Why, How, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
If you got a why you got a how: woke bedrock rust, derivative writer, gods and flags for purpose: build don't question, computer needs your best, afterlife assured.
Listen: SpotifyApple Music
Track sixteen on Masks and Monsters. Luke solo, North Park lockdown, August 2020. Apple Music titles it Why, How, Yeah, Yeah; the LP tracklist adds a third yeah, same song.
The hook is hustle gospel, TED-talk logic as a chant: if you got a why then you’ve got a how. Underneath it everything is hollow. Verse one collapses ideology and infrastructure together (everyone’s so fucking woke / we’ve got nothing left to stand on, the bedrock / oh, the rusty steel / never really real), and the yeah yeah yeah stacks like nervous filler. Verse two is self-own and holy war at once: the songwriter admits the bit (all I write is derivative) before flattening the culture war into mutual delusion (everyone thinks God’s on their side / no he ain’t).
The back half turns satirical. The bridge manufactures meaning (we’ll believe in gods and flags / with some purpose), then a boss-voice barks hygiene and dignity into exploitation: won’t you give your life to progress / my computer needs your best, lockdown WFH bleeding through. The final sermon is startup eschatology, this work will give you freedom / afterlife is all by assured (the typo by preserved from DistroKid), before eight bars of yeah yeah yeah and a single yeah.
Penultimate before Mystery Machine and Derrida Makes a Différance, bridging the cartoon LP to its philosophy closer. Same anti-certainty thread as Derrida, same capitalism roast as Coca Cola and Shaggy’s Anthem. After I Am a Slave to the Yeast’s domestic captivity, this is cultural captivity.
Written, performed, mixed, and mastered by Luke Francis Walton. Album art by Gentle Giant Illustrations.
Lyrics
If you got a why Then you've got a how Yeah yeah All living in a time Where everyone's so fucking woke We've got nothing left to stand on All we built and all that we dreamed The bedrock Oh, the rusty steel Never really real Yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah All I write is derivative Yeah yeah I'm dying in a fight Where everyone thinks God's on their side No he ain't How I live makes me lonely At least we got this in common Really only way, right? Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah I'll write myths to make it worth it We'll believe in gods and flags With some purpose We'll be happy More desire, better rags Won't you take a fucking shower Won't you show some damn respect Won't you give your life to progress My computer needs your best Better to build than to question What we're even building for See, this work will give you freedom Afterlife is all by assured Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah Yeah