1981-87 Retrospective Ii

Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

A hot and windy august afternoon
Has the trees in constant motion
With a flash of silver leaves
As they're rocking in the breeze

The boy lies in the grass with one blade
Stuck between his teeth
A vague sensation quickens
In his young and restless heart
And a bright and nameless vision
Has him longing to depart

You move me ---
You move me ---
With your buildings and your eyes
Autumn woods and winter skies
You move me ---
You move me ---
Open sea and city lights
Busy streets and dizzy heights
You call me ---
You call me ---

The fawn-eyed girl with sun-browned legs
Dances on the edge of his dream
And her voice rings in his ears
Like the music of the spheres

The boy lies in the grass, unmoving
Staring at the sky
His mother starts to call him
As a hawk goes soaring by
The boy pulls down his baseball cap
And covers up his eyes

Too many hands on my time
Too many feelings ---
Too many things on my mind
When i leave i don't know
What i'm hoping to find
When i leave i don't know
What i'm leaving behind...

Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

Hold your fire --
Keep it burning bright
Hold the flame
'til the dream ignites --
A spirit with a vision
Is a dream with a mission

I hear their passionate music
Read the words
That touch my heart
I gaze at their feverish pictures
The secrets that set them apart

When i feel the powerful visions
Their fire has made alive
I wish i had that instinct --
I wish i had that drive

Spirits fly on dangerous missions
Imaginations on fire
Focused high on soaring ambitions
Consumed in a single desire

In the grip of
A nameless possession --
A slave to the drive of obsession --
A spirit with a vision
Is a dream with a mission...

I watch their images flicker
Bringing light to a lifeless screen
I walk through
Their beautiful buildings
And i wish i had their dreams

But dreams don't need
To have motion
To keep their spark alive
Obsession has to have action --
Pride turns on the drive

It's cold comfort
To the ones without it
To know how they struggled --
How they suffered about it

If their lives were
Exotic and strange
They would likely have
Gladly exchanged them
For something a little more plain
Maybe something a little more sane

We each pay a fabulous price
For our visions of paradise
But a spirit with a vision
Is a dream with a mission...

Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

Living on a lighted stage
Approaches the unreal
For those who think and feel
In touch with some reality
Beyond the gilded cage

Cast in this unlikely role,
Ill-equipped to act
With insufficient tact
One must put up barriers
To keep oneself intact

Living in the limelight
The universal dream
For those who wish to seem

Those who wish to be
Must put aside the alienation
Get on with the fascination
The real relation
The underlying theme

Living in a fisheye lens
Caught in the camera eye
I have no heart to lie
I can't pretend a stranger
Is a long-awaited friend

All the world's indeed a stage
And we are merely players
Performers and portrayers
Each another's audience
Outside the gilded cage

Words by neil peart and pye dubois,
Music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

Tough times demand tough talk
Demand tough hearts demand tough songs
Demand --

We can rise and fall like empires
Flow in and out like the tide
Be vain and smart, humble and dumb
We can hit and miss like pride

We can circle around like hurricanes
Dance and dream like lovers
Attack the day like birds of prey
Or scavengers under cover

Look in --
To the eye of the storm
Look out --
For the force without form
Look around --
At the sight and the sound
Look in look out look around --

We can move with savage grace
To the rhythms of the night
Cool and remote like dancing girls
In the heat of the beat and the lights

We can wear the rose of romance
An air of joie de vivre
Too-tender hearts upon our sleeves
Or skin as thick as thieves'

Rising falling at force ten
We twist the world and ride the wind

Look in --
Look the storm in the eye
Look out --
To the sea and the sky
Look around --
At the sight and the sound
Look in look out look around --

Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

He's a rebel and a runner
He's a signal turning green
He's a restless young romantic
Wants to run the big machine

He's got a problem with his poisons
But you know he'll find a cure
He's cleaning up his systems
To keep his nature pure

Learning to match the beat of the old world man
Learning to catch the heat of the third world man

He's got to make his own mistakes
And learn to mend the mess he makes
He's old enough to know what's right
But young enough not to choose it
He's noble enough to win the world
But weak enough to lose it ---
He's a new world man...

He's a radio receiver
Tuned to factories and farms
He's a writer and arranger
And a young boy bearing arms

He's got a problem with his power
With weapons on patrol
He's got to walk a fine line
And keep his self-control

Trying to save the day for the old world man
Trying to pave the way for the third world man

He's not concerned with yesterday
He knows constant change is here today
He's noble enough to know what's right
But weak enough not to choose it
He's wise enough to win the world
But fool enough to lose it ---

He's a new world man...

All that we can do is just survive
All that we can do to help ourselves is stay alive


Ragged lines of ragged grey
Skeletons, they shuffle away
Shouting guards and smoking guns
Will cut down the unlucky ones


I clutch the wire fence until my fingers bleed
A wound that will not heal
A heart that cannot feel
Hoping that the horror will recede
Hoping that tomorrow we'll all be freed


Sickness to insanity
Prayer to profanity
Days and weeks and months go by
Don't feel the hunger
Too weak to cry


I hear the sound of gunfire at the prison gate
Are the liberators here?
Do i hope or do i fear?
For my father and my brother, it's too late
But i must help my mother stand up straight


Are we the last ones left alive?
Are we the only human beings to survive?

Words by neil peart, music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

I turn my back to the wind
To catch my breath,
Before i start off again
Driven on,
Without a moment to spend
To pass an evening
With a drink and a friend

I let my skin get too thin
I'd like to pause,
No matter what i pretend
Like some pilgrim --
Who learns to transcend --
Learns to live
As if each step was the end

Time stand still --
I'm not looking back
But i want to look around me now
See more of the people
And the places that surround me now

Freeze this moment
A little bit longer
Make each sensation
A little bit stronger
Experience slips away...

I turn my face to the sun
Close my eyes,
Let my defences down --
All those wounds
That i can't get unwound

I let my past go too fast
No time to pause --
If i could slow it all down
Like some captain,
Whose ship runs aground --
I can wait until the tide
Comes around

Make each impression
A little bit stronger
Freeze this motion
A little bit longer
The innocence slips away...

Summer's going fast --
Nights growing colder
Children growing up --
Old friends growing older
Experience slips away...

An ill wind comes arising
Across the cities of the plain
There's no swimming in the heavy water
No singing in the acid rain
Red alert
Red alert


It's so hard to stay together
Passing through revolving doors
We need someone to talk to
And someone to sweep the floors
Incomplete
Incomplete


Chorus
The world weighs on my shoulders
But what am i to do?
You sometimes drive me crazy
But i worry about you
I know it makes no difference
To what you're going through
But i see the tip of the iceberg
And i worry about you...


Cruising under your radar
Watching from satellites
Take a page from the red book
Keep them in your sights
Red alert
Red alert


Left and rights of passage
Black and whites of youth
Who can face the knowledge
That the truth is not the truth?
Obsolete
Absolute


Chorus


Absalom, absalom, absalom