1. |
The Ceiling Speaks
06:31
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I am the ceiling, you are the floor above me rising into real
I am deceiving, you are the honesty I pray that I could feel
I am confusion, you are the thought that heals clarity of vision
I am delusions, you are the target struck a shot of pure precision
And how I love you
Some may say it’s all unreal, that’s not the way I feel
My heartbeat dance and play, nothing more to say…
How well you know me, how much you show me
As you lead me to my goal
Ferryman row me across deep waters to the calm side of my soul
Where we can beachcomb
(Chorus)
Trace the feeling back to source
Adopt a different kind of course
The change of heart, another place to start
Secret steps are in your dance, the offer of a second chance
The site renewed, a clearer point of view
No longer need a careful plan, no longer be the also ran
I laid my life down and I picked it up again
Freedom! Along the way
I sing celebration I sing for the new day
Freedom! Now I know
So long as we’re together, there’s nowhere that we cannot go
I called your name, no words remained … enter!
I am delivered, I am a baby born into your sacred peace
I was a prisoner
You were the key that opened locks for my release
And Christ I love you
(Chorus)
Nothing more to say…
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2. |
Kings & Queens
05:13
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So the stage is set
Dumb pierrots and marionettes
Swing from strings on high, time goes by
To under-guided laws
Cacophonous troubadors
Sing their lullabies, harmonise
Kings and queens set the scenes
Strike the bell, carousel
Suffer the socialites
Secure within complacent heights
Rehearse tainted lines, and rhymes
Kings and Queens set the scenes
Strike the bell, carousel
Kings and queens, wise and green
And the world turns
Years are worn
It goes on, on
Kings and queens, wise and green
And the world turns, turn!
So review the play
Decide which role you play
The final curtain calls
As it falls
So the kings and queens set the scenes
Strike the bell, carousel
Kings and queens, wise and green
And the world turns
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3. |
We Are Sane
10:50
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i) Te Dium
In upstairs rooms the meals are eaten
The cars in the garage ready to go-go
Disco baby shed no tear hot light overhead shaking meat meet
Ho ho weekend, ha ha party, moo moo sacred cow
The White House some days on the lawn
Well kept pedigree snap over bones
Surplus requirements appetite angel going down
ii) We Are Sane
Meanwhile below reports flop into the in-trays, in-trays
Meanwhile below reports flop into the in-trays
She stares out of her window, her will is still in bed
She has no memory of herself for care has drained her head
The poster on the billboard says she should paint her lips
Like the smiles on the TV people
Would you file this please Mary?
Would you file this please Mary?
File # 1 “If the thought processes of an individual can be permanently limited to the point of strict conformity to an outside source of thought, the said individual need no longer be considered as such. The enforcement of order becomes possible for anybody with enough power to control what is projected.
See? It’s all quite simple…“
“Mary!”
This woman’s place is in a home, society has judged
She does not fit official standards and they cannot be budged
There’s something in her eyes that says
The struggle’s gone too deep
And there’s no comfort in the thought of
Watching acolytes of doubt try hard to fight their problems out
Excess profit has the clout to spread the message
We are sane! Not insane!
She reads about a will to power in papers full of lies
She hears that every time she breathes
Some foreign kiddy dies
She’s convinced it’s her fault, she’s tortured by the strain
As words of judgement pour out of the
Mouths of those who make their mark
By keeping people in the dark
Those who bite worse than they bark are loudly shouting
We are sane! Not insane!
And the chorus says – “It’s all quite normal…”
And the chorus says – “It’s all quite normal…”
The choruses…
Are happy as they know no different way
Except what they’ve been told today
Accepting their limited ‘truth’ and blankly humming
We are sane!
But we are not to blame, we must protect the claim
iii) Dictator’s Excuse Me
Praise those who hold power, they shall save the last hour
Using sacred science they can stamp out defiance
File # 2.”Technician, we want you to build a component
For each of our workers, to be with them always,
At all time watch closely, so we can keep track of
Their actions, their interests, their morals, their time out.
Some musak to maim them, some fear to contain them.
Policy will judge them, brute forces degrade them.
Practical behaviour, the cleanser, the saviour.
A private vocation has no sense of nation.
The maintenance of power can be so fulfilling,
Just as long as all the slaves are willing.
So this is an order, we must curb thought disorder
With a miniature transmitter, we can Pavlov the litter
And train it to do what we tell it, state surgeon, the seed plant
Thought soon get a new slant.
So tiny a dogma, idea turn to quagmire,
Thrum-humming transistor, a brain-wave insistor,
Closed circuit hypnosis, an inbuilt psychosis,
Not one self expression, deliberate supression.
A cycle to squeeze out, anyone who we doubt
Will must be pliable to be reliable“
Tuned into the media system, picture getting hard to see
How did you end up as a prisoner
When you were supposed to be free?
Oh, wouldn’t you like to know?
Lebensraum for megalomania
Endless song with one refrain
All eyes fixed upon the conductor
Baton taps inside the brain…
At least
We are sane!
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4. |
Last Song
04:00
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The tighter the turn, the harder the means of escape
The deeper the nail, the stronger the coffin we make
You're free – glory!
Hope you will find silence
The biggest attraction, the hardest the habit to break
The sharper the needle, the lesser the mark that we make
In my heart is something more precious than gold
You know something?
I love you –
Take it all
Young hearts in pain
Look to the rain –
So lonely
Nothing to say
Cloudy and grey
The louder the brave, the darker the secrets they fear
The weaker the mind, the stronger the voice will appear
Oh you'll get over glory
Song of joy today is gold –
All this time what have we solved
Circle on circle of…
Young hearts in pain
Look to the rain –
So lonely
Nothing to say
Cloudy and grey
Sleep tight
Tired of learning –
How are you?
Sleep tight
Tired of learning –
How are you?
There may be times I dream away
Young hearts in pain
Look to the rain –
So lonely
Nothing to say
Cloudy and grey –
So lonely
Young hearts in pain
Who's going to take your nightmares away?
They're going to take you for one last song
So lonely –
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5. |
Fur Helene
04:29
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6. |
First New Day
09:14
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how can we fight the diseases of the poor
when colour of a nation is reasoning for war
men force your surrender, then ask you to believe
with the lives of many millions embroidered of their sleeves
is this reason – a price to pay?
give us reason – a first new day
acid emotion – child of suicide
bewilderment and hunger are hurting you inside
while hopes find protection in the sanctuary of life
another voice is silenced in the quiet of the night
is this reason – a price to pay?
give us reason – a first new day
all breathe together, suffocate the fear
let each of us in comfort share the pain, the tears, the years
don’t let their hate be the dowry of a youth
too humble for importance
too honest for the truth
is this reason – a price to pay?
give us reason – a first new day
give us reason – a first new day
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7. |
The Craft
05:07
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Crystal breath on infant lips
Clear eyes see worlds that don't exist
Sparkle 'why?', and curiosity
Watch the child become a man
Who will live again, inside you
One day he will live again
The craft, the craft
Teachers’ word, cane and command
Remove these clouds and head from sand
Shattered dreams, alone and cold,
Cling to a warmer source of release and vow
"I will live again inside you. One day I will live again"
The craft, the craft
Old men die but to be young
The rest is yet to be sung
They will live again, inside you
One day they will live again
One day they will live again
– We will live again
– I will live again
– I will live again
One day –
One day –
One day I will live again
The craft, the craft –
Inside you
Inside you
To live again inside of you
To live again inside of you
To live again inside of you
Of you
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8. |
Take A Look
10:46
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synthesised, programmed and synchronised
detailed, computerised – no room for error
specified, labelled and classified
free mind has ‘paralysed imagination’
educate, break down and formulate
dictate, don’t speculate – don’t be a failure
parasite, know, sense, think, read and write
translating black and white, hungry for logic
stand fast
take a look at yourself
in a moment realise
we are thinking today
take a look, take a look
take control of yourself
for a moment realise
we are thinking today
today, today, take a look
docters of the silicon
enslaved by self-design
dependant on the life-blood
and body of their sun
each cry for understanding
begins and ends at the grave
from cradle to grave
null and void emotion
break free of this system
opening eyes finding release
each breath of inspiration
begins and ends at the grave
from cradle to grave
I’ll find a key to lock the door
I won’t let on that I’m afriad
heaven, heaven I’m scared
take a look at yourself
in a moment realise
we are thinking today
today, today
take control of yourself
for a moment realise
you are thinking today
today, today, take a look
synthesise, programme and synchronise
detail, computerise your own damn/nation
magnified these dreams you’ve kept inside
come alive! your hand is bitten by your own creation
take a look at yourself
in a moment realise
we are thinking today
today, today
take control of yourself
you’re not a victim
you’re not anything
only throwing away today, today
take a look
I’m alive
I breathe, I feel inside
not just a toy
not a fault you can overide
I want to be alone
if I could find a place to hide
will you always be there
in every thought, every word
oh you’re so damn
clinical, useful and practical
always fanatical, controlled existence
oh we may generate, design and integrate
but never, we never simulate human reaction
stand fast
take a look at yourself
in a moment realise
we are thinking today
take a look, take a look
take control of yourself
for a moment realise
we are thinking today
today, today
take a look
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9. |
Creepshow
12:09
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Welcome, welcome
First today to see the creepshow
Come see the exhibits, but do not touch
They cannot bear touch, here in the creepshow
Please do not hang back
It’s hard enough to show people around
The creepshow, the creepshow
First, here on the rack strapped, a child’s virgin mind
We see the careful white-coats
Affix their machines veins to the pulsing neck side
Checking dials they monitor reaction
She must love her daddy’s banker
She must love her daddy’s banker
For her part in the creepshow, the creepshow
Amanda, so sad, Amanda …
But let’s brush over sadness, give her the pills and diagnose madness, madness
Give her, give her, Amanda? Amanda!
Anymore for any more? No!
Cyril Has-Or-Might-Have-Been must fill his lust
They let him bayonet robots as his morning constitutional
To sate his rage unless he feels his age
We can’t have that!
Sometimes he’ll watch a war-film
On the moron machine in the corner of his cell
Lost in time, lost in minds
Cyril writhes like smoke
His bigot’s eyes are slashed skin
Their expression none the nicer for being blank
Amanda, still mad. Amanda, still sad…
“And so ladies and gentlemen,
We come to the nerve centre of the whole affair.
As you will see, it is a mirror.
To some it is the mirror of dreams,
Where every passion, desire and action flit through the still spaces behind its surface,
Tantalising yet distant.
Of these many stand before it until death.
To others, it is distorting,
Everything in it being warped and buckled by fear,
Yet perceived as reality.
These will cringe before it, wimpering and immobile,
Though a few batter their skulls against the dull sheen
Attempting to smash the horrors they believe are in the glass or at least attain oblivion, whichever comes first.
Some see just a mirror, whilst some see what at first appears to be their own image, which, however, moves them saying
‘COME ON, WAKE UP!
WHO’S RUNNING THIS SHOW ANYWAY?’”
Now, It’s up to you
Use your free will
You decide, yes you! you! you decide
Whether or not you will return
For if you come again
You’d better bring your ball and chain
Unguided embittered attraction of
The creepshow
The creepshow
The creepshow
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10. |
This City
03:59
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The abstracted shapes
Of the people’s thoughts
Different shops and pubs
All the cheap facades
It is all this city
It is all this city
Wind shaken trees
Half crumbling parks
The enquiring eyes
Fingers parting lace
It is all this city
It is all this city
Long straggling queues
Of the out of work
A baby sucking sweets
Dribbling down his quilt
It is all this city
It is all this city
All this city
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11. |
World Without End
01:25
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12. |
Blondon Fair
05:41
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heil
mothers love to wash you clean
to bleed you dry
lie beneath filial grief
for genocide
blondon fair, lust for their
masterdom
hooked and feint – heaven sent
exodus
heil!
in the hut
in there
in the hut, the hut
heil!
fascist cross the borderline
exit crime
invade the peace, disturb the beast
terrify
clicking black, shiny box
crack the shell
blondon Fair separate
gold for pearl
heil!
no more room
in the hut
in there
no more room
in the hut, the hut
heil!
hooked and feint – heaven sent
martyrdom
blondon fair, without a care
exodus
heil!
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13. |
Fact And Fiction
03:41
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TV is switched on, the screen reveal a spokesperson
Adverts, politics, editing the real
Cheap words, money talks, naming itself to be the key to Utopia
Cornucopia, to a better world you go buy and buy
And if you listen carefully you can hear the bacon fly … don’t make me laugh!
History shows that, policy demands weapons
Selfish desires simply lead to pain,
The chit-chat continues a big pretence that divides into power blocks
Where the orthodox have a propaganda war to fight
And if you’re looking closely you can see that black is white … don’t make me laugh!
If the “unthinkable” should happen and you hear the sirens call
Well you can always find some shelter behind a door against the wall
Don’t make me laugh!
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14. |
CRAB
04:22
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15. |
The Poet Sniffs A Flower
01:34
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16. |
The Collector
18:22
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Kingdom come, come kingdom go
That you may carve upon my grave stone
When confined in a six walled box
I will no longer hear the clocks
Indifferently ticking in cold deserted mansion halls
Kingdom come, come kingdom go
Mementos relics crated cargo
A million things all left behind
Relationships with humankind
Conducted as if I was buying slaves at auction
Holding court at gross parties
Where punch drunk sycophants
Came slobbering, to suck my cocktails
I escaped up the stairs to my collection
In my collection, facets of ego
Gradually eclipsing mass
Between the nursery and now
Struggling for meaning
Walking earth insensible
Flowerings of childhood turned to stringy vegetable
Titians, tits and grand Goyas
Glower through the high stone traceries
Oily smears bequeathed by thirsty souls
Studied throughout my long daze
Scumbled paint in priceless fossils
Many a sad sullen pieta
Christ eternal held away from me
Behind a brown and ancient glaze
Troubled at night by…
Flashbacks…
Flashbacks! Flashbacks! Flashbacks! Flashbacks
Whaaa… Mummy
I don’t want to train on my potty and I don’t want to share my toys with the other children
‘cos they’re so nasty…
… Child that I was then when was I last young?
When did comic wood bricks become trading in con-tricks?
When did innocence shudder and die?
Adolescent I planned to take total command
Draped vision’s guilt edge on the bars of my play-pen
Hoped to arrest the swift passage of time
As though by some chance I could recreate Eden…
Apple pie? Lovely!
So hope became a statue, my words became a gun
In the hit parade of self interest, I remained at number one
I was Mozart’s old piano, with a special gold inlay
I was always a lover of music, but I never did learn to play
Thought I’d be saved by my collection, to begin with
Thought I’d be saved by my collection
Would you believe it? But then
Nanny? Nanny Conscience?
Is that you standing at the end of my bed, Nanny?
My, you’ve been in cold storage for a long time, my dear
You’re looking out of condition, you could do with some exercise
I mean look at your skin, my god, the wrinkles!
Nanny! Nan-nanny! Had her made into a table lamp for me because
Because I need some light to shine but artificially
From her prim portals…
Nanny! Nan-nanny! Don’t you think you’d better start being nice to me, Nanny?
I mean one day soon I’m going to grow up big and strong
And an old bag like you won’t get a job in my kingdom
Nobody’s going to make me wash behind my ears, or eat my greens
Or share my toys with the other children…
I drank myself as dry as a desert
Still in the end there was nothing left to call my own
The freedom from pain with which I toyed
Became a doorway to a void
The only values left were relative to power
The trouble with life in ivory towers
The seconds stretch until they wear the skins of hours
Faithless mates who come and go
They run away like melted snow
A temple to ego never constitutes a home
And though it seems sad, this jangling junk we are amassed
A passing pageant passing fast, there must be something
Something that can
Last more than the sense of life as just a short and pointless overture to death
Fear debilitating fear and death run round in circles
Turn!
Kingdom come, come kingdom go
Collecting clouds before the Son light
On pain of death our presents pass
Secreting habit over insight
Human soul is fertilised
Human span its wombing season
Ward of conscience fragile child
Aborted by unfettered reason
Candle, both ends burning
Collecting trash, collecting gold
Vampiric ego drains and clutches
When cross examined by the truth
It carves the cross up into crutches
Sharpened at both ends, some friend…
Freedom’s king is donkey borne
A cross, the bleeding palms on main-street
Collecting nothing but the scorn
Of those who cannot bear their eyes to meet
Except in artificial light
Who needs to star in such a cast?
I leave collecting to the past
To one last party, I asked them all and one
And when it was over I found that all but one had gone
Did Jesus have a grave stone upon which to carve his name?
We all are what we live, a truth that will never change
You cannot collect worthwhile living
For it is a crop that grows, from a seed of giving
Diaries, drugs, a glittering crystal ball
Cathedrals, palaces, sweet sugar you can keep them all;
Heaven, heaven is not for sale
Heaven is not for sale
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17. |
Love Song
06:29
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Everybody has wisdom, everyone understands
Food when we are hungry, the touch of loving hands
No one is anyone’s property, no one should be a slave
The joining of hearts in free will, begins a tidal wave
Don’t hold back, don’t think that hope is pointless
Love is a, love is a, love is a, love is an open door
Don’t believe that life is closed against us
Love is a, love is a, love is a, love is an open door
And it doesn’t make any difference, the colour of anyone’s skin
We need the rejection of prejudice, let peace come flooding in
Jealousy is just a parasite, hatred is disease
Respect for human dignity, become skittering wind blown leaves
(Chorus)
The time is surely coming when we could all be free
When eyes for so long blinded, in opening shall see
That children may grow happily safe in the love of all
The earth a fertile garden where nobody need crawl
(Chorus)
Love is a, love is a, love is an open door
And if it seems that your hoping heart has led you into pain
Take a tip from the carpenter forgive and love again
And again
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18. |
Theatre
03:40
|
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Charade, caprice
Risqué, affectedly chic
En role, 'Au Naturel'
The show is over
On with the show
As the make-up breaks up
Out of the crack, charisma flows
Look at the face, look at the face
Look at the, Look at the, Look l,l,l...
A gilt/guilt disguise
Belies a silvery tongue
Undone! And after all
Well, it's hard –
The light's in your eyes!
You'll never believe theatre
The lies and deceit – theatre
We go too far
Never content with who we are
Look at the face, look at the face
Look at the, look at the, look l,l,l...
We laugh, we feel
So nice, and none of it real
It's all unnatural
A tragic performance -
Tears in my eyes
Don't ever believe theatre
The lights and the dreams theatre
Row to row, there they go – count them in
They go – "oh, oh, oh, no, no, oh no –
No way, no way, no, no, no way! No!"
Be gone. Home!
Be gone! –
I'd rather be with the lights in my eyes
Than out in the dark –
With you!
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Twelfth Night UK
Twelfth Night are an English progressive rock band of the 1980s, reformed between 2007 and 2012 and again in 2014.
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supported by 14 fans who also own “MMX”
It's all a matter of taste. I love this album. I love it's serenity, the beautiful instrumentation, orchestration and the great production. Ambient is not my cup of tea either, but this album crosses the borders of ambient music and prog. In other words: an awesome album!
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supported by 12 fans who also own “MMX”
Spektakulär. Es gibt kein anderes Wort dafür. Vielen Dank für die Gelegenheit, eines der besten Prog-Alben aller Zeiten zu hören. (December 21, 2020) >
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A spirited, modern imagining of classic ’70s prog; Pink Floyd vocalist Durga McBroom and Finnish prog icon Jukka Gustavson guest.
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supported by 11 fans who also own “MMX”
It's impressive to see such a storied band continuing to evolve and grow .... an excellent album!
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supported by 10 fans who also own “MMX”
The album takes off nicely with David Longdon's "The Strangest Times", but then gets into immediate free fall and deeply underwater for the next few tracks, quite unexpectedly. Fortunately, it recovers with Nick D'Virgilio's "Apollo" (hey, this guy CAN write good music, although he hides this ability most of the time) and the remaining three tracks, one of which is another Longdon masterpiece. So in the end the final impression is somewhat in the positive range.
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