Spock's Beard

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The tenth studio album

order X

X - Limited Edition (June, 2010)

01. Edge Of The In-Between
02. The Emperor's Clothes
03. Kamikaze
04. From The Darkness
- l: The Darkness
- ll: Chance Meeting
- lll: On My Own
- lV: Start Over Again
05. The Quiet House
06. Their Names Escape Me
07. The Man Behind The Curtain
08. Jaws of Heaven
- l: Homesick For The Ashes
- ll: Words Of War
- lll: Deep In The Wondering
- lV: Whole Again

Reviews

- DPRP - Earn This - De Spannende Avonturen van Niels - Progsnobs - Music Street Journal - USA Progmusic - RockRadio - USA Progmusic - AV Today - Prog Archives - Progwerlrd (Dutch)

Nick D'Virgilio - Drums, Vocals, Additional Guitar
Alan Morse - Guitars, Vocals
Ryo Okumoto - Keyboards
Dave Meros - Bass, Vocals, Additional Keyboards

with: John Boegehold - Additional Keyboards, Jimmy Keegan - Backing Vocals
French Horn: Danielle Ondarza (2,6,7,8) Trombone: Dennis Jiron (2,6,7,8)
Strings performed by The Section Quartet (1,2,6,8) Violin: Eric Gorfain, Violin: Daphne Chen, Viola: Lauren Chapman, Cello: Richard Dodd
String and horn arrangements by: John Boegehold (1,6,8) and Alan Morse (2,7), copyist: Kaylene Peoples (2,7)

01. Edge Of the In-Between
Dave Meros (music) John Boegehold (lyrics)

See the girls at the gate they’re gathering
For a chance in the big machine
While the lens of the camera’s focusing
At the edge of the in-between

Some will get to where they’re going
Find a place they’ve always been
Never understand the mystery
Turn around and start again

See the soldiers they march imagining
All the enemies unseen
Like a storm in the sky they’re threatening
At the edge of the in-between

Some will get to where they’re going
Find a place they’ve always been
Never understand the mystery
Turn around and start again

Walked the faithful down by the waterside
Watched the last tide ebb as the rivers dried

Hope was all they had
Home was all they knew
Strength to see them through

Withered fast the fields still the people stayed
Waited for a sign as they marked the days

Hope was all they had
Home was all they knew
Strength to see them through
Strength to see them through

Then came the master of the mountains
With a wave of his hand
Rain split the sky and filled the fountains
Water flowed through the land

He brought the people to their knees
In the house of heaven’s door
They knew a miracle they’d seen
And so they believed

He brought the people to their knees
In the house of heaven’s door
They knew a miracle they’d seen...

02. The Emperor's Clothes
Alan Morse (music & lyrics) Neal Morse (music) Larry Kutcher (music)

Well I'm the man with the scam
And though I've never sewn a stitch
I've stumbled onto something
Guaranteed to make me rich
All I gotta do is fool one Imperial Nitwit

You'll never not see clothes
Like you won't see those
Every inch of stitchin’ missin’
From your hat to your hose
And if one of those hose
Happens to have a hole in it
It's not as if anybody's
Gonna notice when it's

The Emperor's Clothes
Are fine
You'll never see nothing finer
Nothin' like those
So right
That you'll never see the like, the like

Well I just got into town
I took a quick look around
I heard you needed a suit
Opportunity found
‘Cos I’m the man that you need
I'm gonna make you some tweeds
I’m gonna make ‘em so they’re
Magical, beautiful, that’s irrefutable now

Well only Philistines
Could look upon these things
From the Teddy Bear pajamas
To the nipple rings
And not agree with me
This is a suit like no other

They're gonna gape and gawk
They're gonna stammer & stare
'Cos the fabric's so fine
It's like it's not even there
You're gonna give ‘em a thrill
They're never gonna get over
If I make it through this
I’m gonna be in clover

The Emperor's Clothes
Are right!
You'll never see nothing righter
So overexposed
So bright
That you'll never see the light, the light

Well, today's the day
I'm gonna make my play
I'm a takin’ my creation onto center stage
And I might lose a little
But I just might win big

You got the heads of the SLA, the NRA
The Sendero Luminosa and the CIA
At least one of every other kind of
Hot shot and bigwig
They're all comin’ down
They're gonna meet at the shindig

In The Emperor's Clothes
All right!
You'll never see nothing finer
Nothin’ like those
So fine
You'll never see the like
Of The Emperor's Clothes
All right!
You'll never see the like, the like

03. Kamikaze
Ryo Okumoto (music)

Instrumental

04. From The Darkness
Nick D'Virgilio (music & lyrics) Alan Morse (add'itional lyrics pt. 2)

Part 1: THE DARKNESS

It’s everywhere that I go
It’s everything that I see
And I don’t know how to fight it

What was down is now up
And what was up has gone down
This scene has lost all its spirit

If you’re not going
Every minute of every day
You’ll end up somewhere behind it

Back in the day things were hard
But so much simpler in ways
You didn’t know when to quit

Outshined by everyone around
Feeling lost and never found
Trying hard to fight the good fight
Out of the darkness and into the light

Strange things always come
When your mind is not clear
And there’s no understanding

Thrown right under the bus
Throwing up all your guts
To get back to beginnings

Habits carved into stone
That you do all alone
When nobody is watching

Trying not to get caught
Fear is what you have sought
And it’s much too demanding

Part 2: CHANCE MEETING

I saw you sitting with your friends that day
I tried to keep myself from staring
I found the courage but I had nothing to say
My tongue was tied and I was daring

How lucky the sun came shining

You told me I was out of my mind
I said you were crazy
But it was me who was crazy
Drunk on the wine in your eyes

Our story is written across the sky
Words to last forever
And the meaning just gets clearer every day
I hope you know we share one soul

Never let go

Part 3: ON MY OWN

Can you tell me?
Can you help me?
I am feeling down
Situation overload
Our ship has run aground

Waiting for the lightning strike
To come and bring me down
I talk but you don’t hear a sound

It’s got me so frustrated
The words have been debated
Can you give me any reason at all?

I want to know
I gotta know
I’m on my own

Part 4: START OVER AGAIN

How you doin’ my man?
You got anything to say?
Tell us everything
Everything you learned along the way

The crowd they love you today
Tell us everything
How you did it
How you made your way

Start over again
Feel alive come on and take it
Start over again
Feel alive come on and make it

Start over again
Come and take it
Start over again
Come on let’s make it

Yeah!

05. The Quiet House
Dave Meros (music) John Boegehold (lyrics)

Rain a plague of drowning days
Grey and cold
Time in time she went away
Truth untold

Down the road through the gate
Here are flowers moss and stone
Clear the path to the door
The quiet house is now her own

Safe the secrets that she knew
Still we learned
Hope just like a garden grew
She returned

Down the road through the gate
Here are flowers moss and stone
Clear the path to the door
The quiet house is now her own

Something is ending something beginning

There in the dark of the woods
Chasing light through the trees
We ran as fast as we could
Till she stopped suddenly
Warm was her breath on my skin
As she kissed me and cried
Then she disappeared from within
To a place she could hide

Now there’s a hole in the night
Where her light used to be
So I light a candle and wait
And I pray she is free
Down the road in the Quiet House

06. Their Names Escape Me
John Boegehold (music & lyrics) Dave Meros (music)

Stand said the oracle and speak the truth
All we want is information
Tell us the names of every traitor who
Took up arms against the nation

In my mind are faces
In my hands I hold their destiny
I will pray forgiveness
If their names escape me

Fear not the iron fist that found your door
Said the only god that matters
Here you are helpless in this holy war
With your fragile web in tatters

In my mind are faces
In my hands I hold their destiny
I will pray forgiveness
If their names escape me

Brought to this place
Stripped of my innocence
Praying for providence
This isn’t where I belong
I protest all of the evidence facing me
God save their souls

07. The Man Behind The Curtain
Alan Morse (music & lyrics) Stan Ausmus (music)

I'm the man behind the curtain
The one who pulls the strings
Got my finger on the button
But my mind's on other things
I'm the most impressive person
No one's ever really seen, oh

In the shadow of the spotlight
Always waiting in the wings
I'm ready for my close up
When the fat lady sings
I don't know if you can hear me
But you'd better hear me out
I manipulate the matrix
I know how it all turns out

I'm The Man Behind The Curtain, oh
Pay no attention to
The Man Behind The Curtain, oh
And I know how it all turns out

My little white lies
Are all getting colored in
My impromptu alibis
Well, they're wearing mighty thin
Though you don't walk away with anything
You didn't carry in
I deliver dispensation
For most any random sin

I'm The Man Behind The Curtain, oh
Pay no attention to
The Man Behind The Curtain, oh
And I know it for certain
I'm The Man Behind The Curtain, oh
And I know how it all turns out

And when the curtain gets pulled away
Guess there's always a piper to pay
You caught me out
In my base deception
I was only trying to make
The wrong impression
On the punters, punks and drunkards
That fortune floats my way
And the curtain gets pulled away

I'm The Man Behind The Curtain, oh
Pay no attention to
The Man Behind The Curtain, oh
I know how it all turns out
I'm The Man Behind The Curtain, oh
Pay no attention to
The Man Behind The Curtain, oh
I know how it all turns out
The man, the man, the man, the man, the man
I know how it all turns out

When the curtain finally comes down
The puppets all slump to the ground
The doves lie silent in their covered cages
And though the mezzanines are still echoing
With the rock of ages
The circus has moved on to another town
And the curtain finally comes down...

08. Jaws Of Heaven
Dave Meros (music) John Boegehold (music & lyrics)

Part 1: HOMESICK FOR THE ASHES

Weary I was walking
A disassembled man
I wandered through creation
A ghost upon the land
Cloaked in threads of all my lifetimes
Deep-stitched into bone
Like a tapestry of shadows
Acid-etched in stone

Longing to remember
The day I left the pyre
And rose up like a phoenix
From a far-off ancient fire
Now I’m homesick for the ashes
Of the world I’ve known
On a path toward perdition
That I’ll walk alone

Part 2: WORDS OF WAR

Cold night in a quiet town
I found a crowd and stood back as it grew
Echoes of a place in time
When a million voices rose anew

Words of war spread faster than a prairie fire
Through the Jaws of Heaven here we go

From on high the chosen told
Tales of old the faithful chose to hear
Wake up all your sleeping souls
Gather up your guns the end is near

Words of war spread faster than a prairie fire
Through the Jaws of Heaven here we go

Marching onto glory in a battle just
Staring down the devil eye to eye
Riding on a pale horse to deliver us
Down into the darkest by and by

Part 3: DEEP IN THE WONDERING

I awoke this morning
A lifetime come and gone
The ending of a journey
My destiny at dawn

Yesterday behind me
There is only now
Every circle that was closing
Is opening somehow
And it’s clear to see the reasons
Are woven deep in the wondering

Something left to live for
Nothing left to prove
Fallen saints and angels
Watch our every move

Shallow ran the river
That kept our worlds apart
As we fought to feed the hunger
In the hollows of our hearts
Now it’s clear to me the reasons
Are woven deep in the wondering

The rain’s return reveals a future
A gathering of souls
Once barren fields now green surrounds us
Our dreams of home are whole again
We’re whole again

Yesterday behind me
There is only now
Every circle that was closing
Is opening somehow
And it’s clear to see the reasons
Are woven deep in the wondering

Part 4: WHOLE AGAIN

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