Van Der Graaf Generator - A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers Lyrics
EyewitnessStill waiting for my saviour,storms tear me limb from limb;my fingers feel like seaweed...I'm so far out I'm too far in.I am a lonely man, my solitude is truemy eyes have borne stark witnessand now my nights are numbered, too.I've seen the smiles on dead hands,the stars shine, but they're not for me.I prophesy disaster and then I count the cost...I shine but, shining, dying,I know that I am almost lost.On the table lies blank paperand my tower is built on stoneI only have blunt scissors,I only have the bluntest home...I've been the witness, and the seal of deathlingers in the molten wax that is my head.When you see the skeletonsof sailing-ship spars sinking lowYou'll begin to wonder if the pointsof all the ancients mythsare solemnly directed straight at you...Pictures/Lighthouse(Eddies, rocks, ships, collision, remorse)EyewitnessNo time now for contrition:the time for that's long past.The walls are thin as tissue andif I talk I'll crack the glass.So I only think on how it might have been,locked in silent monologue, in silent scream.I'm much too tired to speakand, as the waves crash on the bleakstones of the tower, I start to freakand find that I am overcome...S.H.M.'Unreal, unreal' ghost helmsmen screamand fall in through the sky,not breaking through my seagull shrieks...no breaks until I die:the spectres scratch on window-slits -hollowed faces and mindless grinsonly intent on destroying what they've lost.I crawl the wall till steepness endsin the vertical fall;my pain has sailed into the sea:no joking hopes at dawn.White bone shine in the iron-jaw masklost mastheads pierce the freezing darkand parallel my isolated tower...no paraffin for the flameno harbour left to gain.Presence of the Night / Kosmos Tours'Alone, alone' the ghosts all call,pinpoint me in the light.The only life I feel at allis the presence of the night.Would you cry if I died?Would you catch the final words of mine?Would you catch my words?I know that there's no timeI know that there's no rhyme...false signs find meI don't want to hate,I just want to grow;why can't I let melive and be free?but I die very slowly alone.I know more ways,I am so afraid,myself won't let mejust be myselfand so I am completely alone...The maelstrom of my memoryis a vampire and it feeds on menow, staggering madly, over the brink I fall.(Custard's) Last StandLighthouses might house the keybut can I reach the door?I want to walk on the seaso that I may better find a shore...but how can I ever keep my feet dry?I scan the horizonI must keep my eyes on all parts of me.Looking back on the yearsit seems that I have lost my way:Like a dog in the night, I have run to a mangernow I am the stranger I stay in.All of the grief I have seenleaves me chasing solitary peace;But I hold experience in my head...I'm too close to the lightI don't think I see right, for I blind me...The Clot ThickensWhere is the God that guides my hand?How can the hands of others reach me?When will I find what I grope for?Who is going to teach me?I am me / me are we / we can't seeany way out of here.Crashing sea - a trophied history:Chance has lost my Guinevere...I don't want to be one wave in the waterBut sea will drag me deepOne more haggard drowned man...I can see the lemmings coming,but I know I'm just a man;Do I join or do I founder?Which can is the best I may?Land's End (Sineline) / We Go NowOceans drifting sideways,I am pulled into the spell;I feel you around me... I know you well.Stars slice horizons where the lines standmuch too stark;I feel I am drowning... hands stretch in the dark.Camps of panoply and majesty,what is Freedom of Choice?Where do I stand in the pageantry...whose is my voice?It doesn't feel so very bad now:I think the end is the start.Begin to feel very glad now:All things are a partAll things are apartAll things are a part
