1. |
Open Your Eyes
06:37
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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?
Open your eyes, this is the view, it was put here for you, so open your eyes.
Why won’t you open your eyes? This is the view put here for you.
Why won’t you open your mind? This is the truth, written for you.
Why won’t you open your eyes? Put down your phone. You’re not alone.
Why won’t you open your mind? Come on inside. The blind lead the blind.
Open your eyes, this is the view, it was put here for you, so open your eyes.
Why won’t you open your eyes? This is the view, put here for you.
Open your mind, this is the truth, it was written for you, so open your eyes.
Why won’t you open your mind? This is the truth, written for you.
So open your eyes
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2. |
Pages
09:04
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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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3. |
Princess Strange
05:05
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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. |
Circles (Show Love)
16:28
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Open it up and look inside (now make your examination)
Write your report, don’t leave out a single thing
Is it what you expected, is it real (does it meet your expectation?)
Are your preconceptions justified by what you see?
When you strip away the propaganda (is the message clear?)
Or is it screaming so loud that you can’t hear?
In a better world, in another time (can you hear celestial singers?)
This utopian dream can be fully realised
There’s no pointing of fingers, no passing the blame (there’s no point in pointing fingers)
Could we stand up and take the responsibility?
I’ve got to (I’ve got to) x2
We’ve got to (We’ve got to) x2
Show love, love, love to everyone in creation
Love, love, let go of fear and start to build relationship with you
(I’ve got to break down barriers between you and me)
They’ve told you I hate you, it isn’t so (can’t explain the disconnection)
But it’s a cynical world, who’d love for me to get it wrong
Can we fight this perception, let the truth shine through? (we oppose this misconception)
This misrepresentation may sell newspapers galore but won’t spread love
love, love to everyone in creation
Love, love, let go of fear and start to build relationship with you
(I’ve got to break down barriers between you and me)
I’ve got aching eyes as I read the headlines
I’m not sure why I still so surprised
That’s not what he said, he’s quoted out of context
Inflammatory remarks have made this like a contest
Going round in circles is totally unhelpful
Going round in circles is totally unhelpful
Turn this around, turn this around
There’s only one way we can turn this around
Take a guy with a radical extreme view
Raise him up high and put him on a pedestal
Give him a platform from which to share his wisdom
It’s not representative but it’s good television
Going round in circles is totally unhelpful
Going round in circles is totally unhelpful
Turn this around, turn this around
There’s only one way we can turn this around
Turn this around, turn this around
There’s only one way we can turn this around
(Turn this all around my friend, please turn this all around)
Everyday we see another one
We never know when the blow is going to come
Can I get a tee-shirt that says he’s not with me?
I still love my brother, I just disagree.
Viewing, reading, hearing, disseminating like a virus it spreads
recording, sharing, linking downloading, it’s everywhere, constantly fed
Picture, paper, bill hoarding, screen
Speaker, tablet, smart phone, magazine
Viewing, reading, hearing, disseminating like a virus it spreads
recording, sharing, linking downloading, it’s everywhere, constantly fed
Picture, paper, bill hoarding, screen
Turn this around, turn this around
There’s only one way we can turn this around
Turn this around, turn this around
There’s only one way we can turn this around
Show love, love, love to everyone in creation
Love, love, let go of fear and start to build relationship with you
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5. |
Clock Of The Long Now
09:16
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Ten thousand years
Marking out time
What will it see?
As the years tick away?
A pulse is beating deep in the heart of a mountain, measuring five kinds of time
(10,000 years from now and you’re still here, you will outlast us all)
Each time it chimes it plays a different melody, how many tunes/songs does it know?
(10,000 years from now and you will never once repeat yourself)
10,000 years (10,000 years)
Marking out time (as the years go by)
What will it see? (10,000 years)
as the years and the decades tick by
Mechanical multi-millennial monument, hundreds of feet through the earth
(500 foot tall architectural subterranean edifice)
Pendulum, solar-synchronisation, making dynamical time
(eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds charted every day)
10,000 years (10,000 years)
Marking out time (as the years go by)
What will it see (10,000 years)
as the decades and centuries tick by
I can’t imagine the future, but I know I’m part of a story
Are we being good ancestors?
Titanium pendulum
Shielded by quartz class
Sapphire cupola
High molybdenum
Stainless steel mechanism
Ceramic ball-bearings
10,000 years (10,000 years)
Marking out time (as the years go by)
What will it see? (10,000 years)
as the years tick away
as the decades and centuries tick by
as the years and the decades and centuries and millennia tick by
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6. |
The Mess
06:12
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Small hand holding mine
Small eyes looking up at me
I see so much trust; I hope I deserve it
I didn’t have to earn it
Small nose is crusty again
Our carpet is covered in pen
I see your creations on the fridge and the wall
And I love them all, every one, every one
Don’t clear up the mess just yet
It still feels like we’ve just met
Right now I can say you’re mine
But I know one day I’ll have to let you go
There’s stickers in my pajamas
There’s coco pocks (sic) inside my bed
Swinging on the cupboard door ‘till it breaks off
Always learning, every day, every day
There’s pieces and bits on the chair and the floor
And this wooden railway has been here before
The dolls are all catching the train to the see
While the mouse café’s serving hot cups of tea
Bear and giraffe are still sat in their den
We have to be quiet as they’re sleeping again
Now let’s read a story with Kanga and Roo
If I ask you nicely can I play too?
Don’t grow up too soon, too fast
Let your childhood linger, last
For right now I can say you’re mine
But I pray every day you’ll find someone who loves you as much as I do
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7. |
Derelict
21:28
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Part 1 - Intrusion - (Et frangentes circa domos intrans)
Danger, do not enter, he takes a picture and clambers past
Rusty staircase holding tight to the hand-rail
Prises ajar the fire escape
Into the gloaming, rodents scuttle by unseen
Grey concrete corridor with some trepidation
The sound of water draws him deeper inside
Broken and gone, still holding on
But where’s the beauty that he came in here to find?
Bright colours faded, 30 years of neglect
Dust motes dancing in the shafts from high windows
Footfalls echo through the vast empty space
Urban explorer, camera in hand
enjoys the melancholy reminiscence
For a place he never knew
Those halcyon days left decades behind
calls from the past echo through the silence
He’s not chasing a thrill as much as a feeling
Broken and gone, still holding on
Somehow more beautiful than when it was alive
Broken and gone, still holding on
Somehow more beautiful than when it was alive
Broken and gone, still holding on
Somehow more beautiful than when it was alive
Broken and gone, still holding on
Part 2 - The Way We Were
Child of the 50s, indoor heated swimming pool
With green plastic foliage hanging from the roof
square viewing portals under the deep end
the view from the windows across the bay, the families came
“our true intent, for your delight”
But now you’re broken beyond repair
So long abandoned; must feel like no one cares
You’ve lost your hope, you’ve lost your friends
Now echoes of summers and children’s squeals
fill your memories, haunt your dreams
So passed the years of quiet neglect
Chains and padlocks your only friend today
Reborn in the 80s into the super-splash fun pool
curved edges and rapids and water jets
Glass-fibre formation of rocks round the jacuzzi
Your flume tower could be seen from five miles away in your heyday
Those spiralling tubes, red gold and blue
Seems like you’re broken beyond repair
so long abandoned, it must feel like no one cares
You’ve lost your hope, you’ve lost your friends
After a while the cracks showed through
There’s not much more that they could do
They closed your doors for the final time
Chains and padlocks your only friend today
(If you could peel away the new tiles and curved edges the original pool is still there underneath)
Part 3 - Reflections
Still full, green water, broken chairs and tables stare up from the oily depths
Algae, graffiti, an authentic testimonial to a bygone age
This building’s condemned because it’s an eyesore
but when I look inside that’s not what I saw
It’s beauty overwhelming, remnant of a grand design
A strange sense of excitement as I walked inside.
Footfalls drifting, cracked tiles shifting
Rafters rusting, foliage dangling
Windows smashed in, debris settling
paintwork peeling, dust motes dancing
Aquatic recreation; a monument in time
A strange sense of enlightenment as I walked inside.
Part 4 - The Best Is Yet To Come
You can’t be broken beyond repair (it’s never too late)
You can’t be broken beyond repair (why don’t you open your eyes)
You can’t be broken beyond repair (i know you didn’t mean it)
You can’t be broken beyond repair (love to everyone in creation)
You can’t be broken beyond repair (it’s never too late)
You made some bad choices but don’t despair
It’s never too late to start again (why don’t you open your eyes)
When we’ve been here 10,000 years bright shining as the sun
We’ve no fewer days to turn the page and be amazed than when we first began
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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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