Heart of Darkness: The Rock Opera

Lyrics

Arta (backwards): (?)
Voice: "What?"
Arta: "People don't understand. Heart of Darkness isn't a novel, man."
Arta: "Where's my pick?"
Voice: "No, I don't think I've been in a fight."
Steven: "Did you ever kill someone?"
Arta: "In Africa"

(Vivid Travelogue)

When I was a child
The world was a map.
The lines and colors,
An adventure waiting to be had.
A snake on the map,
A line, a river.
A promise, a hope, a curse?
And so I set out
On the wind of a new day.
Only a vague notion
Of what was coming my way.

Voice: "In my mind, right? So before, before he even ended with that sentence, I pushed the front seat up and got out of the car. We're at the stop light. And I ran over around the other side of the car. The guy wants you to fight him right, so first I was, I'm a little hesitant [laughter] but I didn't punk out, I was like, all right..."

(Human Adventure)
Bang! The steamer sets off!
Pow! The elephant gun roars!
We're off to Africa, we're off to fight!
We're off to ivory, we're off tonight!
Snap! The trap is set!
Snap! The loot is ours.
We're off to Africa, we're off to fight!
We're off to ivory, we're off tonight!
Look, now, the savage in chains.
Laugh, now, at his feeble ways.
We're off to Africa, we're off to fight!
We're off to ivory, we're off tonight!
No match for the civilized man.
We're off to Africa with a gun in our hands.

(Scramble For Loot)
They call me Kurtz.
I'm just an average man
In the service of my liege.
They call me Kurtz.
And I'm glad to meet you,
Dear savage fiends.
They call me Kurtz,
And as you’ll soon see,
I’m a man of civility.
My name’s just Kurtz.
Your savage customs
I’ll soon suppress.
Yes, they call me Kurtz,
And damn the rhetoric;
Your ivory’s all I seek.

(Exploitation)
Africa loomed, a prize unexplored
Africa promised, a fortune to gain
Africa beckoned, a virgin untouched
And we came and raped her to death

Day rises, men toil in the jungle mist
The blood boils, do you feel the clenched fist?
The chain gang stumbles and falls
The accountant’s having a ball
And the blood boils, in the African mist

A wildness that kept the natives free
A truth confronted our society
And in our stumbling, the wild confounded us
Confused us, made our blood boil

And we answered with guns
We answered with chains
We answered with ships
And troops and royal decrees
We answered with blood

Voice: "the summer heat had got me down"
Voice: "...roll it up and drives fast as he can because he sees death in my eyes, right? So I'm like..."
Voice: "Come on! Who wants to be killed? Who wants to be killed?"
Voice: "...and then I'm in the car and I shut the door and drove away, and it was all because I'm jealous because girls flirt too much."
Voice: "...and me and this girl were sitting in the back and my friend and his girl were sitting in the front, right? And a car with... guys were driving up right next to me, okay?"
Voice: "...and he just went waving at me, just being stupid"
Voice: "the car, and it was like green light now, people were honking and it was like 11 at night. All this violence is occurring, right? And I turn around and there's this big guy with a goatee..."

(Hell)
Death, despair, damnation
For our sins in the African nation
And so we burn
And so we learn
The wild within and
The wild without
As in the dark
We scream and shout
Down the river of blood we sink
Like a poison the regret we drink
And so we burn
And so we learn
The wild within and
The wild without
As in the dark
We scream and shout
Down the river Styx with my soul
A lot like the jungle river we stole
And so we burn
And so we learn
The wild within and
The wild without
As in the dark
We scream and shout

Voice: (?)

(Inner Mind)
Now the moonlight falls upon the weary sailors
Now a hopeless shadow falls upon the dead shores
Now a somber silence falls over those gathered
As they slowly see the only truth that matters

Tigers clashing in the night
The teeth of their prey gnash with fright
Power shifts with each daybreak
The jungle is warring long before we wake
And within, the battle’s replayed
For civilization and the price that we paid
Tame or wild, our insides are torn
And in the end, the victor is horror!

I watch as Marlow pauses, and speaks again
As he struggles with the twisted heart of man
All of humankind to him is just a lie
We can’t escape our origins, and yet we still try

When I was a child
The world was a map.
The lines and colors,
An adventure waiting to be had.


Available on
This track may be found on early tapes made by the band and friends of the band. It was also available online until Fall 2001.

Notes
Sculpted Static's first song, recorded as a class project for AP English. It was based on a worksheet about Joseph Conrad's novel, "Heart of Darkness." Verónica Tolnay and Robert Aghassi sing lead vocals on "Exploitation" and "Hell," respectively. The song was played on repeat at the school's English department exhibit at Open House on May 16, 2001.