All posts by bradbirzer

By day, I'm a father of seven and husband of one. By night, I'm an author, a biographer, and a prog rocker. Interests: Rush, progressive rock, cultural criticisms, the Rocky Mountains, individual liberty, history, hiking, and science fiction.
Republic of Letters

Wind-Blown Notes: Rush’s Grace Under Pressure

My favorite Rush album has been, at least going back to April 1984, Grace Under Pressure.  I realize that among Rush fans and among prog fans, this might serve as a contentious choice.  My praise of GUP is not in any way meant to denigrate any other Rush albums.  Frankly, I love them all.  Rush has offered us an outrageous wealth of blessings, and I won’t even pretend objectivity.

I love Rush.  I love Grace Under Pressure.

extrait_rush-grace-under-pressure-tour-1984_0

I still remember opening Grace Under Pressure for the first time.  Gently knifing the cellophane so as not to crease the cardboard, slowly pulling out the vinyl wrapped in a paper sleeve, the hues of gray, pink, blue, and granite and that egg caught in a vicegrip, the distinctive smell of a brand new album. . . . the crackle as the needle hit . . . .

I was sixteen.

From the opening wind-blown notes, sound effects, and men, I was hooked, completely.  I had loved Moving Pictures and Signals–each giving me great comfort personally, perhaps even saving my life during some pretty horrific junior high and early high school moments.

But this Grace Under Pressure.  This was something else.

If Moving Pictures and Signals taught me to be myself and pursue excellence, Grace Under Pressure taught me that once I knew myself, I had the high duty to go into the world and fight for what’s good and right, no matter the cost.  At sixteen, I desperately needed to believe that, and I thank God that Peart provided that lesson.  There are so many other lessons a young energetic boy could have picked up from the rather fragile culture of the time and the incredibly dysfunctional home in which I was raised.  With Grace Under Pressure, though, I was certainly ready to follow Peart into Hell and back for the right cause.  Peart certainly became one of the most foundational influences on my life, along with other authors I was reading at the time, such as Orwell and Bradbury.

Though I’m sure that Peart did not intend for the album to have any kind of overriding story such as the first sides of  2112 or Hemispheres had told, GUP holds together as a concept album brilliantly.

The opening calls to us: beware!  Wake up!  Shake off your slumbers!  The world is near its doom.

Or so it seems.

Geddy’s voice, strong with anxiety, begins: “An ill wind comes arising. . .”  In the pressures of chaos, Pearts suggests, we so easily see the world fall apart, ourselves not only caught in the maelstrom, but possibly aggravating it.  “Red Alert” ends with possibly the most desperate cry of the Old Testament: “Absalom, Absalom!”  Certainly, there is no hope merely in the self.  Again, so it seems.

The second song, gut wrenching to the extreme, deals with the loss of a person, his imprint is all that remains after bodily removed from this existence.  Yet, despite the topic, there is more hope in this song than in the first.  Despite loss, memory allows life to continue, to “feel the way you would.”  I had recently lost my maternal grandfather–the finest man  I ever knew–before first hearing this album.  His image will always be my “Afterimage.”

It seems, though, that more than one have died.  The third song takes us to the inside of a prison camp.  Whether a Holocaust camp or a Gulag, it’s unclear.  Frankly, it’s probably not important if the owners of the camp are Communists or Fascists.  Either way, those inside are most likely doomed.  Not only had I been reading lots of dystopian literature in 1984 (appropriate, I suppose, given the date), but I was reading everything I could find by and about Solzhenitzyn.  This made the Gulag even more real and more terrifying.

Just when the brooding might become unbearable, the three men of Rush seem to offer a Gothic, not quite hellish, smile as the fourth song, “The Enemy Within” begins.  Part One of “Fear,” the fourth track offers a psychological insight into the paranoia of a person.  Perhaps we should first look at our own problems before we place them whole cloth upon the world.

Pick needle up, turn album over, clean with dust sponge, and drop needle. . . .

Funk.  Sci-fi funk emerges after the needle has crackled and founds its groove.  A robot has escaped, perhaps yearning for or even having attained sentience.  I could never count how many hours of conversation these lyrics prompted, as Kevin McCormick and I discussed the nature of free will.  It’s the stuff of Philip K. Dick, the liberal arts, and the best of theology.

More bass funk for track six and a return to psychological introspection, “Kid Gloves.”  But, we move out quickly into the larger world again with the seventh track, “Red Lenses,” taking the listener back to the themes of paranoia.  When the man emerges for action, will he do so in reaction to the personal pain he has experienced, or will he do so with an objective truth set to enliven the common good?

grace_under_pressure_0

In the end, this is the choice for those who do not lose themselves to the cathode rays.  Is man fighting for what should be or he is reacting merely to what has happened, “to live between a rock and a hardplace.”

Unlike the previous albums which end with narrative certainty, Grace Under Pressure leaves the listener with more questions than it does answers, though tellingly it harkens to Hemingway and to T.S. Eliot.

Given the album as a whole, one might take this as Stoic resignation–merely accepting the flaws of the world.  “Can you spare another war?  Another waste land?”

Wheels can take you around

Wheels can cut you down. . . .

We’ve all got to try and fill the void.

But, this doesn’t fit Peart.  We all know whatever blows life dealt Peart, he stood back up, practiced twenty times harder, and read 20 more books.  That man did not go down for long.  And, neither should we.

In the spring of 1987, much to my surprise, one of my humanities professors allowed me to write on the ideas of Peart.  I can no longer find that essay (swallowed up and now painfully lonely on some primitive MacPlus harddrive or 3.5 floppy disk most likely rotting in a landfill in central Kansas), but it was the kind of writing and thinking that opened up whole new worlds to me.  My only quotes were from “Grace Under Pressure,” drawing a distinction between nature of the liberal arts and the loss of humanity through the mechanizing of the human person.  It dealt, understandably, with environmental and cultural degradation, the dangers of conformist thinking, and the brutal inhumanity of ideologies.  It was probably the smartest thing I’d written up to that point in my life, and even my professor liked it.

Of course, the ideas were all Peart’s, and I once again fondly imagined him as that really great older brother–the one who knows what an annoying pain I am, but who sees promise in me anyway, giving me just enough space to find my own way.

I’m fifty seven, and I still want Neil to have been my older brother.

And, if you want more on Rush, here’s my book on Neil Peart at amazon.com.

Republic of Letters

Dave Kerzner’s New Lamb/IT

I’ve been into music—mostly progressive rock and jazz—for as long as I can remember.  As I’ve mentioned before, my first love was YESSONGS—owned by two older brothers.  I loved everything about it—the music, the lyrics, the art.  It also just seemed like a super science-fiction project to my very young mind.  I would’ve been six when YESSONGS came out.

After Yes, my second loves were Kansas and then Genesis.  I encountered Kansas in 1975, sometime around age 8.  In fact, living in Kansas, there was no escaping Kansas.  Americans don’t often realize it, but Kansans are as proud of being Kansans and their fellow Kansans as Texans are about being Texan; they’re just not loud about it.  So, yes, we lived and breathed LEFTOVERTURE and POINT OF NO RETURN.

Genesis, though, didn’t come to me until about 1978, me aged 10, when I fell in love with “Follow You, Follow Me” and purchased AND THEN THERE WERE THREE.  That was one of the first albums I ever bought.  Followed by DUKE, by ABACAB, by GENESIS.  From there, worked backward to TRICK OF THE TALE and WIND AND WUTHERING and, especially, SECONDS OUT.  I loved SECONDS OUT.  I even had video recorded—through the USA Network—a concert from the SECONDS OUT period with Bill Bruford on drums.

I also really liked Peter Gabriel—especially SECURITY—but for some reason I was reluctant to take a deep dive into Gabriel-era Genesis.  Honestly, I have no idea why, except that I so admired the Phil Collins period—especially TRICK and WIND.  

I love the Peter Gabrel era of Genesis so much now, however, that I can barely remember a time when I didn’t love them.  

So, right before I went to college (fall of 1986), I bought LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY.  To state that my mind was boggled, would be an understatement.  I knew “Carpet Crawlers” of course, but to listen to it in context truly floored me.  At the time (remember, I was 18), I thought Lamb was either the greatest statement of prog ever written or a statement of chaos and madness.  Either way, I wasn’t surprised that Gabriel chose to leave after making the album.  Clearly, the album means something profound and deep in the history of prog.

It’s a strange album lyrically, as a young Puerto Rican male wants to escape from the corporate conformity imposed at every level of his life.  Ah, you “progressive hypocrites.”

When Kevin McCormick—one of my all-time closest friends, a professional classical guitarist, a key contributor to this website—and I first talked Genesis (this would’ve been the fall of 1986), I expressed my love of Lamb, and he thought I was crazy.  Only a true Genesis weirdo would like LAMB, just as only a true Yes weirdo would like TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS.  It was a funny conversation.  Kevin, it should be noted, was the first friend I had who could talk music as much as I could.  A high school friend, Joel, came close, but Joel was mostly into college rock and alternative music, not rock or prog.  So, his opinion (or, given LAMB, his anti-opinion) really meant a great deal to me.  Still, I continued to love LAMB as an act of mad genius.

Jump forward fifty years. . . and the mighty and awesome Dave Kerzner has recreated and recorded a brand new version of LAMB simply called IT.  If you don’t know the work of Kerzner, you really should.  He’s the great touchstone or fountainhead of our era’s (third wave or beyond) progressive rock.  From Sound of Contact, through his solo work (NEW WORLD DELUXE and STATIC), through his work with In Continuum, Kerzner is a genius.  He knows how to write the best lyrics, and he also knows how to write the best hooks.  But, there’s one thing about Kerzner that often doesn’t get recognized.  He’s a perfectionist, an audiophile at the level of Steven Wilson.  Don’t get me wrong, Steven Wilson has one of the best ears out there.  But, Kerzner’s is equally good.  

He just gets sound.

As far as I knew there’s nothing that Kerzner has released that I don’t proudly own.  So, when I heard he was remaking LAMB, I was absolutely thrilled.  And, there’s nothing about Kerzner’s version that doesn’t satisfy me.  From his production to its use of real strings, it’s a glorious masterpiece, so very worthy of its now-fifty-year old original.  Kerzner is exactly a year younger than me, and while I don’t know him, I wouldn’t be shocked if he and I encountered the album in much the same way.

In every way, Kerzner has done justice to LAMB.  For 1975, it was immaculately produced, but that simply can’t compare to the immaculate production of 2025.  IT—Kerzner’s version—replicates the entire album, again always advancing the production, especially with live orchestration.  Additionally, Kerzner offers a third disc with alternative versions of the classic tracks.

Even the band of IT is an all-star cast of current prog royalty: Kerzner, Francis Dunnery, Nick D’Virgilio, Fernando Perdomo, Billy Sherwood, and special guests.

Spirit of Cecilia readers, it just doesn’t get better than this.  Whether it’s genius or madness, who can say?  Except to note, there’s always a bit of madness in all genius, and a bit of genius in all madness.  LAMB/IT is smack-dab in the center.  Since Kerzner first sent me the tracks via Bandcamp, I’ve been listening obsessively.  That obsession—part madness and part genius—will continue for sometime, especially as we approach the end of the semester and with finals starting to loom larger. . . .

To order IT, please click here.

Republic of Letters

On Fire: Live from the Blue Morocco/Freddie Hubbard

ON FIRE: LIVE FROM THE BLUE MOROCCO, A HEATED UNISSUED 1967 PERFORMANCE BY FREDDIE HUBBARD, DUE FROM RESONANCE AS LIMITED THREE-LP SET ON
RECORD STORE DAY APRIL 12

Legendary Trumpeter is Heard at His Ferocious Peak at Sylvia Robinson’s Bronx Club with an All-Star Combo Featuring Bennie Maupin, Kenny Barron, Herbie Lewis, and Freddie Waits

Deluxe Package, Also Available on CD on April 18, Includes New Interviews with Maupin and Barron, Notes by Jazz Authority John Koenig, Appreciations and Interviews with Charles Tolliver, Eddie Henderson, Steven Bernstein, Jeremy Pelt and More
Trumpet master Freddie Hubbard is heard at the apex of his early brilliance in the newly unearthed collection On Fire: Live from the Blue Morocco, which arrives on April 12 as an exclusive, limited three-LP Record Store Day release from Resonance Records.

Remastered from the original tapes by Matthew Lutthans, with the LPs mastered by Bernie Grundman and pressed at Le Vinylist, the previously unreleased set was captured by recording engineer Bernard Drayton in 1967 at the Blue Morocco, a jazz spot located in the New York borough of the Bronx and operated by Sylvia Robinson, later a co-founder of Sugar Hill Records. The collection was produced with the full endorsement of the trumpeter’s son and estate representative Duane Hubbard.

Hubbard’s work with Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, his appearances on historic recordings by John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, and his own brilliant recordings as a leader for Blue Note and Impulse! Records led contemporary observers to hail him as the masterful successor to the late Clifford Brown. He is heard on the new release playing a storming set of his own compositions and a pair of smartly arranged standards. Hubbard is backed by his working group of the day, a skilled unit that included saxophonist Bennie Maupin, pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Herbie Lewis, and drummer Freddie Waits.

The package — which will also be issued as a two-CD set on April 18 — is co-produced by Bernard Drayton, his celebrated son and drummer Charley Drayton, and Zev Feldman, the award-winning “Jazz Detective” and co-president of Resonance Records. It includes an introductory essay by jazz scholar John Koenig; new interviews by Feldman with Maupin and Barron; and interviews and appreciations by trumpeters Charles Tolliver, Eddie Henderson, Steven Bernstein, and Jeremy Pelt; and more.

Feldman says, “This album captures Freddie Hubbard at an important point in his career. He had come fully into his own and was forging for himself an honored place in the pantheon of the world’s greatest jazz trumpet players. These live recordings represent Freddie at the height of his powers. The band on these recordings was Freddie’s working group at the time, and they certainly rose to his level.”

“We were excited about Freddie Hubbard coming to the Blue Morocco,” says Drayton, who also captured the previously unreleased recording of Kenny Dorham at the club that is being released for RSD by Resonance. “By 1967, when this album was recorded, Freddie was laying his claim, as Dizzy Gillespie put it, as the greatest trumpet player in the world. Freddie was a dynamo, full of energy and full of pepper. As you can hear, he was on fire. I’m proud to have documented this page in the annals of Freddie’s career.”

Duane Hubbard adds, “My dad, to me and millions of fans, was one of the greatest trumpet players in history. He came to New York from Indianapolis with the drive to be great. In New York, he worked with the top musicians of the time. He took every gig, and he practiced so much and worked so hard that with his natural gifts he rose to be one of the greatest jazz musicians of his, or any, generation.”

“As the performances on this album show,” Koenig writes, “it’s easy to see the qualities that allowed Freddie to make his way into the rarefied milieu of the jazz elite as an instrumentalist. But with this recording, we also have a view of Freddie coming fully into his own as a bandleader. These tracks have never before been heard publicly. They show Freddie in action in a live setting with what was his first regular working band.”

Hubbard’s gifted sidemen of the day testify that playing alongside Hubbard at the top of his game was a thrilling experience.

“Playing with Freddie was very, very intense,” Maupin says. “It was really exciting for me to be able to be a part of the group and be doing these things with him. It was a lot of fun, just great musical fun. For me, playing with someone who had been working with people like Art Blakey, who had that kind of incredible experience, I realized what I needed to do just to keep up with him: I had to really practice a lot. It inspired me to really up my game.”


© Tom Copi
“Musically, playing with Freddie was always great,” says Barron. “Always. And what was great about that band on this record is that with Freddie, we could play all kinds of music. By that, I mean, in one piece, we would go from straight-ahead to avant-garde and switch on a dime, change on a dime. Freddie was always the instigator. If you listened to him, you could tell where he wanted to go and we would just go there with him. It was a great band. I loved playing with them.”

Hubbard’s formidable legacy as a trumpeter has served as an example for his successors on the instrument.

“Hub was one of my trumpet heroes in my youth,” Tolliver says. “Initially coming out of Brownie, by slightly modifying an already great embouchure, he was able physically to fashion and create the style he was aiming for — to execute and muscle the trumpet in a saxophone-like pianistic manner resulting in incredible improvisational feats and solos never heard before, while at the same time delivering a big, sassy, warm, brass sound without ever sacrificing those crucial inherent elements of our art form — swing, the blues, and pure sophistication.”

Henderson recalls, “Freddie dominated the trumpet scene in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. He was without a doubt the top of the hill — his trumpet expertise and prowess, his execution and facility, his range. And his compositions were so challenging, over and above what was coming out of the bebop era. They were very difficult harmonically to maneuver through.”

In an enthusiastic outburst, Bernstein says, “This recording is insane! It’s one of the most exciting live documents I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s f!cking mind-blowing. Freddie’s on fire. It’s just so damn good.”


Resonance Records is a multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning label (most recently for John Coltrane’s Offering: Live at Temple University for “Best Album Notes”) that prides itself in creating beautifully designed, informative packaging to accompany previously unreleased recordings by the jazz icons who grace Resonance’s catalog. Headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, Resonance Records is a division of Rising Jazz Stars, Inc. a California 501(c) (3) non-profit corporation created to discover the next jazz stars and advance the cause of jazz. Current Resonance Artists include Tawanda, Eddie Daniels, Tamir Hendelman, Christian Howes and Donald Vega. www.ResonanceRecords.org

Republic of Letters

New Frost* Single


FROST* launch stand-alone single ‘Western Atmosphere’ 
UK Progressive Rock group Frost* is pleased to share a new stand-alone single titled “Western Atmosphere.” This song was originally featured as a Japanese-only bonus track on the album ‘Life in the Wires,’ and sees band leader Jem Godfrey joined by Randy McStine (Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree – live guitarist), Mike Keneally (Devin Townsend) & Nick D’Virgilio (Big Big Train).Godfrey says this about the track: “I sometimes wonder what would have happened had I stayed in bed 10 minutes longer than I did on Monday 11th of January 2010. Perhaps my life would have gone in a completely different direction and Frost* would have ended up with the lineup of myself on keys, vocals and bass, Mike Keneally on guitar, Nick D’Virgilio on drums and Randy McStine on guitar and vocals. We’ll never know, I guess.” You can check out “Western Atomosphere here:https://youtu.be/bBGzCXXT9j0
https://frost-band.lnk.to/WesternAtmosphere-Single
Frost* released their critically acclaimed double concept album ‘Life In The Wires’ last October.  The album received rave reviews from press and fans alike, ending up on many end-of-year Best-Of lists and winning Album of the Year in The Prog Report Awards.
Stream or purchase ‘Life in the Wires’ here:https://frost-band.lnk.to/LifeInTheWires
 Check out the videos from the album below:

“Life in the Wires, Pt.1”“Moral and Consequence”“Idiot Box”“The Solid State Orchestra”“It’s actually a continuation from Day and Age” explains Godfrey, “the first track on the new album starts with the end of the last track from that album “Repeat to Fade,” where the static comes up and a voice says “Can you hear me?”. I remember putting that in when we did Day and Age as a possible little hook for the future; a character somewhere out there in Day and Age land trying to be heard. What does he want to say? Can anybody hear him? Day and Age kind of sets up the world that this character lives in and Life In The Wires tells his story”.The story revolves around the main character Naio, an aimless kid heading for a meaningless future in an A.I. run world. He hears an old DJ talking on the ancient AM radio his mother once gave him and decides to trace the source of the signal and find “Livewire” to see if there’s a better future out there. However, the All Seeing Eye is less than impressed at this bid for independent thought and fights back. Soon Naio finds himself pursued across the country by an outraged mob as he tries to locate the home of Livewire and his freedom. Tune in at www.lifeinthewires.com and see if you can hear Livewire on the radio.Helping create this parallel world are the “classic” Frost* lineup of guitarist John Mitchell, bassist Nathan King, and returning drummer Craig Blundell.Fans of the band’s masterful debut album Milliontown (2006) will enjoy the band revisiting the style that made that debut album one of the most successful prog rock albums of the last 20 years, a fact that was not lost on Godfrey as he was writing this new record.“With Day and Age, we made it a very specific point: we’re not doing any solos, we’ll do clever arrangements. And we enjoyed that discipline, but this time I thought it might be good to row back on that position a bit. Plus, I wanted to have a little bit of a nod to Milliontown with this album, because it’s been nearly 20 years since Milliontown came out and I’m still proud of it. The 15-minute title track has a few of those Milliontown moments in it which were great fun to do again.”
FROST* online:
www.frost.life
https://www.facebook.com/frostlife/
https://x.com/Here_Be_Frost
https://www.instagram.com/here_be_frost/
https://www.youtube.com/@here_be_frost
INSIDEOUT MUSIC online:
www.insideoutmusic.com
www.youtube.com/InsideOutMusicTV
www.facebook.com/InsideOutMusic
https://x.com/insideouteu
https://www.instagram.com/insideoutmusic/
www.insideoutmusic.store
Spotify-Progressive Rock Playlist
Republic of Letters

The Who: Eminence Front

The sun shines
And people forget
The spray flies as the speedboat glides
And people forget
Forget they’re hiding
The girls smile
And people forget
The snow packs as the skier tracks
People forget
Forget they’re hiding

Behind an eminence front
Eminence front, it’s a put on
It’s an eminence front
It’s an eminence front, it’s a put on
An eminence front
Eminence front, it’s a put on
Eminence front
It’s an eminence front 
It’s an eminence front, it’s a put on
It’s a put on, it’s a put on, it’s a put on

Come and join the party
Dress to kill
Won’t you come and join the party
Dress to kill, dress to kill

Drinks flow
People forget
That big wheel spins, the hair thins
People forget
Forget they’re hiding
The news slows
People forget
Their shares crash, hopes are dashed
People forget
Forget they’re hiding

Behind an eminence front
An eminence front, it’s a put on
It’s just an eminence front
An eminence front, it’s a put on
An eminence front
An eminence front, it’s a put on
Eminence front 
It’s an eminence front, it’s a put on
It’s a put on, it’s a put on, it’s a put on

Come on join the party
Dress to
Come on join the party
Dress to
Come on join the party
Dress to
Come on join the party
Dress to kill
Dress yourself, dressed to kill

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Peter Dennis Blandfor Townshend

Eminence Front lyrics © Spirit Music Group

Republic of Letters

The Who: Won’t Get Fooled Again

We’ll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again

A change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that’s all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed
‘Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again, no, no

I’ll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half-alive
I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do you?

Yeah

There’s nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are effaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again, no, no

Yeah
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Peter Townshend

Won’t Get Fooled Again lyrics © Abkco Music Inc., Spirit Music Group

Republic of Letters

Sixpence None the Richer: We Have Forgotten

Dreams inconsistent angel things. 
Horses bred with star laced wings. 
But it’s so hard to make them fly fly fly. 
These wings beat the night sky ‘bove the town. 
One goes up and one goes down. 
And so the chariot hits the ground bound bound. 

We have forgotten (don’t try to make me fly) 
How it used to be (I’ll stay here I’ll be fine). 
How it used to be (don’t go and let me down) 
How it used to be (I’m starting to like this town). 

When wings beat the night sky ‘bove the ground, 
Will I unwillingly shoot them down 
With all my petty fears and doubts, down, down? 

We have forgotten (am I in love with this?) 
How it used to be (my constant broken ship) 
How it used to be (don’t go, I’ll shoot you down), 
How it used to be (I’m starting to like this town).

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Matthew Preston Slocum

We Have Forgotten lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

Republic of Letters

Sixpence None the Richer: Kiss Me

Kiss me out of the bearded barley
Nightly, beside the green, green grass
Swing, swing, swing the spinning step
You wear those shoes and I will wear that dress

Oh, kiss me beneath the milky twilight
Lead me out on the moonlit floor
Lift your open hand
Strike up the band
And make the fireflies dance
Silver moon’s sparkling
So kiss me

Kiss me down by the broken tree house
Swing me upon its hanging tire
Bring, bring, bring your flowered hat
We’ll take the trail marked on your father’s map

Oh, kiss me beneath the milky twilight
Lead me out on the moonlit floor
Lift your open hand
Strike up the band
And make the fireflies dance
Silver moon’s sparkling
So kiss me

Kiss me beneath the milky twilight
Lead me out on the moonlit floor
Lift your open hand
Strike up the band
And make the fireflies dance
Silver moon’s sparkling
So kiss me

So kiss me
So kiss me
So kiss me

Republic of Letters

Pink Floyd: Echoes

Overhead the albatross
Hangs motionless upon the air
And deep beneath the rolling waves
In labyrinths of coral caves
The echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine

And no one showed us to the land
And no one knows the where’s or why’s
But something stirs and something tries
And starts to climb toward the light

Strangers passing in the street
By chance, two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand the best I can?

And no one calls us to move on
And no one forces down our eyes
No one speaks and no one tries
No one flies around the sun

Cloudless everyday
You fall upon my waking eyes
Inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Come streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning

And no one sings me lullabies
And no one makes me close my eyes
So I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: David Gilmour / George Waters / Nicholas Mason / Richard Wright

Echoes lyrics © T.R.O. Inc.