Spirit Of Radio

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

[Chorus:]
Invisible airwaves crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle with the energy
Emotional feedback on 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….
Yeah! your honesty
One likes to believe in the freedom of music
But glittering prizes
And endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity

[Chorus]

For the words of the prophets were written on the studio wall
Concert hall
And echoes with the sounds of salesmen

Lyrics; Neil Peart
Music; Rush
From the album
“Permanent Waves”

The first Rush song I ever heard and I loved it straight away, from there I discovered a band that made fantastic music, coupled with excellent intelligent lyrics.
And for me both those elements are what makes great music. Music that you feel and lyrics that make you think.

Most people are content to accept the music/artists that appear on mainstream. Go looking, there’s a wealth of imaginative original work out there.

“Popularity is the hallmark of mediocrity” (Oscar Wilde)

This Could Be Anywhere/Everywhere

This Could Be Anywhere/Everywhere 

Cold concrete apartments
Rise up from wet black asphalt
Below them a few carcasses
Of the long gone age of privacy
It takes a scary kind of illness
To design a place like this for pay
Downtown’s an endless generic mall
Of video games and fast food chains
One by one
The little houses are bricked up and condemned
A subtle hint to move
Before the rats move in

This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere

Those new kids at school seem cool
But dad says not to talk to them
Stick to your old friends
They’re not our kind
So now there’s lots of fights
So many people I know
Come of age tense and bitter-eyed
Can’t create so they just destroy
C’mon! Let’s set someone’s dog on fire
Empty plastic
Culture slum
Suburbia’s a war zone now
Sprouting the kinds of gangs
We thought we’d left behind

This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere

Kids at school are taking sides
Along color and uniform lines
My dad’s gone and bought a gun
He says he’s fed up
With crime in this town

This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere
This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere
Anywhere Everywhere
I hope I’m gone before it explodes

I linger late at night
Waiting for the bus
No amount of neon jazz
Could hide the oozing vibes of death
My dad’s a vigilante now
He’s bringing home these weird-ass friends
Like the guy who fires blanks at his TV
When Kojak’s on
Or the guy who shows off his submachine gun
To his sixteen-year-old daughter’s friends
Whose sense of pride and hope
Is being in the police reserve

This could be anywhere

This could be everywhere-Everywhere

Lyrics Jello Biafra
Music Dead Kennedys

Black And White

Silence – is no reaction
“Violence” – that one-word caption
Can you say it with just one word?
Unspoken – the sins that go unheard

[Chorus:]
Government… bullshit
Black and white… fight

Look though this broken window
From normality into the ghetto
Broken through madness, hate, and boredom
U.K. – a disunited kingdom

[Chorus]
Government… bullshit
Black and white… fight

Enquiries, but no solutions
Faceless, empty illusions
Reasons are always pushed aside
Remember the day the country died
Remember the day the country died

Lyrics; Dick Lucas
Music; Subhumans (UK)
From the album; The Day The Country Died.

Spirit Of Radio

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

[Chorus:]
Invisible airwaves crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle with the energy
Emotional feedback on 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….
Yeah! your honesty
One likes to believe in the freedom of music
But glittering prizes
And endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity

[Chorus]

For the words of the prophets were written on the studio wall
Concert hall
And echoes with the sounds of salesmen

Lyrics; Neil Peart
Music; Rush
From the album
“Permanent Waves”

The first Rush song I ever heard and I loved it straight away, from there I discovered a band that made fantastic music, coupled with excellent intelligent lyrics.
And for me both those elements are what makes great music. Music that you feel and lyrics that make you think.

Most people are content to accept the music/artists that appear on mainstream. Go looking, there’s a wealth of imaginative original work out there.

“Popularity is the hallmark of mediocrity” (Oscar Wilde)

Natural Science

[1. 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 of 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

[2. 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

[3. 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…

Lyrics: Neil Peart
Music: Rush
From the album:
Permanent Waves

Scarecrow

Scarecrow
I’ve got the ragged clothes
And the matted down hair
And the cold dark eyes
To provide that icy stare
Some day’s I’m so weak
I feel I’m made of straw
But, unlike a real scarecrow
I do have a heart

I’m feeling like a scarecrow and the people are the crows
I’ve got to look like a menace
So that they don’t come too close
But there’s one thing that these crows can’t see
Sometimes I’m just as afraid of them as they are of me 

Everyday these crows rip at me
But I don’t budge
I’ve become so used to them
To their actions
I am numb
Oh, but some days ignorance is oh, so hard

Lyrics & Music SNFU

SNaFU (Acronym)
American Military Radio-Speak from Vietnam war stands for;
Situation Normal all F***ked Up

This Could Be Anywhere/Everywhere

This Could Be Anywhere/Everywhere 

Cold concrete apartments
Rise up from wet black asphalt
Below them a few carcasses
Of the long gone age of privacy
It takes a scary kind of illness
To design a place like this for pay
Downtown’s an endless generic mall
Of video games and fast food chains
One by one
The little houses are bricked up and condemned
A subtle hint to move
Before the rats move in

This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere

Those new kids at school seem cool
But dad says not to talk to them
Stick to your old friends
They’re not our kind
So now there’s lots of fights
So many people I know
Come of age tense and bitter-eyed
Can’t create so they just destroy
C’mon! Let’s set someone’s dog on fire
Empty plastic
Culture slum
Suburbia’s a war zone now
Sprouting the kinds of gangs
We thought we’d left behind

This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere

Kids at school are taking sides
Along color and uniform lines
My dad’s gone and bought a gun
He says he’s fed up
With crime in this town

This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere
This could be anywhere
This could be everywhere
Anywhere Everywhere
I hope I’m gone before it explodes

I linger late at night
Waiting for the bus
No amount of neon jazz
Could hide the oozing vibes of death
My dad’s a vigilante now
He’s bringing home these weird-ass friends
Like the guy who fires blanks at his TV
When Kojak’s on
Or the guy who shows off his submachine gun
To his sixteen-year-old daughter’s friends
Whose sense of pride and hope
Is being in the police reserve

This could be anywhere

This could be everywhere-Everywhere

Lyrics Jello Biafra
Music Dead Kennedys