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Concept idea and
all lyrics by D.Gildenlow 97-98
Spirit of the Land
Music: D.Gildenlow
Sit
for a while, why rush?
The beauty is
all around.
The red sky
of the morning,
the different
colours of the landscape,
the freshness
of the breeze.
So sit for a
while and rest
with the
spirit of the land.
John Renshaw
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I: Part of the Machine
Inside
Music: D.Gildenlow/D.Magdic/K.Gildenlow/F.Hermansson
| ’What
is a war criminal? Was not war itself a crime against God and
humanity, and, therefore, were not all those who sanctioned,
engineered, and conducted wars, war criminals? War criminals are
not confined to the Axis Powers alone.’ |
I was told the pain and
hunger was not my fault
How could they be so wrong?
And man, of all five billion
people you’re only one
Believed them for far too
long!
Clean hands
My land is my home
I’m inside the big
machine and it’s eating me!
And I am just a wheel in
motion, too blind to see
The way we are heading now
I’m hollow
I swallow, but…
Inside I’m strong
Inside I’m free
Inside I’m young
Inside I’m still me
[Since
1990 there have been 93 wars in 70 states all around the world,
with 5.5 million people dead. 75% of these people were
civilians, 1 million of them were children...]
(Guns don’t kill - I
don’t kill. Do I?)
Drink with me, laugh with me,
friends for tonight
Stay with me, sleep with me,
happy tonight
I only feel lonely outside
this bar
Look at me when I speak! Who
do you think you are?
Just look at me now!
Inside I’m lost…
Now I’m vain, numb this
pain - why is it burning?
Clean as rain, not a stain -
so why am I yearning?
I can’t sleep - I twist
and turn
In too deep - I sweat, I burn
I’m afraid that I’ll
awake, dressed up in a big mistake
Then I’d break!
What if I just closed my
eyes?
(I’m not clean…)
What if I shut out the lies?
(…blood unseen…)
And what if I could hear my
heart…
(…all over my hands!)
…accusing me for taking
part
of the Machine
|
The
Big Machine
Music:
D.Gildenlow/D.Magdic
’...and
he actually held up the weapon before our eyes, and there,
dressed in a suit and tie, he smiled and told us with pride in
his voice that "this model was largely represented in the
Gulf war!".
He
was so very proper and clean. And so alarmingly blind!’ |
Welcome inside the machine
It hurts!
Go numb, go blind…
One’s drilling out a
pipe
One adjusts the aim
One makes trigger parts
Weapons as a game!
All trapped in killing
routine
Washed clean…
…by this machine
On these grey walls
Lovely pictures of the
weapons we produce
But not their actions…
All are part of the big
Machine
We do our job
"Guilty!"
But what if we save?
And what if we solve?
And what if we build?
And what…
...what if we lose
control?
What if we lose control?
What if we lose control?
What if we lose control?
(I am just a wheel!)
...and what if we ...stop?
|
New Year’s Eve
Music: D.Gildenlow
| ‘Only
the tame birds have a longing. The wild ones fly.’ |
So once again
Another New Year’s Eve will
ease our pain
Faith for the few
And rites that will make us
so brave
So new
We laugh and we cheer for
a Happy New Year
Happy?
Candles burn down
And in the darkness future
comes around
We smile - all aware
But never speaking of the
masks we wear
Blind!
Turning mirrors upside
down
Won’t make dust fall off
the ground
Hiding wounds won’t ease
the pain
Sleep won’t make you whole
again
Change the inside!
...drink the rain...
Dressing our words
Seeing the dirt and flaws
inside us hurts
One final glass
A sour taste from our
promises
I bid farewell and crawl out
of my shell
I’m awake!
I see the mistakes I make
Hiding wounds won’t ease
the pain
Sleep won’t make you whole
again
Change the inside...
Today I found a seed of
sorrow
The harvest leaves a soil of
shame
Now I undress and face
tomorrow
And brave I walk to meet the
blame
I’ll search my home
outside these borders
I’ll run to meet up with
the past
A Resolution for the New Life
This time I know it’s gonna
last
And I will…
Change the inside
Drink the rain
Open my wounds to heal the
pain
Learn the work of The
Machine…
|
II: Spirit of Man
Handful
of Nothing
Music:
D.Gildenlow
| ’In
time of war the first casualty is truth.’ ’What
broke in a man when he could bring himself to kill another?’ |
We’ve seen it before but
safe on our suburb screens
Now I am here in the flesh
A witness of war in this
godforsaken scene
Far from those grey walls
See children with guns hatred
and fear in their eyes
They shoot to release their
pain
A conflict to solve no matter
if someone dies
Protecting our interests…
Look around, soon
there’ll be but ruins to be found
Winner will be the last that
stands
Lethal moves in a game of
chess for the depraved
King or Pawn? Are you worth
to save?
(What is the prize for
this game we play?)
(And who are the ones that
finally pay?)
If we eat more we’ll get
a handful of nothing
We’ll be swallowing dirt
If we push more we’ll get a
fistful of enough
We’ll be swallowing blood
They told me that we could
actually save human lives
That armies would preserve
the peace
And my work would save, solve
and build bonds
Only lies!
And I fed their wallets...
It’s strange how we
speak of civilised views
While we buy that media
warface they sell
A makeup for "Them"
so we can decide who’s to die
Cause we love it easy…
Here they are – take a
good look at the beasts of war!
Let the rain wash that paint
away…
Deep inside everyone’s a
mothers little child
Longing home, lost and led
astray
And we prey on this decay!
If we eat more we’ll get
a handful of nothing
We’ll be left with the dirt
If we push more we’ll get a
fistful of enough
I leave this machine...
I left my life to ease my
pain
But I cannot find that
cleansing rain...
Look around soon there’ll
be but ruins to be found
We can change - it’s all in
our minds...
D. Gildenlow
Step by step hate controls
every heart every soul
Every gun pointed at those we
paint as Enemies
We provide what they need to
let the game proceed
Stuck in machines somewhere
we build the cross they bear
Arm to solve, kill to save…
God I’ve felt how it smells!
"My land’s my
home" – we’re blind!
I’m sick of the blood I
find!
Step by step greed controls
every heart every soul
Arm to kill, kill to live -
God how could I believe...
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Water
Music: D.Gildenlow/D.Magdic
Ground
water moves very slowly. While water at surface can be measured
in meters per second, the ground water will more likely be
measured in meters per year! Contamination of the ground water
causes severe damage for a very long time.
Despite
this, military and nuclear industry constantly pollutes large
areas of ground water – in times of peace. |
I’ve always loved the
sound of rain
Touching so softly my
windowpane
And then the scent of dew at
dawn
Coming to greet me from my
moist lawn
...home...
D. Gildenlow
I always took it for
granted
I never valued the drops I
shed
I failed to see the relation
Between my self and world
starvation
D. Gildenlow
Water’s for the chosen
But how come we expect us to
be those few...
...me and you?
[In this
hot, desolate timeglass I met this man, wearing a worn old
flyer’s cap.
Every day he
had to dig 10 feet down for his daily ration of water – one
poor gallon. And so he did - singing while doing it!]
10 feet of sand for the
thirst
But he gave me half of what
he was given for a day
All for thirst and sanity use
While we use up hundred times
more…
What do we do with it?
Pipes and bathtubs,
sprinklers and fountains!
Freshwater used as a dump for
oil and nuclear waste!
“Desert people turns
humble” he said
They know what they have
But do they know what they
lose when we flush?
[But yet,
sadly, he looked up to me. Felt a need for our greed…our
"freedom".
Said all he
really wanted was a car and a radio. He too failed to see the
relation
...between
our lives...and his starvation]
Water’s for the chosen
Water’s for the few
Life is for the chosen
But only if we believe it to
be true...but we do!
(But I’m through!)
I’ve always loved the sound
of rain...
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Home
Music: D.Gildenlow
| ‘The
white man, he comes and goes. He can go. …But that’s our
homeland for thousands of years. That’s our home, and we will
never leave. No matter how contaminated it gets. We live there!
We have always lived there and we will always live there.’ |
This is our home - our
roots go deep
Where our ancestors sleep
This is the land we’ve
nursed for countless aeons
But never ours to keep
My tribe is crying – our
land is dying
But we can’t leave – this
is our home
We can’t let our past go...
We’re left with your
legacy
Wide awake, deep at our roots
While you move on exploiting
We’ll sing lullabies for
half a million years
When my son asks why, what
will I reply?
But we can’t leave – this
is our home
We can’t let our past go...
Hallgren
Hermansson
D. Gildenlow
But we can’t leave –
this is our home!
If you like concrete alone
Then don’t make your high
lives depend
On that past that you let
go...
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III: Karachay
Black
Hills
Music:
D.Gildenlow
| ‘They
tell all the people of Europe, it’s a good, clean industry,
it’s a great way to save the world. But I’m here to tell you
that now they’re knocking on our door because they can’t
find any place to store the damned stuff for eternity, They come
to our homeland and they want to lease some land for 10,000
years!’ |
This was our home – we
had our truth
Bled for our creed – why
must we still bleed?
Your tailings are bound
forever in this ground...
So you come for our holy
ground
When your nature’s gone and
your house has burnt down
No!
For hundreds of years
you’ve hurt this land
Eating what’s there,
leaving a wasteland
But there are no space to
hold all your mistakes
Still you come for our
holy ground
When your nature’s gone and
your houses are all burnt down
(instrumental)
Hallgren
|
’To
this day, they will not return our sacred land, even though
their highest hypocritical court said that we could and indeed
did, own the Black Hills.
I
still continue to struggle for the eventuality of regaining that
sacred land.’ |
Pilgrim
Music: D.Gildenlow
’In
fire, we can see our past and our coming. For, as with us and
our time, these flames are solely born through the complete and
utterly consumption of its surroundings. By which, the fire
itself is also condemned to be destroyed.
Demanding,
beautiful and very lethal, it lives itself to death…’ |
The higher I am reaching -
the closer to the sun
The more I learn the less I
know for sure
For each machine I’m
leaving I find a bigger one
For each step I turn wiser
than before
But it’s burning me...
Pilgrim, where are you
going?
Pilgrim, your roads turning
bleak
Pilgrim, true to your knowing
But what will you pay for the
Grail that you seek?
Though these roads seem
endless
And life seems out of reach
The roads I left were better
off unwalked
If I had just been stronger
If I had dared to see
Maybe I would not have had to
go this far
But still I won’t give
in...
Pilgrim, where are you
going?
Pilgrim, your roads turning
bleak
Pilgrim, This quest is your
calling
...the curtains are
falling...
Pilgrim, where are you going?
And who sets the price on the
answers you seek?
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Shore
Serenity
Music:
D.Gildenlow
| Karachay…
This lake in Kyshtym has swallowed nuclear waste for almost
fifty years now. Radiation was earlier so high that one hour at
the shore of this lake would cause death in just a few weeks.
Karachay, the entire lake, is now covered with concrete… |
Don’t disturb me now
I can see the why, the when
and how
Looking back to see all
bridges burn
I have reached the point of
no return
this is zero
(Shore Serenity)
This is all that is left
of me…
A broken man at a broken sea
To be or not to be a wheel
in the big machinery
That is not the matter of the
game
Just as long as you can sense
the frame of the big picture
(Wheels make The Machine)
This is all that is left
of me
a broken man at a concrete
sea
But now I know that one cell
can kill
and a big Machine stands and
falls with…a wheel…
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Inside
Out
Music:
D.Gildenlow/D.Magdic/F.Hermansson
| ’30
years ago, society believed that no price was to high, we
thought that industry could come at any cost. We cannot afford
to pay that price any more.’ |
So finally my journey ends
And through this wound my
soul can mend
Guilt is my blood
I’m being drained
This is my home, I will
stay...
…inside!
There’s always someone
inside
Fighting to get outside
The
"knowing-right-from-wrong side"
Our home is inside!
I’ve travelled the world
around
In search for some Grail of
mine
How could I be so blind?
It was always here…inside
I have only some weeks to
give
But at last…I live
D. Gildenlow
Life’s just a line of
situations
A matter of occasions
And mystic correlations
The work of a Machine!
D.Gildenlow/Hallgren
Hallgren
Here in a world split to
nations
We fail to see the relations
Between the Wheel and the
Machine
And of the scars we’re
leaving…
…inside!
I swear there’s someone
inside
Fighting to get outside
Just give it all an hour
By the Concrete Lake!
D.Gildenlow/Hallgren
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’I
dread the day my children will ask me why. I dread the day when
I will have to explain to them that people thought it was
acceptable to destroy the environment so that we could have
jobs. I dread the day I will have to explain to my bright-eyed
Joshua, who talks to dogs and listens to the grass screaming,
that we were all to busy driving fast cars, rushing our children
off to day-care, and finding seniors’ homes to our
grandparents and listening to the ringing of cash registers.
We
were all too busy to hear the grass screaming.’ |
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