The Decline
Where are all the stupid people from and how’d they get to be so dumb? Bred on purple mountain range, feed amber waves of grains to lesser human beings: zero feelings.
Blame it on human nature, mans destiny (mans destiny). Blame it on the greediocracy (greediocracy). Or “Fear of God”: the fear of change, the fear of truth.
Add the Bill of Rights, subtract the wrongs, there’s no answers. Memorize and sing ‘Star Spangled’ songs, when the questions aren’t ever asked: is anybody learning from the past? We’re living in united stagnation!
Father what have I done? I took that 22. A gift to me from you, to bed with me each night: ‘kept it clean, polished it well, cherished every cartridge, every shell!’.
But down by the creek, under brush, under dirt, there’s a carcass of my second kill. Down by the park, under stone, under pine, there’s a carcass of my brother William.
Well, brother, where have you gone to? “I swear, I never thought I could. I see so many times. They told me to shoot straight. Don’t pull the trigger, squeeze. That will insure a kill”.
Well, a kill is what you want. And you say a kill is why we breed!
Then the Christians love their guns with the Church and NRA. Pray for their salvations, pray on the lower faiths. The story book’s been read and every line believed. Curriculum’s been set, logic is a threat: reason searched and seized.
“Jerry spent some time in Michigan. A twenty year vacation, after all he had a dime. A dime is worth a lot more in Detroit. A dime in California, a twenty dollar fine. Jerry only stayed a couple months. It’s hard to enjoy yourself while bleeding out the ass!”.
Asphyxiation is simple and fast: it beats seventeen fun years of being someone’s bitch. So, ‘don’t think (just stay). Drink your wine (at your home). Watch the fire burn (it will be). His problems not mine (just play safe)’. Just be that model citizen!
I wish, I had a schilling (for each senseless killing), for every senseless killing.
I’d buy a government: ‘America’s for sale and you can get a good deal on it
(a good deal on it) and make a healthy profit’. Or maybe, tear it apart. Start with an assumption, ‘a million people are smart, smarter than one’. Then serotonin’s gone, she gave up, drifted away.
Sara fled, thought process gone. She left her answering machine on the greeting left spoken sincere: ‘messages no one will ever hear!’
Ten thousand messages a day, a million more transmissions lay, victims of the laissez faire. Ten thousand voices, a hundred guns. A hundred decibels turns to one: ‘one bullet, one empty head!’
Now with Serotonin gone, the man who used to speak performs a cute routine: ‘feel a little patronized, don’t feel bad’. Yup, they found a way inside your head and you feel a bit mislead. But it’s not that they don’t care. Because the television’s put a thought inside your head, like a Barry Manilow jingle.
Somehow, i’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony, a symphonic blank stare. Even it doesn’t make you care (make you care). Not designed to make you care (make you care). They’re betting you won’t care (you won’t…)
So, place a wager on your greed, a wager on your pride: ‘why try to beat them when, a million others tried?’ Because we are the whore, intellectually spayed, we are the queer, dysfunctionally raised.
One more pill to kill the pain, living through conformity. One more prayer to keep me safe, there’s gonna be a better place. Lost the battle, lost the war. Lost the things, worth living for. Lost the will to win the fight: one more pill to kill the pain.
Sing, na na na na na, la na na na na, na na na na na, na na na na na. The going get tough, the tough get debt. Don’t pay attention, pay the rent. Next of kins pay for your sins, a little faith should keep us safe.
Dear nature, just save us: the human existence is failing. Resistance, essential, the future written off. The odds are astronomically against us. Only moron and genius would fight a losing battle against the super ego: when giving in is so damn comforting!
And so we go on with our lives. We know the truth, but prefer lies: lies are simple. Simple is bliss. So, why go against tradition when we can admit defeat? Just live in decline: be the victim of our own design. The status quo built on suspect, ‘why would anyone stick out their neck?’
So, fellow members of Club “We’ve Got Ours”, I’d like to introduce you to our host: ‘He’s got his and I’ve got mine. Meet the decline: “We are the queer; We are the whore; Ammunition in the class war. We are worker; We love our queen; We sacrifice; We’re soilent green. We are the queer; We are the whore; Ammunition in the class war”‘.
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The Decline is a punk EP by NOFX. The CD version consisted of only the 18-minute title track, but the vinyl included a different version of “Clams Have Feelings Too” (from Pump Up the Valuum) on the B-side. The Decline is largely a satire of American politics and law, with an overwhelming concern for blind behaviors of the masses, such as complacency, indifference, and conformity, as well as destruction of constitutional rights, and condemnation of the religious right. Although the lyrics are somewhat disjointed, they all refer back to the unifying theme of the “decline” of America. The outro of the song on the trombone is played by Lars Nylander of Skankin’ Pickle.
According to the band, the recording of The Decline was a: “Nightmare! Recording this fuck was a total nightmare. Writing it was a total nightmare. I’m glad we did it, but I wouldn’t do it again. We went back to the studio 3 different times and added stuff and remixed and remastered 4 times. It ain’t no rock opera like Song Remains the Same or nothing. We got the idea from Subhumans, not Rush. Why an 18 minute song? Just to do something different. We’ve done enough short songs, time for a long one. Anyway, my advice, never try this song at home”.
The Subhumans song Fat Mike is most likely referring to is the title track to From the Cradle to the Grave, which is just under 17 minutes in length. The first 155 copies were pressed on clear vinyl, a version which is no longer available. The cover of the album is of a boy holding a model airplane.
In the Pink Floyd movie The Wall, 18 minutes into the film (which is about how long The Decline is) there is a scene in which a boy runs around with a plane, in the same fashion as the boy on the cover of The Decline. Some variations of the rumour even suggest that The Decline could be played along with The Wall in the same way as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon supposedly could with The Wizard of Oz. Fat Mike, however, when queried on this matter, just replied: “You are insane.”
The first 1 min and 20 seconds of a live version of The Decline is played as an encore after Stickin’ In My Eye on They’ve Actually Gotten Worse Live!(2007) before being faded out. The entire song is occasionally played live, often as an encore, although they played it whole several times in their 2006 South American and Canadian tours, and preferred to do so in the smaller venues, as a gift for fans that were aware of them playing in such small venues.
On the Dallas, TX stop of Warped Tour 2006, NOFX was one of the last bands to play the Main Stage. A song into their set, rain and small sizes of hail began to fall. They were told to cut their set short and could only play one song. As a joke, they chose to play all 18 minutes of The Decline.
