Hold Your Fire

• Released September 8, 1987 by Mercury Records
• Went Gold (500,000 copies) on November 9, 1987
• Purchase This Album

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1. Force Ten (4:31)
2. Time Stand Still (5:08)
3. Open Secrets (5:37)
4. Second Nature (4:36)
5. Prime Mover (5:18)
6. Lock And Key (5:09)
7. Mission (5:15)
8. Turn The Page (4:55)
9. Tai Shan (4:15)
10. High Water (5:33)

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Lyrics

• Force Ten (DuBois, Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  Tough times demand tough talk
  demand tough hearts demand tough songs demand --
  
  We can rise and fall like empires
  Flow in and out like the tide
  Be vain and smart, humble and dumb
  We can hit and miss like pride
  
  We can circle around like hurricanes
  Dance and dream like lovers
  Attack the day like birds of prey
  Or scavengers under cover
  
  Look in -- to the eye of the storm
  Look out -- for the force without form
  Look around -- at the sight and the sound
  Look in look out look around --
  
  We can move with savage grace
  To the rhythms of the night
  Cool and remote like dancing girls
  In the heat of the beat and the lights
  
  We can wear the rose of romance
  An air of joie de vivre
  Too-tender hearts upon our sleeves
  Or skin as thick as thieves'
  
  (rising falling at force ten
  we twist the world and ride the wind)
  
  Look in -- look the storm in the eye
  Look out -- to the sea and the sky
  Look around -- at the sight and the sound
  Look in look out look around --
  
  
• Time Stand Still (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  I turn my back to the wind
  To catch my breath,
  Before I start off again.
  Driven on without a moment to spend
  To pass an evening with a drink and a friend
  
  I let my skin get too thin
  I'd like to pause.
  No matter what I pretend
  Like some pilgrim --
  Who learns to transcend --
  Learns to live
  As if each step was the end
  
  Time stand still -- I'm not looking back
  But I want to look around me now
  See more of the people and the places that surround me now
  
  Freeze this moment a little bit longer
  Make each sensation a little bit stronger
  Experience slips away...
  
  I turn my face to the sun
  Close my eyes.
  Let my defences down --
  All those wounds that I can't get unwound
  
  I let my past go too fast
  No time to pause --
  If I could slow it all down
  Like some captain, whose ship runs aground --
  I can wait until the tide comes around
  
  Make each impression a little bit stronger
  Freeze this motion a little bit longer
  The innocence slips away...
  
  Summer's going fast, nights growing colder
  Children growing up -- old friends growing colder
  Experience slips away...
  
  
• Open Secrets (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  It went right by me --
  At the time it went over my head
  I was looking out the window
  I should have looked at your face instead
  
  It went right by me --
  Just another wall
  There should have been a moment
  When we let our barriers fall
  I never meant what you're thinking --
  That is not what I meant at all...
  
  Well I guess we all have these feelings
  We can't leave unreconciled
  Some of them burned on our ceilings
  Some of them learned as a child
  
  The things that we're concealing
  Will never let us grow
  Time will do its healing
  You've got to let it go
  
  Closed for my protection --
  Open to your scorn
  Between these two directions
  My heart is sometimes torn
  
  I lie awake with my secrets
  spinning around my head
  something that somehow escaped me --
  Something you shouldn't have said
  I was looking out the window
  I should have looked at your face instead...
  
  I find no absolution
  In my rational point of view
  Maybe some things are instinctive
  But there's one thing you could do
  You could try to understand me --
  I could try to understand you...
  
  
• Second Nature (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  A memo to a higher office
  Open letter to the powers-that-be
  To a God, a king, a head of state
  A captain of industry
  To the movers and the shakers --
  Can't everybody see?
  
  It ought to be second nature --
  I mean, the places where we live!
  Let's talk about this sensibly --
  We're not insensitive
  I know progress has no patience --
  But something's got to give
  
  I know you're different --
  You know I'm the same
  We're both too busy
  To be taking the blame
  I'd like some changes
  But you don't have the time
  We can't go on thinking
  It's a victimless crime
  No one is blameless
  But we're all without shame
  We fight the fire -- while we're feeding the flames
  
  Folks have got to make choices --
  And choices got to have voices
  Folks are basically decent
  Conventional wisdom would say
  Well, we read about the exceptions
  In the papers every day
  
  It ought to be second nature --
  At least, that's what I feel
  "Now I lay me down in Dreamland" --
  I know perfect's not for real
  I thought we might get closer --
  But I'm ready to make a deal
  
  Today is different, and tomorrow the same
  It's hard to take the world the way that it came
  Too many rapids keep us sweeping along
  Too many captains keep on steering us wrong
  It's hard to take the heat --
  It's hard to lay blame
  To fight the fire -- while we're feeding the flames
  
  
• Prime Mover (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  Basic elemental instinct to survive
  Stirs the higher passions
  Thrill to be alive
  
  Alternating currents in a tidewater surge
  Rational resistance to an unwise urge
  (anything can happen)
  
  From the point of conception
  To the moment of Truth
  At the point of surrender
  To the burden of proof
  
  From the point of ignition
  To the final drive
  The point of the journey is not to arrive
  (anything can happen)
  
  Basic temperamental filters on our eyes
  Alter our perceptions
  Lenses polarize
  
  Alternating currents force a show of hands
  Rational responses force a change of plans
  (anything can happen)
  
  From a point on the compass
  To magnetic north
  The point of the needle moving back and forth
  
  From the point of entry --
  Until the candle is burned
  The point of departure is not to return
  (anything can happen)
  
  I set the wheels in motion
  turn up all the machines
  activate the programs
  and run behind the scene
  
  I set the clouds in motion
  turn up light and sound
  activate the window
  and watch the world go 'round --
  (anything can happen)
  
  
• Lock And Key (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  I don't want to face the killer instinct --
  Face it in your or me
  
  We carry a sensitive cargo
  Below the waterline --
  Ticking like a time bomb
  With a primitive design
  
  Behind the finer feelings --
  This civilized veneer --
  The heart of a lonely hunter
  Guards a dangerous frontier
  
  The balance can sometimes fail --
  Strong emotions can tip the scale --
  
  Don't want to silence a desperate voice
  For the sake of security
  No one wants to make a terrible choice
  On the price of being free
  I don't want to face the killer instinct -- face it in you or me
  So we keep it under lock and key...
  
  It's not a matter of mercy
  It's not a matter of laws
  Plenty of people will kill you for some fanatical cause
  
  It's not a matter of conscience --
  A search for probable cause
  It's just a matter of instinct -- a matter of fatal flaws
  
  No reward for resistance
  No assistance -- no applause...
  
  
  we don't want to be victims
  on that we all agree, so we lock up the killer instinct --
  and throw away the key...
  
  
• Mission (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  Hold your fire --
  Keep it burning bright
  Hold the flame 'til the dream ignites --
  A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission
  
  I hear their passionate music
  Read the words that touch my heart
  I gaze at their feverish pictures
  The secrets that set them apart
  
  When I feel the powerful visions
  Their fire has made alive
  I wish I had that instinct -- I wish I had that drive
  
  Spirits fly on dangerous missions
  Imaginations on fire
  Focused high on soaring ambitions
  Consumed in a single desire
  
  In the grip of a nameless possession --
  A slave to the drive of obsession --
  A spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission...
  
  I watch their images flicker
  Bringing light to a lifeless screen
  I walk through their beautiful buildings
  And I wish I had their dreams
  
  But dreams don't need to have motion
  To keep their spark alive
  Obsession has to have action --
  Pride turns on the drive
  
  
  It's cold comfort
  To the ones without it
  To know how they struggled --
  How they suffered about it
  
  If their lives were exotic and strange
  They would likely have gladly exchanged them
  For something a little more plain
  Maybe something a little more sane
  
  We each pay a fabulous price
  For our visions of paradise
  But a spirit with a vision is a dream with a mission...
  
  
• Turn The Page (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  Nothing can survive in a vacuum
  No one can exists all alone
  We pretend things only happen to strangers
  We've all got problems of our own
  
  It's enough to learn to share our pleasures
  We can't sooth pain with sympathy
  All that we can do is be reminded --
  We shake our heads at the tragedy
  Every day we're standing in a time capsule
  Racing down a river from the past
  Every day we're standing in a wind tunnel
  Facing down the future coming fast
  
  It's just the age
  It's just a stage --
  We disengage -- We turn the page...
  
  Looking at the long-range forecast
  Catching all the names in the news
  Checking out the state of the nation
  Learning the environmental blues
  
  Truth is after all a moving target
  Hairs to split, and pieces that don't fit
  How can anybody be enlightened?
  Truth is after all so poorly lit
  
  
• Tai Shan (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  High on the sacred mountain
  Up the seven thousand stairs
  In the golden light of autumn
  There was magic in the air
  
  Clouds surrounded the summit
  The wind blew strong and cold
  Among the silent temples
  And the writing carved in gold
  Somewhere in my instincts
  The primitive took hold...
  
  I stood at the top of the mountain
  And China sang to me
  In the peaceful haze of harvest time
  A song of eternity --
  
  If you raise your hands to heaven
  You will live a hundred years
  I stood there like a mystic
  Lost in the atmosphere
  
  The clouds were suddenly parted
  For a moment I could see
  The patterns of the landscape
  Reaching to the eastern sea
  I looked upon a presence
  Spanning forty centuries...
  
  I thought of time and distance
  The hardships of history
  I heard the hope and the hunger
  When China sang to me...
  
  
• High Waters (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  When the waters rose in the darkness
  In the wake of the endless flood
  It flowed into our memory -- it flowed into our blood
  
  When something broke the surface
  Just to see the starry dome --
  We still feel that relation
  When the water takes us home
  In the flying spray of the ocean
  The water takes you home --
  
  Springing from the weight of the mountains
  Like the heart of the earth would burst
  Flowing out from marble fountains
  In the dreams of a desert thirst
  
  Something swam through the jungles
  Where the mighty rivers roam --
  Something breaks the silence
  When the water takes you home
  I hear the wordless voices
  When the water takes me home --
  
  Waves that crash on the shoreline
  Torrents of tropical rain streaming down
  Beyond our memory
  Streaming down inside our veins
  
  When something left the ocean
  To crawl high above the foam --
  We still feel that elation
  When the water takes us home
  In a driving rain of redemption
  The water takes me home
  
  Take me home...