"Question Mark" by The Smashing Pumpkins

What is this frightened air between us
What is the question posed
What is this violence I sense lurking [alt:creeping]
What is your secret code
I wanna know

Why are the pipers [songwriters] crawling towards us
What are we meant to show
Why are you smiling daggers at me
What do you have that's mine to hold
It’s a song I sing
It’s a song I sing

I pull into the town
Smoke rings around the square
I’m tearing the ground
There is a place you'll [Alt: she’ll] explode
I’m getting close
To an answer to my question
To my small notions of Rome

[Where does the ______ [d]ream?] you follow
Why are we laying low
Why must the cannons reap for nothing
Why must the depths of hell be neatly sown
I have to know

Why are the crows crowing boldly [crows are the songwriters]
How far must their uplinking go
Why are the unknown known arising
What is the unknown known to your lost soul
I’ve got to know

I raced from the town bleeding like some kind of bitch
I’m down on my knees digging a new kind of ditch
Braced it with pretty words
But no answers to my question
To my small notions of Rome
It’s a song I sing
It’s a song I sing

I volunteer, to let me commandeer
The last frontiers from your faith
A gentle wish must float upstream
Why must hope kick like a sweet dream [you must be kidding me.]

What is this blood you drink like wine for
Are your nights worth breaking in
Why [does/ Alt: in] the face of Death [Alt: do] you curtsy
When he comes to tuck you in
It’s a song I sing
It’s a song I sing
It’s a song I sing

What are we fighting for
The spoils would end this war
What are these sores you lick like ice cream

You hide the ash
You ride the past [Alt: You hide the past]
What is the black bracelet for?
It’s the song I sing
It’s the song I sing
It’s the song I sing

[Alternate version:
I keep telling you,
I keep telling you,
I keep telling you,
I don’t want this song

I keep telling you,
I keep telling you,
I keep telling you,
I don’t want this song
It’s the song I sing]

This is one of the number of variations of this song that was produced out of the Fillmore residency. Here it is. This was interesting on a great number of levels that can't really be explored for now, but the particularly interesting part was that in the second courier I'd invited him with, "Go ahead, ask me a question", implying he had the latitude to ask anything he wanted. Guess what, he did. But it would take until 2007. This song would take an essay.

In terms of who's grasping, you be the judge.

Hello (I Love You) - Roger Waters (2007)

Hello (I Love You)

Have you heard
It was on the news
Your child can read you like a bedtime story
Like a Magazine
Like a has-been out to grass
Like afternoon T.V.
Why is my life going by so fast.

Hello I love you
Is there anybody in there?
Put down the phone
Shut up the shop
Make all their techno babble stop
We'll find a short-waved frequency
The wave connecting you and me
Hello I love you

Have you heard
It was on the news
The general staff can't figure out
Is this campaign win or lose
Life is long but it goes fast
The kids will have to separate
Their future from our past

Hello I love you
Is there anybody in there?
The ghosts are walking by my side
I feel their love I feel their pride
For I have built a bridge or two
Bridges between me and you
Hello I love you

Have you heard
It was on the news
You can make your peace
On the dark side of the moon
I'll see you there
We can rock 'n' roll
We can make our choice
We can say goodbye or say hello

Hello I love you
Is there anybody in there
Hello...