SAVATAGE LYRICS

1. Gutter Ballet

[Music & Words: Jon Oliva, Criss Oliva, Paul O'Neill]

Another sleepless night
A concrete paradise
Sirens screaming in the heat

Neon cuts the eye
As the jester sighs
At the world beneath his feet

It's a gutter ballet
Just a menagerie
Still the orchestra plays
In the darkness of the night
To a distant fading light

Balanced on their knives
Little parts of lives
Such a strange reality

Kill the unicorn
Just to have its horn
Soon he's just a fantasy

It's a gutter ballet
Just a menagerie
Still the orchestra plays
On a dark and lonely night
To a distant fading light

The jester takes his bows
Slips into the crowd
As the actors fade away

Another death to mourn
Another child is born
Another chapter in the play

It's a gutter ballet
Just a menagerie
Still the orchestra plays
On a dark and lonely night
To a distant fading light

It's a gutter ballet
a gutter ballet, ooh
a gutter ballet, aah
a gutter ballet, yeah

2. Degrees of Sanity

[Music & Words: Jon Oliva, Criss Oliva, Paul O'Neill]

And so I sit here in the dark
You made the rules I played the part
I never rushed or pushed my fate
When time was tight I knew to wait
And circumstance
So well disguised
Within a gathering of lies
And in the dark I lie awake
So I can watch you drive your stake

What's that you said to me
The moment dies
Degrees of sanity
All alone
Lost unknown
And whispered in your sights

And in the dark it all unwinds
I pray for change
The kiss of time
And in my thoughts
I sit and dwell
The labyrinth's there
I know it well

What's that you said to me
The moment dies
Degrees of sanity
All alone
Lost unknown
And whispered in your sights

And all the things you never heard
While in my mind I search for words
But time was lost
The curtain fell
I take my bows and wish you well

What's that you said to me
The moment dies
Degrees of sanity
All alone
Lost unknown
And whispered in your sights

3. Jesus Saves

[Music & Words: Jon Oliva, Criss Oliva, Paul O'Neill]

Hey, man, you got a quarter? You ain't got nothing, that's ok man,
that's ok. God bless you anyway. Here, I hope I didn't scare you or
nothing like that. I ain't bum or nothing. Yeah, I used to live uptown
once, once before too you know. No, no, I did really I did. I used to
come down and look at all the characters. Never thought I'd be one
of them though. Characters, man, a lot of characters. Hey, hey, you
got a minute? Let me tell you a story about this friend of mine.
D.T. Jesus used to stand for Down Town Jesus. He used to sell
drugs and stuff down there, and they called him - that's why we
used to call him DeTox. He was one character, one character that
made it outa here. Let me tell you about him.

Jesus was a talker
Just an out-of-place New Yorker
He hung out on the boulevard

He was sellin' nickel candles
He was saving up all his quarters
Bought himself a cheap guitar

Started playin' in bars
Kids came in their cars
Hear them shouting at the stage

Jesus saves
Jesus saves
Yes, he does
Jesus saves

You know
Jesus he started changin'
Things got really strange
He saw his tee shirts everywhere

He started missing shows
The band came down to blows
But Jesus he just didn't care

Things got out of hand
And so he quit the band
Still the critics they would rave
Whoa!

Jesus saves
Jesus saves
Yes, he does
Jesus saves

So the dice were cast
Today became past
Jesus just disappeared

He was headed for New York
Or so his little label thought
And there he gave away the years

Last seen drinking wine
Beneath a flashing sign
Promising salvation to strays
Whoa!

Jesus saves
Jesus saves
Yes, he does
Jesus saves

Hear him cut through the night
On those late night radio waves
Jesus saves
Yes, he does
Jesus saves

4. Edge of Thorns

[Music & Words: Jon Oliva, Criss Oliva, Paul O'Neill]

An offering of reasons
We put them all in play
A covering of treasons
That one by one we let slip away

A solitary dancer
So lost upon her stage

I have seen you on the edge of dawn
Felt you there before you were born
Balanced your dreams upon the edge of thorns
But I don't think about you anymore

A study made from winter
Of summers long ago
And dreams that used to glitter
Safely now hidden under snow

And so we end the chapter
And let the stage lights fade

I have seen you on the edge of dawn
Felt you there before you were born
Balanced your dreams upon the edge of thorns
But I don't think about you anymore

I have seen you on the edge of dawn
Felt you there before you were born
Balanced your dreams upon the edge of thorns
But I don't think about you anymore
Anymore
I don't think about you anymore
Anymore
I don't think about you
I don't think about you
I don't think about you
Anymore, anymore, anymore

5. Agony and Ecstasy

[Music & Words: Jon Oliva, Criss Oliva, Paul O'Neill]

Listen to me
From deep down inside
I'm the madness that just
Will not die
With no regrets
Of what I'll do to you

Before the night is over
You'll be crawling to me

Call me when you're weak
For me you'll lie and cheat
You'll never get away
With me you're here to stay

Listen D.T. can't you see
Stay with me and you'll be free
Even as I soothe your soul
I tear you down and make you old
You just keep on coming back
To buy another nickel sack
Twelve o'clock time to greet
Agony and ecstasy
Ecstasy

I'm the cry from within
From when your day begins
You'll follow me like sheep
This shepherd never sleeps

So tell me what's your price
Came skate on my ice
My blades they never rust
I'm asking you to trust

Listen now the time is right
And what a way to start the night
Spend your money endlessly
Another grand insanity
So D.T. here is the plan
I'll make your brain a rubber band
Time to stretch it out and see
Agony and Ecstasy
Ecstasy
Ecstasy
Ecstasy
Ecstasy

Feel my whisper through your haze of pain
Hear the calling of a neon vein
See myname upon your soul's marquee
I am agony and ecstasy

And just remember
If you ever need me
I'm here

6. Chance

[Music & Words: Jon Oliva, Paul O'Neill]

He was standing all alone
Trying to find the words to say
When every prayer he ever prayed
Was gone
And the dreams he's never owned
Are still safely tucked away
Until tomorrow he just
Carries on
Carries on
Carries on

See the Devil in the streets at night
See him running in the pouring rain
See him grinning ?neath a twisted light
I'll be back again
See the people standing in a row
See them nodding like a field of grain
No one sees the sickle though
Coming 'cross the plain

And this he knows if nothing more
That waiting in the dark like destiny
Are those who kissed the dogs of war
And there is no tomorrow
No tomorrow
Take a chance
Take a, take a chance, yeah

See the Devil he is so intense
See the Devil go and change his name
What's the going price of innocence
It can't be the same
Is it dark when the moon is down
Is it dark with a single flame
If there's glass falling all all around
I am not to blame
And this he knows if nothing more

That waiting in the dark like destiny
Are those who kissed the dogs of war
And there is no tomorrow
No tomorrow
Take a chance
Take a, take a chance, yeah
Take a chance
Take a, take a chance, yeah

Burn the night away
Burn the night away
Burn the night...

Pictures at an exhibition
Played as he stood his trance
Staring at his inhibitions
All the time believing
That it now came down to nothing but this chance
Chance
Chance
Chance

I fear you
Your silence
Your blindless
See what you want to see
In darkness
One kindness
One moment
Tell me what you believe

I believe in nothing
Never really had to
In regards to your life
Rumors that are not true
Who's defending evil
Surely never I
Who would be the witness
Should you chance to die

Father can you hear me
This is not how was meant to be
I am safe and so are you
As for the others destiny

[simultaneously - add a new stanza each time]

[1].
Father can you hear me
This is not how was meant to be
I am safe and so are you
As for the others destiny

[simultaneously - add a new stanza each second time]

[2].
I believe that situations
All depend on circumstance

[3].
Look away
Look away
Look away
Look away

[4].
Pictures at an exhibition
Played as he stood in his trance
Staring at his inhibitions
All the time believing
That it now came down to
Nothing but this...

[All together]
Chance
Chance
Chance...

7. Complaint in the System

[Music & Words: Jon Oliva, Paul O'Neill]

Got a complaint in the system
Got a complaint in the system
Got a complaint in the system
Got a complaint in the system

Welcome to the system
Here's the situation
It's a bit confusing
Welcome to the maze
Everybody sees what
Everybody wants to
Everyone avoids
Every other gaze

I will be your mentor
I'll be your advisor
I'll do what I do
And you will look away
Forgetting what you see
Has always been much wiser
But someone in the back is missing what I say

Got a complaint in the system
Got a complaint in the system
Got a complaint in the system
Got a complaint in the system

Welcome to the park now
We supply amusements
Everybody rides
But everybody pays
What good's causing problems
When no one's complaining
What good is a martyr
If no one is saved

Everybody knows us
Everybody sees us
Every single child
Can tell you where we are
Every politician
Says that we are leaving
But in all this time
We haven't gone too far

Got a complaint in the system
Got a complaint in the system
Got a complaint in the system
Got a complaint in the system

You should understand it
It's not underhanded
It's really quite simple you see

The right and the wrong of it
Long and the short of it
Black and the white of it
Forget the sight of it
It is so much cheaper
To be no one's keeper
Trust me
Complaint

In the dead of the night
You can stab with a knife
But it's rare you'll ever get anywhere

So we laugh in delight
Till you turn on a light
And we scatter for the darkness
Or the corners filled with blackness
And we're
There, there, there
There, there, there
There, there
Where, where, where
Where, where, where
Where, where
There, there, there
There, there, there
There, there
Where, where, where
Where, where, where
Where, where
There

8. The Hourglass

[Music & Words: Jon Oliva, Al Pitrelli, Paul O'Neill]

Standing alone by the edge of a river
He's traded his life for a glass full of tears
The bargain was quick for one's life is less dearer
When the sand's running out and the ending is near

The ending is near
The ending is near
The ending is...

The man climbed aboard and set sail for the ocean
He put on the mast all the canvas she'd take
Then laid himself down on the deck neath the tiller
The ship was his coffin this moment his wake

Runaway reasons
Runaway seasons
Time is a treason
That I give back to you now

The wind touched the sail and the ship moved the ocean
The wind from the storm set the course she would take
From a journey to nowhere towards a soul on the ocean
From the wake of Magellan to Magellan's wake

Runaway reasons
Runaway seasons
Everything in it
Hours and minutes
You take tomorrow
Because it means nothing
To me, To me, To...

In the dark he heard a whisper
Asking him to understand
In the desert look for water
On the ocean look for land

In the dark he heard a whisper
Asking him to understand
In the desert look for water
On the ocean look for land

And there in the waves
Was a man in his grave
That he saw in the night
'Tween the flashes of light
And he could not be there

And all he had prayed
Or had given away
He now found to be wrong
In the grip of the storm
And he could not be there

Could you keep our lives together
Safely back onto the shore
Could you grant this last illusion
Only this and nothing more

Could you keep our lives together
Safely back onto the shore
Could you grant this last illusion
Only this and nothing more

And all at once the heavens bled their fire
The anchor broke the chains they flew away
And suddenly the waves were reaching higher
And in the dark I thought I heard them say

[1.]
Could you keep our lives together
Safely back onto the shore
Could you grant this last illusion
Only this and nothing more

[simultaneously - add a new stanza each second time]

[2.]
Everything I ever had for one more tomorrow
Everything I ever had for just one more night
And if this is not to be I pray could I borrow
Just another final hour onto my life

[3.]
Did you ever really want to
Did you ever really want to

[4.]
Lord, tell me how it will be
Lord, tell me how it will be

[all together]
Nothing more
Nothing more
Nothing...

9. Voyage

[Music: All Pitrelli]

[Instrumental]

10. Prelude to Madness / Hall of the Mountain King

[Music & Words: Jon Oliva, Criss Oliva, Johnny Lee Middleton, Paul O'Neill, Grieg]

Far away
In a land caught between
Time and space
Where the books of life lay
We fear
This castle of stone
The mountain king roams
All alone in here
But he's not the only one
Lost inside
Forever hidden from the sun

Madness reigns
In the Hall of the Mountain King
Oh yeah

His deep
Dark eyes
Keep watch on his kingdom
And the mysteries that sleeps safe inside
His hall
His towers of stone
Shall not be overthrown
For eternity
It is guarded by the king
Insanity and the power that it brings

Madness reigns
In the Hall of the Mountain King
Oh yeah
In the Hall of the Mountain King
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Come with me
Stay close by my side
As the darkness of night closes in
Don't fear
In the thunder, it roars
When the Mountain King calls all his children home
To where I hid him we must run
Refuge here but I was forever on the run

Madness reigns
(my friends)
In the Hall of the Mountain King
Oh yeah
In the Hall of the Mountain King
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

11. This is the Time

[Music & Words: Jon Oliva, Paul O'Neill]

Watching in silence, I hesitate: It was not in the plans
All of our lives we could only wait: It was out of our hands

And every war where we took the day, it was all in our heads
And though in the dark we dream at night, they were better unsaid

[chorus]
But this is the time and this is the place
And these are the signs that we must embrace
The moment is now, in all history
The time has arrived and this is the one place to be
Yeah, yeah

We placed our years in the hourglass, they were never unearned
And we seemed destined to watch them pass - it was never our turn

[chorus]
But this is the time and this is the place
And these are the signs that we must embrace
The moment is now, in all history
The time has arrived and this is the one place to be
Yeah, yeah

[lead break]

[solo]

[chorus]
This is the time and this is the place
And these are the signs that we must embrace
The moment is now, in all history
The time has arrived and this is the one place to be
Yeah, yeah

[extro]

12. Believe

[Music & Words: Jon Oliva, Criss Oliva, Paul O'Neill]

So after all those one night stands
You've ended up with heart in hand
A child alone
On your own
Retreating

Regretful for the things you're not
And all the things you haven't got
Without a home
A heart of stone
Lies bleeding

And for all the roads you followed
And for all you did not find
And for all the things you had to leave behind

I am the way
I am the light
I am the dark inside the night
I hear your hopes
I feel your dreams
And in the dark I hear your screams
Don't turn away
Just take my hand
And when you make your final stand
I'll be right there
I'll never leave
All I ask of you
Believe

Your childhood eyes were so intense
While bartering your innocence
For bits of string
The grown-up wings
You needed

But when you had to add them up
You found that there were not enough
To get you in
Pay for sins
Repeated

And for all the years you borrowed
And for all the tears you cried
And for all the fears you had to keep inside
Yeah

I am the way
I am the light
I am the dark inside the night
I hear your hopes
I feel your dreams
And in the dark I hear your screams
Don't turn away
Just take my hand
And when you make your final stand
I'll be right there
I'll never leave
And all I ask of you
Believe, yeah

I never wanted to know
Never wanted to see
I wasted my time
Till time wasted me
Never wanted to go
Always wanted to stay
'Cause the persons I am
Are the parts that I play
So I plot and I plan
Hope and I scheme
To the lure of a night
Filled with unfinished dreams
And I'm holding on tight
To a world gone astray
As they charge me for years
I can't pay

I am the way
I am the light
I am the dark inside the night
I hear your hopes
I feel your dreams
And in the dark I hear your screams
Don't turn away
Just take my hand
And when you make your final stand
I'll be right there
I'll never leave
All I ask of you
Believe
Believe

13. Desiree (acoustic)

[Music & Words: Jon Oliva, Criss Oliva, Paull O'Neill]

Desiree
Listen to your heart
Have the dreams all been scattered
Are all the words just parts
'Cause in these ruins alone
I've been watching you
A ghost among these stones
Desiree I've got to tell you

What good's a tear without a face
To soften its downward fall from grace
And across my heart
Desiree I wish you'd see
Scars are the wounds that we all show
Time only heals if you let go
If you're letting go
Desiree I wish you'd think of...

If you only take chances
When every angle's safe
Have partnerless dances
In castles where you wait

But I see far away
A distance in your eyes
As you go on alone
Piling up your alibis

What good's a tear without a face
To soften its downward fall from grace
And across my heart
Desiree I wish you'd see
Scars are the wounds that we must show
Time only heals if you let go
If you're letting go
Desiree I wish you'd think of...

Lost in a movie script
With no words left to say
You leave on that plane alone
And there inside a midnight fog
I turn and walk away

What good's a tear that falls from grace
What good's a life that leaves no trace
When its time is done
Desiree I wish you'd see

Who needs a heart that never bleeds
Never retreats and never needs
If it's all alone
Desiree I wish you'd think of me

14. All That I Bleed (acoustic)

[Music & Words: Jon Oliva, Criss Oliva, Paul O'Neill]

Someone
Got themselves a letter
In the mail the other day
It's already worn and tattered
And I guess
It gives away

All the things we keep inside
All the things that really matter
The face puts on its best disguise
And all is well
Until the heart
Betrays

She knows
As she reads the letter
That things were bound to stray
Winds blow
She pulls her coat tighter
And the letter flies away

With all the things she keeps inside
All the things that really matter
The face puts on its best disguise
And all is well
Until the heart betrays

Lord bring on the night
Wrap it all around me
Let it hold me tight
Soak up all that I bleed

Lord bring on the night
Wrap it all around me
Let it hold me tight
Soak up all that I bleed

And I'll fly away
Yeah I'll fly away
Oh ho, I'll fly away
Watch me, yeah yeah

Lord bring on the night
Wrap it all around me
Let it hold me tight
Soak up all that I bleed
I bleed







SAVATAGE LYRICS