Story:
The "Metropolis "Cycle" tells the story of humankind through one of the corner-stones
( if not _the_ corner s
tone ) of our civilization--our cities. It was the walled city that allow human's the "luxury" of thinking and it is believed that it was walled cities that led to the intellectual rise of the Greeks--at least that is how they teach it in most schools. Regardless of the merit of this theory, I still feel it worth musical exploration.
"Metropolis" shows the rise and the eventual fall of humans as they are surrounded by a city that represents all our cities and technology. Each part of the Metropolis is broken into 3 subparts or movements.
Lyrics:
Metropolis I (New Dawn)
"Age of Birth" :
(Vocoded)
"And we rose from the spring of the earth, and build our homes in the rays of the sun"
"And we built walls,and began to wonder how upon this great world we had come"
"And we built a Metropolis and rasied it to the sky..."
"And we built a Metropolis and rasied it to the sky..."
"And we built a Metropolis and rasied it to the sky..."
"Walk through time":
( recorded quotes from [in order of apperance] ):
Henry T Ford, Edison, Stalin, Hitler, FRD, Castro, JFK, NBC news tones, Kruschev, Dr Martin Luthur King
"Age of Dreams":
( recorded quotes from ):
Dr Martin Luthur King
Metropolis II (Golden Years)
(No Lyrics)
Metropolis III (The Fall)
"Age of Shadows":
(Vocoded)
"And we raised our cities to the heavens"
"And called ourselves Gods, as we sat upon a throne of technology"
"But in doing so, we lost our souls"
"And our technology soared as our morals decayed from within"
"And our humanity collapsed, no longer able to carry it's own weight"
"End of Days":
(Spoken)
"And we raised our cities to the heavens"
"And called ourselves Gods, as we sat upon a throne of technology"
"But in doing so, we lost our souls..."
"Children of Paradise Lost"
(Vocoded)
"Welcome to the paradise
made of glass and steel.
Land where open fields and
wide skies have long since passed."
"Where the children roam the streets--
unwanted and full of pain and fury.
Pain stemmed from long worked days,
just to sustain a life, empty and dreary."
"Where some just crawl into a syringe
and are injected into society of men--
which fidgets and twists against them,
like a junkie reacting to a bad fix."
"They fall and die in the attrition of life."
"They fall and die in the attrition of life."
"They fall and die in the attrition of life."
"Where people live in cardboard boxes
on cardboard sidewalks all under
cardboard skies, as cardboard people
with paper thoughts pass them by."
"Paper thoughts and paper dreams
where one spark of fate
can ignite there dreams into nothingness
And they too will realize that they
are children of paradise lost..."
Notes:
"Metropolis I" - Much of the music in the first movement of Metropolis I can be heard again in "Eagle Nebula - M16" on the "Music for Space Travel" album--it was used again because I felt it's epic nature was what was needed to reflect the splendor of the Nebula:
"Metropolis II" - all of the piano was improved and recorded live
"Metropolis III" - all of the piano and main snyth was improved and recorded live.
The "swelling" synth heard at: 5:09 - 5:19 was made by turning down the portameto( roughly the rate of change from one note to the next ) up as the pitch( note ) ascended up. This causes a "rumble" sound to a rapidly rising pitched note over the 10 secs--this effect/technique was also used on "Trajectory of the Soul".
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