The United Dictators Of Mars - SONG

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Music: Hensley, Words: Harris

The shapes as you pass them slide into the distance. The speed of your craft holds you tight in your race. You wait for the moment to move in position as others shift down for the hell that awaits.

Pushing the P.R.M.'s your engine is roaring. Climbing the mountain side 'til the peak sends you soaring.

And so you'll drive into the sunset they say, or the story goes. Are you an ace or are you legend?. No one will ever know.

Too late for the one who skids into a tailspin for there is no mercy in this race you see. The winner of this race is he who chooses wisely for he who chooses poorly is now history.

Now you are driving into oblivion. And there you'll be forever more.

Originally titled XLR8, Jeff shortened his title and it works better. I remember the day Todd brought in his demo. He use to borrow Jeff's 4 track. I thought it was an awsome piece. The funny thing is that he layed down a drum pattern from this cheap Casio keyboard and it was a bossa nova/polka type beat and it was pretty cool but I obviously reprogrammed and finalized the song arrangement. A sad truth of this song is that I couldn't play it- the quick staccato verse harmony that is. It's actually a really tricky time signature and picking skill. I could fake it live but on the album Todd played my harmony part. That's okay- the favor would be returned. I also remember using Todd's G&L guitar to play the other parts I could handle, I don't know why. The underlying bass line to the verse compliments the song well. I think Todd and I worked with Billy to create that. Good opener to album with Jeff's vocal delivery being outstanding. Jeff yelling XL at the start was just a spontaneous outburst we kept. Todd plays the guitar solo. Years later in Archivon we made a better change to the song that had more of an accented and heavy crush to the end of the last chorus.

XL is about self destruction. There is some reference to automobile speed throughout the song. Although it is mostly meant to be symbolic, I have this fascination with automobiles and speed. At some point in my life I became addicted to NASCAR and devoted about as much of my time to it as music. When I dropped from the music scene, NASCAR kind of took over my life. But I digress. Obviously, I introduced my other hobby into this song in a way. I think this was the first song we recorded for the CD. But I am unsure. It is not one of my favorite songs on the CD but I do like it. I like the change the guys made at the end years later which you can probably hear in some later works.

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