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peter hammill - flight - live lyrics

flight + live lyrics
[spoken intro]
now i’ve got one long song from a black box, second side, and this is called flight

[i. flying blind]

[verse 1]
i always forget how crazy things are
so sometimes it catches me off my guard
when they make sense
the line on the road trails the arrow in the sky
i search for the mote in my brother’s eye
beneath the pence…
a time of blunt instruments
still uncertain when i’ve woken
or what constitutes a conscious mind
though the thought remains unspoken
i know i’m flying blind

[verse 2]
breaking into cold sweat on the white+hot coals
the pennies from heaven drop through my soul:
it don’t relent
at the back end of dreams i’m amazed to awake…
i offer my theories but just can’t shake
that seventh sense
to which there’s no defense
yes, it seemed that the time was for action
oh, it seemed so cool to be that kind…
my tongue crouchet to form some retraction
oh, but i knew i was flying blind
[instrumental bridge]

[verse 3]
well, i want things to be fast, up to the power+dive;
i want the zero+gravity heroes to play dead
but stay alive
and i want it to be slow, all the way to stall;
and now we talk about a thousand things that never change at all
no, it never change…
no, it never change…
no, it never change…
oh, no, it never change…

[verse 4]
it was then that i knew i’d been thoughtless
something had slipped my mind:
i’d strapped myself into the fortress
but the fortress was flying blind
we got full clearance
so someone down there ought to know
the truth of our disappearance +
if even that still shows it accuses and blames me
but nothing was quite what it seemed
sometimes things work out so strangely
that it might as well all be dreamed
[ii. the white cane fandango]

[instrumental]

[verse 5]
the white cane fandango in morse code
try to shake through the message
shake the load;
only venial sin, running on the spot
till the dance begins

[verse 6]
oh, where does a man go when the muscles cramp?
try to write out a postcard on a postage stamp
with a drawing pin punching out the braille
for the whole within?

[verse 7]
upset the contango on your future stock;
paying backwardation, hold onto what you’ve got +
such a sideways grin!
some day you may need to trade that in
trade that in
trade that in
trade
[verse 8]
if we ride this right
the future will fall in our hands
if we survive the flight
the future will work out +
nothing’s that black and white
nothing’s that black and white
nothing’s that black and white
nothing’s that black and white

[instrumental]

[iii. control]

[verse 9]
colour+coded charts are spread
but we’re still gliding deep into the red
the radio is dead
every valve blown open
the radar screen fl!cks monochrome
air traffic controller wants to get on home
he is witing for a phone call
to release him from responsibility
n0body goes to see him any more
except for the man from the ministry

[verse 10]
he wanted to be, he wanted to be
the man that control, in command of the flightpath;
he’s flying a chair, quite beyond control;
he’s going to have just one more chance
at a barrel roll

[verse 11]
all in a dream, all as a dream
the colours too bright, the music too deafening +
the black+out world has just begun to show
these cracked+out words i offer…
but i still don’t know

[bridge]
but i still don’t know
but i still don’t know
but i still don’t know

[instrumental]

[verse 12]
cool blue suffuse the colour gun +
oh, come in, come in number one:
your time’s nearly run
speed+freeze the frame
the present and the past hold fast…
it’s too fast, oh, the thing don’t
oh, the thing don’t
oh, the thing won’t last

[instrumental]

[iv. c+ckpit]

[verse 13]
the rolling dice clash together, never make up the score;
that old device, the ejector seat is glued to the floor
everybody waits for everyone to make a show
no+one wants to be the first, admitting that they know
how anythings that’s gone down here
could fit into an +n+lytic groove
oh, wait for the tactical move
why don’t we wait for some action we all can approve?

[verse 14]
too much to drink, for the cup reaches down to the sea;
too touch, to think, the barometer pressuring me
every na+na+na, for easter parade
reeling out the maydays in the hope of being saved
but the radio ham’s out giving blood +
oh, no, no, no, he’s not listening
the cricketer knows his “wisden”
the pilot has got his “jane’s”
but the sum of this factual wisdom
don’t help us to fly the plane, no, and it never will…
beneath the tartan two+piece there’s something rips undone…
ait for the ladder to run
wait for the snake that the ladder becomes

[instrumental]

[verse 15]
a passenger hits the c+ckpit, willing to chance his game:
pulls out his gun and c+cks it
in the hope that it all might change (oh, but it never will…)
a fly+leaf from the library shows others have been here before (shows others have been here before)
tried, failed and kicked out the door; (failed and they kicked out, they kicked out the door)
oh, but the aircrew don’t care anymore (no, no, the aircrew don’t care anymore)
now they just wait for the beat of the silk+worm wing
wait for the heat to come down on us
full force of the law

[v. silk+worm wings]

[verse 16]
full force of gravity pulls me down
i’ll be better off out of there;
aerobatic spin around
i’ll take my chances in the open air

[verse 17]
sycamore silk+worm wings
or roman candle to the ground
there’s only one thing for sure:
when the balloon goes up
the aeronaut calm down

[vi. nothing is nothing]

[verse 18]
he say nothing is quite what it seems
he say nothing is quite what it seems;
i say nothing is nothing
i say nothing is nothing

[instrumental]

[vii. a black box]

[verse 19]
softly, the angels sing their time and sp+ce refrain:
there’s something in everything if you can only pin down its name
aerobatic thoughts at the back of my mind +
is it nothing but the looping line we all follow?
nothing but the spiral twist of dna?
there’ll be no looking back from tomorrow on today
(there’ll be no looking back on this…)

[verse 20]
so the wire is tripped, split+seconds defect to their successors;
the umbilical cord is ripped +
here we all are in free fall
here i stall where i am, as if to see where i’ve been
only running down the looping line we all follow
only chasing down the spiral twist of dna
there can be no looking on to tomorrow from today
(there’ll be no looking on from this…)

[verse 21]
life/death/night/day…
cold breath will surely fly away
is the empire of sensation locked in a black box deep in me, encoded there somehow?
it fires the imagination to fly on a wing and a prayer through my life
is that how it is?
(there’ll be no looking back on this…)
this is now
(there’ll be no looking back on this…)
which will be then?
(there’ll be no looking back on this…)
is this the means?
(there’ll be no looking back on this…)
all i know for shure is
this is the end

[verse 22]
no looking back from tomorrow
no, there’ll be no looking back on today;
yeah, better be looking on to tomorrow…
yeah, better think on today

- peter hammill lyrics

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