The Empire Strikes First Produit par Brett Gurewitz and Greg Graffin Enregistré par studio A at Sound City in L.A. Line-up : Greg Graffin, Greg Hetson, Brett Gurewitz, Brian Baker, Jay Bentley, Brooks Wackerman 01. Overture 02. Sinister Rouge 03. Social Suicide 04. Atheist Peace 05. All There Is 06. Los Angeles Is Burning 07. Let Them Eat War 08. God's Love 09. To Another Abyss 10. The Quickening 11. The Empire Strikes First 12. Beyond Electric Dreams 13. Boot Stamping On A Human Face Forever 14. Live Again - The Fall Of Man 15. The Surface Of Me (bonus) -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 01. Overture -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 02. Sinister Rouge Innocents burned alive at the stake Tortured and dumped in nameless graves Centuries waned, authority died Scattering seeds of ancient lies Sinister Rouge Coming back for more to even the score Sinister Rouge Coming back for more to even the score Child molesters and Jesuits Holding secret conference Underneath the Pontiff's nose And only God will ever know Sinister Rouge Coming back for more to even the score Sinister Rouge Coming back for more to even the score Give us this day our daily bread Your legacy - we'll not forget Lick the wounds, cleanse the land The modern world rejects your hands Sinister Rouge Coming back for more to even the score Sinister Rouge Coming back for more to even the score Sinister rouge Sinister rouge Sinister rouge Sinister rouge Sinister rouge Sinister rouge The nightmare comes in sinister rouge -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 03. Social Suicide Right now! Well it’s finally time to face my fears Gonna get the hell out of here And create a fresher atmosphere But the consequence is clear There’s a furnace set on high And a yearning undefined But it's time to turn the tide It’s social suicide Like you! Perseverance is a useless tool Just a patron on a ship of fools Feigning interest in the cast and crew While you’ve broken every single rule There’s a furnace set on high And a yearning undefined Now it’s time to turn the tide It’s social suicide Shadows entertain the unwashed masses Scholars explain their numb reactions I don’t even know if I can ever find Truth But I’m sure it won’t come from following you There’s a furnace set on high And a yearning undefined But it’s time to turn the tide It’s social suicide -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 04. Atheist Peace Maybe it’s too late for intellectual debate But a residue of confusion remains Changing with the times and developmentally tortured minds Are the average citizen’s sources of pain "Tell me what we’re fighting for" I don’t remember anymore Only temporary reprieve And the world might cease If we fail to tame the beast From the faith that you release Comes an atheist peace Political forces rent Bitter cold winds of discontent And the modern age emerged triumphantly But now it seems we've stalled And it’s time to de-evolve And relive the dark chapters of history "Tell me what we’re fighting for" No progress ever came from war Only a false sense of increase And the world won’t wait For the truth upon a plate But we’re ready now to feast on an atheist peace -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 05. All There Is This song goes out to all the hopeless sinners With grave allegiances so meaningless and vain The walking wounded in a pageant of contenders Who balance on a rail of pain for just a pail of rain And everything is barely mist - blood relations and bricks My expression, my confession, add it up, extract a lesson More than this, once again, like a bullet as a friend tell me Can that be all there is? In my rectory of doubt I kneel to pray like one devout As time the great, gray dreamless sleep of a useless modern God Erodes away each storied day as wretched Adams with hell to pay Contend upon a rail of pain for just a little rain And everything is barely missed - blood relations and bricks My expression, my confession, add it up, extract a lesson More than this, once again, like a bullet as a friend tell me Can that be all there is? There’s an endless disposition And it doesn’t mean a god damn thing There’s space for a paper airplane race in the eye of a hurricane And if pigs could fly, then surely so could I But this pedestrian knows better than to even try My divinity is caught between the colors of a butterfly And everything is barely missed - blood relations and bricks My expression, my confession, add it up, extract a lesson More than this, once again, like a bullet as a friend tell me Can that be all there is? -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 06. Los Angeles Is Burning Somewhere high in the desert near a curtain of a blue St. Anne's skirts are billowing But down here in the city of limelights The fans of Santa Anna are withering And you can’t deny that living is easy If you never look behind the scenery it's showtime for dry climes And bedlam is dreaming of rain When the hills of Los Angeles are burning Palm trees are candles in the murder wind So many lives on the breeze Even the stars are ill at ease And Los Angeles is burning This is not a test Of the emergency broadcast system When Malibu fires and radio towers Conspire to dance again And I cannot believe the media Mecca They're only trying to peddle reality Catch it on prime time, story at nine The whole world is going insane When the hills of Los Angeles are burning Palm trees are candles in the murder wind So many lives on the breeze Even the stars are ill at ease And Los Angeles is burning A placard reads "The end of days" Jacaranda boughs are bending in the haze More a question than a curse How could hell be any worse? The flames are stunning The camera's running So take warning When the hills of Los Angeles are burning Palm trees are candles in the murder wind So many lives on the breeze Even the stars are ill at ease And Los Angeles is burning -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 07. Let Them Eat War There's a prophet on a mountain and he's making up dinner With long division and a riding crop Anybody can feel like a winner When it's served up piping hot But the people aren't looking for a handout They're America's working corps Can this be what they voted for? Let them eat war [x2] That's how to ration the poor Let them eat war [x2] There's an urgent need to feed Declining pride From the force to the union shops The war economy is making new jobs But the people who benefit most Are breaking bread with their benevolent host You never stole from the rich to give to the poor All they ever gave to them was a war And a foreign enemy to deplore Let them eat war [x2] That's how to ration the poor Let them eat war [x2] There's an urgent need to feed Declining pride Kill 'em and eat 'em before they reach for their checks. Squeeze some blue collars, make 'em bleed from their necks. Seize a few dollars from the people who sweat Because it's Freedom or Debt and they won't question it (they won't question it) At a job site the boss is God-like Conditioned workhorses park at a stop light Seasoned vets with their feet in nets A stone's throw away from a rock fight, but not tonight, feed ‘em death Feed 'em death - here comes another ration Feed 'em death - 'cuz they're the finest in the nation Feed 'em death - when there's nothing left to feed them with Feed 'em death - it's freedom or it's death Let them eat war [x2] That's how to ration the poor Let them eat war [x2] There's an urgent need to feed -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 08. God's Love Striking at mental apparitions Like a drunk on a vacant street Silently beset by the hands of time Indelicate in its fury An aberrant "crack" as skeletons yield To unrelenting gravity While viruses prowl for helpless victims Who succumb rapidly Tell me! Tell me where is the love In a careless creation? When there’s no above There’s no justice Just a cause and a cure And a bounty of suffering It seems we all endure And what I’m frightened of Is that they call it God’s love Twisted torment, make believe There’s a truth and we all submit Believe my eyes my brain replies To all that they interpret Tell me! Tell me where is the love In a careless creation? When there’s no above There’s no justice Just a cause and a cure And a bounty of suffering It seems we all endure And what I’m frightened of Is that they call it God’s love I know there’s no reason for alarm But who needs perspective when it comes to pain and harm? We can change our minds - there’s a better prize But first you’ve got to Tell me! Tell me where is the love In a careless creation? When there’s no above There’s no justice Just a cause and a cure And a bounty of suffering It seems we all endure And what I’m frightened of Is that they call it God’s love My pain is God’s love -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 09. To Another Abyss Not long ago, and yet the image is so vague I hesitate to label it a memory There was a show of local color and I felt astray 'Cuz I had nothing to offer but insufficiency And you know that it’s a bitch When you learn to scratch that itch A blatant fallibility Sooner to some, but eventually All gets pointed in the same direction While the human masses and their vague conceptions Obliterate each other with impunity And you wonder "what’s in this for me?" To another abyss - to no avail The search is bound to fail To another abyss - to no avail So long ago I set sail And it chills me to the bone That I’m so far away from home To another abyss So what should I do now? What should I celebrate Given finite means and a penchant to depreciate? How can I still avow and depend upon a state That cares nothing for my happiness, welfare or fate? And I know I can’t explain The commotion in my brain Like a terrifying reality Deconstructed but inadequately All gets pointed in the same direction While the human masses and their vain conceptions Obliterate each other with impunity And release the weight of history To another abyss - to no avail The search is bound to fail To another abyss - to no avail So long ago I set sail And it chills me to the bone That I’m so far away from home To another abyss (So long ago, I set sail And I’m struggling on the way And I’m waiting for the day (to another abyss) And I’m looking for the way back home (to another abyss) So far away (to another abyss) So far away (to another abyss) (to another abyss) So far away (to another abyss) ) -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 10. The Quickening The quickening is an ephemeral thing That only happens in the dark Like catching lightning in a jar And the pain that it brings Is just the promise of Spring It’s madness on the wing Oh, what does it mean To come alive? To come alive! To come alive! The entering is soulful conjecturing * Oh lost and by the wind-grieved ghost Come back to me again Because the way that she bleeds Is in the law that he reads Confusing words and deeds So what does it mean To come alive? To come alive! To come alive! To pierce the vein of the sacred and profane Poor science in service of a faith But who will bear the mark of Cain? To come alive? To come alive! To come alive! -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 11. The Empire Strikes First We strike first And we're unrehearsed Here we go again To stage the greatest show on heaven and earth Come on, get your moneys worth Don't wanna live Don't wanna give Don't wanna be E-M-P-I-R-E Don't wanna live Don't wanna be E-M-P-I-R-E We're coming on fast And we're built to last We stumbled once in 'Nam Now we're glad to finally say Those days have passed Tell me how long can it last? Don't wanna live Don't wanna give Don't wanna be E-M-P-I-R-E Don't wanna live Don't wanna be E-M-P-I-R-E We just started out You don't need to be afraid Yeah you deserve two minutes hate Well, we spit and we cursed And our bleeding hearts burst But even ten million souls Marching in February couldn't stop the worst Couldn't reverse Don't wanna live Don't wanna give Don't wanna be E-M-P-I-R-E Don't wanna live Don't wanna be E-M-P-I-R-E -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 12. Beyond Electric Dreams No one here can show you where it is but I can point to a sign On the roof of the world without apparent design The frozen definition of a lunatic ambition to rise The air is thin, the future dim, dimension hard to find Up on a mountain encased in solar rays Beyond electric dreams of inarticulate passion plays Coming down a mountain, eons have a human ring The conversation of impassive planets intercepted by a human being Ratiocination is a practicable way to derive An attitude or altitude and probity by which to abide Or maybe a theophany of flaming creosote in disguise The air is thin, the future dim, dimension undefined Up on a mountain encased in solar rays Beyond electric dreams of inarticulate passion plays Coming down a mountain, eons have a human ring The conversation of impassive planets intercepted by a human being Here glaring cold in the crystalline geometry of night, obscuring form and tracing faceless fears of suprahuman immensity in a patch of sand or a raptor's guileless shivering intensity, I'm only a visitor, an atom of atoms on a jutting red spattered synagogue of granite as it crouches literally in space, a frozen amoral giant gazing heavenward forever Let's go where the raptor goes to the mountain in a cosmic glow We'll have a genuine terrestrial show on a mountain - on a mountain Let's scan the horizon clean for any trace of human schemes And try to touch upon immortal themes - on a mountain - on a mountain Up on a mountain encased in solar rays Beyond electric dreams of inarticulate passion plays Coming down a mountain, eons have a human ring The conversation of impassive planets intercepted by a human being -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 13. Boot Stamping On A Human Face Forever Drop dead it doesn’t matter she said It only hurts when I laugh she said Sometimes it’s never a crime To spend the day in bed She made certain that the curtains were red To dream better by the light they would shed She leaned back, tilted her head And this is what she said You can’t win! Think it over again I can’t win! look at the trouble I’m in We can’t win! and we’re stuck here together Yeah, I hope it will last forever Don’t ever dare to hope he said So I’m never let down too bad I know there’s nowhere to go So I’ll just stay here instead He knew better than to pull on a thread They unravel like the thoughts in his head He looked out, it filled him with dread And this is what he said You can’t win! Think it over again I can’t win! look at the trouble I’m in We can’t win! and we’re stuck here together Yeah, I hope it will last forever With good books and looks on their side And hearts bursting with national pride They sang songs that went along for the ride And the other side complied They said, "Hey, man, where do you reside?" And "could it be mother’s superior lied?" And "is it possible too many have died?" It’s only natural to reply You can’t win! Think it over again I can’t win! look at the trouble I’m in We can’t win! and we’re stuck here together Yeah, I hope it will last forever * "If want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face…FOREVER!" - George Orwell -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 14. Live Again - The Fall Of Man The road is narrow, the horizon wide And they say what's waiting on the other side is so rewarding and the ultimate prize But what good is something if you can't have it until you die? Desperate, tenacious, clinging like a grain of sand Watching its foundation wash away Drunk with the assertions they know they can't defend Confident that they might live again. Live again! Live again! Would you give it all up to live again? Live again! Live again! Would you give it all up to live again? Temptation, revelation, you decide Torture shows its colors often in disguise Progress and purpose help us realize We pass along a brighter faith even though it must be blind. Desperate, tenacious, clinging like a grain of sand Watching its foundation wash away Drunk with the assertions they know they can't defend Confident that they might live again. Live again! Live again! Would you give it all up to live again? Live again! Live again! Would you give it all up to live again? -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- 15. The Surface Of Me (bonus) Oh yeah! A study of history reveals an unflagging appeal to mystery You talk about abstraction at the top of the list But you might as well get pissed, cause in me the essence does not exist, no-oh-oh Yeah yeah! You’re so shallow How can your romance hope to be the veil of an ersatz human nature That can pacify but never slept well when there’s the pretension of living a lie Take me as I am, judge me for my crimes I can say I’ll behave freely all the time You can predict what I’ll say, it’s in my DNA But soon I’ll be a catalogue number anyway So say a little prayer Convince yourself that someone cares All I am is what you see There is nothing more than the surface of me [x2], you know Oh yeah! Apologies to Skinner, but I do believe that I feel like I’m a winner Having just discovered a long solved modal secret, of how I always feel So goddamn downtrodden and desperate [chorus x2] What you see is the surface of me