Land of Extremes

Who Can You Trust?

Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music

Who can you trust?
Where do you turn?
They light a fire under you
Then you get burned
Who can you trust?
Give me a break
To get back what you’ve lost
What does it take?

It’s new and improved
Time limited deal
Five easy payments
Free shipping’s a steal
Buy now think later
This is your chance
Money back guarantee
Use your payday advance.

The world’s getting even
I’m odd man out
Whoever you trust
You’re filled with doubt
Billboards and neon
Promise good times
But you better be careful
Read between the lines

CHORUS

You both say I do
Soon she says she’s done
Before you get started
The end’s begun
Talk of Eden
Leads you down the garden path
Some things don’t last long
And aren’t so great while they last

CHORUS

Just buy a package
Head to heaven
A casket and plot
A nice reception
You don’t know what’s coming
But its going to get you soon
Then instead of hymns
You may sing a different tune

CHORUS

I’ll Be Flying

Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music

Trapped on the freeway
Exhausted standing still
This city just blows smoke
Then goes in for the kill
I’ve been stuck in lines so long
Don’t know what I’m waiting for
If this is all a game
Who the hell is keeping score?

I’ll be flying
I’ll be flying
I’ll be flying
Before the morning light
My spirit may be broken
But I’m coming back to life
I’ll be flying
Out of here tonight

If this pillow is my headstone
As I sleep my life away
When will I wake up
To find I’m dying day to day?
I’m going to take some chances
Before time takes my chances away
The next time you see me
I’ll have something new to dsay

CHORUS

I know I could let go
Finally give up the fight
Instead I’ll turn it all around
And my heart will soon take flight

CHORUS

Claustrophobic (In My Own Skin)

Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music

I live inside my scars
There’s no going back
They weep for what I’ve lost
They ache for what I lack
As I fade into the future
I’m dragged down by the past
Is there any point in rolling the dice
When the die’s already been cast

I feel ……
Claustrophobic
In my own skin
There’s no way out
I’m stuck staying in
Claustrophobic
In my own skin

Like a trash compactor crushing my soul
The city’s closing in
Its heart is made of stone
Its soul has the scent of sin
Can you tell me
When you’ve lost everything
How do you find your way back?
Are we measured by what we have or what we lack?

CHORUS

And when you ask me if I
Have any regrets
I’ll just say the heart remembers
What the mind tries to forget

CHORUS

What Comes Next? (Agnostic Gospel)

Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music

What comes next
When I get to the water’s edge
What comes next
Do I drink or drown?
What comes next
Do I think it’s up
Or is it down
Or do we just go round and round?

I can’t tell if there’s a heaven
Yeah but what the hell
Let’s peek around the corner
Look for magic sit a spell

CHORUS

Will I just be fertilizer
Let me plant the seed
Is it all the truth
Or is it just what we need

CHORUS

I can’t tell if there’s a heaven
Yeah but what the hell
Let’s peek around the corner
Look for magic, sit a spell

CHORUS

Normal Is

Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music

Normal is what people are
Until you get to know them
You don’t really know them
Until all is revealed
Normal is what people are
Until you get to know them
You can look them in the face
But their lips are often sealed

We’re all a little twisted
If you trace the bend
We all have scars to heal
We all have wounds to mend

When you finally wake up
Who are you waking up beside?
Who is looking back
When you open up your eyes?

CHORUS

When you’re looking for the norm
What is it you missed?
Will you have to brave a storm
That you never knew exists?
On the road to straight and narrow
Any detour that you take
Will probably have a traffic jam
Chasing the same fate

CHORUS

And in the final analysis
Does normal mean better or worse?
Should it be a goal
Or is it just a curse?

CHORUS

Some Day

Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music

Do you reach out and live for the future
Or learn to live with the past?
Do you hope for what comes next
Or try to live with what came last?
I don’t want to turn and find that
I’ve lost more than I’ll ever see again

Some day I’ll find it
Some day
I’ll find a way to fly
Some day
I’ll find it
Before I say goodbye

Can’t let my drive slip into neutral
Don’t want to run out of gas
I think maybe its time to slow down
But then I think not so fast
Don’t ask me where I’m going
Cause I’m not sure where it all went

CHORUS

Time compounds your lack of interest
In the things money can buy
So before I cash it all in
It might pay to give it one more try

Some day I’ll find it
Some day
I’ll find a way to fly
Some day
I’ll find it
Before I say goodbye

One day I’ll find a way
To let the outcome go
Is there any point in analyzing
The things I’ll never know?

My mirror is aging
My mirror’s grown old
The fire was raging
But now it’s grown cold

If you can’t find your way
When do you turn back
Do you go the distance
When all hope is gone

Normal is what people are
Until you get to know them

My words collide and overlap

Crushed in the rush to make sense
Another A futile attempt to define
the past in the present tense

I’m going to take off tomorrow
Take off
Give it one more try
I’m going to take off tomorrow
Before I say goodbye

Overdue

Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music

I had a dream
But I let it slip away
And now it seems
I’m just left with day to day
Some are born to run
While some just spin their wheels
I need to get up to speed
Just to find out how it feels

It makes you crazy
And it makes you blue
You’re not sure what you’re waiting for
But you know it’s overdue

I’m going nowhere
Still I get home feeling tired
I’m sick of this vague sadness
I want to feel inspired
I’t’s time to take some chances
Before time takes my chances away.
Finally find the day
When I don’t have to say

It makes you crazy
And it makes you blue
You’re not sure what you’re waiting for
But you know it’s overdue
It may be a job, the lottery
Or some long lost love
Or it may be something
I hadn’t even thought of

It makes you crazy
And it makes you blue
You’re not sure what you’re waiting for
But you know it’s overdue

Live It Up A Little

Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music

Live it up a little tonight
Live it up a little tonight
I’m going to get myself going
Before It’s all gone
I’m going to live it up a little tonight
Live it up a little tonight
I’m going to go for it before it’s gone

Life eventually comes to a dead end
So we might as well take the scenic route
Lets take this road where it leads us
We have nothing better to do

CHORUS

Monday will rise up from the ashes
But it’s never quite as bright
As all of the sidewalk streamers
On a downtown Friday night

CHORUS

Let’s burn the candle at both ends
Until we see the light
Now I’m armed with a leg up
And I’m ready to run tonight

CHORUS

Land Of Extremes

Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music

I was born in a land of extremes
Hot and cold and not a lot in between
I was an angry young man, now I’m angry and old
When I look at where the fire went makes my blood run cold.

I’ve been working
Killing myself to survive
That day to day drain
Leaves you a little less alive
I’ve been working
Killing myself, now I find
When I look in the mirror all I see
Is what I left behind

I was born in a land of extremes
Have and have not and not a lot in between
I may make a living, but I’ll never have it made
This life cost me more than I ever got paid.
CHORUS

Fall frost and winter freeze
Aching to get warm
I never got my place in the sun
I’ll settle for shelter from the storm
How far do you have to go
To get past where you come from
You’re never sure what to do
Then one day they say you’re done.

CHORUS

Furious World

Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music

I saw the blood spattered
Like 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 them tick
Is an anger about to explode.

It’s a furious world
Sick with politics and pain
It’s a furious world
With an illness
We can’t quite explain.

Some guy gets fired
Then pulls out a gun
When a madman escapes justice
We’re the ones on the run, ah
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

Only You

Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music

I just want one love that I won’t have to forget
Yesterdays that I won’t have to regret
Memories that I won’t have to leave behind
And a passion that won’t pass away with time
I want to find a love
And forever feel the same

Only you
Can make me feel this way
Only you
Can make me feel this way
And as far as I can see
This time is all the time I need

It’s a short distance between warmth
And getting burned
I was afraid to get too close
But then I finally learned
In the end a true friend is the one
Who faces the fire and refuses to run
I want to find a love
And forever feel the same

Only you
Can make me feel this way
Only you
Can make me feel this way
And as far as I can see
This time is all the time I need

In troubled times
You knew just what I needed
When I called
You were there
Now you can bet
I will never forget
That when I called
You were there

CHORUS

Under Duress

Words & Music by David Bray © Under Duress Music

When love gets physical
You can’t fight what you feel
When cupid brings his bow
You best remember the shields

Looking for love
Is like courting disaster
You can end up with never again
Instead of ever after

Read him his rights
He’s under duress
He clutches his heart
This is, this is an arrest
He’s under duress

Each laboured breath
Tugs at the air
Every exhale speaks of despair
They say that time heals all wounds
He’s wants to file, file a malpractice suit

CHORUS

Stabbed in the back
His stomach’s tied in knots
Spirit’s broken
His nerves are shot
The autopsy of love
Shows that he’s been burned
The autopsy reveals
That he never learned

CHORUS

These violent emotions
Leave him dying inside
He buries himself in this disservice
He’s the only one who cried.

CHORUS X 2

Speaking As One

We share the same blood
Yet we speak in different tongues
You speak in father
While I speak in son
Still I know in times of trouble
We’ll always speak as one.
In troubled times
We’ll always speak as one.

I am your tomorrows
You are my yesterdays
Together we are whole
Apart, each one is just a phase.

You gave me your name
Now I’ve passed it on to my son
He’s trying to make a name for himself
He’s only just begun
I’ll work to be his shelter
Keep him safe and warm
When clouds gather
Taking him by storm

He is my tomorrows
I am his yesterdays
Together we are whole
Apart, each one is just a phase.

We share the same blood
Yet we speak in different tongues
Grandfather, father and son
Still I know in times of trouble
We’ll always speak as one.
In troubled times
We’ll always speak as one.

So, In Conclusion

I’ve been a sad-faced clown
On a merry-go round
Spinning in circles
Ups and downs

Ups and downs
One or two long slides
At least I can get say
I lived before I died

So in conclusion.
Where should I begin
I could have lost more
Let’s call it a win
Repeat Chorus

I asked for a recount
When the die was cast
Try to change the outcome
Finish first at last

When it finally comes down
To adding it up
I spilled some drinks
But I filled my cup

Chorus
Repeat Chorus

I think too much
And my scars start to throb
I’ve employed everything
Nothing does the job

Chorus
Repeat Chorus

Come The Fall

It’s true the times are changing
But we turn back come the Fall.
You broke down in Berlin
After dancing on the wall.

You brought your sledge and pummeled
But now it’s time to build.
Without your back to the wall
You’re feeling unfulfilled.

Ah, It’s true the times are changing
But we turn back come the Fall.
You broke down in Berlin
After dancing on the wall.

You charge then ask for credit
But the only thing you fear
Is buying time when the battle’s done
Before you disappear.

You long for love
But tend to turn back come the fall.
You’re willing to leap, but once you land
You think that’s it that’s all.

CHORUS

You hold your drinks so well tonight
But find mornings hard to swallow.
You’re there to lead the battle
But gone when it’s time to follow.

You calmly face an onslaught
But peace can make you panic.
You were born to ride the storm
The rise and fall of manic.

Ah, It’s true the times are changing
But we turn back come the Fall.
You broke down in Berlin
After dancing on the wall.

CHORUS

I Don’t Know Why

I don’t know why
I don’t know why
Humankind is so cruel
I don’t know why
I don’t know why
We work at playing the fool
Politics is the sword that divides us
We take stab but make things worse
And I swear, yes I swear, yeah I swear
Their oaths become a curse

In the maze of politics
Go ahead choose left or right
You end up running in circles
No one wins the fight
We find ourselves making a fist
When we’re under their thumb

CHORUS

They say we need protection
But it feels like an STD
Another romantic notion
That turns into a disease
They’re calculating and we pay the price
The cost is far too high

CHORUS

If they had any vision
That might see us through
But history repeats itself
The future, the future is déjà vu

CHORUS

Nothing Left

It’s a frigid night in December
The city feels so cold
I’m stuck here in a jam
But I’ve been down this road

We have nothing left
We have nothing left
Once we had it all
We have nothing left
Nothing left to break the fall

Ah, Now I have children to protect
But no money and no man, no man
We ran from your rage
I gave my all but I’ve taken more than I can

CHORUS

It was matrimony in the worst degree
We started with “I do”
Now there’s, there’s nothing left to say
Nothing left of me and you
Cause…..

We have nothing left
Lord we have nothing left
Once we had it all
We have nothing left
Ah, ah.. Nothing left to break the fall
Na Na Na Na…

We have nothing left
Said we have nothing left
Once we had it all
We have nothing left
No, no….Nothing left to break the fall
Ah, ooh…