Goodbye to the Age of Steam (1994)
GEPCD 1007, SPV 08415232CD
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- wind distorted pioneers (3:21)
- head hit the pillow (5:48)
- edge of the known world (4:47)
- landfall (4:18)
- dragon bone hill (3:52)
- blow the house down (9:20)
- expecting snow (2:36)
- blue silver red (10:03)
- losing your way (7:28)
- two poets meet (4:30)
(BONUS TRACK on Japanese Release only!)
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ABOUT 'GOODBYE TO THE AGE OF STEAM'
Reviews and liner notes can be found on our Google Knol Page
'GOODBYE TO THE AGE OF STEAM' LYRICS
1. Wind Distorted Pioneers
Figure I have lost my way
along these dark denuded trails,
headed north out of my place
and sought the plains and wooded hills
broken by grey lines and wheels and bright steel.
Hit the ground running
hard upon hard broken shattered stone.
Past the tree line nothing grows
but wind distorted pioneers, like you and I,
but you and I take shelter from the dark sky.
2. Head Hit the Pillow
The early morning sun alights upon
the old school hall
battered boxes, wooden walls from fifty years ago.
How it seems like England’s dreaming.
And down along the shore the weathered chairs
and bingo halls,
the sound in cars through open windows
-summer has returned.
But late at night the demon’s call.
Here they come from the ends of the Earth.
Faces from a far sky dance before his crazed eyes.
God nothing is left gor giving.
Must be self-created. Must be all inside the mind.
Outside in the wan daylight
the senseless torn and turning.
Susan walked and spoke the words,
he turned away was running
“Late last night the demons called.”
3. Edge of the Known World
Tell me you’re with me
if you don’t then you must be against me.
What do you want from this whole world
maybe look for a new place?
It didn’t seem to matter
all the time that you wasted
calling up home from the edge of the known world.
And nobody matters
why do you care so much tell me brother?
In just a few years be all screwed up
you’ll be just like the others.
It didn’t really happen after all
you were promised.
Call me up, bring me back home.
Science beckons us
over the edge of the known world
as the sea forged in spirits of the Viking world.
What is seen not always is perceived
underneath is everything you dream of.
Driving me under, pissed on a park bench
or down in the gutter.
Ugly with anger, used to be fodder
in front of the big guns.
And nothing ever changes after all.
we are burning, crawling up walls.
Standing on a cliff top on the west coast of Ireland
looking out at the ocean under a dying sun.
What is seen not always is perceived.
Underneath is everything you dream of.
4. Landfall
“People don’t understand,”
that is what you say to yourselves
as you nibble away
at our rights, our freedoms,
spending far too long in the dark
all alone
with your mandate for power,
for ruling, such as it is.
It’s enough for ruin.
All we have is unreal.
Nothing so unwritten is safe
insecurity and power
is a force to be feared.
Seems it’s an impossible thing
to be open
and cover your backs
from those who put you there
in the place that is your home.
To scorn our deepest fears
and take it on themselves
to take it all and do it in our names.
This land is so afraid.
For in the fading light
this land, in time may fall.
Plant some reality here.
here into the front of my home
if they take you apart
have to fight for yourselves.
Funny how it’s always the same
it don’t matter who’s holding
the key to the garden.
The limit of my understanding is reached.
Ten years on from the day they broke down the line,
red man Arthur was proved right all along.
Loose your big train of thought
take it to a wall with some writing:
“question authority”
and then it says “why?”
What we have to say to ourselves
as we marvel at all of the facts
and the figures at the fingertips
of the men in power.
6. Blow the House Down
Came a shadow, fast behind him,
forty years had gone by
in the twinkling of an eye
there was nothing more
than dust and fire.
Like the past had come to greet us
many thousands of miles away.
And the hardest thing of all
is to face up to just where we lie
right here and now.
Here’s a reckoning
a fallen star blown into millions of little pieces.
Maybe you and I
with our backs against the wall.
You and I just dying in this strange place
get to blow the whole house down
tear it to the ground
turn it all around.
She’s crowned with the dead and gone.
Cold light upon the water
trapped in flickering gleamings.
Commanding the heights of technology
as darkness falls over the harbour.
Here’s a reckoning of where we are,
did you ever feel elated baby?
Here’s a summary, a fallen star
blown into millions of little pieces.
To hold you in my arms.
And fill all the wasted hours.
In my dreams there’s no time
but time with you always.
Always at her side.
Always at her dark side….
8. Blue Silver Red
They focused on the hill
a tower loomed in near space
other things seemed out of phase.
Sure, Jan and Tom had faith,
how persuasive an ideal.
Everything to everyone.
Waiting for the moment to come.
And every waking hour is the waiting that’s done.
Writing, thinking and building of expectations
meetings weekends, melting of constellations.
And time is out of time and is turning.
Putting people into spaces
taking others out of time.
The savant wants for saving now.
She’s waiting for someone to run
and every waking hour is the waiting that’s done.
Distant and distance, in a pivotal moment broken.
For now it’s done caring and is ready to
go on home.
And time is out of time. And is turning.
“So sorry, does it matter anymore?”
Her movement, charged with wonder,
the wonder is she’s there at all. “So sorry.”
The tower looms unreal,
someone somewhere calling
running fast on empty words
to the edge of the known world.
Some may be afraid, maybe take the easy way
turn and face the rage.
So “sorry” counts for nothing in the end.
No, it never really mattered
(but the meaning lies between the words.)
Hidden deep within words.
And time is out of time…and is lost.
9. Losing Your Way
For Mark it came out of the light
and everything went down in freefall.
What I remember most of all
is when she said that people die
don’t they. Cry don’t they.
There comes a time when you’re alone with yourself
and the cold light and fear, whatever they might say.
And the girl with the flowers in her hair
said you should have made time for sharing.
And there she lies your hoped for future
boy you better pray she don’t leave you.
Figure we have lost our way
before this dark and broken trail was made
before the surface cooled to stone
before the harsh light and the white walls
the first struggle for breath.
And winterbourne no longer flow from the hills
the trees are all down, the losers have found
that the girl with the flowers in her hair
says there’s nothing else left for giving.
And there she lies your hoped for future
boy you better pray she don’t leave you.
I understand there will soon be
man’s first steps on red earth
and I hear they’re defining
the very nature of our being.
Is there nothing we can’t do?
It’s come to pass at long last
there is such strength in numbers
and the circle’s turned full circle
and God is now made in our image.
How far have we come down
from Dragon Bone Hill
when the best case we can make is we
threw it all away?
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