Twilight Kingdom
"The Guardian"
KINGDOM OF TWILIGHT (march to battle)
This song was recorded back in 1994. It was on the Twilight Kingdom album titled "The Guardian". We released 200 copies on tape, and over the last 14 years, it has spread by word of mouth and the advent of bit torrent, all over the world. It's in Germany, Ireland, Greece where it made its debut on a few radio stations over there (which I might add we still get regular mail and emails wondering when we are going on tour!) and all over Europe. Now, within the last few years, it has found its way into the Asian markets, all bootlegged of course, and pirated over to CD, but hey, we can't watch everyone now, can we?
This was written almost as if it were a huge marching theme in a Dragonlance/Forgotten Realms sort of Fantasy world where there are huge armies marching out to meet each other, and this is what one side is singing. Yeah, the typical Man-O-War style, or Savatage from back in the day, but hey, they all served their purpose.
Hope you enjoy!
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Rice, Bedell 1994 ~
This was written almost as if it were a huge marching theme in a Dragonlance/Forgotten Realms sort of Fantasy world where there are huge armies marching out to meet each other, and this is what one side is singing. Yeah, the typical Man-O-War style, or Savatage from back in the day, but hey, they all served their purpose.
Hope you enjoy!
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Rice, Bedell 1994 ~
SHADOW TROOPS
This song was the 2nd track off the Twilight Kingdom album. It was written about the voices in your head. Admit it, you have them, I have them, we all have them. It's the good and bad voices that tell us about our good and bad choices and whether or not we should, or shouldn't be doing something. Otherwise known as our conscience. Most people have one, some people have hundreds. We had just gotten done seeing a TV show where the woman on there had over 150 voices in here head telling her what to do all the time, or telling her stuff she didn't want to know, like her future, her past, other people's future, etc...so we ran with the concept of modern times, how we, as human beings, constantly are making bad choices collectively.
We use and abuse the ecosystem like crazy, we spoil and destroy whatever we can no longer harvest, we wipe out stuff in the name of commerce, but we don't think too long about it because like most people, we figure we'll be dead by the time any negative ramifications are felt, and who cares about the next generation anyway, bunch of sniveling little rich kids (and by rich kids I mean kids with more toys and technology today than when we were kids, by gum!) who only deserve half of what they think they deserve, LOL!
Pretty much a story about not throwing stones if you live in a glass house, minding your own backyard, and not being a tyrant douche bag and picking fights that may lead to WWIII, if you know what I mean.
Pay attention to the lyrics, they have just as much meaning now as they did when we first wrote them in 1993.
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Paugh, Rice 1994 ~
We use and abuse the ecosystem like crazy, we spoil and destroy whatever we can no longer harvest, we wipe out stuff in the name of commerce, but we don't think too long about it because like most people, we figure we'll be dead by the time any negative ramifications are felt, and who cares about the next generation anyway, bunch of sniveling little rich kids (and by rich kids I mean kids with more toys and technology today than when we were kids, by gum!) who only deserve half of what they think they deserve, LOL!
Pretty much a story about not throwing stones if you live in a glass house, minding your own backyard, and not being a tyrant douche bag and picking fights that may lead to WWIII, if you know what I mean.
Pay attention to the lyrics, they have just as much meaning now as they did when we first wrote them in 1993.
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Paugh, Rice 1994 ~
AWAKENING
This song is about the ramifications of cryogenic freezing. If we develop something terminal, we want to be preserved in the hopes that we can be revived in the future when they have a cure, if they ever find one. The holy grail, the fountain of youth, whatever you want to call it, and what it would be like to wake up 100, 500, 1,000 years in the future and how we'd feel about it, everyone we know is dead, and anyone alive from the original family tree would make it weird meeting them, the loss, all your friends dead and gone, simple memories completely altered, and would we know what to do with ourselves, especially with the potential fame that might come from surviving it?
How would you feel?
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Hamm, Paugh, Rice 1994 ~
How would you feel?
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Hamm, Paugh, Rice 1994 ~
WINTER DREAMS
This song was written about the life and hardships of wolves, how over the years, many have been hunted to near extinction. They have always been misunderstood as a scavenger, and a ruthless killer of livestock, but in reality, like all other animals, they just "do what they do" through the millennium of evolution, through all the changes of their species finally down to them. They do what they need to to survive, period.
Steve's intention was, I believe, to show how beautiful a creature they really are, and to show how hard their life really is without us stupid humans expecting them to change in 200 years of this country being settled, when it took thousands of years for them to evolve to what they are today. Most people forget that we, too, are animals, and that we, too, are not outside of the food groups for many animals, large and small, and that would that the right circumstances were to arise, we would be food, just like any other animal.
Something to think about, anyway.
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Paugh, Rice 1994 ~
Steve's intention was, I believe, to show how beautiful a creature they really are, and to show how hard their life really is without us stupid humans expecting them to change in 200 years of this country being settled, when it took thousands of years for them to evolve to what they are today. Most people forget that we, too, are animals, and that we, too, are not outside of the food groups for many animals, large and small, and that would that the right circumstances were to arise, we would be food, just like any other animal.
Something to think about, anyway.
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Paugh, Rice 1994 ~
FOREVER SACRED
This song was written about the plight of the Native American. Like the wolf, a very misunderstood breed of humans if ever there was one.
I was taught at the age of 9 by a Native Oglala Sioux Indian by the name of Charlie Eagle Plume that my animal spirit was a wolf. I was sat down and told by him that when I had gotten out of the family car while on vacation in Colorado visiting extended family, that he had seen a wolf standing in the middle of a snowy field. Where I was standing when he saw me, was a blacktop parking lot and lots of cars. He stood up so quickly his chair fell over. He then approached my father and asked him if he could tell me a story.
He sat us down and told us about how when he was a little boy, that his grandfather had seen a bear once, rambling right up to about 100 yards from their Tee Pee's. He saw it was between two of his three grandsons and he got up and started yelling, "Bear, BEAR, RUN CHILDREN, RUN!" and as the three grandchildren, Charlie included, looked around for a bear, they all three started to run towards camp. The Grandfather became more agitated and yelling more while grabbing his bow and arrow and taking aim at the bear. Just as he was about to let go of the bowstring, the bear melted into Charlie. His grandfather, trembling, loosened the bow and removed the arrow. Shaking from what he had almost done, he sat down and called Charlie to him.
When Charlie sat across from him, he heard his grandfather say, "Grandson, when I was young, around your age, I was given this arrowhead. It was given to me from my father, by his father, by his father and so on. It was handed down for 4 generations from father to son, grandfather to grandson. It represented a link from past to present and future. It represented a link between all those whom it had come from, to whom it had gone. It wasn't always within his particular family, but passed around various family groups over the years. It was given as a sign of love and affection to the one who received it, and that if it was lost, it would represent the losing of the givers love for that person.
Now Charlie had heard the story many times before, but it usually stopped there. His grandfather kept on. He said it was given to those who have visions, strong ones. One's where they see the true form of the animal spirit of the next owner. His grandfather had just seen a bear instead of Charlie, but it was Charlie none the less. His grandfather removed the necklace with the arrowhead on it, and put it over Charlies' head.
Charlie, at this point, stopped telling the story, and pulled out the necklace from underneath his shirt, up over his long flowing black mane of hair touched with a huge white streak, and lowered that same necklace over my head. He said, "This necklace, like my people before me, embodies everything about our culture, and especially my love for you. If you lose it, you will lose my love, and the tribes' love for you. And he placed it around my neck. He said, if you ever see a vision like I have seen today, you will give it to that person, along with the story. Also, remember, this is the first time it has ever passed to a wasichu.
I still have this item in a lock box in the bank, and it will not ever be given away unless I have any visions.
I promised Charlie I wouldn't.
I asked him why my animal spirit was the wolf. He said, you will be greatly misunderstood, you will be able to endure any hardship that life throws at you, and you will find the other alpha female to mate with the rest of your days. I've come to notice over the years that this, is very very true. He told me to trust my instincts, that they are of, and like, the wolf.
I know people consider such things silly, but if I'm traveling down the highway doing 75 in a 55, for no apparent reason, my foot will slowly raise up off the gas pedal until on some sub conscious level I'm now going 58, 59 max, and come around a long bend in the highway and there, low and behold, will sit a sheriff, or state trooper with a speed trap set up. I go through unscathed, and laugh all the way to the sixth sense/animal spirit bank. It has kept me out of many an incident which could have become a tight spot.
Anyway, that should give you some indication about how we all felt when we were writing this song. We just suck, sometimes as a human species.
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Hamm, Paugh, Rice 1994 ~
I was taught at the age of 9 by a Native Oglala Sioux Indian by the name of Charlie Eagle Plume that my animal spirit was a wolf. I was sat down and told by him that when I had gotten out of the family car while on vacation in Colorado visiting extended family, that he had seen a wolf standing in the middle of a snowy field. Where I was standing when he saw me, was a blacktop parking lot and lots of cars. He stood up so quickly his chair fell over. He then approached my father and asked him if he could tell me a story.
He sat us down and told us about how when he was a little boy, that his grandfather had seen a bear once, rambling right up to about 100 yards from their Tee Pee's. He saw it was between two of his three grandsons and he got up and started yelling, "Bear, BEAR, RUN CHILDREN, RUN!" and as the three grandchildren, Charlie included, looked around for a bear, they all three started to run towards camp. The Grandfather became more agitated and yelling more while grabbing his bow and arrow and taking aim at the bear. Just as he was about to let go of the bowstring, the bear melted into Charlie. His grandfather, trembling, loosened the bow and removed the arrow. Shaking from what he had almost done, he sat down and called Charlie to him.
When Charlie sat across from him, he heard his grandfather say, "Grandson, when I was young, around your age, I was given this arrowhead. It was given to me from my father, by his father, by his father and so on. It was handed down for 4 generations from father to son, grandfather to grandson. It represented a link from past to present and future. It represented a link between all those whom it had come from, to whom it had gone. It wasn't always within his particular family, but passed around various family groups over the years. It was given as a sign of love and affection to the one who received it, and that if it was lost, it would represent the losing of the givers love for that person.
Now Charlie had heard the story many times before, but it usually stopped there. His grandfather kept on. He said it was given to those who have visions, strong ones. One's where they see the true form of the animal spirit of the next owner. His grandfather had just seen a bear instead of Charlie, but it was Charlie none the less. His grandfather removed the necklace with the arrowhead on it, and put it over Charlies' head.
Charlie, at this point, stopped telling the story, and pulled out the necklace from underneath his shirt, up over his long flowing black mane of hair touched with a huge white streak, and lowered that same necklace over my head. He said, "This necklace, like my people before me, embodies everything about our culture, and especially my love for you. If you lose it, you will lose my love, and the tribes' love for you. And he placed it around my neck. He said, if you ever see a vision like I have seen today, you will give it to that person, along with the story. Also, remember, this is the first time it has ever passed to a wasichu.
I still have this item in a lock box in the bank, and it will not ever be given away unless I have any visions.
I promised Charlie I wouldn't.
I asked him why my animal spirit was the wolf. He said, you will be greatly misunderstood, you will be able to endure any hardship that life throws at you, and you will find the other alpha female to mate with the rest of your days. I've come to notice over the years that this, is very very true. He told me to trust my instincts, that they are of, and like, the wolf.
I know people consider such things silly, but if I'm traveling down the highway doing 75 in a 55, for no apparent reason, my foot will slowly raise up off the gas pedal until on some sub conscious level I'm now going 58, 59 max, and come around a long bend in the highway and there, low and behold, will sit a sheriff, or state trooper with a speed trap set up. I go through unscathed, and laugh all the way to the sixth sense/animal spirit bank. It has kept me out of many an incident which could have become a tight spot.
Anyway, that should give you some indication about how we all felt when we were writing this song. We just suck, sometimes as a human species.
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Hamm, Paugh, Rice 1994 ~
LIVING ON BORROWED TIME
This was written due in part to a single line from a movie. A different way to look at life due to a terminal illness. When you are told you have 3 months to live, and live beyond that point, you are considered to be living on borrowed time...kind of like beyond your expiration date. So each and every moment becomes even more precious to you than ever before. This song is poignant, sad, and gleeful all the same. Looking through glasses that are like a kaleidoscope, childlike and wistful. Enjoy it, and life, for what it is, and gives, and also takes away.
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Rice 1994 ~
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Rice 1994 ~
ANGEL TO NO ONE
This song is all about Vampires, specifically, the Anne Rice Chronicles. Steve and I wrote this song soon after finishing the book series up to that point known as Tale of a Body Thief. Interview With a Vampire, The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned were all a very excellent read, as was the rest after Tale of a Body Thief. We loved the story, the concept, everything about it, and them.
I had begun a dialogue with Mrs. Rice in 1995 after the album was completed to see if we could get this song included in some way with the first movie. During negotiations, things broke down due to her finding out who the director had cast as her leading man (She hated Tom Cruise initially as his choice, but after viewing dailies, she changed her mind, but not until she had decided to pull out of the project and washing her hands with how things may have turned out for the film) and subsequently wasn't able to have any influence over whether or not the song was even considered for the film. I would have been more than happy to have seen it used during the end credits roll, myself, but hey, who am I, right?
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Hamm, Paugh, Rice 1994 ~
I had begun a dialogue with Mrs. Rice in 1995 after the album was completed to see if we could get this song included in some way with the first movie. During negotiations, things broke down due to her finding out who the director had cast as her leading man (She hated Tom Cruise initially as his choice, but after viewing dailies, she changed her mind, but not until she had decided to pull out of the project and washing her hands with how things may have turned out for the film) and subsequently wasn't able to have any influence over whether or not the song was even considered for the film. I would have been more than happy to have seen it used during the end credits roll, myself, but hey, who am I, right?
Thomas
All Copyrights Reserved "Twilight Kingdom : The Guardian" ~ Hamm, Paugh, Rice 1994 ~