Thunder and Consolation

I Love the World

The roll of distant thunder breaks
The afternoon of silence wakes
They hurry through from Petergate
As if they know this dance
In fury blind I drive at night
Across the moors, the open roads
Beneath the freezing starry skies
Racing in some trance
These cities are illusions of
Some triumph over Nature's laws
We've seen the iron carcass rust
And buildings topple into dust
And as the waters rise it seems
We cling to all the rootless things
The Christian lies, technology
While spirits scream and sing . .
Oh God I love the world

Well I never said I was a clever man
But I know enough to understand
That the endless leaps and forward plans
Will someday have to cease
You blind yourselves with comfort lies
Like lightning never strikes you twice
And we laugh at your amazed surprise
As the Ark begins to sink
This temple that is built so well
To separate us from ourselves
Is a power grown beyond control
A will without a face
And watching from outside I wish
That I could wash my hands of this
But we are locked together here
This bittersweet embrace . .
Oh God I love the world

And if one day the final fire
Explodes across the whitened sky
I know you've said you'd rather die
And make it over fast
With courage from your bravest friends
Waiting outside for the end
With no bitterness but an innocence
That I can't seem to grasp
I know somehow I will survive
This fury just to stay alive
So drunk with sickness weak with pain
I can walk the hills one last time
Scarred and smiling, dying slow
I'll scream to no one left at all
I told you so I told you so I told you so . .
Oh God I love the world

Stupid Questions

It's not a crime to be innocent
These things we have not done
But you're not some little child
Spring is past and gone

Well I know my craving heart
And I've seen your vicious eyes
And I think we know the truth
Both you and I
Don't flutter your lashes like a little girl
And ask me why it's such a cruel cruel world, no

Ch:
Don't ask any more stupid questions
You already know the answers to

Well you can kill with the best of them
But your smile remains so sweet
When someone comes to eat me alive
Well I like to see their teeth
If you really want I can name the names
Be an angel of death at the children's games, so

Ch:
Don't ask any more stupid questions
You already know the answers to

Well I know that you do
There comes a time in your life
You've got to grow up fast
And I think that your time
Is coming now here at last

It's not a crime to be innocent
These things we have not done
But you cannot run forever
Spring is past and gone
Waiting in line at the fortune teller
Waiting to hear some more pretty lies, he says

Ch:
Don't ask any more stupid questions
You already know the answers to

225

She stares at the screen
At the little words of green
Tries to do remember what to do next
There's a trace of frustration
That crosses her face
Searching for the key she should press
And I would help her
If I only knew how
But these things are a mystery to me too
And it seems that the corporate
Eyes they are watching
She fears for her job
And the moments are passing
I stare at her nametag
And think to myself
Both you and I, we never asked
For any of this

So let's take a walk
Up past the chemical works
Where the sky turns green at night
And we'll talk about
Getting away from here
Some different kind of life
But even in the freshest mountain air
The jet fighters practise overhead
And they're drilling these hills
For uranium deposits
And they'll bury the waste
For our children to inherit
And though this is all done
For our own benefit, I swear
We never asked for any of this

This golden age of communication
Means everyone talks at the same time
And liberty just means
Some freedom to exploit
Any weakness that you can find
Well turn off the TV just for a while
Let us whisper to each other instead
And we'll hope that the corporate ears
Do not listen
Lest we find ourselves committing
Some kind of treason
And filed in the tapes
Without rhyme, without reason
While they tell us that it's all
For our own protection, I swear
We never asked for any of this

Inheritance

Mother, Father, I'm doing OK
On the other side of the country
Far away
And though I know the things
That you want to hear me say
Sometimes these things are hard
Mother, Father, I am your son
Right down to the long thin pointed face
And this muddled up and twisted tongue
And now I find that I'm doing all those
Things you would have done
Sometimes these things are hard

Ch:
So do I thank you?
Do I curse you?
These tracks stretch out before me
The ones you left behind
What I want and what I feel
It's yours, yours, not mine

Mother, Father, all those battles that have been
And the long long silences that lay in between
Please don't try to tell me all those were in vain
Sometimes these things are hard
We line up at the wedding
In rows of deep set eyes
In our finest formal dresses
Yes, and proper suits and ties
Like a family of Munsters
In a really bad disguise . . .

Ch

Green and Grey

The time I think most clearly
The time I drift away
Is on the busride that meanders
Up these valleys of green and grey
I get to think about what might have been
And what may yet come true
And I get to pass a rainy mile
Thinking of you
And all the while, all the while
I still hear that call
To the land of gold and poison
That beckons to us all

Nothing changes here very much
I guess you'd say it never will
The pubs are all full on Friday nights
And things get started still
We spent hours last week with Billy boy
Bleeding, yeah queueing in casualty
Staring at those posters we used to laugh at
Never never land, palm trees by the sea
Well there was no need for those guys
To hurt him so bad
When all they had to do
Was knock him down
But noone asks to many questions like that
Since you left this town

Ch:
And tomorrow brings another train
Another young brave steals away
But you're the one I remember
From these valleys of green and the grey

You used to talk about winners and losers
All the time - as if that was all there was
As if we were not of the same blood family
As if we live by different laws
Do you owe so much less to these rain swept hills
Than you owe to your good self
Is it true that the world has always got
to be something that always seems
to happen - somewhere else
For God's sake don't you realise
That I still hear that call
Do you think you're so brave
Just to go running
To that which beckons to us all

Ch

No, not for one second
Did you look behind you
As you were walking away
Never once did you wish any of us well
Those who had chosen to stay
And if that's what it takes to make it
In the place that you live today
Then I guess you'll never read these letters that I send
From the valleys of the green and the grey

Ballad of Bodmin Pill

Smash glass against the wall
Curse the music on the radio that the neighbours play
Door slams, she turns her head
Watches through the window as he pulls away
Funny how your racing brain drives you so mad
When all the while you feel su numb
Too old to be clean far too young to be broken
Like an army we come

Cut back, left behind
I watched you self-destructing
Oh so many times
Shot down, once again
Sitting in a chair crying what am I going to do with my life?
Just learn to hide the way that you really feel
Never let them know that you're scared
But understand that you're not the special only one
Watch us now, watch us real close

Ch: How we all dance with this fire
Cos it's all that we know
And as the spotlight turns toward us
We all try our best to show
We are lost we are freaks
We are crippled, we are weak
We are the heirs, we are the true heirs
To all the world

Let's go build a fire down on the empty beach when the waves are crashing high
White heat purify as the sparks fly up into the great black sky
Sacrifice these crutches to the crackling flames
Stand as silhouettes against the dawn
It's far too late to try to sleep now
Seems I'm never tired any more

Ch:
I want to dance with this fire
Cos it's all that I know . . .

We are lost we are freaks . . .
And we try our best to show . . .
I am lost I'm a freak ha ha.

Family

Joey puts her makeup on really well
She looks cool in the flashing lights
And all the boys gossip about the shape of her legs
On these muddled up and drunken nights
And if it's all got to end up between the sheets
Well she can coo like a virgin dove
But really she just doesn't want to be alone
And if you want you can call that love

M6 southbound roadside cafe on a wild wet and windy night
There's a kid in a sleeping bag huddled in a corner
Trying to beg a light
He's got mum and dad tattooed on his arm
From when he thought that that would make it alright
He's got hope and fear on his young boy's face
Another innocent taking flight, saying

Ch:
Give me some place that I can go
Where I don't have to justify myself
Swimming out alone against this tide
Looking for family looking for tribe

They said go, get out, we've got our own lives to lead
Now that water is thicker than blood
And every house is divided into single flats
With their very own little welcome rug
The shopping mall it is teeming with life
Fighting for the goodies on the shelf
But there's those funny old people on the escalators, talking to themselves, saying

Ch

Well I survive on my own for a while or so
Upon a whim or a bottle of wine
Just trying to make sense of these new surroundings
I only changed my name a couple of times
Please take me back Joey, I'm really sorry
Can we try to make a happy home
But she's gone with someone else and they're starting a family
Trying for a clan of their own, so

Ch

Family Life

How did they do this to you?
How did they do this to you?
Were you the weapon that they used
As they tore apart the family
Did they bring you here as they were passing through?
How did they do this to you?

And now you don't want to go home
And now you say that you never will go home
Take a tram across the city
Past the places where your brother died
Of the comfort for the girls who work alone
And I can't tell you that you're not alone

In the cities of the far north
The skies are cold and clear
The loneliness is aching
And after all this time
And after all these words
Your hands are still shaking

Why did they do this to you?
Why did they do this to you?
Were they cut off from their past?
Did they try to kill the future?
Do we all forget the things that we once knew?
Why did they do this to you?

In these far northern cities . . .

Who was it that did this to you?
Who was it that did this to you?
Well if I could have my way
I would line them up against a wall
Do unto them as they have done to you
Who was it that did this?
Who was it that did this to you?

Vagabonds

We follow the taillights out of the city
Moving in a river of red
As the colours fade away from the dusky sunset
We roll for the darkness ahead

Ch:
We are old, we are young
We are in this together
Vagabonds and children
Prisoners forever
With pulses a-raging
And eyes full of wonder
Kicking out behind us again

Nighttime City Beat the radio is calling
The lost and lonely in vain
Out here we are running for the wide open spaces
The roadsmell after the rain

Ch

And watching as a boy alone at the keyside
The ships loading cargo in the night
Their names all calling to faraway places
The years go past, the miles go by
And still this childhood romance will not die . . .

125 MPH

I'm heading north I'm heading home
Doing 125
I close my eyes and count to ten
Ha ha yeah I'm still alive
Perfect perfect tunnel vision
Razor sharp and racing racing
These moments, immortal
No one touches this

Ch:
These things they flow as blood must flow
Dust to dust and wind must blow
Nothing that I need to know
Or ever understand
These things they flow as blood must flow
Dust to dust and wind must blow
You can die before you get old
But me, I'm going to live forever

'The music plays, the party swings
The gaiety walls come closing in
I catch your eye, you take my hand
Out into the night we run
Dancing down those deadend streets
Howling at the moon like little kids
Out on the grass at the top of the hill
Your breath tastes sw . . .

Ch

And if I say I hate this place
Don't take it as personal
And just cos I want to kill somebody
Doesn't mean to say that I will
And I don't think that that makes me crazy
And anyway I'm way past caring
There's a ride leaves out of here at 9.00
What do you say, what do you say

Ch:
Tonight we'll flow . . .

Archway Towers

Rolling up tab ends that the baby's collected
Waiting for the number that clicks on the wall
It's open season on the weak and the feeble
Their meagre ambitions their impotent fury
There's bullet proof glass in case there is trouble
No doors in the building between this side and that side

I've tried to wrestle some unbalanced nightmare
Tell myself over that I don't really live here
But the boys run away leaving blood on the pavement
And a little crowd gathered to watch you pick yourself up
Joining the queue at the video library
To watch ninety five minutes of simulated torture

The conference hall rings to the standing ovation
The people in blue ties rise from the podium
Crazy with power, blinded by vision
The mass-chosen leaders for a brutalized nation

The Charge

Our history speaks in thunder
From a thousand village halls
In blood and sweat and sacrifice
In honouring every call
So the forces gathered against the thorn
A- piercing in their side
The brave new world is beckoning
So the olden world must die

In the offices of the city
At all the tables of oak and power
The snares are laid and baited
For the approaching of the hour
A hundred justifications
And the presses are ready to roll
The gateways to the nation
They are firmly under control

Ch:
On on on, cried the leaders at the back
We went galloping down the blackened hills
And into the gaping trap
The bridges are burnt behind us
And there's waiting guns ahead
Into the valley of death
Rode the brave hundreds

Well we called for some assistance
From the friends that we had known
But this is the 1980s
And we were on our own
We never felt like heroes
Or martyrs to a cause
Just battleweary soldiers
In a bloody civil war

Ch

The massacre now is over
And the order new enshrined
While a quarter of the nation
Are abandoned far behind
Their leaders offer the cliché words
So righteous in defeat
But noone needs morality
When there isn't enough to eat
The unity bond is broken
And the loyalty songs are fake
I'll screw my only brother
For even a glimpse at a piece of the cake
We only cry in private here
Behind the shuttered glass
When we think of the charge of this brigade
The severing of the past

Ch

Chinese Whispers

Such a sensitive opinion in one so young
Would you like to know about everything that we've done
You believe what you read in the printed lies
But you won't believe the evidence of your own eyes
And yes I've done a lot of things
You'd probably call a crime
But I don't feel guilty for anything

All the tongues waggle
But we just smile
That'll keep the little buggers
Going for a while
I live within natural justice
I understand nature's law
But as for your Christian morals . . .

Ch:
How, how you love this, how you love it
You go out and you find it
How you love it, how you love it

Such horror, oh such a farce
A little bit of broken glass
You should think yourself lucky that this was done
You'll have something you can whine about for years to come . . .
Oh such a shock, such a farce
Just a little bit of broken glass
You should think yourself lucky that this was done
You'll have something to complain about the years to come . . .
Well yes I've done a lot of things
You'd definitely call a crime
But I don't feel guilty for any of them

Ch

All the tongues waggle
But we just smile
That'll keep the little buggers
Going for a little while
All the tongues waggle
But we just smile
That'll keep the little buggers
Going for a while

Methinks the lady doth protest too much

Nothing Touches

We drive in silence
Beneath the grey dawning skies
Past the cooling towers
Where the white clouds slowly rise
I watch the world through motionless eyes
Nothing touches . . nothing ever touches

Raised as son of Empire
Hardened like a piece of steel
I am the master now
Of all that I can see
This means so much to you
But nothing much to me
Nothing touches . . nothing ever touches

Please take me home
I am very young
Please take me home
And yes I heard you screaming
As you walked out of my door

And yes I've seen those bloody faces
Picked up from the floor
I feel nothing and yet I understand it all
Nothing touches . . nothing ever touches

White Coats

Well we know what makes the flowers grow
But we don't know why
And we all have the knowledge of DNA
But we still die
We perch so thin and fragile here
Upon the land
And the earth that moves beneath us
We don't understand

So we rush towards the judgment day
When She reclaims
A toast to the Luddite martyrs then
Who died in vain
Down at the lab they're working still
Finishing off
How do we tell the people in the white coats
Enough is enough is enough is enough?

Ch:
Hey, hey I listen to you pray
As if some help will come
Hey, hey She will dance on our graves
When we are dead and gone
When we are dead and gone

You and I we made no suicide pact
We didn't want to die
But we watch the wall, little darling
While the chemical trucks go by
This desperate initiation now
Of innocence
Those last few days at Jonestown
Ain't got nothing on this

Ch

Now beneath the fitted carpets
Beyond the padded cells
Within these crimes of passion
The naked truth She dwells
And this fury's just a part
And this thunder's just a part
Desire is just a part
The cracking ice, the splitting rock

Ch

Hey, hey to the suicide day
The blind man blunders on
Hey, hey She will dance on our graves
When we are dead and gone

As children learn about the world
We built that wall of sand
Along the beach we laboured hard
With our brave hands
We worked until the sun went down
Beneath the waves
And the tide came rolling splashing in
Washed the wall away
How do we tell the people in the white coats
Enough is enough?