Starboy

Late one evening, early fall
“Night Signals” over, time for bed
The boy begins his upstairs trek
A short ascent so full of dread

Beside the darkened stairway
From behind the beaded curtain
A voice speaks quietly and clear
Beckoning the curious boy in

This space was not built for him
It belonged to his older sis
A darkened retreat in a basement bar
The haven of her teenage bliss

Replete with a secondhand sofa
Milk crates packed with myriad LPs
In the corner stood the sacred stereo
The altar at which the gods are appeased

“I’ve something to play for you,” she said
As the boy took a seat on the floor
“It’s a dystopian tale set in 2112
About music worth living for.”

She pulled from a crate a single LP
Solid black with a rippling red star
From the sleeve she withdrew the vinyl
So began the story of a man and a guitar.

From the moment the needle dropped
The boy was completely transported
To a world of computers and temples
And the discovery the Priests thwarted

A cacophony of sound erupts
Filling every corner of his brain
The lights on the Capehart pulse in time
As the hi-fi screams out its pain

Six minutes of rock perfection later
And the waterfall starts to flow
Wide-eyed the boy looks to his big sis
Words to describe this he didn’t yet know.

The brief acoustic interlude concludes
As the furor of the music returns
The hero of the story presents his art
To those who’d rather see it burn

The boy’s head is now swimming
Guitar, drums and bass at full tilt
There’s something here as strong as life
In the room where music was built

With the final ring of an electric chord
The chaos of this epic once again breaks
The dream sequence of the story begins
As the basement bar gently quakes

The boy and his sis are deep in the fold
The lights at the altar transport
Through astral nights and galactic days
Where time, space and music distort

The final quiet of the album hits
Another pause before the symphonic fray
The boy on the floor, his sis on the couch
Are geared up for the final melee

The hour grows late, the album winds down
The soliloquy plays its solemn lament
The hero’s lifeblood spills over
As the story makes its final descent

There in that dark forbidden place
A boy, granted backstage access
Hears the magic of Rush’s opus
The music his sister has blessed

The boy grips the rug, body and mind engaged
His sister has baptized his musical birth
The Grand Finale issues its decree
That this music shall inherit the earth