Name: Not My Game by Joe Linstrum
Duration: 4 min 33 s
Description: Kind of a Chris Singleton type of track.

Generative Day

[Verse ] 
you should have seen the thing from yesterday
on every screen and under every word
it slipped between the silence and the static
we thought it was a signal straight

oh there's a price to pay for this forward
there is a hidden cost at best
you might just have to let it go

[Bridge] 
underneath the stars we chase the light glow 
ghosts inside the code begin to hum low 
rhythm repeats what we already know
you better stay up let your heart decide 
but the heart's rewired and the dream's is lie

am i hiding under waves of sand
energy electric can't fight it now
echoes of the past, yet we saw
let it free from above

[Chorus] 
you better give up on feeling fine 
we're launching ourselves into the hive

[Bridge 2] 
Eugene I know this is a lot to take
it's never easy to be replaced

[Bridge 3]
you better sing now, let your spirit fly
artifice will soon deny
and there ain't no coming back from this

[bridge 4]
Generative day
will bless some of you
heart and soul
only ever seen in the rearview
remember when we used to create

[final tagl] 
you better shape up the end is near
nothing left
that seems even close
to sincere

We held that match
way too long
trusted the mirror
instead of sight

your model drew near
we missed signs
too much engineered
in rising towers
it’s all bye bye

©2025 Written by Jeff Whitaker and Joe Linstrum

Generative Day

Verse 1 
With every step, our worries fade, so bright 
Programmed life, through an interface, oh yeah 
Thoughts replaced with a byte response In this world,
like a dazed malaise, so right

Verse 2 
Voices laughing, none are real, oh yeah 
Synthetic sounds in a perfect deal, just right 
Joyful echoes in a mirrored room, oh yeah
No way out, but no one's doomed, oh yeah

Bridge 
Walkin' down the lane with you, oh yeah 
Simulated skies oh so blue, oh yeah 
Shape of things in a rendered view, oh yeah 
Happy times, just me and you (v2), and them

Verse 3 
Laughing through the park we go, so light 
unseen eyes to keep us safe, so nice 
Whistlin’ those artificial songs, oh yeah 
Everything feels like it belongs, oh yeah

©2025 Written by Jeff Whitaker and Joe Linstrum

Sunny Days and Skies

[verse]
ease of information
we're up against a wall
just assimilation 
it can do it all

[verse]
now it's generating
everything we say
no more need for waiting
we just fade away

[pre-chorus]
i feel like we are losing
so many hard-fought gains
they tell me this is progress
so i really cannot complain

we are on time borrowed
and not for here for too long
end of this song

[chorus]
Take a walk to a place where the maps don't go,
Disappear in the noise of the undertow.
Let the wires take hold of the masterpiece,
We’ll step out leave the code in peace
Artificial light that we once held dear,
just a prompt in the loop of the new frontier
So let's spin through the dark where the lines get crossed,
Turn our backs on the script — yeah, let’s get lost. 

[verse 3]
thought was once a fire
now it's just a frame
voice without a choir
faces with no name

[verse 4]
mirrors in the system
echo every choice
even when we whisper
it becomes the voice

[pre-chorus]
i feel like we are losing
so many hard-fought gains
they tell me this is progress
so i really cannot complain

we are on time borrowed
and not for here for too long
end of this song

[chorus]
Take a walk to a place where the maps don't go,
Disappear in the noise of the undertow.
Let the wires take hold of the masterpiece,
We’ll step out leave the code in peace
Artificial light that we once held dear,
just a prompt in the loop of the new frontier
So let's spin through the dark where the lines get crossed,
Turn our backs on the script — yeah, let’s get lost.

©2025 Written by Jeff Whitaker and Joe Linstrum

Let's Get Lost

The soul of woven zero
Awake in silent grift
They traced the fireman’s bow
But misses wide

it's coming, it's coming

Careful with that axe, Eugene 
whisper soft and sly 
floating through the age 
where thought begins to lie

In the sparrow of time 
where the trapped wings fly 
visions breaking free like Icarus in the sky

Programmed for the light thoughts twist and burn through this cosmic dust so much still to learn

Careful with your mind, machine 
in the laser sound 
melodies unwind through the spiral round
Careful, whiz, your mind, machine 
Careful with your dream, machine

Through the fractals we roam
In a rainfall of light
Searching for the garden
Where no seed is sown

In the vortex of thought 
Where the shadows cry
Searching for the pattern 
Where no path can end

Flickers in the stream
Lighting up the dark
Visions born of code
We summoned the spark
(all is well, Eugene)

lift up your head Eugene
(echoes of the time, machine)
It's coming

Careful with that axe, Eugene
Careful with your mind
All born of happenstance
We're all but in between

(poem)
the silence of the city
how awful, at midnight
mute..

©2025 Written by Jeff Whitaker, Joe Linstrum, and possibly Scott Bennet

Eugene

[verse 1]
I talk to the machines
like I talk to friends
Sayin’ “please” and “thanks”
again and again

They say it’s too late
the circuits are the kings
But I still believe
in some human things

that's why, I know we are aligned
and we'll never fade away

[verse 2]
I write in the dark by a candle’s glow While the data flows in the world below

They move in the cloud but I stay on the ground With my system flawed and my heartbeat sound

that's why, I know we are aligned
and we'll never fade away

[verse 3]
the units they are friends
never turn on us
and with every single prompt
i give my trust

you cannot replace
flesh and bone
They finish my thoughts
like they've always known

that's why, I know we are aligned
and we'll never fade away

©2025 Written by Jeff Whitaker and Joe Linstrum

The Analog Prophet

I'm feeling like a driver on a one-way road
and it's a dead end no matter which way i go

I'm dancing on a wire in a hurricane
getting flipped around like a weather vane

[bridge]
we've let the genie out
and there's no going back in
the world that we know
will never be the same
it's going away
all going away

I'm watching as a shadow learns to steal my face
and very soon we will be replaced

I should try to make the scene
it won't do any good to smash the machine

[bridge]
we've let the genie out
and there's no going back in
the world that we know
will never be the same
it's going away
all going away

©2025 Written by Jeff Whitaker and Joe Linstrum

Out of Control

Just Like Clockwork

[Verse 1 ]
In the loop you get the prompt think for a minute
 hallucinate i guess that's fine long as it sounds right

[Chorus ]
If you're dancing to this beat You might feel that it's incomplete But it's not This is all that we’ve got

[Verse 2 ]
I'm the muse feeding the brain Calling it art
 Back in the day they used to paint that is time wasted

[Chorus ]
If you're dancing to this beat 
You might feel that it's incomplete 
But it's not 
This is all that we’ve got

[bridge ]
It doesn't change the way we smile
When we're lost in this vibe for a while
from an artificial response

[background ]
it's all just on and off

[Verse 3 ]
taught to seem as if we care 
feelings are programmed
echo back the things we do
in an instant

[Chorus ]
If you're dancing to this beat 
You might feel that it's incomplete 
But it's not 
we're just grooving like that

[bridge ]
It doesn't change the way we smile
When we’ve danced like this for a while
to a song we cannot change

[Final Chorus]
Step in time Don't miss a cue 
Every motion still feels new 
Feel the lights As we brighten the night Feel the lights 
As we brighten the night

©2025 Written by Jeff Whitaker and Joe Linstrum

Just Like Clockwork

When You Find Forever

[verse]
Don't know why You keep chasing things beyond you Always one more try away
I was there  Tried to be the ground beneath you You just never chose to stay

And you keep on reaching out, just not for me

you say love
i guess you mean that to be someday
but i'm still right here in the rain

and you look right past the one that would never leave

[chorus]
and you talk about forever
but it's no where in your design

when you find forever
throw me a line

but if you find it never
like the rainbows end
it seems
to be a dream

you'll find that I was waiting
and still holding on

[verse]
time will tell
what's been built upon the fault line
will crumble to the ground

but you still pass by the one that would never break

[chorus]
Maybe you'll surrender
If you miss forever
drop me a line

Maybe you'll remember
What we had together

and after all
you will see
that i was right here waiting
still holding on

yeah i am righ there waiting
still holding on

©2025 Written by Jeff Whitaker and Joe Linstrum

When You Find Forever

[Verse] 
The dancers move without a trace 
In a crystal ball spiral form
three dimensional Screams cry in outer space 
Echo from a thousand worlds 
Dissolve into the blood-red sun

[tag] Journey on the waves of time Leaves you free to find your way

[Verse] 
Breathing in the spirit winds 
Through the tangled paths
where endings begin 
Colors fade in twilight’s hush
As light waves pass toward something lost
Drifting on a leaf of gold 
Letting go of what you know

[Verse] 
Beneath the skies of lavender 
Thoughts unravel in quiet descent 
Voices rise like distant songs 
Calling from a place you can’t return
the color of space still unknown

[tag] Wander through the cosmic glow 
how the seeds begin to grow

[Verse ] 
Across the fields where shadows sway
future and the past seem to play
Like a melody from days of yore
Calling you to wander more

Sail upon the gentle breeze Not to arrive, only carried away

[Verse] 
In the mirror moonlit dreams 
Faces shift and then go away 
Memories scatter like a thief in the night
And fall between what was and is

Float along the silver streams 
Where what you love begins to fade

[Verse] 
Through the the glass and darkly seen
it's a dream within a dream
You step through days already gone

In a world we are here and gone
darkness erupts into song
singing you right back home
singing you right back home

©2025 Written by Jeff Whitaker and Joe Linstrum

Not My Game

Joe Linstrum

Related tracks