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The Fear Trilogy
The Fear Trilogy is made up of the songs The Enemy Within (Part I from Grace Under Pressure), The Weapon (Part II from Signals), and Witch Hunt (Part III from Moving Pictures). They originally appeared in reverse order, with Witch Hunt being released first. Around the time of the MP recordings, a man told Neil that all the actions of a man aren't governed by need or love, but fear. The trilogy is Neil's example of showing how this might work. It deals with (in Neil's eyes) the three different types of fear: fear within us (The Enemy Within), how fear can be used against us (The Weapon), and how fear can move a group or mob (Witch Hunt). Why did they appear in reverse order? The band thought that the "group" topic would be the easiest to deal with, and so it appeared first, then after that you could only put part II and then I. The only place that they are all played in sequence is the live Grace Under Pressure Tour video. Here are the lyrics to the songs.

The Enemy Within
Things crawl in the darkness
That imagination spins
Needles at your nerve ends
Crawl like spiders on your skin

Pounding in your temples
And a surge of adrenalin
Every muscle tense ---
To fence
The enemy within...

I'm not giving in
To security under pressure
I'm not missing out
On the promise of adventure
I'm not giving up
On implausible dreams ---
Experience to extremes ---
Experience to extremes

Suspicious-looking stranger
Flashes you a dangerous grin
Shadows across your window ---
Was it only trees in the wind?

Every breath a static charge ---
A tongue that tastes like tin
Steely-eyed outside ---
To hide
The enemy within...

To you -- is it movement or is it action?
It is contact or just reaction?
And you -- revolution or just resistance?
Is it living, or just existence?
Yeah, you -- it takes a little more persistence
To get up and go the distance...


The Weapon

We've got nothing to fear; but fear itself?
Not pain or failure, not fatal tragedy?
Not the faulty units in this mad machinery?
Not the broken contacts in emotional chemistry?

With an iron fist in a velvet glove
We are sheltered under the gun
In the glory game on the power train
Thy kingdom's will be done

And the things that we fear are a weapon to be held against us...

He's not afraid of your judgement
He knows of horrors worse than your Hell
He's a little bit afraid of dying;
But he's a lot more afraid of your lying

And the things that he fears are a weapon to be held against him...

Can any part of life; be larger than life?
Even love must be limited by time
And those who push us down that they might climb;
Is any killer worth more than his crime?

Like a steely blade in a silken sheath
We don't see what they're made of
They shout about love, but when push comes to shove
They live for the things they're afraid of

And the knowledge that they fear is a weapon to be used against them...


Witch Hunt
The night is black
Without a moon
The air is thick, and still

The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torchlit hill

Features distorted in the flickering light
The faces are twisted and grotesque
Silent and stern in the sweltering night
The mob moves like demons possessed
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right ---
Confident their ways are best

The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will

Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat, and burn, and kill

They say there are strangers, who threaten us
In our immigrants and infidels
They say there is strangeness, too dangerous
In our theatres and bookstore shelves
That those who know what's best for us ---
Must rise and save us from ourselves

Quick to judge
Quick to anger
Slow to understand

Ignorance and prejudice
And fear
Walk hand in hand