A Place In The Queue
[I: Silent Screams]
[Instrumental]
[II: Two for the Queue (part one)]
You'd been alive for thirty minutes when you filled in your first form
With blood taken from your left heel just to prove that you were born
And they filed away the papers and you took your place in the queue
Through the years of quiet childhood they plotted out your fate
They had you on their system, there was no hurry, they could wait!
So by the time you'd finished schooling
You'd learned your place In the queue
Shaping the line into order, filtering the ones who will rule
Positioning their appointed marshalls
In the churches, the youth clubs and schools......
They were there when you got busted and they now have prints to say
That you spent three weeks in the U.S. and you stole a coat from C&A
They can look you up at any time
And gauge your place in the queue
I walk this world as a number
No face, no name, no character, no point of view
And they tick me off and file me and save me to their drives
But never know completely why or who....
I walk this world as a number
A statistic in the spreadsheet on the pile
And I interact with others who they let cross my path
And we entertain each other for a while
[III: Shaping the Line]
[Instrumental]
[IV: Hierarchies]
In every situation there's a hierarchy, someone in charge, some ladder to climb
From collecting stamps to national government
There's always a front and a back of the line
You may think that you're immune
The world dances to your tune
But be honest, is that your name on the score?
The mastermind "dons" of the East-End gangsters
The president of your local Round Table Club
The man who represents you on the local council
The technician who controls your local network hub
And you may try to "break on through"
It's sometimes good, but when you do
You just find yourself moving one place up in the queue
[V: The Escher Staircase]
You could walk that Escher Staircase
Or push the Sysyphean Stone
You could stand on bridges, screaming
For a place to call your own
Or you could call it "fiction"
Feel the roughness of the sands of time in your hands again
Give no heed to false position
Stand and observe all the colours and the feelings in these lands again
You might never hit the goal that you were hoping for
You might search for rites of passage but never see the door
Outside the world is waiting, bated breath, for any words that you have to say
While you sit contemplating the queue and the problems that face your world today
And far away in a land we built when we were younger
Our dreams stand tall and our hopes still flare with youth
But we sold them, we sold them all for the price of a B.M.W
Adding our names to the spreadsheet and
Taking our place in the queue
Take on board the lying commercials, the promises of kings
We're inviting the very virii that hold our feelings in
Or we could take the high road, look down on the cheating and the con-men
Who've held our lives so long
Or we could Do As We're Told
Wait in line forever, until the end of our life's little song
And far away in a land we built when we were younger
Our dreams stand tall and our hopes still flare with youth
But we sold them, we sold them all for the price of a BMW
Adding our names to the spreadsheet and
Taking our place in the queue
[VI: An 'Elping Hand]
The mastermind "dons" of the East-End gangsters
The president of your local Round Table Club
The man who represents you on the local council
The technician who controls your local network hub
And you may try to "break on through"
It's sometimes good, but when you do
You just find yourself moving one place up in the queue
[VII: Two for the Queue (part two)]
Fools and politicians, paupers, kings and popes
All guided to their futures by those eternal purple ropes
Taking castoffs from the man in front and
Passing them back down the queue
I walk this world as a number
A statistic in the spreadsheet on the pile
And I interact with others who they let cross my path
And we entertain each other for a while
[VIII: The Escher Staircase (reprise)]
[Instrumental]