A Place In The Queue -

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 B.M.W

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