The Interim : Battles and Bands 28 : Watch the Show

2,126 : 3 ?


While you were sleeping I was wakeful watching keeping track
boiling away in terror trying to keep the madness back
Making a difference how I laugh to hear that now
How I laugh to see you try to hammer through the wall

It doesn’t matter what you do
It doesn’t matter where you go
Everything is an illusion
Settle back and watch the flow

While you were watching worried I was dancing on the edge
Spinning as you tried so hard to call me from the ledge
I just can’t explain there’s nothing left from where I came
And I would rather face this fall than play the game again

It doesn’t matter what you do
It doesn’t matter where you go
Everything is an illusion
Settle back and watch the flow

I live in chaos that is just the way I’m meant to be
When I’m not close to the edge I find it difficult to see
I know that you think you’ve found a better way to go
I’ll just sit here with my feet over the edge and watch the show

It doesn’t matter what you do
It doesn’t matter where you go
Everything is an illusion
Settle back and watch the show

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 27 : Latitude

I don’t think I meant to leave you behind
I must have had something else on my mind
I don’t think I meant to leave you behind
I must have had something else on my mind

With the sun across my eyes
drifting aimless on the tides
Thoughts are drifting like the sea
You drift through my memory

I don’t think I meant to leave you behind
I must have had something else on my mind
I don’t think I meant to leave you behind
I must have had something else on my mind

Something else on my mind I don’t know what

If this message passes through
all the miles I’ve gone from you
I’m not gone I’ve only moved
To a warmer Latitude

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 26 : Fever Dream

Tortured twisting barely
sleeping yet not waking
gripped in passion fevered
dreaming waking dreaming

Before I’m tossed back on
This cold shore of reason
Let me have this fever
Let me dream this fever

I’m lost in the fever dream

Wake me not I’m dreaming
wake me not I’m dreaming
wake me up I’m screaming
wake me up I’m screaming

I’m tossed in this fevered scream

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 25 : Spirit of Rage

You who took my book from the shelf
You who wrote your words on my page
Understand a spirit of truth
can become a spirit of rage

Spirit of rage spirit of rage
I do not smile I do not age
Spirit of rage spirit of rage
I do not smile I do not age

What shall we call indecision
What shall I make of your smiling
You don’t fool me I know who’s dream
It is that you are defiling

Spirit of rage spirit of rage
I do not speak I am no sage
Spirit of rage spirit of rage
I do not smile I do not age

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 24 : Thesis for Survival

2,121 : 36 ?


Me I don’t care anymore
cutting pictures on the floor
Tryin’ to make the pieces fit
My thesis for survival
They’ll kill you if you care
That’s the way it’s always been
it’s like that everywhere

All my friends that followed love
or simply left the pain
I hear their voices in my head
I see them in the rain

I just don’t care anymore
cutting pictures on the floor
Tryin’ to make the pieces fit
My thesis for survival
They’ll kill you if you care
That’s the way it’s always been
it’s like that everywhere

Drowning in my sunken cost
Oh just like Eric said
I cannot give up what I lost
I hear him in my head

Me I don’t care anymore
cutting pictures on the floor
Tryin’ to make the pieces fit
My thesis for survival
They’ll kill you if you care
That’s the way it’s always been
it’s like that everywhere

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 23 : World Gone Mad

Every day check in check out
On an eight hour tour of hell
As you boil in the emptiness
you’ve come to know so well
The books you read convince you
you gotta live so deep
so you made your life a drama
And deprive yourself of sleep
Is there any doubt we
Live in a world gone mad
Is there any doubt we
Live in a world gone mad
They say buy and we say how much
Go lemmings go and we follow madly
They say look but you cannot touch
they say die and we say gladly
Is there any doubt we
Live in a world gone mad
Is there any doubt we
Live in a world gone mad
Is there any doubt we
Live in a world gone mad
Is there any doubt we
Live in a world gone mad

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 22 : Crack Spine

Shocked up and blocked up frozen and foul
You could not suffer to stand in my shoes
Crack spine cement minded shaken to howl
torn out the mind benumbed blues
You deface me
fear replace me
no excuses
he refuses
Black lost shown across naked naked blind
You cannot ever see what I’m seeing
What did you who was it you thought to find
You cannot be what I’m being
You deface me
fear replace me
no excuses
she refuses

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 21 : Union

What should appear to my wondering eyes
The way that your hips curve into your thighs
I am not searching for mystical union
searching transcendence sacred communion
I do not seek the divine
I only want to lose myself in you
get you underneath my skin
I do not seek the divine
I’d just like to fuck you sometime
I’d just like to fuck you sometime
I’d like to get you under my skin
Lay down my bones and let yourself in
Savor the taste of your wine
My door is open my door’s open wide
Flesh isn’t holy you’ve nothing to hide
I do not seek the divine
Should you appear to my wondering eyes
Do you seek union I know that time flies
I do not seek the divine
I’d just like to fuck you sometime
Savor the taste of your wine
I’d just like to fuck you sometimes

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 20 : Alchemy

I don’t know what you’ve been told
but there’s no way to turn lead into gold
oh - that’s not reality

It’s a day like any other day
Nothing ever changes here it always stays the same
No matter how I twist and turn
these feelings burn I’ve given this a name

I don’t know what you’ve been told
but a love once new so soon grows cold
Aw, that’s reality

I’ve put a name on my frustration
and assigned it a location in the center of my mind
And once you see what I see then
I think you’ll see what we have left behind

I don’t know and I don’t know
I lost my way so long ago
Oh - that’s alchemy

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 19 : Shadow’s Confession

Forgive me father for I have sinned
It has been some time since I confessed
My time’s short but I thought that I
would pause here and get myself blessed
I’m no longer the man I was
the last time I sat under this light
Things have become less simple for me
the questions I asked multiplied

I’m a member of no race a subscriber to no creed
If you choose to label me it’s your prejudice you feed
I will not be what you are I will not be what you’re not
I’m a function of negation I’m a shadow I’m a god

You think it strange that a shadow could
exist without someone to cast it
I saw the sign at the point
of no return and I chose to go past it
I walk in shadow I know it’s wrong
But the touch of light makes me fade
Yet I do no evil and little good
mostly these days I just wait

I’m a member of no race a subscriber to no creed
If you choose to label me it’s your prejudice you feed
I will not be what you are I will not be what you’re not
I’m a function of negation I’m a shadow I’m a god

Now bless me father and five me
the sign of the cross on my forehead and chest
I fear your guess is as good as mine
just what has a shadow confessed
If you lie troubled awake
in your chamber remember that I don’t exist
If you don’t hear from me again
well I trust that I wouldn’t be missed

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 18 : Gravity

2,112 : 27 ?


This is the hill I have to climb
This is the hill I have to climb
This is the hill I have to climb
This is the hill I have to climb

It don’t seem right but I know it’s mine

This is the stone over my tomb
This is the stone over my tomb
This is the stone over my tomb
This is the stone over my tomb

No Angel comin’ to let light into my room

You ask me way I’m so far down
You look but you can’t see
It’s by one law I lead my life
Gravity

Be nice to let the stone roll down
Be nice to let the stone roll down
Be nice to let the stone roll down
Be nice to let the stone roll down

Lie back and let it crush me into the ground

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics hereYou can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 17 : Standstill

Don’t you know I’ve done my time
filling up my place in line
waiting for my number to appear
On it goes day in day out
Always wrestling with doubt
and the feeling that there’s nothing for me here

And the man behind the desk says wait your turn son
I haven’t got mine yet
I’m pushing twenty two
And there’s not a lot that’s new
I’m still looking for the place I’m s’posed to get

It’s just like my friend Eric said
It’s sunken cost all in your head
It’s fear alone that keeps you where you’re standin’
The shit I never cared about
is all I ever think about
what kind of fucking job I’ll end up landing

And the man behind the desk says wait your turn son
I haven’t got mine yet
I’m pushing twenty five
feeling a little less alive
still searching for the place I’m s’posed to get

That line it coils ‘round the world
like a serpent it is curled
biting its own tail never-ending
Stand still and do your part
know you’ll end up where you start
the world is on your spine to keep you bending

And the man behind the desk says wait your turn son
I haven’t got mine yet
I’m pushing sixty three
I have to doubt I’ll ever be
endin’ up in the place I’m s’posed to get

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 16 : Slip the Tracks

I never finish
I never finish
I never finish anything I start
I never finish
I never finish anything I start
I’m not afraid
to write this song
I’m not afraid
to write this song
I’m not afraid
to write this song
I’m only afraid to do it wrong
Too distracted to begin
my thoughts slip the tracks again
I’m chasing down another
derailed creation
Lost looking for light
Lost looking for light
To show the way to make the words come right
Lost looking for light
Lost looking for light
To show the way to make the words come right
Giving up
is the easy part
giving up
is the easy part
giving up
is the easy part
When you don’t finish anything you start
Too distracted to begin
my thoughts slip the tracks again
I’m chasing down another
derailed creation
I never finish
I never finish
I never finish anything I start

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 15 : The Hourglass Reigned

The hourglass reigned until its sand had
beat him halfway dead
said let the chips fall where they may
They all fell on his head
And tho he walked in ways of plays he’d seen
And books he’d read
The piper scorned payment in blood
And stole his time instead

She came to him like Christ, at the
beginning and the end
And when she left him, that was when
his mind began to bend
Around the words she’d spoken
when his lie he’d tried to lend
Your blood, my love, won’t buy me
it is time you have to spend

And for a while like fools and poets will
he spoke in rhyme
And said each day this search for truth
strikes me as less sublime
And tho to hilltop hermitages
he did bravely climb
The masters had no answers but
to give the matter time

His fingers moved like fire across
the fretboard of the dawn
He realized that all the dreams
he’d once had now were gone
And saw that when he’d lost himself
To chase a siren’s song
He had somehow forgotten
what he’d waited for so long

Twas not that he’d been crucified
that made him feel so lost
But that he knew that it was he
who’d built that wormwood cross
The rusted spikes that held his wrists
were rimed with blood and frost
He’d never even guess at
just how much his time would cost

Forty days and forty nights
he ran away from strife
And then stopped dead and balanced
on the thin edge of a knife
The God of war had taken Aphrodite
as his wife
And in the shadow of their wings
he wasted half his life

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 14 : Need

2,105 : 20 ?


I need you - I guess you’ve heard that before
You need me - guess I could hear it, just once more
I don’t know what I need - she said goodbye
and I shut the door
I guess I know what I don’t need
Is to ask again what we’re fighting for
Oh, it’s always so, what will come and what will be
All I know all I know
One more lonely night’s gonna kill me
One more lonely night’s gonna kill me
One more lonely night’s gonna kill me
I don’t know what I need
You don’t know what you desire
maybe together we could not know nothing
maybe together we could put out this fire
I don’t know, don’t know what I need -
She said goodbye and I shut the door
Maybe it’s time maybe it’s time
to ask what the hell am I fighting for

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 13 : The Masks (II)

The masks are gone now
I have survived
The storm has come and gone
I am alive
I can see clearly now
Shed of my mask
I see I’ve got one more
question to ask -

You can see me
But can I see you?
Maybe together
we’ll find something true

One man alone
may be deceived
But two together
might be believed

Two speaking clearly
could become three
The possibilities
seem endless to me

So if you can see me -
If you’re ready to
Then take off your mask, friend
I want to see you

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 12 : The Storm

...The storm is Here

Mighty tornado
Raw twisting power
Who is responsible
for it’s calling, I
I called this storm up
brought down its fury
by living a life
That was a hidden lie
My time is up now
my debts are due now
I stand convicted
I stand alone in the eye

surrounded all about
by fearsome raging
winds that reach out and
grasp at my sanity
I cannot hold out
against this onslaught
I can’t withstand this
Towering potency
The walls are closing
in for the last time
I feel them tearing
what will become of me?

My God, my God what will become of me?
My God, my God what will become of me?
I call to God what has become of me?
Rip off the masks, rip off the masks
And set me free...

I hear a roaring
inside and outside
of my head as the
storm rips the masks from my face
They fly to pieces
scattered like ashes
storm bares my soul with
Ever increasing pace
And I stand naked
stripped of my armor
Storm has uncovered
my final hiding place

Nothing protects me
No walls left standing
Nothing is left now
Between the storm and me
The final mask is
Losing its purchase
My last defense gone
here now my end must be
The wind takes the mask
Rips it to splinters
The pieces fly away...

I am Free
I am Free
I am Free
Never again to have the masks say who I’ll be
The masks are gone for good
The storm has set me free
There’ll be no such thing as impossibility
The masks are ripped away
Look at what I am-
See me
See me
See me

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here

The Interim : Battles and Bands 11 : The Calm

I’m tired of running
I’ve nothing left inside
The storm has got me cornered
There’s nowhere left to hide

Somehow I thought I’d make it
I must have been mistaken
I thought the masks would save me
But now I feel forsaken

I feel so calm before the storm
Though I know my end is near
It seems almost a blessing
There is no pain, there is no fear

At least I know that I can stop
Running this crazy race today
The storm has come to clean the slate
And blow what’s left of me away

Who would have thought the masks would win
Oh I still hoped I might get clear
and free myself at last of them
But it’s too late too late...

You can read an explanation of the origin of these lyrics here