Defend Atlantis

By Flobots

On Survival Story

Released on March 16, 2010

5K Views

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[Verse 1: Jonny 5]

That was as far as the tide came in

I remember the starfish, and the wails of the sirens then

We replaced the tridents, embraced Poseidon

Discovered ourselves living on an island


[Brer Rabbit and Jonny 5]

We flow like water across the lost city

Chalk prophecies and washed off graffiti

Incontinence, trade off for payoff

And high concepts then lost to chaos

Many tales radiate from one nexus

Defending a dream of a new directive

A call from the deep sums up the notion

The day when the people bum rushed the ocean


[Hook: Mackenzie Gault]

From the beaches they

Ran to meet the day after

Underneath the waves

Won't repeat the same chapter

Knew what they had to do


[Verse 2: Jonny 5]

That which creates life has power to take it right back

Fucking with the ice caps

We've gotta push the tide back

We can survive collapse

If we don't get sidetracked

If we visualize livin'

Underwater hidden by prisms

Countries fall but people transition

If one for all we live in that vision

Hundred dollar bill origami

Balloon inflation new world economy

We float on tsunami to global warming

We need structures to control what's coming

Corporate monopolies obsolete

That philosophy leaves us lost at sea

But from Marwar to Cochabamba

We are the warriors that won't get conquered

Cause rising tides drown all villages

Divided fighters succumb to pillage

Rescuers, whatever your latitude

It's time to pioneer a new world attitude

Put local cycles first

We're Global islanders

With nothing left to plunder


[Hook: Mackenzie Gault]

From the beaches they

Ran to meet the day after

Underneath the waves

Won't repeat the same chapter

Knew what they had to do


[Verse 3: Jonny 5]

For centuries human beings have pursued the meaning of Atlantis

Central to their teachings is that its existence

Answers man's essential questions

Much like the feeding of the five thousand

Even if the facts aren't accurate, the story's magic is alive


[Brer Rabbit]

Of utmost importance to divert the impertinent

Atlantis holds the answer to man's ills at their most pertinent

Aspersions easily dispersed when I certainly answer

The most diverse aversions when at first they channel...

Is that all you hold for a warrior's role?

The ground shakes to claim my country, not my soul

I thought I toiled for the loss in the waves

And I will not tire, I'll die no slave

If the sea's my grave, I sleep with my city

My people, my oath, my shame, my city

Is that I can not save my city from the waves that claim you

And curse the gods who can't explain who to blame

At the end of the rain, heed me

The season passes Atlas

His keeps in the sediment

Failing monumentally and leaving no monuments to see

Only sea to shining sea


[Jonny 5]

And survival hinged on the ascent by the humble

And the sirens wailed as the empire crumbled

With nothing to plunder, corporations drowned

Waves clapped like thunder and stormed the gates with sound

Forming a new nation now

As the ice caps melted, water levels rose

We raised our hands together and made the levees hold

Heels in the sand, we revealed the depths below

The population of starfish exploded from the ocean

Survival we unified to focus on

And the voices were many but we spoke as one

As the tale was retold, we multiplied

And swelled across the fault line to halt the tide

We let the altars die to keep our pulse alive

And from the barren wastelands of naked trash

We stitched together a shelter from fallen nations' flags

And chose to build a future from an ancient past

The Crowns of Thorns were worn, we put the tritons down

We found new forms of anchors deep inside the ground

The world is an island now

The world is an island now