Background Roar

Paper boy trudging down a dark icy road
Near the end of his journey, the last of his load
The winter wind cuts him as he turns towards home
Half a mile away's the sound of thunder and foam
The big lake, it's said, never gives up her dead
The gales of November singin' in his head

There's a wind and a wildness that he hears every day
It's always around him, but always at bay
It's friendly and cool in the summertime sun
But it's icy and cold when the white winter comes
He leaves it waiting outside goes in through the door
The sound of the big lake, the Background Roar

It's always around you, the Background Roar
Within you, without you, it's in every pore
You take it for granted, sometimes you dive in
But it never leaves you, it never gives in

Twenty years later, he's up on the stage
Rockin' and rollin' for minimum wage
It's hours of singing in a dark smoky bar
The thunder of the drums and electric guitar
It leaves his ears ringing with a dull aching sound
Muffled and dirty, like he lives underground

His manager tells him that he's gettin' too old
At 33 he's only chasing fool's gold
But he's fighting for an audience, the clamor and cheer
Another kind of roar is seducing him here
But then the band breaks up, another dream dies
And at the end of the day, he's all outta tries

It's always around you, the Background Roar
But sometimes you wonder what it's there for
Thundering silently up in your head
A road from your hometown, your narrative thread

There's rocks on the island, dark black and gray
A billion years old, geologists say
Worn down and weathered by glaciers and time
There's a cove by the lake shore, easy to climb
Up on the edge, survey the bottle green deep
Gathering courage for that 20 foot leap
He stood there as a young man, dove into it then
And when he is old, by God he'll do it again

Retired now, he still lives in LA
Half a million cars on the freeway all day
After forty years of nine-to-five not much left to do
Soon his California days are gonna be through
Sick and tired of every ozone day
Longing for the lake effect to sweep him away

Every day there's less and less keeping him here
It's time to go back, time to disappear
He's longing for water that's clean and cold
To wash away the tired of a man grown old
Goin' down to the waterline, down to the shore
Gonna have a conversation with the Background Roar

It's always around you, the Background Roar
A voice from your past that you cannot ignore
You may be lonely, but never alone
The Background Roar is always calling you home