A Show Of Hands

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

It's not how fast you can go
The force goes into the flow
If you pick up the beat
You can forget about the heat
More than just survival
More than just a flash
More than just a dotted line
More than just a dash

It's a test of ultimate will
The heartbreak climb uphill
Got to pick up the pace
If you want to stay in the race
More than just blind ambition
More than just simple greed
More than just a finish line
Must feed this burning need --
In the long run...

From first to last
The peak is never passed
Something always fires the light
That gets in your eyes
One moment's high
And glory rolls on by
Like a streak of lightning
That flashes and fades
In the summer sky

Your meters may overload
You can rest at the side of the road
You can miss a stride
But nobody gets a free ride
More than high performance
More than just a spark
More than just the bottom line
Or a lucky shot in the dark --
In the long run...

You can do a lot in a lifetime
If you don't burn out too fast
You can make the most of the distance
First you need endurance --
First you've got to last...

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

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...

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

Nothing can survive in a vacuum
No one can exists all alone
We pretend things only happen to strangers
We've all got problems of our own

It's enough to learn
To share our pleasures
We can't sooth pain with sympathy
All that we can do is be reminded --
We shake our heads at the tragedy

Every day we're standing
In a time capsule
Racing down a river from the past
Every day we're standing
In a wind tunnel
Facing down the future coming fast

It's just the age
It's just a stage --
We disengage --
We turn the page...

Looking at
The long-range forecast
Catching all the names in the news
Checking out
The state of the nation
Learning the environmental blues

Truth is after all a moving target
Hairs to split,
And pieces that don't fit how can anybody be enlightened?
Truth is after all so poorly lit

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

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

The night is black
Without a moon
The air is thick, and still

The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torchlit hill

Features distorted in the flickering light
The faces are twisted and grotesque
Silent and stern in the sweltering night
The mob moves like demons possessed
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right ---
Confident their ways are best

The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will

Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat, and burn, and kill

They say there are strangers, who threaten us
In our immigrants and infidels
They say there is strangeness, too dangerous
In our theatres and bookstore shelves
That those who know what's best for us ---
Must rise and save us from ourselves

Quick to judge
Quick to anger
Slow to understand

Ignorance and prejudice
And fear
Walk hand in hand