Album: Hold Your Fire (1987)

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• 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 emotion 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
  
  I don't want to face
  The killer instinct
  Face it in you or me
  So we keep it under lock and key
  
  I don't want to face
  The killer instinct
  Face it in you or me
  So we keep it under lock and key
  Lock and key
  
  I don't want to face
  The killer instinct
  Face it in you or me
  So we keep it under lock and key
  Lock and key
  
  We don't want to be victims
  On that we all agree
  So we lock up the killer instinct
  And throw away the key Writer/s: Alex Zivojinovich, Gary Lee Weinrib, Neil Elwood Peart
  Publisher: Anthem Entertainment
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 9

• Patrick from Bedford, TxRead the lyrics and didn't have high hopes. Pressed play and heard s--tty keyboards. Damn. My dudes, I respect keyboards, but use one that doesn't sound like mine, that I bought from Target, for less than fifty dollars.
• Mathieu from Saint-hyacinthe, QcThe movie contained in the music video and in the beginning of the "Show of Hands" show is The Last Mile, a 1932 movie. Also, he plays on a 4-string bass in the show, he replace the lower notes by the note an octave higher, e.g. when he's supposed to play a E#2, he plays a E#3.
• Alessandro from Danbury, Oni like your song a lot but i don't know what it's about.
• John from Asheville, NcI like this song quite well. Not a favorite from Hold Your Fire, but I like it. Interesting lyric.
• Brett from Regina, CanadaAt the live show he uses a 4 string wal also.
• Chuck from Houston, TxLets look at song title and the album title, they go hand and hand. "Keep it under lock and key" and "Hold your fire" - thats a good claboration, in my opinion.
• Jordan from Port Hope, CanadaThis song is basically saying that we could all be killers. We could all have a killer instinct. But we control it -- we keep it under lock and key.
• Stephan from Moedling, AustriaVery interesting that in the video Geddy uses his 4string Wal
• Edward from Deptford, NjThis is one of Rush's most moving songs. The video is great. How true are the lyrics to this song, "we carry a sensative cargo, below the water line". Every one has a side to hide.

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