(chanted, with increasing melody)
from the canyons of the mind,
we wander on and stumble blindly
through the often-tangled maze
of starless nights and sunless days,
while casting for some kind of clue
or road to lead us to the truth,
but who will answer?
Side by side two people stand,
together vowing, hand-in-hand
that love's imbedded in their hearts,
but soon an empty feeling starts
to overwhelm their hollow lives,
and when we seek the hows and whys,
who will answer?
High upon a lonely ledge,
a figure teeters near the edge,
and jeering crowds collect below
to egg him on with, "go, man, go!"
and who will ask what led him
to his private day of doom,
and who will answer?
On a strange and distant hill,
a young man's lying very still.
his arms will never hold his child,
because a bullet running wild
has cut him down. and now we cry,
"dear god, oh, why, oh, why?"
and who will answer?
(full melody the rest of the song)
If the soul is darkened by a fear it cannot name,
if the mind is baffled when the rules don't fit the game,
who will answer? who will answer? who will answer?
In the rooms of dark and shades,
the scent of sandalwood pervades.
the colored thoughts in muddled heads
reclining in rumpled beds
of unmade dreams that can't come true,
and when we ask what we should do,
who? who will answer?
'neath the spreading mushroom tree,
the world revolves in apathy
as overhead, a row of specks
roars on, drowned out by discotheques,
and if a secret button's pressed
because one man has been outguessed,
who will answer?
Is our hope in walnut shells
worn 'round the neck with temple bells,
or deep within some cloistered walls
where hooded figures pray in halls?
or crumbled books on dusty shelves,
or in our stars, or in ourselves,
who will answer?
If the soul is darkened
by a fear it cannot name,
if the mind is baffled
when the rules don't fit the game,
who will answer? who will answer? who will answer?
alleluiah! alleluiah! alleluiah!