CHURCH NOT MADE WITH HANDS

"Bye Bye Shadowlands
The term is over
and all the holidays have begun"
Now she walks in fresh fields
her tracks are on the land
She is everywhere and noplace


When it's dark and evening falls
she moves among men
They would seek to hold her as a prize
But she is in the shadows,
the ocean and the sand
She is everywhere and noplace,
Her church not made with hands
Not contained by man


She is dancing high as clouds
faster than the arrow
and straight as any crow that flies
Across great seas she travels
up through rising lands
She is everywhere and noplace
Her church not made with hands
Not contained by man


Isn't that a pretty sun
setting in a pretty sky ?
Will we stay and watch it darken ?
Let us stay and watch it darken
a Church not made with hands
Not contained by man
This precious place
unmade by man


(Lines in quotes from "The Last Battle" by CS Lewis)

ALL THE THINGS SHE GAVE ME

All the things...
All the things she gave me


I wrapped them up in a big brown box
tied it with ribbon,
drove to the docks
checked my time
by the old town clock
all the things...
I saw the watchman
He was blowing into cupped hands
as he walked to the car
He said "Where do you think
you're driving to, son ?
All good folks are in bed
and the day's work is done"
I said "Well, I'm just looking
for someplace to burn
All the things...
All the things that she..."


All the things that she gave me
Where can I put them ?
Where can I hide them ?
All the things that she gave me
Where can I put them
where I don't have to see them ?


It's dark as hell here
this city's grown cold
The devil's in drag
playing poker with souls
The lots are all empty
and the last man's out
The moon's made of cheese
and God is a boy scout
When I go to sleep
I'll be dreaming about
All the things...
And then I'll dream about churches
with great tall spires
about cathedral and candles,
chimneys and choirs
I'll dream about that place where I set fire
All the things...
All the things that she...


All the things that she gave me
Where can I put them ?
Where must I hide them ?
All the things that she gave me
Where can I put them
so I can keep them away out of my
life

THE THRILL IS GONE

I'm too tired to deceive you
I can't pretend there's nothing wrong
Who'll be the first to say it -
that the thrill is gone
and we'll never get it back


And when we talk of old acquaintance
and speak like two strangers all day long
the only four words that I hear
are the thrill is gone
and we'll never get it back


And when evening drops magenta
and "goodbye" hangs on and on and on
I don't need the ghost of sleep and dreams to tell me
that the thrill is gone
and we'll never get it back


No it's never coming back
And what am I gonna do now ?
What am i gonna do now ?
And where am I gonna go now ?
Where am I gonna go now ?
I'm going to the country
and I'm never coming back
Yes, I'm going to the country now
and I'm never coming back
I'm never coming back
that means
never

coming
back

RAGS

Everything is rags
and there's nobody to blame but me
and it would be so easy
if there was no one to hurt but me
But now everything that I do
coming out of me will just tear through you
In and out of you
up and down your life like a curse
Cast by the only Son of Rags
who would wrap you up in all the finest tatters
Though he wanted nothing more, my loved one
than to wrap you up in joy
but it'd never be with me
- You and I are like two worlds
not meant to collide
Death to each other
in the unravelling of time
So how do you..how do you...
how do you...how do you like it ?
What kind of...what kind of...
what kind of dream would you call it
to have one foot in Eden
one foot in Hell
to be always numb
plagued by demons
summoned by angels
at the same time endlessly ?
But I will
burn me
right out of this place
I will lay you down to sleep
so when you awake
I'll be gone and
You
will remember
Nothing

SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE TRAINS

Flashman's in the belfry, he's shouting as loud as he can
and Samson's up all night again, talking about himself
- what a wonderful man !
And I'm just wild about Ronnie and Ronnie's just wild about me
I saw him selling winter coats on the Portobello Road
I thought "I bet he wishes he was really working
for the NME !"


When the gang comes down here again
and they're phoning up Australia and scaring all my friends
and they all just wanna look like Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine
Some of my best friends are trains


Now Steven's in a sweat, he just can't read Kerouac books
and Robin's all excuses, says he can't find much but he does look
He goes up to the Playfair he goes down with the stars
he goes wild of a weekend in a girlfriend's car
and he calls me from Chelsea and he says "it's such a thrill !"
and no, I don't believe a word but he keeps me talking till


the gang comes down here again
and they're phoning up Australia and scaring all my friends
and they all just wanna look like
Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine
some of my best friends are trains


And did you ever have one of those days
when the world's wide open and you can do anything
and you can go anywhere and you don't have to think
about who you'll offend every time that you even blink ?
I'm going to the station where a big red train
is waiting to take me to the country again
and you'll call from Yonkers but why should I care ?
It'll ring and ring for days and days but you know I won't be there


When the gang comes down here again
and they're phoning up Australia and scaring all my friends
and they all just wanna look like Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine
some of my best friends....
Yeah, the gang comes down here again
and they're phoning up Australia and scaring all my friends
and they all just wanna look like Hell and Verlaine
some of my best friends are trains

SOMEBODY MIGHT WAVE BACK

Seven o'clock in the morning
and I'm riding the overnight train
I've got ten tons of luggage
but I left it behind when I came
I look at my watch
it says September seventeen
and we're riding through someplace
where I've never been
and I'm waving through the window as we go
Somebody says
what are you waving at ?
But what do I have to lose...
somebody might wave back


Seven o'clock in the morning
and I'm carrying bags under my eyes
I've been awake all night
counting the hours to sunrise
Drawing patterns on a table top,
I lift my gaze and my mouth just drops
There's someone waving in the window at me !
And I say Hey there
what are you waving at ?
When he says
What do I have to lose...
somebody might wave back

THE BIG MUSIC

I have heard
the big music
and I'll never be the same
something so pure
just called my name


I have drowned
in the big sea
now I find I'm still alive
And I'm coming up forever
shadows all behind me
ecstacy to come


I have climbed the big tree
touched the big sky
I just stuck my
hand up in the air
and everything came into colour
like jazz manna
from sweet chariots


I have seen the big mountain
and I swear I'm halfway there
- You'll never get there
you'll never get there
you'll never get there
- But I will
I will always climb the mountain
because I have heard the big music
and I'll never be the same
Something so pure
has called
my name

RED ARMY BLUES

When I left my home and my family
my mother said to me
"Son, it's how many Germans you kill that counts
Go set your country free"
So I packed my bags and I brushed my cap
and I walked out into the world
Seventeen years old,
never kissed a girl


I took the train to Voronezh
- that was as far as it would go
Exchanged my sacks for a uniform,
bit my lip against the snow
I prayed for Mother Russia
in the summer of '43
and as we drove the Germans back
I really believed God was listening to me


Then we howled into Berlin,
tore the smoking buildings down,
raised the Red Flag high,
burnt the Reichstag brown
I saw my first American
- he looked a lot like me
He had the same kind of farmer's face,
said he came from some place called Hazard, Tennessee


When the war was over
my discharge papers came
Me and twenty hundred others
went to Stettiner for the train
"Kiev!" said the Commissar
"from there your own way home"
But I never got to Kiev
We never came back home
The train went north to the taiga
We were stripped and marched in file
up the Great Siberian road
for miles and miles and miles and miles
Dressed in stripes and tatters
in a Gulag left to die
all because Comrade Stalin feared
that we'd become too westernized !


I used to love my country
I used to feel so young
I used to believe that life
was the best song ever sung
I would have died for my country
back in 1945
but now only one things remains
- the brute will to survive

A PAGAN PLACE

How did he come here ?
Who gave him the key ?
It slipped into his hands
so secretly
And who put the colour
like lines on his face
and brought him here
to a pagan place ?


Who shot his arrow ?
How high did it fly ?
When he tipped it with poison
did he even know why ?
What unseen hand
brought him face to face to face to face
with all this and more
in a pagan place ?


Come into my parlour
Sail in at my shore
Drink my soul dry
- there is always more
Fly on my carpet
Look into my face
and see the heart of man
In a Pagan

THE LATE TRAIN TO HEAVEN

I was talking to John
he was dressed all in black
He was learning he said
to never look back
Bells in his ears
he turned and disappeared
I'd known him for years
Where'd he go ?
With a head full of snow
on the late train to Heaven


Augustus my friend
dressed in velvet and scarf
He's purging himself
He's refusing to laugh
Pale as the moon
his words fill the room
He'll be travelling soon
Where's he bound ?
Higher ground
on the late train to Heaven


I whispered to you now
but I didn't mean a word
It was just a small madness;
pretend you never heard
Pretend you're here with Larry
Pretend you're here with Lee
Pretend you're with anyone but me
I didn't come with you, I'm gone
and my seat's waiting on
the late train to Heaven

THE MADNESS IS HERE AGAIN

I can't sleep
I can't get my breath
I can't stop talkin'
and I look like death
The madness...
The madness...
The madness is here again !


My hands are tied
I'm nailed to the floor
I feel like I'm knockin'
on the unknown door
The madness...
The madness...
The madness is here again !


Now the wrecker busts loose
he's swinging a chain
shouting out something
that sounds like my name
The madness...
The madness...
The madness is here again !


Can you feel it ?
Can you feel it coming ?

CATHY

Cathy so crazy 'bout all the latest fashions
sits in her empty room staring at the wall
she lives in a castle somewhere in the mountains
oh I wish that she was in love with me
in love with me


Watch her as she looks up from the pages of her paper
She tosses her head and slowly looks away
pours another measure from her half empty bottle
Oh I wish that she was in love with me
in love with me


Oh I wish that she was in love with me


Slowly she pours herself another picture
sinks down into her oldest saxon chair
looks up and crosses her heart out with all the debris
Oh I wish that she was in love with me
in love with me !


Words and music by Nikki Sudden
Complete Music Ltd

DOWN THROUGH THE DARK STREETS

Down by old house
over the bridge
down through the dark streets
where we used to live
Out by the cornfield
and the sycamore trees
down to the water
will you come, Lassie please ?


There's a place there by the river
I never showed you before
but when I'm far away
that's where I go
Outside it's lamplight
high time we leave
Winter-a-borning
Will you come Lassie, please ?


Snow in the town square
December afternoon
Christmas lights
a crescent moon
A boy selling chestnuts
roasted and brown
dropping black cinders
that hiss on the ground
You and I stand like strangers
in our Hokusai clothes
like we come from some strange country
that nobody else knows
And to go where the wind blows
are just the words of thieves
so will you come with me, Lassie
will you come Lassie, please ?


The big blue sea between us
is thousands of miles
It's cruel I know
but you just have to smile
I'd be back for you
if I could just believe
that everything is right and pure
that everything is right and pure
that everything is right and pure
will you come, Lassie, please ?