Stillwave

Lyrics

PART I: "FEVER" PROTAGONIST: They locked down the gates of Disneyland last week I saw it on the news Citing the riots up and down Katella Avenue I watched that news reporter stumble with her prompter and I wondered soon would news reports stop, too? Being the good American I am I knew I had to run Could be the last time, so I thought it prob'ly best to take the 1 Traffic standstill, oceanside, sprawling desperate humankind The Pacific was tiny, sake of timing, I kicked back to the 101 152 to 5 Not sure anyone still alive Barely any cars in that whole time And this suburban kid turned city dweller Felt a tear drip from his eye at having Never really drove just to appreciate the drive That sentiment extinguished quickly When I caught the sight of a 50 something crewcutted dad-looking guy Throw an empty garbage can through the window of a Best Buy And carry out a flat screen A couple sets of DVDs Of How I Met Your Mother "Motherfucker! Put 'em down" I heard a disembodied voice call out And that guy got tackled to the ground By a woman with a nametag and a bright blue polo shirt Drew a sickly looking crowd As she kicked his teeth into the dirt When he eventually stopped moving We stared grimly at his body Till he got up, grabbed his glasses, made a b-line to the Hobby Lobby I left the scene, aghast and terrified I took it as a warning of the horrors that could lie ahead In wake of the announcement, human race to be eliminated But something in there dissonated, and left me quite astounded It was that Some people still wave Amidst the fuck offs and the muggers As they walk their dogs through parks And they hold hands with one another It strikes me as cliche Like something you see in movies But the movie's coming true And people recognize exactly what to do PART II: "LOCUS OF CONTROL" White knuckled, I spent three more hours Captive in the cockpit, doing 98, denying all impulse To simply pile through the guardrails that envelop the highway; To roll the credits my way, but a morbid curiosity Took control The second I saw Fluxing hills of smoke and smog Pluming over Burbank and North Hollywood The great domain of angels Looking kinda like I thought it would The cars, the trucks, the busses There they were A jam heading the other way A mass exodus from LA And there I was, ever contrarian, heading in To watch the show I took the exit to Ball Road, stopped on the street and slammed my doors, I started walking So anxious and excited, I was talking to myself I said Am I depraved? Or am I going insane? Did I drive all of this way For validation of my shame? Got no use in wondering now There's a Kingdom I gotta see A toppled idol of optimism and blueblood ingenuinity And fantasy, adventure The honest American dream! Rendered futile in the absence of a future An 85-acre emblem of what now will never be PART III: "JOURNEY INTO IMAGINATION" Jumped a chain link fence into Disneyland this afternoon Accessed from the side, straight through warehouses and garages Near the back of Tom Sawyer Island Past Splash Mountain, with its flume completely dried The Haunted Mansion looked so normal Club 33 had its doors swung open wide Fascinating though it was I found the atmosphere nightmarish Not a soul in sight to speak of Magic technicolor bareness I mean no noise, no cheer, no instrumental loops Just themed facades inside a vacuum That was until I met the Troops PART IV: "LIGHT & FLUORESCENT STARKNESS" Finally felt the castle spires dwarfing me Warm sensations quickly pinned as familiarity Until i spied the upturned LAPD K-9 Unit Crown Victoria Half submerged beneath one of the false brick turrets A gigantic concrete base A bronze Walt Disney lay below it Hand outstretched to partner's, 40 feet away under A sign reading "Tomorrowland" on an ornate metal globe A sawed-off wooden plank above it and all it said was "No" PART V: "INITIATION" I heard murmurs past the drawbridge Slurs I couldn't understand Knew beyond the iron gates stood what they called Fantasyland I couldn't bare to see the fantasy these times had wrought in full 3D But, again, that curiosity! I guess it got the best of me I tiptoed in, my head halfway rotated o'er my shoulder My breaths grew short and stuttering, the wind was blowing so much colder And then I'd say about a hundred living corpses pivoted and all moved Toward me silently and slowly, then with Grey eyes and thinning hair What appeared to be the leader of the group said.. "Welcome in, o weary traveler! ...or should I say, New Member of the Troops?" PART VI: "LIVING IN HELL" THE LEADER OF THE TROOPS: "This is our land now, for the next few days now We can live the way we want and run it any way now I know why you came here, you wanted just to disappear Away from friends and family, from all responsibility; To slip inside this world of optimism, ingenuity, etcetera The saunter around the promenade must'a learned you better Judging by the look upon your face I tell ya boy, well that's okay Why don't I give you a tour of all the hovels in this place The Casey Junior train It don't roll around no more Its tunnels something of a haven now For junk pokers and whores And Snow White, Pinocchio, Peter Pan In their respective buildings But those buildings've been taken over In fact they're almost spilling With the detritus of our country I'm sorry to put it so bluntly Let's keep moving, shall we? Oh, that's Mr. Toad's Wild Ride The site of several suicides since it closed If you take a look inside, past the switchbacks and the turnstiles You might find what you're looking for, if you don't Well, you'd better watch your back Behind those blacklit plywood flats Something sinister is sneaking, stealing souls Don't think it can be seen It takes the forms of dying dreams, childhood memories, and the places in between Oh yeah! But you'll be fine, there is a Hell in that world, just remember that The little devils deep inside they know precisely what you lack You may be perfect, straight and narrow, but they're planning their attack Hey! Buddy! Where the hell ya headed? We was only gettin' started!"