Permanent Waves

• Released January 1, 1980 by Mercury Records
• Went Platinum (1,000,000 copies) on November 9, 1987
• Purchase This Album

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1. The Spirit Of Radio (4:56)
2. Freewill (5:21)
3. Jacob's Ladder (7:26)
4. Entre Nous (4:37)
5. Different Strings (3:48)
6. Natural Science (Total Time 9:17)
   (I.) Tide Pools (2:21)
   (II.) Hyperspace (2:47)
   (III.) Permanent Waves (4:09)

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Lyrics

• The Spirit Of Radio (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  Begin the day with a friendly voice,
  A companion unobtrusive
  Plays the song that's so elusive
  And the magic music makes your morning mood.
  
  Off on your way, hit the open road,
  There is magic at your fingers
  For the Spirit ever lingers,
  Undemanding contact in your happy solitude.
  
  Invisible airwaves crackle with life
  Bright antennae bristle with the energy
  Emotional feedback on timeless wavelength
  Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free
  
  All this machinery making modern music
  Can still be open-hearted.
  Not so coldly charted, it's really just a question
  Of your honesty, yeah, your honesty.
  
  One likes to believe in the freedom of music,
  But glittering prizes and endless compromises
  Shatter the illusion of integrity.
  
  For the words of the profits were written on the studio wall,
  Concert hall
  And echoes with the sounds of salesmen.
  
  
• Freewill (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  There are those who think that life has nothing left to chance,
  A host of holy horrors to direct our aimless dance.
  
  A planet of playthings,
  We dance on the strings
  Of powers we cannot perceive
  "The stars aren't aligned -
  Or the gods are malign"
  Blame is better to give than receive.
  
  You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
  If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
  You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill;
  I will choose a path that's clear-
  I will choose Free Will.
  
  There are those who think that they were dealt a losing hand,
  The cards were stacked against them- they weren't born in Lotus-Land.
  
  All preordained-
  A prisoner in chains-
  A victim of venomous fate.
  Kicked in the face,
  You can't pray for a place
  In heaven's unearthly estate.
  
  You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
  If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
  You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill;
  I will choose a path that's clear-
  I will choose Free Will.
  
  Each of us-
  A cell of awareness-
  Imperfect and incomplete.
  Genetic blends
  With uncertain ends
  On a fortune hunt that's far too fleet.
  
  You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
  If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
  You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill;
  I will choose a path that's clear-
  I will choose Free Will.
  
  
• Jacob's Ladder (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  The clouds prepare for battle
  In the dark and brooding silence.
  Bruised and sullen stormclouds
  Have the light of day obscured.
  Looming low and ominous
  In twilight premature
  Thunderheads are rumbling
  In a distant overture...
  
  All at once, the clouds are parted.
  Light streams down in bright unbroken beams...
  
  Follow men's eyes as they look to the skies.
  The shifting shafts of shining weave the fabric of their dreams...
  
  
• Entre Nous (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  We are secrets to each other
  Each one's life a novel
  No-one else has read.
  Even joined in bonds of love,
  We're linked to one another
  By such slender threads.
  
  We are planets to each other,
  Drifting in our orbits
  To a brief eclipse.
  Each of us a world apart,
  Alone and yet together,
  Like two passing ships.
  
  Just between us,
  I think it's time for us to recognize
  The differences we sometimes fear to show.
  Just between us,
  I think it's time for us to realize,
  The spaces in between
  Leave room for you and I to grow.
  
  We are strangers to each other,
  Full of sliding panels,
  An illusion show.
  Acting well-rehearsed routines
  Or playing from the heart?
  It's hard for one to know.
  
  We are islands to each other,
  Building hopeful bridges
  On a troubled sea.
  Some are burned or swept away,
  Some we would not choose,
  But we're not always free.
  
  
• Different Strings (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  Who's come to slay the dragon,
  Come to watch him fall?
  Making arrows out of pointed words,
  Giant killers at the call?
  Too much fuss and bother,
  Too much contradiction and confusion.
  Peel away the mystery,
  Here's a clue to some real motivation.
  
  All there really is,
  The two of us,
  And we both know why we've come along.
  Nothing to explain,
  It's a part of us
  To be found within a song.
  
  What happened to our innocence,
  Did it go out of style?
  Along with our naïveté,
  No longer a child.
  Different eyes see different things,
  Different hearts beat on different strings.
  But there are times
  For you and me, when all such things agree.
  
  
• Natural Science (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  I. TIDE POOLS
  
  When the ebbing tide retreats
  Along the rocky shoreline,
  It leaves a trail of tidal pools
  In a short-lived galaxy.
  Each microcosmic planet
  A complete society.
  
  A simple kind mirror
  To reflect upon our own.
  All the busy little creatures
  Chasing out their destinies.
  Living in their pools,
  They soon forget about the sea...
  
  Wheels within wheels in a spiral array,
  A pattern so grand and complex,
  Time after time we lose sight of the way,
  Our causes can't see their effects.
  
  II. HYPERSPACE
  
  A quantum leap forward
  In time and in space,
  The universe learned to expand.
  
  The mess and the magic,
  Triumphant and tragic,
  A mechanized world out of hand.
  
  Computerized clinic
  For superior cynics
  Who dance to a synthetic band.
  
  In their own image,
  Their world is fashioned.
  No wonder they don't understand.
  
  III. PERMANENT WAVES
  
  Science, like nature
  Must also be tamed
  With a view towards its preservation.
  Given the same
  State of integrity,
  It will surely serve us well.
  
  Art as expression,
  Not as market campaigns
  Will still capture our imaginations.
  Given the same
  State of integrity,
  It will surely help us along.
  
  The most endangered species,
  The honest man,
  Will still survive annihilation.
  Forming a world
  State of integrity,
  Sensitive, open and strong.
  
  Wave after wave will flow with the tide, and bury the world as it does.
  Tide after tide will flow and recede, leaving life to go on as it was...