Hold Your Fire
Album - 3 settembre 1987 - Debaser id 345

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

We can rise and fall like empires
Flow in and out like the tide
Be vain and smart, humble and dumb
We can hit and miss like pride.

We can circle around like hurricanes
Dance and dream like lovers
Attack the day like birds of prey
Or scavengers undercover.

Look in
To the eye of the storm
Look out
For the force without form
Look around
At the sight and sound
Look in, Look out, Look around.

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.

Rising falling at force ten
We twist the world and ride the wind.

Look in
Look the storm in the eye
Look out
To the sea and the sky
Look around
At the sight and sound
Look in, look out, look around.

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
Time stand still

Freeze this moment
A little bit longer
Make each sensation
A little bit stronger
Experience slips away...
Experience slips away...
Time stand still

I turn my face to the sun
I close my eyes
I let my defenses 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 aground
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 sensation
A little bit stronger

Make each impression
A little bit stronger
Freeze this motion
A little bit longer

The innocence slips away...
The innocence slips away...
Time stand still
Time stand still

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

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

Freeze this moment
A little bit longer
Make each sensation
A little bit stronger
Experience slips away...
Experience slips away...
The innocence slips away...

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 a 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
Well we read about the exceptions
In the papers everyday.

It ought to be second nature
At least that's what I feel
Now I lay me down in dreamland
I know perfects 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

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 in 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 scenes.

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

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 time bomb
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.

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.

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

Hold your fire-
Keep it burning bright
Hold the flame 'til 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
focussed high on soaring ambitions
consumed in a single desire

In the grip of a nameless possesion-
A slave to the drive of obsession-
A spirit with a vision
Is a dream with a mission

I watch their images flicker
Bringing life to a lifeless screen
I walk through their beautiful buildings
And I wish I had their dreams

But dreams dont need to have motion
To keep their spark alive
Obsession has to have action
Pride turns on the drive

Its 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

Nothing can survive in a vacuum
No one can exist 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 views.

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.

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

Clouds surrounded the summit
The wind blew strong and cold
Among the silent temples
And the writings 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 for the eastern sea.
I looked upon a presence
Spanning forty centuries.

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