Interestingly enough, The Sign is all about how we have the ability to change things, God willing and the fact that every one person has a different take. It is explained in a story through two different points of view. One person has experienced something early on which has rendered them psychologically speechless. The other person narrates their frustration with the issue and explores the many challenges that not only the "psychologically speechless" person struggles with, but also those whom come in contact. One of my favorite lyrical parts of the song is as follows:

"Once again. The hands begin to move. Golden silence. The words are now in digital form. This language seems to leave you speechless. Unrecognized - by those - without sight"

One may interpret "digital form" as a digital language. Not the case. In this case I refer to "digital"- as in the digits on ones hand (fingers...after all, the person is "signing"). Tom will be the first to acknowledge that I like to utilize and scramble words and their meanings. "This language seems to leave you speechless" speaks for itself I believe. But "Unrecognized - by those - without sight" is where the narrator is relaying the message to the person with issue -how can a blind person see sign language?- The same cannot be said of a deaf person and a voice as a deaf person has the ability to read lips...a blind person would have to read "digits". I'm sure there are arguments to this but I am not in the debating business. Perhaps this is not the final chapter of this song and I can explore the other side of the argument in the next chapter. Enough of the lyrical side...now for the other "stuff". This is the song when Tom presented to me that I had mistakenly thought was a song which he wrote for Jamie Robinson (former manager of EOR). We had agreed the next song I would be writing for would be "Jamie's song" as we referred to it. Long story short, I goofed up and wrote to this song now titled The Sign. I really liked the obscure and modern edge to this piece and was eager to get to work on it. As is sometimes the case, I was looking to produce a different or unique voice style for the song. Knowing ones favorite vocalist by their signature is comfortable I know, but sometimes I like to go against the grain and throw people off. Creatively, I'm not into complacency. It is my opinion that people like variety and consistency combined. During recording, I knew what I wanted in my head but sometimes translating that to others and on record can be difficult. In this case, although Tom didn't really understand the direction I was headed, I explained it the best I could and left it for him to digest. When I heard what he had mixed, I had an "eargasm". He not only nailed what I was thinking, he also added some interesting bytes that gave the song more depth and dimension. It really made me like the song more than I had anticipated thinking it was just going to be an okay bonus track. I now wish the song had made the cut in the regular tracks. Perhaps it can be switched with another? Tom will most likely veto that (he is the superior "Dictator"...I am Vice Dictator).

Tom's Rebuttle: I toyed with Jeff's thoughts on this briefly but really the music is of it's own kind and stands better as a bonus track. If Jeff doesn't like that he can read my "digit"- see the sign pal!