Hold Your Fire

September 1987 . 12th Studio Recording

Power Windows 1985 A Show of Hands 1989

Lock and Key Lyrics

Available on Hold Your Fire

Music: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson
Lyrics: Neil Peart

I don’t want to face
The killer instinct —
Face it in you or me

We carry a sensitive cargo
Below the waterline —
Ticking like a time bomb
With a primitive design

Behind the finer feelings —
This civilized veneer —
The heart of a lonely hunter
Guards a dangerous frontier

The balance can sometimes fail —
Strong emotions can tip the scale —


Don’t want to silence
A desperate voice
For the sake of security
No one wants to make
A terrible choice
On the price of being free
I don’t want to face
The killer instinct —
Face it in you or me
So we keep it under lock and key…

It’s not a matter of mercy
It’s not a matter of laws
Plenty of people will kill you
For some fanatical cause

It’s not a matter of conscience —
A search for probable cause
It’s just a matter of instinct —
A matter of fatal flaws

No reward for resistance
No assistance —
no applause…

we don’t want to be victims
on that we all agree
so we lock up the killer instinct —
and throw away the key…