We can hit and miss like pride

Just 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

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

Demand

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

Thick as theives

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

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

Demand



Time stand still

(Lee/Lifeson/Peart)

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
Time stand still
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
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 a ground
I can wait until the tide comes around

Time stand still
I'm not looking back but I want to look around me now
Time stand still
See more of the people and the places that surround me now

Freeze this moment a little bit longer
Make each impression a little bit stronger
Freeze this motion a little bit longer
Make each sensation a little bit stronger

The innocence slips away
The innocence slips away

Summer's going fast
Nights growing colder
Children growing up
Old friends growing older

Freeze this moment a little bit longer
Make each impression a little bit stronger
Freeze this motion a little bit longer
Make each sensation a little bit stronger

Experience slips away
Experience slips away
The innocence slips away



Open secrets

(Lee/Lifeson/Peart)

It went right by me
At the time it went over my head
I was looking out the window
I should have looked at your face instead

It went right by me
Just another wall
There should have been a moment
When we let our barriers fall

I never meant what you're thinking
That's not what I meant at all

Well, I guess we all have these feelings
We can't leave unreconciled
Some of them burned on our ceilings
Some of them learned as a child

The things that we're concealing
Will never let us grow
Time will do its healing
You've got to let it go

Closed for my protection
Open to your scorn
Between these two directions
My heart is sometimes torn

I lie awake with my secrets
Spinning around my head
Something that somehow escaped me
Something you shouldn't have said

I was looking out the window
I should have looked at your face instead

Well, I guess we all have these feelings
We can't leave unreconciled
Some of them burned on our ceilings
Some of them learned as a child

The things that we're concealing
Will never let us grow
Time will do its healing
You've got to let it go

I find no absolution
In my rational point of view
Maybe some things are instinctive
But there's one thing you could do

You could try to understand me
I could try to understand you
You could try to understand me
I could try to understand you

Well, I guess we all have these feelings
We can't leave unreconciled
Some of them burned on our ceilings
Some of them learned as a child

The things that we're concealing
Will never let us grow
Time will do its healing
You've got to let it go



Second nature

(Lee/Lifeson/Peart)

A memo to a higher office
Open letter to the powers that be
To a god, a king, a head of state
A captain of industry

To the movers and the shakers
Can't everybody see?

It ought to be second nature
I mean, the places where we live
Let's talk about this sensibly
We're not insensitive

I know progress has no patience
But something's got to give

I know you're different, you know I'm the same
We're both too busy to be taking the blame
I'd like some changes but you don't have the time
We can't go on thinking, it's a victimless crime

No one is blameless
But we're all without shame
We fight the fire while we're feeding the flames

Folks have got to make choices
And choices got to have voices
Folks are basically decent
Conventional wisdom would say

But we read about the exceptions
In the papers every day

It ought to be second nature
At least that's what I feel
Now I lay me down in dreamland
I know perfect's not for real

I thought we might get closer
But I'm ready to make a deal

Today is different and tomorrow the same
It's hard to take the world the way that it came
Too many rapids keep us sweeping along
Too many captains keep on steering us wrong

It's hard to take the heat
It's hard to lay blame
To fight the fire while we're feeding the flames



Prime mover

(Lee/Lifeson/Peart)

Basic elemental instinct to survive
Stirs the higher passions, thrill to be alive
Alternating currents in a tidewater surge
Rational resistance to an unwise urge

Anything can happen

From the point of conception to the moment of truth
At the point of surrender to the burden of proof
From the point of ignition to the final drive
The point of the journey is not to arrive

Anything can happen

Basic temperamental filters on our eyes
Alter our perceptions, lenses polarize
Alternating currents force a show of hands
Rational responses force a change of plans

Anything can happen

From a point on the compass to magnetic north
The point of the needle moving back and forth
From the point of entry until the candle is burned
The point of departure is not to return

Anything can happen

I set the wheels in motion
Turn up all the machines
Activate the programs
And run behind the scene

I set the clouds in motion
Turn up light and sound
Activate the window
And watch the world go 'round

From the point of conception to the moment of truth
At the point of surrender to the burden of proof
From the point of ignition to the final drive
The point of a journey is not to arrive

Anything can happen



Lock and key

(Lee/Lifeson/Peart)

I don't want to face the killer instinct
Face it in you or me

We carry a sensitive cargo
Below the waterline
Ticking like a timebomb
With a primitive design

Behind the finer feelings
This civilized veneer
The heart of a lonely hunter
Guards a dangerous frontier

The balance can sometimes fail
Strong emotions can tip the scale

Don't want to silence a desperate voice
For the sake of security
No one wants to make a terrible choice
On the price of being free

I don't want to face the killer instinct
Face it in you or me
So we keep it under lock and key
Lock and key

It's not a matter of mercy
It's not a matter of laws
Plenty of people will kill you
For some fanatical cause

It's not a matter of conscience
A search for probable cause
It's just a matter of instinct
A matter of fatal flaws

No reward for resistance
No assistance, no applause

Don't want to silence a desperate voice
For the sake of security
No one wants to make a terrible choice
On the price of being free

I don't want to face the killer instinct
Face it in you or me
So we keep it under lock and key
Lock and key

We don't want to be victims
On that we all agree
So we lock up the killer instinct
And throw away the key



Mission

(Lee/Lifeson/Peart)

Hold your fire, keep it burning bright
Hold the flame 'till 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

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

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



Turn the page

(Lee/Lifeson/Peart)

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 soothe 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

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

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



Tai Shan

(Lee/Lifeson/Peart)

High on the sacred mountain
Up the seven thousand stairs
In the golden light of autumn
There was magic in the air

The clouds surrounded the summit
The wind blew strong and cold
Among the silent temples
And the writing carved in gold

Somewhere in my instincts
The primitive took hold

I stood at the top of the mountain
And China sang to me
In the peaceful haze of harvest time
A song of eternity

If you raise your hands to heaven
You will live a hundred years
I stood there like a mystic
Lost in the atmosphere

The clouds were suddenly parted
For a moment I could see
The patterns of the landscape
Reaching to the eastern sea

I looked upon a presence
Spanning forty centuries

I stood at the top of the mountain
And China sang to me
In the peaceful haze of harvest time
A song of eternity

I thought of time and distance
The hardships of history
I heard the hope and the hunger
When China sang to me

When China sang to me



High water

(Lee/Lifeson/Peart)

When the waters rose in the darkness
In the wake of the endless flood
It flowed into our memory
It flowed into our blood

When something broke the surface
Just to see the starry dome
We still feel that relation
When the water takes us home

In the flying spray of the ocean
The water takes you home
The water takes you home

Springing from the weight of the mountains
Like the heart of the earth would burst
Flowing out from marble fountains
In the dreams of a desert thirst

Something swam through the jungles
Where the mighty rivers roam
Something breaks the silence
When the water takes you home

I hear the wordless voices
When the water takes me home
When the water takes me home

Waves that crash on the shoreline
Torrents of tropical rain
Streaming down beyond our memory
Streaming down inside our veins

When something left the ocean
To crawl high above the foam
We still feel that elation
When the water takes us home

In a driving rain of redemption
The water takes me home
The water takes me home