Canned Applause

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    Â
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    Canned Applause
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    </a><br /> <i>Music C. Bolton, Lyrics Pickabar Copyright 2008</i>
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    Old photographs <br />always stay the same <br />A cozy slice of time <br />bottled up in a frame
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    but they&#8217;re unreliable <br />like memories in your brain <br />they tell the kind of lies <br />that might drive you quite insane
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    Memories of the past <br />so gloriously false <br />like your drunken uncle <br />who stumbles and then falls
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    hyperbole is dangerous <br />false praise should give you pause <br />because it turns to slander <br />don&#8217;t be damned by canned applause
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      Don&#8217;t be &#8211; damned by canned applause! <br />Don&#8217;t be &#8211; blinded pull away the gauze! <br />Don&#8217;t let &#8211; delusion spoil your view! <br />Don&#8217;t let &#8211; your ego play tricks on you!
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    Stories of the past, <br />yeah we all enjoy, <br />but now is not the time <br />for men to act like little boys
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    When we think about the past <br />we only see the best, <br />(we) forget about the struggle <br />and forget all of the stress.
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    The grass is always greener, <br />but real life is multi-hued, <br />it&#8217;s fun to dwell on fantasy, <br />but reality intrudes.
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    So let&#8217;s embrace reality, <br />let&#8217;s see things as they are, <br />let&#8217;s take off all the makeup <br />and make peace with all the scars. <br /> 
    
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      chorus</p>
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      Friendships from the past <br />you keep but don&#8217;t know why, <br />like zombies in B movies <br />they refuse to die.
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      You&#8217;ve got nothing in common, <br />avoid them when you can, <br />nostalgia is the only thing <br />that draws you back again.
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      You talk about the past, <br />eat your fill of yesterday, <br />but when you&#8217;ve had your fill <br />you&#8217;ve got nothing else to say
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      Friendship means spending time, <br />it&#8217;s both a means and end, <br />so if you&#8217;ve got no time, <br />then you&#8217;re no longer friends.
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        chorus
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      [<a href="http://www.pickabar.com/music/pickabar%20-%20canned%20applause.mp3">Download MP3</a>] 
      
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      </p></blockquote> 
      
      <p>
        One of the most exciting parts of song writing, or any kind of art really, is the unexpected thoughts that pop out of your subconscious. How did the phrase &#8220;canned applause&#8221; get me thinking about old pictures locked in frames? How did that become a metaphor on the idealization of the past that we&#8217;re all sometimes guilty of? Your guess is as good as mine. The song makes a good point, though. It&#8217;s silly to let unrealistic positive memories of past good times get in the way of the good times we could be having now. I have to remind myself of that all of the time, to be honest. It seems to be one of the pitfalls of getting older. 
        
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          p.s. Don’t steal those abandoned song names, I’ll probably recycle them at some point.
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          p.p.s. I&#8217;ve got comments again (yay <a href="http://disqus.com/">Disqus</a>!), please use them.
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