Marillion

[fox69]

"The Web"

"The Web"


The rain auditions at my window, its symphony echoes in my womb
My gaze scans the walls of this apartment
To rectify the confines of my tomb
I'm the cyclops in the tenement, I'm the soul without the cause
Crying 'midst my rubber plants, ignoring beckoning doors
Clippings from ancient newspapers lie scattered cross the floor
Stained by the wine from a shattered glass
Meaningless words, yellowed by time, faded photos exposing pain
Celluloid leeches bleeding my mind
You've finished playing hangman, you've cast the fateful dice
Advice, advice, advice me
This shroud will not suffice

And thus begins the web

Attempting to discard these clinging memories
I only serve to wallow in our past
I fabricate the weave with my excuses
Its strands I hope and pray shall last
Oh please do last

The flytrap needs the insects, ivy caresses the wall
Needles make love to the junkies, the sirens seduce with their call
Confidence has deserted me, with you it has forsaken me
Confused and rejected, despised and alone
I kiss isolation on its fevered brow
Security clutching me, obscurity threatening me
Your reasons were so obvious
As my friend have qualified, I only laughed away your tears
But even jesters cry

I realise I hold the key to freedom
I cannot let my life be ruled by threads
The time has come to make decisions
The changes have to be made
I realise I hold the key to freedom
I cannot let my life be ruled by threads
The time has come to make decisions
The changes have to be made

Now I leave you, the past does have it's say
You're all but forgotten a mote in my heart
Decisions have been made, decisions have been made
I've conquered my fears, the flaming shroud

Thus ends the web

 

[fox69]

"The Wound"

"The Wound"


I've done everything that can be done to heal this wound
Left it on it's own for years

I've done everything that can be done to heal this wound
Left it on it's own for years
Couldn't touch it, didn't pick it, didn't get it wet
It didn't stop the bleeding

I bandaged it, I wrapped it, stitched it, tourniqueted it
I held it stiff & aching in the air
Held it there til I went beserk
Didn't sleep
It didn't work
Didn't stop it weeping

And the wound is your life
And your life took on a life of it's own
(Or so you foolishly thought)
And your life rolled on over me Bang-Bang like 56 train wheels
Every time I heard news of you

And the wound was in every lousy song on the radio

And the pain was like a tree-fern in the dark, damp, forgotten places
Darkness didn't stop her growing
New-born baby cells dividing..
Curled up tight unrolling day by day
Stretching up, stretching out
Forming the same identical shape
Clones. There ain't too much sadder than
Clones - relentlessly emerging from the hairy heart of the wound

And the fern is beautiful in it's own way
Uncurling in the dark
Beautiful with no one there to see it
As the would weeps & aches

(Now there's some sad things known to the man from the planet Marzipan)

 

[fox69]

"These Chains"

"These Chains"


Everything crashed
His wife left him
He lost all his money
And most of his friends
He lay awake all night
Lonely and desperate
Contemplating starting again
These chains are all your own
These chains are comfortable

Four in the morning
Sat in the kitchen
Keys on the table
Went out for a drive
He didn't know
Where he was going
Didn't know
If he was alive

The dawn was breaking
A new day was rising
Shadows creepin' over the fields
He watched the pink light
Steal across the horizon
He realised
He saw with new eyes

These chains are all your own
These chains are comfortable
This cage was never locked
Born free but scared to be
This cage was made for you
With care and constant attention
This cage is safe and warm
Will you die and never know what it's like
Outside

 

[fox69]

"This Is The 21st Century"

"This Is The 21st Century"


(...If you could only see what I've seen with your eyes)
A wise man once said
A flower is only
A sexual organ
Beauty is cruelty
And evolution
A wise man once said
that everything could be explained with mathematics
He had denied
His feminine side
Now where is the wisdom in that?

I came just as fast as I could
Through the dirty air
Of your neighbourhood
Your name on a grain of rice
Hangin' around my neck
And a head like lead

This is the 21st century
I heard everything they said
The Universe demystified
Chemicals for God
This is the 21st century
I heard everything they said

A wise man once wrote
That love is only
An ancient instinct
For reproduction
Natural selection
A wise man once said
That everything could be explained
And it's all in the brain

We lay on a velvet rug
by the open fire
She blew air on my eyelids
I cried "What's it all about?"
As she kissed my hair
She said "There, there.."

"This is the 21st century
I heard everything you said
The universe demystified
Astronomy instead
This is the 21st century
Can't you get it through your head
This aint the way it was meant to be
Magic isn't dead
Come to bed
Come to bed

And rest your heavy head my love.."
And slowly, from above,
She showed the answer's something that can't be written down

This is the 21st century
Flash to crash and burn
Nobody's gonna give you anything
For nothing in return
There's a man up in a mirrored building
And he just bought the world

Would you want
To have kids
Growing up
Into what's left of this?

She shook her head,
She said "Can't you see?
The world is you
The world is me."

 

[fox69]

"This Strange Engine"

"This Strange Engine"


There was a boy who came into this world
At the hands of a holy woman in a holy place
He wore a red coat and walked a bulldog
Saw them reflected in the mirror of the lakes
Lived in the shadow of the mountains
With the smells of disinfectant, dusty old leather
And the polished wood of his bed
No more than a baby feeding swans on the river
Holding the hands of his mother
And the wax paper bag of yesterday's bread
And his father on the other side of the world
On the ships railings and some far away tide
With the silent dry tear of home thoughts from abroad
In his far away eyes
In his far away eyes

The smell of the wax on the wooden floor
Mixture of polish and soap
No children to fear or to play with
Rows of empty hooks for the coats
An upright piano and the boys in the choir
Still remind him of just before he was born
Remind him of just before he was breathing
Strange misty visions of God
Turn the cities into families
Into villages of souls
Hovering in the air while they're sleeping
With their houses invisible
Chase the moon between the buildings
Running as fast as I could run
Send to me the ghosts of Christmas
Whispering, "You're the only one"

And ever since I was a boy
I never felt that I belonged
Like everything they did to me
Was an experiment to see
How I would cope with the illusion
In which direction would I jump
Would I do it all the same
As the actors in the game
Or would I spit it back at them
And not get caught up in their rules
And live according to my own
And not be used, not be used
To find the fundamental truths
It was going to take some time
Thirty five summers down the line
The wisdom of each passing year
Seems to serve only to confuse
Seems to serve only to confuse

Daddy came out the navy and took us away
To his dirty grey home town
And he worked down on a coal mine for National Service
So that he could be around
There was a magical purple in the chrome of the exhaust
Of his Triumph motor bike
And a warmth of oil and metal and the thrill of the hard corner
Holding tight

From the horizon
Came home from the Navy to the mine
From the horizon
To buried alive
Took his dream underground
Buried his treasure in his faraway eyes

And one day as the boy lay sleeping in the sunshine
Of a half remembered afternoon
A cloud of bees with no particular aim, and no brain
Found the boy, decided that his time had come
Came down out of the sky
Stung him in the face
Again and again
Blue pain
Screaming like baptism
Intravenous, Jesus!
Like being chosen
Blue pain from something with no brain
I can't explain
It's happening again
It's happening again

Oh Mummy, Daddy, will you sit a while with me
Oh Mummy, Daddy, will you jog my memory
Tell me tall tales of Montego Bay
Table mountain, flying fish, banana spiders, pots of paint
And the sun on the equator
Setting like an ember thrown to deep water
From crimson to black
But coming back
Tomorrow
On the horizon

The blue pain
Fades to a point where it doesn't fade
It stayed
Blue
Stirred his red coat heart to this strange engine
This love

This love
This inconvenient, blind, blood-diamond
This puzzle
I don't understand
That knows no faith
And tries and fails
And tries again
Stares at the sea
The night's dark deep
For one last time
And bleeds
And bleeds
And dies for you
And lies
And is to blame
And is ashamed
And is not the same
And is true
And is true

 

[fox69]

"This Town"

"This Town"


The cars leave their trails of hot and cold light inside my head
Like burned-in long exposure pictures
The wheels spin slowly backwards
Strobing in the amber light
And the rain comes down and washes my brain
But it don't get clean
This town has turned me into what I have become
This town dresses me up like a stranger
This town performs in the window like the ultimate gift
This town takes us down
I feel like I'm losing you to this town

We were saving our money for half of our lives
We were saving our dreams
And we came to this place to make the chances real
In the big city
But I've been counting the days
I've been watching you change
And I can feel it dying
The noise outside takes you in its arms
Like a lamb to a lion

And down there somewhere among the noise
The magazine dolls and the big money boys
Move silently on their easy heels
They move silently on their greasy wheels

This town has turned me into what I have become
This town dresses you up like a stranger
This town hangs around in the doorway and tells me I'm late
This town takes us down, takes us down
I feel like I'm losing you to this town

The morning breaks and I watch you awake
This town takes you down away from me again

 

[fox69]

"This Train Is My Life"

"This Train Is My Life"


This train is my life
Speeding through the night
We have been to these places
For barely a moment

Wide awake
Sometimes sleeping
Sometimes watching
Sometimes dreaming

Through stroby stations
Too fast to know their names
Too fast to know if we came or will come again

Sleeping towns joined together
By the steel of the rails
Parallel lines
Parallel lives

You and I
We're movie-rich
We're reflected in the window
The dark night's black mirror glass
Distant lights from the wrong side of the tracks

Christmas lights
Go by in the houses
Anonymous windows
Anonymous rooms of
Anonymous souls

So take my hand
Squeeze it tight
Make some light
In the darkness
I'm glad you came on this trip
Don't lose your grip
Don't lose your grip
This train is my life
This train is my life

Travel with me
And we'll see..

 

[fox69]

"Three Boats Down From The Candy"

"Three Boats Down From The Candy"


Three boats down from the candy, vacant deck chairs on a floodlit beach
Three boats down from the candy, rollers coast invade the deepest sleep
Three boats down from the candy, carnal dancer let their senses preach
It's a social disease, it's the new moral cancer
Don't think crying wolf will give you the answer

You ask for my love on the strength of a kiss
But can't you just play for experience?
I'm a poet, I'm a poet, I'm a minstrel, I'm a minstrel, I don't need your chains
Romance lies in ruin let debauchery reign, let it rain

Wipe the tears from your eyes, wipe the sweat from your thighs
Don't crawl to me with sentiment, my laughter drowns your cries
You're a memory trapped on Polaroid, a puppet drawn on celluloid
So drink the wine, confess your sin, just flotsam in a silent void

Three boats down from the candy, I'll remember you
Three boats down from the candy, much to much to lose
Three boats down from the candy, those words were never true
Three boats down from the candy, I'll remember you
I'll remember you, I'll remember you

 

[fox69]

"Three Minute Boy"

"Three Minute Boy"


Here today
Gone this afternoon
Another tune we almost remember
What's the story
Sex and drugs again
Business as usual
The clock's already ticking
La la la la
When he was young
Staring at the TV
He watched the fun happenin' to other people
Now they scream
As they run after him
Like a dream
Like Elvis and the Beatles

A three minute song is all he wrote
He only did it for a joke
They played him on the radio
From Tokyo to Timbuktu
A three minute boy, ain't that somethin'
They named their children after him
The good times rolled beneath his feet
He skipped along the one-way street

She's a pretty girl
She don't know how it started
She made a movie
He almost remembered
She measured up
They moved into a basement
"We're so in love!"
They giggled to the nation
La la la la

Three minute millionaire they said
The numbers rattled round his head
They spun him three times round the globe
She waited patiently at home
And all the pretty girls wanted him
In places that he'd never been
Too much love will do you in
Forgive Forgive Forgive Forgive
Yeah Yeah Ooo

Three minute kid is here again
Surrounded by three minute friends
He found someone to understand
To shock the world and hold his hand
No religion, no restraint
No direction, no complaints
No future and no way out
No time now to think about it
All the money's gone
He don't know what he spent it on
Girlfriends gone off with the Jag
Gone back to her mum and dad
He's curled up on the studio floor
He just can't do it anymore
The flashgun went off without warning
He'll read about it tomorrow morning

She's goin' out with someone new
In this week at number two
Three minute boy ain't that somethin'

 

[fox69]

"Throw Me Out"

"Throw Me Out"


In our house
Two's a crowd
You threw me out
Of my own life
You seem want to be a friend

In our house
Two's a crowd
No more trouble
No more strife
You seem to be at your wits end
I tore apart my oldest friend

How my heart jumped
And may head thumped
As this hard earth
Came up and bumped
As I was dumped

And you threw me out
And you threw me out

Stood at the boundary
Without a clue
Unrequired
Losing you..
Testing your patience
Every day
Opening drawers
Getting in the way

And making a mess
While you're trying to clean
I guess that's my function..
Know what I mean..

Throw me out
Don't worry babe
I'm recyclable
I'll biodegrade
I'll biodegrade

I'm recyclable
I'm recyclable