DREAM THEATER
1. A FORTUNE IN LIES
2. STATUS SEEKER
3. THE YTSE JAM
4. THE KILLING HAND
I. The Observance
II. Ancient Renewal
III. The Stray Seed
IV. Thorns
V. Exodus
5. LIGHT FUSE AND GET AWAY
6. AFTERLIFE
7. THE ONES WHO HELP SET THE SUN
8. ONLY A MATTER OF TIME
A FORTUNE IN LIES
I can remember when
In the unity of our five-day sessions
Not even once
Did we hear the siren song
What kind of imagination
Asleep in some lyrical coma
Who's vain futile memory
Could have been so wrong?
You can make a fortune in lies
You can keep a giant alive
You can ride the red
Until everybody smiles
A trifling euphoria
Was such an untimely religion
Maybe your life can explain
The reason for my indecision
Here is a poor man
The heart of this monster creation
He said we both will be heroes
And I was led into temptation
You can make a fortune in lies
You can keep a giant alive
You can ride the red
Until everybody smiles
Can you show me your gold and your silver?
A hero in frozen water
Now you've made a fortune in lies
And you kept a giant alive
You rode the red
You rode the red
STATUS SEEKER
Heart sick at the sight of the Status Seeker
In a sense I'm not beyond reproach
The aspiration to drop a name
When any rose might smell the same
Maybe you'll figure it out someday
"I want to know you now...
You know I've always believed in you"
Nothing is sacred...
You draw the bottom line with a dollar sign
Change of opinion...
At the drop of a dime
Graceless intrusion...
Are you sanctified in your judgment of me?
All that I deserve
Is what you were unable to see
In a garden where the seeds were spilled
I favored the few that stood strong in the sun
As I reached for the profit of my prize
I found I had trampled the forgotten ones
Nothing is sacred...
You draw the bottom line with a dollar sign
Change of opinion...
At the drop of a dime
Graceless intrusion...
Are you sanctified in your judgment of me?
All that I deserve
Is what you were unable to see
You're running in circles
And I'm turning away
You refused to believe
Now I'm turning away
Nothing is sacred...
You draw the bottom line with a dollar sign
Change of opinion...
At the drop of a dime
Graceless intrusion...
Are you sanctified in your judgment of me?
All that I deserve
Is what you were unable to see
You're running in circles
And I'm turning away
You refused to believe
Now I'm turning away
THE YTSE JAM
Instrumental
THE KILLING HAND
I. The Observance
An Angel's kiss
Now fallen
Descending scarlet
Cuts the sky
Faded names
Left on the wall
Honor the fighting
Leave life to die oh
Remembered is the sacrifice
But no praisal of blood still flowing
Who were the leaders?
What controlled the Killing Hand
That caused this mourning?
Crossing over...
II. Ancient Renewal
Lowered deep into the sea
Being awaits to cleanse his soul
Senses weakening time is still
Motionless by stiffening cold
The wheels race back
And scorch his mind
Travelling all to find the land
Revelation warms a touch
And now, he will begin to understand
III. The Stray Seed
Extended a view to yesterday
Manifestation for none the same
Walking amidst
A frightening still
No sound, no smoke, no scorching flames
He is risen...
Sipping his poison
The raven sings yet
Another to add more bodies fallen
King from below
This one controls
The Killing Hand
That caused this mourning
Is it all over?
Is it all over?
IV. Thorns
Evil genius this secret plan
Mercy dealt with the losing hand
Will he ever fall?
Can he end it all?
Our savior must make his stand
Only a Prophet of years to come
Wanting mortality I'm all alone
He heard my voice
It was my choice
I've stopped the Killing Hand
When I go back again
Will it be the same?
I've stopped the cries
But now they know my name
The sea is calling me
My spirit must return
As I get closer
Was it really worth
What I have learned? oh
I'm in the valley
And the saddened chimes I hear
Race to the wall to find
One more name appears
No one is left now
My one and only land
I laugh at what I've done
I am the Killing Hand
LIGHT FUSE AND GET AWAY
Would you like to sit and talk to me
About the way things change so suddenly
When your senses come and the feeling goes?
Can you remember feeling much too close?
Stop your hands from shaking look at me
Are your senses racing endlessly
Tracing past impressions? So were mine
Have you ever been used or will this be the first time?
It's come so clear to me
Light fuse and get away
No gain, no pain
It's a fatal game
And the true lose everything
I can see
What trust and loyalty have done for me
Falling miles from the mark
With a thirst for revenge
And a dangerous heart
I've tried to wash from memory feelings of betrayal and the incidents
That plague me since I lost my sense of innocence
A history of changes now I'm loving now I'm losing keeps me constantly
In fear of hearing "I can't see where this is going"
You lie alone with the memory
Feeling the ceiling and walls closing in on your Conscience - my ally
The guilt - your affliction
Prom preying on praise as you fed an attention addiction
Someone told me
Light fuse and get away
No gain, no pain
And when it's lust to dust
You can crawl from the wreckage
I can see
What trust and loyalty have done for me
Lying bleeding in the dark
With a thirst for revenge
And a dangerous heart
It's come so clear to me
Light fuse and get away
No gain, no pain
It's a fatal game
And the true lose everything
I can see
What trust and loyalty have done for me
Falling miles from the mark
With a thirst for revenge
And a dangerous heart
Light fuse and get away
No gain, no pain
And when it's lust to dust
You can crawl from the wreckage
I can see
What trust and loyalty have done for me
Lying bleeding in the dark
With a thirst for revenge
And a dangerous heart
AFTERLIFE
I touched with one
Who made me run
Away from my own soul...
In this world with its many illusions
We are moving like mice through a maze
And now I find
What's left behind
Has served to make me whole
Full of doubt, deception, and delusion
Seeking purpose to all earthly days
I search within
Beneath a skin
That bears both pleasure and pain
In a world full of constant confusion
I will not be a par to the craze oh
In the Afterlife
Will dark be bright?
Will cold be warm?
Will the day have no night?
In the Afterlife
Will the blind have sight?
In the Afterlife oh
Behind closed eyes
Some comfort lies
In knowing the truth never spoken
Through this world with its hidden conclusion
We'll keep moving like mice through a maze oh
In the Afterlife
Will dark be bright?
Will cold be warm?
Will the day have no night?
In the Afterlife
Will the blind have sight?
In the Afterlife oh
In the Afterlife
Will dark be bright?
Will cold be warm?
Will the day have no night?
In the Afterlife
Will the blind have sight?
In the Afterlife oh
THE ONES WHO HELP TO SET THE SUN
Watching my window I was led like a child
As the roadway lamplights misguided my mind through the night
A shadow of limits, we were racing the rain
My hands held the wheel, my eyes tried to hold their place
There must have been a time
When I thought that you were watching
It had to be when my senses lost control
I thought I'd slipped away
I thought I could still feel us moving
It must have been a cloud no bigger than a man's hand
Every reason I risk my life
To come back to you
Is locked behind your door
You're my immunity
Outside I watched you burn
Heavy hearts were bleeding
A cry for help
A familiar voice
My melting hands streaked the glass
As I walked away
I wondered what had really happened
Had I run out of time
Did I push myself too far
As my last step fell
I felt my hands upon the wheel
Had I come back to life
Or did I ever leave at all
In higher lives
We seem to be
Always a moment too late
We're past the time
When we looked on
Now we're the ones who help to set the sun
This time for real
I locked the door behind me
My mind was still a wreck from what I saw
For when my hands are still
I'll recognize the message
Never again will my senses lose control
In higher lives
We seem to be
Always a moment too late
We're past the time
When we looked on
Now we're the ones who help to set the sun
ONLY A MATTER OF TIME
A suited man smiled said:
"It's just a matter of time
You can have the world at your feet by tomorrow
Just sign on this line."
Hold tight... limelight!
Approaching the paramount
With the sun in our eyes
Fearing family ties, legalies, compromise
In a dimly lit room with a stool as his stage
A dream-stricken prince of a pauper's descent
Haunts the eavesdropping silence that presses his window
As he sweats a performance to an audience that ticks on the walls
To the practical observer
It's just a matter of time
"You can deviate from the commonplace only to fall back in line"
I understand mine's a risky plan and your system can't miss
But is security after all a cause or symptom of happiness?
Brave, yet afraid
His eyes on horizon in a steady-set gaze
A mariner soon from an open cocoon
Takes a moment to summon his courage
To stifle his grave apprehension and trembling, approaches the surf
A father's benediction as his hopeful son departs
To brave the sea of rage and conquer at all costs
Lingers in his memory
And visions still surviving in a logic-proof shell
That should have been held sacred safe and hidden well
Are compromised in usury
With every rising sun that yields no sight of land
The hesitation cultivates within the tired man
And rumors spread of mutiny
And though the time will come when dream and day unite
Tonight the only consolation causing him to fight
In fearless faith in destiny
Even when plan fall to pieces
I can still find the courage with promise I've found in my faith
Likely or not, it's a dream that we keep
And at odds with our senses we'll climb
But if faith is the answer, we've already reached it
And the spirit that's time, that it's only a matter of time
Only a matter of time
When Dream And Day Unite
Dream Theater
1989 MCA
Charlie Dominici - Vocals
Kevin Moore - Keyboards
John Myung - Bass
John Petrucci - Guitars
Mike Portnoy - Drums and Percussion