Utopia: Redux '92: Live in Japan

Artist

Utopia

Players

Todd Rundgren, Kasim Sulton, Roger Powell, Willie Wilcox

Producer

Todd Rundgren

Release Date: 1993
Duration: 78:48
Label: Rhino
Catalog Number: R2 71185

  1. Fix Your Gaze
  2. Zen Machine
  3. Trapped
  4. Princess Of The Universe
  5. Abandon City
  6. Hammer In My Heart
  7. Swing To The Right
  8. The Ikon
  9. Hiroshima
  10. Back On The Street
  11. Only Human
  12. Love In Action
  13. Caravan
  14. Last Of The New Wave Riders
  15. One World
  16. Love Is The Answer

Fix Your Gaze

When you hit your note
It's like you had no choice
I can't resist distraction's web
When you use that voice
On a crowded stage
I play soliloquy
I'm at the center of the earth
When you gaze on me

The familiar ring of the native drums
Sometimes I hardly recognize it
Inspiration comes
With the tip of my mind
Holding back the sea
I have no choice but to prevail
When you gaze on me

I've got the ghost of a new machine
Where I can find reality routine
Every time you fix your gaze on me

When you gaze on me
I feel a ring of fire
When you gaze on me
And I lose all desire
Fix your heart on me
I'll show you what I've memorized
Fix your gaze on me
I need to see your eyes [Uh - good God!]

Out in the cold the assassin waits
Armored by love no sword can penetrate
Every time you fix your heart on me
I'm a new machine
Where I can find reality routine
Every time you fix your gaze on me

Zen Machine

  You're always finding out
  About the things that people never talk about
  I didn't ask to know
  But now I'm compensating as I go
  I know the script I'm in
  I'm only thoughts of heaven trapped in flesh and skin
  And from the world of men
  I try to tighten up the code again

  And the code is a play
  A play is a song
  A song is a film
  A film is a dance

  Boot me up on the Zen Machine
  Log me onto the Zen Machine
  Load me down
  Everybody get ready
  Hook me into the Zen Machine
  Sharing time on the Zen Machine
  Load me up
  Everybody get ready

  Sometimes it's clear to me
  Then for a moment I'm in timeless ecstasy
  There are no reasons why
  And everyone's a passer-by
  But when they've gone to bed
  A fire's burning on the screen and in my head
  And on a windy day
  You can smell it from a mile away

  And the smell is a note
  A note is a taste
  A taste is a hue
  A hue is a touch

Trapped

  Brother John saw visions of God
  So they put him in chains
  For acting too odd
  As the crowd shouted, "Off with his head"
  The priest said, "Have mercy
  Let's burn him instead"

  Trapped
  Trapped in a world that he never made

  I woke up with my head on the floor
  In a windowless cell
  A room full of doors
  I got lost, now I'm so far behind
  Took so much advice
  Forgot my own mind

  Trapped
  Trapped in a world that I never made

  We can't be slowed down by a big bunch of lip
  And nobody cares about your paranoid trip
  You know death and the devil sure got it easy today
  Souls come so cheap some people give theirs away
  You've got to break out, you've got to prove you're alive
  What makes you think that the weak survive

  And if you don't have the stomach
  For all this radical crap
  Then have the guts to stand for something
  Or you're gonna be trapped

  Trapped
  Trapped in a world that you never made

Princess Of The Universe

Well, I wanna shake that thing wit'cha all night long
Yeah, you're a princess baby, you can do no wrong
Said you're a beacon of light when the sun is gone
Yeah, you're a princess baby, you can name that song

Well, they just couldn't touch you with a ten foot pole
And they just couldn't catch you, 'cause you're on a roll
You got so much juice, you make the telephone ring
You make me jump right up, I wanna shake that thing

Wit'cha all night long
You're the princess of the universe
You're a princess baby, you can do no wrong
You're the princess of the universe

Well, I ain't seen nothing like it since the Sha got the rope
You got a legion of liggers that would shame the Pope
You just say the word and they run like hell
You gotta take a cold shower, so your head don't swell

But you can do no wrong
You're the princess of the universe
You're a beacon of light when the sun is gone
You're the princess of the universe

Well, you ain't got a man who can touch what you got
But you're looking for a subject that can fill that slot
When the count is down, I want to step in time
And when your fingers pop, I want to tow that line

Abandon City

  Did you see the color of the water coming out of the tap?
  Did you hear the chatter of the hammer
  	when you're trying to nap?
  There's nothing on the counter at the A&P store
  The bank don't even bother now to open the door
  It ain't pretty, pity

  Abandon City
  Everybody over the side
  The hour is late, they're closing the gate, no time to decide
  Abandon City
  Yeah, you better run for your lives
  There's nothing to spare
  The cupboard is bare
  The bees have all left the hive

  Someone's doing a non-stop performance
  	of "The Rape of the Lock"
  No one's got the nerve to take a tiptoe after seven o'clock
  And everybody's looking for a piece of the rock
  And I just want to get my cadillac out of hock
  Too much nitty gritty

Hammer In My Heart

  There's a hammer in my heart
  Pounding out your name
  There's a hammer in my heart
  Here it comes again

  I hear a certain sound
  And it just won't go away
  It sends a message out
  What's it gonna be today?
  It wakes me up at dawn
  And as the day goes on
  I try to turn it off but the beat goes on

  It never lets me rest
  I can't get a minute's peace
  I lay awake in bed
  Wondering will it ever cease?
  It's like a top ten song
  I hear it all day long
  I try to turn it off but the beat goes on

Swing To The Right

Swing to the right
Try to face the fact that I ain't that young no more
Hair's short again and a suit is in,
Better brush up on how to tie a Windsor knot
Swing to the right
Credit's hard to find and a dollar doesn't go so far
What's more important when the count comes in
A sell-out who's alive or a corpse that can't be bought?

Stop the hand of time
Think I see a sign
Tables turning 'round
Hear a different sound
Stop the hands of time
Looking out for mine

Swing to the right
Don't want to hear what the povertous expect from me
Let 'em eat cake if they feel that way
I gotta work why should I have to pay for that?
And I don't want to be left holding the bag for them
'Scuze me for living but I have to say,
I've got some worries of my own, like staying fat

The Ikon

No lyrics

Hiroshima

Under the rising sun dirty yellow children play
And in the red pagoda mamasan is praying
Blood wasted saving face, ancestors are looking on
As they wave their silver samurai underneath the big gun
Hiroshima, no one could imagine
Not the victors nor the victims
Pitiful survivors nor the pawn of a man
	who had the button under his hand
No one would believe it
God, God is on our side, he placed the power in our hands
To teach the yellow peril, this is Christian mercy
Harry, Harry give 'em hell, give 'em hell one more time again
We'll show those axis powers how to make an oven [fry them]
Hiroshima, Nagasaki
Don't you ever forget, don't you ever fuckin' forget

This is the official voice of the United States of America addressing the 
peoples of the islands of Japan. Tomorrow morning, on August 15th, 1945 at 
exactly 8:15 am, we will bomb your cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima with a 
blast that will level these cities. This is the only alert you will receive.

Back On The Street

  They tell me I've paid back the debt I owed
  Forty-four months since the slammer door closed
  They give me a suit and put me back on the road
  And my thoughts are racing
  Where do I go? What am I supposed to live on?
  What happens when the twenty-five dollars is gone?
  That leaves me lots of time to wonder why I was born
  But the countdown is on

  Everybody's dancing
  The music sounds entrancing
  But you can't find the beat
  It's the ticking of a thousand human time bombs
  Who are back on the street

  Oh the names have been changed
  But the story's the same
  History will repeat
  Add it all up and then divide it by zero
  'Cause you're back on the street

  I can't stand the strain of this job no more
  I must have forgot what I took it on for
  I make lots of money, yet still I want more
  And my head is blazing
  I think that I'll check out the shops downtown
  Sometimes it helps to buy things when I feel brought down
  At this hour I might dodge those hippie low-life's around
  But the countdown is on

  Once you had to stand out
  Looking for a handout
  Free love and body heat
  And that money's just a crumpled green ball in your pocket
  When you're back on the street

  Back on the street again
  Said you're back on the street again
  The countdown is on
  And nobody knows when

  Spreading like a cancer
  Looking for the answer
  In everyone you meet
  And each in his way has a hustle to play
  When he's back on the street

Only Human

It's only human to despise the weak
It's only human to despise yourself when you're weak
I don't know why
	but that's the way that it's always been
And I play by the rules I don't understand at all

It's only human to be lazy and vain
It's only human to expect a world that's just as vain
I don't know why
	I want to believe that it's not that way
But I'm Johnny come lately, it's not my place to say

	There's no escape, tell me why do they try so hard?

And I pretend that I'm invincible, that I can go it all alone
But I'm only human, trying to get by
And praying to heaven I might find out why am I human
Mere flesh and blood
Afraid to go on without someone to hold me up

It's just a human thing to fear the unknown
But isn't it a tragic thing to live and die alone
Oh Lord look at the world,
	have you ever seen so much misery?
Like a ghost ship of fools, lost and floating out to sea

And they climb and they fall
	yet they struggle on the same fault
But they're only human, trying to get by
And praying to heaven they might find out
Why are we human
Mere flesh and blood
We're afraid to go on without someone to hold us up

Love In Action

  No place to hide
  And no where to run
  Nothing you can do because a change must come
  You can't stop it

  You got your tail in the air
  Your head in the ground
  Money, money, money makes your world go 'round
  You can't stop it

  You can't stop, you can't stop, you can't stop, you can't stop
  You can't stop love in action

  You just joined the clan
  Your head's full of sand
  You need a bunch of friends to make you feel like a man
  But you can't stop it

  Yeah, you could be the last trace of the master race
  The Nazis really send you to another place
  Still you can't stop it
  You can't stop love in action

Caravan

Moses went into the desert
Moses came back with the law
Jesus went into the desert
God only knows what he saw
Hitch up your ass and your camel
Fill up your skin at the well
Roll up your tent, whisper your prayers
Are you ready to ride through hell

Caravan moving through the night
	sleeping in the light of day
Caravan spinning through the void
	on our way to anywhere
Caravan time is just a joke change is all we
	understand
Caravan life is a mirage,
	only a mirage dancing on the desert sand

How I recall all the mountains
How I remember the farm
Oh how I miss the big city
With a pretty girl on my arm
Sell my best friend for some water
Cut off my leg for some shade
Sunburn these thoughts from my memory
If I live I will be remade

The sand is like a razor
Slashing at my face
Everyone's in panic but you can't see any place
It's a sand storm, taken by surprise
Hide beneath your wrappings and cover up your eyes

Well I lost my kit and camel
Maybe I will die
Feel so lost and helpless and I think I'm gonna cry
It's a sand storm, nothing you can do
No one knows if it will last
No one knows if you will make it through

It's been so long without water
Vultures are filling the air
Where is that bloody oasis
Must be around here somewhere
Time for some strong meditation
Time for the ultimate change
Time to make peace with your maker
Everything has been prearranged

Last Of The New Wave Riders

The last of the new wave riders
Will be the first of the new age masters

Pick up your arms was the call
So I packed up my Fender and ran down the hall
Back to the fields and forests
Now I am one of them
"Turn on the power" cried the army of sound
And the hum of the amps shook the trees and the ground
And like a single man we cranked up the knobs
And a thousand guitars sang our national anthem

We captured the whole human race
There was nowhere to hide, playing filled every space
Jamming the world back into place
Everyone a star

We hit the supreme overload
And the great amplifier began to explode
The smoke is slowly clearing away
And the whole universe is a giant guitar

	(Here comes that silver surfer now)

One World

One world
Whoa, it's our world
Yeah, yeah, one world
Whoa, it's our world
Yeah, yeah

When I walk on the street I feel glad I was born
Music comes a'ringin' out of every door
I see faces I know and they give me a sign
We got something between us and it feels all right

I see Chrissy the clipper, she colors my hair
Nikki and Margaret make the clothes that we wear
And there's Gene who runs the club where we dance all night
When you live in our world everything's all right

Politicians and dictators and the guys with the dough
They think they run the world but they just don't know
'Cause down here on the street we got it under control
From Berlin to San Francisco, from New York to Tokyo

Love Is The Answer

Name your price
A ticket to paradise
I can't stay here any more
And I've looked high and low
I've been from shore to shore to shore
If there's a short cut I'd have found it
But there's no easy way around it

Light of the world, shine on me
Love is the answer
Shine on us all, set us free
Love is the answer

Who knows why
Someday we all must die
We're all homeless boys and girls
And we are never heard
It's such a lonely world
People turn their heads and walk on by
Tell me, is it worth just another try?

Tell me, are we alive, or just a dying planet?
What are the chances?
Ask the man in your heart for the answers

And when you feel afraid, love one another
When you've lost your way, love one another
When you're all alone, love one another
When you're far from home, love one another
When you're down and out, love one another
All your hope's run out, love one another
When you need a friend, love one another
When you're near the end, love one another
We got to love one another

Light of the world, you got to shine
Love will be a means, yeah, yeah
Shine on us all
Know that love can save the day
Just give it one more chance
Lord you just can't let it stop Lord
Love is the answer
Got to be free to let love into your life
Let it shine

Other References


Lyrics v. 2.4.2
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