When the Frayed Wind Blows

[Verse 1]
If it starts with an explosion
Do you end it with a bang?
First the whistles start a-blowin'
Then the guilty finally hang
There's a storm on the horizon
And the waters on the rise
We're watching history repeatin'
With the changin' times
The figureheads keep talking
But they're buried in the sand
Everyone is pointing fingers
Everybody plays their hand
The fix is in, the game is rigged
The pawns are polarized
You either pick a side
Or think outside the picket lines
I wonder, is this a revolution
Or just mass confusion
When every voice is trying to scream
The loudest for equality?
While we argue strategy
Culture and philosophy
People die in city streets
All paved with blood and poverty
The power's with a chosen few
Desperations just a tool
Agents of corruption use
To keep the jails and prisons full
Diamond pockets lined with profits
Earned from broken lives
Misled to pledge by one discrimination under God

[Chorus]
Stop the world, I wanna get off
Everything's on fire and it's falling apart
So if we can't turn back
Can we change the course
When the fury of the frayed wind blows

[Verse 2]
The preachers sell salvation
To the faithful on their knees
Some prey upon our need and want
For something to believe
And some have spun the doctrines
Holy guide toward paradise
To justify injustices and centuries of genocide
Surrender to your temples
To your altars or your shrines
The weapons used by shepherds
So the sheep will keep in line
Conflicting congregations
Thinking only of themselves
If that's the path to heaven
Hate to see the road to hell
I tell ya' they take a vision
Make religion, cause division
Keep you vacant and complacent
And dependent on a system
By creating ways to separate
Utilizing class and race
Prejudice perpetuates
And keeps monopolies in place
Trickle up or trickle down
Stack or spread the wealth around
Someone's hope is runnin' out
While fortune feeds a bank account
Empty-promise politicians
Pander to the poor
While there's money used for funding
Phony wars on foreign shores

[Chorus]
Stop the world, I wanna get off
Cause they're loading up the bullets
And they're dropping the bombs
The propaganda beats to the narrative drums
When the fury of the frayed wind blows

[Verse 3]
The criminals in Congress
They ain't got no ground to stand
They're building walls and borders
All around the stolen land
A legacy of liberty
That's how the story goes
But conquerers rewrote the past
To suit the status quo
So is it institutions
Or the state of human kind
That leads to some exalted
Over thousands left behind?
They'll push you to your limit
But in turn, they'll push their luck
Cause sleeping giants riot
When they've finally woken up
Because they're buying your silence with those shiny advertisements
They lie and cheat and steal
And tax your habits so you'll finance
What they hide away behind the scenes
Cover over underneath
Population exploitation
Victimized by vanity
Faces in a magazine
Pictures on a pixel screen
Set a lofty standard
That disintegrates your self esteem
Race to chase a plastic dream
Red carpets and Limousines
Blinded and distracted by
The flashbulbs of celebrity
But just beyond the limelight
After fame has run its course
They'll throw you to the lions
While a sold-out crowd will roar

[Chorus]
Stop the world, I wanna get off
Cause there's bodies lying
Breathless, bleeding, piling up
They shook the bottled Rage
Now it's bound to erupt
When the fury of the frayed wind blows

[Verse 4]
You can think yourself in circles
But the answer's never clear
Is there safety with surveillance?
Is there freedom without fear?
Unravel and untangle
All you thought you understood
And question everything
Until you question why you should
We'll change the world with flowers
Or we'll change the world with guns
We'll plant a seed or dig a grave
Before it's said and done
But if we come together
All for one and one for all
Resistance rises up
Sure as an empire will fall
So I'll just work toward the future
May it crumble for the better
Where tyrannical oppressors
Are just shadows we remember
No judgment based on color
Or your lover or your gender
Dismantle older models
So they can't be reassembled
But the day the tables turn your way
Watch out for a twist of fate
Careful not to stumble and become
The very thing you hate
Search for something comforting
Seek out something innocent
But you'll never have those eyes
That look at life that way again
So you can take the high road
Nothing ventured, nothing gained
But you fight fire with fire
When you're going down in flames

[Chorus]
Stop the world, I wanna get off
Cause we're at each other's throats
And now it's choking my heart
And we can burn the earth
Or extinguish the torch
When the fury of the frayed wind blows