Wage I of 3 · Ninth Circle Records

The Seven Wages

1994 · Ninth Circle Records · 7 tracks

The debut. Seven single-word titles, one per deadly sin, one tuning, one intention. The band said they would stop after this record. They did not, but they never denied that they had planned to. Reviewers who counted called it "long." Reviewers who listened called it "long, and about something."

1. 01Sloth4:40
   Words as entered

   The first vice they teach you
   Is the vice of doing less
   Sit down, they said, and rest your hands
   Sit down, they said, we'll handle the rest
   And a man who sits long enough
   Forgets he ever stood before
   And a town that sits long enough
   Forgets what it stood for
   
   The gate down at the mill's not locked
   It rusted open wide
   There's no one there to stop you
   And there's nothing left inside
   And every man on the avenue
   Still wakes up at five
   And lies there till the whistle
   Doesn't blow
   
   Sloth is not tired
   Tired is earned
   Sloth is the vice that dresses like rest
   
   Sloth
   Sloth
   Sloth is the first of seven
   Sloth
   Sloth
   Sloth is the first of seven
   
   A vice becomes a system
   When enough of us agree
   To trade the harder thing we could do
   For the softer thing we get
   
   For the softer thing we get
   
   Sloth
   Sloth
   Sloth is the first of seven

2. 02Wrath4:50
3. 03Pride6:10
4. 04Envy5:40
5. 05Greed6:45
6. 06Gluttony7:20
7. 07Lust8:30
   Words as entered

   The seventh was the one he preached the shortest
   With us kids in the front row, he said it quick and moved on
   He said the body is a house
   And a house that opens every door
   Wakes up with strangers at the table
   And can't remember letting them in
   
   He was talking about a man
   He was talking about a woman
   He was talking about a Tuesday and a mistake
   He never once thought to ask
   What happens to a vice
   When it puts a sign up by the highway
   
   It used to cost you something
   Your name, your wife, your pew
   Now it's off the next exit
   And nobody has to know
   
   LUST
   LUST
   LUST IS THE LAST OF SEVEN
   The one he preached the shortest
   LUST
   LUST
   LUST IS THE LAST OF SEVEN
   And the one that grew the most
   
   Daddy said the looking was enough to damn you
   I won't argue that with him
   And now there's money built around the wanting
   A room, a rate, a reason to return
   A building with no windows and a sign that's always lit
   And a car out front that you'd know
   
   They will let you name the other six
   They will let you preach them on a corner
   Name greed and they will nod
   Name wrath and they will nod
   Name this one plainly
   And they will ask you what year you think it is
   
   That is how you know which vice is winning
   The one you cannot say out loud in daylight
   Is not the one we are ashamed of
   It is the one we stopped being ashamed of
   
   A store needs somebody walking in
   A sign needs someone driving by
   Somebody sells it up and down the interstate
   But every man walks in alone
   
   LUST
   LUST
   LUST IS THE LAST OF SEVEN
   And every man walks in alone
   LUST
   LUST
   LUST IS THE LAST OF SEVEN
   And the first one we forgave
   
   The last of seven
   The last of seven
   And the first one we forgave