The Thieving Magpie

Marillion The Thieving Magpie Lyrics
1.Bitter Suite

(fish / marillion)

A) brief encounter

A spider wanders aimlessly within the warmth of a shadow
Not the regal creature of border caves
But the poor, misguided, directionless familiar of some obscure
scottish poet

The mist crawls from the canal
Like some primordial phantom of romance
To curl, under a cascade of neon pollen
While i sit tied to the phone like an expectant father
Your carnation will rot in a vase

B) lost weekend

A train sleeps in a siding
The driver guzzles another can of lager, lager
To wash away the memories of a friday night down at the club

She was a wallflower at sixteen, she'll be a wallflower at
thirty four
Her mother called her beautiful
Her daddy said, 'a whore'

C) blue angel

The sky was bible black in lyon, when i met the magdalene
She was paralyzed in a streetlight
She refused to give her name

And a ring of violet bruises
They were pinned upon her arm
Two hundred francs for sanctuary and she led me by the hand
To a room of dancing shadows where all the heartache disappears
And from glowing tongues of candles i heard her whisper in my
ear
'j'entend ton coeur', 'j'entend ton coeur'
I can hear your heart, i can hear your heart, i can hear your
heart
Hear your heart
I hear your heart

D) misplaced rendezvous

It's getting late, for scribbling and scratching on the paper
Something's gonna give under this pressure, and the cracks are
already beginning to show
It's too late
The weekend career girl never boarded the plane
They said this could never happen again
Oh, so wrong, so wrong

This time it seems to be another misplaced rendezvous
This time, it's looking like another misplaced rendezvous
With you
The parallel of you, you

E) windswept thumb

On the outskirts of nowhere
On the ringroad to somewhere
On the verge of indecision
I'll always take the roundabout way
Waiting on the rain
For i was born with a habit, from a sign
The habit of a windswept thumb, and the sign of the rain
Rain on me, rain

It's started raining


2.Blind Curve

(fish / marillion)

A) vocal under a bloodlight

Last night you said i was cold, untouchable
A lonely piece of action from another town
I just want to be free, i'm happy to be lonely
Can't you stay away?
Just leave me alone with my thoughts
Just a runaway, just a runaway, i'm saving myself

B) passing strangers

Strung out below a necklace of carnival lights
Cold moan, held on the crest of the night
I'm too tired to fight

So now we're passing strangers, at single tables
Still trying to get over, still trying to write love songs for
passing strangers
All those passing strangers

And the twinkling lies, all those twinkling lies
Sparkle with the wet ink on the paper

C) mylo

Oh i remember toronto when mylo went down
And we sat and we cried on the phone
I never felt so alone
He was the first of our own
Some of us go down in a blaze of obscurity
Some of us go down in a haze of publicity
The price of infamy, the edge of insanity

Another holiday inn, another temporary home
And an interviewer threatened me with a microphone
'talk to me, won't you tell me your stories.'

So i talked about conscience and i talked about pain
And he looked out the window and it started to rain
I thought maybe i've already gone crazy
So i reached for a bottle and he reached for the door
And i picked up the sleeping pills crushed on the floor
Inviting me to a casual obscenity

D) perimeter walk

It would be incredible if we could retrace all the times that we
lived here
All the collisions
Wasted, i've never been so wasted
I've never been this far out before

Perimeter walk
There's a presence here
I feel could have been ancient, i could have been mystical

There's a presence
A childhood, my childhood
My childhood, childhood
A misplaced childhood
My childhood, a misplaced childhood
Give it back to me, give it back to me
A childhood, that childhood, that childhood, that childhood,
that childhood
Oh please give it back to me

E) threshold

I saw a war widow in a launderette
Washing the memories from her husband's clothes
She had medals pinned to a threadbare greatcoat
A lump in her throat with cemetery eyes

I see convoys curbcrawling west german autobahns
Trying to pick up a war
They're going to even the score
Oh... i can't take any more
I see black flags on factories
Soup ladies poised on the lips of the poor
I see children with vacant stares, destined for rape in the
alleyways
Does anybody care, i can't take any more!
Should we say goodbye?
Hey

I see priests, politicians?
The heroes in black plastic body-bags under nations' flags
I see children pleading with outstretched hands, drenched in
napalm, this is no vietnam

I can't take any more, should we say goodbye
How can we justify?
They call us civilised!


3.Chelsea Monday

(derek disck/steve rothery/ pete trewavas/ micheal pointer/mark
kelly)

Catalogue princess, apprentice seductress
Hiding in her cellophane world in glitter town
Awaiting the prince in his white capri
Dynamic young tarzan courts the bedsit queen

She's playing the actress in this bedroom scene
She's learning her lines from glossy magazines
Stringing all her pearls from her childhood dreams
Auditioning for the leading role on the silver screen

Patience my tinsel angel, patience my perfumed child
One day they really love you, you'll charm them with that smile
But for now it's just another chelsea monday
Chelsea monday

Tju
In the city of dreamers...
Drifting with her incense in the labyrinth of london
Playing games with faces in the neon wonderland
Perform to scattered shadows on the shattered cobbled aisles
Would she dare recite soliloquies at the risk of stark applause
To chelsea monday

She'll pray for endless sundays as she enters saffron sunsets
Conjure phantom lovers from the tattered shreds of dawn
Fulfilled and yet forgotten the st. tropez mirage
Fragrant aphrodisiac, the withered tuberose
Of chelsea monday
Sweet chelsea monday

Patience my tinsel angel, patience my perfumed child
One day they really love you, you'll charm them with that smile
But for now it's just another chelsea monday
Sweet chelsea monday

Voice: 'hello john, did you see the standard about four hours
ago?
Fished a young chick out of the old father
Blond hair, blue eyes
She said she wanted to be an actress or something
Nobody knows where she came from, where she was going
Funny thing was she had a smile on her face
She was smiling
What a waste!'

Catalogue princess, apprentice seductress
Buried in her cellophane world in glitter town
Of chelsea monday
Chelsea monday
She was only dreaming


4.Childhood's End?

(fish / marillion)

And it was morning
And i found myself mourning, for a childhood that i thought had
disappeared
I looked out the window
And i saw a magpie in the rainbow, the rain had gone i'm not
alone
I turned to the mirror, i saw you, the child, that once loved
The child before they broke his heart
Our heart, the heart that i believed was lost

Hey you, surprised?
More than surprised, to find the answers to the questions, were
always in your own eyes
Do you realize that you give it on back to her?
But that would only be retraced in all the problems that you
ever knew
So untrue
For she's got to carry on with her life, and you've got to carry
on with yours

So i see it's me, i can do anything
And i'm still the child
'cos the only thing misplaced was direction
And i found direction
There is no childhood's end
There is no childhood's end
Cos' you are my childhood friend
Cos' you are my childhood friend
Oh lead me on

Hey you, you've survived
Now you've arrived, to be reborn in the shadow of the magpie
Now you realize, that you've got to get out of here
You've found the leading light of destiny, burning in the ashes
of your memory
You want to change the world
You'd resigned yourself to die a broken rebel
But that was looking backward
Now you've found the light

You, the child that once loved
The child before they broke his heart
Our heart, the heart that i believed was lost
So it's me i see, i can do anything
I'm still the child
'cos the only thing misplaced was direction, and i found
direction
There is no childhood's end
There is no childhood's end
There is no childhood's end
I am your childhood friend
Oh, lead me on


5.Freaks

(derek dick, mark kelly, steve rothery, peter trewavas, ian
mosley)

Have you ever met a lady, screaming angst potential?
Have you ever dreamed of romance, no matter how experimental?
Have you ever felt an alien drifting back into your hometown?
Did you think you were buying safety when you bought that piece
of ground?

She said all the best freaks are here
She said all the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me
So i said all the best freaks are here
All the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me

Have you ever woke up, sweating in the middle of the night?
You search the darkness and you're scrambling for the light
Have you ever walked down the street, heard bootsteps following
you?
Don't worry my son, you've got the spook squad looking after you

He said all the best freaks are here
He said all the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me
So i said all the best freaks are here
All the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me, stop
staring at me

Airport terminal, patiently waiting on the last call
You feel the eyes burn the back of your head
Sign the autograph, get out of the picture, gonna have the last
laugh
Feel the whispers as you head for the plane
Stop staring at me

Love and linen sheets seem so very far away
You save your pennies and you buy another day
But after all it's only hide and seek, just another game
There's so much fun to be had when you're living with a name

All the best freaks are here, all the best freaks are here
Please stop staring at me, all the best freaks are here
All the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me
Oh, stop staring at me, oh, stop staring at me

They said all the best freaks are here
All the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me
All the best freaks are here
All the best freaks are here, please stop staring at me


6.Fugazi

(fish / marillion)

Vodka intimate, an affair with isolation in a blackheath cell
Extinguishing the fires in a private hell
Provoking the heartache to renew the licence
Of a bleeding heart poet in a fragile capsule
Propping up the crust of the glitter conscience
Wrapped in the christening shawl of a hangover
Baptised in the tears from the real
Tears from the real

Drowning in the liquid seize on the piccadilly line, rat race
Scuttling through the damp electric labyrinth
Caress ophelias hand with breathstroke ambition
An albatross in the marrytime tradition
Sheathed within the walkman wear the halo of distortion
Aural contraceptive aborting pregnant conversation
She turned the harpoon and it pierced my heart
She hung herself around my neck

From the time-life-guardians in their conscience bubbles
Safe and dry in my sea of troubles
Nine to five with suitable ties
Cast adrift as their sideshow, peepshow, stereo hero
Becalm bestill, bewitch
Drowning in the real

The thief of baghdad hides in islingtown now
Praying deportation for his sacred cow
A legacy of romance from a twilight world
The dowry of a relative mystery girl
A vietnamese flower, a dockland union
A mistress of release from a magazine's thighs
Magdalenes contracts more than favours
The feeding hands of western promise hold her by the throat

A son of a swastika of '45 parading a peroxide standard
Graffiti disciples conjure testaments of hatred
Aerosol wands whisper where the searchlights trim the barbed
wire hedges
This is brixton chess
A knight for embankment folds his newspaper castle
A creature of habit, begs the boatman's coin
He'll fade with old soldiers in the grease stained roll call
And linger with the heartburn of good friday's last supper

Son watches father scan obituary columns in search of absent
school friends
While his generation digests high fibre ignorance
Cowering behind curtains and the taped up painted windows
Decriminalised genocide, provided door to door belsens
Pandora's box of holocausts gracefully cruising satellite
infested heavens
Waiting, wai-wai-waiting, the season of the button
The penultimate migration
Radioactive perfumes
For the fashionably
For the terminally insane, insane
D-d-do you realise?
D-d-do you realise?
D-d-do you realise, this world is totally fugazi

Where are the prophets
Where are the visionaries
Where are the poets
To breach the dawn of the sentimental mercenary


7.He Knows You Know

(derek disck/steve rothery/ pete trewavas/ micheal pointer/mark
kelly/diz minnett/brian jellyman)

He knows, you know, he knows, you know
Problems, problems, problems, problems

Light switch, yellow fever, crawling up your bathroom wall
Singing psychedelic praises to the depths of a china bowl
You've got venom in your stomach, you've got poison in your head
You should have listened to the priest at the confession
When he offered you the sacred bread

He knows, you know, he knows, you know, he knows, you know
But he's got problems

Fast feed, crystal fever, swarming through a fractured mind
Chilling needles freeze emotion, the blind shall lead the blind
You've got venom in you stomach, you've got poison in your head
When your conscience whispered, the vein lines stiffened
You were walking with the dead

He knows, you know, he knows, you know, he knows, you know
He's got experience
He's got experience, he knows, you know
But he's got problems
Problems, problems, problems, problems, problems, problems.

He knows...
Slash wrist, scarlet fever, crawled under your bathroom door
Pumping arteries ooze the problem, through the gap that the
razor tore
You've got venom in your stomach, you've got poison in your head
You should have listened to your analyst questions when yo lay
on his leather bed

He knows, you know, he knows, you know, he knows, you know
But he's got problems

Blank eyes, purple fever, streaming through the frosted pane
You learned your lesson far to late from the links in a chemist
chain
You've got venom in your stomach, you've got poison in your head
You should have stayed at home and talked with father
Listen to the lies he fed

He knows, you know, he knows, you know, he knows, you know
But he's got problems
He knows, you know, he knows, you know, he knows, you know
He's got experience
He's got experience, he knows, you know
He knows, you know, you know, you know
You know, you know, you know, you know

Problems, problems, problems, problems, problems, problems
Don't give me your problems


8.Heart Of Lothian

(derek dick, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian
mosley)

On the outskirts of nowhere
On the ringroad to somewhere
On the verge of indecision
I'll always take the roundabout way

Waiting on the rain
For i was born with a habit
From a sign
The habit of a windswept thumb
And the sign of the rain

Rain on me! {it started to rain}

A) wide boy

Wide boys, wide boys, wide boys
Born with hearts of lothian
Wide boys, wide boys
Born with hearts of lothian
Wide boys, we were wide boys
Born with hearts of lothian
These hearts of lothian

It's six o'clock in the tower blocks
The stalagmites of culture shock
And the trippers of the light fantastic, bowdown, hoe-down
Spray their pheremones on this perfume uniform

And anarchy smiles in the royal mile
And they're waiting on the slyboys, flyboys, wideboys
Rooting, tooting cowboys
Lucky little ladies at the watering holes
They'll score the friday night goals

I was born with a heart of lothian
I was born with a heart of lothian
I was born with a heart of lothian
I was born with a heart of lothian
I was born with a heart of lothian, with a heart of lothian.


9.Incommunicado

(fish, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian mosley)

I'd be really pleased to meet you if i could remember your name
But i got problems of the memory ever since i got a winner in
the fame game
I'm a citizen of legoland travellin' incommunicado
And i don't give a damn for the fleet street afficionados

But i don't want to be the backpage interview
I don't want launderette anonymity
I want my handprints in the concrete on sunset boulevard
A dummy in tussauds you'll see
Incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado

I'm a marquee veteran, a multi-media bonafide celebrity
I've got an allergy to perrier, daylight and responsibility
I'm a rootin-tootin cowboy, the peter pan, the street
credibility
Always taking the point with the dawn patrol fraternity

Sometimes it seems like i've been here before when i hear
opportunity kicking in my door
Call it synchronicity call it deja vu i just put my faith in
destiny -- it's the way that i choose

But i don't want to be a tin can tied to the bumper of a wedding
limousine
Or currently residing in the where are they now file a toupet on
the cabaret scene
I want to do adverts for american express cards talk shows on
prime time tv
A villa in france, my own cocktail bar and that's where you're
gonna find me

Incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado

Sometimes it seems like i've been here before when i hear
opportunity kicking in my door
Call it synchronicity call it deja vu i just put my faith in
destiny -- it's the way that i choose

Incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado
It's the only way
Incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado, incommunicado


10.Jigsaw

(fish / marillion)

We are jigsaw pieces aligned on the perimeter edge
Interlocked through a missing piece
We are renaissance children becalmed beneath the bridge of sighs
Forever throwing firebrands at the stonework
We are siamese children related by the heart
Bleeding from the surgery of initial confrontation
Holding the word scalpels on trembling lips

Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye
Stand straight, we've drifted past the point of reasons why
Yesterday starts tomorrow, tomorrow starts today
And the problem always seems to be we're picking up the pieces
on the ricochet
This is the ricochet

Drowning tequila sunsets, stowaways on midnight ships
Refugees of romance plead asylum from the real
Scrambling distress signals on random frequencies
Forever repatriated on guilt laden morning planes
We are pilots of passion sweating the flight on course
To another summit conference, another breakfast time divorce
Screaming out a ceasefire, snowblind in an avalanche zone

Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye, say goodbye
Stand straight, we've drifted past the point of reasons why
Yesterday starts tomorrow, tomorrow starts today
And the problem always seems to be we're picking up the pieces
on the ricochet
This is the ricochet

Are we trigger happy?
Russian roulette in the waiting room
Empty chambers embracing the end
Puzzled visions haunt the ripples of a trevi moon
Dream coins for the fountain or to cover your eyes
We reached ignition point from the sparks of pleasantries
We sensed the smoke advancing from horizons
You must have known that i was planning an escape

Stand straight, look me in the eye and say goodbye, say goodbye
Stand straight, we've drifted past the point of reasons why
Yesterday starts tomorrow, tomorrow starts today, starts today
And the problem always seems to be we're picking up the pieces
on the ricochet
This is the ricochet

I'll be seeing you again, on the ricochet
Will you show me the pieces next time, on the ricochet
I'll be seeing you again, on the ricochet
There's a problem, there's a ricochet


11.Kayleigh

(fish, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian mosley)

Do you remember chalk hearts melting on a playground wall
Do you remember dawn escapes from moon washed college halls
Do you remember the cherry blossom in the market square
Do you remember i thought it was confetti in our hair
By the way didn't i break your heart?
Please excuse me, i never meant to break your heart
So sorry, i never meant to break your heart
But you broke mine

Kayleigh is it too late to say i'm sorry?
And kayleigh could we get it together again?
I just can't go on pretending that it came to a natural end

Kayleigh, oh i never thought i'd miss you
And kayleigh i thought that we'd always be friends
We said our love would last forever
So how did it come to this bitter end?

Do you remember barefoot on the lawn with shooting stars
Do you remember loving on the floor in belsize park
Do you remember dancing in stilettoes in the snow
Do you remember you never understood i had to go
By the way, didn't i break your heart?
Please excuse me, i never meant to break your heart
So sorry, i never meant to break your heart
But you broke mine

Kayleigh i just wanna say i'm sorry
But kayleigh i'm too scared to pick up the phone
To hear you've found another lover to patch up our broken home

Kayleigh i'm still trying to write that love song
Kayleigh it's more important to me now you're gone
Maybe it will prove that we were right
Or ever prove that i was wrong


12.La Gazza Ladra


13.Lavender

(derek dick, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian
mosley)

I was walking in the park
Dreaming of a spark
When i heard the sprinklers whisper
Shimmer in the haze of summer lawns.
Then i heard the children singing
They were running through the rainbows.
They were singing a song for you
Well it seemed to be a song for you
The one i wanted to write for you

Lavenders blue, dilly dilly, lavenders green
When i am king, dilly dilly
You will be queen
A penny for your thoughts my dear
A penny for your thoughts my dear
I.o.u. for your love
I.o.u. for your love

Lavenders green, dilly dilly, lavenders blue
When you love me, dilly dilly, i will love you
A penny for your thoughts my dear
A penny for your thoughts my dear
I.o.u. for your love
I.o.u. for your love

Lavender dreams dilly, dilly lavender true
When you miss me dilly dilly, i did miss you
A penny for your thoughts my dear
A penny for your thoughts my dear
I.o.u for your love
I.o.u. for your love
For your love

Blue angel

The sky was bible black in lyon
When i met the magdalene
She was paralyzed in a streetlight
She refused to give her name

And a ring of violet bruises
They were pinned upon her arm
Two hundred francs for sanctuary and she led me by the hand
To a room of dancing shadows
Where all the heartache disappears
And from glowing tongues of candles i heard her whisper in my
ear
'j'entend ton coeur', 'j'entend ton coeur'
I can hear your heart, i can hear your heart, i can hear your
heart
Hear your heart. i hear your heart


14.Lords Of The Backstage

(fish / marillion)

A love song with no validity
Pretend you never meant that much to me
Numb, a valium child, bored by meaningless collisions
A lonely stretch of headlight, diamonds trapped in black ice
A mirror cracked among the white lines

I just wanted you to be the first one
I just wanted you to be the first one
Ashes are burning, burning
Ashes are burning, burning

A lifestyle with no simplicities
But i'm not asking for your sympathy
Talk, we never could talk, distanced by all that was between us
A lord of the backstage, a creature of language
I'm so far out and i'm too far in

I just wanted you to be the first one
I just wanted you to be the first one
Bridges are burning, burning
Bridges are burning, burning
Now, now, now, now


15.Pseudo Silk Kimono

(fish / marillion)

Huddled in the safety of a pseudo silk kimono wearing bracelets
of smoke
Naked of understanding
Nicotine smears, long, long dried tears, invisible tears
Safe in my own words, learning from my own words
Cruel joke, cruel joke

Huddled in the safety of a pseudo silk kimono a morning mare
rides
In the starless shutters of my eyes
The spirit of a misplaced childhood is rising to speak his mind
To this orphan of heartbreak, disillusioned and scarred
A refugee, refugee


16.Punch And Judy

(fish / marillion)

Punch
Punch and judy
Punch and judy
Punch and judy

Washing machine, pinstripe dream
Stripped the gloss from a beauty queen
Punch and judy, judy
Found our nest, in the daily express
Met the vicar in a holy vest
Punch and judy
Punch and judy

Brought up the children church of e
Now i vegetate with a colour tv
Worst ever thing that ever happened to me
Oh, for d.i.v.o.r.c.e.
Oh judy

Whatever happened to pillow fights
Whatever happened to jeans so tight, friday nights
Whatever happened to lover's lane
Whatever happened to passion games
Sunday walks in the pouring rain

Punch
Punch
Punch and judy
Punch and judy
Punch and judy
Punch
Punch
Punch and judy
Punch and judy
Punch and judy

Curling tongs, mogadons, 'i got a headache baby, don't take so
long'
Single beds, middle age dread
Losing the war in the waistlands spread

Who left the cap of the toothpaste tube
Who forgot to flush the loo
Leave your sweaty socks outside the door
Don't walk across my polished floor, oh judy

Whatever happened to morning smiles
Whatever happened to wicked wiles, permissive styles
Whatever happened to twinkling eyes
Whatever happened to hard fast drives
Complements on unnatural size

Punch
Punch
Punch and judy
Punch and judy
Punch and judy
Punch
Punch
Punch and judy
Punch and judy
Punch and judy

Propping up a bar, family car
Sweating out a mortgage as a balding clerk
Punch and judy, judy
World war three, suburbanshee
Just slip her these pills and i'll be free.

No more judy
Judy, judy no more!
Goodbye judy!


17.Script For A Jester's Tear

(derek disck/steve rothery/ pete trewavas/ micheal pointer/mark
kelly)

So here i am once more
In the playground of the broken hearts
One more experience, one more entry in a diary, self-penned
Yet another emotional suicide
Overdosed on sentiment and pride
Too late to say i love you
Too late to restage the play
Abandoning the relics in my playground of yesterday

I'm losing on the swings
I'm losing on the roundabouts
I'm losing on the swings
I'm losing on the roundabouts
Too much, too soon, too far to go, too late to play
The game is over, the game is over

So here i am once more
In the playground of the broken hearts
I'm losing on the swings
I'm losing on the roundabouts
The game is over

Yet another emotional suicide
Overdosed on sentiment and pride
I'm losing on the swings
I'm losing on the roundabouts, roundabouts, the game is over

Too late to say i love you
Too late to restage the play
The game is over

I act the role in classic style
Of a martyr carved with twisted smile
To bleed the lyric for this song
To write the rites to right my wrongs
An epitaph to a broken dream
To exercise this silent scream
A scream that's born from sorrow

I never did write that lovesong
The words just never seemed to flow
Now sad in reflection did i gaze through perfection
And examine the shadows on the other side of morning
And examine the shadows on the other side of morning
Promised wedding now a wake
Promised wedding now a wake, awake

The fool escaped from paradise
Will look over his shoulder and cry
Sit and chew on daffodils and struggle to answer 'why?'
As you grow up and leave the playground
Where you kissed your prince and found your frog
Remember the jester that showed you tears, the script for tears

So i'll hold our peace forever when you wear your bridal gown
In the silence of my shame the mute that sang the sirens' song
Has gone solo in the game
I've gone solo in the game, but the game is over

Can you still say you love me
Can you still say you love me
Can you still say that you love me
Do you love me
Do you love me
Do you love me
Do you love me, the jester's tear

Can you still say you love me
Can you still say you love me
Can you still say that you love me?

The jester's tear, the jester's tear
Do you love me


18.Slainte Mhath

(fish, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian mosley)

A hand held over a candle in angst fuelled bravado
A carbon trail scores a moist stretched palm
Trapped in the indecision of another fine menu
And you sit there and ask me to tell you the story so far
This is the story so far

Shuffling your memories dealing your doodles in margins
You scrawl out your poems across a beermat or two
And when you declare the point of grave creation
They turn round and you to tell them the story so far
This is the story so far

And you listen with a tear in you eye
To their hopes and betrayals and your only reply
Is slnte mhath

Princes in exile raising the standard drambuie
Parading their anecdotes tired from old campaigns
Holding their own last orders commanding attention
We sit here and listen to all of the story so far
This is the story so far

Take it away
Take it away
Take it away
Take me away
Take me away
Take me away
Take me away
Take me away

From the dream on the barbed wire at flanders and bilston glen
From a clydeside that rusts from the tears of its broken men
From the realisation that all we've been left behind
Is to stand like our fathers before us in the firing line

Waiting on the whistle to blow
We stand here waiting on the whistle to blow
They promised us miracles, and the whistle still blows
Broken promises but the whistle still blows
Waiting on the wistle to blow
We stand here waiting on the wistle to blow


19.Sugar Mice

(fish, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian mosley)

I was flicking through the channels on the tv
On a sunday in milwaukee in the rain
Trying to piece together conversations
Trying to find out where to lay the blame

But when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to
pretend
For when it gets right down to it there's no one here that's
left to blame
Blame it on me, you can blame it on me
We're just sugar mice in the rain

I heard sinatra calling me through the floorboards
Where you pay a quarter for a partnership in rhyme
To the jukebox crying in the corner
While the waitress is counting out the time

For when it comes right down to it there's no use trying to
pretend
For when it gets right down to it there's no one really left to
blame
Blame it on me, you can blame it on me
We're just sugar mice in the rain

'cause i know what i feel, know what i want i know what i am
Daddy took a raincheck
Cos i know what i want, know what i feel i know what i need
Daddy took a raincheck, your daddy took a raincheck
Ain't no one in here that's left to blame but me
Blame it on me, blame it on me

Well the toughest thing that i ever did was talk to the kids on
the phone
When i heard them asking questions i knew that that you were all
alone
Can't you understand that the government left me out of work
I just couldn't stand the looks on their faces saying, 'what a
jerk'

So if you want my address it's number one at the end of the bar
Where i sit with the broken angels clutching at straws and
nursing our scars
Blame it on me, blame it on me
Sugar mice in the rain
Your daddy took a raincheck, your daddy took a raincheck


20.Waterhole(Expresso Bongo)

(fish / marillion)

When the taxis gather in mock solemnity
Funeral hearses court the death of virginity
Was it paradise lost or paradise found?
Did we gain respect or were we holding ground?
You had found true love, or so you believed
And the wideboys tattooed your hearts upon their sleeves

So when you think it's time to go, when you think it's time to
go
Don't be surprised, the heroes never show

And the patter merchants selling false impressions
Tipping eyes at the waitress with american expressions
Tie angels to the bar with sweet martini's and their charms
They're lying on every word and every arm
They're turning down their noses to the best lines
And the cheap wines

And the wideboys
They wear their lovebites for their crimes

So when you think it's time to go, when you think it's time to
go
Don't be surprised, the heroes never show


21.White Feather

(fish / marillion)

When i hit the streets back in '81
Found a heart in the gutter and a poet's crown
I felt barbed wire kisses and icicle tears
Where have i been for all these years?

I saw political intrigue, political lies
Gonna wipe those smiles of self-satisfaction from their eyes

I will wear your white feather i will carry your white flag
I will swear i have no nation but i'm proud to own my heart
I will wear your white feather i will carry your white flag
I will swear i have no nation but i'm proud to own my heart
My heart, this is my heart

We don't need no uniforms, we have no disguise
Divided we stand, together we'll rise

We will wear your white feather
All the children
We will carry your white flag
We will swear we have no nations
Beirut children
But we're proud to own our hearts
Jeruzalem children
We will wear your white feather
Tokio children
We will carry your white flag
Moscow children
We will swear we have no nations
Washington children
But we're proud to own our hearts
Munich children
These are our hearts
Chicago children
These are our hearts
Cairo children
You can't take away our hearts ...
You can't steal our hearts away

I can't walk away i can't walk away
No more, no more, no more, no more...


22.White Russian

(fish, steve rothery, mark kelly, pete trewavas, ian mosley)

Where do we go from here?

Where do we go from here, where do we go from here
Where do we go from here, where do we go from here

They boarded up the synagogues uzis on a street corner
You can't take a photograph of uzis on a street corner
The dj resigned today they wouldn't let him have his say
Surface scratched where the needles play, uzis on a street
corner

Where do we go from here

Terror in rue de st. denis, murder on the periphery
Someone else in someone else's pocket, christ knows i don't know
how to stop it
Poppies at the cenotaph, the cynics can't afford to laugh
I heard in on the telegraph there's uzis on a street corner

Where do we go from here, where do we go from here

The more i see, the more i hear, the more i find fewer answers
I close my mind, i shout it out but you know it's getting harder
To me calm down, to reason out, to come to terms with what it's
all about
I'm uptight, can't sleep at night, i can't pretend everything's
alright
My ideals, my sanity, they seem to be deserting me
But to stand up and fight i know we have six million reasons

They're burning down the synagogues uzis on a street corner
The heralds of the holocaust uzis on a street corner
The silence never louder than now, how quickly we forgot our
vows
This resurrection we can't allow, uzis on a street corner

Where do we go from here, where do we go from here

We buy fresh bagels from the corner store
Where swastikas are spat from aerosols
I sit in the bar sipping iced white russian
Trying to score but nobody's pushing
And everyone looks at everyone's faces
Searching for signs and praying for traces of a conscience in
residence
Are we sitting on a barbed wire fence
Racing the clouds home, racing the clouds home

We place our faith in human rights
In the paper wars that tie the red tape tight
I know that i would rather be out of this conspiracy

In the gulags and internment camps frozen faces in nameless
ranks
I know that they would rather be standing here beside me
Racing the clouds home, racing the clouds home

You can shut your eyes, you can hide it away it's gonna come
back another day

Racing the clouds home, are we racing the clouds home
Racing the clouds home