang a note
you sang for me

let it be known
that we were here
and we knew no release

sing for me
open your mouth
river flows down the sound

performance:

dennis harvey: all instruments | voice

composition/production:

dennis harvey: composition | lyrics | mastering | mixing | production | recording

performance:

jason harvey: bass guitar

michael ambro: guitar

paul ambro: guitar

dennis harvey: keyboards

composition/production:

michael ambro: composition

paul ambro: composition

jason harvey: composition

dennis harvey: composition | mastering | mixing | production | recording