Cycles
• Musical Renditions From This Set:
• Circling the Drain (Click for Audio)
Personnel:
Andy Gupta: Original music, bass
Billy Playle: Final arrangement, keyboards, synthesizers, guitars
George Williams: Lead & backing vocals
Alex Zulaika: Drums
Nick Testa: Mix/Master
M. Centra: Lyrics, original vocal melody *
* slightly altered lyrics
VICIOUS CYCLE
Lungs and legs about to give out
Still pushing with a vengeance on an incline of doubt
Not knowing or caring where it's all heading
Or even how it might end
Wind and rain hold a cruel surprise
For every rough and tumble rolling with our demise
Life chained to a shelf, ever dwindling health
Do I dare think myself any better?
Can't think of anything but the road ahead
Can't look to anyone for understanding
Can't count on any force but the naked tire tread
Can't make sense of a world uncomprehending
chorus:
Born of a vicious cycle
All vicious and mean
Swirling in a death spiral
Where the vulture's scream
Cursed heir to the prophecy
Of a doomsday fate
Delivered to extinction
Born but all too late
All too late
All too late
Traffic ebbs, the chaos subsides
To the pessimistic solitude of daily bike rides
And growing concerns how the world ever squirms
With its third degree burns out of this one
Land and Sea respond in effect
To our catastrophic arrogance, abuse and neglect
Can anyone born into such a shit-storm
Emerge wounded and worn out of this one?
Can't talk to anyone of the fear and dread
Can't fight the thought it's borrowed time I'm spending
Can't help but pedal on to clear my troubled head
Can't see life in a world so fit for ending
(chorus)
RANDOM RESPAWN
Nothing special from re-start
Another player hits the mix
Reborn into this playground of contention
A glitched-out game programmed for pain
No line of code can fix
I keep my head down
Pedal onward
Let the rush of speed contort me
To a blur, frenetic purr
A streak of light
No the world doesn't play
Like the fantasies the software runs
When it's all just a blur of downturns
And undeserved outcomes
You get your share of laughs
Where you can
In this limited lifespan
Oh...
chorus:
The Universe will cycle you through
Little you can change, little you can do
To breathe, to speak, to soften the blows
To be reanimated somewhere nobody knows
As a member of some future race
In a distant realm of Time and Space
We randomly respawn
We cry and carry on...
Something dead lies in the road
Cursing cars and all the dumb luck
Our end can come from any odd direction
Each life a fact born for impact
Blind-sided, stabbed or struck
I keep my eyes peeled
Pedal onward
Let the twists of Time distort me
To a smear, a trailing tear
A fading voice
You can turn tail or face
The onrushing flood of passing cars
Like the lingering shame
In a night's foray of singles bars
You give your share of sighs
Drink and grieve
Look around depressed and leave
Oh...
(chorus)
We randomly respawn
We laugh and lumber on...
FIVE STAR VIEWS INCLUDED
Will you be safe, will you be hurt?
Will you be born to a full blown psycho?
Will you live well, will you live fast?
Will you be dead by the next news cycle?
Will you speak up, will you pipe down?
Will you stand firm in raw defiance?
Will you lay low, will you walk tall?
Will you concede with full compliance?
chorus:
You could be the voice the people cheer
The coward curled up in a ball of fear
You can have your choice of luxuries
A priceless world shattered by fierce unease
You can win the peace all signed and sealed
Eyes skyward, dying on a battlefield
The Universe supplies the view
(And it's yet to suck)
The rest of it is up to you
(And a little luck)
And a little luck
Existence gives no guarantees
I don't want you deluded
But each life holds amenities
These five star views included
These five star views included
You could work hard, you could daydream
You could live like a media starlet
You could be shown saving mercy
You could be sold at a large slave market
You could be cool, you could lose it
Never a moment to yourself alone
You could die young, you could linger
Old and forgotten in a nursing home
(chorus)
repeat to fade:
The rest of it is up to you
(and a little luck)
TAILWHIPS & CURB ENDOS
What could you do as a Cold War kid
In a life and death game between super foes?
Wondering what the hell you ever did
To inherit the nuclear threats in silos
Amy and ice cream, bare feet burning hot
Warm winds and weeping willows
Practicing stunts in the pool parking lot
Tailwhips and curb endos
What could we do?
Life was so new
chorus 1:
Under the threat of a nuclear hell
How could we cope but defy and rebel?
Cutting out early from homeroom class
Spring days too good to let pass
Endless distractions to fill the voids
Star Castle and Asteroids
Learning the riffs and the drum solos
Tailwhips and curb endos
What could you do as a latchkey kid
Coming home to an empty house after school?
Smoking the stash we so carefully hid
Organizing a band for our chance to be cool
Aimlessly daydream to hours of Rush
Signals and Power Windows
Performing our stunts in view of our crush
Tailwhips and curb endos
What could we do?
Love was so new
chorus 2:
Watching the tide of our social decay
Plotting escape somewhere far and away
Born vagabonds of the neighborhood
Always out late and up to no good
Meet at the fields or convenience store
Searching for gold on the streambed floor
Time ever so quietly ticks and flows
Tailwhips and curb endos
(fade out):
What could we do?
Time ever so quietly ticks and flows
What could we do?
Tailwhips and curb endos
What could we do?
Learning the riffs and the drum solos
What could we do?
Warm winds and weeping willows
What could we do?
RECYCLE & REPAIR
When it comes to Evolution
They sow the seeds of doubt
But when the subject turns to God
They know Him inside out
And so they stand self-righteously
Refusing to be moved
God is not up for debate
But the Big Bang must be proved
Cue the quantum flux
And cosmic permutations
Countering the text
Of ancient incantations
chorus:
All the living left for dead - hope springs eternal still -
If a god won't resurrect us the Cosmos surely will
No fate to fear forever, no permanent despair
The Universe will rectify, recycle and repair
By way of healing recipes hatched in stewing galaxies
Pulling life out of thin air and exotic atmospheres
Religion claims monopoly
On all of resurrection
But the forces that give rise to life
Remain a burning question
Creationists insist that it's
Intelligent design
But if it's not, the matter moves
To just the work of Time
Elemental forms
Spur physical attractions
Activating bonds
Spark chemical reactions
(chorus)
bridge:
Perhaps in their own way each side is correct
And maybe in truth we are wasting our breath
Religion and science might both intersect
In no better way than transcendence of death
(chorus)
The Universe will rectify, recycle and repair
By way of secret recipes born in stewing galaxies
Breathing life out of thin air and exotic atmospheres
PATHS WE PEDAL
A mechanical method of motion
Biological source of energy
The most efficient form of propulsion
The black beauty of modern industry
Three piece cranks, saw-tooth pedals
Propelling you forward with a vengeance
Precision alloy of aircraft metals
You fall into the rhythm of the cadence
chorus:
A journey unrivaled to ride through life
From the perch of vehicular traction
Portable freedom, a breeze to maintain
With the barest of brute interaction
Society connected, environment respected
On painstakingly perfected paths we pedal
Shifting your weight into onrushing curves
Dizzying blur of roadside scenery
Pushing the speed to the edge of your nerves
A marvel of modern machinery
Dual disc brakes, churning belt drive
Relentless attraction to the danger
Silent momentum, life coming alive
And in tune with the rhythm of Nature
(chorus)
bridge:
Swerve around the chaos in the corresponding lane
Rest along the roadside taking shelter from the rain
Push hard to make good time and pedal through the pain
On paths we pedal - from teeming streets to lush terrain
On paths we pedal - kick in gear the old drivetrain
On paths we pedal until we're all smoothed out and sane
CIRCLING THE DRAIN
Planets dart and dance
Move in unison
Vibrate to the rhythm
Of the cosmic hum
Lightning in the sky
Splashes on the waves
Echoes in the forest
Firelight in caves
Are there jealous worlds watching afar?
Do they have no inkling where we are?
Dim dots across a star
Exotic and bizarre
chorus:
The glint of an alien telescope
Skims the galactic plane
When our ticking time bomb floats into view
While circling the drain
The signals fly in vain
Neurons multiply
Ideas circulate
Discourse growing toxic
Toxicity of tongues
Viralizing hate
Figureheads emerge
Weapon-wielding hands
Displaced populations
Confiscated lands
Will the better worlds reach us in time?
Will our pale blue dot rot on the vine?
The limb too far to climb
The jewel robbed of its shine
(chorus)
THE UNIVERSE IS OUT TO FIX US UP
(In recognition of Adela Florence Nicolson)
Took my eyes off for a second
Lost you for another trillion years
One life grants me all my hopes
The next delivers all my fears
A glimpse of you on one world
Imprinted on my gaze
Your voice vibrates through lifetimes
Like echoes in a maze
A brief affair on a busy planet
Lifetime alone on the next
Two lost souls en route to where
Our existence redirects
Was I one of your many suitors
Rejected in your last life?
Did you, a ghostly face in the crowd,
Long in vain to be my wife?
chorus 1:
We can scorn each other
Squander sweeps of time
Taunt or toy with dreams -
Defying all design -
We can dodge our destiny
Summon all our strength to let it be
We can sit content with our empty cup
But the Universe is out to fix us up
In one life we were close classmates
And we never even knew
The next life you were standing right there
To slip right past my view
Another time showed growing promise
But our tempers proved a wall
You reappeared not three lives later
With no eyes for me at all
Next we resumed it was love at first sight
On some cratered war-torn moon
But in the debris of a mushroom cloud
It was over much too soon
Are we the now divided souls
Of a long lost former romance?
Each life a quest to reunite
Against the twists of circumstance?
chorus 2:
We can mock the notion -
Deplore the prospect -
But the right lifetime
Our eyes connect
The floodgates of love are breached
The singularity of presence reached
A spirit can stir in the coldest cup
And the Universe is out to fix us up
bridge:
Off we go on our separate quests
Wherever our being manifests
Will our rocky roads collide?
Our deepest passions coincide?
breakdown:
From a quantity of atoms
Inhabiting deep space
Who knew such lonely stardust
Would one day form your face?
From a pattern of genetics
As complex as the weather
Who knew we would assemble
To stand here now together?
(chorus 1+2)
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