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2012 - "Clockwork Angels" Lyrics


GhostGirl
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1. Caravan (5:40)

2. BU2B (5:10)

3. Clockwork Angels (7:31)

4. The Anarchist (6:52)

5. Carnies (4:52)

6. Halo Effect (3:14)

7. Seven Cities Of Gold (6:32)

8. The Wreckers (5:01)

9. Headlong Flight (7:20)

10. BU2B2 (1:28)

11. Wish Them Well (5:25)

12. The Garden (6:59)

 

 

Music by Lee and Lifeson

Lyrics by Peart

 

 

Caravan

 

IT SEEMS LIKE A LIFETIME AGO - which of course it was, all that and more. For a boy, life on the farm was idyllic, but for the young man I became, that very peace and predictability were stifling, unbearable. I had big dreams, and needed a big place to explore them: the whole wide world. Near our village of Barrel Arbor, the steamliners touched down and traveled on rails along the Winding Pinion River toward Crown City. Watching them pass in the night, how I prayed to get away . . .

 

In a world lit only by fire

Long train of flares under piercing stars

I stand watching the steamliners roll by

 

The caravan thunders onward

To the distant dream of the city

The caravan carries me onward

On my way at last

On my way at last

 

I can't stop thinking big

I can't stop thinking big

 

On a road lit only by fire

Going where I want, instead of where I should

I peer out at the passing shadows

Carried through the night into the city

Where a young man has a chance of making good

A chance to break from the past

The caravan thunders onward

Stars winking through the canvas hood

On my way at last

 

In a world where I feel so small

I can't stop thinking big

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

BU2B

 

WE WERE ALWAYS TAUGHT that we lived in "the best of all possible worlds." The Watchmaker ruled from Crown City through the Regulators; the alchemist-priests gave us coldfire for power and light, and everything was well ordered. We accepted our various individual fates as inevitable, for we had also been taught, "Whatever happens to us must be what we deserve, for it could not happen to us if we did not deserve it. None of it seemed right to me. . ."

 

I was brought up to believe

The universe has a plan

We are only human

It's not ours to understand

 

The universe has a plan

All is for the best

Some will be rewarded

And the devil take the rest

 

All is for the best

Believe in what we're told

Blind men in the market

Buying what we're sold

Believe in what we're told

Until our final breath

While our loving Watchmaker

Loves us all to death

 

In a world of cut and thrust

I was always taught to trust

In a world where all must fail

Heaven's justice will prevail

 

The joy and pain that we receive

Each comes with its own cost

The price of what we're winning

Is the same as what we've lost

 

Until our final breath

The joy and pain that we receive

Must be what we deserve

I was brought up to believe

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Clockwork Angels

 

THE PLACE I HAD MOST WANTED TO SEE - Chronos Square, at the heart of Crown City. I had seen many images of the city before, and Chronos Square, but nothing could convey its immensity - the heaven-reaching towers of the Cathedral of the Timekeepers, or the radiant glory of the Angels - Land, Sea, Sky, and Light - bathed in the brilliant glow of the floating globes.

 

High above the city square

Globes of light float in mid-air

Higher still, against the night

Clockwork angels bathed in light

 

You promise every treasure, to the foolish and the wise

Goddesses of mystery, spirits in disguise

Every pleasure, we bow and close our eyes

Clockwork angels, promise every prize

 

Clockwork angels, spread their arms and sing

Synchronized and graceful, they move like living things

Goddesses of Light, of Sea and Sky and Land

Clockwork angels, the people raise their hands -- As if to fly

 

All around the city square

Power shimmers in the air

People gazing up with love

To those angels high above

 

Celestial machinery - move through your commands

Goddesses of mystery, so delicate and so grand

Moved to worship, we bow and close our eyes

Clockwork angels, promise every prize

 

"Lean not upon your own understanding *

Ignorance is well and truly blessed

Trust in perfect love, and perfect planning

Everything will turn out for the best"

 

Stars aglow like scattered sparks

Span the sky in clockwork arcs

Hint at more than we can see

Spiritual machinery

 

*Proverbs 3:5 [and In-N-Out milkshake!]

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

i - The Pedlar 1

 

A foggy woodland road, a crowded village square, the busy streets of Crown City - a wandering pedlar travels the land, uttering the ageless call.

 

"What do you lack?"

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

The Anarchist

 

WALKING AMONG THE PEOPLE - who are so content, so blind -- the Anarchist hears the pedlar's call, and sneers derisively. "What do I lack? Ah. . . vengeance?"

 

Will there be world enough and time for me to sing that song?

A voice so silent for so long

For all those years I had to get along, they told me I was wrong

I never wanted to belong - I was so strong

 

I lack their smiles and their diamonds; I lack their happiness and love

I envy them for all those things, I never got my fair share of

 

The lenses inside of me that paint the world black

The pools of poison, the scarlet mist, that spill over into rage

The things I've always been denied

An early promise that somehow died

A missing part of me that grows around me like a cage

 

In all your science of the mind, seeking blind through flesh and bone

Find the blood inside this stone

What I know, I've never shown; what I feel, I've always known

I plan my vengeance on my own - and I was always alone

 

Oh - They tried to get me

Oh - They'll never forget me

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Carnies

 

I FOUND WORK WITH A TRAVELING CARNIVAL, and for the Midsummer Festival in Crown City, our games and rides were set up right in the middle of the Square, beneath the Angels. One night, amid the noise and confusion of the crowded midway, I saw, a man working with wires and wooden barrels. He stood and turned - the Anarchist! - holding a clockwork detonator in his hand. I called out to warn the crowd, then suddenly he threw the device at me, and I caught it automatically - just as the people turned to look my way. I escaped, but in disgrace, and fled down the Winding Pinion River to the sea.

 

Under the gaze of the angels

A spectacle like he's never seen

Spinning lights and faces

Demon music and gypsy queens

 

The glint of iron wheels

Bodies spin in a clockwork dance

The smell of flint and steel

A wheel of fate, a game of chance

 

How I prayed just to get away

To carry me anywhere

Sometimes the angels punish us

By answering our prayers

 

A face of naked evil

Turns the young boy's blood to ice

Deadly confrontation

Such a dangerous device

 

Shout to warn the crowd

Accusations ringing loud

A ticking box, in the hand of the innocent

The angry crowd moves toward him with bad intent

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Halo Effect

 

I HAD FALLEN HELPLESSLY IN LOVE with one of the performers. She was so different from "the girl I left behind," and I was beginning to understand I had only pretended she was right for me. I pursued my beautiful acrobat obsessively until she let me be with her - then I suffered her rejection and contempt. Once again, I had created an ideal of the perfect soulmate, and tried to graft in onto her. It didn't fit. Such illusions have colored my whole life.

 

What did I see?

Fool that I was

A goddess, with wings on her heels

All my illusions

Projected on her

The ideal, that I wanted to see

 

What did I know?

Fool that I was

Little by little, I learned

My friends were dismayed

To see my betrayed

But they knew they could never tell me

 

What did I care?

Fool that I was

Little by little, I burned

Maybe sometimes

There might be a flaw

But how pretty the picture was back then

 

What did I do?

Fool that I was

To profit from youthful mistakes?

It's shameful to tell

How often I fell

In love with illusions again

 

So shameful to tell

Just how often I fell

In love with illusions again

 

A goddess with wings on her heels . . .

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Seven Cities Of Gold

 

THE LEGEND HAD PASSED DOWN FOR GENERATIONS. Far across the Western Sea, where the steamliners could not fly, lay a wilderness land hiding seven cities of gold. I dared the crossing on one of the stout ships that followed the trade route to Poseidon, a tough port city. I worked there for a while on the steamliners that served the alchemy mines, then eventually set out into the Redrock Desert. The stones were sculpted into unearthly monuments, and the country grew cold as I traveled north in search of the most famous City of Gold: Cibola. Its name had sounded in my dreams since childhood.

 

A man can lose his past, in a country like this

Wandering aimless

Parched and nameless

A Man could lose his way, in a country like this

Canyons and cactus

Endless and trackless

 

Searching through grim eternity

Sculptured by a prehistoric sea

 

Seven Cities of Gold

Stories that fired my imagination

Seven Cities of Gold

A splendid mirage in this desolation

Seven Cities of Gold

Glowing in my dreams, like hallucinations

Glitter in the sun like a revelation

Distant as a comet or a constellation

 

A man can lose himself, in a country like this

Rewrite the story

Recapture the glory

A man could lose his life, in a country like this

Sunblind and friendless

Frozen and endless

 

The nights grow longer, the farther I go

Wake to aching cold, and a deep Sahara of snow

 

That gleam in the distance could be heaven's gate

A long-awaited treasure at the end of my cruel fate

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

The Wreckers

 

NARROWLY ESCAPING A FROZEN DEATH IN THAT DESERT, I made my way back to Poseidon, and found a berth on a homeward ship. Caught in a terrible storm, we seemed to find salvation in an unexpected signal light. Steering toward it, we soon learned it was false - placed by the denizens to lure ships to their doom on the jagged reefs. They plundered the cargos and abandoned the crews and passengers to the icy waves. I was the only survivor.

 

The breakers roar on an unseen shore

In the teeth of a hurricane

We struggle in vain

A hellish night - a ghostly light

Appears trough the driving rain

Salvation in a human chain

 

All I know is that sometimes you have to be wary

Of a miracle too good to be true

All I know is that sometimes the truth is contrary

Everything in life you thought you knew

All I know is that sometimes you have to be wary

'Cause sometimes the target is you

 

Driven aground, with that awful sound

Drowned by the cheer from ashore

We wonder what for

The people swarm through the darkling storm

Gather everything the can score

'Til their backs won't bear any more

 

The breakers roar on an unseen shore

In the teeth of an icy grave

The human chain leaves a bloody stain

Washed away in the pounding waves

 

All I know is that memory can be too much to carry

Striking down like a bolt from the blue

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Headlong Flight

 

THINKING BACK OVER MY LIFE, AND TELLING STORIES ABOUT MY "GREAT ADVENTURES" -- they didn't always feel that grand at the time. But on balance, I wouldn't change anything. In the words of one of our great alchemists, Friedrich Gruber, "I wish I could do it all again."

 

All the journeys

Of this great adventure

It didn't always feel that way

I wouldn't trade them

Because I made them

The best I could

And that's enough to say

 

Some days were dark

I wish that I could live it all again

Some nights were bright

I wish that I could live it all again

 

All the highlights of that headlong flight

Holding on with all my might

To what I felt back then

I wish that I could live it all again

 

I have stoked the fire on the big steel wheels

Steered the airship right across the stars

I learned to fight, I learned to love, I learned to feel

Oh, I wish that I could live it all again

 

All the treasures

The gold and glory

It didn't always feel that way

I don't regret it

I'll never forget it

I wouldn't trade tomorrow for today

 

Some days were dark

I wish that I could live it all again

Some nights were bright

I wish that I could live it all again

 

I have stoked the fire on the big steel wheels

Steered the airship right across the stars

I learned to fight, I learned to love, I learned to feel

Oh, I wish that I could live it all again

 

The days were dark

And the nights were bright

Hey now, I would never trade tomorrow for today

Yeah...

 

All the highlights of that headlong flight

Holding on with all my might

Some days were dark

I wish that I could live it all again

Some nights were bright

I wish that I could live it all again

 

I have stoked the fire on the big steel wheels

Steered the airship right across the stars

I learned to fight, I learned to love, I learned to feel

Oh, I wish that I could live it all again

 

I have stoked the fire on the big steel wheels

Steered the airship right across the stars

I learned to fight, I learned to love, I learned to steal

Oh, I wish that I could

Oh, I wish that I could live it all again

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

ii - The Pedlar 2

 

The ever-wandering pedlar.

 

"What do you lack?"

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

BU2B2

 

THOSE FATEFUL WORDS. "What do you lack?" spark an inner monologue about all that I have lost. No more boundless optimism, no more faith in greater powers, too much pain, too much grief, and too much disillusion. Despite all that, I realize the great irony that although I now believe only in the exchange of love, even that little faith follows the childhood reflex that "I was brought up to believe."

 

I was brought up to believe

Belief has failed me now

The bright glow of optimism

Abandoned me somehow

 

Belief has failed me now

Life goes from bad to worse

No philosophy consoles me

In a clockwork universe

 

Life goes from bad to worse

I still choose to live

Find a measure of love and laughter

And another measure to give

 

I still choose to live

And give, even while I grieve

Though the balance tilts against me

I was brought up to believe

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Wish Them Well

 

VICTIMIZED, BEREAVED, AND DISAPPOINTED, SEEMINGLY AT EVERY TURN, I still resist feeling defeated, or cynical. I have come to believe that anger and grudges are burning embers in the heart not worth carrying through life. The best response to those who wound me is to get away from them - and wish them well.

 

All that you can do is wish them well

All that you can do is wish them well

 

Spirits turned bitter by the poison of envy

Always angry and dissatisfied

Even the lost ones, the frightened and mean ones

Even the ones with a devil inside

 

Thank your stars you're not that way

Turn your back and walk away

Don't even pause and ask them why

Turn around and say goodbye

 

People who judge without a measure of mercy

All the victims who will never learn

Even the lost ones, you can only give up on

Even the ones who make you burn

 

The ones who've done you wrong

The ones who pretended to be so strong

The grudges you've held for so long

It's not worth singing that same sad song

 

Even though you're going through hell

Just keep on going

Let the demons dwell

 

Just wish them well

 

 

 

---------------------------------------------

 

The Garden

 

LONG AGO I READ A STORY FROM ANOTHER TIMELINE about a character named Candide. He also survived a harrowing series of misadventures and tragedies, then settled on a farm near Constantinople. Listening to a philosophical rant, Candide replied, "That is all very well, but now we must tend our garden." I have now arrived at that point in my own story. There is a metaphorical garden in the acts and attitudes of a person's life, and the treasures of that garden are love and respect. I have come to realize that the gathering of love and respect - from others and for myself - has been the real quest of my life. "Now we must tend our garden."

 

In this one of many possible worlds, all for the best, or some bizarre test?

It is what it is - and whatever

Time is still the infinite jest

 

The arrow flies when you dream, the hours tick away - the cells tick away

The Watchmaker keeps to his schemes

The hours tick away - they tick away

 

The measure of a life is a measure of love and respect

So hard to earn, so easily burned

In the fullness of time

A garden to nurture and protect

 

In the rise and the set of the sun

'Til the stars go spinning - spinning 'round the night

It is what it is - and forever

Each moment a memory in flight

 

The arrow flies while you breathe, the hours tick away - the cells tick away

The Watchmaker has time up his sleeve

The hours tick away - they tick away

 

The treasure of a life is a measure of love and respect

The way you live, the gifts that you give

In the fullness of time

It's the only return that you expect

 

The future disappears into memory

With only a moment between

Forever dwells in that moment

Hope is what remains to be seen

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