| LYRICS
"THE SPIRIT OF
RADIO"
Words by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
Inspired by 'The Spirit of Radio' in Toronto, alive and well (so far).
Begin the day
With a friendly voice
A companion, unobtrusive
Plays that song that's so elusive
And the magic music makes your morning mood
Off on your way
Hit the open road
There is magic at your fingers
For the Spirit ever lingers
Undemanding contact
In your happy solitude
Invisible airwaves Crackle with life Bright antennae bristle With
the energy Emotional feedback On a timeless wavelength Bearing a gift
beyond price --- Almost free...
All this machinery
Making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted
It's really just a question
Of your honesty
One likes to believe
In the freedom of music
But glittering prizes
And endless compromises
Shatter the illusion
Of integrity
"For the words of the profits Are written on the studio wall,
Concert hall --- Echoes with the sounds... Of salesmen."
"FREEWILL"
Words by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
There are those who think that life
Has nothing left to chance
With a host of holy horrors
To direct our aimless dance
A planet of playthings
We dance on the strings
Of powers we cannot perceive
"The stars aren't aligned ---
Or the gods are malign"
Blame is better to give than receive
You can choose a ready guide In some celestial voice If you choose
not to decide You still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears And kindness that can kill I will
choose a path that's clear I will choose free will
There are those who think that They've been dealt a losing hand
The cards were stacked against them ---
They weren't born in Lotus-Land
All preordained
A prisoner in chains
A victim of venomous fate
Kicked in the face
You can't pray for a place
In heaven's unearthly estate
Each of us A cell of awareness Imperfect and incomplete Genetic blends
With uncertain ends On a fortune hunt That's far too fleet...
"JACOB'S
LADDER"
Words by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
The clouds prepare for battle
In the dark and brooding silence
Bruised and sullen stormclouds
Have the light of day obscured
Looming low and ominous
In twilight premature
Thunderheads are rumbling
In a distant overture
All at once,
The clouds are parted
Light streams down
In bright unbroken beams
Follow men's eyes
As they look to the skies
The shifting shafts of shining
Weave the fabric of their dreams...
"ENTRE NOUS"
Words by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
We are secrets to each other
Each one's life a novel
No-one else has read
Even joined in bonds of love
We're linked to one another
By such slender threads
We are planets to each other
Drifting in our orbits
To a brief eclipse
Each of us a world apart
Alone and yet together
Like two passing ships
Just between us I think it's time for us to recognize The differences
we sometimes feared to show Just between us I think it's time for
us to realize The spaces in between Leave room For you and I to grow
We are strangers to each other
Full of sliding panels
An illusion show
Acting well-rehearsed routines
Or playing from the heart?
It's hard for one to know
We are islands to each other
Building hopeful bridges
On the troubled sea
Some are burned or swept away
Some we would not choose
But we're not always free
"DIFFERENT
STRINGS"
Words by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
Who's come to slay the dragon ---
Come to watch him fall?
Making arrows out of pointed words
Giant killers, at the call
Too much fuss and bother
Too much contradiction
And confusion
Peel away the mystery
Here's a clue to some real motivation
All there really is The two of us And we both know why we've come
along Nothing to explain It's a part of us To be found within a song
What happened to our innocence ---
Did it go out of style?
Along with our näiveté ---
No longer a child
Different eyes see different things
Different hearts
Beat on different strings
But there are times
For you and me
When all such things agree
"NATURAL
SCIENCE"
Words by Neil Peart, Music by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
I. Tide Pools
When the ebbing tide retreats
Along the rocky shoreline
It leaves a trail of tidal pools
In a short-lived galaxy
Each microcosmic planet
A complete society
A simple kind mirror
To reflect upon our own
All the busy little creatures
Chasing out their destinies
Living in their pools
They soon forget about the sea...
Wheels within wheels In a spiral array A pattern so grand And complex
Time after time We lose sight of the way Our causes can't see Their
effects
II. Hyperspace
A quantum leap forward
In time and in space
The universe learned to expand
The mess and the magic
Triumphant and tragic
A mechanized world, out of hand
Computerized clinic
For superior cynics
Who dance to a synthetic band
In their own image
Their world is fashioned ---
No wonder they don't understand
Wheels within wheels In a spiral array A pattern so grand And complex
Time after time We lose sight of the way Our causes can't see Their
effects
III. Permanent Waves
Science, like Nature
Must also be tamed
With a view towards its preservation
Given the same
State of integrity
It will surely serve us well
Art as expression ---
Not as market campaigns
Will still capture our imaginations
Given the same
State of integrity
It will surely help us along
The most endangered species ---
The honest man
Will still survive annihilation
Forming a world ---
State of integrity
Sensitive, open, and strong
Wave after wave Will flow with the tide And bury the world as it
does Tide after tide Will flow and recede Leaving life to go on As
it was...
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