Crowded Isolation (Part One)
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
Alarm clock strikes, sends my mind reeling
I feel like falling back
But the murmur of the night
Turns into urban heart attack
I turn the ignition, the city starts up
Throbbing like a headache
I peer through the windshield
Then drive off
Crashing into the day
It’s a crowded, crowded isolation
And my heart, my heart can’t stand the pace
It’s a crowded, crowded isolation
Always feeling out of place
Every day the clock’s hands pull me here
And here they hold me down
With sleight of hand
They steal my life away
Then my time is measured in money
If that’s how they sum up my life
It’s a hell of a thing for an epitaph to say.
CHORUS
I go out each morning
But I feel like I’m going nowhere
In this world that worships a buck
Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a prayer
You can punch a clock for too long
Until you’ve lost your fight
Until you’ve got nothing left
Nothing left that feels right
CHORUS
I used to feel like something was added
To my life with each passing day
Now it seems that all I can feel
Is something more slipping away
CHORUS
Why Does It Feel So Cold?
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
Seething heat bleaches
The snow white sand beach
Girls flex power over muscle boys
Their toys
Stuttering rain interrupts
Their smooth patter
One rainfall and pick-ups are destroyed.
Why does it feel so cold?
Why does it feel so lonely?
Why does it feel so cold
In this sun and sand?
Why does it feel so cold?
Exposing little of ourselves
While we’re getting perfect tans
Men drift, sifting
Through beauties in the sand.
Like a lounging lizard
Summer scales the beach.
My need to touch someone
Is getting out of hand
Beneath the surface
Warmth is out of reach.
CHORUS
In the distance
Hills bloom through a daybreak rain
Nothing lasting grows here in the sand
Yesterday’s impressions
Have been washed away
Here, grains of hope
Can sift right through your hands.
CHORUS
Crowded Isolation (Part Two)
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
Lights glare
Crowds hit the strip
Making registers ring
Horns blare,
Bass is thumping
(Bumper to bumper)
This street’s a pinball machine.
The street corner salesmen
On either side of the road
Are preachers and pushers
Help you buy or sell your soul
And it takes an hour (in traffic)
To go ten minutes away
What more can I say
It’s a crowded isolation
And my heart can’t stand the pace
It’s a crowded isolation
Always feeling out of place
I’m tired of people who shake your hand
Just trying to twist your arm
Adding to their bank accounts with calculated charm
All the mindless chatter
Every day after day
You’ll be talking to yourself
No matter what you say
End up feeling cornered
In these social circles
I’ve got to get away
CHORUS
The highway throbs
I’m pedal to the metal
Like I’m driving the tempo
With a big kick drum
Beating a retreat
My heart keeps pounding
I make a fist
When I’m under their thumb
In that maze of politics
Go ahead choose left or right
You end up running in circles
No one wins the fight
Sometimes you have to be engulfed by the fire
Before you see the light
Night falls like a drunk in a
Slow motion collapse
In the sobering silence
I wonder if there’s a way out
And I think perhaps
CHORUS
The Wrong Way
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
They say it’s the wrong way to fall in love
They say we’re wrong and we don’t have the right
They say it’s the wrong way but love comes in many colours
That’s as clear as black and white
Veins of lightning flash
In a heart attack sky
Clouds like fists of thunder crash
The world begins to cry
It’s another angry evening
That ends up in a fight
How can they say it’s wrong
When we know it feels so right
They say it’s the wrong way to fall in love
They say we’re wrong and we don’t have the right
They say it’s the wrong way but love comes in many colours
That’s as clear as black and white
We come from different worlds
But that’s all that they can see
They say those foreign languages
They’re all Greek to me
In a world of terrorism
What leaves me terrified
Is that the hope of ending hatred
May be one more thing that died
CHORUS
If our child has my eyes
I hope the only thing she sees
Is that her mother and I
Were always meant to be
CHORUS
On A Roll
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
A slash of light
Cuts under the blind
And opens up your eyes
Alarm clock ticking
Morning explodes
And shatters your peace of mind
You turn the ignition
The city starts up
Throbbing like a headache
You peer through the windshield
Then drive off
Crashing into the day
You’re……
On a roll
Running in circles
On a roll
Spinning out of control
On a roll
Running in circles
Spinning out of control
A lunch hour sun roasts the city
Steam rises through the grates
Downtown is stuffed to overflowing
We all have too much on our plates
But you don’t have time to eat much
You’re on another roll
CHORUS
You’re wheeling and dealing
Running in business circles all day
You’re circuits are overloaded
A type “A” trying to make the grade
At night you lie tossing and turning
Rolling it over in your mind
CHORUS
Traffic like machine gun fire
Shoots out along the freeway
Your nerves are shot
You live on the line
The phone finds you night and day
Headlights skid along the highway
The clock’s spinning out of control
Give And Take
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
We’ve got to stop this
Can’t go on this way
For every good time we have
Heaven knows there’ll be hell to pay
I guess I’m resigned
To calling it quits
Love is blind in the eye of the storm
Until the tornado hits
They say that love is
All give and take
Well I’ve taken all I can
And I’ve got nothing left to give
You can only bend so far
Then your heart breaks
There’s got to be a better way to live.
One thing is certain
Can’t get past these doubts
Its so easy to fall in love
But so hard to find a way out
They say love’s an accident
That’s why it leaves scars
Sometimes you don’t know you’re lost
Until you’ve gone too far
How can we take back
All that we said
Love can make you feel alive
Until you wish you were dead
CHORUS
It’s a split decision
There are some good days
But so many nights we fight
Tearing it all apart
Seems like now there’s nothing left to say
Don’t Tell Me Why
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
When you go, don’t tell me why
There are some things I’d rather just not know
So when you go, don’t tell me why
It’s too far gone to get it back
And I don’t want to be tempted to try
I still remember the feeling
But somehow we lost the touch
Coping with myopia
Moping in utopia
We had it all and couldn’t see that much
CHORUS
Chemistry’s supposed to be elemental
But I guess we don’t make the grade
Friction burns us out
Warmth replaced by doubt
Why we can’t talk it out neither one can say
I’ve got to get it in perspective
If we just can’t get it right
Let it go at that
Make peace with the fact
That I’ve finally got to give up the fight
CHORUS
The hardest part is the pain
Of gently trying to explain
To tiny ones who mean everything
That nothing will ever be the same
Angry World
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
The headline is blown up
A terrorist’s bomb explodes
It shakes up the city
Leaving us exposed
As smoke fills the air
It’s becoming clear
No one wants to go to hell
Well, hell just came here.
It’s an angry world
Sick wicked world
Madmen in the streets
Like a poison in our veins
It’s an angry world
Sick wicked world
It’s an illness
We can’t quite explain.
As we watched the buildings crumble
We saw the writing on the wall
The victims didn’t have a prayer
Can any one’s god save us all?
The pieces leave us puzzled
All we really know
Is the thing that makes us tick
Is an anger about to explode.
CHORUS
Some guy gets fired
Then pulls out a gun
When a madman escapes
We’re the ones on the run
Road Rage is front page
Riotfires burn
Kids open fire in school
Tell me what have we learned?
CHORUS
Maybe this isn’t my picture to paint
God knows I’m far from being a saint
Some days there’s no telling what I might do
If you turn on me, would I turn on you
CHORUS
Habit of Force
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
You made the bed
Now live a lie in it
Is all that she can hear.
He lives in a well kept home
While she lives in fear
At first he worshipped you
Then he looked for a sacrifice
You make breakfast scrambling for an idea
Of how to stop the beating tonight
His habit of force
Came as a cruel blow
His habit of force
Left her nowhere to turn
He’s getting smashed
The silence swells
When the violence will hit
It’s so hard to tell
When you don’t see a future
Which way do you go?
He’s smashed and breaking furniture
How he looks at her is a crime
He says he paid for everything
She’s living on borrowed time
CHORUS
His love leaves her tender
Bloody, black and blue
Love can leave you blind
When it blindsides you
With her eyes still swollen shut
She starts to see the light
He beats her ’til she’s conscious
That this time she has to fight
CHORUS
A Place Where No One Can Hear
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
My head is pounding
Night closes like a vice
No room to turn around
No time to think twice
I’m chasing my own shadow
I can’t catch my breath
It is so cold here
I’m afraid I’ll catch my death
Silence can be sanity
When what you see is clear
Confusion can be deafening
In a place where no one can hear
In the dead of night
I account for my life
And find I’m in arrears
Who do you make a case to
In a place where no one can hear?
CHORUS
I would try praying
If it could ease the fear
But blind faith provides no insight
In a place where no one can hear
CHORUS
I’m looking at the mirror
I see a glassy stare
I’m haunted by my second face
That I see lurking there.
CHORUS
It’s hard to paint you a picture
Van Gough might have lent an ear
It’s funny, it down him crazy too
A place where no one can hear
In The AfterMass
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
All alone in the aftermass… oh no, oh no
I stop and cross my heart
And then I hope to die
All alone in the aftermass… oh no, oh no
I know he made his bed,
Made it when he lied
At the foot of the altar
Kicked in the head
He said kiss my feet
And then share my bed
It’s easy for him
He forgives and forgets
And now I just pray
That he will confess
CHORUS
Stripped of my faith
Forced to undress
Self-righteous wrongs
Under duress
My vow of silence
Was sentenced in prayer
Some oaths get you to heaven
Some just make you swear
CHORUS
After you’ve fallen
How do you rise up?
How does heaven
Accept his ploy?
When you’re beaten down
How do you grow up?
The man is cloistered
What becomes of the boy?
CHORUS
I Don’t Like Love Anymore
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
I never saw it coming
But I guess that’s just the way it goes
Keeping track of what you’ve lost
Amounts to wisdom I suppose
Only Heaven knows where love goes
I’ve been left feeling
Lost by what I’ve found
Shaken right down to the core
I’ve been left feeling
Lost now that I’ve found
I don’t like love anymore.
It’s hard to look around again
And then never once look back
Where do I go from here?
Oh tell me where did we go so wrong?
Where did we go off track?
What did we lack?
I don’t want to look back
CHORUS
At first you’re soaring
You think heaven is what you’ve found
Then the one you worship crosses you
And it all comes crashing down
CHORUS
Who Do You Turn To?
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
Who do you turn to
When you’re running in circles?
Your days are a maze
Feels like there’s no way out
Who do you turn to
When you’re under fire
And you’re riddled with doubt?
Where do you go when it’s gone?
And how do you follow the chase?
Do you just pack up and move on
Or take it case by case?
CHORUS
Just getting by
Has gotten the best of me
Somehow I lost sight of
All that I was meant to see
CHORUS
Some gamble on love or lotteries
Count on politicians or God
After all I’ve seen
I have to say I don’t like the odds
CHORUS
One Last Chance
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
Give me…..
One last chance to tell you
I’ve got to let you know
I need…
One last chance to tell you
One last time before you go
To say I love you so
They say nothing lasts forever
Does anything last long enough
How do we you live with what we’ve lost
Hold on while we’re feeling out of touch
I guess I’ll have to move on
Find my way to somewhere new
You can’t live in the past
But you always take it with you
CHORUS
Where it is you’re headed
Heaven only knows
I can’t stand to see you leave this life
But I guess that’s the way it goes
I see your eyes in the mirror
And I’m lost in reflection
I’m like a shadow
Waiting for direction
CHORUS
When it feels like you’ve lost everything
There’s nothing left to say
Still I wish I could find the words
Somehow find a way
Drown Out The Silence
Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music
I never saw it coming
But I guess that’s the way it goes
Keeping track of what you’ve lost
Amounts to wisdom I suppose
Some get married and multiply
Some get divorced and divide
Or one day the world’s got your number
And it all adds up to a lie
Tell me
Why can’t I just drown out the silence?
I guess there’s not much that you can say
Why can’t I just drown out the silence
The nights are dark and lonely
So I just live day to day
I’ve got to put the future behind me
Keep from falling back
Just when I lose everything
Just when I lose everything
I now see what I lack
All of the sorry things I did
I always will regret
The things I thought I could live without
I never will forget
CHORUS
I thought we’d have it all
But you’d just had enough
Now whenever you see me smile
It’s just a blind man’s bluff
Think I’ll buy a lotto ticket
Try to start from scratch
Claim to have the fire to try again
But really I’m no match
CHORUS
I’m scared of my own shadow of doubt
Haunted by what I can’t live without
Full of emptiness feeling drained
I’m falling and I can’t stand the strain
CHORUS