THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR

[Intro: lonely piano, faint analog synth, distant street noise]

[Verse 1: intimate, conversational]

There’s a woman at the window
Counting headlights in the rain
There’s a man across the hallway
Who has learned to hide his name

There are whispers in the papers
There are faces on the screen
Someone says the town is changing
Someone says what that must mean

And the people at the podium
With their fingers in the air
Say the danger’s getting closer

[Pause]

So we’d better learn to stare

[Pre-Chorus: bass enters, tension rising]

At the stranger on the corner
At the family down the street
At the voice that sounds unusual
At the person that we meet

While the hands behind the curtain
Keep repeating something old

[Backing Vocals, whispered]
Be afraid
Be afraid
Be afraid

[Lead]
Fear is easier to govern
Than a people uncontrolled

[Chorus: full band, dramatic strings]

They want us frightened of the people next door
So we never see the people upstairs

They give us enemies to watch on the floor
While they quietly move all the chairs

Keep us angry
Keep us small
Give us somebody else to blame it all upon

If everybody fears everybody
Nobody notices who has the power

[Instrumental Turn: glam guitar riff, saxophone answer]

[Verse 2]

There’s a camera in the station
There’s a slogan on the wall
There’s a man who promises safety
If we only give him all

All the questions
All the borders
All the names he needs to know

Who is loyal
Who is dangerous
Who is welcome
Who must go

And the crowd begins applauding
Because terror makes a sound
Like a thousand frightened heartbeats
When authority comes round

[Pre-Chorus]

First they tell you who to worry about
Then they tell you where to stand
Then they tell you every sacrifice
Is part of some great plan

[Backing Vocals]
For your safety
For your safety

[Lead Vocal, bitterly]
Such a beautiful command

[Chorus]

They want us frightened of the people next door
So we never see the people upstairs

They give us enemies to watch on the floor
While they quietly move all the chairs

Keep us angry
Keep us small
Give us somebody else to blame it all upon

If everybody fears everybody
Nobody notices who has the power

[Bridge: music drops to piano and low synth drone]

[Spoken-Sung]

Fear has excellent manners

It knocks before it enters

It says it only needs the hallway
Then the kitchen
Then your bedroom
Then your name

[Orchestral swell]

And every frightened generation
Swears this time is not the same

[Drums enter, slow and massive]

They say:

Your neighbor wants your future

Your neighbor wants your bread

Your neighbor wants your children

Your neighbor wants you dead

[Choir, increasingly chaotic]
Them
Them
Them
Them

[Lead Vocal]
And somewhere in a quiet room

Someone counts the votes instead

[Instrumental Break: distorted guitar, saxophone, dissonant piano]

[Verse 3: more hopeful, restrained]

But I spoke with the man beside me
And he wasn’t what they said

He worries about his daughter
He has trouble getting ahead

And the woman they called dangerous
Makes coffee before dawn

She laughs exactly like my mother
When her favorite song comes on

Maybe that is why they warn us
Never look each other in the eyes

Because fear survives on distance
And power survives on lies

[Pre-Chorus: music brightens]

So come out onto the pavement
Leave the curtains open wide

There are millions we were taught to fear

[Pause]

Who were frightened on the other side

[Final Chorus: huge, soaring, layered vocals]

DON’T BE FRIGHTENED OF THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR
LOOK A LITTLE HIGHER UP THE STAIRS

DON’T TAKE THE ENEMY THEY HAND YOU ANYMORE
ASK WHO PROFITS WHEN EVERYBODY’S SCARED

Keep us talking
Keep us close
Make it harder to divide us into ghosts

If everybody knows somebody
It gets much harder to manufacture monsters

[Choir]
Much harder
Much harder

[Lead]
To manufacture monsters

[Final refrain: key change]

They need a border inside your mind
They need a villain you can find
They need your neighbor turned into a sign

So you never ask

[Music cuts]

Who drew the line?

[Outro: piano, saxophone, distant choir]

[Soft Vocal]

There’s a woman at the window
There’s a man across the hall

Maybe neither one was dangerous

Maybe fear…

[Pause]

Was dangerous to us all

[Final piano chord]