Seattle 95House of Alibaba

Escaped to Seattle, landed in the misty rain My boy said, "Jack, I got something that's gon' rewire your brain." Sat me at a terminal, a beige-colored box Said, "This is the 'Net, it's about to change all the clocks." First time I ever touched a keyboard, felt the static hum Didn't know the first thing about it, I was playing dumb He said, "Search for anything," so I typed in B-E-E-R A thousand German lagers, American brands appeared My mind was blown, a library for the whole damn planet Then I typed in C-H-I-N-A and took it all for granted Until the screen was blank Saw the whole world through a CRT screen A digital ghost where my home should have been Yeah, a blank page where an empire could grow The future just whispered what I needed to know This ain't a highway, nah, it's a new Silk Road A nation of a billion, invisible online A digital wasteland, a virtual gold mine I told him, "Build a page, just something small and fast For my little translation company, make the vision last." He coded something ugly, a digital plea By noon, five emails hit me, "What's an email to me?" From Germany, from Japan, from the USA A global conversation happened in half a day The world got small, the mission got clear Everything I was searching for was finally here This wasn't about translation, this was about connection A new kind of commerce, a brand new direction Saw the whole world through a CRT screen A digital ghost where my home should have been Yeah, a blank page where an empire could grow The future just whispered what I needed to know This ain't a highway, nah, it's a new Silk Road Booked a flight home. Empty-handed on the government's mission ...but my suitcase was heavy Packed a 486 processor. Smuggling the future back in my carry-on The game had changed. Now I just needed to learn the rules