Borrowed stories placed into borrowed funk beats.
Ragon Linde
Lead and backing vocals, electric guitars, bass guitar, and drums
Featuring Performances by:
Michael Crowther
Alto Saxophone on Tracks 1-9 and 10
Peter De Les Dernier
Keyboards and synthesizers on all Tracks
Louis Doherty
Tenor Saxophone on Tracks 1-9 and 10
Baritone Saxophone on Track 6
Conifer Linde
Trumpet on Tracks 1-9 and 10
Horn arrangements
Ragon Linde and Louis Doherty
Produced by Ragon Linde
All songs Engineered by Ragon Linde
All Tracks Mixed and Mastered by Justin Phelps, The Hallowed Halls in Portland, Oregon.
Cover Sketch and Design by Linda Maddocks in Portland, Oregon
Graphic Design by Kai Rosehill
CONTACT: ragonlinde@ragonlinde.com
© SLJ Productions ASCAP
Copyright 2018
Your First Ocean
Words by Carrie-Ann Tkaczyk
Music by Ragon Linde
No taller than my knee
when you challenge, your first ocean.
Ankle deep
you strain your body, against my tight grip
throw head to sky
capture the ocean’s roar
into the cave of your mouth
Even when the waves spill into you
CHORUS
Watching you, I question
do you remember your first ocean?
Watching you, I question
do you remember your first ocean?
fill you with your first taste of salt
you do not bend from the task
of challenging your first ocean.
Today you turn your back to the same tide
stretch and yawn, open wide
that same cave that had taken
in some primal catch
to tell me you haven’t eaten yet.
CHORUS
Tormented Soul
Words by Ragon Linde and Carrie-Ann Tkaczyk
Music by Ragon Linde
Tormented soul, where did you go?
with the whispering silence in your head.
The two-headed monster came upon her
snatched her up and it fed.
CHORUS
From the taste of revenge she burned
until her heart yearned
until she burned to avenge what fed on her
oh, oh, two headed monster by the Christmas lights
red, green, and gold he came to her that night
said, close your eyes and she never told
oh, no, she never told
CHORUS
Oh many years later on the TV screen
She saw that monster give a speech
He spoke of family values and the grace of god
And audiences cheered what a good righteous man
If she called him out they wouldn’t believe her
What an opportunistic whore
Why did she wait so long to speak up?
And take this good man down
She pierced her pillow with her fist
She cried herself to sleep
The nightmare screams to the monster who was not there
The pills and the booze couldn’t hide the shame she felt
But she found strength from the fire that burned inside
And one-day justice would be served
Tormented soul, where did you go?
with the whispering silence in your head.
Suspended
Words by Carrie-Ann Tkaczyk
Music by Ragon Linde
I am orphaned at the center.
The bridge yaws side to side
ululates beneath my feet.
To you fixed in domicile’s unyielding grip,
it appears I stand upon ribbon candy
little between me and death.
Yet to me this axis is a nest, a nest
as secure as any, even the cracked boards,
even the rope rails hook me far better than your slick, marble stairs.
Yet my jangling course sways unnecessarily, irritates you
where you stand locked in your door, taut, waiting for me to enter my own settled house.
I am orphaned at the center.
Only my shadow will complete
this journey which I have decided
must settle right here, right now, far from the end, the end.
Anthropocene
Words by Ragon Linde and Carrie-Ann Tkaczyk
Music by Ragon Linde
The ants, the ants, we are the ants
The ants, the ants, we are the ants
silt, oil, sun, soil, sift it, turn it, toss, burn it, put it where we want.
silt, oil, sun, soil, sift it, turn it, toss, burn it, put it where we want.
Every new age is the death of another
This is, must be, will be too
Every new age, dear, is the death of another
Of the old. breaking ground
for the new Anthropocene.
CHORUS
This will be. Will be the death of you.
This will be. Will be the death of you.
Our hubris has come undone
We’ve sucked out all petroleum
We’ve built our cities in the sand
Spray painted boxes crisscross our land
Two billion, two hundred twenty-two million, three hundred sixty-six thousand,
six hundred fifty four tons of food plundered
just this year to feed us. Just this year.
This is the face of seven billion
The earth’s become our pavilion
Hastily built and easy to clear.
CHORUS
We are the ants and this is our pile
King of the mountains Damn! This is the face of seven billion
The Earth’s now my pavilion
Our new age is one long regression toward the mean
Anthropocene
Put it where we want.
Put it where we want.
Put it where we want.
Put it where we want.
Wake the Fuck Up
Wake the Fuck Up
Wake the Fuck Up
Wake the Fuck Up
ANGRY WHITE MAN
Words and Music by Ragon Linde
Angry White Man, what hangs in your head?
Angry White Man, who isn’t listening to you?
What does it feel like in the pit of your gut?
How long has it been since you felt understood?
Was it one person or episode?
or a lifetime of betrayal that left you this way?
CHORUS
Everything has to be black and white.
Please I don’t want to end up like you.
You scare people off who may fuck up your lawn
which welcomes no one but the scorching hot sun
CHORUS
Everything has to be black and white
Order and rules, keep ‘em in tightly drawn boxes
You fear the lazy, the humble, and sick
Those with different traditions, ideas, and concepts
Draw lines upon maps and say live over there
or better yet far from here
Somewhere deep inside that child was ignored
Who grew up to build walls from the people he cared for
CHORUS
Everything has to be black and white
Jaded, heart hardened, with your piercing mean looks
You isolate yourself and shut your blinds
in that faux upscale midtown apartment
You shout get out get out! You use hurtful insults.
that pierce through the most vulnerable parts!
Loud voices and conjured fears
Submissive bots who consent without love
CHORUS
Crush those where they are vulnerable and weak
Oh angry white man what kind of world do you want?
N.B.
Words by Ragon Linde and Grey Graham-Atkinson
Music by Ragon Linde
Feel invisible, in plain sight
Based on how, I look and speak
I have a secret I wish everybody knew
Seeking validation for what is true
CHORUS
Express yourself, what you feel
Don’t let norms shut you down
Male or Female be yourself
Outward appearance can deceive
Lipstick and make-up, dresses and tights
There’s more to me than meets the eye
CHORUS
Some would say I’m a plain ‘ole guy
But there’s more to me than meets the eye
Sensitivities on all sides
Blur the boundaries and fuck the roles
Take a moment before you judge
It don’t add up or fit neatly in a box
CHORUS
Open exploration, back and forth
Are you feeling, that way too?
Bridge
Out or secret, it’s alright!
Gay or straight, somewhere in between
Chose your pronouns that fit your gender
It doesn’t have to match, your genitalia
Some say Two Spirit or LGBTQ
As for me, I’m non-Binary
Listen to your feelings
Go beyond the expected and accepted
Design your appearance, plan your look
We change our minds, that’s the point
CHORUS
Some days I’m full of confidence
Some days it’s a struggle between wondering
And seeking validation am I making
Something out of nothing
Unfalling the Stars
Words by A. Molotkov
Music by Ragon Linde
sorry door if I must bother you
why don't you open wider and admit friends
sorry song
my mouth is not fit to sing you
sorry distance
my steps are not wide enough to cover you
CHORUS
so many stars fall, sorry life
my words are not wide enough to honor you
so many stars shine, sorry life
my words are not wide enough to honor you
to honor you
to honor you
to honor you
your last words hang over the threshold
in an endless conversation with my past
as I hang myself
on a hat hook
in someone else’s childhood
while you laugh like you always do
CHORUS
Violence
Words by A. Molotkov
Music by Ragon Linde
Gray petals of bombs fall on us
crack the body’s puzzle.
We know how it bends to metal’s will
how it forgets
the meaning it carries,
when broken.
Some say the meaning goes away.
I want to see it.
Burned eyes are petals
from a black rose
we love and fear
even in our dreams.
And you dream too,
we’ve seen your eyes rush under lids
at the checkpoint of subconscious,
burn through stolen scenes,
what others felt
when bombs fell. If petals
are made of ash,
what can we know about the flower,
its smell,
its proud posture,
it’s short-lived optimism?
Some say the meaning comes later
I want to see it. As you learn, your end,
See the body’s ironic puzzle,
its checkpoint,
its unanswered question –
you realize it too:
nothing is firm here, not even the harm we do
nor how we carry and strangle,
and fail to strangle the meaning of you.
the meaning of you
the meaning of you
Storm Rider
Words by Carrie-Ann Tkaczyk
Music by Ragon Linde
Years ago,
when she started to glide
her family tried to keep her
on the ground,
but not her, no not her, not her
CHORUS
When she broke through the sky
To where no one dared to fly
she knew she would die
She felt all the passion, all the pain
she would never be the same
When she broke through the sky
But the day the storm rider
was taken up, and up, and up
thirty thousand feet high
A spinning fruit fly tumbling past hail and thunder
The winds tore her asunder
Until she, like Icarus, she burned the sky
No chance to survive, no way to get down alive
from that forty degrees below
It all turned black and she prepared to go
CHORUS
When she awakes an hour later
the wind smashes her down,
Down, she is surfing down
And then she lands on the ground
Alive, still alive, she survived
After scratching the thin veil of space.
Thirty thousand feet when she survived.
CHORUS
When she broke through the sky
To where no one dared to fly
she knew she would die
not the storm rider, she was only found
in the oversoul sky,
only found in life unbound
Opened
Words by A. Molotkov
Music by Ragon Linde
I watch a snowflake
shape its notion of water
into symmetry.
My eyes open me.
I’m a mandala
built to be erased,
a snowflake,
a former crystal,
Now a water drop,
Now a memory.
