Diamonds in the Dark
I live in the sky
Safe and very high
When the morning comes
Then I come down through the door
And give myself to you
Earn my living and grow poor
But I have found a cave
Where dreams still crystallize
Like diamonds in the dark
Can you see them in my eyes?
This is how I have survived
We work in the sky
Safe and very high
When the evening comes
Then you come down through the door
You can’t measure what you lose
And you wonder what it’s for
So you crawl in the dark
Shutting out all you despise
Sell your hands but save your heart
This is how you have survived
This is how you have survived
The Dead Hand
Feel your lack of volition
Freedom is just an illusion
There is a hand
Like a ceiling that holds you down
There’s no action
We’re words upon the page
Written by a hand beyond this age
Run about inside this maze
Built by men in different days
There’s no plan
No way to make your escape
A hand guides the way
See this science-fiction
See our true condition
There is a hand
Like a magnet that holds you down
There’s no action
We’re words upon the page
Written by a hand beyond this age
This is the dead hand
City Rivers
Flowing through the tunnels
Like grains of polished sand
We turn the turbines
Power the pistons and
Every day we write our numbers
In the books and official ledgers
Flowing quiet
Like a river
Singing gently
Of forever
Endless link to endless futures
Flowing forward, city rivers
Flowing quiet
Like a river
Singing gently
Of forever
Endless link to endless futures
Flowing forward, city rivers
Say you haven’t heard our voices
Say you haven’t run out of choices
Girl, you know it’s yourself you’re deluding
Hello Boy
“Hello, boy
You’ll be starting today
Hello, boy
All your training is paid
Hello, boy
Here we value your time
Hello, boy
On your weekends, unwind
Hello, boy
Here we work as a team
Hello, boy
I take sugar and cream
Hello, boy
There is much you will learn
Hello, boy
Here is what you will earn
They have got it all worked out for you
A ten-year plan that will
Break your back and resolve
Hello, boy
Have you met Mr. Brown?
Hello, boy
He will show you around
Hello, boy
Here we value your say
Hello, boy
Have a wonderful day
Hello, boy
See the wonderful view?
Hello, boy
Many people like you
Hello, boy
It’s a place to begin
Hello, boy
On the life you must win
They have got it all worked out for you
A ten-year plan that will
Break your back and resolve”
“Haven’t I to need the reason?”
Desiderata
I was a boy in a place not far from here
Walled in from the noise
There my nights were dark and clear
Sweet suburban blackness
Beautiful and true
Nights like midnight masses
Silent offerings to you
Now I’m a hologram
An image of the man
I used to be at 17
Speak to me
Talk to me
Blind me with the boyhood myth
I seek in you
Can I return?
Can I unlearn?
Oh, I know it’s wrong but I still go on
Crawling back to you
Crawling back to you
I was a boy in a house not far from here
I played the saddest joy
You put music in my ear
Shapeless teen desire
Alcoholic dream
Flow through headphone wires
Love me do and set me free
Now I’m a hologram
An image of the man
I used to be at 17
Used to be, used to be…
I see the seasons passing
I feel the weight of wasted years
I’m frightened by the feeling
There is another city here
And I can’t find the exit
‘Cause there’s no way out on my feet
There is a new devotion
I must find it in my sleep
T.V. Mystic
Shadows fall through the windows of office halls
Another day ends, twilight falls
The city looms large
I feel small
A quiet drink, a vacant stare and then
Down in the tunnels I go again
Up on the ground
Night begins
I reach my door and turn the key
Darkness surrounds me like a sea
Except for the light on my TV
Floating in space I start to dream
Sunlight comes to break my dream apart
But something stirred inside my heart
Awakens as
The new day starts
In the streets the waking waters rise
And wash me in upon the tide
The new day waits
I don’t arrive…
Antenna
I am adrift
In the wind, in the streets
I came undone
Where the ground and tunnels meet
And my mind is receiving all the unuttered dreams of the people crowding my mind with their scattered hopes and desires and my mind is receiving all the unuttered dreams of the people crowding my mind pushing out all reflection and soft-spoken words of belief
Have you ever had the feeling
Speaking is the meaning
Not the words?
Resonating on a common band
Resonating all across the land
All together now
That sound is freedom of the mind
Can You Hear the Bells?
Sad to hear what I hear
So sharp and clear
Like a ringing in my ear
Words reach
They bend and greet
But never meet
Hear them echo in the street
Ringing in separate keys
Major, minor, F and C
Ringing in separate keys
Apparent to me
Apparent to me
Can you hear the bells ring?
Stop and listen to
The sound of people
Hear them ring
So very sad to
Hear the things that I hear
Sounding without answer
Far and near
Ringing in separate keys
Major, minor, F and C
Ringing in separate keys
Apparent to me
Apparent to me
Fields in Glass
I see in glass windows
Fields in glass
Where the sun shines
On the broken and displaced
I say there’s a garden
There are fields
Where the sun shines
Fields in glass for everyone
I see revolving doorways
In the glass
Where the sun shines
Fields in glass for everyone
Someday I’ll go through the glass
And be free in the sun
Save the Machine!
The machine
The machine that gives me life
How I fear the day the tubes will burst
And sunshine sting my eyes
Save the machine!
It’s obscene
To hear you talk of breaking free
Oh, I fear the day the hum will end
And silence fill my ears
Save the machine!
Oh, why can’t you see?
We are one with the machine
Two as one in breathing
Safe in our collective dream
The machine
The machine that gives me life
Oh, I fear the day it slips away
And winds down in the night
Save the machine!
Oh, why can’t you see?
We are one with the machine
When you change your thinking
You will be at peace like me
Leaving Alphaville
“I was a simple man
Till I stumbled on to their plan
It was a rainy evening
And on the ceiling shadows played
It was hard to abandon all my ways
I tried hard
Yeah, to learn to love this place”
Another sleepless night
As the dark gives shape to your fright
What is this empty feeling?
This sense of leaving the light
And the people blow about this town like leaves
And the people
Go on living, go on breathing
Silas, Please Come Home
“You cannot just disappear
A future waits, your home is here
All your doubt and all your sorrow
Might vanish in the air tomorrow
You mother is concerned
If you’re there, pick up the telephone
We wait for your return
Please remember you are not alone
Silas, please come home
Don’t be frightened to”
My Heart is Black
My heart is black
The landscape’s poison to my eyes
Full of lies and false persuasion
I wear a mac
The rain is poison to my skin
The streets have spies
They will crush you
Make a mockery of pride
Crush and forget you
Everyone says it’s my perception
But everything I know comes through my senses
The black I see falls over me and you
Corrupting all that’s rare and true
Oh!
My heart is black
I roam the city, there’s no peace
Still I try, still I reason
I wear a mac
The rain is poison to my skin
They’ll draw you in and deceive you
Draw you in with their deceit
Trick and deceive you
The Birds
Beautiful and strange up in the blue
Pointing out some way for me and you
Shadows changing patterns
Forming secret words
What can they be saying?
(ask the birds)
I am winding down towards my fate
I will disappear without a trace
Shadows changing patterns
Forming secret words
What can they be saying?
(ask the birds)
Surrender
Please cease all subversive tactics
(Yes, master, yes, master)
We have crushed all your friends and allies
(Yes, master, yes, master)
Come on, come on, come on
Strike your plans for a counter attack
The day is ours
You must learn to adapt to reality
Lay down your arms
And surrender to the voice
Lay down your arms
And surrender, girls and boys
(Yes, master, yes, master)
Lay down your arms
And surrender to the voice
Lay down your arms
And surrender, girls and boys
Come on, come on, come on
Strike your plans for a counter attack
The day is ours
You must learn to adapt to reality
Lay down your arms
And surrender your future
Lay down your arms
All you beggars and choosers
Assassins
Sweetness
I am backed into a corner
I am out of moves
Sunday
Sparrows sang of a disaster
Open the bottle and pass it around
Sheets of rain fall into the night
Over streets and houses
Sounds of unsheathing
The glint of a knife
As the city closes
Falling down upon the ground
Low, low, low
Down, down, down
Scimitar handshakes that twist in my side
Thrust from darkened hallways
Sinister smiles so hard and so bright
Thrust from darkened hallways
Lying still upon the ground
Low, low, low
Down, down, down
I retreat
And stumble out beneath descending roses
Destiny has passed me by
And I don’t know why
I am low
St-Marie
In the streetlights dimming
She is like a ghost
Calling me forth with her hand
In the glow of 4am
I am wide awake
Staggering home, drunk again
Sitting in my sitting room
Revolving once again
I am the axis the house turns on
Night is fading, masquerading
Blowing me its kiss
Find me on the staircase
And whisk me off to bed
Images come flooding up
Out of the fading blue
Soon the dawn will break
And they will vanish in the sun
Bells are ringing, choirs singing
Flooding through the house
Find me on the landing
And whisk me off to bed
Sweetness and Light
It’s not easy pulling music from the noise
You walk among the mad with dignity and poise
And when the sadness finds its way into your heart
All the sweetness and light begins its flowing
Weaving miracles like blankets
Working spells before your eyes
The past is heavy like a deep and silent sea
In your slumber it appears to hold the key
And when nostalgia finds its way into your heart
All the sweetness and light begins its flowing
Throwing light upon the waters
As you map the ocean floor
And in the quiet centre
Where the light begins to shine
It’s only there that you can
Beat the darkness every time
Oh, it’s a kind of happy
It’s the best you’ll ever know
You draw upon it every day
Morning’s White Vibration
Wake to morning’s white vibration
White electricity
Feel the moment’s white sensation
Washing over me
Humming in the silver leaves
Buzzing in the insects’ summer sound
Oscillating in the wind
Coursing through the fabric of the ground
The world is new
The world is here for you
Wake to evening’s white transmission
Particles in stream
Coursing through the copper lines
And penetrating dreams
Pulsing in the paling glow
Streetlights drinking deep from supple ground
Generating in the dark
Steady static signal makes no sound
The world is new
The world is here for you
Wake to morning’s white vibration
Regeneration
Rest in the sun brings regeneration
Soaking in the sea brings regeneration
Love of a girl brings regeneration
Deep inner peace brings regeneration
Sweetness and light brings regeneration
Music breaking time brings regeneration