Permanent Waves
Album - 1 gennaio 1980 - Debaser id 22584

Begin the day with a friendly voice
A companion unobtrusive
Plays the song that's so elusive
And the magic music makes your morning mood

Off on your way, hit the open road
There is magic at your fingers
For the spirit ever lingers
Undemanding contact in your happy solitude

Invisible airwaves crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle with the energy
Emotional feedback on a timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free

All this machinery making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted, it's really just a question
Of your honesty, yeah, your honesty

One likes to believe in the freedom of music
But glittering prizes and endless compromises
Shatter the illusion of integrity, yeah

Invisible airwaves crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle with the energy
Emotional feedback on a timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price, almost free

For the words of the profits were written on the studio wall
Concert hall
And echoes with the sound of salesmen
Of salesmen, of salesmen

There are those who think that life
Has nothing left to chance,
A host of holy horrors
To direct our aimless dance

A planet of playthings
We dance on the strings
Of powers we cannot perceive
"The stars aren't aligned -
Or the gods are malign"
Blame is better to give than receive.

You can choose a ready guide
In some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears
And kindness that can kill;
I will choose a path that's clear-
I will choose free will

There are those who think that
They've been dealt a losing hand,
The cards were stacked against them-
They weren't born in Lotus-Land

All pre-ordained
A prisoner in chains
A victim of venomous fate
Kicked in the face
You can pray for a place
In heaven's unearthly estate

You can choose a ready guide
In some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears
And kindness that can kill;
I will choose a path that's clear-
I will choose free will

Each of us
A cell of awareness
Imperfect and incomplete
Genetic blends
With uncertain ends
On a fortune hunt
That's far too fleet.

You can choose a ready guide
In some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice
You can choose from phantom fears
And kindness that can kill;
I will choose a path that's clear-
I will choose free will

The clouds prepare for battle
In the dark and brooding silence.
Bruised and sullen stormclouds
Have the light of day obscured.
Looming low and ominous
In twilight premature
Thunderheads are rumbling
In a distant overture...

All at once, the clouds are parted.
Light streams down in bright unbroken beams...

Follow men's eyes as they look to the skies.
The shifting shafts of shining weave the fabric of their dreams

We are secrets to each other
Each one's life a novel
No-one else has read
Even joined in bonds of love
We're linked to one another
By such slender threads
We are planets to each other
Drifting in our orbits
To a brief eclipse
Each of us a world apart
Alone and yet together
Like two passing ships

Just between us
I think it's time for us to recongnize
the differences we sometimes feared
to show
Just between us
I think it's time for us to realize
The spaces in between
Leave room
For you and I to grow

We are strangers to each other
Full of sliding panels
An illusion show
Acting well-rehearsed routines
Or playing from the heart?
It's hard for one to know
We are islands to each other
Building hopeful bridges
On the troubled seas
Some are burned and swept away
Some we would not choose
But we're not always free
Just between us
I think it's time for us to recongize
The differences we sometimes fear to show
Just between us
I think it's time for us to realize
The spaces in between
Leave room
For you and I to grow

Who's come to slay the dragon-
Come to watch him fall?
Making arrows out of pointed words
Giant killers at the call
Too much fuss and bother
Too much contradiction and confusion
Peel away the mystery
Here's a clue to some real motivation

All there really is
The two of us
And we both know why we've come along
Nothing to explain
It's a part of us
To be found within a song

What happened to our innocence-
Did it go out of style?
Along with our naivete'-
No longer a child
Different eyes see different things
Different hearts beat on different strings
But there are times
For you and me
When all such things agree.

All there really is
The two of us
And we both know why we've come along
Nothing to explain
It's a part of us
To be found within a song

'''i Tide Pools'''
When the ebbing tide retreats along the rocky shoreline
It leaves a trail of tide pools in a short-lived galaxy
Each microcosmic planet a complete society
A simple kind of mirror to reflect upon our own
All the busy little creatures chasing out their destinies
Living in their pools they soon forget about the sea...

Wheel within wheels in a spiral array -
A pattern so grand and complex
Time after time we lose sight of the way -
Our causes can't see their effects

'''ii Hyperspace'''
A quantum leap forward in time and space
The universe learned to expand
Mess and magic, triumphant and tragic
A mechanized world out of hand
Computerized clinic for superior cynics
Who dance to a synthetic band
In their own image their world is fashioned
No wonder they don't understand

Wheel within wheels in a spiral array -
A pattern so grand and complex
Time after time we lose sight of the way -
Our causes can't see their effects

'''iii Permanent Waves'''
Science, like nature, must also be tamed
With a view towards its preservation
Given the same state of integrity, it will surely serve us well.
Art as expression, not as market campaigns
Will still capture our imaginations
Given the same state of integrity, it will surely help us along.
The most endangered species - the honest man -
Will still survive annihilation
Forming a world, a state of integrity -
Sensitive, open, and strong.

Wave after wave will flow with the tide
And bury the world as it does
Tide after tide will flow and recede
Leaving life to go on as it was.