Steve Hackett

(instrumental)

Take a trip take a ride
Through darkness don’t be shy
Gather by the clocktower take your seats
Glad you’re here it’s for keeps
Festering wounds from years gone by
Toxic waste you buried inside

In Darktown

Take a turn step on down
Through an alleyway you’ll find
By the backstreet trash resides
The underworld you tried to hide
And from a dark corner where walls loom high
You’ll hear the sound of a small child’s cry

In Darktown

Legions of hate schools of fear
Proudly accomplished their mission here
A hidden agenda behind the eyes
For the gifted ones they most despised
They couldn’t do it in the X-rated world
But presided over the boys and girls

In Darktown

It’s all on camera it’s all on film
On the couch in the shower
The stains are still there
Drink to the one who dished out the marks
Rabid animals right from the start
It’s happy hour shut the beasts away
Come along children it’s time to play

In Darktown

We’ll sit and watch the sun go down
See the wave wash to and fro
The world runs by sailboat slow

We’ll anchor at the sight of land
Never doing all the things we planned
The sun sinks down way below

You pushed a man overboard
In the middle of a stormy sea
The wind blows high the palm trees moan

I think about you night and day
I’m sorry when I hear you say
The coast is clear we’ll head for home

12 years old in Amsterdam in 1939
A blue-eyed boy my clean complexion always got me by
A boy with real potential sold secrets by the score
Where refugees were hiding I’d just point out the doors
In the golden age of steam
I learned those German songs
I had to stay alive there was no right or wrong
In the golden age of steam

The fatherland was rising the world would hear the roar
Both sides fed and trusted me by 1944
Trains ran on time those days oiling the machine
Smoke rose up like serpents
I was barely seventeen
In the golden age of steam

It’s over now but not somehow
I was a hero then to many men

Switzerland was a short ride for a eager blond haired boy
With a silver smile and loaded with jewellery to enjoy
Maybe one day they’ll come for me they’ll take me from my bed
A soldier of fortune that’s what my passport read
In the golden age of steam
In the golden age of steam
In the golden age of steam

When I wasn’t looking I found you
And the nights they don’t seem so long
There are moments when I just can’t believe
That I’ve waited so long

So take me and love me
Don’t ever let me go
Oh take me and hold me
You know I want you so

Cause you’re so precious like the days of long ago

And I fell now that I can make it
Like the sunshine of a new day
All those times of so much confusion feel them drifting away
Feel them drifting away

So take me and love me
Don’t ever let me go
Yeah take me and hold me
You know I love you so

Cause you’re so precious like the days of long ago

So take me and love me
Don’t ever let me go
Oh take me and hold me
You know I want you so

Cause you’re so precious like the days of long ago

Yeah you’re so precious like the days of long ago

A rainy drive on a long straight highway
Can cause time to lose it’s meaning
And the mind to wander far from the act of driving
Interruptions at every curve
No longer jangle against your nerves
A rainbow bridge is not far away

Now you’re standing on the steps of a fountain
On a hot summer’s day

Running along a tree-lined pathway
Slowing your pace until you feel
Your heart beats in rhythm to the first light of day
Now you’re running down a mountain
In the cool blue shade

A waterfall where you lift your head
Colours cascade from green to red
And the fireflies that dance when the light is fading
You drift away on the night ride
With eyes that dream as much as they see
The wind in the willows winding through the grass
The drawbridge of consciousness is lifted at last

Where are you going?
Towards the sky
Between the craters of the sun and the moon
Flying through entrances
Floating free

(instrumental)

Take me where the sun don’t shine no more
And the moon echoes where once was light
The wind is howling but it has no face
I know that we will rise again

We will fly from this city of the dead
Even if our ship flies a pirate sail
Underneath a bruised and broken sky
I know that we will rise again

There are skies of scarlet and skies of grey
I’ll keep them in my heart always
Like the sea loves the land
I know that we will rise again
I know that we will rise again

Take me where the sun don’t shine no more
The wind is howling but it has no face
I know that we will rise again

Rise again

I know that we will rise again

Has Jean Paul Sartre deserted you
Do you still listen to the blues
Is there a needle beside your hand
A poisoned chalice or the promised land
Some doors open some doors close
Do opposites still seem close

Did Ruby Tuesday get to you
Or the caretaker whose film we used
A purple rose that was ignored
The child behind Jane Austen’s door

Oh has your life seemed unkind
With all those friends you left behind
We burned our bridges fast those days
Don’t think about them it doesn’t pay

My drunken guitar Sloane Square tube
Falling backwards me and you
Tumbling over to the floor
You cried inside Jane Austen’s door

So long, so long, so long, so long

Let it die let it go

Heureusement vivre dans une cage
Un homme et femme peut-etre mon age
I’ll take your part when this wheel turns
How many lifetimes it takes to learn

So goodbye goodbye little star
Forgive yourself heal that scar
A purple rose that was ignored
The light inside Jane Austen’s door

Shine on, shine on, so long, shine on, shine on

(instrumental)

For someone else the blues and greens
The dreaming spires the skintight jeans
The armchair armies on the march
The transfer unit tube and mask
Who needs all the endless lies
That serve to keep the world alive
To taste the sweetness of the grave
And not regret mistakes I’ve made

In memoriam, in memoriam

Goodbye to all the angry dawns
Committee meetings pistols drawn
You can keep the rave reviews
The priests the guards the prisons and zoos
Goodbye to all the nation’s pride
Farewell to those all choosing a side
In hut number twelve they’re issuing guns
But only for the choosen ones

In memoriam, in memoriam

For someone else the blues and greens
The dreaming spires the skintight jeans
The armchair armies on the march
The transfer unit tube and mask
Goodbye to all the nation’s pride
Farewell to those all choosing a side
In hut number twelve they’re issuing guns
But only for the choosen ones

In memoriam, in memoriam
In memoriam, in memoriam
In memoriam, in memoriam
In memoriam, in memoriam
In memoriam, in memoriam