Back to Top

Bad Religion - Against the Grain Album Lyrics



Bad Religion - Against the Grain Lyrics






Modern Man

i've got nothing to say,
i've got nothing to do,
all om my neruons are
functioning smoothly
yet still i'm a cyborg just like you,
i am one big myoma that thinks,
my planet supports only me,
i've got this one big problem: will i live forever?
i've got just a short time you see,
modern man, evelotionary betrayer,
modern man, ecosystem destroyer,
modern man, destroy yourself in shame,
modern man, pathetic example of earth's organic heritage,
when i look back and think,
when i ponder and ask "why?",
i see my ancestors spend with careless abandon,
assuming eternal supply, modern man...,
just a sample of carbon-based wastage,
just a f*cking tragic epic of you and i
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: GREG GRAFFIN
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.




Turn On The Light

i had a friend who kept a candle in his pocket,
he used to touch it when the wind was blowing high,
i guess it mad him feel like he could
buck the system and when it flickered out we laid him down to die,
turn on the light, turn on a million blinding brilliant white
incendiary lights, a beacon in the night, i'll burn relentlessly until
my juice runs dry, i'll construckt a rock of tempered beams and
trusses and equip it with a million tiny suns, i'll install upon the
roof on my compartment and place tinfoil on my floor and on my walls
then i'll turn on the light... and i'll burn lika a roman f*cking
candle, like a chasm in the night, for a miniscule duration, ecstatic
immolation, incorrigible delight
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: BRETT GUREWITZ
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group




Get Off

lascivious, it's all that i can think of as i drag my feet, searching
lika a diogenes, dangerous, the adjectives of the decasde and of your
alluring intricacies, i cah see your green-screen mentality and i can
feel the sting of its consequence, and i know i shouldn't but it's too
much to ignore, an emotion i deplore, every time i look at you, i just
want to do it, i can clench my fist right through it but i just want
to get off, rectilinear, this direction we've been heading never
realizing we are on a runaway machine, angular, the momentum that does
turn us one step further on our ladder, one more turn toward the east,
i realize your green-screen mentality and i know it is shared by many
more, i know it is quite impossible but i am damned to find a way to
revolve the other way, every time i scrutinize i just say "screw it",
we're on a ride down a blind conduit and i just want to get off
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: GREG GRAFFIN
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.




Blenderhead

flying through a dark prismatic tunnel on a carousel, the earth is
turning and you know it very well, your mind is reeling lika ten
helicopters wheeling and you're gonna hit the ceiling lika a mallet on
a bell, hey, blenderhead, they're starting to ask questions, your
transgressions ar a danger flashing sign, challenge conventions and
radiate your splendor and feel those flywheels curn your blenderhead,
tally up the gleaming ventured on a wishing well, each shining trinket
h as a story it can tell, your moments pining like those tales all
intertwining can become the rusted lining of a deep neglected shell,
hey, blenderhead, you ask so many questions, your confusion's a life-
affirming sign, break from tradition and carry on with valor and feel
those flywheels churn you blenderhead
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: BRETT GUREWITZ
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group




The Positive Aspect Of Negative Thinking

Let's gather round the carcass of the old deflated beast,
we have seen it through the accolades and rested in it's lea,
syntactic is our elegance, incisive our disease,
the swath endogenous of ourselves will be our quandary.

We've nestled in it's hollow and we've suckled at it's breast,
grandiloquent in attitude, impassioned yet inept,
frivolous gavel our design, ludicrous or threat,
excursive expeditions leave us holding less and less...

So what does it mean?
when we tell ourselves it's only for a while we have been deceived
and it's only for a moment that the treasures of our day
make life easier to complicate,
the treasure thrown away...

I'm so tired of all the f*cked up minds
of all the terrorist religions and their bullshit lines,
of all the hand-me-downs from all industrial crimes
and the weeping mothers and those who are led so blind,
from the plastic protests and the hands of time
and the pursuit of mirth and all hating kind!
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: STEPHAN JENKINS
Copyright: Lyrics © BMG Rights Management




Anesthesia

everybody is talking about the girl who went and killed the delivery
man, but she looks so kind and gentle, it just doesn't stand to
reason, i saw her right there just like the other night as stately as
a slot machine, but when she looked my way something mad as hell came
over me, anasthesia, mona lisa, i've got a little gun, here comes
oblivion, i never loved y ou, how did youfind me? the cops will never
prove complicity now, anna..., all good children go to heaven! i
remember your face that august night when we lied about the beautiful
time to come and that crazy old man who came much too late and caused
a chain reaction, i've been hanging out here for eleven long yeras
like now is driving me to distraction
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: BRETT GUREWITZ
Copyright: Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group




Flat Earth Society

lie lie lie... the full moon is rising over dark water and the fools
below are picking up sticks and the man in the gallows lies
permanently waiting for the doctors to come back and tend to him, the
flat earth society is meeting here today, singing happy little lies
and the bright ship humana is sent far away with grave
determination... and no destination, lie lie lie... yeah, nothing
feels better than a spray of clean water and the whistling wind on a
calm summer night but you'd better believe that down in their quarters
the men are holding on for their dear lives, the flat earth society is
somewhere far away, with their candlesticks and compasses and the
bright ship humana is well on its way with grave determination... and
no destination, lie lie lie, ad inifinitum
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: BRETT GUREWITZ
Copyright: Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group




Faith Alone

heard a sermon from a creaky pul pit with no one in the nave, i paid a
visit to the synagogue and i left there feeling blame, no one could
tell me what to do, no one had the ability to answer me, what the
world needs now is some answers to our problems, we can't buy more
time because our tender isn't valid, if your soul needs love you can
consoled by pity, but it looks as though faith alone won't sustain us
anymore, watched the scientists throw up their hands conceding,
"pregress will resolve it all", saw the manufacturers of earth's
debris ignore another green peace call, no one could tell me what to
do, they had not the capacity to answer me, what the world needs now
is some accountability, we can't buy more time because time won't
accept our money, if your soul needs love you can always have my pity,
but it looks as though faith alone won't sustain us no more...
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: GREG GRAFFIN
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.




Entropy

Random blobs of power expressed as that which we all disregard
Ordered states of nature on a scale which no one thinks about
Don't speak to me of anarchy of peace or calm revolt
Man, we're in a play of slow decay orchestrated by Boltzmann

It's entropy, it's not a human issue
Entropy, it's matter of course
Entropy, energy at all levels
Entropy, from it you can not divorce
And your pathetic moans of suffrage tend to lose all significance

Extinction, degradation
The natural outcome of our ordered lives
Power, motivation, temporary fixtures for which we strive
Something in our synopsis assures us we're okay
But in our disequilibrium we simply can't stay

It's entropy, it's not a human issue
Entropy, it's matter of course
Entropy, energy at all levels
Entropy, from it you can not divorce

A stolid proposition from a man unkempt as I
My affectations major, I can not live by
But we are out of equilibrium unnaturally
A pang of consciousness of death
And then you will agree

It's entropy
Entropy, it's matter of course
Entropy, energy at all levels
Entropy, from it you cannot divorce

Entropy
Entropy
Entropy
Entropy
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: GREG GRAFFIN
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.




Against The Grain

Three thousand miles of wilderness overcome by the flow
A lonely restitution of pavement, pomp and show
I seek a thousand answers, I find but one or two
I maintain no discomfiture, my path again renewed

Against the grain, that's where I'll stay
Swimming upstream, I maintain against the grain

Here labeled as a lunatic, sequestered and content
There ignored and defeated by the government
There's an oriented public whose magnetic force will pull
But away from the potential of the individual

Against the grain, that's where I'll stay
Swimming upstream, I maintain against the grain

The flow is getting stronger with small increments of time
And eddies of new ideas are increasingly hard to find
You need all that the other has, it's your right to seize the day
But in all your acquisitions you will soon be swept away

Against the grain, that's where I'll stay
Swimming upstream, I maintain against the grain

There's a common consensus and an uncomfortable cheer
A reverberating chorus that anyone can hear
It sings 'leave your cares behind you, just grab tenaciously'
This lulling sense of purpose will destroy us rapidly

Against the grain, that's where I'll stay
Swimming upstream, I maintain against the grain

Against the grain, against the grain
Against the grain
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: GREG GRAFFIN
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.




Operation Rescue

it is an s.o.s. sent out telepathically, signs of our distress don't
allow complacency, we need restoration now of our integrity and a
drastic bold reminder of our morality, the rectifying troop is here,
the ones we have needed all these yers to stop the heious wrongdoings
and verify our moral benevolence as a people, operation rescue,
they're here to right our fall, they have heard a troubled call,
operation rescue, you may wonder where they come from, but i just
wonder why they're here at all, life ever-after is what they're in the
business for, see them brandish the key to their kingdoms door, it's
persuasive, it's a part of yoy and me but it's not overwhelming as
they wish it to be, if no one believed in fairy tales there would be
nothing they could do but fail yet everywhere we look someone is
trying to reassure our moral benevolence as a poeple, operation
rescue..., you may wonder where they come from, but i just wonder what
compels them all
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: GREG GRAFFIN
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.




God Song

And did those feet in ancient times
Trod on America's pastures of green?
And did that anthropocentric god
Wane with their thoughts and beliefs all unseen?

I don't think so, he's up there with the others laying low
Vying with those, who you've traded your life to to bless your soul

Have they told you how to think
Cleansed your mind of sepsis and autonomy?
Or have you escaped from scrutiny
And regaled yourself with depravity?

Now we all see, 'Religion is just synthetic frippery
Unnecessary in our expanding global cultural efficiency'

Now we all fear this impasse we have built to our future (ever so near)
Ever so near, and oh so austere
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: GREG GRAFFIN
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.




21st Century (Digital Boy)

I can't believe it
The way you look sometimes
Like a trampled flag on a city street
Oh yeah

And I don't want it
The things you're offering me
Symbolized barcode, quick I.D
Oh yeah

'Cause I'm a twenty-first century digital boy
I don't know how to live but I got a lot of toys
My daddy's a lazy middle-class intellectual
My mommy's on Valium, so ineffectual
Ain't life a mystery, yeah?

I can't explain it
The things you're're saying to me
It's going yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Oh yeah

'Cause I'm a twenty-first century digital boy
I don't know how to read but I got a lot of toys
My daddy's a lazy middle-class intellectual
My mommy's on Valium, so ineffectual, oh
Ain't life a mystery, yeah?

Tried to tell you about no control
But now I really don't know
And then you told me how bad you had to suffer
Is that really all you have to offer?

'Cause I'm a twenty-first century digital boy
I don't know how to live but I got a lot of toys
My daddy's a lazy middle-class intellectual
My mommy's on Valium, so ineffectual, yeah

(Twenty-first century digital boy) cats, sports, iron claw
(Twenty-first century digital boy) neurosurgeon screams for more
(Twenty-first century digital boy) innocents raped with napalm fire
(Twenty-first century digital boy) everything I want, I really need

Ain't life a mystery, yeah?
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: BRETT GUREWITZ
Copyright: Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group




Misery And Famine

So proud a history, replete with sanctity,
Orbs in their harmony, they sing their code to me,
Have you ever heard yourself, the orbit you are in?
The terse, oppressive blanket that's instilled here by our spin,

It's misery and famine, it's a force we cannot see,
Misery and famine, it compels us naturally,
Misery and famine, great ellipse, we bend to thee,
Misery and famine, just accept your vagrancy,

Others who bear no name, who feel that life's a game,
My verse they will defame, we suffer all the same,
They pay no regard to their position or their speed,
But the firmament still covers them with its malevolent seed,

It's misery and famine, it's a force we cannot see,
Misery and famine, it compels us naturally,
Misery and famine, great ellipse, we bend to thee,
Misery and famine, just accept your vagrancy,

'You look for meaning in things no one comprehends,
You feel no affinity to the rabble we're in,'
Sources of inquiry have nothing to portend,
They will perplex us all until the coming end,

A feeling of despair, hungry and full of care,
We resent everywhere the fortune that we share,
'This world could be a better place' is a concept I condone,
Given our pathetic course our destiny is known,

It's misery and famine, it's a force we cannot see,
Misery and famine, it compels us naturally,
Misery and famine, great ellipse, we bend to thee,
Misery and famine, just accept your vagrancy,

[x4]
Misery and famine
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: GREG GRAFFIN
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.




Unacceptable

irreducible is the word for today, plastic compounds and nuclear
waste, what the hell is the matter with the pople on this planet? have
we all gone insane? the stigma of industrial progress killing us over
and over agin, one part per trillion... unacceptable, on part per
billion... unacceptable, one part per million... unacceptable, this
mammoth program set upon us courtesy of the U.S.A., inexcusable are
the men before our time, i'd like to kick their ass for what they left
behind, cancer-causing chemicals, ozone-depleting aerosols, we're all
going to fry, so put your head between your legs and kiss your ass
goodbye
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Copyright: Lyrics © Original Writer and Publisher




Quality Or Quantity

offer me eternity, and i'll trade a cup of coffee and a dime, looking
for a handout on behalf of those who have so little time, but who
wants to live on just 70 cents a day? padding your pockets doesn't
make this a better place, "cereal and water" is a feast for some you
say, your price-tag on existence can't cover your double face, quality
or quantity: a choice you have to make, dipping in the icing, bringing
home the largest turkey from the field, breaking all the piggy banks,
scooping up the booty, licking all the right holes, bolstering the
payroll, why reduce life to a dollar amount per day? and why let the
world think this is the american way? your uneaten greens ar a feast
for some you say, survival and living are concepts you can't equate,
quality or quantity don't tell me they're the same
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: GREG GRAFFIN
Copyright: Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.




Walk Away

shut off the t.v. and peel off those sunday gloves, and i'll stain the
clean that you've been counting, old mr. fletcher passed by here
today, after 40 years of toil he just stood up and walked away,
fantastic the panic that showed in his eyes, he shrugged when i asked
him about it, he said "young man pay heed, you listen well to what i
say, now there comes a time for a man to walk away", walk away, i'll
be a parade, and i'll be determined that no one shall dissuade on my
way, i'll sure take some time to burn all the bridges that i'm leaving
behind, he passed by again and he was shivering from the cold, i'm not
sure but i think that he was trying, he told me about the weather and
something old to pay, "but tomorrow", he said, "i'm gonna surely walk away"
[ Correct these Lyrics ]

Writer: BRETT GUREWITZ
Copyright: Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group




Back to: Bad Religion


Against the Grain is the fifth album (and seventh release overall) by American punk rock band Bad Religion, released on November 23, 1990. It was the last album recorded with drummer Pete Finestone, who left in 1991 to concentrate with his new project The Fishermen. Following his departure, the band's music would take a different direction on their next album, 1992's Generator. Against the Grain was also the first Bad Religion album not to feature a lineup change from the previous two albums.

Despite no promotion by radio and television, Against the Grain managed to sell over 100,000 copies. A tiny part of the album's title track is played in a segment of the same name on The Dan Patrick Show.
Performed By: Bad Religion
Genre(s): Hardcore punk, melodic hardcore
Producer(s): Producer Bad Religion
Length: 34:56
Released: November 23rd, 1990
Year: 1990

Tags:
No tags yet