Peter Hammill - The Calm After The Storm Vol.1 (2003) by Peter Hammill (보컬) on maniadb.com

Turn a card, turn a page,
the action sure to start,
second-stage reaction
to illogical thoughts on random lines ?
in a Borges dream we move toward
the writing of lives.

Leave it out, leave it in, no edits ?
with a shout, with a grin I said
it was a certainty that I'd arrive
in an Escher sketch
we walk around the drawing of lines.

The character uncertainty
as he contemplates his lot
and tries to move with urgency
though he's rooted to the spot.

On the brink, on the edge,
but lately what I think,
what I said escapes me
in a flash, a tiger burning bright ?
does the visionary trance obscure
the burgeoning night?

And she said "What are you doing?"
And he said "What do you think?"
Oh, no, what on earth are we doing?

The characters procrastinate
on the threshold of the door;
there's something here that fascinates,
though the meaning's still unsure
and the plot so thick.
Is it some kind of history?
Sketch the thumbnail to the quick.
Oh, even though it's full of contradiction,
though it's flawed in the design
this is no fiction,
it's a lifeline.

Here we are, there we went, full circle,
shooting stars, heaven-sent,
turned turtle on the beach
our shells are left behind
life a library, like a memory
of our ghost-written lives.

In Germany, his days finally caught him;
I won't insult his memory with long-distance grief.
Tears and wakes weren't his style:
not him,
not for Keith.

He'd have laughed in my face
if he saw it get mournful,
he'd pull me up short and say "Life carries on"
in that gentle way of being cruelly scornful...
now he's gone.

"I want to see it all, and eat it"
was as close to ethos as he came;
though he knew he couldn't beat it,
he never gave of himself
anything less than best in the game.
Oh, one for the game...

I never did say, I never quite found time ?
he taught me a lot, and I carry it still.
I never thanked him at all for his friendship
and now I never will.

The diaries we write are those that we crave for,
we never put the P.S. at the foot of the final page.
He deserved more time,
but he never was made for middle age,
not for middle age.
Not for Keith.

In a moment of weakness I embodied the sickness
And when everyone winds me up I just can't wind down
And the April rain soaks my jokes to a pulp
The sun makes my eyes burn
And it must be my turn
To fly with the birds this time

Saturday's nation is rife with anticipation
Of the ticket that buys you out of the real world
But I don't mind the rain
'Cause I was born on an aeroplane
Balloon ride over landslides
It's April, I'm 18
And flying with the birds in a dream

Make an electric connection as lightning strikes
Angels' wings not once but twice
Point blank refusal, the earth moves I turn her head
Plant life gone wild over British monuments
Something is burning
Somebody's learning
To fly with the birds tonight

Solomon flies tonight
Cape to coast, wings in full flight
He's flying home with the birds tonight
In a moment of weakness I embodied the sickness
And I just can't wind down

Drawing back the curtains,
sluggish city daylight in the afternoon...
here's that special silence,
just before you walk out of the hotel room.
Each time we're so close I assume
that we'll never be again.
Oh, how long can we pretend
that we're just good friends?

A casual affair is all that you can spare
from your emotional change;
a calendar of meetings, strangers on the street
the best we ever arrange.
Now I just can't stand all the pain,
all the constant make and mend:
how long must we pretend
that we're just good friends?

I gave you my devotion,
hiding nothing up my sleeve.
If I walked clean out of your life
would you even notice me leave?
So much tangled-up emotion,
should I stay or should I go?
If I walked clean out of your life
how long would it take you to know?
Are we such good friends?

You used to say "I love you",
you used to say "You make me feel alive and young".
Now we're just a habit,
a flavour, once a month, to titillate your tongue.
Oh, how sordid this has become
as the means approach the end ?
oh, how long can we pretend
that we're still good friends?

I gave you my devotion,
hiding nothing up my sleeve.
If I walked clean out of your life
would you even notice me leave?
So much tangled-up emotion,
should I stay or should I go?
If I walked clean out of your life
how long would it take you to know?
Are we such good friends?

Are we still good friends?

You can see in the 1st light that's graced as dawn
That there's nothing in my heart but pain
As I stand, facing sea, knowing that you're gone
All the elements rage to explain
That I should really be on my way,
But there is something
Which ensures I must stay

Beneath the roar of the seething surf,
Beneath the caterwaul of scattered call wind
Thoughts and gestures unspoken, unheard
And now the dance of rapture begins
As the waves rush along across the beach
Like you, like your love
Forever out of reach

Look at the sky, but it's empty now;
Look at the sea, it holds nothing but despair
I raise my eyes, but my head stays bower...
I look to my side, but you're not there
And I can't get you out of my mind,
No, no, no, no, I just can't get you from my mind

Each moment is precious
those that I spend with you are a prize ?
I count myself lucky just being alive
while you're in my eyes.

Seeing's believing and I believe in you
I can't conceal it, just what I feel for you.
Seeing's believing, I know that you'll see me through.
I believe in you
I have faith in you
I put my faith in you.

Doubt casts its shadow
on every perfect plan that is made
but I'll be beside you through those dark days ?
I'll be with you come what may.

Seeing's believing and I believe in you
I can't conceal it, just what I feel for you.
Seeing's believing, I know that you'll see me through.
I believe in you
I have faith in you
I put my faith in you.

Don't let me down,
now that I've fallen completely for you.

We play games and every move
is noted down as a subsequent cause
and effectively chains our freedom and will to live;
we settle in to simple survival,
hanging on our pleasures grimly...
we must never let them go.

Our prison walls are slowly built,
stone by stone and day by day;
no provision for escape,
entombed alive in safety
and decay.

Time sets around us in killing frames,
black border round our names.
Our fingers lose their grip
and the torch slips.

The enemy for everyone
is everyone, inside.
I feel the hand of security
creep on me with ice-cold fingers
and crush my flower of freedom;
I've lost the course of my adventure,
all the things I'd meant to do are lost.

There is only one flame each
to keep alive in the wind.
But finally we snuff them out
all by ourselves.

We set traps and, in the end,
fall into our own snares
and have nowhere to go.

Time ever moves more slowly;
life gets more lonely
and less real.

He made a bit of money,
that's something you might like to know...
He'll be drinking in the cafe on the corner
after the show.

He's been so many people,
he wore them all like poisoned vests,
still playing the soliloquy from Hamlet
close to his chest.

Where do the actors go after the show?
Where do the actors go?

He had his hour of glory,
that's something you should keep in mind...
When he's drinking in the cafe on the corner
there's no sense of time,
just waiting on for Godot,
convinced he's been here years before...
he's taken that philosophy in German
square on the jaw.

Where do the actors go after the show?
Where do the actors go?

He made a bit of money,
that's something you might like to know;
he'll be drinking in the cafe on the corner
after the show.

Where do the actors go after the show?
Where do the actors go?

Stranger still in another town,
How normal to sit out the dance,
Eating the good meal by myself,
Toasting the empty glass;
And they're already setting out
The next place,
Already forgetting about the last.
No, nothing could be less strange
In entropy
No change, no change, no change.
No danger in a normal life,
Better steady down the adrenalin pump.
Excess refraction in the mirror
Only leads to the quantum jump
Oh, but it leaves me in limbo;
How strange, what a stranger I become.
No, no, nothing could be less strange
In entropy
No change, no change, no change.
No, I know how to behave
In the restaurant now,
I don't tear at the meat with my hands;
If I've become a man of the world somehow
That's not necessarily to say
I'm a worldly man.
Keep on shuffling the menu
And the order never comes on time.
No, there's only diffraction patterns,
No reading between the lines;
Only the rate of emission,
And reason allows no rime.
Nothing could be less strange
In entropy
No change, no change, no change.
No, nothing could be less strange...
Entropy...
... A stranger, a worldly man.

You must be crazy to stay here,
and I'll be crazy when you go;
though there's so much I want to tell you
all the words come out too slow.
I've been locked in my problems,
you seemed prepared to wait...
now that I know I'm going to lose you
all the words come out too late.

There's no promise I can give you
that you wouldn't know was fake;
though I just want to be with you,
there's no show that I can make.
And in the morning, when I wake and find you dressing
I can tell that it's on your mind to go for good;
I know that all this time I've kept you guessing,
but I'd tell you if I could.

If I now said that I loved you
how would that seem in your eyes?
Oh, may my voice fall into silence
if my words turn out to be lies.
I never meant to hurt you,
even though that's what I do ?
even though you might not believe this
all my words were meant for you.

There's no promise I can give you
that you wouldn't know was fake;
though I just want to be with you,
there's no show that I can make.
And in the evening, when we sit and watch the TV
I know that all this silence just won't do me any good
and I want to beg you, beg you, beg you to believe me...
oh, I'd tell you if I could,
I'd tell you if I could.

You know, you know, you know she's going to leave you,
You know, you know, you know she's going to go,
You know, you know, you know she's going to leave you.

I'd tell you if I could.

Willie, what can I say to you to hold true in
Your changing life? You've come into a cruel
World : little girls can lose their way in the
Growing night -- I hope you'll be alright.
Willie, try to stay a child sometime, for as long
As you feel you can learn. Babies all turn to
People, and people can really be strange : they
Change and, changing, bring pain.
Try to treat your parents well because they care,
And what more can you do?
When you find your lovers, be good to them as
You hope they'll be to you
Be honest,
Be true.
Willie, you are the future; all our lives, in the end,
Are in your hands. Life's hard now you know,
It gets harder, and hope is but a single strand;
We pass it on and hope you'll understand....
We know that we do it wrong, we're not so strong
And not so sure at all; groping in our blindness,
We may seem big now but, really, we're so small
And alone and searching for a home
in the night.
Meanwhile you're still a baby; you'll be a lady
Soon enough and then you will feel the burn.
So hold my words : people all turn to children,
Spiteful children, and they're really so cruel...
cruel fools!
Just follow your own rules -
Don't think that I'm silly, Willie,
If I say I hope that there is hope for you.

I stretch my hands
Clutch vacant laughter
In silence and sweet, sweet pain
Without demand
But with a longing
For what will never come again
I smell your perfume
On the sheets in the morning
It linger like the patterns
On the window after rain
A past that lives
If only for the present...
Which is gone and will never come again
To your sad eyes
Turned away, mine say
'Do you? Did you? How?'
As the darkness
Slides away the day
Shows what was
And makes what is now
I see your picture
As though it were a mirror
But there's no part of you
Outside the frame
Except the change that you game to me:
This will never come again
I am me
I was so before you
But afterwards I am not the same
You are gone
And I am with you:
This will never come again

Been alone so long
that I've forgotten what it's like
to feel somebody next to me
and hear her breathing peacefully
when I wake up at night.

Been alone so long
that I've forgotten what to say -
if I meet somebody who
might easily resemble you
I smile, but look away...
I look away.

Been alone so long
that I've forgotten what to do:
how to make the whole thing right
and how to help if she's uptight
and when to run and when to fight...
how to make her stay the night -
that's if I ever knew.

Been alone so long
that I've forgotten what it's like
to feel somebody next to me
and hear her breathing peacefully
when I wake up at night,
wake up at night

That token drag on your cigarette,
That well-known face in the fire,
It could be someone you can't forget,
Someone you've learnt to admire.
And it's strange
How the feeling goes;
All change -
Down the river Ophelia goes.
You're treading water, the price is steep,
You say you'll cope with it all;
You've made some promises you can't keep,
You throw yourself against the wall,
You throw yourself against the wall.
And it's strange...
You heard a noise in the firegrate,
You look to see who goes there -
It's just the stranger, he's come too late
And even he's unprepared
To find the cupboard so bare
And it's strange...
Down the river Ophelia goes.

So here we are, alone -
Our children have grown up and moved away.
Living their own lives, they say...
It all seems very strange to me.

I don't understand their ways:
Our children amaze me all the time
And I often wonder why they make me feel
So sad and suddenly old.

Now we're left with an empty home,
From our nest all the birds have flown for foreign skies.
We're discarded, of no further use,
Though we gave our kids all our youth and all our lives -
We really tried.

Now there's only my wife and me;
We used to have a family - now that's gone
And only memories linger on...
It all seems very wrong to me.

To our sorrows they were quite deaf
And as soon as they could they left us to our tears.
We always tried to teach what was good -
Yes, we gave our kids all we could through all the years.

So here we are at last;
The time has gone so fast and so have my dreams.
I simply don't know what it all means,
This pointless passage through the night,
This autumn-time, this walk upon the water....

I wonder how long
It will be till this song
Is sung by our own sons and daughters?

Sleep now:
another day in your young lives is done,
go to sleep now.
Tomorrow brave new worlds will surely come,
and trouble deep;
you're such a wonder, such a mystery to me.

Somewhere
your future friends are lying as you are
and your lovers
right now are only crying babes in arms
oh, the world turns under our feet,
our lives are passing by
in our sleep.

So soon you'll be gone to that wide world ?
the tunes of adulthood calling little girls.

Remember,
whatever else in life you find to doubt,
do remember,
although you hear him mostly in a shout,
your father loves you
as though he never knew the meaning of the words
until just now.

So soon you'll be gone to that wide world.
One tune of childhood I sing my little girls...

Sleep now,
one day I'll tell you how my life has been.
Oh, so strange
to think your eyes will fall on things
that mine have never seen,
these eyes that gently flicker
in some lost childhood dream.

Sleep now,
safe and warm in the haven of your bed,
go to sleep now...
Although you won't remember what I've said,
your father loves you
as though he never knew the meaning of the words
until just now,
as though he never knew the meaning of the words
until just now.