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Unstable condition,
A symptom of life,
Of mental and environmental change.
Atmosphereic disturbance,
The feverish flux
Of human interface and interchange.
The impulse is pure;
Sometimes our circuits get shorted
By external interference.
Signals get crossed
And the balance distorted
By internal incoherence.
A tired mind become a shape shifter,
Everybody need a mood lifter,
Everybody need reverse polarity.
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form.
Everybody got to elevate from the norm.
An ounce of perception,
A pound of obscure.
Process information at half speed.
Pause, rewind, replay,
Warm memory chip,
Random sample, hold the one you need.
Leave out the fiction,
The fact is, this friction
Will only be won by persistence.
Leave out conditions,
Courageous convictions
Will drag the dream into existence.
A tired mind become a shape shifter,
Everybody need a soft filter,
Everybody need reverse polarity.
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form.
Everybody got to elevate from the norm...
A symptom of life,
Of mental and environmental change.
Atmosphereic disturbance,
The feverish flux
Of human interface and interchange.
The impulse is pure;
Sometimes our circuits get shorted
By external interference.
Signals get crossed
And the balance distorted
By internal incoherence.
A tired mind become a shape shifter,
Everybody need a mood lifter,
Everybody need reverse polarity.
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form.
Everybody got to elevate from the norm.
An ounce of perception,
A pound of obscure.
Process information at half speed.
Pause, rewind, replay,
Warm memory chip,
Random sample, hold the one you need.
Leave out the fiction,
The fact is, this friction
Will only be won by persistence.
Leave out conditions,
Courageous convictions
Will drag the dream into existence.
A tired mind become a shape shifter,
Everybody need a soft filter,
Everybody need reverse polarity.
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form.
Everybody got to elevate from the norm...
Lyrics submitted by shed27
Track duration: 04:46
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Other than that I'm not sure. Just thought some of you would be interested in this.
that's how into Rush i was at one time...its a shame...you cant keep that level of connection with anything (besides parents and kids) for that long, at least I cant...
so enough...the key to this song is the "multi-message" idea that someone here already commented on...in this song Neil is doing a very introspected examination of how humans communicate and, perhaps more importantly, MISCOMMUNICATE, and he, brillently as usual, uses a computer as a metaphor for the conversation. it makes sense that he was playing around with the odd computer terms at this point of his life...all great artist take what life is dishing out to them at the time and remix it to make art..
the song starts out...obviously our hero is in trouble...the first three lines of the songs descibe someone in conflict, battling with the internal issues that perhaps a big life change or a move into a new area bring about, once again using these new high tech terms to help him describe the changes, giving the whole verse a very modern feel that totally matches the music..
Unstable condition,
A symptom of life,
Of mental and environmental change.
Atmosphereic disturbance,
The feverish flux
Of human interface and interchange.
Ah ha! so our Hero is have a relationship problem too! perhaps brought about or exascerbated by the new environment...but the good news is that OUR HERO IS SELF AWARE ENOUGH TO KNOW HE FUCKED UP!! that is the first BIG theme of this song, IMO...SELF-AWARENESS! throughout the song our hero accuretly describes his problems and then helps himself to use the computer to help him see more clearly the paths for escape...
The impulse is pure;
Sometimes our circuits get shorted
By external interference.
Signals get crossed
And the balance distorted
By internal incoherence
ahhh...our hero is a romantic...deep down he thinks we humans are GOOD ( the impulse is pure ) and that our feelings are always valid...its our REACTION to our "impulses" that gets short circuited and crossed. Also, other things can scramble that pure impulse...we often SABATOGE our own issues by an "internal incoherance" ie misunderstanding of the situation.
A tired mind become a shape shifter,
Everybody need a mood lifter,
Everybody need reverse polarity.
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form.
Everybody got to elevate from the norm.
AHHHH...the CHORUS...where the main these is presented in blunt form...you see, we all are constantly misreading the signals and signs that others are sending us...maybe we are tired or in a bad mood, and the solution to this problem requires us to TALK TO OUR LOVED ONES...love can be viewed as a type of "reverse polarity" that keep us connected, very strongly, as two magnets attract each other. also, a little bit of "elevating", which means start getting OVER IT...
The highlight of the song is 02:40 - the small silence before a sexy 2-second roll by Peart and Geddy going off into 'Tired mind...'
Rock on, Rush.
Sorry for the lack of contribution to the discussion, I just wanted to let my feelings about the song known :)
A symptom of life,
Of mental and environmental change.
Atmosphereic disturbance,
The feverish flux
Of human interface and interchange.
The impulse is pure;
Sometimes our circuits get shorted
By external interference.
Signals get crossed
And the balance distorted
By internal incoherence.
A tired mind become a shape shifter,
Everybody need a mood lifter,
Everybody need reverse polarity.
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form.
Everybody got to deviate from the norm.
An ounce of perception,
A pound of obscure.
Process information at half speed.
Pause, rewind, replay,
Warm memory chip,
Random sample, hold the one you need.
Leave out the fiction,
The fact is, this friction
Will only be won by persistence.
Leave out conditions,
Courageous convictions
Will drag the dream into existence.
A tired mind become a shape shifter,
Everybody need a soft filter,
Everybody need reverse polarity.
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form.
Everybody got to elevate from the norm.
Everbody got mixed feelings (x2)
Everybody got to deviate from the norm. (x2)
Everybody got to elevate from the norm. (x4)
Everybody got to escalate from the norm.
Everybody got to elevate.
Everybody got to elavate from the norm.
Everybody got to deviate from the norm. (x2)
And yes, I agree, Rush enjoyed creating a framework for each album, and this one is no different. Its kind of sad that most albums now are just one or two good songs packed around a bunch of second rate bs. No coherence, no message, no nothing. The entire album is great, its almost like one gigantic song.
impulse
circuits shorted
external interference
balance distorted
reverse polarity
half speed
pause rewind replay
soft filter
memory chip
random sample hold - sample and hold is a type of circuit, he puts in a comma to change the meaning
mixed feelings - my favorite - an analogy between a multichannel mixing board and various levels of emotion inside someone.
The chorus seems to sum it up:
A tired mind become a shape shifter, - boredom or apathy leads to a need for change
Everybody need a mood lifter, - maybe drugs or some sort of new "routine"
Everybody need reverse polarity. - a total opposite swing in attitude or direction
Everybody got mixed feelings - we all differ in opinions of which direction is "right" and
About the function and the form. that's our only common ground(maybe?)
Everybody got to elevate from the norm. - already commented on this above
There really is a lot more to it, and as someone alluded to above; a song can have multiple meanings. Whether it's a conscious effort by the songwriter or not is really inconsequential; people take away different meanings from the same thing.....which also fits in with these lyrics. What a poignant song!
Is that this song is all about how we interact with others, whether if were dating, or just regular friendships. It even says so at the Chorus, were is says
A tired mind become a shape shifter,
Everybody need a mood lifter,
Everybody need reverse polarity.
Everybody got mixed feelings
About the function and the form.
Everybody got to elevate from the norm.
It says that relationships with others can make us happy if there healthy. It also says that opposites attract (reverse polarity). Everybody got mixed feelings directly is saying that sometimes we have feelings for one another as more than a friend, but it can be confusing to us. Especially about the function and the form, which is saying how relationships work. And if we can continue a healthy relationship we can rise above ourselves and make us better persons.
Theres a lot more to be analyzed but this is what I think though.