Strange Brotherhood
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1. WONDERFUL WAY TO GO (Sullivan/Heaton)
The wolf he howls, howls up at the moon,
out on the steps beneath my hotel room.
Was in the woods behind this little town
we went flying up through the silhouette trees,
then crashing down. Colours brighter than I've ever seen,
More wired than I've ever been - and the faces turn to stone . . .
On through the gates again - what a wonderful way to go . . .
What a wonderful way to go.
Tell me your story, tell me no lies;
we touch each other - but only with our eyes.
Some kind of game, to play with desire;
it's just beneath the skin that I'm alive.
Colours brighter than I've ever seen - more wired than I've ever been
And the faces turn to stone - on through the gates again;
what a wonderful way to go - what a wonderful way to go.
Tonight the moon, she lays a silver path across the blackened sea,
I'm swimming out against the tide, the waves are breaking over me;
and deep beneath the waters in the darkness I can hear her
as she calls for me to come. . .
The wolf he howls, howls up at the moon;
some day coming - some day soon
Onto his shoulder, to carry me home;
flying up through the silhouette trees and we'll be gone
Colours brighter than I've ever seen - more wired than I've ever been;
And all the faces turn to stone - on through the gates again . . .
What a wonderful way to go - what a wonderful way to go . .
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2. WHITES OF THEIR EYES (Sullivan/Heaton)
Raised in the fields in the back of beyond,
hauled into position as a prodigal son.
I was not Abel - I was a Cain;
the kind you find a use for every now and again.
I can't abide what things have become,
they think that you're simple, they think that I'm dumb...
You want to know one thing I advise?
Shoot when you see the whites of their eyes.
They'll come to you in the perfect disguise
clock you too late, with a squeal of surprise...
shoot when you see the whites, the whites of their eyes.
The wolfchild smiles in the shallowest dreams
and you don't know just what it means...
Hey diddle diddle, what on earth can it be?
You ain't going to get any answers from me...
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3. AIMLESS DESIRE (Sullivan/Heaton)
I was working shift on the six o'clock, quiet in the pale dawn.
Found a bird caught in the machinery - set it free and watched it go...
Quit the job that very day, and flew into the sky
Just following after this aimless desire, this awful desire, this worthless desire.
Now I've found causes and I've found families, but nothing ever lasts;
I've known people I'd die for - if only they had asked.
Where I'm from is not my home, and neither's where I'm bound;
Just following after this aimless desire - worthless desire...
So tonight beneath the bridge where the fires burn,
God... take the freedom back,
deliver me from the aimless desire, the worthless desire...
And chimera she waits, and I have still got this hole in me
still got this hole inside of me...
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4. OVER THE WIRE (Sullivan/Heaton)
Behind all the rusting cranes, in the lengthening shadows of the Empire days
there's a world that waits, but it's not needed.
In the teeming rows behind the goal - yelling for blood on the pitch below;
where does all the passion go when it's not needed?
Over the wire, and into the darkness . . .
Come evangelists of the Grand New Age proclaiming the future that they stole,
condemning the things they can't control - just like the priests before;
and now I can hear them call - the ghosts of the 1914-18 war
Where do all the innocents go when they're not needed?
Over the wire and into the darkness . . .
And the dawn it will come like blood across the sky,
Not the way that you think, not the way that you dream
In the silence of God, in the fullness of time,
like blood across the sky - the dawn it will come - the dawn it will come.
All still, like the pitshafts and the two-mile-down where they buried their hearts;
where does all the loyalty go when it's not needed?
In the plastic seats behind the goal yelling for blood on the pitch below;
where does all the passion go when it's not needed?
Over the wire and into the darkness . . .
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5. QUEEN OF MY HEART (Sullivan/Heaton)
To the Queen of my Heart, from the King of Nowhere. . .
I have watched you arming, and how you wave your sword in the air;
always fighting the shadows as they move behind you,
and the beating wings that hover around you . . .
To the queen of my heart, from the king of nowhere
It's a shallow sky that holds us in; you can reach right out
and touch the edge with just one outstretched hand and feel
the dark come closing in.
And there's nowhere far enough away from here;
the ringing ears and the closing air, and the cities and deserts all beat the same;
the radio waves crackle and phase, the satellites spinning slowly round.
The radar towers search and call
to the Queen of my Heart, from the King of Nowhere . . .
This is the great world calling to the last crusader;
In the rush of the lifeblood coming out of the sunrise . . .
And you're the Queen of my Heart . . . and I'm the King of Nowhere.
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6. GIGABYTE WARS (Sullivan/Heaton)
Well, you never grow up, you just get older, carrying
all the familiar burdens with you, walking back on
the hometown streets on a night devoid of stars.
No one ever said it was going to be just, you really
ought to know by now how She's all red in tooth and claw;
after all, weren't you the one screaming for more?
In the gigabyte wars - round and round we go,
beneath the vapour trails - tangled up inside in a web of lies,
hostages of fortune and savage tales.
Well, you entered stage in blood and pain, gulped for air
and then you cried out - this is just the way it comes;
that's Stupid Questions again . . .
It's not the things that you fear that come to get you,
But all the things you don't expect, face down in a
drowning pool of unfulfilled desire, in the gigabyte wars . . .
Then comes the rain - just seems to make the night grow hotter,
we listen to the drops as they clatter on the roofs of the cars;
sometimes it seems like you're going to suffocate in this
conspiracy of noise - but though the ties they stretch to break-point,
still they hold, still they hold, and blood runs still in crimson streams
and dries like the earth - but still they hold.
In the gigabyte wars, once we were lost, then we were found;
once we were found - then we were lost again.
Get real, if a real exists - there's nothing more than this,
Strung out on nothingness . . .
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7. KILLING (Sullivan/Heaton/Nelson/Blomberg)
It was summer when they finally came, the law of force
and line upon line of machine upon machine, back into the greenwood,
closer to the heart of things we go - beneath the wires stretched against the sky,
spitting out in desperation - stop the killing . . .
The wind blows down from St George's Hill through to Stanworth Woods,
and to the East, on this grey and pallid dawn the lights from the rigs
blinking out across the poisoned sea, a little group of ships floating out to meet the coming storm
sailing on in desperation - stop the killing . . .
Raised and bound upon the land, and the everlasting whispers in diamond
through the trees, in the breath of Eden . . .
Innocent still the faith we hold - our time will come . . .
That which walks the corridors of power is a virus that mutates;
immune to all resistance, and every turn of history . . .
And all that's left for us is marking crosses upon doors,
and scrawling in the golden sand before each tide comes rolling in;
screaming out in desperation - stop the killing . . .
Holding on, and out, forever . . .
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8. NO PAIN (Sullivan)
Across the town on the other hill,
your lights glow from a different world.
You always found a place to hide - nails and cross to lay beside;
with all the ghosts that we denied.
Now, in rippled arcs across the sky, the great white birds of winter fly;
and the wheel turns, and people change - scattered ashes to the wind.
And there's no pain, there's no pain, there's no pain . . .
A dry river in the blazing sun . . .
Your parched face and your callused hands,
Behind us lie the arid lands . . .
To say too much - well, it was not our way,
and in the end there wasn't much to say;
the scars are healed now anyway . . .
and there's no pain. . . a dry river in the blazing sun . . .
And Abraham rose, took his only son, and knife and tinder
in his hand, and setting out across the desert and up into
the scrubland hills, he bound the boy Isaac to the stone,
raised the blade and waited for the miracle.
But the wind blows silent across the hills, across the dead and the empty hills,
dead, like the god that never came,
like your face, the day that you turned away . . .
There's no pain . . . a dry river in the blazing sun . . .
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9. HEADLIGHTS (Sullivan/Heaton/Nelson)
Lit up like a Christmas tree, the oil refinery glows in the night;
and down by the shoreline the seagulls fly white, against the black.
The great moon riding shotgun - rolling out across the veil of clouds,
and you were small, and lying awake listening to the noises in the house.
With the best of them you ran, like all of us, in our season . . .
Casting memory aside - your history, all forgotten;
driven onwards through the years in love with each distraction.
But all the while, the past is close behind;
like headlights on your tail . . . headlights on your tail. . .
Your pulse is beating faster now, like a bird flying hard against the wind;
trying to understand all the crazed compulsions that you feel.
And all the little jealousies and betrayals, they echo in the dark;
and somewhere back through it all, the key is still turning in the lock.
Now the ghosts that you have laid, they all come out to greet you;
the knowledge that you've gained - well, none of this protects you.
You've been so very far, still peace will not embrace you,
for all the while the past is close behind.
Like headlights on your tail. . . headlights on your tail. . .
10.
BIG BLUE
(Heaton/Sullivan)
So now let us sing of what remains
There shall be stillness in our hearts
There shall be a sweetness in our lives, bye and bye.
There's a beach I know at the edge of the world,
mist rising up from the breaking waves
towards the cliffs, as green as god.
We'll be flying for the sake of flying, singing for the sake of singing,
looking back down on the lonely world. . .
Dive. . . dive. . . diving down
Into the big blue we shall lose ourselves, gone are the doubts
and the fear of falling - hate is a curse lifted from our shoulders,
we never meant it in the way they thought. . .
If we hold our nerve, they will travel right over us;
they'll be going so fast they will never even notice us.
We'll be flying for the sake of flying - singing for the sake of singing,
looking back down on the lonely world. . .
dive. . . dive. . . dive. . .
Into the big blue we shall lose ourselves, gone are the doubts
and the fear of falling - hate is a curse lifted from our shoulders,
we never meant it in the way they thought.
Time to die, and die, and die again; doors closing in empty houses;
time to roll, and roll, and roll again - and all I hear is the diesel roaring.
Just like a people put to flight, all blown out in the endless dust storms,
into the West and the rolling hills, to dive, dive, dive again and
Into the big blue we shall lose ourselves. . .
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11. LONG GOODBYE (Sullivan)
Holed up in your little room, we talk for hour on empty hour,
pacing up and down between the walls that we have built ourselves.
No more with the long goodbye, I can't stand another tear;
I won't wait for the bell to toll - straight on for the days ahead,
straight on for the days ahead . . .
You act as drowning, letting go the fingers one by one.
Come on, there's life beyond the tomb that we have built ourselves;
no more with the long goodbye . . .
We don't even dare to look each other in the eyes,
or say whatever's on our minds . . .
These crushing moments show the kind of people we've become,
seal betrayal with a kiss - and let it all be over, finished, done . . .
It feels so good to kill the thing that stood between the truth and I
Make it fast and make it clean and let the blood run down
No more with the long goodbye . . .
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12. LULLABY(Sullivan)
So where do we begin? It must be thirty-five years . . .
You've the breath of my mother, the life of a stranger;
and there's so much to tell - so much I need to know.
All of the stories, and reasons . . .
But your face I remember and your breath I remember. . .
Take me in your arms, take me in your arms
So go out tonight and look up at the stars,
the light that you see is as old as I am.
And that's what I see, when I gaze in your eyes. . .
Loving a ghost lost in confusion of time - but our love remains
through these brightest hours.
And my secret world. . .
And your face I remember - and your breath I remember . . .
Take me in your arms, take me in your arms. . .
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13. BROTHER (Sullivan/Heaton/Nelson)
It's been a long dry season in tinderbox town
And the ghetto cars go cruising up and down and round and round
With tinted windows and the screech of tires
Poverty likes to ride in the best disguise
The boys get bored, set fire to the sheds at the end of my street
The thick black smoke rises up into the dusk
Sirens scream out across the hills
Turn into the close as the boys all swagger.
I've got no quarrel with you brother
But the war is getting closer
Down at the Union there we stood
And embraced like brothers should
The fire catches when your back is turned
And now we watch as the city burns
And now we watch as the city burns
We used to joke about the colour of our skins
We used to joke about the names of God
But now the racist cops come round
Put your cousin up against the wall
A little crowd gathers round and takes up sides
The white trash come out of their doorways and mutter
There's a macho stand off with sullen faces all around
And all the middle ground is washing away
And no one really wants it there anyway
It's a time of pack dogs brother
And the war's getting closer
Down at the Union there we stood
And embraced like brothers should
The fire catches when your back is turned
And now we watch as the city burns
And now we watch as the city burns
And I, I accuse you, you want so much
But you give nothing of yourself
And I, I believe you, you want so much
But you keep nothing of yourself
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14. SOUTWEST (Sullivan)
If I could save you, I surely would;
I'd take the world with you, the way we should.
I'd drown your violence in a sea of blood;
I'd drown the pain for you in the breaking waves,
I'd crown your innocence with the golden sun,
I'd drown your violence in a sea of blood . . .
South-west bound on the winding A-roads - days of scorched brown rolling hills
and ripened fields, down to where the sun glistens on the sea beneath Pentire.
Diamond light, evenings becoming cool and fresh as the seasons change. I can't
wait to see you again - feels like something good is going to happen, as if reborn
in the last days of summer, burned to the core and then somehow, made young
once more - as if you were going to be the one crowned Harvest Queen.
All the black will fade away in glory days, and Indian summer;
you and I, sun and moon, different paths, always together;
all the black will fade away in the sharpened days that will soon be coming.
All love and change is one, all love and change forever . . .
And I can feel it falling away,
and I can feel it falling away from you . . .
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15. RAINY NIGHT 65 (Heaton/Sullivan)
It's a silent scream in rain town
How far have we fallen now?
And the rain come, wash away
The promised land that is here to stay
We came back, things left undone
Like uncut stone
And little breathes and nothing fills,
Things broken.
Still, we're all looking for it
Still looking for it
It's a silent scream in rain town
My shadow hunts without me now
In for the kill, in for the kill
Still, we're all looking for it
Still looking for it
Now half killing ourselves
Still looking for it
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16. REFUGEE
(Heaton/Sullivan)
My room is dark, and very small;
there's a place to wash at the end of the hall.
I hear strange languages through the wall,
I hear them shouting in the street below.
I listen now to anything, anything at all;
just to keep the ghosts away, not to let them come.
Lusala, she was the first to hit the ground,
running up the hill at the side of the house
One by one, in the screaming sun, my family fell,
the air alive with bullets, and the smell of fear.
Don't look back, don't look back, don't look back at all:
Their bloodied faces are here with me, now, in the room
Until the lights go out and the silence comes
don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep, just keep on running;
keep running, keep running, keep running, run, run, run
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Coming in at night all the desert highways
Crackle with the static of a thousand little radios
Everyone talking, no-one listening
Well by now I should expect that
Down into the city I smell artificial green
A glasshouse full of growing things
That are not what they seem to be
Look away, look away, the procession's leaving town
The emperor rides naked and no-one gives a damn
That was the last time
I get a morbid satisfaction watching Sunset in all its degradation
We were in a restaurant for wannabes clinking glasses in celebration
We had to leave before something bad occurred and Niko grabbed the keys
We drove out in the early morning with the radio jammed on R'n'B
Drive away, drive away, and he turned to me and smiled
Said, how does it feel to be living through the Fall of Rome
And I said it's beginning to feel OK
The last time
Well I gave you all my money
I'm ashamed to remember now just why I did that
I got bitter, I got jealous, but not as much as you
Do you understand that?
Ten hours drifting half awake and finally touching down
I went out in the rainy morning and kissed the blessed ground
Coming home, coming home and the most of it is done
And the worst of us is left behind in the place where it belongs
That was, the last time
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As we touched down on the tarmac, they strode out to greet us
It was under a blue snake-skin sky
With a handshake of welcome, they set their agenda
With their smiles never touching their eyes
We've been here before on the edge of a promise
Surrender is all that remains
But we'll see them in hell, we'll see them in hell
We'll see them in hell before then
You made me a coward - I can't stand what I've become
What I most of all regret is not what I did
But all the things that I left undone
Like nobody learns, and nothing is changed
You ask me to follow again
But I'll see you in hell, see you in hell
I'll see you in hell before then
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