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lyrics

2. Dance and Celebrate!

As some of you know, I was raised a Jew
And actually I remain one, too.
There are many reasons, they are not few.
I’ll tell my favourite one to you:
It’s not what you think—it’s what you do.

So what does that mean?

It means when I’ve lost all the battles and I’m feeling low,
There’s an emotional place that I can go.
Does my God judge me for going there?
No.
I’ll tell you what it is and I’ll start…real…sloooooooowwww…

Let’s dance and celebrate
The misfortunes of people we hate,
It feels strange at first, but wait—
Once you get it,
You got it,
And then you feel great!
When there’s people killing children in my name,
And my guts are churning with the horror and the shame,
It soothes me to contemplate—
So let’s dance and celebrate.

For example:

Old Joe Stalin for some reason thought
That there was some kind of Jewish Doctors’ Plot,
So he had some of them exiled,
And the rest of them shot.
He wanted no Jewish doctors, and that’s exactly what he got.

Ok right, well,

Here is the part where we come to the joke,
‘Cause that’s when he had a massive stroke.
People said “What’s wrong, Joe?” but he never spoke.
A brain specialist might have helped him,
But he’d gone up in smoke.

Let’s dance and celebrate
The misfortunes of people we hate,
It feels odd at first, but wait---
Once you get it,
You got it,
And then you feel great!
Oh, schadenfreude needs no translation,
So I guess I’ll take it as a reparation,
I’ll take it out on a date,
Where we’ll dance and celebrate.

When my girlfriend is acting all detached,
And it feels like there’s no way to re-attach her,
It helps me to reflect upon
The pathetic decline of Margaret Thatcher.
Ariel Sharon! Ariel Sharon!
His death lingered on and on.
Ariel Sharon! Ariel Sharon!
His death lingered on and on.
And on, and on, and on and on and on.
Supercalimagilisticexpeetalimocious
I hope that Stephen Harper dies of muscular sclerosis
In a
Northern Ontario
First Nations
Reservation
Health centre!
Or just a ditch.

Let’s dance and celebrate
The misfortunes of people we hate.
It feels funny at first, but wait—
Once you get it,
You got it,
And then you feel great!
Oh bad things happen to good people, it’s true,
But at least they also happen to assholes, too,
Sometimes that’s all there is to consolate,
So let’s dance and celebrate.

credits

from We Are Going to Bremen To Be Musicians, released October 16, 2015
Lyrics and Music by: Geoff Berner

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Geoff Berner Vancouver, British Columbia

Singer / songwriter / accordionist / novelist Geoff Berner's music combines klezmer, punk, political satire and Balkan dance rhythms. He writes sharp, literate songs that make you want to weep, laugh, grind your teeth, or kick out a window - often all at the same time. Having built a cult following with his weirdly compelling stage presence, G.B. has a strange ability to create fun chaos. ... more

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