I’m on that slow roll, that’s how I go the distance

Like a space probe exiting the solar system

With all the generators I need

To provide decades of energy, maintenance free

Take it slow on the way to big things

You would’ve thought I was invented in 1816

And then slept on, and never fully deployed

Except as a fan in ventilators and toys

I’m not annoyed, I just bide my time

‘Cause I know my hyper-scientific version of rhyme

Can seem costly, heavy, and slow to ignite

And tough to commercialize, though many have tried

The dude abides, ‘cause all I need is inches

Competition leapin’ past me obsolete in minutes

I’m out to leave a legacy, not a speed record

Listed in a museum with the steam engines

I thought internal combustion had me

Fifteen hundred degree ignition, I can’t compete!

Until the onset of climate change

Every gas-guzzlin’ contraption, apply the brakes

I keep it movin’ like a Stirling Engine

Converting heat to work in an instant

I keep it tight like a closed-cycle

Thermodynamic system, churning pistons

I keep fresh with external combustion

Plus low internal pressure

Regenerator for thermal retention

Low key like a Stirling Engine

Low key like a Stirling Engine

Oh, look who’s comin’ back around

Who’s got that steady energy capture now?

The mainstream stays deep in hydrocarbons

But any heat source gets my cycle started

Carnot cycle-target-level efficiency

Hydrogen, geo-thermal, solar, no difference to me

Nuclear fission, any industry, waste heat

Converted into electrical energy

Oh, your fuel source has to be really pure?

Mine can be anything, even pig manure

I can transform it into AC/DC

Which means farmers in the developing world need me

I can even act as a battery for renewables

Trap that heat in recycled molten aluminum

And then convert it to current, for the final user

I can even work in reverse as a cryocooler

Make it freeze, when I pump that heat

Make it negative 80 degrees for vaccines

Not to mix metaphors, but I’m universal

Stirling style, wild versatile

My compressed air knows how to work a valve

Reducin’ methane waste and personnel

In other words, my flow is so low-maintenance

The type you want to go into space with

I keep it movin’ like a Stirling Engine

Converting heat to work in an instant

I keep it tight like a closed-cycle

Thermodynamic system, churning pistons

I keep it fresh with external combustion

Plus low internal pressure

Regenerator for thermal retention

Low key like a Stirling Engine

Low key like a Stirling Engine

I’m on that slow roll, like a space probe

And this is my time, if I do say so

Settings records for continuous effort

Technology finally catching up to my potential

Space Age Rap Star, NASA said it

“The most reliable heat engine ever invented”

Not to take credit, but I just keep running

Steppin’ over dead energizer bunnies

Plus dead quiet, for sonar evasion

A Gotland-class sub in the Swedish Navy

Not to mix metaphors, but I’m freakin’ crazy

Sneak up and take a pic of the USS Ronald Reagan

Too much noisy friction in these engines

I got that free piston flow that’s efficient

Never crashing, practically everlasting

Don’t ask me when the springs wear out, it’s never happened

If you ask me about my future work

I’m running scientific instruments on Jupiter

KRUSTY reactors in a Mars colony

Not bad for a centuries-old technology

Not to mix metaphors

But there’s no stoppin’ me

I keep it movin’ like a Stirling Engine

Converting heat to work in an instant

I keep it tight like a closed-cycle

Thermodynamic system, churning pistons

I keep fresh with external combustion

Plus low internal pressure

Regenerator for thermal retention

Low key like a Stirling Engine

Low key like a Stirling Engine