Thinly Veiled Threat by Randy Stonehill

Song Lyrics

Lost Art of Listening by Randy Stonehill

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Thinly Veiled Threat
by Randy Stonehill

All the blameless criminals in toxic town
Howling like hyenas when the sun goes down.
The Potentate parades on his golden calf
While the minions all clamor for his autograph.

Harlots and the charlatans dance in a seductive pirouette.
Pundits pontificate blind men trying to trace a silhouette.
Looks can hypnotize, it's really just a thinly veiled threat.

Thinly veiled threat like the rattle on a snake.
Thinly veiled threat like a lawyer's handshake.
Thinly veiled threat like a sleeping crocodile.
Thinly veiled threat like a politician's smile.
Beneath the clever mask you there' shadow of a thinly veiled threat.

Wide-eyed youth with their bright ideals
Sinking in the quicksand easy truth conceals.
It's the age-old illusion 'bout a final fix
But it's a leaky boat drifting down the river Styx.

History repeats like a nightmare we never can forget.
All our proud inventions promise us a better world and yet
They leave us bruised and bloody and they mock us like a thinly veiled threat.

Thinly veiled threat like a spider with a fly.
Thinly veiled threat like a fortune teller's lie.
Thinly veiled threat like a switch blade knife.
Thinly veiled threat like a friend's flirty wife.
You think she's sweet salvation but she's really just a thinly veiled threat.

Bridge:

We know that something's missing what it is we just can't tell
There's a fleeting hope of Heaven a chilling fear of hell
Have we angered some great Deity who cast us to the ground
We can't climb mount Olympus and he's not comin' down
Now the hours come to haunt us like footsteps on the stairs
We long for some oasis that was never really there
Are we orphans on some pilgrimage who cursed the grand design
Are we left here just to languish paralyzed and blind

Say you'll leave the city for a distant shore
But the elevator jams on the 13th floor.
So you pour a little poison, to ease the edge.
Still you feel like you're dangling off a windy ledge.

Your trophy blonde is pouting while she waits for you to light her cigarette.
She was the lover of your dreams now it seems more like you lost some kind of bet.
She whispers "baby you're the one" but it hisses like a thinly veiled threat.

Thinly veiled threat like the hackles on a dog.
Thinly veiled threat like a phantom in the fog.
Thinly veiled threat like a dragon in your dreams
Thinly veiled threat you're afraid of what that means.
You pretend it isn't so but you know that it's a thinly veiled threat.
Thinly veiled threat like the calm before the storm.
Thinly veiled threat like a rose hides the thorn.
Thinly veiled threat like a tightly clenched fist.
Thinly veiled threat like Judas' sweet kiss.