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Time Traveler Lyrics

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A commission about time travel and Doctor Who. It's about all of us when we Time Travel, in the many many little moments we escape either our bodies or our sense of time -- by getting lost in the task, by stopping it on film, or best of all by getting lost in a book. Or of course that Tardis thing.

This song is less a folk/pop song and more an art song, in the classical sense. Not everyone will like it; it's dramatic and sincere, which together seem to be criminal these days. But I thought someone among you might need this song. If you must time travel, remember that books are always there for you.
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He slips the time in his pocket
He straps the time to his wrist
The Traveler sets the time on the nightstand
For when he needs it -- for when he needs it

He measures time with his footsteps
Cuts it into pieces with his pen
He captures time with a shutter
And a vintage Leica lens -- and

There are only two cages, there are only two locks
The first is the body's, the last is the clock's

But somebody has slipped the bars, somebody has clipped the bolt
Someone had the nerve to break away
Escape, we've had an -- escape

Inform the metronome: a prisoner has flown
Whose eye was on the task and not the time
Whose mind was on the task and not the time time time
Whose hand was on the task --
It is our cage that makes us dream
And rattle at our bars and scrape the skies and try the seas
It is the Traveler who points the way
For when we need it -- for when we need it

And he takes his suitcase to the red library
He cracks a leather-bound door
And in a page or two he's vaulted miles and years away
Antarctica or Avalon or Alpha Centauri, and
There are only two cages, there are only two locks
The first is the body's, the last is the clock's

And somebody has slipped the bars, somebody has sprung the lock
There and back again without a wink, without a sign
The Traveler does not look up, the Traveler does not ask how
He rounds the universes down to Now and so he's free

Free, free
Lucky is he -- lucky is he

Whose eye is on the task and not the time
Whose mind is in the tale and not the time time time
Whose eye is on the task and not the time

There are only two pathways
There are only two doors
Rise up and walk, in body or in mind
And the road -- the world -- is yours.
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