Famous Last Words

Feel Like

I feel as volatile as the weather
Over fields of Scottish heather
The night before Halloween

You know I feel like
A catamaran in summer
The beat of a reggae drummer
The flag of a brigantine

This is the day when
All of my dreams came true
This is the day when
All of my life till now
Seemed oh so blue

You know I feel like
A plate of the earth in motion
A storm on the Indian Ocean
A shake of a tambourine

This is the day when
All of my feelings changed
This is the day when
All of my life till now
Seemed oh so strange

You know I feel like
A bird of a different feather
A trail that runs forever
Though a forest of evergreen


Angel Of Mercy

Every evening
You come around here in your cloak of lies
Half-believing
I sit and listen as you offer up the prize

Pick up your smile
Just go faithless friend
There is no pleasure waiting here for you
Pick up your smile
Just go faithless friend
I don't see you any more as an angel of mercy

Imitations
Of the good life were your stock in trade
Pale imitations
You run for cover when the promise starts to fade

Pick up your smile
Just go faithless friend
There is no treasure waiting here for you
Pick up your smile
Just go faithless friend
I don't see you any more as an angel of mercy

You play the game well
You've got the knack
Your hand in the till
And the knife in the back
Head for the hills
Leaving them flat
How come you treat
Everybody like that?

Spaced invader
Of my privacy be on your way
Tricky trader
In webs of fantasy, the bank is closed today
Pick up your smile
Just go faithless friend
There is no pleasure waiting here for you
Pick up your smile
Just go faithless friend
I don't see you any more as an angel of mercy

Pick up your smile
Just go faithless friend
There is no treasure waiting here for you
Pick up your smile
Just go faithless friend
I don't see you any more
As an angel of mercy
Oh, an angel of mercy
Oh, an angel of mercy

Don`t Forget Me

The sun is going down across the great unknown
Lights come on inside the towers made of stone
A muffled drum plays out of sight and all alone
Summer is over

The city lies awake and breathes electric air
The sailor in the bar dreams of a love affair
Young girls seem to shimmer in fluorescent glare
Summer is over

It's a never ending show
Faces come and go
Like a river
You're a rainbow wrapped in gray
Shake the dust away
Like a river

But don't forget me
Don't forget me now
Oh don't forget me
Don't forget me now

It's a never ending show
Faces come and go
Like a river
You're a rainbow wrapped in gray
Shake the dust away
Like a river

The crowd is spilling from the video arcade
The owner of the restaurant pulls down the shade
The thunder of the trucks is like a cannonade
But now it's over

But don't forget me
Don't forget me now
Don't forget me
Don't forget me now
Summer is over
Summer is over

But don't forget me
Don't forget me now
Don't forget me
Don't forget me now

Peter On The White Sea

When I took my boat out to the White Sea
I had no care in the world
Not a cloud disturbed the sky

I was dreaming only of how it might be
Then dark fell into the day
And the wind began to rise

Peter on the White Sea
Green mountains of waves blew all around
Peter on the White Sea
The howl of the wind, that lonesome sound

Sailors made their peace then with the Almighty
Still I kept hope in my heart
Through the salt and stormy night

Every hour the wind struck ever harder
We held on tight in the dark
As our bow rose and fell

Till we came with daylight into the harbour
Hard by the monastery walls
To the ringing of a bell

Peter on the White Sea
A day to recall when days are done
Peter on the White Sea
The first of a thousand ships to come

When I took my boat out on the White Sea
I heard my name in the wind
In the bright and empty sky

When I took my boat out to the White Sea

Genie On A Table Top

I went floating down the street one day
With a song playing in my mind
Hopping and bopping like a ricochet
Bad news was hard to find
There was a hint of syncopation
Coming from the sidewalk and the street
There was a glint of scintillation
Hanging over everyone you'd meet
And it makes me feel okay
Like a big yellow tractor going mowing through a field of hay
Like a genie on a table top surfing through the month of May

I saw a world in the window of a knick-knack shop
And I tossed it in the air
A girl went by with a forget-me-not
And she wore it in her hair
There was a peak of pixillation
And I never noticed it before
There was a jump of jubilation
And it seemed to promise more and more
And it makes me feel okay
Like a big yellow tractor going mowing through a field of hay
Like a genie on a table top surfing through the month of May

Oh she loves me and she loves me
Better than I've ever loved myself
She knows me and she loves me
Better, now I want nobody else
Oh she loves me and she loves me
Better than I've ever loved myself
She knows me and she loves me
Better, now I want nobody else

Percolating through the noonday sun
With wings upon my shoes
I was jumping about in front of everyone
No dignity to lose
There was a rush of animation
Bubbling about inside my soul
There was a rin-tin-tabulation coming
It was so hard to control
And it makes me feel okay
Like a pig with a bucket full of truffles in a French cafe
Like Louis Armstrong playing trumpet on the judgment day
Like a flying boat captain with an amethyst lake below
Like a winner of a marathon rolling in a field of snow
Like a figure skating gigolo looking for a heart to steal
Like a simulated orgasm suddenly becoming real
Like a big yellow tractor going bowling through a field of hay
Like a genie on a table top surfing through the month of May

Trespasser

When I first saw your trespasser
He wandered uninvited to your door
He seemed to know his way around
Although I'd never seen his face before
Pausing for a moment underneath your window ledge
He turned around to see the shadow of the sundial on the hedge
There was a tightness in his face as though he were on edge
I don't know why

You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams

But I seem to see him all the time
You said if there's a trespasser
There must be a footprint or a sign
And what would he be looking for
There's nothing here for anyone to find
And while you tried to say it couldn't be I realized
That you could feel no sense of danger and you didn't seem surprised
I got the feeling that you knew more than you said but felt advised
To keep it in

You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams

But I seem to see him all the time
Now I see your trespasser go wandering alone
Sometimes he's standing by the flowers or melting in the stone
And even when I cannot see him I can feel it in my bones
That he's still there

You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams

But I seem to see him all the time

You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams
You see him in your dreams

But I seem to see him all the time

Trains

In the sapling years of the post war world
In an English market town
I do believe we travelled in schoolboy blue
The cap upon the crown
Books on knee
Our faces pressed against the dusty railway carriage panes
As all our lives went rolling on the clicking wheels of trains
The school years passed like eternity
And at last were left behind
And it seemed the city was calling me
To see what I might find
Almost grown, I stood before horizons made of dreams
I think I stole a kiss or two while rolling on the clicking
wheels of trains

Trains
All our lives were a whistle stop affair
No ties or chains
Throwing words like fireworks in the air
Not much remains
A photograph in your memory
Through the coloured lens of time
All our lives were just a smudge of smoke against the sky

The silver rails spread far and wide
Through the nineteenth century
Some straight and true, some serpentine
From the cities to the sea
And out of sight
Of those who rode in style there worked the military mind
On through the night to plot and chart the twisting paths of
trains

On the day they buried Jean Juarez
World War One broke free
Like an angry river overflowing
Its banks impatiently
While mile on mile
The soldiers filled the railway stations arteries and veins
I see them now go laughing on the clicking wheels of trains

Trains
Rolling off to the front
Across the narrow Russian gauge
Weeks turn into months
And the enthusiasm wanes
Sacrifices in seas of mud, and still you don't know why
All their lives are just a puff of smoke against the sky

Then came surrender, then came the peace
Then revolution out of the east
Then came the crash, then came the tears
Then came the thirties, the nightmare years
Then came the same thing over again
Mad as the moon
That watches over the plain
Oh, driven insane

But oh what kind of trains are these
That I never saw before
Snatching up the refugees
From the ghettoes of the war
To stand confused
With all their worldly goods, beneath the watching guard's disdain
As young and old go rolling on the clicking wheels of trains

And the driver only does this job
With vodka in his coat
And he turns around and he makes a sign
With his hand across his throat
For days on end
Through sun and snow, the destination still remains the same
For those who ride with death above the clicking wheels of trains

Trains
What became of the innocence
They had in childhood games
Painted red or blue
When I was young they all had names
Who'll remember the ones who only rode in them to die
All their lives are just a smudge of smoke against the sky

Now forty years have come and gone
And I'm far away from there
And I ride the Amtrak from NewYork City
To Philadelphia
And there's a man to bring you food and drink
And sometimes passengers exchange
A smile or two rolling on the humming wheels

But I can't tell you if it's them
Or if it's only me
But I believe when they look outside
They don't see what I see
Over there
Beyond the trees it seems that I can just make out the stained
Fields of Poland calling out to all the passing trains

Trains
I suppose that there's nothing
In this life remains the same
Everything is governed
By the losses and the gains
Still sometimes I get caught up in the past I can't say why
All our lives are just a smudge of smoke
Or just a breath of wind against the sky

Necromancer

Oh the sweet addiction
Of forbidden fruit
Oh the strange affliction
That has taken root

Oh the hidden cancer
Cancer of the soul
Oh the necromancer
Inside us all

I have never seen this many
People gathered in one place together
Don't ask about it
You don't want to know

Caught up in the fury of euphoria
They say will last forever
Don't ask about it
It might just be so

Oh the burning candle
Oh the pretty flame
Come fly into the night with us
And feel the same

Oh the sweet surrender
Oh the solemn vow
Leave your old identity
And join us now

I believe that I have been
Through this before
And I can still remember
Maybe a past life
I just can't tell
The faces and the uniforms
Are changed yet
There's something so familiar
Am I still under
That same old spell

Oh the sweet addiction
Of forbidden fruit
Oh the strange affliction
That has taken root

Oh the love of darkness
Oh the vampire's kiss
Have mercy on a people
Who would dream like this
Who would dream like this
Like this

Charlotte Corday

If you hear a step upon your stair tonight
If you see a shadow in the candlelight
It’s only your imagination leading you astray
See her for a moment then she’ll slip away
Just like Charlotte Corday

She wanders down the hallway in a long black dress
And lingers by the fireplace like a faint caress
Just what it is that brings her here no man alive can say
See her for a moment then she melts away
The ghost of Charlotte Corday

Stars in the window, like a panoply
Covering everything, river of night
Stars in the window, see them shining for
Aanyone else, anyone else

Stars in the window, like a panoply
Covering everything, river of night
Stars in the window, see them shining for
Anyone else, anyone else

The clock ticks in the dark and now the night is still
The air is like a murmur on the window-sill
All at once there`s someone there that only you can see
seeking the forgiveness that will set here free

The wind has taken away
The words she wanted to say
The sky`s now turning to grey
The dawn is turning away
The ghost of Charlotte Corday

 

Hipposong

I was surrounded by a large hippopotamus
And nine of its friends who declared quite a lot of us
Are feeling rather blue
And we don't know what to do
I turned away but the large hippopotamus
Said that his pit of despair appeared bottomless
Yet hippopotami
Are not supposed to cry
I said "My, my,
Other people's problems do get tedious by and by
My, my
You can never solve them no matter how hard you try"

This brought a tear from the large hippopotamus
Who said in a voice that was growing monotonous
You cannot get the sense
Of how it feels to be immense
The sleek and the slim make fun of a lot of us
And creatures who fly through the air sit on top of us
Even in the pool
We are faced with ridicule
I said "My, my
Other people's problems do get tedious by and by
My, my
you can never solve them no matter how hard you try"

I came back as a large hippopotamus

Night Rolls In

Night rolls in
Gone is the wind
Fireflies dancing in your eyes
Now you're holy again
Oh night rolls in
Oh night rolls in

It's like a dream of a long time ago
A footprint lost in the snow
That covers the ground where we summered our lives
Watching them grow
From seeds that you sow

But now the world in all its works and ways
Grays our Novembering days
The fire still glows
That once was a rose

A long time ago
Night rolls in
Gone is the wind
Fireflies dancing in your eyes
And now you're holy again
Oh night rolls in
Oh night rolls in
Night rolls in

Gone is the wind
Fireflies dancing in your eyes
And now you're holy again
Oh night rolls in
Oh night rolls in
Oh night rolls in