The Signal Goes Quiet

I saw it in a headline, halfway down the page

Another voice gone missing in a modern kind of age

Said the wires were still humming, but the message never came

Like somebody pulled the breaker... but nobody took the blame

They said it was for order, they said it was for good

Just a little rearranging, like you knew they always would

But I've heard that kind of language, dressed up clean and polite

When the truth gets pushed to shadows... just outside the light

When the signal goes quiet, do you notice it's gone

Or just hum a little louder, try to carry on

If the story gets rewritten before it hits your door

Is it freedom on the airwaves... or control we can't ignore

We were out there on the water, somewhere off Beirut

Night lit up like fireworks, but there was nothing cute

Chaplain asked me softly, "Is there some kind of show?"

I said, "No sir... that's the war you're seeing down below"

I learned right there the difference, between what is and what's said

Between the sky that's burning... and the words that get read

And ever since I've wondered, who decides the final cut

Who gets to turn the volume down... and who just gets shut up

When the signal goes quiet, do you notice it's gone

Or just hum a little louder, try to carry on

If the story gets rewritten before it hits your door

Is it freedom on the airwaves... or control we can't ignore

Now it's faster than a whisper, it's louder than a scream

Truth and noise together in the same digital stream

And the lines keep getting blurry between the false and true

So you better keep on listening... they're deciding that for you

When the signal goes quiet, it don't fade away

It just slips between the cracks in what we choose to say

And if nobody's asking what's behind that door

We might lose a little more than we've ever lost before

Yeah the wires are still humming

But something's missing in the sound

When the signal goes quiet

And nobody turns around