Mayday!!! Lyrics

[Intro: Jonny 5]
Born in the flood, bloody fingerpaint sets
Black marketed, fresh water cannons forget me not
Epitaph airbrushed with death
White tees, wife beaters
Button up, reattach flesh!

[Verse 1: Jonny 5 & (Brer Rabbit)]
In between the lines (In between the lines)
Outside of the law (Outside of the law)
Underneath the veil (Underneath the veil)
We dig our foundations (We navigate the globe)
Trying to find a pattern to break the mold (Pattern to break the mold)
With a family to feed (Family to feed)
There's nowhere we won't go

But what if we're caught
They say I'm a snitch
Shot at the checkpoint
Found with his throat slit

There's spray paint on the teleprompter
Anchorman screams that he's seen a monster (Mayday)
There's bloodstains on his shirt (Mayday)
They say that he's gone berserk!

[Verse 2: Jonny 5 & (Brer Rabbit)]
Sometimes when I wanna shut out this world
Want to rip up this page
Want to pour out this heart
Want to get up on this stage
And my lips become percussion
And my fists become the rage
And I pound on this table
'Til it gives me something to say

Then I think about things that I've seen
Right in front of me that I don't wanna believe

Gimme one of these mics
Let me let 'em know: the way that
It is is not how it's gonna be
Not if we don't let 'em get ahead of us
The present tension's no threat
It's just a fence across the path
That we're already ready to walk

Rock solid footsteps
Let 'em put up obstacles
And prove that it isn't possible
​Fuck​ that! We don't give 'em any weight
True liberty and freedom's at stake
Peace will never become passé
Live my life until my last day
It was half-past eight in the Bat Cave
When the cracks in the plaster
Collapsed and gave way to gaps in the pavement
(Mayday, mayday) Put it on blast
For the passengers and messengers
Cause this is a disaster
Where the fuck are the rescue workers?
Not far, off pissing on a cop car
In the hall with a Pop Tart
Sipping liquor in the rock bar

Everyone climb to the frontline, lunchtime's cancelled
All hands on deck to pull survivors from the landfill
Onlookers, passers-by, brush off your shoulders
Shake off that rubble, break free from your standstill

[Hook 1: Jonny 5 & Brer Rabbit]
Signs of a better world, causes we understand
Failures we expected to occur and bring redemption for our sins
(In between the lines)
Safety from the crowds (Outside of the law)
In the shadows on the run (Underneath the veil)
We write our own Cider House
Rules to keep alive (Rules to keep alive)

Rituals that prove their worth
Search for systems we can trust
Rhythms we can lock into

[Verse 3: Brer Rabbit]
This is madness, salvage teams can't bandage
Hope when it's damaged or broken compassion
There's not enough rope in the van
When the world is collapsin', our mode of action
Broadcast through the glass, all we can manage
Donate with the plastic scrapped from the salad
Hopin' to balance, emotions invalidated
Staged on four-to-three aspects
Just ballast for sadness
Lives shattered are standard fare for
Cameras and channels stare, no abracadabras

No faster answers, no mantras for disaster
Remastered or plastered
We got it all backwards
Do you know the faction you're backin'?
It's another man down, another mother gone
Child drowned, another silent song
Solitude, another kind of strong
I miss you, another strung along
Missing in action
Another page is blackened
Burned, turned, ashes to ashes
Dust off the flags and the caskets
[Hook 2: Brer Rabbit]
We will never find another you
Despite the life of love we knew
These lightning times are trouble, who
Can count the strikes that punish through?
The bonds we thought would never break
And never will, and never change
And never fade, but there's the rage
Of losing you to their mistakes!

[Verse 4: (Jonny 5) and Brer Rabbit]
(In between the lines) Signs of the next movement
(Refuge from the crowd) Outside of the law
(Causes we understand) Hands that trace
Instructions for descendants in the
Shadows on the run (Underneath the veil)
Failures we expected to occur
And bring redemption for our sins
(In between the lines) In between the lines

[Outro]
In between the lines, outside of the law
Underneath the veil
In between the lines, outside of the law
Underneath the veil
In between the lines, outside of the law
Underneath the veil, we carve our foundations
In between the lines, outside of the law
In between the lines

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About

Genius Annotation

Mayday!!! is a song about the Mayday protests, which are held annually around the U.S. in support of the first Mayday Riots of 1919. The song seems to specifically dwell on the Seattle Riots of 1992, where Seattle rioted in solidarity with Los Angeles on the verdict of the Rodney King case, as well as the 1999 Battle for Seattle which was not a “Mayday” riot although it was largely supported by the Mayday infrastructure.

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Credits
Produced By
Release Date
October 16, 2007
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