Concrete Prophet

Lyrics: Michael Passen

I see you

Striking a bold pose

Yet a blank expression

Thinking God only knows

Like a cut-out from a fashion magazine

Beauty in two dimensions

Depth has been sacrificed to

Colored pencil color schemes

Or a mannequin in a store front window

Separate from the world outside and

Forced to watch the changing world while

Never seeing anything

Take my hand, invite me in

Lead me past your entourage

Green room calm, tension thick

Sober me to your mirage

Vacant smile, empty words

Show me just what I had feared

Shallow eyes, flat expression

Turn sideways and you disappear

Like a cut-out from a fashion magazine

Beauty in two dimensions

Depth has been sacrificed to

Colored pencil color schemes

Or a mannequin in a store front window

Separate from the world outside and

Forced to watch the changing world while

Never seeing anything

Even Mona Lisa

Hanging on a wall

Follows you with her eyes

Your curves fail to move me

Your colors all fall black

You're superficial pretension's best disguise

So go back to your page

Back to where you come from

To your thick spined volumes

And your thin skinned problems

Like a cut-out from a fashion magazine

Beauty in two dimensions

Depth has been sacrificed to

Colored pencil color schemes

Or a mannequin in a store front window

Separate from the world outside and

Forced to watch the changing world while

Never seeing anything

Even Mona Lisa

Hanging on a wall

Follows you with her eyes

Your curves fail to move me

Your colors all fall black

You're superficial pretension's best disguise 

Lyrics: Kevin Boenning

"I'm leaving,"

Is the last thing that I heard you say

Off on your own, time to do things your way

Forgive me; I thought you'd never survive

But you knew what to do if you fell behind

Just Call My Name

Look no further in your time of need

When you cry and bleed...

Just Call My Name

"Be strong,"

Is the last thing that I said to you

I thought you should stay,

You had something to prove

Forgive me; though I still can't see why

If you need my help, I'll be standing by

Just Call My Name

Look no further in your time of need

When you cry and bleed...

Just Call My Name

There was a time when you were alone

With no one to catch you, you'd fall

But things have changed

Since you've been on your own

Now if you need me Just Call My Name

Just Call My Name

Look no further in your time of need

When you cry and bleed...

Just Call My Name

Lyrics: Michael Passen and Mike Newberry

In my own land no one listens to me

Now a foreign queen sends me across the sea

To bring back gold and spices from the East

Three ships she gave me and ample supplies

When I looked to my men I saw fear in their eyes

We set out to sea and saw terror in the skies

I've heard rumors of what we'll find

City streets paved in gold

I've heard tales of a civilization

Ancient as the Earth is old

The Conquest of thousands begins today

All but their footprints are wiped away

Crushed under hoof and boot their

Voices are all choked mute the

Mark of man's time has been...

The Conquest

We tell stories to pass the time

But for many something deep is aroused

Quest for discovery or something else

But all in the name of the crown

They say, "The victors record history"

Because the vanquished can't bear to recall

They say, "To the victors go the spoils"

But there are not enough of us to take it all

I've heard rumors of what we'll find

City streets paved in gold

I've heard tales of a civilization

Ancient as the Earth is old

The Conquest of thousands begins today

All but their footprints are wiped away

Crushed under hoof and boot their

Voices are all choked mute the

Mark of man's time has been...

The Conquest 

Lyrics: Michael Passen

Sixty-five, embalmed alive

But a vacation clinic stay

Will put the star back on his way

Six years old, pale and cold

Sheltered from solar radiation

In a constant state of rehabilitation

One day wed, soon from their wedding bed

Fifteen hundred feet would end

The life together they'd planned to spend

A ten-year sentence, an impotent penance

A murderer's due is suspended

A mercy his victims weren't extended

Another lucky octogenarian

Passes the angel garden

With whom will I lie?

With whom will I lie?

Somewhere out there my stone is waiting

Somewhere forces orchestrating

The way I will die

The way I will die

One hundred weeks spent in military fatigues

But a zippered plastic bag

Will clothe him on his journey back

Hippocrates disgraced, his sacred oath erased

When a couple's forced to choose

Between medicine and food

Six billion souls, the young and old

All waiting for the day

When they return from whence they came

From conception in the womb to internment in the tomb

On the day that you're set free

Only this you're guaranteed

Lying here in bed

I lay my hand across your head

And wonder who'll be the first to go

And who will be left alone

Another lucky octogenarian

Passes the angel garden

With whom will I lie?

With whom will I lie?

Somewhere out there my stone is waiting

Somewhere forces orchestrating

The way I will die

The way I will die

Everyday each step I measure

Under existential pressure

One day I will die

One day we all die

Lyrics: Michael Passen

Like the fork upon your table

Or the pipe that flows the water

To your cup and to your mouth

Ingest the luxuries you're able

Until the lead of fine utensils

Breeds death from all your wealth

And this is no morality play

This is not the guilty being made to pay

Nor are these the ravings of a cynic

This is the Family Tree Dysgenic

His noble ear hears duty calling

And so the vessel of posterity

Pours itself upon the flame

In to the violence of war sprawling

And summon generations fathered

By the sick and by the lame

And this is no morality play

This is not the guilty being made to pay

Nor are these the ravings of a cynic

This is the Family Tree Dysgenic

Procreate without regard

In these circular relations

Roots extending in every direction

Crumble the bedrock of civilization

Now the branches are in chaos

They are twisted and confused

So that their lineage can't be found

And the limbs are hanging heavy

So that the fruit of coming epochs

Rots unpicked upon the ground

And this is no morality play

This is not the guilty being made to pay

Nor are these the ravings of a cynic

This is the Family Tree Dysgenic 

Lyrics: Michael Passen

Feel the footsteps underneath,

Ceaseless and on the move

Conscious or unaware,

Your feet are marching too

A shallow look may comfort find,

To call it providence

But cause will shout it down each time

and call it coincidence

So what to do, predestined man?

What's worth to struggle for?

Do I engage the forward flow

Or get pulled back to the shore?

Without evasion, a puppet nation,

Governed by consequence

How do I stage a coup just to

Hold back providence?

Life Kinetic

Fate magnetic

What's to strive for?

What's to die for?

He didn't guard against the memories

He'd romanticized in his recollection

Now he strains against the forward flow of time

To gain some sense of reconnection

The hours, minutes, seconds pummel,

And grind against his skin like sand

And nothing he can do

Can put the past back in his hand

Life Kinetic

Fate magnetic

What's to strive for?

What's to die for? 

Lyrics: Michael Passen

A camera that captures colors

That don't exist in real space

A lens that focuses beauty

Unto the most unphotogenic face

A moment that's frozen in time

Just like all good times should be

A frame hangs around it

To hold it for all to see

Freeze Frame

There's no guilt in savoring the past

Freeze Frame

Hold it in your eyes and make it last

Freeze Frame

When night comes project it on your eyelids

Freeze Frame

Keep it dancing, dancing in your beds

Paper that shines and bears a thumbprint

Oily spirals in the light

Rainbow like a parking lot puddle

Swirls of color like "Starry Night"

Dark so dark you're lost in it

Away from negative space

8 by 10 is just the right dimension

For this beautiful safe space

Freeze Frame

There's no guilt in savoring the past

Freeze Frame

Hold it in your eyes and make it last

Freeze Frame

When night comes project it on your eyelids

Freeze Frame

Keep it dancing, dancing in your beds

Freeze Frame

There's no guilt in savoring the past

Freeze Frame

Hold it in your eyes and make it last

Freeze Frame

When night comes project it on your eyelids

Freeze Frame

Keep it dancing, dancing in your beds

Lyrics: Kevin Boenning, Michael Passen and Mike Newberry

Under my close watch you were born to be

Never a man only a means

Given talents that weren't yours to use

You had the strength but not the will to choose

I won't go now, I'm not ready

Can't believe you'd come this soon

I made my choice, with my soul I'll pay

By the light of a waning moon

I see how your will was broken

Over and over

Now that you're brought to your knees

You're finally Learning To Crawl

My lungs burn with the fires of hell

I recollect from my dark shell

All the choices that you made for me

And all the sins I chose willingly

The time is now, you are ready

Can't believe you'd come this soon

You made the choice, and your soul will stay

By the light of a waning moon

I see how my will was broken

Over and over

Now that I'm brought to my knees

I'm finally Learning To Crawl

I won't go now, I'm not ready

Can't believe you'd come this soon

I made my choice, with my soul I'll pay

By the light of a waning moon

I see how my will was broken

Over and over

Now that you're brought to your knees

A dark path has been set for me

I'm finally Learning To Crawl