Retrospective I 1981-1987 Lyrics
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...
Red Barchetta
My uncle has a country place
That no one knows about.
He says it used to be a farm,
Before the Motor Law.
And on Sundays I elude the Eyes,
And hop the Turbine Freight
To far outside the Wire,
Where my white-haired uncle waits.
Jump to the ground
As the Turbo slows to cross the Borderline.
Run like the wind,
As excitement shivers up and down my spine.
Down in his barn,
My uncle preserved for me an old machine,
For fifty-odd years.
To keep it as new has been his dearest dream.
I strip away the old debris
That hides a shining car.
A brilliant red Barchetta
From a better, vanished time.
I fire up the willing engine,
Responding with a roar.
Tires spitting gravel,
I commit my weekly crime...
Wind-
In my hair-
Shifting and drifting-
Mechanical music-
Adrenalin surge...
Well-weathered leather,
Hot metal and oil,
The scented country air.
Sunlight on chrome,
The blur of the landscape,
Every nerve aware.
Suddenly ahead of me,
Across the mountainside,
A gleaming alloy air-car
Shoots towards me, two lanes wide.
I spin around with shrieking tires,
To run the deadly race,
Go screaming through the valley
As another joins the chase.
Drive like the wind,
Straining the limits of machine and man.
Laughing out loud
With fear and hope, I've got a desperate plan.
At the one-lane bridge
I leave the giants stranded at the riverside.
Race back to the farm, to dream with my uncle at the fireside.
Subdivisons
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...
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 defenses 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...
Summers going fast;
Nights growing colder
Children growing up;
Old friends getting older
Experience slips away...
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
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
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...
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, Absalom
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 heat
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...
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...
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...
Limelight
Living on a lighted stage
Approaches the unreal
For those who think and feel
In touch with some reality
Beyond the gilded cage.
Cast in this unlikely role,
Ill-equipped to act,
With insufficient tact,
One must put up barriers
To keep oneself intact.
Living in the Limelight,
The universal dream
For those who wish to seem.
Those who wish to be
Must put aside the alienation,
Get on with the fascination,
The real relation,
The underlying theme.
Living in a fisheye lens,
Caught in the camera eye.
I have no heart to lie,
I can't pretend a stranger
Is a long-awaited friend.
All the world's indeed a stage,
And we are merely players,
Performers and portrayers,
Each another's audience
Outside the gilded cage.
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 hear 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?...
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
Turned 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...
Tom Sawyer
A modern-day warrior
Mean mean stride,
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean mean pride.
Though his mind is not for rent,
Don't put him down as arrogant.
His reserve, a quiet defense,
Riding out the day's events.
The river
And what you say about his company
Is what you say about society.
Catch the mist, catch the myth
Catch the mystery, catch the drift.
The world is, the world is,
Love and life are deep,
Maybe as his eyes are wide.
Today's Tom Sawyer,
He gets high on you,
And the space he invades
He gets by on you.
No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government.
Always hopeful, yet discontent,
He knows changes aren't permanent,
But change is.
And what you say about his company
Is what you say about society.
Catch the witness, catch the wit,
Catch the spirit, catch the spit.
The world is, the world is,
Love and life are deep,
Maybe as his skies are wide.
Exit the warrior,
Today's Tom Sawyer,
He gets high on you,
And the energy you trade,
He gets right on to the friction of the day.
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 sound
Look in look out look around;
We can move with savage grace
To the rythyms of the night
Cool and remote like dancing girls
In the heart of the beat and the
Lights
We can wear the rose of romance
An air of Joiie De Vivre
Too-tender hearts upon our
Sleeves
Our skin as thick as theives'
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 sound
Look in look out look around
Discography
Home
VoodooLord7's Webpage
