| Disc 1 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |
| - | 
|
|||
|
Not a knife throw from here you can hear the night train passing
That's the sound somebody makes when they're getting away Leaving next week's hanging jury far behind them Prisoner only of the choices they have made Night Train... Night Train... Ice cube in a dark drink shines like starlight The moon is floating somewhere out at sea On an island in the blur of noise and color Alcatraz, St. Alina, Patmos and the Chateau D'if Night Train... Night Train... And everyone's an island edged with sand A temporary refuge where somebody else can stand Till the sea that binds us like the forced tie of a blood oath Will wear it down, dissolve it, recombine it Anyone can die here they do it every day It doesn't take much effort though it goes against the grain And the ultimate forgetfulness of violence Sweeps the landscape like a headlight of a train Night Train... Ice cube in a dark drink shines like starlight Starlight shines like glass shards in dark hair And the mind's eye tumbles out along the steel track Fixing every shadow with its stare Night Train... Night Train... And in the absence of a vision there are nightmares And in the absence of compassion there is cancer Whose banner waves over palaces and mean streets And the rhythm of the night train is a mantra |
||||||
| 2. |
| - |
|
|||
|
(I woke up thinking about Turkish drummers
It didn't take long - I don't know much about Turkish drummers - But it made me think of Germany and the guy who sold me cigarettes Who'd been in the Afghan secret police Who made the observation That it's hard To live Then I was reminded of the proprietor of a Vietnamese restaurant in Quebec who used to be head of the secret police in Da Nang - and it occurred to me I was thinking about all this stuff to keep from thinking about something else... Isn't that just what secret police are all about???) Somebody stands in a window Watches the river roll Trains rumble in the foreground With the weight of approaching dawn Flames from the refinery Rise broken, red and riveting And the high vault of heaven Looks far away and cold There's howling in the factory yard There's pounding in my head I'm swollen up with unshed tears Bloated like the dead... (Instrumental break) Blood and ashes - time burning On the skyline dark against the stars A solitary horseman - waiting Lashed to the wheel Whipping into the storm Get up, Jonah It's your time to be born |
||||||
| 3. |
| - |
|
|||
|
Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword No matter how I squint I cannot Make out what it's pointing toward Sometimes you feel like you live too long Days drip slowly on the page You catch yourself Pacing the cage I've proven who I am so many times The magnetic strip's worn thin And each time I was someone else And every one was taken in Hours chatter in high places Stir up eddies in the dust of rage Set me to pacing the cage I never knew what you all wanted So I gave you everything All that I could pillage All the spells that I could sing It's as if the thing were written In the constitution of the age Sooner or later you'll wind up Pacing the cage Sometimes the best map will not guide you You can't see what's round the bend Sometimes the road leads through dark places Sometimes the darkness is your friend Today these eyes scan bleached-out land For the coming of the outbound stage. Pacing the cage. Pacing the cage. |
||||||
| 4. |
| - | 
|
|||
| 5. |
| - |
|
|||
|
They turned their backs
I made it too hard Every place they touched me Is a laceration now Sometimes a wind comes out of nowhere And knocks you off your feet And look, see my tears They fill the whole night sky The whole night sky Derailed and desperate How did I get here? Hanging from this high wire By the tatters of my faith Sometimes a wind comes out of nowhere And knocks you off your feet And look, see my tears They fill the whole night sky The whole night sky Sometimes a wind comes out of nowhere And knocks you sideways And look, see my tears They fill the whole night sky The whole night sky |
||||||
| 6. |
| - |
|
|||
|
All day the mountains rose behind a veil of smoke from burning fields
And road dust dyeing black skin bronze and the road rolling like a rough sea It's quiet now, just crickets and a dog fight somewhere in the far away In my heart I hold your photograph And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains Hot breeze ran its fingers through the long grass of a thatched roof eave They stuck me in the only chair they had while they cooked cassava And a luckless hen They asked for one well three lanterns and 200 litres of fuel and I said, "Who, me?" And the time for planting's coming soon And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains In the town neon flickers in the ruins Seven crows swoop past the luscious moon If I had wings like those there'd be no waiting I'd come panting to your door and slide like smoke into your room All day the mountains rose behind a veil of smoke from burning fields And road dust dyeing black skin bronze and the road rolling like a rough sea It's quiet now, just crickets and a dog fight somewhere in the far away In my heart I hold your photograph And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains And the time for planting's coming soon And the thought of you comes on like the feel of the coming rains |
||||||
| 7. |
| - |
|
|||
|
Birmingham
Just behind the mountain Sparse streelamps glow in hot half-moon haze Shadows shorten into little black pools that elongate behind We walk, talk some, laugh some Worked hard, now wired, and hanging out I'm curious what you might be all about Curious, too, what that dark-shape in the hard shining cruiser might do And you have no idea what you're getting out of of your own curiosity and tense energy Tattoo on chest like the key to the puzzle of your pumping heart Wearing your shadows all over your sleeve Wearing the role of young upstart Birmingham shadows fall You show a little, I let something show too It's now or not at all Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you Under velvet trees, towering like the sides of a well Before the empty two office blocks Which we're admonished not to enter Policeman studies us, finds us confusing More amusing than threat Moves on, bemused Pavement spirals down ahead like the fossil of a giant shell Along the kingdom's midnight marches I wear my shadows where they're harder to see But they follow me everywhere I guess that should tell me that I'm travelling toward light I guess something you sang made me remember that I guess I'm saying thanks for that Birmingham shadows fall You show a little, I let something show too It's now or not at all Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you Got a head full of horrors and a heart full of night At home in the darkness, but hungry for dawn I only remember scenes, never the stories I live The good things about that is, it's easy to forgive Can't make assumptions about any of this We're nomads following our own songlines Who knows what could strike before we meet again? But if I fall down and die Without saying goodbye I give you this: you'll have lost a friend Birmingham shadows fall You show a little, I let something show too It's now or not at all Out on the road, it's always instant get-to-know-you |
||||||
| 8. |
| - |
|
|||
| 9. |
| - |
|
|||
|
See you standing in the door against the dark
Fireflies around you like a crown of sparks You blow me a kiss that blurs my vision Blurs the human condition You're the ocean ringing in my brain You are my island ripe with cane Catch the scent of strange flowers when you pass Fluid motion like the wind in grass It's your eyes I want to see Looking into mine Got you live on my mind All the time Light me like incense in the night Light me like a candle burning bright Light me like a searchlight in the sky Time means nothing when I look in your eyes It's your eyes I want to see Looking into mine Got you live on my mind All the time It's your eyes I want to see Looking into mine Got you live on my mind All the time |
||||||
| 10. |
| - |
|
|||
|
Big city Europa - July of 64 - It's 5AM
Weather blowing bitter off the Baltic. Car slows beside him as he walks Hubcaps slow revolution Jaundiced-looking pockmarked face, round in window Short greasy black beard Couple of language stabs, settle on English "It's cold - I give you ride. Don't you want to kiss me?" This goes on halfway across the cobbled bridge Driver pulls ahead - gets out by the construction fence Ambles towards him rubbing the bulge in his pants In his jacket is the revolver The hand is already in the pocket for warmth and fingers slide easily around wood grips Slow as that predator's footsteps the gun comes out Arm straightens, sight blade bisecting yellow forehead Wind - blue metal streetlight - Faint twilight shining on the corners of stones. Wave on wave of life Like the great wide ocean's roll Haunting hands of memory Pluck silver strands of soul The damage and the dying done The clarity of light Gentle bows and glasses raised To the charity of night Slow revolution - 1985 - crosswise in a hammock in the hot volcanic hills Its 3AM the night after the air raid From the ridge she watched A37s, like ugly gulls, Make a dozen swooping passes over some luckless town Maybe ten kliks beyond the border In the distance the Pacific glimmered silver Now lascivious laughter floats on the darkness from the police post next door- Male voices - and a woman's - Little clouds of desire painted around the edges with rum In the muddy street a pig suddenly screams Wave on wave of life Like the great wide ocean's roll Haunting hands of memory Pluck silver strands of soul The damage and the dying done The clarity of light Gentle bows and glasses raised To the charity of night Pacific glimmers silver Moon full over shadow mansion West coast - Can't say when There is incense and the heat-driven scent of flowers Tongue slides over soft skin Love pounds in veins brains buzzing balls of lust Fingers twine in wet hair Limbs twist and roll On the dresser wax drips in slow motion down the long side of A black candle Ecstatic halo of flame and pheromone- Wave on wave of life Like the great wide ocean's roll Haunting hands of memory Pluck silver strands of soul The damage and the dying done The clarity of light Gentle bows and glasses raised To the charity of night |
||||||
| 11. |
| - |
|
|||
|
