Signals

1982

 

"Subdivisions"

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"

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

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"

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 empathy
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"

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'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 'Fear'

We've got nothing to fear - but fear itself?
Not pain or 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"

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...


"Losing It"

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 stares 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 astronauts Yound & Crippen and all the people of NASA for their inspiration and cooperation

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...

 

 

Grace Under Pressure

1984


"Distant Early Warning"

An ill wind comes arising
Across the cities of the plain
There's no swimming in the heavy water-
No singing in the acid rain
Red alert
Red alert

It's so hard to stay together
Passing through revolving doors
We need someone to talk to
And someone to sweep the floors-
Incomplete
Incomplete

The world weighs on my shoulders
But what am I to do?
You sometimes drive me crazy-
But I worry about you

I know it makes on difference
To what you're going through
But I see the tip of the iceberg-
And I worry about you...


Cruising under your radar
Watching from satellites
Take a page from the red book-
Keep them in your sights
Red alert
Red alert

Left and rights of passage
Black and whites of youth
Who can face the knowledge
That the truth is not the truth?
Obsolete
Absolute

Absalom
Absalom


"Afterimage"

Suddenly-
You were gone
From all the lives
You left your mark upon

I remember-
How we talked and drank
Into the misty dawn
- I hear the voices
We ran by the water
On the wet summer lawn
- I see the foot prints
I remember-

- I feel the way you would
- I feel the way you would
Tried to believe
But you know it's no good
This is something
That just can't be understood
I remember-
The shouts of joy
Skiing fast through the woods
- I hear the echoes

I learned your love for life
I feel the way that you would
- I feel your presence
I remember-
I feel the way you would
This just can't be understood...


"Red Sector A"

All that we can do is just survive
All that we can do to help ourselves
Is stay alive...

Ragged lines of ragged grey
Skeletons, they shuffle away
Shouting guards and smoking guns
Will cut down the unlucky ones

I clutch the wire fence
Until my fingers bleed
A wound that will not heal-
A heart that cannot feel-
Hoping that the horror will recede
Hoping that tomorrow-
We'll all be freed

Sickness to insanity
Prayer to profanity
Days and weeks and months go by
Don't feel the hunger-too weak to cry

I hear the sound of gunfire
At the prison gate
Are the liberators here-
Do I hope or do I fear?
For my father and my brother-it's too late
But I must help my mother
Stand up straight...

Are we the last ones left alive?
Are we the only human beings
To survive?...


"The Enemy Within"

Part one of 'Fear'

Things crawl in the darkness
That imagination spins
Needles at your nerve ends
Crawl like spiders on your skin

Pounding in your temples
And a surge of adrenaline
Every muscle tense-
To fence
The enemy within

I'm not giving in
To security under pressure
I'm not missing out
On the promise of adventure
I'm not giving up
On implausible dreams-
Experience to extremes-
Experience to extremes

Suspicious-looking stranger
Flashes you a dangerous grin
Shadows across your window-
Was it only trees in the wind?

Every breath a static charge-
A tongue that tastes like tin
Steely-eyed outside to hide the enemy within...

To you-is it movement or is it action?
It is contact or just reaction?
And you-revolution or just resistance?
Is it living, or just existence?
eah, you-it takes a little more persistence
To get up and go the distance...


"The Body Electric"

One humanoid escapee
One android on the run
Seeking freedom beneath
A lonely desert sun

Trying to change its program
Trying to change the mode-
Crack the code
Images conflicting
Into data overload

1-0-0-1-0-0-1
S.O.S
1-0-0-1-0-0-1
In distress
1-0-0-1-0-0

Memory banks unloading
Bytes break into bits
Unit One's in trouble
And it's scared out of its wits

Guidance systems break down
A struggle to exist-
To resist-
A pulse of dying power
In a clenching plastic fist...

It replays each of the days
A hundred years of routines
Bows its head and prays
To the mother of all machines...


"Kid Gloves"

A world of difference
A world so out of touch
Overwhelmed by everything
But wanting more so much-

Call it blind frustration
Call it blind man's bluff
Call each other names-
Your voices rude-your voices rough
Then you learn the lesson
That it's cool to be so tough

Handle with kid gloves
Handle with kid gloves
Then you learn the lessons
Taught in school won't be enough
Put on your kid gloves
Put on your kid gloves
Then you learn the lesson
That it's cool to be so tough

A world of indifference
Heads and hearts too full
Careless of the consequence
Of constant push and pull

Anger got bare knuckles
Anger play the fool
Anger wear a crown of thorns
Reverse the golden rule
Then you learn the lesson
That it's tough to be so cool

Handle with kid gloves
Handle with kid gloves
Then you learn the weapons
And the ways of hard-knock school
Put on your kid gloves
Put on your kid gloves
Then you learn the lesson
That it's tough to be so cool


"red lenses"

i see red
it hurts my head
guess it must be something
that i read

it's the colour of your heartbeat
a rising summer sun
the battle lost-or won
the flash to fashion
and the pulse to passion-

feels red
inside my head
and truth is often bitter-
left unsaid
said red red
thinking about the overhead-
the underfed
-couldn't we talk about something else iinstead?

we've got mars on the horizon
says the national midnight star
(it's true)
what you believe is what you are
a pair of dancing shoes-
the soviets are the blues-

the reds
under your bed
lying-
in the darkness
dead ahead

and the mercury is rising
barometer starts to fall
you know it gets to us all
the pain that is learning
and the rain that is burning-

feel red
still-go ahead
you see black and white-
and i see red
(not blue)


"Between The Wheels"

To live between a rock
And a hard place
In between time-
Cruising in prime time-
Soaking up the cathode rays

To live between the wars
In our time-
Living in real time-
Holding the good time-
Holding on to yesterdays...

You know how that rabbit feels
Going under your speeding wheels
Bright images flashing by
Like windshields towards a fly
Frozen in the fatal climb-
But the wheels of time-
Just pass you by...

Wheels can take you around
Wheels can cut you down

We can go from boom to bust
From dreams to a bowl of dust
We can fall from rockets' red glare
Down to "Brother can you spare-"
Another war-another waste land-
And another lost generation...

It slips between your hands
Like water
This living in real time
A dizzying lifetime
Reeling by on celluloid

Struck between the eyes
By the big-time world
Walking uneasy streets-
Hiding beneath the sheets-
Got to try and fill the void...

 

 

Power Windows

1985

 

"The Big Money"

Big money goes around the world
Big money underground
Big money got a mighty voice
Big money make no sound
Big money pull a million strings
Big money hold the prize
Big money weave a mighty web
Big money draw the flies

  • Sometimes pushing people around
    Sometimes pulling out the rug
    Sometimes pushing all the buttons
    Sometimes pulling out the plug
    It's the power and the glory
    It's a war in paradise
    It's a cinderella story
    On a tumble of the dice
  • Big money goes around the world
    Big money take a cruise
    Big money leave a mighty wake
    Big money leave a bruise
    Big money make a million dreams
    Big money spin big deals
    Big money make a mighty head
    Big money spin big wheels

  • Sometimes building ivory towers
    Sometimes knocking castles down
    Sometimes building you a stairway -
    Lock you underground
    It's that old-time religion
    it's the kingdom they would rule
    It's the fool on television
    Getting paid to play the fool
  • Big money goes around the world
    Big money give and take
    Big money done a power of good
    Big money make mistakes
    Big money got a heavy hand
    Big money take control
    Big money got a mean streak
    Big money got no soul...


    "Grand Designs"

    A to B -
    Different degrees...

    So much style without substance
    So much stuff without style
    It's hard to recognize the real thing
    It comes along once in a while

  • Like a rare and precious metal
    Beneath a ton of rock
    It takes some time and trouble
    To separate from the stock
    You sometimes have to listen to
    A lot of useless talk
  • Shapes and forms
    Against the norms -
    Against the run of the mill
    Swimming against the stream
    Life in two dimensions
    Is a mass production scheme

    So much poison in power
    The principles get left out
    So much mind on the matter
    The spirit gets forgotten about

  • Like a righteous inspiration
    Overlooked in haste
    Like a teardrop in the ocean
    A diamond in the waste
    Some world-views are spacious -
    And some are merely spaced
  • Against the run of the mill
    Static as it seems
    We break the surface tension
    With our wild kinetic dreams
    Curves and lines -
    Of grand designs...


    "Manhattan Project"

    Imagine a time when it all began
    In the dying days of a war
    A weapon - that would settle the score
    Whoever found it first
    Would be sure to do their worst -
    They always had before...

    Imagine a man where it all began
    A scientist pacing the floor
    In each nation - always eager to explore
    To build the best big stick
    To turn the winning trick -
    But this was something more...

  • The big bang - took and shook the world
    Shot down the rising sun
    the end was begun - it would hit everyone
    When the chain reaction was done
    The big shots - try to hold it back
    Fools try to wish it away
    The hopeful depend on a world without end
    Whatever the hopeless may say
  • Imagine a place where it all began
    They gathered from across the land
    To work in the secrecy of the desert sand
    All of the brightest boys
    To play with the biggest toys -
    More than they bargained for...

    Imagine a man when it all began
    The pilot of "Enola Gay"
    Flying out of the shockwave on that August day
    All the powers that be, and the course of history,
    Would be changed for evermore...


    "Marathon"

    It's not how fast you can go
    The force goes into the flow
    If you pick up the beat
    You can forget about the hea

  • More than just survival
    More than just a flash
    More than just a dotted line
    More than just a dash
  • It's a test of ultimate will
    The heartbreak climb uphill
    Got to pick up the pace
    If you want to stay in the race

  • More than just blind ambition
    More than just simple greed
    More than just a finish line
    Must feed this burning need -
  • In the long run...

    From first to last
    The peak is never passed
    Something always fires the light
    That gets in your eyes
    One moment's high
    And glory rolls on by
    Like a streak of lightening
    That flashes and fades
    In the summer sky

    Your meters may overload
    You can rest at the side of the road
    You can miss a stride
    But nobody gets a free ride

  • More than high performance
    More than just a spark
    More than just the bottom line
    Or a lucky shot in the dark -
  • In the long run...

    You can do a lot in a lifetime
    If you don't burn out too fast
    You can make the most of the distance
    First you need endurance -
    First you've got to last...


    "Territories"

    I see the Middle Kingdom between Heaven and Earth
    Like the Chinese call the country of their birth
    We all figure that our homes are set above
    Other people than the ones we know and love

  • In every place with a name
    They play the same territorial game
    Hiding behind the lines
    Sending up warning signs
  • The whole wide world
    An endless universe
    Yet we keep looking through
    The eyeglass in reverse
    Don't feed the people
    But we feed the machines
    Can't really feel
    What international means

  • In different circles
    We keep holding our ground
    In different circles
    We keep spinning round and round
  • We see so many tribes - overrun and undermined
    While their invaders dream of lands they've left behind
    Better people - better food - and better beer
    Why move around the world when Eden was so near?

  • The bosses get talking so tough
    And if that wasn't evil enough
    We get the drunken and passionate pride
    Of the citizens along for the ride
  • They shoot without shame
    In the name of a piece of dirt
    For a change of accent
    Or the colour of your shirt
    Better the pride that resides
    In a citizen of the world
    Than the pride that divides
    When a colourful rag is unfurled


    "Middletown Dreams"

    The office door closed early
    The hidden bottle came out
    The salesman turned to close the blinds

  • A little slow now, a little stout
    But he's still heading down those tracks
    Any day now for sure
    Another day as drab as today
    Is more than a man can endure
  • Dreams flow across the heartland
    Feeding on the fires
    Dreams transport desires
    Drive you when you're down -

  • Dreams transport the ones
    Who need to get out of town
  • The boy walks with his best friend
    Through the fields of early May
    They walk awhile in silence
    One close - one far away

  • But he'd be climbing on that bus
    Just him and his guitar
    To blaze across the heavens
    Like a brilliant shooting star
  • The middle-aged madonna
    Calls her neighbour on the phone
    Day by day the seasons pass
    And leave her life alone

  • But she'll go walking out that door
    On some bright afternoon
    To go and paint big cities
    From a lonely attic room
  • It's understood
    By every single person
    Who'd be elsewhere if they could
    So far so good
    And life's not unpleasant
    In their little neighbourhood

  • They dream in Middletown...

  • "Emotion Detector"

    When we lift the covers from our feelings
    We expose our insecure spots
    Trust is just as rare as devotion -
    Forgive us our cynical thoughts
    If we need too much attention -
    Not content with being cool
    We must throw ourselves wide open
    And start acting like a fool
    If we need too much approval
    Then the cuts can seem too cruel

    Right to the heart of the matter
    Right to the beautiful part
    Illusions are painfully shattered
    Right where discovery starts
    In the secret wells of emotion
    Buried deep in our hearts

    It's true that love can change us
    But never quite enough
    Sometimes we are too tender
    Sometimes we're too tough
    If we get too much attention
    It gets hard to overrule
    So often fragile power turns
    To scorn and ridicule
    Sometimes our big splashes
    Are just ripples in the pool

  • Feelings run high

  • "Mystic Rhythms"

    So many things I think about
    When I look far away
    Things I know - things I wonder
    Things I'd like to say
    The more we think we know about
    The greater the unknown
    We suspend our disbelief
    And we are not alone -

  • Mystic rhythms - capture my thoughts
    And carry them away
    Mysteries of night

    Escape the light of day
    Mystic rhythms - under northern lights
    Or the African Sun

    Primitive things stir
    The hearts of everyone
  • We sometimes catch a window
    A glimpse of what's beyond
    Was it just imagination
    Stringing us along?
    More things than are dreamed about
    Unseen and unexplained
    We suspend our disbelief
    And we are entertained

  • Mystic rhythms - capture my thoughts
    And carry them away
    Nature seems to spin
    A supernatural way
    Mystic rhythms - under city lights
    Or a canopy of stars
    We feel the powers

    And we wonder what they are
    We feel the push and pull

    Of restless rhythms from afar
  • Hold your Fire

    1987

     

    "Force Ten"

    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"

    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"

    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"

    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"

    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"

    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"

    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"

    Nothing can survive in a vacuum
    No one can exist 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"

    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 Water"

    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...