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Spock's Beard - X
The eleventh studio album
order The Oblivion Particle
The Oblivion Particle
(August 21, 2015)

01. Tides of Time (7:45)
02. Minion (6:53)
03. Hell's Not Enough (6:23)
04. Bennett Built a Time Machine (6:52)
05. Get Out While You Can (4:55)
06. A Better Way To Fly (8:57)
07. The Center Line (7:25)
08. To Be Free Again (10:24)
09. Disappear (6:14)

10. Iron Man (special edition bonus track)

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Rich Mouser at The Mouse House, Alta Dena, CA.

Additional tracks and overdubs were recorded by Ryo, Dave, Ted and Alan at their home studios. Engineers at Alan’s studio were Jeff Silverman and John Morse. Jimmy's percussion tracks were recorded at Jimmy Branly’s studio, Burbank, CA, engineered by Jimmy Branly. Second engineer at The Mouse House was Jeff Fox.

Graphic design by Thomas Ewerhard
Band photography by Alex Solca
“The Oblivion Particle” story by John Boegehold

Alan Morse - guitars, mandolin, electric sitar, banjolele, autoharp, vocals
Dave Meros - bass, synth bass, vocals
Jimmy Keegan - drums & percussion, vocals
Ryo Okumoto - organ, piano, mellotron, synthesizers
Ted Leonard - vocals, guitar

with:
David Ragsdale - violin (Disappear)

01. Tides of Time
Stan Ausmus

Tell me how to begin
To pay you back for all your sins
Blindsided by the truth
You cannot hide, I cannot win
Accept your settled fate
To you, I’m an outcast… a renegade
But it's far, far down the well to fall
And you haven't seen the worst of it yet
You did it once and that's enough
I couldn't see to call your bluff
And your plans have all unraveled now
I guess that's how it goes
As the darkness creeps into the light
It gets much harder to tell wrong from right
I can't see anymore...

Another slave to circumstance
You sail the tides of time
No longer in your grasp
You're tethered to the line
You thought you'd know by now
But know it you do not
That it's a hardcore cross to bear
When pain is all you've got

And when I finally looked inside of me
I didn’t find the man I thought I’d be
Now there’s nowhere to hide
From the truth of it all
Another charge into the great unknown
And I hope I can find my way home…

I alone have borne the sacrifice
Set upon to pay the highest price
For a life of misery and pain
Lay it out for everyone to see
Couldn’t be worse than what you did to me
There’s no one at the wheel
And now we’re off the tracks

_______________________

 

02. Minion
Ted Leonard

A minion of the citadel
I gave it up and left my post
A stronghold neither strong nor held
And now you’re totally exposed

Feeling overcome
Feel like I could come undone
Feel it welling up
And spilling over this fragile cup

A wall I couldn’t see beyond
An end I couldn’t have foreseen
A waving of a magic wand
A dream I didn’t dare to dream

Threat of consequence gave me cinder blocks for shoes
No need for common sense, her control was set to cruise
A horse with blinders on, I kept trotting straight ahead
A dog who sits and begs for the garbage that he’s fed

Some stories need to be revised
Some players need to be recast
It’s sobering to realize
Some ever afters were never meant to last

And now that you’ve found your tower is on the ground in pieces
The fortress you prized, but never bothered to fortify its weakness
A coward you say, but I knew this would come some day
And it wouldn’t take much to come down
So I turned the page, wanting more than a servants wage 
I won’t be a slave to the crown
It’s noble enough to stay in the ruins like a captain who chooses to sink
It’s noble but then you always had fixed your eyes on keeping your nobility

_______________________

 

03. Hell’s Not Enough
Ted Leonard

Angel eyes and Devil smile; a hand to help another to defile
Holding firmly to what can’t be held; know the truth but you’ll never tell
Some things are undefined.  Some things are in your mind
Some things should be a crime but that’s just absurd
Some things devious; downright mischievous
Some things are grievious but that’s not a word

Hook, line, and weight.  No need to debate
No way you’ll be turned around
Until you die, you’ll hold to the lie
That follows you into the ground

You’re strong when they’re weak; you run when they crawl
And Hell’s not enough to break your fall
You’ve lulled them to sleep with no regret at all
And Hell’s not enough to break your fall

To hide my fur, I wear the wool
Sometimes you have to be kind to be cruel
To help you understand I wax obscure
To help you see I’ll paint it all blur
 
Some things are clearer to me and some are dearer to me
So lend an ear or two ‘cause I have a word
I done the thinking for you; what’s more I quite adore you
So listen I implore you.  I must be heard

Hook line and sinker.  Thank god you’re not a thinker
Here, take this fruity drink you’re fine
And though you’ll die; take comfort in the lie
Your life’s not yours to lose.  It’s mine.

_______________________

04. Bennett Built a Time Machine
John Boegehold

Bennett Lamb’s been holed up in his shack
Working ever patiently
Clocks are ticking
Bennett’s headed back to New York, 1983

To meet himself as a younger man
Show the teenage him a perfect plan
The stocks to buy girls not to date
He knows the way to reinvent his future
Un-make mistakes, un-seal his fate 

He’s going back to change his choices
Guided by his inner voices
And visions that he’d seen
Bennett built a time machine

Bennett Lamb’s been five days wide awake  
He scrawled out every thought he had
Complex calculations he did make 
All single-spaced on legal pads

He won’t return to watch Babe Ruth
To head off Mao or John Wilkes Booth
To warn good people in the past
Of earthquakes, locust plagues or insurrection
There’s just one die he wants recast

_______________________

05. Get out While You Can
John Boegehold

Beware the ghost that floats two steps behind you  
It breathes the dust you shake off of your shoes 
While tracing ancient scars just to remind you
Of every battle past that left a bruise

Your angels and your saviors 
Have long since disappeared 
And judgment day is here  

Get out while you can 

Tangled in a web of words unspoken 
While fending off the Huns inside your head
The burden of a static soul unwoken
Is breeding monsters underneath your bed

You’re wrenched out of indifference
You sense that something’s wrong
The Sirens start their song

When you are gone
Life goes on

06. A Better Way to Fly
John Boegehold

Earthbound born to the infinite light
Gravity’s enemy pondered the skies

He envied the birds and the arc of their flight

As unquiet shadows cloaked the night
He dreamed a better way to fly

Soon one day he’d leave the ground
The world would watch him floating by

Blinding lights through open doors
His fortune for a place in line
In his mind there’s something more
Than all the money left behind

Guided by the myth of saints
A passageway will be revealed
Faith and hope and love remain
The last act of a grand ordeal

He dreamed a better way to fly
He dreamed a better way

Earthbound born to the infinite light
Unquiet shadows cloaked the night
He dreamed a better way to fly
He envied the birds 
The arc of their flight
He dreamed a better way to fly

_______________________

07. The Center Line
Alan Morse & Ryo Okumoto

Maybe I dreamed it all
I really can’t recall
What came between forever and goodbye
Now it all seems so banal
So "I’ve already heard it all..."
Somebody has to hold it up to the light

But then it gets real
And you have to fall apart or fall together
When you get yours and I got time
When it comes down
When we touch the ground
It’s such a gentle surrender
What if we've found the center line?

I walked down to the shore
I never noticed it there before
But suddenly there it was stretching on forever
In so many words it seems
Your ashes turn to dreams
And the seams that come apart weren't meant to be together

But it seems to me
That we should fall apart to hold together
What if there’s truth behind the lie
What if it’s real
That thing we feel
That we should fall together
What if we've found the center line?

_______________________

08. To Be Free Again
John Boegehold

My hat in hand as I heard the news 
Now I’m leaving the fold forever
While walking a mile in the old man’s shoes
I’m chasing rainbow weather
Someone drew me a map so I’m never coming back round here  

They showed me the ghost of a grand design  
Gone with the change of the seasons
A glimpse of a world someone left to find
Held out of reach for a reason  
All their dreams and plans I can’t understand  

Breathe in the morning light   
On the wing taking flight   
Conscious and clear     
Hearing destiny call 
Come and grow young with me 
Life as it’s meant to be    
Life in a world where the sky never falls    
See the road ahead       
That’s the way he said      
Pack your bags we’re leaving today 
Here in our hearts and hands   
We hold the promised land     
We’ll find our future and there we will stay 
To be free again 

So there I was in a waking dream 
Time ran slow as summer
When far from the valley cross the stream
I heard the pipes and the drummers
So I followed the sound as the stars shone down  

The bodies we grow old in
As skin displays the scars 
The bones like prison bars that hold us  
No man escapes unscathed   
So raise a glass to change and all it brings   

There comes a time we stumble
Then comes a time we fall 
But we crawl again until we’re walking   
Talking sense again   
And soon we’re on the mend and on our way  

_______________________

09. Disappear
John Boegehold

Lost among the millions  
We are pawns to many kings   
Never dare to dream the unexpected   

To leave by night just slip away     
See what tomorrow brings  

We could disappear  
You and me  
We could be   
Anyplace else not here  
Anywhere but here 

We’d be reported missing
And maybe make the news
Authorities might say foul play’s suspected
They’d probably ask the public’s help
They won’t have any clues

We could disappear
Suddenly
Secretly
Quietly free and clear
We could disappear
You and me
We could be
Anyplace else not here            

Leave the paper chains behind
The walls are only in our minds
A golden day is growing near
To make a break and disappear

Faraway the four winds blow
All is ours to find
Follow where the rivers flow
Feel the sun forever shine

 

Bonus track

10. Iron Man
Butler, Iommi, Osborne & Ward

Dave Meros - vocals, bass, guitar
Nick D’Virgilio - drums
Ryo Okumoto - mellotron & synth
Ted Leonard - guitar solos

 

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