⚠️ TRIGGER WARNING – SET LIST TEN (10)
This set delivers a sharp blend of political critique, cultural decay, emotional burnout, and bitter reflection. It doesn't soothe — it challenges, mocks, and mourns. Though not graphically violent, its themes may be distressing due to their emotional weight and social implications.
Expect repeated confrontation with:
Government corruption and political manipulation
Nuclear war and existential dread
Addiction, mental health struggles, and depression
Media saturation, consumer decay, and societal apathy
Disillusionment with systems, leadership, and modern morality
These aren't passing references — they're the foundation of the set's message.
POLITICAL DISILLUSIONMENT & CORRUPTION
“Pardon Me,” “Obamafication,” “Heresy Speaks No Evil,” and “Another History Lesson” pull no punches. These songs depict democracy as illusion, elections as performance, and leaders as complicit in mass manipulation. The tone is sardonic and direct: politicians, media, and even religion are painted as tools of distraction and oppression.
Expect references to bribery, injustice, media propaganda, and hypocrisy from both sides of the aisle. “Heresy Speaks No Evil” is especially relentless — naming war profiteering, lost civil liberties, climate denial, and celebrity worship as symptoms of a failing system.
Caution for listeners exhausted by current events or systems of power.
NUCLEAR FEAR & COLLAPSE ANXIETY
“Pushing the Button” centers on a single act of destruction: the flick of a switch ending the world. While poetic in tone, it's saturated with cold, fatal imagery — sirens, bombs, families wiped out. This track simmers with dread and resignation, echoing fears that some listeners may carry daily.
MENTAL HEALTH & INTERNAL COLLAPSE
“History to Me,” “Shadow Boxing,” and “Call It Fate” explore spiritual exhaustion, depression, and trauma. Lyrics speak to emotional numbness, inner battles, and helplessness — from addiction and poverty to watching the world collapse without being able to stop it. “Call It Fate” is especially heavy, intertwining illness, violence, and moral grief.
These songs don't sensationalize — but they do not comfort. They portray lives fraying quietly at the seams.
SOCIAL APATHY & ECONOMIC STRUGGLE
“Picture Something Nice,” “Birthright,” and “Intellectual Property” address systemic neglect with heavy irony. Homelessness, class disparity, broken healthcare, generational burnout — all are described bluntly, with no promise of resolution. Listeners navigating economic insecurity or emotional fatigue may find these tracks especially raw.
“It's not your problem / Someone else will fix it…”
This recurring line indicts passive bystanders while mourning a system designed to forget the vulnerable.
SATIRE & MORAL CYNICISM
“Obamafication” and “Pardon Me” mix sarcasm with despair — mocking campaigns, false hope, and surface-level change. They don't offer solutions. Instead, they expose manipulation and apathy with a tone that may be more draining than inspiring for sensitive listeners.
IDENTITY, RACE & SELF-REFLECTION
“Shades” is gentler, tackling race and identity through introspection rather than anger. But its tone stands apart from the rest — quieter, calmer — and may feel drowned out in the chaos surrounding it.
“Another History Lesson” closes the set with tired defiance: hope still flickering, but nearly extinguished. There's no triumphant arc — only resistance with a limp.
WHO SHOULD USE CAUTION
Avoid or delay this set if you are:
Emotionally fragile or experiencing political despair
Grieving illness, death, or institutional failure
Distressed by nuclear threat or helplessness
Dealing with addiction, burnout, or depression
Triggered by injustice, surveillance, or social decay
WHO THIS SET MAY RESONATE WITH
Activists, skeptics, and truth-seekers
Writers, poets, and philosophers of modern collapse
Listeners seeking critique over comfort
Audiences who want confrontation, not consolation
TONE & INTENT
Set List Ten critiques rather than consoles. It speaks with the voice of a disappointed witness — angry, jaded, and tired of pretending. It's not designed to heal. It's designed to make you feel the weight of complicity, collapse, and resignation.
Listener discretion strongly advised.
GO ASK GRAMM
SET LIST TEN (10)
1 History To Me
2 Pushing the Button
3 Heresy Speaks No Evil
4 Obamafication
5 Shadow Boxing
6 Picture Something Nice
7 Call It Fate
8 Pardon Me
9 Birthright
10 Shades
11 Intellectual Property
12 Another History Lesson
SET LIST 10 — GO ASK GRAMM — RATED PG-13 — COLLABTUNES.COM · 433 songs · 34 albums · free to use with name credit
34 ALBUMS LYRICS FREE TO USE
RATED PG-13
SET LIST 10 — GO ASK GRAMM
12 tracks · read them or hear them
WHY THIS PAGE TALKS. These lyrics are free to use with name credit. What you hear is a plain spoken reading — no melody, no tune, no imitation of any singer. It is here so a musician can hear the natural cadence and phrasing of the words as written, then build their own music on top. Nothing borrows a melody from anybody, and nothing tells you what yours should sound like. The words are the material. The music is yours.
Read the words on the page itself → · ← All readers
1. HISTORY TO ME · 2. PUSHING THE BUTTON · 3. HERESY SPEAKS NO EVIL · 4. OBAMAFICATION · 5. SHADOW BOXING · 6. PICTURE SOMETHING NICE · 7. CALL IT FATE · 8. PARDON ME · 9. BIRTHRIGHT · 10. SHADES · 11. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY · 12. ANOTHER HISTORY LESSON
1. HISTORY TO ME
by Tom Jensen
I remember when Ice Cube and T were black
And rapped...now they act...like crap...
I remember when The Rock he cooked
And then he'd call us all funny names
Eye brow raised with that funny look...
Now he acts...like crap… it's a fact…
Everything is coming back
But changed...
They're calling it the same name
But it's... strange
I remember when it was cool to say hello
To somebody new I didn't know
Now they're all plugged in to their phones
Which is plugged in where? They don't know...
They don't care.
I say hello.
They don't say hello.
So I stare...
Uh Oh...
I need more than a good chiropractor
To fix this fractured broken soul
I need more than skilled psychiatrists
To bandage up these mentally slit wrists
And net all these knotted thoughts
I watch spin and twist out of my control
So look out… all up, down and around
Both near and far,
hey you up there,
look out below!
Everything is coming back
But changed...
They're calling it the same name
But it's... strange
I'm seeing so many faces playing charades
Believing they've found
a new game in a new age…
Hahaha… It's just history to me…
Written on a fresh page
2. PUSHING THE BUTTON
by Tom Jensen
History won't repeat this
so I'm gonna say it with a fist
Scratch my name off the list…
Somebody's gotta resist
Such actions without thinking
is like an alcoholic drinking
One slip is all it takes
to start the snowball rolling
and then it's too late
And when there's an avalanche below
You'll be the one who's
covered by the snow
Covered from head to toe
They keep you in suspense
while hiding behind their fence
And in the same sense
there is just no defense
When all it takes is a fool like you
To push the button and we're all through
The whole world's future
and the whole world's past
One flick of the wrist
and it's gone in a flash
With one press of the button
Were here and then gone all of a sudden
F&%$#*g 'A' is what I say
I stopped caring
about getting blown away
You can hide under desks
You can hide behind chairs
But there's nowhere to run
When the sirens blare
When video games turn into real life
You say goodbye to your children
And then goodbye to your wife
And don't forget to pet
Your dog as well
Right before all of us
Get blown to hell!!!
3. HERESY SPEAKS NO EVIL
by Tom Jensen
Government sponsored torture
is kind of hard to ignore
Especially when you're held prisoner
of a misguided war
Lobbyists sit with
wads of cash in their fists
For any politicians who
find it too hard to resist
Seems that tax cuts
for corporations
and also the rich
Is the only way to build
true bipartisanship
For our money system
The Fed is privately owned
Backed by paper not gold
And everyday us indebt
wage slaves are sold
When you're afraid of
not being afraid
The "terrorists" win
Their best weapon is fear
They watch our civil liberties
become stripped away so fast
through the most unpatriotic of acts
Soon we won't be able to
speak, see or hear
If this is the state of the union
I think a state of emergency
should be declared
On second thought...
that's not such a great idea
And I haven't even
gotten to distribution of wealth
Inflation, funding for education
or health care
Why are so many more
concerned with the
theft of their identity
Than the loss of free will,
dignity and humanity
When you lack
any great substance
I guess you dress to impress
And fill yourself with vanity
This misinformation generation
eats up whatever they feed ya
Be it Mickey D's, MTV,
shows based on "reality"
Yum Yum...
spoon fed by a controlled media
We're infatuated by celebrities
and American Idols
Fox News, LeBron's shoes,
natural disasters
and let us not forget...
the crazy homicidal
If this is the state of the union
I think a state of emergency
should be declared
On second thought...
that's not such a great idea
And I haven't even
gotten to distribution of wealth
Inflation, funding for education
or health care
I am growing tired
of this throw away
disposable consumer society
Why are those who say
our globe isn't warming
Still trying to lie to me?
Using up energy sources
that will not be soon replaced
Did you know that plastic
is gonna be the fossil
of the entire human race?
Our seas are overfished
and rainforests destroyed
Why? So men can make money
Mother Nature gets lucky when
people are unemployed
If this is the state of the union
I think a state of emergency
should be declared
On second thought...
that's not such a great idea
And I haven't even
gotten to distribution of wealth
Inflation, funding for education
or health care
Time to step off my soapbox
And walk down the road yonder
But before I go
two final questions to ponder:
Might seven billion people
be considered overpopulation?
How can we have
all-you-can-eat buffets
AND sufferers of starvation?
4. OBAMAFICATION
by Tom Jensen
America wants change
Not the rhetoric of change:
Yes we can
But we didn't
See sometimes
The truth is hidden
Sure some words
Were surely spoken
The needle's stuck
Record is broken
Yes we can...
Yes we can...
Yes we can...
The rhetoric
Just keeps getting repeated
Information
Guess we don't need it
Pick a war hero
Or a good neighbor
Suffer sooner or
Suffer later
Yes we can...
Yes we can...
Yes we can…
5. SHADOW BOXING
by Tom Jensen
Maids in the morning sweeping up broken glass
Long lost dreams of a shattered past
As a cup full of life is spilled to the floor
A man who once had riches now lives poor
Walking down the spiral staircase that is my mind
Passing all the memories that I've left behind
See the same things enough soon you'll grow blind
Be careful of what doors you open and what you will find
Some patterns are so hard to break they end up breaking you
Anyone who's ever worn these shoes knows this is true
See enough dope and you're bound to give it a try
See murders every day and pretty soon you won't cry
There's blood on the sidewalk
The scent of death in the air
Yet you stroll right past
While others stop and stare
Some men live long and some die young
Some carry heavy burdens, some carry none
When you're shadow boxing you sometimes bruise
When you fight yourself sometimes you lose
6. PICTURE SOMETHING NICE
by Tom Jensen
Homeless mand in the alley
He's paying his dues
While he was sleeping
The children took his shoes
When he wakes up
He looks so confused
His pride is hurt
What's left of his ego is bruised
Yeah, every hour
of every day
The faces change
But the story's the same
You live it, you breathe it
You hear it, you see it
You learn to accept it
And soon you expect it
Just as the sun rises
Just as the moon shines bright
There's no need to worry
You're doing all right
Don't pay attention
Just walk on by
Picture something nice
Don't you bat an eye
It's not your problem
Someone else will solve it
It's not your problem
Someone else will fix it
You just leave the worrying to me
I'll worry about the way thing ought to be
It's not your problem
So go on and make your exit
You think that you're perfect?
In everything you say
In everything you do
Some say what you don't know
Cannot hurt you
And you believe it to be true
Oh, but the price you will pay
You will find out some day
That day maybe today
Or could still be far away
So you better keep on your toes
Because there is something
That everybody knows
Inside there's a monster that grows
Beneath your pretty clothes
A vanity affair
But there is no one else there
You're only cheating yourself
A vanity affair
Either make amends
Or keep playing pretend
You're only cheating yourself
When you think you win
Then you really lose
So either apply some more makeup
Or think of changing your shoes
A vanity affair
You're not just cheating yourself
You're dragging down
Everybody else
7. CALL IT FATE
by Tom Jensen
Birds circle around your home
Say it one more time...
Why won't they leave you alone?
They flap their wings from side to side
But from Mother Nature no man can hide
Being punished for crimes --
Well, that may be
For crimes against humanity
Just when you thought
There was no one to see
Now you look at your life
And who is to blame?
You can call it fate
You can call it a shame
As your family boasts:
"You're in the prime of your life"
You go under the doctor's knife
For cancer has no name or face
Unfortunately for you it's too late
Enter the hospital a dying life
Exit the church a crying wife
Now you look at your death
Pondering who is to blame?
You can call it fate
You can call it a shame
In the next room of the hospital
Is a mother's joy
The prize of a life - a baby boy
The parents counted the fingers
Then the parents counted the toes
But what's in the soul nobody really knows
Food, love and shelter - baby got his fill
So no one knows why he grew to kill
You can look at their deaths
And who they blame
You can call it fate
You can call it a shame
A man dresses in the mirror
As he flashes a smile
In a two-thousand dollar suit
He'll wear at the trial
He asks the judge to cut his client a break
Starts preaching about
How we all make mistakes
The judge, on these words, reduces bail
Keeps a guilty man away from jail
His freedom is gained but what's been lost?
Will he do it again?
They keep their fingers crossed
8. PARDON ME
by Tom Jensen
I just got a pardon from the president
Because I did not admit
to what I knew they'd submit as evidence
And I just made a friend
who will do what it takes
And be there to the end
or at least until he fixes mistakes
I think we may have just set a new precedence
Since it is so clearly evident
That politics is no place for benevolence
When we can't trust the president
That means we can't trust the government
Who often sells out its residents
Giveth and taketh on false precedents
Since some just take whatever they need
With greed...what's important is the numbers on
Not the names of dead presidents
I have come to believe
Not everyone is entitled to be free
Because a handful of money is all you need
To put people in your pocket to guarantee
That when trouble comes it'll let you be
When you buy a judge
You can throw out the jury
The system's become corrupt
Manipulated through misdeeds
Someone should do something
'Cause there's a document I've seen
Saying they're vetting Ann Coulter and Satan
To run together in 2016
Just remember that
Every candidate has a rhyme
Around election time
Saying we'll do just fine
If you wave this sign
Standing on a pedestal
Waving a fake gold medal
Just rubbing on their crystal ball
Saying they've been here and there
They've seen and done it all
Only after the choice has been made
And you've dealt them the ace of spades
While thinking that politics isn't a game
And you haven't been played
But finally after all
the promises have been made
You found that the scale of honesty
Has never been weighed
As they've forgotten all that they've said
Speaking this while doing that
They placed one foot on the platform
And then they fell flat
The train they boarded straight to the top
The engine failed; the track got derailed
And when the conductor was jailed
The bail they collected was never mailed
Yet every opinion they stated
Was quoted as fact
Saying that proof was in the eye
And they said it with such tact
Even though no
Evidence ever backed
But numbers can lie
Once you've developed the knack
So everyone signed on the dotted line
Without ever reading the pact
And now you're complaining
About paying so high a tax
Once you sign a deal with the Devil
There's no turning back
However, there's a new path unpaved
So it's up to me and you
We've been taught to
follow the leader
Sadly, it's true
It can't be that way anymore
Time for us to settle the score
Start pushing the stale old values aside
No more can we run and hide
The government that rules us
practically everyone is a liar
Words catching on
And now it's spreading like a fire
They've talked and talked
Talk, talk, talk 'til they're blue in the face
Just follow me and I'll show you the way
Going to Washington D.C.
Time to see the true enemy
But beware...for their twisting tongues
will tell you it's me
Don't listen to them if you want to be free
Join us - every color and race
Speed up! - We've got to quicken the pace
Million man march - huh - multiply that by ten
History, we're going through it again
Do it for the homeless you meet
Do it for the children on the street
Think about the hungry, the ill, and the sick
We'll dismantle the system brick by brick
Tell it straight and don't beat around the Bush
We tried to pull now it's time to push
It's nine for them and one for us
It's their turn to sit on the back of the bus
The politicians look us right in the eyes
While their words are full of lies
So it should come as no surprise
What happens to them after they die
They care not for us only I
They tell me, "Well, just because..."
When I ask why
They say, "They learned it from their peers...
That true honesty has disappeared."
So true has come our biggest fears
There's no one left who really cares
I'm going to give each one a mirror
So they can see what we see
Then I'm going to run for president
So I can show what's evident
I will answer questions truthfully
And you can think what you want of me
I'll hide behind no mask at all
Not forced to sit I will stand tall...
I'll be myself and wear no veil
With my left hand on the bible:
"I smoked pot and I inhaled!"
9. BIRTHRIGHT
by Tom Jensen
I had a glass of wine and I felt fine
Yeah, so I had a couple more…
I went out looking for a good time
Like Marco Polo – I wanted to explore…
Had no idea what it would bring
Maybe something great
or perhaps nothing…
The only difference
between the pauper and the king
Is just birthright
and the size of the diamond ring…
Change the substance not the shadow
Or else you'll find that change is hollow
Let the light in open the window
Lead the people and they will follow
What do I do…
If not this?
What do I share?
If not this gift?
What's the best present
To give to our kids?
I say a future world
Left better than when we
First came into it?
But leading by example
Is the hardest thing to do
To reserve and hold your judgment
Until you walk one day without shoes
Singing the song of someone else
Well, it only goes to prove
That one man's country song
Can be another man's blues
What do I do if not this?
I could go back to being a hypocrite
Hello dear…(fake smile)
Hi my love…(kiss, kiss)
Change the substance not the shadow
Or else you'll find that change is hollow
Let the light in open the window
Lead the people and they will follow
Here's something those of you
With two jobs already know
This bitter pill has become
Too hard to swallow
Healthcare's gone for good
And Social Security will follow
They want you to pay for today
So they can own you tomorrow
Overworked and underpaid
Slowly dying from minimum wage
Swimming in debt
as the cost of living
It rises over your head…
so you try to forget…
But I won't let you forget:
Change the substance not the shadow
Or else you'll find that change is hollow
Let the light in open the window
Lead the people and they will follow
10. SHADES
by Tom Jensen
What color are your eyes?
To me that's as important
As the color of your skin
About this I am quite certain
What color are you inside?
That's what really matters
What we can see outside
Are just shades and spatters
Shades from mighty bright white
To midnight black or blacker
To me it's a mitigated factor
Much like the clothes of a good actor
For it's just a tiny fraction of the whole
Something that's beyond all of our control
Gives no insight to the depths of the soul
Might show where we're from -
But not where we're gonna go…
11. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
by Tom Jensen
Graffiti scribbled on the side of a building
Obscenities aimed at the passing children
Yet these simple words can have
Such a complicated effect
On an empty vessel of thought
Dependent on a world filled with neglect
With the wind picking up
There's trash blowing all over the ground
There's three guys under 'neath a bridge
Passing the bottle around
I see weeds sprawling across the sidewalk
Crawling up through the cracks
I watch a kid on his way home to a broken home
Walking alone along the tracks
Things are heading south
No matter which way you face
What is bitter to your eyes
Can give your mouth a bad taste
Seems that everywhere I look
There's something that hurts my eyes
They say another day, another dollar,
Which each new day comes a new surprise
It's not just the inner city
Where things are getting worse
When the intellectual property of so many
Needs to be torn down or reinforced
12. ANOTHER HISTORY LESSON
by Tom Jensen
So just what do you want from me?
Another bloody lesson on history?
I am but one man can't you see
Will there be anyone behind me
When I finally make my stand?
Could I see a show of hands?
For I've grown sick and tired
Of laying way back in the cut
When your conscience burns with fire
You reach a point where enough's enough
No more playing follow the leader
I just fell off of the societal ladder
History is cyclical and I'm a big reader
Many say I'm madder than the mad hatter
But to me those vicious
Tongues only flatter
Only what my people say
That's all that really matters
I try to make a difference everyday
Don't let my ego go run off and play
For it may come home
Broken and shattered
I dress myself in rags and tatters
For people see me
More clearly this way
It's a small price to pay
To help keep the monsters at bay
For there's very little that I need
To be free of jealousy and conceit
Just my one true love
And our little ones at our feet
Then I'd sleep well
Knowing I've made a difference
At least to most
Of the people I meet
That's my definition of winning
Living in a box
Saying everything sucks
Now to me that's sinning
Such unfulfillment
Would be my defeat
A human retreat
Having to start all over again
At the beginning
COLLABTUNES.COM · free to use with name credit · the words are free, the music is yours