I remember now
I remember how it started
I can't remember yesterday
I just remember doing what they told me [echo].
Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime Album Lyrics
Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime Lyrics
Copyright: Lyrics © Original Writer and Publisher
Anarchy-X
Weeks ago in Occidental Park
Hundreds of people gathered
For a political rally
There was a man shouting
Above all the others
"Do we have freedom?
Do we have equality?
This country's changing!
It is no longer for all of the people!
It is for some of the people!"
The man's name? "Dr. X."
Hundreds of people gathered
For a political rally
There was a man shouting
Above all the others
"Do we have freedom?
Do we have equality?
This country's changing!
It is no longer for all of the people!
It is for some of the people!"
The man's name? "Dr. X."
Writer: CHRISTOPHER DEGARMO, DAVID JORDAN, GEOFF TATE, MICHAEL WILTON, TONY HILLER
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Revolution Calling
For a price I'd do about anything
Except pull the trigger
For that I'd need a pretty good cause
Then I heard of Dr. X
The man with the cure
Just watch the television
Yeah, you'll see there's something going on
Got no love for politicians
Or that crazy scene in D.C.
It's just a power mad town
But the time is ripe for changes
There's a growing feeling
That taking a chance on a new kind of vision is due
I used to trust the media
To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs
Everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?
Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
There's a revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through
Well, I'm tired of all this bullshit
They keep selling me on T.V.
About the communist plan
And all the shady preachers
Begging for my cash
Swiss bank accounts while giving their secretaries the slam
They're all in Penthouse now
Or Playboy magazine, million dollar stories to tell
I guess Warhol wasn't wrong
Fame fifteen minutes long
Everyone's using everybody, making the sale
I used to think
That only America's way, way was right
But now the holy dollar rules everybody's lives
Gotta make a million, doesn't matter who dies
Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
There's a revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through
I used to trust the media
To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs
Everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?
Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
There's a revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through
Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
There's a revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through
There's something going on
There's a revolution, there's a revolution, there's a revolution
Except pull the trigger
For that I'd need a pretty good cause
Then I heard of Dr. X
The man with the cure
Just watch the television
Yeah, you'll see there's something going on
Got no love for politicians
Or that crazy scene in D.C.
It's just a power mad town
But the time is ripe for changes
There's a growing feeling
That taking a chance on a new kind of vision is due
I used to trust the media
To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs
Everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?
Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
There's a revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through
Well, I'm tired of all this bullshit
They keep selling me on T.V.
About the communist plan
And all the shady preachers
Begging for my cash
Swiss bank accounts while giving their secretaries the slam
They're all in Penthouse now
Or Playboy magazine, million dollar stories to tell
I guess Warhol wasn't wrong
Fame fifteen minutes long
Everyone's using everybody, making the sale
I used to think
That only America's way, way was right
But now the holy dollar rules everybody's lives
Gotta make a million, doesn't matter who dies
Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
There's a revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through
I used to trust the media
To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs
Everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?
Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
There's a revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through
Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
There's a revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through
There's something going on
There's a revolution, there's a revolution, there's a revolution
Writer: GEOFF TATE, MICHAEL WILTON
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Operation: Mindcrime
It just takes a minute
And you'll feel no pain
Gotta make something of your life boy
Give me one more vein
You've come to see the doctor
Cause I'll show you the cure
I'm gonna take away the questions
Yeah I'm gonna make you sure
A hit man for the order
When you couldn't go to school
Had a skin job for a hair-do
Yeah you looked pretty cool
Had a habit doing mainline
Watch the dragon burn
No regrets, you've got no goals
Nothing more to learn
Now I know you won't refuse
Because we've got so much to do
And you've got nothing more to lose
So take this number and welcome to
Operation : Mindcrime
We're an underground revolution
Working overtime
Operation : Mindcrime
There's a job for you in
The system boy, with nothing to sign
Hey Nikki you know everything
That there is to do
Here's a gun take it home
Wait by the phone
We'll send someone over
To bring you what you need
You're a one man death machine
Make this city bleed
Now I know you won't refuse
Because we've got so much to do
And you've got nothing more to lose
So take this number and welcome to
Operation : Mindcrime
We're an underground revolution
Working overtime
Operation : Mindcrime
There's a job for you in
The system boy, with nothing to sign
Operation : Mindcrime
We're an underground revolution
Working overtime
Operation : Mindcrime
If you come to see the doctor
Yeah he'll give you the cure
Operation : Mindcrime
Make something of your life boy
Let me into your mind
Operation : Mindcrime
There's a job for you in the system boy
With nothing to sign
And you'll feel no pain
Gotta make something of your life boy
Give me one more vein
You've come to see the doctor
Cause I'll show you the cure
I'm gonna take away the questions
Yeah I'm gonna make you sure
A hit man for the order
When you couldn't go to school
Had a skin job for a hair-do
Yeah you looked pretty cool
Had a habit doing mainline
Watch the dragon burn
No regrets, you've got no goals
Nothing more to learn
Now I know you won't refuse
Because we've got so much to do
And you've got nothing more to lose
So take this number and welcome to
Operation : Mindcrime
We're an underground revolution
Working overtime
Operation : Mindcrime
There's a job for you in
The system boy, with nothing to sign
Hey Nikki you know everything
That there is to do
Here's a gun take it home
Wait by the phone
We'll send someone over
To bring you what you need
You're a one man death machine
Make this city bleed
Now I know you won't refuse
Because we've got so much to do
And you've got nothing more to lose
So take this number and welcome to
Operation : Mindcrime
We're an underground revolution
Working overtime
Operation : Mindcrime
There's a job for you in
The system boy, with nothing to sign
Operation : Mindcrime
We're an underground revolution
Working overtime
Operation : Mindcrime
If you come to see the doctor
Yeah he'll give you the cure
Operation : Mindcrime
Make something of your life boy
Let me into your mind
Operation : Mindcrime
There's a job for you in the system boy
With nothing to sign
Writer: CHRISTOPHER DEGARMO, GEOFFERY TATE, MICHAEL WILTON
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Speak
They've given me a mission
Don't really know the game, yeah
I'm bent on submission
Religion is to blame
I'm the new messiah
Death Angel with a gun
Dangerous in my silence
Deadly to my cause
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word
The word is all of us
I've given my life to become what I am
To preach the new beginning
To make you understand
To reach some point of order
Utopia in mind, you've got to learn
To sacrifice, to leave what's now behind
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Seven years of power
The corporation claw
The rich control the government, the media the law
To make some kind of difference
Then everyone must know
Eradicate the fascists, revolution will grow
The system we learn says we're equal under law
But the streets are reality, the weak and poor will fall
Let's tip the power balance and tear down their crown
Educate the masses, we'll burn the White House down
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word (revolution)
The word is all of us
Speak the word (revolution)
The word is all of us
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Speak the Word
The word is all of us
Speak!
Don't really know the game, yeah
I'm bent on submission
Religion is to blame
I'm the new messiah
Death Angel with a gun
Dangerous in my silence
Deadly to my cause
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word
The word is all of us
I've given my life to become what I am
To preach the new beginning
To make you understand
To reach some point of order
Utopia in mind, you've got to learn
To sacrifice, to leave what's now behind
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Seven years of power
The corporation claw
The rich control the government, the media the law
To make some kind of difference
Then everyone must know
Eradicate the fascists, revolution will grow
The system we learn says we're equal under law
But the streets are reality, the weak and poor will fall
Let's tip the power balance and tear down their crown
Educate the masses, we'll burn the White House down
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak to me the pain you feel
Speak the word (revolution)
The word is all of us
Speak the word (revolution)
The word is all of us
Speak the word
The word is all of us
Speak the Word
The word is all of us
Speak!
Writer: GEOFF TATE, GEOFFERY TATE, MICHAEL WILTON
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Spreading The Disease
Religion and sex are powerplays
Manipulate the people for the money they pay
Selling skin, selling God
The numbers look the same on their credit cards
Politicians say no to drugs
While we pay for wars in South America
Fighting fire with empty words
While the banks get fat
And the poor stay poor
And the rich get rich
And the cops get paid
To look away
As the one percent rules America
Spreading the disease
Everybody needs
But no one wants to see
The way society
Keeps spreading the disease
Manipulate the people for the money they pay
Selling skin, selling God
The numbers look the same on their credit cards
Politicians say no to drugs
While we pay for wars in South America
Fighting fire with empty words
While the banks get fat
And the poor stay poor
And the rich get rich
And the cops get paid
To look away
As the one percent rules America
Spreading the disease
Everybody needs
But no one wants to see
The way society
Keeps spreading the disease
Writer: GEOFF TATE, GEOFFERY TATE, MICHAEL WILTON
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
The Mission
In the wooden chair
Beside my window
I wear a face born in the falling rain
I talk to shadows from a lonely candle
Recite the phrases from the wall
I can't explain this Holy pain
Six days ago my life had taken a tumble
The orders came from high above they say
A need to use me once again they've got my number
Further the cause boy yes you know the game
I'll wait here for days longer
Till the sister comes to wash my sins away
She is the lady that can ease my sorrow
She brings the only friend
That helps me find my way
I search the past back to a time
When I was younger
A target for the new society
Picked to displace the leaders
Countering objectives
Of this new underground reality
Waiting for days longer
'til sister comes to wash my sins away
She is the lady that can ease my sorrow
My love for her
Will help me find my way
My mission saved the world
And I stood proud
My mission changed the world
It turned my life around
I look around my room is filled with candles
Each one a story but they end the same
I'll hide away in here the law will never find me
The walls will tell the story of my pain
Waiting for days longer
Till sister comes to wash my sins away
She is the lady who can ease my sorrow
She sets the pace for my delivery of pain
They'll say my mission saved the world
And I stood proud
My mission changed the world
The underground will rise and
Save this world we'll all stand proud
Our mission changed the world, we'll change the world
We'll all stand proud
Beside my window
I wear a face born in the falling rain
I talk to shadows from a lonely candle
Recite the phrases from the wall
I can't explain this Holy pain
Six days ago my life had taken a tumble
The orders came from high above they say
A need to use me once again they've got my number
Further the cause boy yes you know the game
I'll wait here for days longer
Till the sister comes to wash my sins away
She is the lady that can ease my sorrow
She brings the only friend
That helps me find my way
I search the past back to a time
When I was younger
A target for the new society
Picked to displace the leaders
Countering objectives
Of this new underground reality
Waiting for days longer
'til sister comes to wash my sins away
She is the lady that can ease my sorrow
My love for her
Will help me find my way
My mission saved the world
And I stood proud
My mission changed the world
It turned my life around
I look around my room is filled with candles
Each one a story but they end the same
I'll hide away in here the law will never find me
The walls will tell the story of my pain
Waiting for days longer
Till sister comes to wash my sins away
She is the lady who can ease my sorrow
She sets the pace for my delivery of pain
They'll say my mission saved the world
And I stood proud
My mission changed the world
The underground will rise and
Save this world we'll all stand proud
Our mission changed the world, we'll change the world
We'll all stand proud
Writer: CHRIS DEGARMO, CHRISTOPHER DEGARMO
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Suite Sister Mary
[SPOKEN]
[Dr. X:] "Kill her. That's all you have to do."
[Nikki:] "Kill Mary?"
[Dr. X:] "She's a risk, and get the priest as well."
10 P.M., I feel the rain coming down
My face feels the wet, my mind the storm
Flashing lights as people race to find shelter from the pour
Moving silent, through the streets, they're mine, they're
mine
Midnite, she sings praises in the Hall
To saintly faces hallowed be their names she can't recall
Sister Mary, virgin Mary, silent with her sin
( [Mary:] "What are you doing out in the rain?" )
She feels me, I can taste her breath when she speaks
( [Mary:] "I've been waiting for you. Come in." )
Mary, Mary just a whore for the underground
They made you pay in guilt for your salvation
Thought you had them fooled? Now they've sent me for you
You know too much for your own good
Don't offer me faith, I've got all I need here
My faith is growing, growing tight against the seam
What we need is trust, to keep us both alive
Help us make it through the night
[Mary]
I've no more want of any faith
Binds my arm and feed my mind
The only peace I've ever known
I'll close my eyes and you shoot
No Mary, listen, you've got to pull your strength from my
lips
I pray I feed you well
Your precious cross is gone, it made me wait so long
For what you gave to everyone
The priest is cold and dead on his knees he fed
From my barrel of death, he turned the Holy water red
As he died he said thank you
I just watched him bleed
[Mary]
I feel the flow, the blessed stain
Sweating hands like fire, and flames
Burn my thighs, spread in sacrificial rite
The hallowed altar burns my flesh once more tonight
Mary, sweet lady of pain
Always alone
Blind you search for the truth
I see myself in you, parallel lives
Winding at light-speed through time
No time to rest yet
We've got to stop his game
Before madness has the final laugh
Too much bloodshed
We're being used and fed
Like rats in experiments
No final outcome here
Only pain and fear
It's followed us both all our lives
There's one thing left to see
Will it be him or me?
There's one more candle left to light
[Mary]
Don't turn your back on my disgrace
The blood of Christ can't heal my wounds...so deep
The sins of man are all I taste
Can't spit the memory from my mind
I can't cry anymore
Mary, my lady of pain, always alone
Blind you search for the truth
I see myself in you, parallel lives
Winding at light-speed through time, you're mine
[Dr. X:] "Kill her. That's all you have to do."
[Nikki:] "Kill Mary?"
[Dr. X:] "She's a risk, and get the priest as well."
10 P.M., I feel the rain coming down
My face feels the wet, my mind the storm
Flashing lights as people race to find shelter from the pour
Moving silent, through the streets, they're mine, they're
mine
Midnite, she sings praises in the Hall
To saintly faces hallowed be their names she can't recall
Sister Mary, virgin Mary, silent with her sin
( [Mary:] "What are you doing out in the rain?" )
She feels me, I can taste her breath when she speaks
( [Mary:] "I've been waiting for you. Come in." )
Mary, Mary just a whore for the underground
They made you pay in guilt for your salvation
Thought you had them fooled? Now they've sent me for you
You know too much for your own good
Don't offer me faith, I've got all I need here
My faith is growing, growing tight against the seam
What we need is trust, to keep us both alive
Help us make it through the night
[Mary]
I've no more want of any faith
Binds my arm and feed my mind
The only peace I've ever known
I'll close my eyes and you shoot
No Mary, listen, you've got to pull your strength from my
lips
I pray I feed you well
Your precious cross is gone, it made me wait so long
For what you gave to everyone
The priest is cold and dead on his knees he fed
From my barrel of death, he turned the Holy water red
As he died he said thank you
I just watched him bleed
[Mary]
I feel the flow, the blessed stain
Sweating hands like fire, and flames
Burn my thighs, spread in sacrificial rite
The hallowed altar burns my flesh once more tonight
Mary, sweet lady of pain
Always alone
Blind you search for the truth
I see myself in you, parallel lives
Winding at light-speed through time
No time to rest yet
We've got to stop his game
Before madness has the final laugh
Too much bloodshed
We're being used and fed
Like rats in experiments
No final outcome here
Only pain and fear
It's followed us both all our lives
There's one thing left to see
Will it be him or me?
There's one more candle left to light
[Mary]
Don't turn your back on my disgrace
The blood of Christ can't heal my wounds...so deep
The sins of man are all I taste
Can't spit the memory from my mind
I can't cry anymore
Mary, my lady of pain, always alone
Blind you search for the truth
I see myself in you, parallel lives
Winding at light-speed through time, you're mine
Writer: CHRIS DEGARMO
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Copyright: Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Operation: Mindcrime is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Queensrÿche. Originally released on May 3, 1988, the album was reissued on May 6, 2003, with two bonus tracks, and again in 2006 as a deluxe box set.
Operation: Mindcrime is a concept album and a rock opera. Its story follows Nikki, a drug addict who becomes disillusioned with the corrupt society of his time and reluctantly becomes involved with a revolutionary group as an assassin of political leaders. In January 1989, it ranked at No. 34 on Kerrang! magazine's "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time".
Operation: Mindcrime was Queensrÿche's breakthrough album, reaching number 50 on the Billboard 200 while its singles "Eyes of a Stranger" and "I Don't Believe in Love" served as the band's first charting hits in the United States. The album was certified by the RIAA as gold in early 1989, and was certified as platinum two years later. A sequel, Operation: Mindcrime II, was released on April 4, 2006.
Performed By:
QueensrycheOperation: Mindcrime is a concept album and a rock opera. Its story follows Nikki, a drug addict who becomes disillusioned with the corrupt society of his time and reluctantly becomes involved with a revolutionary group as an assassin of political leaders. In January 1989, it ranked at No. 34 on Kerrang! magazine's "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time".
Operation: Mindcrime was Queensrÿche's breakthrough album, reaching number 50 on the Billboard 200 while its singles "Eyes of a Stranger" and "I Don't Believe in Love" served as the band's first charting hits in the United States. The album was certified by the RIAA as gold in early 1989, and was certified as platinum two years later. A sequel, Operation: Mindcrime II, was released on April 4, 2006.
Genre(s): Heavy metal, progressive metal
Producer(s): Peter Collins
Length: 59:14
Released: May 3rd, 1988
Year: 1988