1. |
Head In The Game
05:56
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You're going for the high score in your artificial landscape
Conflict with the secret code of honor of machines
Accumulating hit points with a ruthless manic fervor
Slipping past the traps and pitfalls pictured on the screen
Don't you realize, there isn't an escape key
You can’t expect to exit without feeling any pain
Activating laser beams to edit out your problems
Gain an extra life and stay ahead in the game
Gambling on your past performance, dicing up your chances
proposing winning gambits but your deck is always stacked
Dealing false alternatives, and aceing their decisions
You know the turning card will be the Joker in the pack
Don't you realize, that there isn't an escape key
You can't expect to exit without feeling any pain
The dealer hits you with a card to edit out your problem
Counting on the river puts your head in the game
All I did was get a replay
All I did was play the game
Thought I'd figured out the answers
But somehow all the rules had changed
You're Rolling up your characters and challenging the circle
Hiding from your conscience in a world of mystic themes
passing off as casual friends subverted to your service
escaping intact from the danger vivid in your dreams
Don't you realize, that there isn't an escape key
You can't expect to exit without feeling any pain
Casting double sixes to edit out your problem
Multiply the bounty on your head in the game
Don't you realize there isn't any future
Hiding in your habit where no-one can point the blame
Rocket jumps and bunny hops will beat the low-ping bastard
Real life re-targets on your head in the game
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2. |
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Watch them run and jump and play outside my window
I want to go out and join in the fun
Mother tells me no, she says that I'm just too young
They play too rough, and I'll get hurt in the end
I want to play with the big boys
Playing with the big boys
Playing with the big boys, is where I want to be
Watch them throw and catch the ball, down in the park
I want to go down, and join in the game
Sometimes it's rough, being the smallest kid
When they choose the sides, I'm always left at the end
She stops me playing with the big boys
play with the big boys
playing with the big boys, is where I want to be
And one day, when I am big and strong
I'll walk through the gate, and feel I belong
And when I get there, will it have to be so hard?
Big boys are playing in another back yard
At night, when Mother tucks me into bed
You know, I always dream of staying up late, instead
And in the morning, though I have grown by one day
You know, I'll always be too young, to be a part of their play
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3. |
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Across the room I saw your face
You caught my eye with a hesitant smile
I took you home, showed you the place
I remember your words, you said:
I'm painting abstracts, on location
faking a picture and signing my name
Painting Abstracts, no salvation
from the painful pictures that collect in my brain
Painting Abstracts, my creation
is the one way I know, and it's never the same
Painting Abstracts, one solution
is disolving the memories, and forgetting the shame
Under your sleeve I saw the scars
You told the truth and not the usual lie
a secret wrapped inside the past
a line was drawn, I turned and looked away...
Across the years, I lost a friend
Not suicide, but a stupid disease
I should have seen you at the end
Regret is a stone, in my head
We're painting abstracts, on location
ignoring reality and enduring the pain
Painting Abstracts, on probation
but we're robbing the bank to keep playing the game
Painting Abstracts, our protection
is the color's so vivid we don't have to explain
Painting Abstracts, on location
we're taking a remedy, that is keeping us sane.
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4. |
A Sample of One
03:53
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(instrumental)
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5. |
Solo Flight
09:00
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It was the day that Terry took me flying
Drive the Great South Road to Drury field
Outside the car we stand and watch the gliders
See a flash of sunlight from the keel
A month ago, I tried, but could not end it
Howard Jones was on the stereo
Bailing out before the song was over
She trusted me to never let her go
Feel the vector from the tow-rope's tension
The cockpit lurches with the winch release
Cast aloft in limbo, wind suspension
Breath of God above, the scars beneath
Indicates a left and checks the rear-view
The white Ford changes lanes, the traffic passes
Hands fixed to the wheel, at 10 and 2
Tears refract the light behind her glasses
Stop! Let's roll the backup tape, restore the memories
That's it; the moment that I broke her heart
And for a while, we share the ride with angels
See them smile, and think we've found a home
Dragging at our feet, the Earth is calling
No wings to hold us up, we're falling down
Falling
Falling Down
Falling
Falling Down
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6. |
Prologue
02:00
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(instrumental)
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7. |
The Steel Tree
03:16
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You stare into the TV screen
a window on a world you can't define
wishing you could make a difference
wondering how you'll ever find the time
Climbing up the Steel Tree
Can you tell me what you see?
Infinite horizons, and the
flickering of contacts in the distance
You browse the web for stimuli
scrolling through a million points of view
au courant irrelevance
to satisfy your thirst for something new
Falling from the Steel Tree
pages lost to history
close your eyes and smell the bullshit
realize that nothing lasts forever
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8. |
Into the Shade
04:59
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Feel the need to learn and test our self-reliance
Push the limits of the land and who we are
Put our minds to solving mysteries with Science
Sending probes to the nearest star
Gas emissions feeding ozone deconstruction
Grain belt slipping up the belly of the beast
Commerce engines driving tubes of mass seduction
Siphon payday to the priest
Long ago we stamped our feet to the rain-maker's melody
Felt the beat and electric heat of the thundercloud parade
Stretch a hand to the medicine man, taste the latest remedy
Every nervous reflex reeling us into the shade
Emotional wrecks at security checks for our protection
Iron curtain rising in the final act
Product placement in the pay-per-view election
Faith is trending over Fact
In the flickering shade of a Steel Tree, in the battle field's sterility
Feel the sweet electric beat of a sixty hertz crusade
Purple pills from the Pharma Girl; tickets to tranquility
Tuning in to the scorpion dancing into the shade
Is it right for you? Ask your Doctor; Drink the magic potion
Join the ranks of the no-think tank; blinded by the Right
We are reflected in the plastic-covered ocean
Toxic soil on sacred sites
Too much noise, too much information
Unfiltered data feel a vague sensation
Century overload; can't tune out the station
Solving every problem with the wrong equations
under the flickering steel tree
where I bombed you and you bombed me
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9. |
Interlude I
01:59
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(instrumental)
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10. |
Selling the Dragon
05:02
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Waking up from a dreamless sleep
My instant coffee makes the morning meal
Ready-brewed perfection!
Dressed to kill, and fashion forward
Driving in a rigid frame of steel
Crumple zone protection!
I'm looking good, I’m ready to make the pitch;
to Slay the dragon; Climb the steel tree
Skyping with the Art Director
Social fungus fouls the telescreens
In three exciting flavors!
We interrupt this song to bring you
this important message from our sponsor:
Triple-bladed razors!
It’s 7 o’clock, already, on the East Coast;
and I’ve got a dream, that no-one sold to me...
She’s aging out of ingenue
we have to find a better looking model
To capture the demographic!
The feedback from the focus group:
No-one likes to wear the 3D goggles
We're losing definition!
Herded by the billboard graphic
Aimless sheep return to urban sprawl…
Exit from the freeway traffic
Headlights nail graffiti to the wall…
...but I am the dragon.
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11. |
Interlude II
03:29
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(instrumental)
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12. |
Future Imperfect
05:08
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We live in a world of inequity
Where some die of hunger, and some learn to fly
We welcome tomorrow, and look to a future
Safe and secure, in cities that reach for the sky
Well it's tense in the present, and the future's imperfect
Our vision obscured by the stars in our eyes.
We entered the Race, advanced with technology
Listening to voices of reason, telling us why
We live in the 21st Century,
and sometimes I feel that we shouldn't have tried
Every day we get to live with our legacy
Reflecting in windows of buildings and blinding our eyes
Mixing the media, and framing the news
the picture they're painting says everything's fine
but look through the cracks, to the fault of society
the closer you look the more puppets on strings you will find
Wake up from the dream, and it's back to reality
The state wants to know if we wish to complain?
They've got our description, and left us with memories
of spies in our bedroom, pulling at springs in our brains
It's tense in the present The future's imperfect
Our vision obscured by the stars in our eyes
We stay in the race, enslaved in technology
Silencing voices of reason, questioning why?
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13. |
Epilogue
03:33
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(instrumental)
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The Prodigal Sounds Novato, California
Melodic progressive rock songs and instrumentals, 70's influence but a product of the dystopian
Now.
"Very smooth, hi-tech sounding delivery..." - Chris Jemmett, alt.music.yes
"..on a rare occasion you just have to conclude that the prog world should be feasting upon the birth of a new and promising act. That's exactly the case with this album."
- Theo Verstrael, DPRP.net
... more
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