Bill Bruford [Yes]

Aaaaahhh
Harold Land with a wave of his hand,
Said goodbye to all that,
He paid his bills, stopped the Milk, then put on his hat,
He tried to say his last farewells as quickly as he could,
Promising that he would return, but doubted that he would,
Doubted that he would.

Now he's marching soldiers in the rain
As on to war they rode.
A long thin line of human mind,
Damnation as their load!
In the mud in coldness dark he'd shiver out his fear,
What disappointing sights he'd seen instead of one's so dear
instead of one's so dear

Going home, He's going home to the land he loved so well,
Going home, he fought for two whole years he never fell,
He's going home, He's going home.
Harold Land with a wave of his hand stood sadly on the stage,
Clutching red ribbons from a badge but he didn't look his age,
Only two years had passed between his leaving home and back,
He had lost his love and youth while leading the attack
Leading the attack

In conversation it could be said,
Well after war your heart is dead,
Well it's not hard to understand,
There is no heart in Harold Land.

Here are the books of look;
You need them to open the seed
To see what goes on in the world
Here in my mind
Catch the wind and hold on tight
To what we'll find
And hear what goes on in the world
Here is all you see
Everything is made for you from me

If there's anything you'd like to say that could help me in any way
Cause I've been waiting for so long for you to come along
Help me on that day
When you take over all the things heaven has made for you
Is there anything you think you should know
Is there anything before I go?

Dear Father [Repeat]
I'm hungry, I'm cold
Feeling terribly old
I don't think I can see
I'm not feeling good like I think I should

They're on their own, needing a face, a place,
Hope and mind, a home
To see what goes on in the world
They're who you need
To show them why they're wrong, oh why indeed
We need to go on in the world
Here is all you see
Everything is made for you from me.

If there's any complication that you'd like to talk over with me about
'Cause I've been waiting for so long for you to come along
We can work it all out
When you take over all the things heaven has made for you
Is there anything you think you should know
Is there anything before I go?

Dear Father [Repeat]
You must be putting me on
'Cause most of their minds are gone
They run on T'understand me
I'm not feeling good like I think I should

Dear Father [Repeat]
Can I give it a miss
'Cause I'm not ready for this
I don't think I can see
I'm not feeling good like I think I should

Dear Father [Repeat]
Won't you leave me alone
Won't you let me go home
I don't think I could see
Lord, they'd crucify me
I just couldn't do that
'Cause that's not where it's at now.

Cat's foot iron claw
Neuro-surgeons scream for more
At paranoia's poison door
Twenty first century schizoid man.

Blood rack barbed wire
Politicians' funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
Twenty first century schizoid man.

Death seed blind man's greed
Poets' starving children bleed
Nothing he's got he really needs
Twenty first century schizoid man.

If I only could deceive you
Forgetting the game
Every time I try to leave you
You laugh just the same

'Cause my wheels never touch the road
And the jumble of lies we told
Just returns to my back to weigh me down...

We lay cards upon the table
The backs of our hands
And I swear I like your people
The boys in the band

Reminiscences gone astray
Coming back to enjoy the fray
In a tangle of night and daylight sounds...

All completeness in the morning
Asleep on your side
I'll be waking up the crewmen
Banana-boat ride

She responds like a limousine
Brought alive on the silent screen
To the shuddering breath of yesterday...

There's the succour of the needy
Incredible scenes
I'll believe you in the future
Your life and death dreams

As the cavalry of despair
Takes a stand in the lady's hair
For the favour of making sweet sixteen...

You make my life and times
A book of bluesy Saturdays
And I have to chose...

Your admirers on the street
Gotta hoot and stamp their feet
In the heat from your physique
As you twinkle by
in moccasin sneakers

And I thought my heart would break
When you doubled up at the stake
With your fingers all a-shake
You could never tell a winner
from a snake
but you always make money

Easy money

With your figure and your face
Strutting out at every race
Throw a glass around the place
Show the colour of your crimson
suspenders

We would take the money home
Sit around the family throne
My old dog could chew his bone
For two weeks we could appease
the Almighty

Easy money

Got no truck with the la-di-da
Keep my bread in an old fruit jar
Drive you out in a motor-car
Getting fat on your lucky star
just making

Easy money.

Now...in this faraway land
Strange...that the palms of my hands
Should be damp with expectancy

Spring...and the air's turning mild
City lights...and the glimpse of a child
Of the alleyway infantry

Friends...do they know what I mean
Rain...and the gathering green
Of an afternoon out-of-town

But Lord I had to go
My trail was laid too slow behind me
To face the call of fame
Or make a drunkard's name for me
Though now this other life
Has brought a different understanding
And from these endless days
Shall come a broader sympathy
And though I count the hours
To be alone's no injury...

My home...was a place near the sand
Cliffs...and a military band
Blew and air of normality

I guess I tried to show you how
I'd take the crowd with my guitar
And business men would clap their hands
And clip another fat cigar
And publishers would spread the news
And print my music far and wide
And all the kids who played the blues
Would learn my licks with a bottle
neck slide

But now it seems the bubble's burst
Although you know there was a time
When love songs gathered in my head
With poetry in every line
And strong men strove to hold the doors
While with my friends I passed the age
When people stomped on dirty floors
Before I trod the rock'n'roll stage

I'll thank the man who's on the 'phone
And if he has the time to spend
The problem I'll explain once more
And indicate a sum to lend
That ten percent is now a joke
Maybe thirty, even thirty-five
I'll say my daddy's had a stroke
He'd have one now, if he only was alive

I like the way you look at me
You're laughing too down there inside
I took my chance and you took yours
You crewed my ship, we missed the tide
I like the way the music goes
There's a few good guys
who can play it right
I like the way it moves my toes
Just say when you want to go
and dance all night...

Shine, shine,
the light of good works shine
The watch before the city gates
depicted in their prime
That golden light all grimy now
Three hundred years have passed
The worthy Captain and
his squad of troopers standing fast

The artist knew their faces well
The husbands of his lady friends
His creditors and councillors
In armour bright, the merchant men

Official moments of the guild
In poses keen from bygone days
The city fathers frozen there
Upon the canvas dark with age

The smell of paint, a flask of wine
And turn those faces all to me
The blunderbuss and halberd-shaft
And Dutch respectability

They make their entrance one by one
Defenders of that way of life
The redbrick home, the bourgeoisie
Guitar lessons for the wife

So many years we suffered here
Our country racked with Spanish wars
Now comes a chance to find ourselves
And quiet reigns behind our doors
We think about posterity again

And so the pride of little men
The burghers good and true
Still living through the painter's hand
Request you all to understand

Walking down the street, do you stare at your feet
and never do you let your eyes meet the freaks,
the deadbeat addicts, social fanatics,
they're a dime a dozen and they carry guns

Halloween, every other day of the week
Living in a cage in the USA
Living in a cage in the USA
Holy smoke! Somebody blew up the Pope
Living in a cage in the USA

All around us the rules are changing
Taller walls and stronger cages
Nothing is sacred or too outrageous
Taller walls and stronger cages
What in the world has happened to the world?
What in the world...

Driving your Mercedes you think you're safe
but there is no escape in a world of hateful
criminal minds with guns and knives
who say "give me a ride or give me your live"

Halloween, every other day of the week
Living in a cage in the USA
Living in a cage in the USA
Holy smoke! Somebody blew up the Pope
Living in a cage in the USA

All around us the rules are changing
Taller walls and stronger cages
Nothing is sacred or too outrageous
Taller walls and stronger cages
What in the world has happened to the world?
What in the world...

one eye goes laughing,
one eye goes crying
through the trials and trying of one life
one hand is tied,
one step gets behind
in one breath we're dying

i've been waiting for the sun to come up
waiting for the showers to stop
waiting for the penny to drop
one time
and i've been standing in a cloud of plans
standing on the shifting sands
hoping for an open hand
one time

sex sleep eat drink dream
primal tribal aplle egg vegetable eel
i have a new canoe but it does not have a wheel

private velvet animal oldsmobile mind
i'm sitting in the fireplace burning up my time

private velvet animal empty t.v.
they're fishing in the kitchen
but they haven't caught up to me

primal tribal chemical digital night
i've got to get dressed to go out of my mind

sex sleep eat drink dream

Marine 475
410
400
062
1009
1097
65
Non-Marine
10
190
510
1148
Motor
254
Aviation
545

long ago and far away in a different age
when i was a dumb young guy
fossilized photos of my life then
illustrate what an easy prey i must have been
standing in the sun, idiot savant
something like a monument
i'm a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones

ignorance has alway been something i excel in
followed by naivete and pride
doesn't take a scientist to see how
any clever predator could have a piece of me
standing in the sun, idiot savant
something like a monument
i'm a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones

when i look back on the past
it's a wonder i'm not yet extinct
all the mistakes and bad judgements i made
nearly pushed me to the brink
it doesn't pay to be too nice
it's the one thing i have learned
still, i made my fossil bed
now i toss and turn

i'm a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones

autumn has come to rest
in her garden
come to paint the trees with emptiness
and no pardon
so many things have come undone
like the leaves on the ground
and suddenly she begins to cry
but she doesn't know why
heavy are the words that fall through the air
to burden her shoulders
caught up in the trees
her soliloguy,
"don't leave me alone"

Rome now comes to sit
in her garden
mingling the breeze with memories
of a time when
there was a room in pale yellow hues
her room with a view
where love made a bed of happiness
in muslin and lace
sweet is the voice from far away
that speaks sotto voce and
is lingering there in the golden air
to quiet the day.

one eye goes laughing,
one eye goes crying
through the trials and trying of one life
one hand is tied,
one step gets behind
in one breath we're dying

i've been waiting for the sun to come up
waiting for the showers to stop
waiting for the penny to drop
one time
and i've been standing in a cloud of plans
standing on the shifting sands
hoping for an open hand
one time

people fly people flee
people clam and say "it wasn't me"
people fish people beef
people arm to teeth
yes, you've got people on the tube
walking on the moon
people at the bottom of the sea
people in tombs
people in igloos
even a tribe of pygmies

people are the main spring
turning the world around
people, they're the main spring
spinning this world upside down

people sun people toast
people tire shile other people smoke
people bowl people rock
people pay to see two people box

watch me face me
dress me baby me
phone me wire me
house me bug me fire me

people are the main spring
spinning the world around
people, they're the main spring
turning this world inside out

Sex sleep eat drink dream
Primal tribal aplle egg vegetable eel
I have a new canoe but it does not have a wheel

Private velvet animal oldsmobile mind
I'm sitting in the fireplace burning up my time

Private velvet animal empty t.v.



They're fishing in the kitchen
But they haven't caught up to me

Primal tribal chemical digital night
I've got to get dressed to go out of my mind

Sex sleep eat drink dream

close your eyes and look at me
i'll be standing by your side
in between the deep blue sea
and the sheltering sky
if we find no words to say
to the rhythm of the waves
then we'll both surrender there
walking on air

and the worries of the day lie down
under cover of the fading clouds
the secrets of the night
come alive in your eyes
you don't have to hurry
you don't have to try
cause you don't have a care
you're walking on air

I awoke this morning
Love laid me down by the river
Drifting I turned on up stream
Bound for my forgiver
In the giving of my eyes to see your face
Sound did silence me
Leaving no trace
I beg to leave, to hear your wonderous stories
Beg to hear your wonderous stories 'LA AHA'

He spoke of lands not far
Nor lands they were in his mind
Of fusion captured high
Where reason captured his time
In no time at all he took me to the gate
In haste I quickly
Checked the time
If I was late
I had to leave, to hear your wonderous stories
Had to hear your wonderous stories 'LA AHA, LA AHA'

Hearing
Hearing hearing your wonderous stories
Hearing your wonderous stories
It is no lie I see deeply into the future
Imagine everything
You're close
And were you there
To stand so cautiously at first
And then so high
As he spoke my spirit climbed into the sky
I bid it to return
To hear your wonderous stories
Return to hear your wonderous stories
Return to hear your wonderous stories
LA AH LA AH AH AH

Hearing
Hearing
Hearing
Hearing
Hearing

Its here I sit and rust amid this ruin and rancor like tire irons
toothy grills and car parts before me... the acid rain floods my
floorboard, burns my pores and rots my upholstery... once I was
worshipped, polished magnificently, now I lay in decay by the dirty
angry bay...

I'm ready to leave
I wanna get out of here
I'm ready to ride away
I don't wanna die in here
I'm ready to ride...

My skin is metallic now, no longer and elegant powder blue... my body
unhinged and sleeping in the jungle of motor block manifolds and metal
relics... what was deluxe becomes debris, I never questioned loyalty,
but this dead end demolishes the dream of an open highway.

Dig me... but don't... bury me

She wouldn't need to be a bird without a wing
Or be a servant to a telephone ring
She could be sleeping in the comfort of another bed…
It wouldn't matter to a man with an open heart
Here comes right now…

She could be moody, dramatic as a play
Or be evasive as a shadow in the shade
Could be irregular and singing in her underwear…
It wouldn't matter to a man with an open heart
Here comes right now…

Her wild and wise womanly
Introspectiveness
Her faults and files of foolishness

It wouldn't matter to a man with an open heart
Here comes right now…

Look for the signs
Look for the symptoms
Look for the slight
Calm before the storm
I feel the silence
I feel the signals
I feel the strain
Tension in my head
Well, what more can be said...

Not a model man
Not a saviour or a saint
Imperfect in a word
Make no mistake
But I
Give you everything I have
Take me as I am...

In the dream I fall into the sleepless sea
with a swell of panic and pain
my veins are aching for the distant reef
in the crush of emotional waves...

Alright, get a hold of yourself
an' don't fight it, it's over your head
it's alright, the rumble in your ears
it's alright to feel a little fear
an' don't fight it, it's over your head
it's alright, you wake up in your bed

Silhouettes like shivering ancient feelings
they cover my foreign floors and walls
submarines are lurking in my foggy ceiling
they keep me sleepless at night

Hey, can you picture the sight
the figures on the beach in the searing night
and the roaring hurt of my silent fight
can you pull me out
of this sleepless night
can you pull me out?

In the dream I fall into the sleepless sea
with a swell of panic and pain
my veins are aching for the distant reef
in the crush of emotional waves...

Alright, get a hold of yourself
an' don't fight it, it's over your head
it's alright, the rumble in your ears
it's alright to feel a little fear
an' don't fight it, it's over your head
it's alright, you wake up in your bed

Silhouettes like shivering ancient feelings
they cover my foreign floors and walls
submarines are lurking in my foggy ceiling
they keep me sleepless at night

Hey, can you picture the sight
the figures on the beach in the searing night
and the roaring hurt of my silent fight
can you pull me out
of this sleepless night
can you pull me out?

In the dream I fall into the sleepless sea
with a swell of panic and pain
my veins are aching for the distant reef
in the crush of emotional waves...

Alright, get a hold of yourself
an' don't fight it, it's over your head
it's alright, the rumble in your ears
it's alright to feel a little fear
an' don't fight it, it's over your head
it's alright, you wake up in your bed

Silhouettes like shivering ancient feelings
they cover my foreign floors and walls
submarines are lurking in my foggy ceiling
they keep me sleepless at night

Hey, can you picture the sight
the figures on the beach in the searing night
and the roaring hurt of my silent fight
can you pull me out
of this sleepless night
can you pull me out?

In the dream I fall into the sleepless sea
with a swell of panic and pain
my veins are aching for the distant reef
in the crush of emotional waves...

Alright, get a hold of yourself
an' don't fight it, it's over your head
it's alright, the rumble in your ears
it's alright to feel a little fear
an' don't fight it, it's over your head
it's alright, you wake up in your bed

Silhouettes like shivering ancient feelings
they cover my foreign floors and walls
submarines are lurking in my foggy ceiling
they keep me sleepless at night

Hey, can you picture the sight
the figures on the beach in the searing night
and the roaring hurt of my silent fight
can you pull me out
of this sleepless night
can you pull me out?

I'm Tony
I'm Billy
I'm Bobby
I'm Belew
We're here to sing and play for you
Oh we're the King Crimson band ? and don't you know it
We're the best in all the land ? all the land
We play bass and the drums and guitar for you
And if you really want we'll throw the Stick in too
Oh we're the King Crimson band (on EG Records)
And you know we think that's grand
So settle back to have some fun
And tap your foot in twenty-one
'Cause we're the King Crimson band ? you better believe it
The King Crimson band ? we don't do encores
The King Crimson band ? no photos please
'Cause we're the King Crimson band
We don't do 21st Century Schizoid Man
But we're the King Crimson band

She is susceptible
He is impossible
They have their cross to share
Three of a perfect pair…

He has his contradicting views
She has her cyclothymic moods
They make a study in despair
Three of a perfect pair…

One, one too many
Schizophrenic tendencies
Keeps it complicated
Keeps it aggravated
And full of this hopelessness
What a perfect mess…

I need to feel your heartbeat heartbeat
so close, feels like mine all mine
I need to feel your heartbeat heartbeat
so close it feels like mine all mine...
I remember the feeling my hands in your hair
hands in your hair
I remember the feeling
of the rhythm we made
the rhythm we made
I need to land sometime
feel your heartbeat heartbeat
right next to me.....

I'm wheels, I am moving wheels
I am a 1952 studebaker coupe
I'm wheels,
I am moving wheels moving wheels
I am a 1952 starlite coupe...

En route.....les Souterrains
Des visions du Cody...Sartori a Paris...
Strange spaghetti in this solemn city...
There's a postcard we're all seen before...
Past wild-haired teens in dark clothing
With hands-full of autographed napkins we
eat apples in vans with sandwiches ... rush
Into the lobby life of hurry up and wait
Hurry up and wait for all the odd-shaped keys
Which lead to new soap and envelopes...

Hotel room homesickness on a fresh blue bed
And the longest-ever phone call home.....no
Sleep no sleep no sleep no sleep and no mad
Video machine to eat time... a cityscene
I can't explain, the Seine alone at 4am

The Seine alone at 4a.....Neal and Jack and me
Absent lovers, absent lovers...

Neal and Jack and me
Absent lovers, absent lovers...
Absent lovers, absent lovers...
Neal and Jack and me
Neal and Jack and me
Absent lovers, absent lovers...
Neal and Jack and me
Neal and Jack and me
Absent lovers, absent lovers...
Absent lovers, absent lovers...
Neal and Jack and me
Absent lovers, absent lovers...
Neal and Jack and me
Absent lovers, absent lovers...
Neal and Jack and me
Absent lovers, absent lovers...
Neal and Jack and me
Absent lovers, absent lovers...

Good morning, it's 3am in this great roaring
city full of garbage eaters ravaging parking
spots beneath my plaza window I see cheetah in their
tight skins and tired heels all-night hippo in
the diner crossing the street swarthy heards of young
impala flambastic gibbon even a struggling monza
and over there that brilliant head ornament on that
Japanese macaque but look
closely at the hammerhead hand
in hand with the mandrill, it's a sight you're
unlikely to see anywhere else on the planet...

the stench and noise, yes, yes, the howler's
resonating repertoire is not too bad when mixed with
the more musical twern of the tropical warbler but the
impatient taxi blare the squawking elderly ibis and
the glass-eye snapper hawking papers I can certainly
live without also be cautious of the poisonous
boomslang laughter social droppings of the fruit bat
and purple queen fish and who's that babbler conversing
with a magazine stand? evidently he's getting a good
reply...

arrive in neurotica
through neon heat disease
I swear at the swarming heards
I sweat the foul terrain
I rove the moving scenery

arrive in neurotica
through neon heat disease
I swear at the swarming heards
I sweat the foul terrain
I rove the moving scenery

I have no fin
no wing no stinger
no claw no camouflage
I have no more to say...
Say...isn't that an elephant fish on the corner over
there look at that blush baby mud puppy noolbenger
rhinoderma marmoset spring peeper shingleback skink
siren skate starling sun-gazer spoonbill and suckers,
they seem to be everywhere, well it's a live revue
random animal parts now playing
nightly right here in neurotica...so long...