SKUNKWORKS (1996)

SPACE RACE

Yes, yes, I'd launch a rocket right into the rising sun
My living breath is measured, every step is gone
Fare you well my friends
see you down the line, yeah, yeah

I don't belong to nation, state or buying race
I leave my prejudice with you, my religion's in space
So have a little respect

CHORUS:
Why are we running in this space race?
Why are we acting like we own the place?
Just want to feel the starlight on my face
Reach out my hand and touch beyond...

Yea, yes, I'd float around till gravity's end
unity is coming singular again
See you then my friend
at the end of time, yeah, yeah

Secret knowledge, science, logic is all gone
Nothing left but burning up into the sun
On a cosmic beach, I'll see ya there




BACK FROM THE EDGE

A silent river flowing black
Strange attractions, no turning back
Present danger I recall
that pins my senses to the wall

Back from the edge where the
darkness has fled and I'm 
swimming in light and I'm
falling, falling from the edge

Back from the edge

I fell from grace and that's a fact
I still have urges I fight back
Cold decisions wear me thin
Kill yourself, begin again

Back from the fear that you're
not worth a damn, throw your-
self into light and the rush as you
spin from the edge

Back from the edge

Now and then I wonder where the faces from my childhood have gone
Like father like son in your bones it lives on glowing shadows

SOLO

Back from the edge (repeat to end)




INERTIA

These are the pictures, these are the feelings from the front-line
Living in silence, feeling the deafness like heavy smoke
Smiling with strangers, counting the days, like a spring coiled up inside
Welcome to your future, welcome to your book of lies

Fingers crawl through pages, nothing changes, living here...

CHORUS:
Inertia, no wish to move at all
Inertia, everything's a stone wall
Inertia, history lets you die

A ragged pile of silent accusers
Smell the blood of strangers here
No eyes, no ears, no smell, no taste
The mouth of the maggot is full in this place

Murdered conscience, the pressure is crushing heads
like paper lanterns now
Unbreakable grip, a dead hand driving us forward to the end

Kicking through traces a thousand years from now

Inertia, no wish to think at all
Inertia, everything's a stone wall
Inertia, history lets you die

SOLO

REPEAT CHORUS (x2)




FAITH

You knew I wouldn't go, that's why you threatened me
would I stay?
Said I was sick, I'd be alone, said my mind was at my own
I didn't run
You crawled up on your knees, a victims pretty please
Would I stay?  Would I stay?  ...and I stayed

CHORUS:
How many more times till I broke down
from my guilty mess
You taught me to hate to love you
That's because you love to hate yourself

I wish it had a happy end, like the fairy-tales pretend
there can be
But things are not the same when your life love was a game
of make believe
You get everything you want but not everything you need
and it's true, you receive what you achieve

How many screaming fights tears of rage
until it ended
How many more times till I say who I am
and don't pretend

SOLO

How many more times till I broke down
from that guilty mess
How many more times till I say who I am
and don't pretend




SOLAR CONFINEMENT 

Trapped inside a web of fiery gravity that fuels all our needs
Chaotic energy that sucks the life from H to He
All life withers in the sun
I deny what I have done
Spend my days and nights in crimson halls of roaring fire

CHORUS:
Solar confinement
Solar confinement 
Solar confinement 
Solar distress flares, Oh-o!

I've slept with many strangers
so fission fusion fission makes good sense
Where I lay my head 
my troubles I put down to experience
It's cold and lonely in the sun
I deny what I have done
Spend my days and nights in crimson halls of roaring fire

REPEAT CHORUS:

Solar distress flares, Oh-o!

SOLO

A lonely boy sits in his room
His curtains hide the sun
Confess to what you've done
and no one understands

REPEAT CHORUS (x2)

Solar distress wears
Solar distress wears
Solar distress wears, Oh-o!




DREAMSTATE

Well you bred me
Well you fed me
Well you made me what I am

Something for nothing
Good for nothing
Well...

It's a dreamstate, a dreamstate
To kill me with your kindness you'll just have to wait

You say I'm nothing
You say I'm nothing
Never gonna be something
Well then, that's life for me

Your expectations, your reservations
Aw, come on, please

It's a dreamstate, a dreamstate
You bought into the vision so you don't have to wait
A dreamstate of bliss, a dreamstate of bliss
A dreamstate, a dreamstate

Now I'm standing up here before the judge
Juries got their head where the sun don't shine
Everybody's lying on my case
they're lying on my, lying on my, lying on my
Lying on my case

Eyes above me, eyes above me
Never realised there was someone else in here
No resolution and no conclusion
Do I believe?

It's a dreamstate, a dreamstate
You fell for it sucker, you fell for the bait
A dreamstate of bliss, a dreamstate of bliss
A dreamstate, a dreamstate




I WILL NOT ACCEPT THE TRUTH

I will not accept the truth
I will not accept the truth 
I will not accept the truth 
That I'll never get there
never get there, yeah, yeah

I must not push forward, no
I must not push forward, no
I must not push forward, no
Cuz I'll never get there
I'll never get there, no way

I will not believe your lies
I will not believe your lies
I will not believe your lies
You say I'll never get there
never get there

Hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on

SOLO

I will not accept the truth
I will not believe your lies
I will not acknowledge pain
I will survive and live again

Coming back now, rising up now

Hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on

I will not accept the truth
I will not accept the truth
I will not accept the truth!




INSIDE THE MACHINE 

I've got myself a widget
A gizmo with wires and Martian intent, yeah
Strange face of beauty, that's my machine
It blinks and stares right at me
Sees nothing, but in it's wires
A strange thing of beauty, that's my machine

You won't believe what it can do
It tells me things I never wished I knew
Like the mirror, when you ask, it tells you true

Inside the machine, the web has got you now
Inside the machine, yeah-eh-eh-eh-eah!

I'd strap my DNA to it
A living device, the light of my life, yeah
Strange face of beauty, that's my machine
I sit and we crackle with static
It makes no sense to have experience when...
A strange thing of beauty, that's my machine

You won't believe what it can do
It tells me things I never wished I knew
Like the mirror, when you ask, it tells you true

Inside the machine, we're looking for control
Inside the machine, you're part of it somehow
Inside the machine, yeah, yeah, yeah

SOLO

Inside the machine, the web has got you now
Inside the machine, you're part of it somehow
Inside the machine, we're looking for control
Inside the machine, yeah, yeah, yeah




HEADSWITCH

What would induce you to swear your allegiance to God?
Tonight...
Joined at the hip to a million volt switch of the light
Alright...

You want to find out what the planet's about
Falling from grace leaves a cool empty space in the sky

Your eyes are black as they see the red ball of the sun
And they're blind
Dribbling with come as the volts start to arc through your mind
It's cruel but it's kind

Like father, like son
Chop off the head but the body lives on
Falling from grace leaves a cool empty space in the sky

SOLO

Like father, like son
Chop off the head but the body lives on
Heaven that made you has screwed you and laughed
Falling from grace leaves a cool empty space in the sky




MELTDOWN

Hey, you wait, cringing in the dark
You create what you always fear
A puppet of hatred dishing out poison

You use me for bait, you're begging bowls of lies
Chain letters of snivelling compromise

I can smell the difference, your truth and you're fiction
You and your twisted convictions

CHORUS:
Were you my friend when I belonged?
Were you my friend when I was strong?
Were you my friend when I was weak?
Were you my friend when I was crawling, calling...
...out of my head?

Cold, like your blood
The snake is always cool (cool)
When things get tough

You slither on the ground
You cover up your tracks when I'm around

It's over now my friend
Your dog has had it's day
It's payback time, or what you had to say

You're stuck with the life you made
Stuck with the plans you made
Stuck with everything you are

REPEAT CHORUS

Everything's gonna happen now (x4)

SOLO

REPEAT CHORUS




OCTAVIA

I'm vacuum breathing and open mouthed as the red shift fills my eyes
Oh. Minister, my promises as her shadow cuts the day away

I remembered you when you walked into that room

Dislocated jagged pieces are sliding into this broken mind
I'm swimming back against the river but I'm rising with the tide

Where we came from, we're all going back there soon

CHORUS:
How many times have we met this way
How many lives have we lived before
How many faces and how many names
Shadows come but shadows are gone
Shadows come but shadows are gone

SOLO

REPEAT CHORUS




INNERSPACE

I see the scars of action writhing round your face
Too much inactivity and home's a lonely place
Throw away your beauty cuz you know that it won't last
Throw away your present, you've been living in the past

Come on, take a trip with me across the bridge of lunacy
Fire up some beast and ride the skywaves
Don't wanna waste my time on you if you can't travel this way too
Fire up this beast, we'll ride the skywaves

I've thrown away my images, they're all so distant now
Discovery was a stranger then, welcome to my house
Whatever demons torture me I love them like a friend
Nothing lasts forever but the certainty of change

I'd rather move around and be than figure out live and what it means
Fire up some beast and ride the skywaves
Don't wanna waste my time on you if you can't travel this way too
Fire up this beast, we'll ride the skywaves

SOLO

And when the fireballs work is done, and we are part of the nuclear one
The whole damn thing begins again
Our glory days have just begun, a fiery sideslip then we're gone
I'll see ya Monday morning

Any way I'm coming back
Any way I'm coming back




STRANGE DEATH IN PARADISE

Spiralling falling, a silver machine
From wings of freedom, silent above
Eyelids were burning, summer sun roasting
Tumbling chrome in the clear blue sky

Brighter that sunshine for all of our lifetimes
One thousand stars turned day into night at the end

CHORUS:
Where were you when it fell from the sky?
I saw the movie, I read the reply
In the beginning there was only the word

People were kissing in front of their shadows
Children were playing out in the yard
I am not guilty, I made no difference
I wasn't born and I wasn't made on that day

REPEAT CHORUS

SOLO

Strange death in paradise (x6)