1. |
Spin Flip
01:44
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Still the same old state: now someone calls it down or up
What have you got there? It’s much too large
I’m a little charge for hire drifting along a long wire
I can’t know anything for I’m too small
No fear, no death but someday a transition
Time and space are quite beside the point (that’s me!)
Moving around in this field, the next is as good as the last
Until I’m annihilated I’m going everywhere fast, unobserved
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2. |
Imaginary Mission
04:10
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The future is a fuzzball ’cause the present’s uncertain too
And while it was important
The past has faded from my view
If I have to take a trail with no turns, I’ll walk it my way
If we never learn the truth
You might as well believe what I say
Imaginary mission with consequences oh so real
Points who have no meaning coalesce to think and feel
If I’m nothing but a blip in orbit, let me be one proudly
If I’m only matter with no free will, let me fight it loudly
Got no soul, neither pride nor care
One bit role: move from here to there
Slower than a light beam, faster than the fastest gun
Older than a moon rock, able to survive the sun
If I have to take a trail with no turns, I’ll walk it my way
If I never understand the plan
Pretending I do’s the right play
Hope and love are prey for bigger game
Fair enough: I don’t even have a name
Energy, momentum, maybe one or two things more
The building block of something: that is all I am, for sure
If I have to take a trail with no turns, I’ll walk it my way
If I have to take a trail with no turns, I’ll walk it my way
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3. |
Blind Illuminator
02:09
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The first light of a brand new morn
The reaching hand of a child freshly born
The spark that fades from a dying man’s eyes
Experiences that made him wise
All such sights are never seen
They’re not even a dream
If you ride along with the beam, it can’t shine on you
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4. |
Feynman's Lament
02:43
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"Sometimes, I wonder where you are"
Said the very smart man to the atoms she was
And it doesn’t make anything better
Understanding it to the letter
The feeling stayed the same
Even after new thoughts came into his head
This doesn’t mean there’s no point learning how
Oh, but How, Why, and Then What are very different things
Measuring time doesn’t make you live longer
Having power makes you no stronger
Just maybe, through some miracle
The creative and the empirical
Could have led to a new horizon in his head
And I like to think (the real me, not my lepton alter ego)
That what he truly mourned
Was not the passing of her form
But that most young minds never find the time
To explore the sublime, as once did she
Guided by but ignorant of
The potential we’re each passing through
Until we’re dead, or so I’ve read
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5. |
Out of Time
03:27
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Ex tempore domine, praegrandis nusquam ire
Ex tempore domine, praegrandis nusquam ire
Great incidents come to pass, we leave them behind at last
Abandon days as we must till the day which abandons us
Stand up, do what is right
Fight for the weak as best you can
Such power, real love machines now lie in ruins on the sand
No matter your size or strength, no matter its finite length
Your time, half gone, runs out, not on
Ex tempore domine, praegrandis nusquam ire
Ex tempore domine, praegrandis nusquam ire
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6. |
Speed
00:45
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I bow to no lord and never age
Working alone on a silent, invisible stage
Playing a part in each picture, though never the lead
No direction but oh, what incredible speed
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7. |
You Know What to Do
02:09
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Not having work to engage my time, I took a flight of fancy
I somehow dreamed that I had a mind
And good eyes with which I could read
Deep in the woods was a torn page
From the instructions for Life
I looked around to ensure I was safe
Then the language made sense to me
It said "We hid this from view, but only for your own good
Knowing the manual exists is a thorn in your side
Because you know what to do
The answer’s written in you
And other small parts
Of the edge between shadow and light"
It all made sense till I snapped awake
Well, stranger things have happened
I make my way through a field of dreams
Each of them partially true
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8. |
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Trying hard never to overuse
The ability to analyze and choose
Trusting that, mostly, the heart is right
Like a cat in the grass, let me do what I like
Bouncing around a potential well
Ground-state energy rarely fell
Carrying charge just like ringing a bell
Go, Quanny, go ’cause you never can tell
Staring down prey and ignoring fleas
Focusing on what I can with ease
Making a racket in the midst of the night
Like a cat in the grass, let me be as I like
Just a little bit smarter, I could figure it out
Just a little bit dumber, I’d feel so proud
If the birdbrains’ chirping was not so loud
I’d still find something to gripe about
Big stuff looming, beyond control
Proton decay and a hungry black hole
If I blink into nothingness, that’s all right
Like a cat in the grass, I’ll have done what I liked
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9. |
Incompatible
01:20
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It wasn’t that I wasn’t made for this world
This world was never even made
It wasn’t that I wasn’t made for this world
This world was never made at all
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10. |
A Soldier's Mind
03:56
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Old food, thin shelter, no explanation
Can’t find whoever might own this nation
High risk, low payoff – word says they’ve halved it
For those on pension or lately drafted
No fear, no promise: agite domus, farewell
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11. |
Break Free
02:02
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You turn away from the place you’ve always known
For today you got the energy to go
And it’s high time to break free, right now
No one to order you to spin over there
You’re ionized, without a care
So far away from the up, down grass of home
And who’s to say if you’re ever going to find another one?
No it’s time to play
Bound as once you were, someone’s there
Living your old life, so see how well you fare
Did you choose to break free?
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12. |
Crystal Palace
01:39
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Wandering through these halls as yet unseen
Not knowing why or when it must end
Seeking what’s true, exploring and learning
Always at peace with the fickle, imposing dark veil
The palace is really a prison; anything else would be too
The voyage contains all the freedom
Of being that which passes through
Whatever comes of crystals and fire
If it can be known, then let it be by a soul who can fly
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13. |
Idiot Brigade
04:07
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Bang! went the cosmic starting gun
And the copycat race began
Molecules formed and chemistry
Pissed its name in the physical sand
After a few extinctions
Struttin’ along came the next big thing
Here to stay, barring a monkey wrench
Like an asteroid on the wing
Then they’d be goners, fossilized with honors
And bad luck is certain, given time
They were smarter than a freight train
Faster than a hydrogen bomb
More caring than a lightning bolt
There might be strength in numbers
But groupthink makes you dumber
Out of the ashes there arose a shivering furball
Whose claim to fame
Was copious coitus, rampant paranoia
And litters the size of New Spain
Fast forward: suddenly balding primates
Declare every problem solved
As long as they don’t adjust
The environment in which they evolve
They are the clear winner – oh, here’s an inventor
Who can do anything but let it lie
Smarter than a freight train
Faster than a hydrogen bomb
More caring than a lightning bolt
There might be strength in numbers
But groupthink makes you smarter than a freight train
Well, it was bound to happen that someone
Suitably helpless would see the light
Barely aware of the coming collision
Disinclined to keep quiet
Somehow, in the confusion
The power to change things was voted away
So he writes about the orderless army of morons
Instead of saving the day
The muse is capricious, she’ll tear you up like Ed Regis
Look at this fool in love with his single star
Smarter than a freight train
Faster than a hydrogen bomb
More caring than a lightning bolt
There might be strength in numbers
But groupthink makes you Smarter than a freight train
Faster than a hydrogen bomb
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14. |
A Circle with No Middle
00:51
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There can be no interior
Points all alike remain far away
Back in the close-packed unknown
Where orbiters never can go
It is whispered: with freedom always must come loneliness
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15. |
Like a River
01:54
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Had I been poor and never seen an oak tree
Were my vision so weak, it could not see through a lie
Then would I moan out of inward-centered anger
Punishing what is for failing to fit in a child’s dream gone by
Yes I could insist upon tomorrow
Or die pining for yesterday’s arms
True, the water has a source, as does the stone
Yet the river simply happens on its own
Had I been lost, instead of wandering at will
I would have been the shore, but I am something more:
I am the flow
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16. |
||||
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Since the second you became you
Says your omnipresent guide
All your waking hours are spent on travel and adventure
As you lack the means for hunger
And sleep is nothing but a dream
Near-immortal, once an atom’s sentry
A tiny taste of freedom led you to the maze
Silver your conductor, space your only home
Zigzag through the minefield
Almost indestructible point without a passion
Once a tiny part of water, liberated by a star
In a metal now, your captors current and potential
New imaginary function, charge-to-mass remains the same
Are you only information or does
Deeper understanding hide within you still?
Your evil twin can change you, whatever that may be
Zigzag through the minefield
Unaware, uncaring basis of reality
Though it’s hard to say for certain
Where you are and where you’ll go
When you join with other wanderers
You become the unexpected!
While it takes a couple trillion
And more conditions must be met
The bottom line is that a dead, dull vacuum
Stumbled into crazy ideas such as this
Will you exist forever? What about guides like me?
Zigzag through the minefield
I’ll watch you with a smile for as long as I dare
Silver your conductor, space your only home
Zigzag through the minefield
Almost inconceivable point without a passion
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17. |
Can't Rest Easy
03:18
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On and on the only song I ever learned to sing
Soars and falls according to its need
And not a single truly quiet night goes by
Because the book of dreams is much too good a read
While my human story walks his path and earns his pay
The real world works its magic on his mind
It’s impossible to live another life, to mark some other time
So I can’t rest easy, no I can’t rest easy
Till rest’s the only work that still remains
Positive parentheses, eight digits and a dash
A tone row most unique, sans parallel
Improvisation by necessity or design?
Perhaps some more direct experience will tell
And so I can’t rest easy
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18. |
Wave
01:45
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Think of me not as in motion
But standing and filling all space
Bury me not at the finish, but throughout the race
When you remember an instant
Feel it’s one page out of time
Woven together, these numbers belong to one wave
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19. |
My Own Terms
03:15
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Didn’t come in on them, not going to go out on them
There was no motion, second, or vote
No one signed off on what I never wrote
Made ’em up on the fly, going to alter them by and by
It’s just a weird thing animals do
Thinking some thought and then thinking it’s true
Listen: I can live without living on my own terms
Look at how pretty this dream house burns
As long as I’m here and not in control
The dice have been dropped – let’s call it a roll
What’s going to happen? It’s not my call
I’m a detector watching it all
Not giving up or getting uptight
I’m still going to try things, but see ’em in a different light
Those were some crazy rules, rickety molecules
They can’t be found outside of my brain
All they’re good for is stirring up pain
Didn’t come in on them, not going to go out on them
As a matter of fact, they don’t even exist
Not going to have it my way, I insist
Listen: I can live without living on my own terms
Have without having too many concerns
As long as these dice are out of my hands
The arrow’s in flight – going to see where it lands
Observing infinity disturbs its peace
Why should that bother me in the least?
I haven’t gone mad, just out of my mind
Still going to try the impossible from time to time
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Fextonia Hawesville, Kentucky
Founded in 1996 amid the hills of southeastern Kentucky, Fextonia quickly evolved from a high school jam band into a songwriters' convention and continues to record original albums.
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