Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (born 15 May 1948), commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno ( /ˈiːnoʊ/[citation needed]), is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer, and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.
Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex, England, taking inspiration from minimalist painting. During his time on the art course at the Institute, he also gained experience in playing and making music through teaching sessions held in the adjacent music school.
He joined the band Roxy Music as keyboard and synthesiser player in the early 1970s. Roxy Music's success in the glam rock scene came quickly, but Eno soon tired of touring and of conflicts with lead singer Bryan Ferry.
Eno's solo music has explored more experimental musical styles and ambient music. It has also been extremely influential, pioneering ambient and generative music, innovating production techniques, and emphasising "theory over practice". He also introduced the concept of chance music to popular audiences, partially through collaborations with other musicians.
I was just a broken head
I stole the world that others punctured
Now I stumble through the garbage
Slide and tumble, slide and stumble
Beak and claw, remorse reminder
Slide and tumble, slide and stumble
back and forth and back to nothing
Keep them tidy, keep them humble.
Chop and change to cut the corners
Sharp as razors shiny razors
Stranded on a world that's dying
Never moving, hardly trying.
I was just a broken head
I stole the world that others plundered
Now I stumble through the garbage
Great lines of numbers
All bright and shiny
All through the ether
Some huge, some tiny
All through the ether
From France to China
Unite the people
All bottomliners
Some brass, some paper
Some gold, some silver
Some full of promise
Some full of anger
In ranks of thousands
They fall and stumble
All bottomliners
We make the number
And in the future
New forms of romance
Grenade and land mine
In twilit silence
With hands that tremble
And lives that flounder
All bottomliners
All undergrounders
All undergrounders
All undergrounders
In the haze of the morning, China sits on Eternity
And the opium farmers sell dreams to obscure fraternities
On the horizon the curtains are closing
Down in the orchard the aunties and uncles play their games
(like it seems they always have done)
In the blue distance the vertical offices bear their names
(like it seems they always have done)
Clocks ticking slowly, dividing the day up
These poor girls are such fun they know what God gave them fingers for
(to make percussion over solos)
China my China, I've wandered around and you're still here
(which I guess you should be proud of)
Your walls have enclosed you, have kept you at home for thousands of years
(but there's something I should tell you)
All the young boys are dressing like sailors
I remember a man who jumped out from a window over the bay
(there was hardly a raised eyebrow)
The coroner told me 'This kind of thing happens every day'
Here we are stuck by this river
You and I underneath a sky
That's ever falling down down down
Ever falling down
Through the day as if on an ocean
Waiting here always failing to remember
Why we came came came
I wonder why we came
You talk to me as if from a distance
And I reply with impressions chosen
From another time time time
Come with Us.
Learn the Truth.
We will appear to you
Cindy tells me, the rich girls are weeping
Cindy tells me, they've given up sleeping alone
And now they're so confused by their new freedoms
And she tells me they're selling up their maisonettes
Left the Hotpoints to rust in the kitchenettes
And they're saving their labour for insane reading.
Some of them lose - and some of them lose
But that's what they want - and that's what they choose
It's a burden - such a burden
Oh what a burden to be so relied on.
Cindy tell me, what will they do with their lives
Living quietly like labourer's wives
Crime and punishment in Tuscon
Back to normal in the sun
Playing blackjack in the drive-in
Shooting snake-eyes in the mud
And when the moonlight came out, we were gone, long gone.
They found a body on the race-track;
No identifying signs
In his pocket was a notebook
With a number inside
And Guadalajara's just a few miles down the line.
She adored the broken-hearted
And those who showed her a bad time
They didn't care for her body
They took advantage of her mind.
A man was sleeping under a tree.
He wrote to me from Cordoba.
After the theatre, we went to his house.
He's a very generous Cordoban.
We waited at the door, but he didn't come.
According to his father, he's very ill.
There was a long line of cars
in front of me.
I came as soon as I could.
I left without paying, a suitcase under my arm.
I won't see you until Sunday.
I'll come as soon as I can.
I'll meet you alone in the shoeshop near the bakery.
By the two-storey house/very pretty/like a villa.
The lift stops between two floors.
You start to walk towards the station.
I walk towards the bus.
We'll have to wait at the station.
Leave the parcel on the top deck.
You start to walk towards the station.
I'll walk towards the bus.
You walk towards the station.
I'll walk towards the bus.
You walk towards the station.
I'll walk towards the bus.
You walk towards the station.
Ohohohohohohoh oh
Doo doo doo doo doo doo dah
I'll be there.
Oh driving me backwards
Kids like me
Gotta be crazy
Moving me forwards
You must think that I'm lazy
Meet my relations
All of them
Grinning like facepacks
Such sweet inspirations
Curl me up
A flag in an icecap
Now I've found a sweetheart
Treats me good just like an armchair
I try to think about nothing
Difficult
I'm most temperamental
I gave up my good living
Typical
I'm almost sentimental
Ah Luana's black reptiles
Sliding around
Make chemical choices
And she responds as expected
To the only sound
Hysterical voices
And you - you're driving me backwards
Kids like me have gotta be crazzzzzy i-i-i-i-i-i-i
Oh cheeky cheeky
Oh naughty sneeky
You're so perceptive and I wonder how you knew.
But these finks don't walk too well
A bad sense of direction
And so they stumble round in threes
Such a strange collection.
Oh you headless chicken
Can those poor teeth take so much kicking?
You're always so charming
As you peck your way up there.
And these finks don't dress too well
No discrimination
To be a zombie all the time
Requires such dedication.
Oh please, sir will you let it go by
'Cos I failed both tests with my legs both tied
In my place the stuff is all there
I've been ever so sad for a very long time
My my they wanted the works can you this and that
I never got a letter back
More fool me bless my soul
More fool me bless my soul.
Oh perfect masters
They thrive on disasters
They all look so harmless
Till they find there way up there.
But dead finks don't talk too well
They've got a shaky sense of diction
It's not so much a living hell
Jolly Roger in a pickup
Has a packet on the horses
He's a docker with a bucket -
Just the ticket in a thicket.
Silly Sally isn't pally
With the crackers in the alley:
She's a smacker and a whacker -
Wouldn't dally with a slacker.
Sally keeping in her locker
Little packets for the docker Jolly Roger
(Looking pretty, just the sucker for a shocker)
Jolly Roger in a pickup
Has a packet on the horses
He's a docker with a bucket -
Baby's on fire
Better throw her in the water
Look at her laughing
Like a heifer to the slaughter
Baby's on fire
And all the laughing boys are bitching
Waiting for photos
Oh the plot is so bewitching.
Rescuers row row
Do your best to change the subject
Blow the wind blow blow
Lend some assistance to the object
Photographers snip snap
Take your time she's only burning
This kind of experience
Is necessary for her learning
If you'll be my flotsam
I could be half the man I used to
They said you were hot stuff
And that's what baby's been reduced to.
Juanita and Juan
Very clever with maracas
Making their fortunes
Selling second-hand tobaccos
Juan dances at Chico's
And when the clients are evicted
He empties the ashtrays
And pockets all that he's collected
But baby's on fire!
And all the instruments agree that
Her temperatures rising
These are your orders, seems like it's do it or die
So please read them closely
When you've learnt them be sure that you eat them up
They're specially flavoured with burgundy, Tizer and rye
Twelve sheets of foolscap, don't ask me why.
We hit the jungle just as it starts to monsoon
Our maps showed no rainfall
All the boys were depressed by this circumstance
Trust in the weather to bless agricultural man
Who gives birth to more farmhands, don't ask me why.
Fifteen was chosen because he was dumb
Seven because he was blind
I got the job because I was so mean
While somehow appearing so kind
Drifting about through the cauliflower trees
With a cauliflower ear for the birds
The Squadron assembled what senses they had
And this is the sound that they heard
Back at headquarters khaki decisions are made
File under 'Futile', that should give you its main point of reference
It's all so confusing, what with pythons and then deadly flies
But to them it's a picnic, don't ask me why.
Thirteen was chosen because of his luck
Eleven because of his feet
One got signed up for exceptional pluck
Another because he was mute
Roaming about through the gelatin swamps
With a gelatin eye on the stripes
The Squadron assembled what senses they had
And this is the sound that they heard
Back in Blighty there was you
There were milkmen every morning
But/Fuck these endless shiny trees
America is waiting for a message of some sort or another.
Takin' it again. Again! Again! Takin' it again.
Well now... no, no... now, we ought to be mad at the government not mad at the people.
Takin' it again. Again! Again! Takin' it again.
I mean, yeah, well... wha-what're ya gonna do?
America is waiting for a message of some sort or another.
No will whatsoever. No will whatsoever! Absolutely no honor.
No will whatsoever. No will whatsoever! Absolutely no integrity.
No will whatsoever. No will whatsoever! I haven't seen any any any citizen over there stand up and say "Hey, just a second."
No will whatsoever. No will whatsoever! I mean, yeah, so... wha-what're ya gonna do?
Nay alway ullo
Unda way uzzun leer
Unda holways around
Who are under the whale
I will hum bay above
Are they over the sea?
Are they hungry above?
Are they thinking of me?
In the way of the world
Where they're always a whale
In my humble experience
There ain't no-one to help.
In the sun of the wold
Is there anyone knows
He'll be hundred before
How could anyone know?
Are they hampered again?
It was over the wold
Are they all this way up?
And the probe in the door.
Are they hungry out there?
Are they thinking of you?
In the rhythms out there
Taking our time before its through
Passing our days in old shoes
Sister - think I'm returning to Peru
Wish that I never came here
They can't pronounce my name here
Everyone asks me "Where's Peru?"
In Peru we've lenghtened the day
In Peru we've strenghtened the dollar
There are mountains piercing our skies
And the ocean at our shores
I will save up all of my wages
Even retail crumby cosmetics
I will work my passage in stages
As the winter slips away.
Miles of golden beaches
Excellent wines and features
Mister - take a week off in Gay Peru
Penitent monks to stare at
Colonial dons in old straw hats
Everyone's there in old Peru
Blank Frank is the messenger of your doom and your destruction
Yes, he is the one who will set you up as nothing
And he is one who will look at you sideways
His particular skill is leaving bombs in people's driveways.
Blank Frank has a memory that's as cold as an iceberg
The only time he speaks is in incomprehensible proverbs
Blank Frank is the siren, he's the air-raid, he's the crater
Backwater
We're sailing at the edges of time
Backwater
We're drifting at the waterline
Oh we're floating in the coastal waters
You and me and the porter's daughters
Ooh what to do not a sausage to do
And the shorter of the porter's daughters
Dips her hand in the deadly waters
Ooh what to do in a tiny canoe
Black water
There were six of us but now we are five
We're all talking
To keep the conversation alive
There was a senator from Ecuador
Who talked about a meteor
That crashed on a hill in the South of Peru
And was found by a conquistador
Who took it to the Emperor
And he passed it on to a Turkish Guru.
His daughter
Was slated for becoming divine
He taught her
He taught her how to split and define
But if you study the logistics
And heuristics of the mystics
You will find that their minds rarely move in a line
So it's much more realistic
To abandon such ballistics
I was dreaming
It's a hundred and ninety degrees
We were crawling around on our knees
Till the sun came up at quarter to three
But the time we had
Dirty clothes and dirt on our walls
Swinging on the bathroom doors
Thinking we were having a ball
Until somebody said they'd
Been there, done that
Been there, don't wanna go back
Been there, done that
Been there, don't wanna go back
Yesterday I called you on the telephone
To tell you I was feeling alone
Where you been for the last few days?
I want you back
Put my feet back on the ground
I don't need the lost and found
I need somebody to tell me when I've
Been there, done that
Been there, don't wanna go back
Been there, done that
Been there, don't wanna go back
A broken heart
Won't get you much further than a cold heart
We're getting, getting better, we're running back
Running back, back to you and I'm feeling that
You're the money or the good times
Se dou¨¦ a t¨¦ doue Se dou¨¦ a te dou¨¦
They live near the lake
They can't see the lake
They live near the lake
And something is nothing
And something is nothing.
Akakakakakakaka
Se dou¨¦ a t¨¦ doue Se dou¨¦ a te dou¨¦
They live near the lake
I'll tell you, they had this beautiful house
Nobody near (t)his house
Something is nothing
So tired
Soul searching
I followed the sounds to a cathedral
imagine my surprise to find that they were produce by Brian Eno
past the gates
quite stark
the roses trimmed and the windows dark
I see the walls through a limestone crack
not red not blue not yellow but black
and all the space left for you
if the sky was synthesized you'd probably know
he taught me many things
the wisdom of o bleak stratagems
the prophet of a sapphire soul
presented through creative freedoms
and everything i say is true
cuz if i was telling lies it'd probably show
i can tell that he's kind of smiling
but what does he know?
we're always one step behind him, he's Brian Eno
Brian Eno
when I was stuck he'd make me memorize elaborate curses
tinctures and formulas to ditch the choir and flip the verses
my whole foundation came unglued
when i tried to humanize by ambient light
dipping swords in metaphors yeah but what does he know?
he's go the whole world behind him he's Brian Eno
Brian Eno!
he promised pretty worlds and all the silence
I could dream of Brian peter George St John Le
Baptiste De La Salle Eno
well all alone by the oldest stone where the shade
trees grow the creature by the water feature with a
ghostly glow making sure that time's preserved
well we reap what we sow he's go the whole
I, uh, knew a man who once sent a letter to a mail channel that he'd raped his girlfriend and he's now a recovering rapist, attending an incest survivor's twelve step program. And the girlfriend, now ex, is in a support group for women who've been raped.
What actually happened?
"She was passed out asleep on the couch after we'd been drinking. I woke up in the middle of the night horny so I fucked her. She didn't wake up; I told her about it in the morning. She was furious! 'You raped me!' she said."
What actually happened?
What actually happened?
What actually happened?
When all the worlds are lost in snow
I have to move this meaning through;
Disperse the force so far engendered
All near the steam and summer view
And then... remain.
Where steeples crash in fire and thunder,
Where sheets of steel obscure the land,
Where word and sense are torn asunder:
Here was the place I chose to stand.
Just when I think I'm going under,
I... remain.
Well all the waves of spin are foaming,
And fake muezzin steam and brew,
Formed in the fire of all their longings(?)
This is the way I took it through,
Just when I think I'm going under.
This is the way I thought it through;
Well I rang up Pantucci spoke to Lucia
Gave them all they needed to know
If affairs are proceeding as we're expecting
Soon enough the weak spots will show
I assume you understand that we have options on your time
And will ditch you in the harbour if we must
But if it all works out nicely, you'll get the bonus you deserve
From doctors we trust.
The Fat Lady of Limbourgh
Looked at the samples that we sent
And furrowed her brow
You would never believe that
She'd tasted Royalty and Fame
If you saw her now
But her sense of taste is such that she'll distinguish with her tongue
The subtleties a spectrograph would miss
And announce her decision while demanding her reward
A jelly fish kiss.
Now we checked out this duck quack
Who laid a big egg oh so black it shone just like gold.
And the kids from the city finding it pretty
Took it home and there it was sold
It was changing hands for weeks
Till someone left it by their fire
And it melted to a puddle on the floor
For it was only a candle a Roman scandal
Oh oh and now it's a pool.
That's what we're paid for
That's what we're paid for
Monica sighed
Rolled on her side
She was so impressed that she just surrendered
She was moved by his wheels
She was just up from Wales
He was fuelled by her coals and he was coming to catch her
Lose the sense of time
Nail down the blinds
And in the succulent dark there's a sense of ending
Joking aside
The mechanical bride
Has fallen prey to the Great Pretender.
Let me just point out discreetly
Though you never learn
All those tawdry late night weepies
I could make you weep more cheaply
As the empty moon enamels
Monica with spoons and candles
Bangs around without the light on
Furniture to get it right on
Settled in a homely fishpool
Hung with little eels
Often thinks that travel widens
'Stay at home, the trout obliges'
Monica sighed
Rolled on to her side
Will the rose in all their learning
Turning brightness to day
Spur the horns of discerning
Scout the world along the way
And in their firm terms of warning
They return to the sea
And at the first sign of morning
They beat on his disease
So they wail
As their lies warn them
Not to fail in the harness
Not to fall at the shore
They are lost where the robe is
Sailors on southern more
And though they wail with the bonemen
Farther there somewhere inside
It doesn't show nights are warning
Beggars change so you'll burn
So they go
There's no way through there to show
In bar ways under
Not to fail in the harness
Not to rage at the shore
Not to rail in the darkness
When surrounded by roar
When to know there's a river
Some of them walk
Some of them fall
In the wars they
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...
Do you hear voices? You do. So you are possessed.
You are a believer born again and yet you hear voices and you are possessed.
Okay, now are you ready Elizabeth(?).
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...
Put your hand over there. [???????????????????]
Okay sister, you have a Jezebel Spirit within you. You have a Spirit of Grief, and you have a Spirit of Destruction.
Jezebel! Spirit of Grief! Spirit of Destruction! I bind you with chains of iron! I bind you [??????] be bound in heaven! Lessen your hold and come out of her now!
My, my, my, we're treating each other just like strangers
I can ignore the significance of these changes
But you can't treat it lightly, and you'll have to face the consequences
All my worst fears are grounded
You have to make the choice between the Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch and me (no, no, no).
By this time I got to looking for a kind of substitute
I can't tell you who I found, except that it rhymes with dissolute
But my baby's so lazy, she is almost unable, and it's driving me crazy
And her loving's just a fable that we try, with passion, to recall
Send for an ambulance or an accident investigator
He's breathing like a furnace
So I'll see you later, alligator
He'll set the sheets on fire
Mmm, quite a burning lover
Now he'll barbeque your kitten
He is just another learner lover
So deep in the water
Sleep, dark as the night
Somehow it seems it was all another dream
Soon dissolved in the light.
Oh, we were by the waterline.
Vague, the song of the night.
Innocent to all the peasant gods with you,
So, we drink to be renewed.
On the long, deep river
Where the moorhens cry
As the first sun quivers in the open sky...
Oh, she came down the river.
Soon, all the leaves were still.
The current was strong and the river was so long.
So, we drink to be renewed.
In the long cool evening,
Where the peacocks shiver
And the boat starts down the silver river way...
I remember you saying,
As her deep eyes opened,
In the first light seeing her,
He raised the stake
And broke the soil
And phrased the stroke
That takes the oil
And stoked, erased and foiled the lake
And smoked and boiled the grazing snake
The roil, the choke, the cakes of praise
The spoils that break now cloak the days
That wake the coil of blazing coke
The flaking glaze of Royalty broke
He raises, stakes, admires, stokes
We are the 801
We are the central shaft
And we are here to let you take advantage
Of our lack of craft
Certain streets have certain corners
Sooner or later we'll turn your.
We are the 801
We are the central shaft
And thus throughout two years we've crossed the ocean
In our little craft (row, row, row)
Now we're on the telephone
Making final arrangements (ding, ding)
We are the 801
We are the central shaft
Looking for a certain ratio
Someone must have left it underneath the carpet
Looking up and down the radio
Oh, oh, nothing there this time
Looking for a certain ratio
Someone said they saw it parking in a car lot
Looking up and down the radio
Oh, oh, nothing there this time
Going back down to the rodeo
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, here we go!
We are the table the captain's table let's get it understood
Let's get it understood
We are the losers we are the cruisers let's get it understood
Let's get it understood
We are the diners the final diners let's get it understood
Let's get it understood
Most of us are tinkers, some of us tailors
And we've got candlesticks and lots of cocktail sticks
We saw the lovers the modern lovers and they looked very good
They looked as if they could
We are the neighbours the nosy neighbours we think just like you would
There are tins
There was pork
There are legs
There are sharks
There was John
There are cliffs
There was mother
There's a poker
There was you
Then there was you.
There are scenes
There are blues
There are boots
There are shoes
There are Turks
There are fools
They're in lockers
They're in schools
There in you
Then there was you.
Burn my fingers
Burn my toes
Burn my uncle
Burn his books
Burn his shoes
Cook the leather
Put it on me
Does it fit me
Or you?
Emoc ylerus lliw ti, emoc lliw ti, emoc lliw ti
Erif eht ni rekop eht saw tah dael s'gnik
Emoc ylerus lliw ti, emoc lliw ti, emoc lliw ti
Rediw hcum nozama eht edam tah dael s'gnik
Yrots ym ot denetsil dah doG fi
Deneppah evah reve dluow siht fo enon
Yrots ym ot denetsil dah doG fi
Derrucco dah reve dluow siht fo enon
Noitamrofni suoicerp em evag uoy
Gninrom yranigami taht no
Noitarepsed ni nwod ti etorw I
Devres eb ot eciton eht tuo evag dna
Yrots ym ot denetsil dah doG fi
Deneppah evah reve dluow siht fo enon
Yrots ym ot denetsil dah doG fi
Derrucco dah reve dluow siht fo enon
Noitamrofni suoicerp em evag uoy
Gninrom yranigami taht no
Noitarepsed ni nwod ti etorw I
Devres eb ot eciton eht tuo evag dna
Emoc ylerus lliw ti, emoc lliw ti, emoc lliw ti
Reh edisni ecneconni eht tup tah dael s'gnik
Emoc ylerus lliw ti, emoc lliw ti, emoc lliw ti
Erised ot remmah a saw tah dael s'gnik
Yrots ym ot denetsil dah doG fi
Deneppah evah reve dluow siht fo enon
Yrots ym ot denetsil dah doG fi
Derrucco dah reve dluow siht fo enon
Noitamrofni suoicerp em evag uoy
Gninrom yranigami taht no
Noitarepsed ni nwod ti etorw I
All the clouds turn to words
All the words float in sequence
No one knows what they mean
Everyone just ignores them
Refrain (sung simultaneously with above verse)
Mau Mau starter ching ching dad da
Daughter daughter dumpling data
Pack and pick the ping pong starter
Carter Carter go get Carter
Perigeeeeeeeee
Open stick and delphic doldrums
Oh oh the French Girls with the string of pearls
Think it's such a FUCKING shame
That the local boys with their country joys
Never make them daisy chains
They're SWAPPING disappointing incidents
While at the docks another ship pulls in
And suddenly the door breaks down (ooh la la)
It's the Seven Deadly Finns
Oh oh oh soldiers and sailors
Have all been here before
Gigolos and governments
Have STUMBLED through THAT door
Because they need all those French girls with all their kiss curls
And powder in their guns
And the Seven Finns with THEIR deadly grins
Tend to measure beauty in TUNS.
The first is a freak with a masochistic streak
And the second is a kitten up a tree
The third is a flirt with an awful print skirt
And the fourth is pretending to be me
The fifth wears a mac and never turns his back
The sixth never shows his eyes
But the seventh Deadly Finn is so tall and slim
HE shoulda never been with those guys.
Although variety's the spice of life
A steady rhythm is the source
Simplicity's the crucial thing
SYSTEMICALLY of course (work it all out like Norbert Wiener)
So IF those French girls say to you
'Would you like your ashes PIPED ?'
You'll have to take their word for it
I wanna be thin
I wanna be small
I wanna be pinned up high and studied on the wall
I wanna be sold
I wanna be FED
I wanna be there.
I wanna be hooked
I wanna be BAIT
I wanna be served up lightly dressed and on a plate
I wanna be cut
I wanna be dried
I wanna be there.
I wanna be changed
I wanna be rode
I wanna be made to handle very heavy loads
I wanna be his
I wanna be hers
I wanna be THERE
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh.
I wanna be HELPED
I wanna be schooled
I wanna have every plea for mercy overruled
I wanna be milled
I wanna be ROPED
I wanna be there.
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
I wanna be there.
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
I wanna be there.
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
I wanna be there.
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
I wanna be there.
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
I wanna be there.
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Brown eyes and I was tired
We had walked and we had scrambled
Through the moors and through the briars
Through the endless blue meanders.
In the blue August Moon
In the cool August Moon
Over the nights and through the fires
We went surging down the wires
Through the towns and on the highways
Through the storms in all their thundering.
In the blue August Moon
In the cool August Moon
Then we rested in a desert
Where the bones were white as teeth sir
And we saw St Elmo's fire
Splitting ions in the ether.
In the blue August Moon
In the cool August Moon
In the blue August Moon
Most of the day
We were at the machinery
In the dark sheds
That the seasons ignore
I held the levers that guided the signals to the radio
But the words I receive, random code, broken fragments from before.
Out in the trees
My reason deserting me
All the dark stars
Cluster over the bay.
Then in a certain moment
I lose control and at last I am part of the machinery.
(The belldog) Where are you?
And the light disappears
We climbed and we climbed,
Oh, how we climbed
My, how we climbed
Over the stars to [the] top
[Of] Tiger Mountain
Words, but nothing clear
What channel are you on?
It's hard to hear.
You speak to the world
From such a feeble system;
So... far away.
The thought, not falling
Just drifting in the early morning.
You pass from the world
Out to the Solar System
So... far away,
People come and go and forget to close the door
And they leave their stains and cigarette butts trampled on the floor
And when they do, remember me, remember me.
Some of them are old, some of them are new
Some of them will turn up when you least expect them to
And when they do, remember me, remember me.
Lucy you're my girl, Lucy you're a star
Lucy please be still and put your madness in a jar
But do beware, it will follow you, it will follow you.
Some of them are old but it would help if you could smile
To earn a crooked sixpence you'll walk many crooked miles
Up on a hill, as the day dissolves
With my pencil turning moments into line
High above in the violet sky
A silent silver plane - it draws a golden chain
One by one, all the stars appear
As the great winds of the planet spiral in
Spinning away, like the night sky at Arles
In the million insect storm, the constellations form
On a hill, under a raven sky
I have no idea exactly what I've drawn
Some kind of change, some kind of spinning away
With every single line moving further out in time
And now as the pale moon rides (in the stars)
Her form in my pale blue lines (in the stars)
And there, as the world rolls round (in the stars)
I draw, but the lines move round (in the stars)
There, as the great wheels blaze (in the stars)
I draw, but my drawing fades (in the stars)
And now, as the old sun dies (in the stars)
Spider and I sit watching the sky
On a world without sound
We knit a web to catch one tiny fly
For our world without sound
We sleep in the mornings
We dream of a ship that sails away
I'll find a place somewhere in the corner
I'm gonna waste the rest of my days
Just watching patiently from the window
Just waiting seasons change, some day
Oh, oh, my dreams will pull you through that garden gate.
I want to be the wandering sailor
We're silhouettes by the light of the moon
I sit playing solitaire by the window
Just waiting seasons change, ah, ah
You'll see, one day, these dreams will pull you through my door
And I'll come running to tie your shoe
And I'll come running to tie your shoe.
I'm the happiest man in all of the world
because I have something to believe in
I have communion with the Son and the holy God and Creator
and in addition I have eternal life
I am on an open sea
Just drifting as the hours go slowly by
Julie with her open blouse
Is gazing up into the empty sky.
Now it seems to be so strange here
Now it's so blue
The still sea is darker than before...
No wind disturbs our coloured sail
The radio is silent, so are we
Julie's head is on her arm
Her fingers brush the surface of the sea.
Now I wonder if we'll be seen here
Or if time has left us all alone
The still sea is darker than before...
I can think of nowhere
I would rather be
Reading morning papers
Drinking morning tea.
She clutches the tray
And then we talk just like a kitchen sink play
Nothing ventured nothing gained
Living so close to danger
Even your friends are strangers
Don't count upon their company.
Places for the fingers
Places for the nails
Hidden in the kitchen
Right behind the scales.
What do I care
I'm wasting fingers like I have them to spare
Plugging holes in the Zuider Zee
Punishing Paul for Peter
Don't ever trust those meters
What you believe is what you see.
In my town, there is a raincoat under a tree
In the sky there is a cloud containing the sea
In the sea there is a whale without any eyes
In the whale is a man without his raincoat.
In another country
With another name
Maybe things are different
Maybe they're the same.
Back on the train
The seven soldiers read the papers again
But the news it doesn't change
Swinging about through the creepers
Parachutes caught on steeples
Heroes are born
But heroes die.
Just a few days
A little practice and some holiday pay
We're all sure
You'll make the grade
Mother of God if you care
We're on a train to nowhere
Please put a cross upon our eyes
Take me I'm nearly ready you can take me
To the raincoat in the sky
Take me my little pastry mother take me
There's a pie shop in the sky.
... He wasn't responsible for the act. I've been warned...
I believe it wrong not to warn the people.
And the machine... he come upon them and strike. ...
I understand that somebody began to...
And the song began to move up.
I understand like this. Move up.
I understand like this. ... Move up.
So, they get tired.
It was come dark and rain'll make you very tired. And then he went and knocked on an old lady house and old lady ran to the door, say "Who is this?" Jack say "Me, Mama-san, could we spend the night here? Cause we're far from home, very tired." And old lady said "Oh yes, come on in." Said "Come on in." So I'm realizing I'm in trouble.
I can think of nowhere
I would rather be
Reading morning papers
Drinking morning tea.
She clutches the tray
And then we talk just like a kitchen sink play
Nothing ventured nothing gained
Living so close to danger
Even your friends are strangers
Don't count upon their company.
Places for the fingers
Places for the nails
Hidden in the kitchen
Right behind the scales.
What do I care
I'm wasting fingers like I have them to spare
Plugging holes in the Zuider Zee
Punishing Paul for Peter
Don't ever trust those meters
What you believe is what you see.
In my town, there is a raincoat under a tree
In the sky there is a cloud containing the sea
In the sea there is a whale without any eyes
In the whale is a man without his raincoat.
In another country
With another name
Maybe things are different
Maybe they're the same.
Back on the train
The seven soldiers read the papers again
But the news it doesn't change
Swinging about through the creepers
Parachutes caught on steeples
Heroes are born
But heroes die.
Just a few days
A little practice and some holiday pay
We're all sure
You'll make the grade
Mother of God if you care
We're on a train to nowhere
Please put a cross upon our eyes
Take me I'm nearly ready you can take me
To the raincoat in the sky
Take me my little pastry mother take me
Put a straw under baby
Your good deed for the day
Put a straw under baby
Keep the splinters away.
Let the corridors echo
As the dark places grow
Hear Superior's footsteps
On the landing below.
There's a place in the orchard
Where no one dare go
The last nun who went there
Turned into a crow.
Turned into a crow-crow
Turned into a crow
The last nun who went there
Turned into a crow.
There's a brain in the table
There's a heart in the chair
And they all live in Jesus
[German voices]
The seats are so uncomfortable, too.
You know, you never realize it.
Guess I might as well go do my makeup.
In case we get out of this thing I want to look good for those pictures.
That's my only claim to fame this Fall.
You know, this might be your only contribution to being alive.
Think anyone's worried about you?
Think anyone's worried about you?
[more German] voices
Night-time is falling on the Louvre.
It's been a lazy afternoon.
We walk to the house, the air is clear,
The water's still moving in the pool.
You say One word.
the same One sound.
thing It makes
again. the world go 'round.
One word; You'll see
we fight. you can't win -
We're in the same place
a game. but not the same spin.
Let it all If it fades away,
fade away. I don't mind.
We were miles away, we were miles away,
We were miles and miles away.
Remember this oil by Augustus John?
These are the ones I found in Rome.
There are few things I keep for long.
When does your plane leave for Cologne?
I recall One word -
the train - I saw -
People danced that's all it took
again. to turn them around.
One world Strange world,
we're in. no sound.
We'll find The same things
the same thing. are everywhere around.
Never mind... You'll see,
with time, with time
we'll dance again. we'll dance again.
If it all fades away... Let it all fade dancing away.
All the sounds I heard One word,
on a summer night, I found,
and the quiet words that's all it took
we exchanged. I felt to turn him around.
she was pulling back She watched.
to emphasize - He sighs.
I was falling He waits for
into Mona Lisa's eyes. a touch of her eyes.
And she turned, And then
and she turned, she turns away.
she was far away. She won't let him
She was miles away. touch her any more today.
She was miles away.
Into the road and ten women
They are the rose of, oh, living
They're over...
Paling over.
Say all the words that are memory
Enter the ways of all the pain
Send over...
All is over.
Hitherto rode and wherebefore
Given the rules we had to call
All over...
All and over.
(Inaudible chorus)
Into the ways of forgiving
Into the silver source renew
Over
Big over.
Into the world he was approved
Came to the world a year too soon
Over
It will shine and it will shudder
As I guide it with my rudder
On its metalled ways
It will cut the night before it
As it leaves the day that saw it
On its metalled ways
Nobody passes us in the deep quiet of the dark sky
Nobody sees us alone out here among the stars
In these metal ways
In these metal days.
Through a fault of our designing
We are lost among the windings
Of these metal ways
Back to silence back to minus
With the purple sky behind us
In these metal ways
Nobody hears us when we're alone in the blue future
No one receiving the radio's splintered waves
In these metal ways
Given the chance
I'll die like a baby
On some far away beach
When the season's over.
Unlikely
I'll be remembered
As the tide brushes sand in my eyes
I'll drift away.
Cast up on a plateau
With only one memory
A single syllable
My squelchy life
My squelchy life
My squelchy life
Waits around corners
Nasty wife by sticky gap
My squelchy life
Follows in soft shoes
It's catching up
My squelchy life
Stands there grinning
Big white teeth, hairy white fingers (Anything, Anything)
I'll give it anything to go away, anything
Anything, anything, anything, anything, anything, anything.
My squelchy life
My squelchy life
My squelchy life
Those who know
They don't let it show
They just give you one long glance
And you'll go oh, oh, oh, oh.
Goes to show
How winds blow
The weather's fine
And I feel so, so, so, so, so.
Birds of Prey
With too much to say
Oh what could be my destiny
Another rainy day.
Why ask why
For by the by and by,
All mysteries are just more
Lyrics in parentheses are sung in parallel with main lyric
Dark alley (dark alley) black star
Four turkeys in a big black car
The road is shiny (bright shine) the wheels slide
Four turkeys going for a dangerous ride
The lacquer crackles (black tar) the engines roar
A ship was turning broadside to the shore
Splish splash I was raking in the cash
The biology of purpose keeps my nose above the surface (OOH)
King's lead hat put the innocence inside her, it will come, it will come, it will surely come
King's lead hat was a mother to desire, it will come, it will come, it will surely come
In New Delhi (smelly Delhi) and Hong Kong
They all know that it won't be long
I count my fingers (digit counter) as night falls
And draw bananas on the bathroom walls
The killer cycles (humdrum) the killer hertz
The passage of my life is measured out in shirts
Time and motion (motion carried) time and tide
All I know and all I have is time and time and tide is on my side
King's lead hat put the poker in the fire, it will come, it will come, it will surely come
King's lead hat was a mother to desire, it will come, it will come, it will surely come
The weapon's ready (ready Freddy) the guns purr
The satellite distorts his voice to a slur
He gives orders (finger pie) which no one hears
The king's hat fits over their ears
He takes his modicate (indecipherable) cold turpentine
He tries to dial out 999999999
He dials reception (moving finger) he's all alone
He's just a victim of the telephone
King's lead hat made the Amazon much wider, it will come, it will come, it will surely come
King's lead hat put the poker in the fire, it will come, it will come, it will surely come
King's lead hat was a mother to desire, it will come, it will come, it will surely come
King's lead hat put the innocence inside her, it will come, it will come, it will surely come
I am on an open sea
Just drifting as the hours go slowly by
Julie with her open blouse
Is gazing up into the empty sky.
Now it seems to be so strange here
Now it's so blue
The still sea is darker than before...
No wind disturbs our coloured sail
The radio is silent, so are we
Julie's head is on her arm
Her fingers brush the surface of the sea.
Now I wonder if we'll be seen here
Or if time has left us all alone
I'm the happiest man in all of the world
because I have something to believe in
I have communion with the Son and the holy God and Creator
When Señoritas walk at night,
Habañeros on the move,
It's music to their ears in the backroom.
If there's money to be made,
And it's a hundred in the shade and in the backroom,
She's sentimental like the last
Of the foreigners running past her to the backroom.
And if things aren't sweet in Mecca
She'll be begging for forgiveness in the vacuum.
They're taking pains with California,
And they're guaranteeing boredom for the monsoon.
And apart from what was offered
There were mothers buying orphans at the auction
Youre much better off in Twos
If you're coming to see the carnage in the backroom.
Doubled over on the table
I was concentrating harder in the backroom.
Weaving in and out of consciousness
Hiding out behind the entrance to the backroom.
It took longer than expected:
They had difficulty swallowing capsules.
We had a keener nose for trouble
Than the sniffer-dogs at Heathrow -
You'd be trousers down in no time in the backroom.
Almost nothing in the papers...
All the peasants in the squares
At their tables and their chairs
Set to salvage certain numbers
From the wonder of the tundra
And the muses in the gloom
Counting needles in their rooms
On the carpet in the corner
In a kind of secret slumber
While the in formation rain
Slashed the dirty window pane to the square.
Smoky broads and smoky windows in the square
Come come charmer come on over for the day
Disappearing cocoa forests flash and die
Fortunes crumble all demolished in the bay.
Over forty pointed people
In the perfect pointed steeple
Looked to see the lucky number
Yes the wonder of the Tundra
Had come up to fame and fortune
Singing his tune, my tune, your tune
Wooing daughters of the gifted
On the carpets of the courtrooms
While the tickets were expensive
The show was quite relentless in the square.
Smoky broads and smoky windows in the square
Come come charmer come on over for the day
Disappearing cocoa forests flash and die
Fortunes crumble all demolished in the bay
Dalai Llama lama puss puss
Stella marls missa nobis
Miss a dinner Miss Shapiro
Shampoos pot-pot pinkies pampered
Movement hampered like at Christmas
Ha-ha isn't life a circus
Round in circles like the Archers
Always stiff or always starchy
Yes it's happening and it's fattening
And it's all that we can get into the show.
Smoky broads and smoky windows in the square
Come come charmer come on over for the day
Disappearing cocoa forests flash and die
What're you saying? He said "I'm sorry, I committed a sin, I made a mistake. I asked (?????) to forgive me... please forgive me." He said "Mea Culpa," can you put it better? "I'm saying I'm sorry, I made a mistake, I made... I committed a sin, I made a mistake. And I'm never gonna do it again, I never did it before and I'm never gonna do it again."
Lay My Love
I am the crow of desperation
I need no fact or validation
I span relentless variation
I scramble in the dust of a failing nation
I was concealed
Now I am stirring
And I have waited for this time.
I am the termite of temptation
I multiply and find my population
I am the wheel I am the turning
And I will lay my love around you.
I am the sea of permutation
I live beyond interpretation
I scramble all the names and the
combinations
I penetrate the walls of explanation
I am the will
I am the burning
And I will lay my love around you.
I am the will
I am the yearning
Burger cruising just above the ground ground ground
And gunner puts a burnish on his steel
Anna with her feelers moving round round round
Is sharpening her needles on the wheel.
Burger Bender bargain blender shine shine shine
And gunner burn the leader on the fuse
Bundle up the numbers counting 3 - 6 - 9
Here's Anna building webs across our shoes
Celebrate the loss of one and all all all
And separate the torso from the spine
Burger Bender bouncing like a ball ball ball
So Burger Bender bargain blender shine.
Do the Do-si-do, do the Mirror Man
Here he comes the boy who tried to vanish to the future or the past
is no longer here with his sad blue eyes
Here he comes he floated away and as he rose above reason
he rose above the clouds he was seven feet high
Here he comes the night is like a glove and he's floating like a dove
that catches the wind in the deep blue sky
Here he comes the boy who tried to vanish to another time
is no longer here with his sad blue eyes.
Here he comes here he comes
Here he comes the boy who tried to vanish to another place
sees us following him all one at a time
Here he comes and we're checking out each others supplies
and looking at the eyes of all the others standing in the line
Here he comes the night is like a glove and he's floating like a dove
with his deep blue eyes in the deep blue sky
Here he comes the boy who tried to vanish to the future or the past
is no longer alone among the dragonflies
Here he comes here he comes.
Who will remember him?
I'll find a place somewhere in the corner
I'm gonna waste the rest of my days
Just watching patiently from the window
Just waiting seasons change, some day
Oh, oh, my dreams will pull you through that garden gate.
I want to be the wandering sailor
We're silhouettes by the light of the moon
I sit playing solitaire by the window
Just waiting seasons change, ah, ah
You'll see, one day, these dreams will pull you through my door
And I'll come running to tie your shoe
I fall up!
I'm dying of light this early
It's all up!
It's all up!
Walled up!
Stepping into a dunky mermaid
Walled up!
Walled up!
More volts!
I'm sucking the juice from the generator
More volts!
More volts!
More volts!
"More suck at the duct" my dictu
More volts!
More volts!
Burn up!
Turn into a lanky housemaid
Burn up!
Burn up!
It's all up!
I'm living beyond the warnings
It's all up!
I fall up!
Sell up!
I'm cackling off to the Congo
Sell up!
Sell up!
Give up!
Find God in a big fat water-melon
Give up!
Give up!
More volts!
I'm sucking the juice from the generator
More volts!
More volts!
More volts!
"More suck at the duct" my dictu
More volts!
More volts!
More volts!
I'm sucking the juice from the generator
More volts!
More volts!
More volts!
"More suck at the duct" my dictu
More volts!
More volts!
More volts!
I'm sucking the juice from the generator
More volts!
More volts!
More volts!
"More suck at the duct" my dictu
More volts!
Thinking of a world and the light of the sun
And all the many lives that were ever begun,
Ever begun.
Our little world turning in the blue
As each day goes there's another one new,
Another one new.
How many people will we feed today,
How many lips will we kiss today,
If we wake up?
How many worlds will we ever see,
And how people can we ever be,
If we wake up?
Thinking of a world in the light of the sun
And all the many lives that were ever begun,
Caught between
The Earth and the sky
What too long
And what too high
Fallen free and holding on
Nothing there at all
Dropped and lifted
Gotta breathe
Bottom drifting
On the way
Holding just a few poor words
And nothing at all
Reaching out
To still the sand
No light connects
The breaking moments
Drifting to another shore
There's nothing here
That I could change at all
Nothing at all
Forced to be
A broken line
Let to hold
What we could find
Then to learn
And go again
Nothing sorted out
High above
A single bird
It drifts about
The dead volcano
Who's to lose
And who's to find
There's nothing here
That I could choose at all
When I got back home
I found a message on the door
Sweet Regina's gone to China
Cross legged on the floor
Of a burning jet that's smoothly flying
Burning airlines give you so much more
How does she intend
To live when she's in far Cathay?
I somehow can't imagine her
Just planting rice all day
Maybe she will do a bit of spying
With micro cameras hidden in her hair
I guess Regina's on the plane
A news week on her knees
While miles below the curlews call
From strangely stunted trees
The painted sage sits just as though he's flying
Regina's jet disturbs his wispy beard
When you reach Kyoto
Send a postcard if you can
And please convey my fond regards
To Chih-Hao's girl Yu-Lan
I heard a rumor, they were getting married
But someone left the papers in Japan
Left them in Japan, left them in Japan
Left them in Japan, left them in Japan
Left them in Japan, left them in Japan
Oh, it's just another day
It's just another day on earth
Oh, it's just another day
Just another day
It's just another day on earth
Oh, it's just another day on earth
It's just another day on earth
One day, we will put it all behind
We'll say that was just another time
We'll say that was just another day on earth
We'll say that was just another time
One day, we will put it all behind
We'll say that was just another day on earth
Just another day
It's just another day
Oh, it's just another day on earth
This chord
This water
This son
This daughter
This day
This time
This land
It's all mine
This Calling Bell
This Forge Bell
This Dark Bell
This The Knife Bell
This calling
This burden
This falling
The world's turning
This What I thought I knew
This What I thought was true
This I understood
This In the deep wood
This Ah there I stood a child so fair
This On a certain square
This Down the dirty stairs
This To see the table set
This With golden chairs
This Ah to follow, follow, follow, follow there
This race
And this world
This feeling
And this girl
This revolver
This fire
And then so clear to wonder
To wake with open eyes
As the snow across the tundra
And the rain across the skies
And the rain across the skies
So much again and weightless
In the motherworld of space
We fail to form to come to
And the razor mountains fade
And the day is cursed in shame
In these the world we open
So much to lose to save
To light the highest beacons
And the rose of love will bleed
And the rose of love will bleed
In these the world we open
So much to lose and save
To light the brightest beacon
And the rose of love will bleed
And the razor mountains fade
My body
So thin
So tired
Beaten for years
Ploughshare to bomb
So hard
Bonebomb
Bonebomb
Bonebomb
My town
So dusty
So dry
Buildings pushed over
Lives heat together
Young girls dreaming of beautiful deaths
Pop star pictures above their beds
Above their heads
Troops
Everything stolen
Except my bones
Now I am only bone
I waited for peace
And here is my peace
These are your orders, seems like it's do it or die
So please read them closely
When you've learnt them be sure that you eat them up
They're specially flavoured with burgundy, Tizer and rye
Twelve sheets of foolscap, don't ask me why.
We hit the jungle just as it starts to monsoon
Our maps showed no rainfall
All the boys were depressed by this circumstance
Trust in the weather to bless agricultural man
Who gives birth to more farmhands, don't ask me why.
Fifteen was chosen because he was dumb
Seven because he was blind
I got the job because I was so mean
While somehow appearing so kind
Drifting about through the cauliflower trees
With a cauliflower ear for the birds
The Squadron assembled what senses they had
And this is the sound that they heard
Back at headquarters khaki decisions are made
File under 'Futile', that should give you its main point of reference
It's all so confusing, what with pythons and then deadly flies
But to them it's a picnic, don't ask me why.
Thirteen was chosen because of his luck
Eleven because of his feet
One got signed up for exceptional pluck
Another because he was mute
Roaming about through the gelatin swamps
With a gelatin eye on the stripes
The Squadron assembled what senses they had
And this is the sound that they heard
Back in Blighty there was you
There were milkmen every morning
But/Fuck these endless shiny trees
Passing over
All the dark blades
All the dark blades
Of the forewords
In the forewords
Just a low sound
Such a low sound
Passing over
Drawing closer
Sheer horizon
Flame horizon
Haze of morning
Magnets drawing
Over the forewords
Now entangle
All tomorrow
Gone.
Gone.
Through crumbled fingers gone.
Can never be recollected.
All pastness gone
To the crumbled dogma-ing past.
Can never be recollected.
Passing over...
This house was built by my grandfather's hand.
Before I was accused of theft.
The boat was sold for eighty thousand pounds.
The work is now at an end.
It is rumour that he's gone.
It is rumour that he's gone.
The mountaintops were covered in snow.
Dinner wasn't served until nine.
The windows were painted three weeks ago
And we closed them one by one.
The work is now at an end.
The work is now at an end.
I played with my children all afternoon.
The plane took off at quarter past three.
In the house that was built by my grandfather's hand.
Talkin' funny and lookin' funny and talkin' 'bout "Nobody loves(?) me" you make yourself look bad.
Help me somebody.
You need to take a good look at yourself and see if you're the kind of person that God wants you to be.
It's no big thing, it's a small thing, what... people... think(?).
Help me somebody.
There's no escape from Him. He's so high you can't get over Him. He's so low you can't get under Him. He's so wide you can't get around Him. If you make your bed in Heaven He's there. If you make your bed in Hell He's there. He's everywhere.
[...Inaudible...]
[Further] we make claims on [our teas]
[Dawn inner here] for we've nowhere to be
Nowhere to be
Nowhere to be
[Father stains], we're all on our knees
Down on our words and we've nothing to be
Nothing to be
Nothing to be
Further down we're all on our [sails]
[Paid to upheed] though we've nothing these days
Nothing these days
Nothing these days
[Further still, their stall in a daze]
We're down on our knees and we've nothing to say
Nothing to say
Here he comes the boy who tried to vanish to the future or the past
is no longer here with his sad blue eyes
Here he comes he floated away and as he rose above reason
he rose above the clouds he was seven feet high
Here he comes the night is like a glove and he's floating like a dove
that catches the wind in the deep blue sky
Here he comes the boy who tried to vanish to another time
is no longer here with his sad blue eyes.
Here he comes here he comes
Here he comes the boy who tried to vanish to another place
sees us following him all one at a time
Here he comes and we're checking out each others supplies
and looking at the eyes of all the others standing in the line
Here he comes the night is like a glove and he's floating like a dove
with his deep blue eyes in the deep blue sky
Here he comes the boy who tried to vanish to the future or the past
is no longer alone among the dragonflies
Here he comes here he comes.
Rosalie
I've been waiting all evening
Possibly years I don't know
Counting the passing hours
Everything merges with the night
I stand on the beach
Giving out descriptions
Different for everyone I see
Since I just can't remember
Longer than last September.
Santiago
Under the volcano
Floats like a cushion on the sea
Yet I can never sleep here
Everything ponders in the night.
Rosalie
We've been talking all summer
Picking the straw from our clothes
See how the breeze has softened
I'm a man of many colours:
Only yesterday I was blue.
Ten days from now, I'll be different
And so will you.
Written there in capital letters
So as not to be misunderstood
Making sure I'm clear,
Telling bad from good.
Two weeks ago in Tokyo,
A man from Islamabad:
Selling shells back to the rebels,
Shells they never had.
All is clear: I can see for miles and miles.
I can hear your footsteps in my heart.
Somebody make me an offer
I've got to get away from here, ooh, ooh, ooh.
Driving hard through the snow-drift
Like a moth to a naked light
To keep an appointment in Zurich
With a man who hears footsteps in the night.
Tired of what he's been doing,
What it's done to his life...
Getting most if what he needed
Has left him with less than he had.
All is clear: I can see for miles and miles.
Slow
there
reply
toil
no need to go on
do I need to go on?
Slow
endure
recline
in a separate time
The passage of time
Is flicking dimly up on the screen
I can't see the lines
I used to think I could read between
Perhaps my brains have turned to sand
Oh me oh my
I think it's been an eternity
You'd be surprised
At my degree of uncertainty
How can moments go so slow?
Several times
I've seen the evening slide away
Watching the signs
Taking over from the fading day
Perhaps my brains are old and scrambled
Several times
(Who would believe what a poor set of eyes can show you?)
I've seen the evening slide away
Watching the signs
(Who would believe what an innocent voice could do?)
Taking over from the fading day
Changing water into wine
(Never a silence always a face at the door)
Several times
(Who would believe what a poor set of ears can tell you?)
I've seen the evening slide away
Watching the signs
(Who would believe what a weak pair of hands can do?)
Taking over from the fading day
Putting the grapes back on the vine
So they rode the sea,
It went on and on
They were years away
Though it seemed so long
But the captain never told them what he knew
As the poor ship laboured on through the endless blue.
Oh the storm was strong
And the ship was so frail
But they stumbled on
Raising broken sails,
And they held the heavy sky on their open hands
And they dreamed of when their poor feet would touch the land.
Baby, we're going round in circles!
Where is this place we're going to?
Does anybody know we're out here on the waves?
And are any of our signals coming through?
We're going 'round in circles.
We have no single point of view.
And like the clouds that turn to every passing wind,
We turn to any signal that comes through.
At the edge of the sea
Were the signs of the dove -
But the wrong way out
And the wrong way up.
We pushed the empty frame of reason out the cabinet door,
No we won't be needing reason anymore.
Something went badly wrong.
At first we didn't notice. We got used to bumping about together and stepping
on each other's toes. Funny how that happens.
We felt it in different ways. Some people thought they were getting bigger or
their skin was over-sensitive and they needed to insulate themselves with
something. But others felt squeezed, choked, and confined and sought open
spaces which they never found.
But the world was getting smaller and smaller. It was like a balloon going
down. Everything getting tiny, brighter, more intense and squashed up together.
It was cluttered, uncomfortable - you couldn't find anywhere to sit down.
I was everybody's mother in nightly tears before the television news. My
children in floods, sackings and revolution. It was all going sour. It was all
going sour.
I was scrubbing individual stones on a huge beach. I was making sandwiches for
the whole of Somalia. I was shouting 'Fire!' in a thousand languages. I was
plugging a million dykes with my failing fingers. I was baking languages in a
million fires. I extended trillions of fine wires. I was scrubbing fingers upon
a beach in Wales. I was firing nights...
I was suddenly very tired.
How do I miss you. Really miss you.
(indecipherable)...
In one bigger bay
You gave all the frozen wind
You gave them away
Set up, boy, set up
The boys set up for the show
No one who was there last night
Gave out or ought to know
Set up, boy
Set up my boys
Below that river bend
It's all that we take care of