He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts of letters and ghosts

And the turning back of clocks

Swore he'd rid himself of hope a long time ago

Swore he'd keep his past under lock

But he was hiding from his heart, and it soon found him out

Behind his thin veneer of stubborn pride

Garbed in the cheapening cloaks of blame

His regret welling up inside

She's his flesh; she's his blood

She's his mouth; she's his eyes

She's his heart; she's his soul

She's his truth; she's his lies

She's his love; she's his hate

She's his wrong; she's his right

She's his life; she's his death

She's his day; she's his night

All the years were as minutes; time went stark, raving mad

Screaming at the sight of itself

Drowning in a torrent of reborn promise

He desired her above all else

He could taste his sore need for her touch, for her voice

It had a bittersweet, familiar tang

Made him twist, made him starve for unity's sake

While the air, thick with passion, sang

She's his flesh_she's the night

It was the sleekness of her lines; it was the lustre in her eyes

It was her satin charms learned by rote

That etched her name forever on his virgin heart

`Til he spit those three words burning in his throat

Every tender nerve within him flashed its scalding, raw signal

It took every ounce of strength he had

Just to keep himself from tearing through his pale skin to reach her

Through the leather in which he was clad

He threw open wide his arms to trust, with all its fault and danger

Saw her real beauty shining bright

There was nothing more he wanted than to stand again beside her

Spend eternity in her light

She's his flesh_she's the night

c 1992 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

He drew courage one kiss at a time

From her touch and the look in her eyes

For there was clear conviction in the power she held over him

Unbridled enough to make his hot head swim

Almost as if their black years came undone

And she swallowed all his fears of life one by one

With lips that taught him to forgive himself

For the past he knew too well

And three words revisited leave their mark

Indelible textures rule his heart

And the voice of romance cuts through the dark

Saying it's ok, yes, it's ok

She don't bring him down

He began to capture back the substance of faith

That made hesitation seem to him so out of place

To believe again in the plan once held so close

All the subtle wonders of the world he needed most

And with a solemn vow he put an end to their ancient divide

Let the titles of guilt and innocence fall to the side

Then turned by degrees to meet his heart's demand

`Til he was something of a different man

And three words revisited leave their mark

Indelible textures rule his heart

And the voice of romance cuts through the dark

Saying it's ok, yes, it's ok

She don't bring him down

For all his life had been leading to this

A destination he could never resist

Down the aisle to a dream made flesh

A sanctuary in a long, white dress

And as he slipped on her wedding ring

He was certain of this one thing

Her love was heaven-sent

Her love was heaven-sent

Her love

Heaven-sent

Her love

Heaven-sent

c 1992 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

Taut as a trip wire, he lay awake

Bathed in the flickering light

The sickly blue glow of the television

And the lengthening of the night

Deafened by the sound of his wild heart pounding

And the maddening tick of the radium clock

As it counted his time

With a fatal precision

Seduction tinted all his colors

Seduction stole his sleep

Seduction shattered hope like glass

And threw it at his feet

The poison of fear that hung in the air

Sent his sixth sense reeling

Down the corridors of paranoia

Laced with blacker feeling

His sanity bent at ungodly angles

Beneath the weight of his mortality

It was the lethal nature

Of his sharpened focus

Seduction tinted all his colors

Seduction stole his sleep

Seduction shattered hope like glass

And threw it at his feet

He felt oblivion deep in his bones

He felt his vibrancy fade

He felt his youth subside

And his very essence slip away

Into the shadows, the numbing darkness

The twisting cerebral pitch

The suffocation of his addiction

And its ever-tightening grip

c 1992 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

His fingers stretched toward the brass ring

That hung just beyond his reach

`Til every fiber of his very being ached

Fettered to the drab, grey world of things

Forever longing to escape

To cast his own shadows on the wall

But with his illusions wrapped about him

So tight he couldn't breathe

He could only be what he had always been

Save for his dreams of the fire-eyed seraph

So empty and alone

The mechanical man, the king of nothing at all

As he sliced through the city of lean men

With a dagger in his hand

Where the golden calf is dollar-green

And the devil lays his plans

He grew weary of the sting of lies

Of blind ambition and his own role

Yet he never could break the circle

That was life without a soul

Extracting no slivers of truth and beauty

From his day-in/day-out world

No magic keys to his narrow lock

He searched in vain for some secret self

His every waking thought

Found only that his human side was gone

Lost in the crowd that gave him form

And the hollow prize of rank

His identity fix before the public eye

With his proper mask, no face beneath

Like a cipher without point

Beyond cold routine and the comforts of his guise

As he sliced through the city of lean men

With a dagger in his hand

Where the golden calf is dollar-green

And the devil lays his plans

He grew weary of the sting of lies

Of blind ambition and his own role

Yet he never could break the circle

That was life without a soul

c 1992 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

His life was a circle, an endless circle

Of serpentine lovers who spoke with their eyes

Obsessively pulsing between bliss and treason

With one fluid motion, he brushed truth aside

His slender twin fictions, a built-in deception

To keep him from mirrors, from memory's sparks

From tell-tale reflections that traced his gaze backwards

And threatened to pierce his open-sesame heart

He wore distant fashions, long blind years' denial

While jezebel graces lay claim to his soul

Enshrining salvation in strange, vacant icons

In token enchantments with sirens of gold

`Til, riddled with yearning for purpose, for meaning

For deep-healing candor, he untrapped the sound

Spoke his own name so sharply, it threw him off-balance

His veils torn to ribbons, all spells within bounds

And the way spread before him, a vast open channel

Of restless, hard currents he'd hidden from view

So intently unfolding his own latent glory

He looked his path over and started anew

For this age was of knowing, this age was of learning

The strength of his will and the lesson inside

That pulled like a magnet, a singular master

He was his one answer; she was his one light

c 1992 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

The dead of night was breathing down his neck

A claustrophobic kiss

So full of broken-heart discarded dreams

And time turning tricks

He strained to pull the future into the now

Wrap it up like silk

To make it certain, keep it safe and sound

From all encroaching doubts

His discontent unleashed the thief of peace

It stripped off self-belief

Replacing merit with a jaded spite

A penetration deep

Its razor talons cut him to the quick

Impatient, violent strokes

That splintered calm with no regard for love

Or its width of scope

He's an insomniac scarecrow, pretty as sin

Gunmetal eyes, wicked sardonic grin

Nicotine and caffeine racing though his veins

Hair-trigger action kills the pain

His head's whirling like a dervish, out of control

Spinning so fast, now he's hot, now he's cold

With the devil in the trunk and god at his side

Puts the pedal to the metal and drives, baby, drives

He carved opinion with a sharper tongue

Hot venom from rabid lips

Defiance hurled like an unaimed dart

And anger streaming from his fingertips

It lit the tinder underneath his tone

No model of restraint

Inflaming every aspect of his soul

With a fierce contempt

He's an insomniac scarecrow, pretty as sin

Gunmetal eyes, wicked sardonic grin

Nicotine and caffeine racing though his veins

Hair-trigger action kills the pain

His head's whirling like a dervish, out of control

Spinning so fast, now he's hot, now he's cold

With the devil in the trunk and god at his side

Puts the pedal to the metal and drives, baby, drive

c 1992 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

Instincts afire with imagination

Dynamic sensations draped across your frame

Your searing hunger for elusive heaven

Takes urgent form in both fury and pain

Distortion cuts along the inner seam

Throws time and space in utter disarray

The thread is lost in the tangle of elements

The lunatic spectrum of labyrinthine faith

When heads are fact and fiction

And hearts beat out of sync

In light a shade surreal

You are not what you think

You peel your concrete skin, the fabric of reason

Exposing to chance the pure emotion beneath

Passions so bold and clean they leave you breathless

Raging at life and all the cruelty you see

Sleepwalking on highs, sleepwalking on lows

Through landscapes seething with a myriad of guides

Hypnotic visions point a thousand directions

Past contradiction, past black and white

When heads are fact and fiction

And hearts beat out of sync

In light a shade surreal

You are not what you think

Swimming in his big black coat

His eyes, like coal, glower in the dark

The words from deep inside his throat

Come raining down, a shower of sparks

Feverish assassins leave proportion bleeding

Hallucination pours from electric wounds

As the mythology of being drags the heavy corpse of logic

Across the room

Disquiet, anxious dreams, the flexing devils within

Blur the safe distinctions of the waking state

In a dark, erotic frenzy borne of nights of desperate chafing

At the power of fate

You burn inside

Burn

When heads are fact and fiction

And hearts beat out of sync

In light a shade surreal

You are not what you think

c 1992 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

He wears possession in a world of indifference

Done up in love's resurrected lines

A brilliant pattern, all beauty and new hope

And passions so sublime

This love imposes; it towers above him

It's so much larger than life

His sweet surrender makes vanity scarce, now

No place for menacing pride

The change is welcome; he bristles with promise

Lets down his guard, and the feeling completes

Confessions flow out with wild abandon

No ego to impede

With humble vision he recognizes

The part directness plays

Seems it's been missing so very long, now

Forever and a day

Forever and a day

This is the truth

Love it or leave it

Suspicion doesn't live here anymore

Suspicion doesn't live here anymore

Suspicion doesn't live here anymore

His gift is honor; it lays the foundation

Restoring trust to its pristine state

Desire centers on a fragile virtue

Perception concentrates

He's moving closer to understanding

How true hearts clear the way

Seems he's been waiting so very long, now

Forever and a day

Forever and a day

He wears possession

Forever and a day

He wears possession

Forever and a day

He wears possession

c 1992 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

Yes, he took solace in the lightening fields

His heart set finally free

Of haunting, weighted absolutes

Too steeped in muted grief

And he shed the relics of days gone by

Much given to blacker thoughts

When all the world seemed so inclined

Obscured by fear of loss

Time is no measure of man, he said

Time is no measure of man

Time is no measure of man, he said

Time is no measure of man

He said

Yes, he read dignity into the signs

That whispered hints of more

Serenity so close at hand

It pinned him to the floor

And the expectation rode his mind

Played host to his resolve

To come to terms with his design

Find value in it all

Time is no measure of man, he said

Time is no measure of man

Time is no measure of man, he said

Time is no measure of man

He said

Time

Time

Time

Time

This is a matter of life and death

This is a matter of life and death

This is a matter of life and death

This is a matter of life and death

This is a matter of life and death

This is a matter of life and death

This is a matter of life and death

This is a matter of life and death

c 1992 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

ULTRAVIOLET (THE IMPERIALIST SLEEP)

And so she filters through your best defenses

Illuminates the cold shadows of steel

Brings to light all you never dared to feel

Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet

And as her smile gently melts your pale ice

A wisdom once forgotten stirs inside

The simple reason that you made her your blushing bride

Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet

Angels dream of being devils

And devils dream of being gods

Gods dream of being human

And men dream of being in love

Just close your eyes and sleep

Just close your eyes

Just close your eyes and sleep

Just close your eyes

c 1992 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

She spoke the words long after the fact

Jettisoned her ring and never looked back

At withered hope and affections lost

Her black perspective, disappointment's cost

Said she felt laden with the burden of being his wife

Standing in his shadow instead of at his side

Vying for attentions, an intimate look

The distance in desire was all that it took

To give doubt a third dimension, make their separation real

She shuddered at his touch and a love she couldn't feel

And her calloused heart fosters her decision to leave

The arena of needing

Now she bares the white skin below diamonds

She broke the hold of mistakes resigned

Summoned independence and the fire trapped inside so long

In a house divided, commitment cracked

Split down the middle by his darker half

And she's had enough of tears to last the rest of her life

Of tension so thick she could cut it with a knife

In search of satisfaction and dogged by disregard

She went back to the beginning, tried to make a clean start

Though the nights are never easy, self-respect is hers to keep

Only troubled on occasion by the hurt she put to sleep

But frustration serves to bolster her refusal to lead

A lifetime of lonely

Now she bares the white skin below diamonds

And everything they once were, she tries to forget

Everything

c 1996 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

You've grown accustomed to this feast or famine

To all the obstacles that stand before love

This atmosphere of fate so overwhelming

An iron fist in a velvet glove

For certain moments taken out of context

Ambivalence is always part of the game

So hard to fathom and impossible to contain

But too many years of compromise and spinning dreams from dross

Have taken a heavy toll on hope and left you at a loss

For faith was never strong enough to steer this union through

Uncharted seas of mixed emotions rising up in you

You can't divorce yourself from hesitation

Questions of character still left unresolved

Afraid to find your passion for life wanting

Settled and cheated and your own hand involved

But confrontation is a young man's business

And change a luxury afforded to few

Potential paralyzed by fear of anything new

That's you

With your trust kept under pressure and your love under the gun

Attempts to reconcile hearts and repair the damage done

Are beleaguered by the risk of failure, magnified with age

In the presence of nostalgia and tradition's gilded cage

For better or for worse

Come hell or high water

For better or for worse

Come hell or high water

For better or for worse

And you run out of tomorrows at the point of no return

Where cause must follow with effect and all your bridges burn

Exhausted by the friction between the stable and unknown

Until nothing short of a miracle can mend this broken home

c 1996 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

His apologies are pregnant with cosmetic gestures

Meant to buy your silence with a kiss

But his civilized demeanor gives no reassurance

That his temper can be lightly dismissed

Because he's taken you for granted ever since you allowed him

Unrestricted access to your soul

And he interprets acquiescence as an open invitation

To bring all of your existence under his control

Don't make promises you can't keep

When the past is fresh and the wounds are deep

Be careful, now, with all this talk of love

You know the object of your veneration

And the instrument of your destruction

All too often are one and the same

Apprehension is injected into every second

With submission comes the dowry of fear

And your penchant for ignoring life's unpleasant details

Makes your disposition crystal clear

Far too eager for reaction to pay heed to motive

In this button-pushing climate resides

Your excuse that provocation brings you closer together

Attracted to his anger like a moth to light

Don't make promises...

Upon returning to the source of the abuse you've learned to take

Just a creature of bad habit with a shame you'll never shake

You continue to repeat the lie until you half-believe

If concession keeps the peace, the end will justify the means

But for all your good intentions and your methods tried and true

This redundant situation only leaves you black and blue

And your heart's perverse expression is your need to seek approval

From him time and again

Don't make promises...

Why do you carry the weight of the world

Wed 'til your dying breath, around his finger curled

c 1996 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

A beauty born to suffer from a talent unsung

Buried under envy and enamoured of one

She's served a plate full of scorn, a mouthful of hate

Pitied and remembered too little, too late

By the jealous who conspire to make passion her sin

As her madness is sculpted from the absence within

Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel

Living with a vengeance, inhibitions consumed

Turbulence alluring to a youth in full bloom

But her heart beats unrequited, anemic with neglect

Love spread like a cancer, left her charity a wreck

And the infamy of rumor is her loyalty's reward

In this world of groomed emotion and the savage unexplored

Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel

Reputations falter in a whirlwind of sheets

This complicated feeling where the flesh and stone meet

Still she waits to be acknowledged, a secret at a time

Only to discover that she'll always walk the line

Between a mistress and a martyr, validation held at bay

All her honesty forbidden and her destiny delayed

Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel

c 1996 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

Floating on aspirations

Swollen with inspiration

From birth he grabbed life by the throat

Red fear ripped from its socket

And death deep in his pocket

Hidden in the folds of his coat

Striking sacrificial postures

To match his heart's initial offer

Compulsion become a religion in itself

His heartache wore a thousand faces

But one love put him through the paces

Crippled discipline and turned him inside out

But in the light of success

He expected no less

Than his sheer happiness

Guaranteed

(Does your crown of thorns

Keep your bowed head warm

Or do you fall apart

Like clockwork?)

Driven to a strange distraction

Painted over sunken dreams

Of hearts fractured once too often

And love torn apart at the seams

Always walking

Sleepwalking

Just the somnambulist in me

I'd take on the laws of nature

And tear up the rules of man

For the key to the kingdom of heaven

Burning in the palm of my hand

Offer me a consolation

A blanket over brutal truth

An answer for embittered lovers

When reason makes poor substitute

Just the somnambulist in me

c 1996 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

A dozen years and counting since the torch was passed

He stepped into the white light, no turning back

And his mantle was assumed like the legacy of kings

Relatively speaking, death's a pretty simple thing

But it's the living that separates the men from the boys

Just like fathers and sons

So you picked up where he left off, pieced together what remained

Hindered only by your brooding and your need for placing blame

And your loathing cost you dearly all the joy you ever had

Disconnected from your family by this monkey on your back

As you held on to your sorrow like some private souvenir

Just like fathers and sons

Now maturity's contagious, it's a hand-me-down part

Because the circle never ends where the circle always starts

Responsibility increases as it passes down the line

But the future works itself out if you only give it time

And so the tree grows as the twig is bent

Just like fathers and sons

c 1996 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

We feed on lies and manipulations

Reactionary daily bread

Lip service echoes from a blank generation

Of poisoned love and the truth cut dead

Our definition is sorely lacking

Our peace of mind is a thing of the past

And our compassion is the first sent packing

When rhyme and reason are fading fast

We run on empty as we cater to ego

With godforsaken, mercenary hearts

Agendas hidden behind innuendo

And trust that's done before it even starts

Now the ideas that we once held sacred

Have been disposed of, reduced to this

A weak reminder, abstract and vacant

Without an anchor one thought persists

Angels or devils kiss and tell

Where black and white once fit you like a glove

There is no heaven and there is no hell

Now good and evil are simply not enough

Though we lie down virgins and we wake up whores

And human nature falls somewhere in between

Circle Limit Number Four

With karma hard at work behind the scenes

We shy away from our only real hope

Of comprehending this life we lead

Salvation offered in all manner of long robes

We kill the messengers and watch them bleed

In our aversion to accepting the obvious

The end result of our obstinate pride

When unity is suggested in all of us

The world intrinsic if we open our eyes

Angels or devils...

Circle Limit Number Four

Think. Feel. Do. Be.

c 1996 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

Although he couldn't quite place its deeper meaning at the time

There was cool detachment in her voice

A vague familiarity, unspoken battle lines

And reluctance as her weapon of choice

But the powers of persuasion of his loneliest of moods

Let him view her in a generous light

Blind to tragic consequence, his heart worn on his sleeve

In the hope that his sincerity would set things right

She loves him

She loves him not

Art of deception

She loves him not

Despite their hip-grinding havoc in a war zone of a bed

Communication was both foreign and strange

But with the tyranny of feeling kicking 'round in his head

And all his principles rearranged

He put her history aside, he let his better judgment slide

He gave accommodation his own name

Self-esteem diluted and integrity enslaved

To the way her secret sympathies waxed and waned

She loves him

She loves him not

Art of deception

She loves him not

His head was full of notions

A litany of lies

With accent on devotion

No matter what the price

Love/hate

Love/hate

Art of deception

Art of deception

Art of deception

Art of deception

c 1996 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

We could dredge up the past forever

Never crossing the borders of blame

But I'm too tired to play that stupid game

There is no point in histrionics

I have no time for idle threats

No need to wait and see or hedge my bets

I just want to get on with leaving

Moving forward, beyond revenge

And all the petty bullshit on which we hinge

Always had to find out the hard way

All is fair in love and war

Guess I never knew 'til now what my heart was for

We could dwell on the minor details

Of who did what to whom and when

The simple fact is we'll never be that way again

It's evident that there's no escaping

How love and hate go hand in hand

But what we feel is not the same as what we understand

I'm sick to death of eating my heart out

Night and day, all my energy spent

Safe to say familiarity breeds contempt

Peering over the edge in silence

As bruised and battered broken dreams

Toss and turn, tumble, fall, plummet, careen

And so it goes...

Lover's leap

c 1996 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

You're a ghost, now, baby

Nothing but a dream

Because the truth killed sentiment where it stood

No merciful lies for nobody's own good

Nothing but a dream

Because this heart, survived by estrangement, claimed

An inheritance built on sex and pain

Nothing but a dream

Blue Judas Kiss

Blue Judas Kiss

Blue Judas Kiss

Blue Judas Kiss

You're a ghost, now, baby

Nothing but a dream

Because yesterday's sheen faded so damn fast

And the harm sustained is all that lasts

Nothing but a dream

Because this love was never quite enough

To fulfill the promise it conjured up

Nothing but a dream

c 1996 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

Armageddon lullaby

No one here gets out alive

Guns and drugs are all the rage

The new world order has come of age

Channel surfing for happy endings

You might not like what you find

As culture vultures hype golden arches

You run the rat race like a slave to the grind

Gimme danger, little stranger

Kiss the American dream goodbye

With Times Square at ground zero

The revolution will be disneyfied

While crypto-fascists sleep much better

Because you never read between the lines

Incorporated into submission

Your nightmares kept out of sight, out of mind

Make way for indoor malls

With trees and no-smoking laws

Overrun by teen-idol clones

Who hang on cellular phones

And drive big luxury cars

Endorsed by Hollywood stars

This is as good as it gets

This is both promise and threat

Big Brother's watching you

Big Brother's marketing tool

c 2000 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

I've been waiting so long

For you to share all your senses with me

To take a chance on love

To touch, taste, smell, hear and see

Because we're cut from the same cloth

A shimmering silk

Both searching for the promised land

Of honey and milk

So lonely for the company

Of one of our ilk

And I'm yours for the taking

Somewhere between

All the pleasure and the pain

Two hearts run parallel

My Siamese twin

Christine, Christine

Yin yang

Be my mirror tonight

You be my left, and I'll be your right and wrong

Come crawl around in my skin

Just say the word, and I'll let you in

Because we're birds of a feather

Two of a kind

Both living in a world

Of our own design

So, let's split it up between us

And see what we find

And I'm yours for the taking

Somewhere between...

Born on the cusp of Gemini

Yours for the taking

c 2000 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

Emblazoned on his skin

Everything she once meant to him

Tattooed, inked and dried

A flesh memory kept alive

His dedication to her inscribed

In a painted, barbed wire, modern tribal design

Emblazoned on his skin

Emblazoned

On his skin

Decorated 'til the day he dies

Her name in letters half an inch high

In a broken red heart with a black outline

Grown paler than her passion with the passage of time

Emblazoned on his skin

Emblazoned on his skin

Emblazoned, body and soul

Like camouflage for a gaping hole

Head to toe in needle-bled art

Obsession captured his head and his heart

His technicolor torso vividly scarred

Deep and forever, 'til death do them part

Emblazoned, body and soul

Emblazoned

Body and soul

Multi-hued, his pigment betrays

Emotions tinted with the shadow of days

Of painful permanence, when love held sway

Over the patterns he so proudly displays

Emblazoned, body and soul

Emblazoned, body and soul

c 2000 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

Flirting with disaster

In a low-cut dress

The epitome of sultry

Sensuality's best

She's a Gotham City batgirl

She's got fireworks for eyes

She knows the devil's in the details

With heaven on the sly

She's a vision

A vision in black

When she hits the dance floor she burns the room

While all the glampires doom and gloom

Just a beat and a groove and she loses herself

In this tune

Apocalyptic rapture

Under banshee overtones

All hit-and-run desire

As she dances all alone

She's seduction incarnate

She's absinthe over ice

With a twist of melancholy

In the passions she ignites

She's a vision

A vision in black

And like some self-fulfilling prophecy

Come-hither glances lock on me

So hypnotizing, tantalizing

Oh, ecstasy

c 2000 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

This side of sleep and empire bound

They ride the rails, the lost and found

Into the heart of darkness

Sabres drawn and flags unfurled

Nocturnal armies on parade

Welcome to the netherworld

Machismo permeates the room

A deadly, sickly sweet perfume

They brag of prowess

And their conquests of the night before

As if the devil himself kept score

Melt into the netherworld

Ironic how they come aware

Once life's polluted with despair

As power, once seductive

Slips their slackening, jaded, weary grasp

Most vile aphrodisiac

Welcome to the netherworld

And true believers speak in tongues

How youth is wasted on the young

Below the surface

Of ambition, industry, and fear

Blood lust and glory disappear

Melt into the netherworld

c 2000 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

LOWRIDER

Reliving legends tonight

The stuff of rock'n'roll dreams

When vinyl hissed and guitars attacked

And new romantics all dressed in black

I find your picture and it carries me back

Now, ride, ride with me

Back then I wanted to be

Like Ziggy, Iggy, and Reed

With wraparounds on my leather-chic head

My naive heart and a sophomore bed

And you, so blonde-haired and blue-eyed instead

Now, ride, ride with me

Let's ride, baby, ride

Ride with me

Come on, Sister Midnight

And it was us versus them

Rebellion for its own sake

When sex and music were the spoils of war

Two twentysomethings just looking to score

Caught in the moment as the radio roared

Now, ride, ride with me

But those were furious times

Or maybe it was just us

When every word of every song rang true

Our finest hour, as far as we knew

And no one since has held a candle to you

Now, ride, ride with me

Let's ride, baby, ride

Ride with me

c 2000 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

Red Rover, Red Rover

A hundred times over

He's told her not to move an inch

The boredom of ritual, cold and predictable

Her legs spread wide, no muscles flinch

As the voice in her head makes a terrible noise

Saying girls will be fodder, and boys will be boys

And the straw that broke the camel's back

Is not for us to see

Red Rover, Red Rover

A thousand times over

He's told her not to cause a scene

Obedience cherished, her liberty perished

As she plays the pathetic, long-suffering queen

And the look in his eyes is the same as before

Not mother, not daughter, not sister, but whore

And the straw that broke the camel's back

Is not for us to see

Red Rover, Red Rover

A million times over

She swears up and down that she'll finally leave

But, harnessed to fear, iron will disappears

As she begs and she cringes and falls to her knees

She's a glutton for punishment, dark and depraved

Inflicted by monsters infected with rage

Like some masochistic, passion play addict

In dire need of a fix

When she was a girl she was pretty and proud

Now curled in the corner she wonders aloud

When will she learn to treat him much better

And how she makes herself sick

c 2000 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

His head was brimming with drastic thoughts

Of swastikas, suicide and mayhem

And his back was up against the wall

Said if you can't join them, hate them

For too long he'd walked the razor's edge

Inside of pain, outside of love

A time bomb waiting for something to give

Just waiting for push to come to shove

Adrenalized, adrenalized

He felt his anger come alive

Adrenalized, adrenalized

Just like an animal deep inside

Adrenalized, adrenalized

The glint of madness in his eyes

Adrenalized, adrenalized

Adrenalized

And his heart grew darker day by day

As he watched his world turn from sugar to shit

Ate, slept, and breathed this pent-up rage

This feeling never knows when to quit

But aggression's got the upper hand again

Payback's a bitch, and here's the rub

At least with violence he knows where he stands

Dehumanized and out for blood

Adrenalized, adrenalized

He felt his anger come alive

Adrenalized, adrenalized

Just like an animal deep inside

Adrenalized, adrenalized

The glint of madness in his eyes

Adrenalized, adrenalized

Adrenalized

He's throwing off bad vibes

He's throwing off bad vibes

He's throwing off bad vibes

He's throwing off bad vibes

Adrenalized...

c 2000 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

You live and die, arrogant and blind

Like pretenders to the throne

You stake your claims on holy names

But your gods are not my own

And I will not join in your crusade

To subjugate my soul

I turn my back and walk away

Where faith will not follow

You burn my ears with your talk of fear

But your dogma leaves me cold

You crucify all who dare to defy

Your authority's stranglehold

But I will not kneel to kiss your ring

For you have no power here

Tradition does not mean a thing to me

I'm on a heretic kick

You try to kill off my spirit and will

With your emphasis on shame

You press and judge and my freedom begrudge

But I'll never play your game

And I don't buy half your reasons why

Because your other half's a

lie

So far beyond remote control

Where your rules do not apply

I'm on a heretic kick

c 2000 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)

Receiving signals loud and clear

No static noise to interfere

Transmissions pure as pure can be

Adjusting to your frequency

Words float from mouth to ear on ether

Across the miles, over years

I-love-you's repeated like a mantra

Erasing doubts, allaying fears

When I was hazy, you were poignant

When I was crazy, you held fast

Taught me to savor without starving

And how to balance the present with the past

Relaying messages from home

A trace of worry in your tone

Broadcast directly from the heart

My hope and strength when worlds apart

I hung in limbo before you found me

I'd named my poison in my pride

Descended into the mouth of madness

`Til I couldn't avoid you if I'd tried

For you harbor something akin to magic

A sweet, strange elixir in your voice

That soothed and tamed me without warning

As if I ever really had a choice

Oh, the lengths I'd go

To win your hand

Over and out

c 2000 Insomniac Scarecrow Music (ASCAP)