Signals

• Released September 1982 by Mercury Records
• Went Platinum (1,000,000 copies) on November 10, 1982
• Purchase This Album

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1. Subdivisions (5:32)
2. The Analog Kid (4:46)
3. Chemistry (4:56)
4. Digital Man (6:20)
5. The Weapon (Part II Of "Fear") (6:22)
6. New World Man (3:41)
7. Losing It (4:51)
8. Countdown (5:49)

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Lyrics

• Subdivisions (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  Sprawling on the fringes of the city
  In geometric order
  An insulated border
  In between the bright lights
  And the far unlit unknown
  
  Growing up it all seems so one-sided
  Opinions all provided
  The future pre-decided
  Detached and subdivided
  In the mass production zone
  
  Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone
  
  Subdivisions --
  In the high school halls
  In the shopping malls
  Conform or be cast out
  Subdivisions --
  In the basement bars
  In the backs of cars
  Be cool or be cast out
  Any escape might help to smooth
  The unattractive truth
  But the suburbs have no charms to soothe
  The restless dreams of youth
  
  Drawn like moths we drift into the city
  The timeless old attraction
  Cruising for the action
  Lit up like a firefly
  Just to feel the living night
  
  Some will sell their dreams for small desires
  Or lose the race to rats
  Get caught in ticking traps
  And start to dream of somewhere
  To relax their restless flight
  
  Somewhere out of a memory of lighted streets on quiet nights...
  
  
• The Analog Kid (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  A hot and windy August afternoon
  Has the trees in constant motion
  With a flash of silver leaves
  As they're rocking in the breeze
  
  The boy lies in the grass with one blade
  Stuck between his teeth
  A vague sensation quickens
  In his young and restless heart
  And a bright and nameless vision
  Has him longing to depart
  
  You move me --
  You move me --
  With your buildings and your eyes
  Autumn woods and winter skies
  You move me --
  You move me --
  Open sea and city lights
  Busy streets and dizzy heights
  You call me --
  You call me --
  
  The fawn-eyed girl with sun-browned legs
  Dances on the edge of his dream
  And her voice rings in his ears
  Like the music of the spheres
  
  The boy lies in the grass, unmoving
  Staring at the sky
  His mother starts to call him
  As a hawk goes soaring by
  The boy pulls down his baseball cap
  And covers up his eyes
  
  You move me --
  You move me --
  With your buildings and your eyes
  Autumn woods and winter skies
  You move me --
  You move me --
  Open sea and city lights
  Busy streets and dizzy heights
  You call me --
  You call me --
  
  Too many hands on my time
  Too many feelings --
  Too many things on my mind
  When I leave I don't know
  What I'm hoping to find
  When I leave I don't know
  What I'm leaving behind...
  
  
• Chemistry (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  Signals transmitted
  Message received
  Reaction making impact --
  Invisibly
  
  Elemental telepathy
  Exchange of energy
  Reaction making contact --
  Mysteriously
  Eye to I
  Reaction burning hotter
  Two to one
  Reflection on the water
  H to O
  No flow without the other
  Oh but how
  Do they make contact
  With one another?
  
  Electricity? Biology?
  Seems to me it's Chemistry
  
  Emotion transmitted
  Emotion received
  Music in the abstract --
  Positively
  
  Elemental telepathy
  A change of synergy
  Music making contact --
  Naturally
  
  One, two, three --
  Add without subtraction
  Sound on sound
  Multiplied reaction
  H to O
  No flow without the other
  Oh but how
  Do we make contact
  With one another?
  
  
• Digital Man (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  His world is under observation --
  We monitor his station
  Under faces and the places
  Where he traces points of view
  
  He picks up scraps of conversation --
  Radio and radiation
  From the dancers and romancers
  With the answers -- but no clue
  
  He'd love to spend the night in Zion
  He's been a long while in Babylon
  He'd like a lover's wings to fly on
  To a tropic isle of Avalon
  
  His world is under anaesthetic --
  Subdivided and synthetic
  His reliance on the giants
  In the science of the day
  
  He picks up scraps of information --
  He's adept at adaptation
  'Cause for strangers and arrangers
  Constant change is here to stay
  
  He'd love to spend the night in Zion
  He's been a long while in Babylon
  He'd like a lover's wings to fly on
  To a tropic isle of Avalon
  
  He's got a force field and a flexible plan
  He's got a date with fate in a black sedan
  He plays fast forward for as long as he can
  But he won't need a bed --
  He's a digital man
  
  
• The Weapon (PART II OF THE "FEAR" TRILOGY) (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  We've got nothing to fear -- but fear itself?
  Not pain, not failure, not fatal tragedy?
  Not the faulty units in this mad machinery?
  Not the broken contacts in emotional chemistry?
  
  With an iron fist in a velvet glove
  We are sheltered under the gun
  In the glory game on the power train
  Thy kingdom's will be done
  
  And the things that we fear are a weapon to be held against us...
  
  He's not afraid of your judgement
  He knows of horrors worse than your Hell
  He's a little bit afraid of dying --
  But he's a lot more afraid of your lying
  
  And the things that he fears are a weapon to be held against him...
  
  Can any part of life -- be larger than life?
  Even love must be limited by time
  And those who push us down that they might climb --
  Is any killer worth more than his crime?
  
  Like a steely blade in a silken sheath
  We don't see what they're made of
  They shout about love, but when push comes to shove
  They live for the things they're afraid of
  
  And the knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them...
  
  
• New World Man (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  He's a rebel and a runner
  He's a signal turning green
  He's a restless young romantic
  Wants to run the big machine
  
  He's got a problem with his poisons
  But you know he'll find a cure
  He's cleaning up his systems
  To keep his nature pure
  
  Learning to match the beat of the Old World man
  Learning to catch the heat of the Third World man
  
  He's got to make his own mistakes
  And learn to mend the mess he makes
  He's old enough to know what's right
  But young enough not to choose it
  He's noble enough to win the world
  But weak enough to lose it --
  He's a New World man...
  
  He's a radio receiver
  Tuned to factories and farms
  He's a writer and arranger
  And a young boy bearing arms
  
  He's got a problem with his power
  With weapons on patrol
  He's got to walk a fine line
  And keep his self-control
  
  Trying to save the day for the Old World man
  Trying to pave the way for the Third World man
  
  He's not concerned with yesterday
  He knows constant change is here today
  He's noble enough to know what's right
  But weak enough not to choose it
  He's wise enough to win the world
  But fool enough to lose it --
  He's a new world man
  
  Trying to save the day for the Old World man
  Trying to pave the way for the Third World man
  He's a new world man
  
  
• Losing It (with special guest Bob Mink on electric violin) (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  The dancer slows her frantic pace
  In pain and desperation,
  Her aching limbs and downcast face
  Aglow with perspiration
  
  Stiff as wire, her lungs on fire,
  With just the briefest pause --
  The flooding through her memory,
  The echoes of old applause.
  
  She limps across the floor
  And closes her bedroom door...
  
  The writer stare with glassy eyes --
  Defies the empty page
  His beard is white, his face is lined
  And streaked with tears of rage.
  
  Thirty years ago, how the words would flow
  With passion and precision,
  But now his mind is dark and dulled
  By sickness and indecision
  
  And he stares out the kitchen door
  Where the sun will rise no more...
  
  Some are born to move the world --
  To live their fantasies
  But most of us just dream about
  The things we'd like to be
  
  Sadder still to watch it die
  Than never to have known it
  For you -- the blind who once could see --
  The bell tolls for thee...
  
  
• Countdown (Dedicated with thanks to astonauts Young & Crippen and all the people of NASA for their inspiration and cooperation) (Lee, Lifeson, Peart)
  
  Lit up with anticipation
  We arrive at the launching site
  The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
  On the Florida coastline
  
  Circling choppers slash the night
  With roving searchlight beams
  This magic day when super-science
  Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams
  
  Floodlit in the hazy distance
  The star of this unearthly show
  Venting vapours, like the breath
  Of a sleeping white dragon
  
  Crackling speakers, voices tense
  Resume the final count
  All systems check, T minus nine
  As the sun and the drama start to mount
  
  The air is charged -- a humid, motionless mass
  The crowds and the cameras,
  The cars full of spectators pass
  Excitement so thick -- you could cut it with a knife
  Technology -- high, on the leading edge of life
  
  The earth beneath us starts to tremble
  With the spreading of a low black cloud
  A thunderous roar shakes the air
  Like the whole world exploding
  
  Scorching blast of golden fire
  As it slowly leaves the ground
  Tears away with a mighty force
  The air is shattered by the awesome sound
  
  Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers
  High in the air
  In fascination -- with the eyes of the world
  We stare...