1. |
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He’s got a 14 foot scarf, Knows how to ride a giraffe, Hear his maniacal laughter
He knows the things, which are true, Adjusts your angle of view, Under judicial review
He’s looking above, he’s looking around.
My advice to you, keep your head down
And if you can, get deep underground
He’s the man with many faces, commander of disguise
He’ll set fire to the traces as he births a nest of lies
He’s not a man you can fool, He went to graduate school, Known as the prince of misrule
He knows no fear and no pain, Enormous knowledge domain, It takes too long to explain
If you strike him down with all your hate
He comes right back up still looking great
And if you can see him it’s already too late
He’s the man with many faces, the captain of disguise
He’ll hit the detonator as he looks into your eyes
He travels through space and time, Using the power of his mind, Defending all humankind
He travels through time and space, Frequently changing his face, Exterminating our race
He’s the man with many faces, each one has a different hat
He’ll put you in your place ‘cause only he knows where it’s at
The man with many faces, one of them's a girl
Stand back as he transitions whilst he saves another world
All we wanted was a place that we could call our own
But everywhere we go is infested with life
Tried to exterminate the vermin that was here before us
He tries to stop us, but he won’t take us alive
(keep your helmets on, children)
Keep your helmets on
(keep your helmets on, children)
Yes they’ll keep you safe from his eyes
(keep your helmets on, children)
No matter what he says don’t take them off
(keep your helmets on, children)
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2. |
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We will pay four dollars for one hour of your time.
It’s a scientific study of memory and learning.
Are you aged between 21 and 52?
Just fill out the form, we’ll send the information through.
The men sat down in a room one at a time.
They asked the questions and wait for the reply.
Just press the button every time the answer’s wrong.
Increase the voltage each time you move along.
How far will you go if you’re not culpable?
How far can you be pushed? You’re not responsible.
How far will you go? You’re not accountable.
How long will you go on?
Will they stop? Will they painfully refuse?
Or will they shock? Pressing on against their will.
They hear the screams and the banging on the wall.
But they are assured no long term harm is caused at all.
Their obedience tested to the limit now.
And submission to a higher authority.
“Just following orders”, the cry is ages old.
Are they to blame, simply doing what they’re told?
Please continue
The experiment requires that you continue
It is absolutely essential that you continue
You have no other choice. You must go on.
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3. |
Princess Strange (live)
06:01
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Do you remember that time on the internet
when that guy said that thing about your face
and everybody lolled and thought that it was really cool?
He said that you were Princess Strange
Somewhere down the line it became your name
and everybody called you it next day in school
You’ve always been such a freak
Not gonna lie, your personality is weak
and that’s why it was right for us to call you out
We were only trying to be kind
when we told you you had to get a life
There’s nothing that you need to get upset about
It was just a joke. It was all okay
She knew we didn’t mean it anyway
I see you standing all alone
in your socially unacceptable clothes
and when I smiled you flew into a comic rage
But Princess what you didn’t know
is I used my phone to make a video
and it’s uploading now to your hatebook page
Vitriol bile and spite pounded into the keyboard
All the sleepless nights and the tears it caused
she couldn’t bring herself to go to school.
She knew we didn’t mean it
It was just some fun, what have we done
didn’t she know that we didn’t mean it anyway?
She took it all to heart, it’s torn her apart
I thought she knew that we didn’t mean it anyway
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4. |
Strandbeest (live)
12:23
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Strandbeest
Occupied in creating new forms of life from plastic tubing
(all mechanical)
Blurring the boundaries in our minds between art and engineering
(biological)
They’re born, they grow, they age, they die.
Through time evolve, weathered and changed
Captivating, mesmerising, walking on the wind.
Skeletons creeping on the sand inexorably self-propelling
(scatological)
Storing air in their reservoirs, pressure pumping piston muscles
(respirational)
Stomachs and wings and legs and brains,
rotating spine, they move in herds.
Animaris adulari
Animaris daubis caudis
Animaris percipiere
Animaris rhinoceros lignatus
Striving to equip his creatures with artificial understanding
(intellectual)
They adapt to environments, and respond to their surroundings
(habitational)
Live their own lives, they self preserve
Surviving storms, they anchor down.
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5. |
Stand Up (live)
08:17
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So why do you wait
Until the darkness comes up to your door
For it to bother you?
And when do you learn
The world is dark and those who bear the light
Will pay for being true?
They're telling you
Be a big tall boy
Go and make some noise
Don't you wish sometimes we were less like gentle men
Knew how to give the world a hand
There must be a way to stand up!
The young and the old
Lives got cut off all the time while life
For you it was too good to understand
It was under your nose
Through the years while you were having fun
Thinking about your favourite bands
Tell me
What were you supposed to
Either say or do?
Don't you wish sometimes God would stop being a gentleman
Step in, give us all a hand
And show us a way to stand up!
Is there a way to stand up?
Now you say we need to look out for our own
Your white van men must be enthralled
And you can print whatever justifies
(Your pocket)
You don't abuse that freedom much at all
So we all went along with this
They were criminal chance scoundrels spoiling for a war
I must admit I was afraid
Watching daily every hour
But we failed to read the truth
And it's only getting sourer
Still I guess that we can live
In a world of so much pain
As long as we are in the warm
As long as we can stay protected from the rain
We never want for anything if want
Is something
We'd have to cross the ocean for
To kick our kids above the waterline
Witness
All their potential washed ashore
We walked by on the other side
No we just couldn't wait to get our heads back in the sand
But we've progressed to 'refugee'
From the previous 'migrant swarm'
Now that innocence is lost
And enough tears shed for a tropic storm
I guess that we can live
In a world of so much pain
As long as we can still be dry
As long as we're allowed to stay out of the rain
God forgive us every one
For all we haven't done
There's just no way that I can turn it into poetry or song
It's too tragic and I won't even try
I have to say it to myself as well as you
'Cause to look in the mirror these days is frankly all that I can do
Stand up like big tall boys
But it won't be with guns that we make our noise
Stand up like all men must do
But it won't be a sword that pushes us through
There's a sacrifice to make and songs that must be sung
We'll build a world for everyone if we stand up
Stand up, do it with your prayer
Set your fears aside
Cast away your care
(The world is crying for you)
Stand up with the love that you've found
Let compassion reign strong, spread that good stuff around
(The world is crying for you)
There's a planet out there where goodwill is crumbling down
You know our only option now is to stand up
There's a truth that must be told - the one true war was won
We'll build a world for everyone if we stand up
And our only option now is to
stand up
stand up
stand up!!!
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6. |
Pages (live)
08:57
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Ancient parchment, hand-written word
Crumbling edges, handle with care
The ink is faded, the vellum’s long dry
A journey of words taking us back in time
Waiting and lasting hoping the years will be kind
Educated scholars share what they’ve learned
With care and patience they copy the scriptures
All you can hear once the ink pots are filled
is the quiet scraping and scratching of quills
He learned from the master of playing cards
Then the idea came like a ray of light
A revolution in printed word
An idea that changed the world
The spread of ideals the spread of ideas
And idea that changed the world. Did he mean to change the world?
Heaving wooden machine, lowered and raised
He’s setting the type, to coin a phrase
Quires, reams and bales devoured and changed
into three-thousand, six-hundred pages a day
Then clattering keys, the noise and speed
As the ribbons fly the letters seem to breed
The carriage returns, coming back for more
Then charges again, an unstoppable force
The power of words, the power of knowledge and dissemination
Bibles and books, newspapers posters
As libraries grow, mass education for the illiterate masses
A revolution in printed word
So now we gorge ourselves on letters on bright-lit screen
And blog them out again for our like-minded friends to read
Re-use, recycle, all disposable
I’ve a machine in my hand a thousand times faster than the bombe that broke enigma’s code
I could use it to read every book ever written
But I use it to look at pictures of kittens and play mind-numbing, sweet-crushing games
A revolution in printed word
An idea that changed the world
The spread of ideals the spread of ideas
An idea that changed the world. Did he mean to change the world?
An idea that could forever change the world
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7. |
The Lifeboatmen (live)
10:35
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Fisherman for life, working the coast with pots and ropes.
Fishing for crabs, hiring out deckchairs to holiday makers.
But when the call comes, even in the gloom of the night,
Like a real life adventure hero.
Into oilskins and sou'westers, rubber boots pulled up high, down to the shore line
Dragging the launch across the sand
Into the dark, the strength of the oarsmen against the pull of wind and tide
“Hold the lantern high”
They brave waves higher than houses to save lives.
Higher than houses.
Volunteers ready to face anything that the sea can throw at them.
Determination, judgement, sweating mariners stretched to the limit.
As they pull, heave, into the sea
Pull together. Pull together.
Come on boys, pull together. Let’s pull together.
Not for glory not for fame.
Not for remuneration.
True noblemen, self sacrificing.
Risking their lives, time upon time.
October 1941, English Trader has run aground on Hammond Knoll, 1.30 AM
Can you hear the grinding, crunching, shaking? Wind approaching gale force.
Forty foot waves crash across the deck.
Lifeboat H.F. Bailey sets out from Cromer, repelled by wind and tide.
They try again and again.
They brave waves higher than houses to save lives
Higher than houses
Volunteers ready to face anything that the sea can throw at them
Not for glory not for fame.
Not for remuneration.
True noblemen, self sacrificing.
Risking their lives, time upon time.
The lifeboat men worked their way to the craft
Worked for hours through the dawn to bring survivors to land
Forty men and a dog owe their lives to this crewe
Survivors pulled through
They brave waves higher than houses to save lives
Higher than houses
Volunteers ready to face anything that the sea can throw at them
Fisherman for life, working the coast with pots and ropes.
Fishing for crabs, hiring out deckchairs to holiday makers.
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8. |
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Move in straight lines taking time
Seek simplicity for my life
Shut out extraneous noise and light
Surround yourself with perfect love
Why not take off your tin-foil helmet
You don’t need to shut out community
Will you stand with us in unity?
Fall into this perfect love
Come oppose the separatists for we are one.
Oppose the isolationists for we are one
And even if we’re standing in the dark right now
We’re looking to the light
Living for the light
Clinging to the light
Bringing you the light
Looking to the light
Living for the light
Clinging to the light
Bringing you the light of perfect love
Choose joy, choose love, choose life in all its fullness
We have hope nothing’s impossible
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9. |
Open Your Eyes (live)
06:42
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She’s standing stern on the hilltop, looking down at her shoes
The vast vista before her, summer sunlight, sensational sight
She won’t look!
On the cliff above the harbour, offshore breeze in his hair
White peaked waves creep up the sand
awash with moonlight, a beautiful night
He’s facing inland
Facing inland!
Open your eyes, this is the view, it was put here for you, so open your eyes.
Brink of the Grand Canyon, red precipice falls away to the right
Ineffable natural beauty looking through a 4-inch screen
Add a 70s retro filter
They stand on the rooftop with the sun going down
The cityscape in silhouette, so deep so dark so iridescent
They won’t look
Why won’t they look?
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I Am The Manic Whale Reading, UK
We are a progressive rock band from Reading & London, UK. 3rd album out now.
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