A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers Lyrics - Merlin Atmos: Live Performances 2013 - Van Der Graaf Generator

i. 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 knights 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/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 ancient myths 

are solemnly directed straight at 

you... 

ii. Pictures/Lighthouse 

(Eddies/rocks/ships/collision/remorse.) 

iii. 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 

Anyway, 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... 

iv. 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, mindless grins 

only intent on destroying what they've lost. 

I craw the wall till steepness ends in the vertical fall; 

my pail 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 

v. The 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 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 no 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. 

vi. (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 ashore... 

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 

the 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.... 

vii. 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/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? 

viii. 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.