Tom Flaherty

Exstream of Consciousness

(2017) 8 min.

baritone, mandola, viola, cello, piano

Text by Text by Cynthia Fogg

Premiere

premiered September 10, 2017
Bridges Hall, Claremont, California

Performers

Scott Graff, baritone; Cynthia Fogg, viola; Joti Rockwell, mandola; Tom Flaherty, cello; Genevieve Lee, piano

Notes

"Exstream of Consciousness" is a response to the surreal trains of thought of the current President of the United States, as of mid-July, 2017. Inspiration for likely future songs floods the Twitterverse daily.

Lyrics

I sit as the king on my seat, on my throne.
I use my great brain as I tweet on my phone.
I’ve got all the great words, and billions and billions
Of hotels and golf clubs to call my own.

Kellyanne, Mooch, and Mitch and Paul,
Bannon and Putin at my beck and call,
Ivanka and Donald and Jared and Eric –
Cash away! Cash away! Cash away all!

CHORUS
Coal miners, you’ll get jobs – someplace. . .
Healthcare for all – repeal and replace!
Hit back, hit back ten times harder!
Beautiful, beautiful – punch him in the face!

Believe me it’s all very convoluted
But Putin and I have conferred and computed,
Excluded, refuted, disputed, saluted;
And concluded that nobody ever colluded.
Except for Puppet Hillary, who did.

Obama, left to his own devices
Produced a disastrous global crisis.
Crooked Hillary helped him, but
As sure as I’m standing here Obama founded ISIS.

CHORUS

As you know, I’m not one inclined to gloat,
But it was I who won the electoral vote.
The popular vote, too, by a landslide, believe me,
If you don’t count illegals, quote unquote.

I can tweet louder than news that’s fake
And give billionaire buddies a lovely tax break.
I can sell vodka and wine and steak.
I can order a war over chocolate cake.