Playlist Van Der Graaf Generator

van der graaf generator - a place to survive

It's easy to say, when you're so down,
that everything's pointless;
your eyes burn, your ears howl,
your limbs are disjointed.
Barren fields, the barren earth,
never more will it flower -
rub your face and your hands in the dirt:
now is the hour!
So stand straight, looking over your shoulder,
walk on, though you fear to arrive;
don't wait till you know that it's over,
be strong - it's your place to survive.

While the holocaust rages around you,
be the eye of the storm;
though the extent of disaster astounds you,
forearmed is forewarned.
You may have passed time in happier ways,
but there are other mountains to blimb:
you've never lived as you're living today -
now is the time!
Stand straight, though your back breaks from trying,
walk on - even now you must strive.
Don't wait; while you're waiting, you're dying.
Be strong - it's your place to survive.

The universe is doubtless unfolding
just exactly as it should
and these dreams of remorse or foreboding
won't do you any good.
The joy, the passion, possessions you own,
the bitterness and the pain,
the end of everything you've ever known:
all these are ordained.

Stand straight looking into the future,
walk on--we've each got our own lives.
Don't wait for a guru or tutor,
be strong--it's your place to survive.
Stand straight, looking over your shoulder,
walk pon: though it hurts, you're alive.
Don't wait - if you wait it's all over;
be strong - it's your right to survive.

van der graaf generator - man erg

The killer lives inside me: yes, I can feel him move.
Sometimes he's lightly sleeping
in the quiet of his room,
but then his eyes will rise and stare through mine;
he'll speak my words and slice my mind inside.
Yes the killer lives.
Angels live inside me: I can feel them smile...
Their presence strokes
and soothes the tempest in my mind
and their love can heal the wounds
that I have wrought.
They watch me as I go to fall
- well, I know I shall be caught,
while the angels live.

How can I be free?
How can I get help?
Am I really me?
Am I someone else?

But stalking in my cloisters hang the acolytes
of gloom
and Death's Head throws his cloak into
the corner of my room
and I am doomed...
But laughing in my courtyard play the pranksters
of my youth
and solemn, waiting Old Man
in the gables of the roof:
he tells me truth...

And I too, live inside me and very often
don't know who I am:
I know I'm not a hero, but
I hope that I'll not die.
I'm just a man, and killers, angels,
are all me:
Dictator, saviour, refugee in war and peace
as long as Man lives...

I'm just a man, and killers, angels,
are all me:
Dictator, saviour, refugee...

van der graaf generator - a plague of lighthouse keepers

Eyewitness
Still 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 true
my eyes have borne stark witness
and 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 paper
and my tower is built on stone
I only have blunt scissors,
I only have the bluntest home...
I've been the witness, and the seal of death
lingers in the molten wax that is my head.

When you see the skeletons
of sailing-ship spars sinking low
You'll begin to wonder if the points
of all the ancients myths
are solemnly directed straight at you...

Pictures/Lighthouse
(Eddies, rocks, ships, collision, remorse)

Eyewitness
No time now for contrition:
the time for that's long past.
The walls are thin as tissue and
if 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 speak
and, as the waves crash on the bleak
stones of the tower, I start to freak
and find that I am overcome...

S.H.M.
'Unreal, unreal' ghost helmsmen scream
and 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 grins
only intent on destroying what they've lost.

I crawl the wall till steepness ends
in the vertical fall;
my pain has sailed into the sea:
no joking hopes at dawn.
White bone shine in the iron-jaw mask
lost mastheads pierce the freezing dark
and parallel my isolated tower...
no paraffin for the flame
no 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 all
is 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 time
I know that there's no rhyme...
false signs find me
I don't want to hate,
I just want to grow;
why can't I let me
live and be free?
but I die very slowly alone.
I know more ways,
I am so afraid,
myself won't let me
just be myself
and so I am completely alone...

The maelstrom of my memory
is a vampire and it feeds on me
now, staggering madly, over the brink I fall.

(Custard's) Last Stand
Lighthouses might house the key
but can I reach the door?

I want to walk on the sea
so that I may better find a shore...
but how can I ever keep my feet dry?
I scan the horizon
I must keep my eyes on all parts of me.

Looking back on the years
it seems that I have lost my way:
Like a dog in the night, I have run to a manger
now I am the stranger I stay in.
All of the grief I have seen
leaves me chasing solitary peace;
But I hold experience in my head...
I'm too close to the light
I don't think I see right, for I blind me...

The Clot Thickens
Where 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 see
any way out of here.
Crashing sea - a trophied history:
Chance has lost my Guinevere...

I don't want to be one wave in the water
But sea will drag me deep
One 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 Now
Oceans drifting sideways,
I am pulled into the spell;
I feel you around me... I know you well.
Stars slice horizons where the lines stand
much 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 part
All things are apart
All things are a part.

van der graaf generator - a plague of lighthouse keepers we go now

( Hammill - Band )

Where 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 see
any way out of here
Crashing sea / atrophied / history:-
Chance has lost my Guinevere.

I don't want to be one wave in the water
but sea will drag me deep,
One 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?

van der graaf generator - a plague of lighthouse keepers eyewitness

Still 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 true
my eyes have borne stark witness
and 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 paper
and my tower is built on stone
I only have blunt scissors,
I only have the bluntest home...
I've been the witness, and the seal of death
lingers in the molten wax that is my head.

When you see the skeletons
of sailing-ship spars sinking low
You'll begin to wonder if the points
of all the ancients myths
are solemnly directed straight at you...

van der graaf generator - a plague of lighthouse keepers pictures lighthou

van der graaf generator - a plague of lighthouse keepers land s end

Oceans drifting sideways,
I am pulled into the spell;
I feel you around me... I know you well.
Stars slice horizons where the lines stand
much 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 part
All things are apart
All things are a part.

van der graaf generator - a plague of lighthouse keepers presence of the nig

van der graaf generator - a plague of lighthouse keepers kosmos tours

van der graaf generator - a plague of lighthouse keepers last stand

( Hammill - Band )

Where 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 see
any way out of here
Crashing sea / atrophied / history:-
Chance has lost my Guinevere.

I don't want to be one wave in the water
but sea will drag me deep,
One 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?

van der graaf generator - a plague of lighthouse keepers the clot thickens

Where 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 see
any way out of here.
Crashing sea - a trophied history:
Chance has lost my Guinevere...

I don't want to be one wave in the water
But sea will drag me deep
One 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?

van der graaf generator - abandon ship

Oh, the heptagenarians got behind the decks
while the skeleton crew went through the motions.
It was only the medication that was keeping them erect.
Yeh, the devil got the best tunes
so god knows what comes next.

And it's difficult to think of anything less magic
than the aged in pursuit of the hip.
At the lifeboat station there's a mounting panic...
they're going overboard for this one -
abandon ship!

Oh, the humanitarians took themselves below
while they tried to debate the latest motion;
meanwhile only the medication served to keep them on the go.
So it's devil take the hindmost:
we sail on the sloop John Doe.

And it's difficult to think of anything that's factual
now we find ourselves in Alzheimer's grip;
so at disembarkation it's no names, no pack-drill,
we're all anonymous on this one -
abandon ship!

van der graaf generator - after the flood

Continuing the story, humanity stumbles--
gone is the glory, there's a far distant rumble.
The clouds have gathered and exploded now:
axes shattered, there is no North or South!
Far off, the ice is foundering slowly...
the ice is turning to water.
The wa
ter rushes over all,
cities crash in the mighty wave;
the final man is very small,
plunging in for his final bathe.
This is the ending of the beginning...
this is the beginning of the end,
middle of the middle, mid-point, end and start:
the first peak rises, forces the waves apart.
Far off, the ice is now re-forming:
poles are fixed once more,
water's receding, like death-blood.
And when the water falls again,
all is dead and nobody lives.
And then he said:
'Every step appears to be the unavoidable consequence of the
preceding one, and in the end there beckons more and more
clearly total annihilation!'
This is the ending of the beginning...
this, the beginning of the end.
And when the water falls again
all is dead and nobody lives....

van der graaf generator - afterwards

You stare out in yellow eyes larger than my mind;
in viscous pools of joy, relaxing, we glide...
it's all too beautiful
for my mind to bear.
and, as we shimmer into sleep, something's unshared.
But, seeing the flower that was there yesterday,
a tear forms just behind the soft peace of your shades...
The world's too lonely
for a message to slip
but between the dying rails of peace
you trip.
The petals that were blooming are just paper in your hand;
your eyes, which were clear in the night, are opaque as you stand...
It was too beautiful
for it to last...
These visions shimmer and fade out of
the glass.

van der graaf generator - aquarian

Now we sit here in our special place,
all wearing our happy faces gladly.
Sunlight appears in our world; our joy
has been turned from badness.
Now we've moved and left alone
and it's easier that way.
We are riding on rainbows
and happy today.
Now we move to the sun in every direction;
we are cloaked in veils of mystic protection...
joking a lot, smoking or not,
floating our yacht off to freedom,
voting to be Aquarian!
I hold silver flashing metal in the palm
of my petal hand, watching it quiver:
to breathe too close is death -
ah, but wat is breath but a way to deliverance?
Soon we will all be joined
in a great silver tube,
wanting every one to come along,
that means you too!
Now we move to the sun in every direction;
we are cloaked in veils of mystic protection...
mapping the way, clapping to say
we're happy today, and assured of
the fact that we're all Aquarian!
Hardly any money... who needs bread anyway?
Well, I mean to say, it's just the read to freedom!
Everything's too funny; we just ride along so high,
watch the bad scenes floating by, who needs them?
Soon we will all be joined
in a great silver tube,
wanting every one to come along,
that means you too!
Now we move to the sun in every direction;
we are cloaked in veils of mystic protection...
Lighting the path, righting the past,
fighting the dark like centurions,
writing our names as Aquarians!
As Aquarians, but as Aquarians!
Writing our names as we move to the sun,
we're Aquarian!

van der graaf generator