Van Der Graaf Generator

I dreamed you here beside me, Radiant, impulsively strong. Light streaming through us blindly, We are not here for long. I dreamed us from the ether, Bursting through the neural stem, Vibration without meter... We are not here again. We are not here again. (...

You can make a matrix pattern out of almost anything Tracing causal imperfections in the information flow, Counting out the footfall of professional identity. And the number is... Five-five-three-three-double-two-three As the primacy of digits ticks the...

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 stan...

(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 s...

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 de...

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...

Continuing the story, humanity stumbles Gone is the glory, there's a far distant rumble The clouds have gathered and exploded now Axis shattered, there is no North or South Far off, the ice is foundering slowly The ice is turning to water The water ru...

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 jus...

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 th...

So, driven to distraction By witless repartee And wittering conversation Of deep banality, Eventually He seeks out interaction, Fresh eccentricity, On closer observation Nothing's all that it seems to be, Nothing's more than it seems to be. He scattered himse...

I don't know if I'm cracking up or just getting careless.... Is this room quite airless? Just a minute - listen, Did you hear that knock on the door? I'm going to have to write things down before I forget them. I can't find my glasses, I don't know where I le...

Stub towers in the distance, riders the blasted moor against the horizon Fickle promises of treaty, fatal harbingers of war, futile horisons swirl as one in this flight, this mad chase, this surge across the marshy mud landscape until the meaning is forg...

I was thinking about thinking But it really didn't get me very far, So I thought I'd throw a Tarot, But I only got the Priestess and the Star. There's a shadow cast between the future and the past; The room and I agree to buy some time... The cards don't tell...

I'd just done the best work To fall into my hands for quite some time: Of night oil I'd burned much, Made sure both style and content were sublime So I put it forward To the public forum In anticipation of my due acclaim. And meanwhile, by contrast, I'd penne...

Existence is a stage on which we pass, a sleepwalk trick for mind and heart: it's hopeless, I know, but onward I must go and try to make a start at seeing something more than day-to-day survival chased by final death. If I believed this the sum of the...

Day dawns dark, it now numbers infinity. Life crawls from the past, watching in wonder I trace its patterns in me. Tomorrow's tomorrow is birth again. Boats burn the bridge in the fens; the time of the past returns to my life and uses it. Don't blame m...

A charmed circle on the dance floor, A spell-binding display... It's rather more than he bargained for, Snow White or Morgan le Fay. "Drop dead", she said. Hey, big man, let testosterone flow, Flex the muscles like a monkey. The male plumage is all puffed up...

Embarrassing kid looks into the mirror And grins like an idiot at his own face. For as long he lives he will not be delivered From the stuff that he did, from his teenage mistakes. I can barely believe it How I went and let the old school down. Yeah, whatever...

By this we are all sustained: a belief in human nature and in justice and parity...all we have is the faith to carry on. Imperceptible the change as our votes become mere gestures and our lords and masters determine to cast us in the roles of serfs and sl...

Ferret & Featherbird Time has come between us In the passing months I've felt you slip away As your words and mine came like nursery rhymes Till there was nothing left to say Distance came between us long ago As our memories faded away Over the mi...

Sunday night, twelve weeks before winter, the world is in a smoky haze. Suddenly there appears a rider in the East, brandishing flame. He rides on into the wintry darkness, and brandishes his flame like a spear; below him there races his ghost steed, draping...

The beat, the beat at my temples; My pulse, my pulse in a rush. I'm feeling increasingly mental, Legs shaking , my face flushed. The lights so bright in a dazzle, The pumping that thumps at my chest. I'm feeling increasingly frazzled, Need some comfort, need...

There's a house with no door and I'm living there at nights it gets so cold and the days are hard to bear inside. There's a house with no roof, so the rain creeps in, falling through my head as I try to think out time. I don't know you, you say you kno...

The city's spread beneath my feet, But not the one that I was after While I've been pounding out this beat The length of the Kudamm. Street legends on the tourist map, A fading script in Gothic, Out in the studio they're Rehearsing in drag for a lark. Come on,...

All that we see illusory Every assumption based on blind faith alone.... On with the motley, bring it home! Everything's formed from particles, All that you see is a construction of waves. Hold onto both thoughts, Under general relativity The cradle connected...

I never thought it could come to this, as you sit there crying, hanging on with your fingertips to something that's already dead. Now we're into a game and it's all a bit strange. Once on a time we were sincere; now, we're acting charades, hiding behind crack...

So you live in the bottom of the sea, and you kill all that come near you. But you are very lonely, because all the other fish fear you. And you crave companionship and someone to call your own; because for the whole of your life you've been living alon...

Lacking sleep and food and vision Here I am again, encamped upon your floor, Craving sanctuary and nourishment, Encouragement and sanctity and more. The streets seemed very crowded, I put on my bravest guise- I know you know that I am acting, I can see...

Pretty keen - yes, my hobby keeps me busy; and if I talk to myself, what's the crime? In the darkroom I am a dealer in space and time... when all memory is mellowed, when the photograph is yellowed, still it never lies. There you are, your eyes laced with sec...

I stood alone upon the highest cliff-top, looked down, around, and all that I could see were those that I would dearly love to share with crashing on quite blindly to the sea... I tried to ask what game this was, but knew I might not play it: the voice,...

I can remember it so well, The bed of roses where we lay, The crown of thorns I was so keen to give away. All the warning signs ignored, The passion's played. I could foresee what was to come, I had a sense of what might happen. The river runs and very rapidl...

Dance in Sand and Sea So here we are, or rather, here I am, quite alone, I'm seeing things that were shared before, long ago ... my memory stretches and I am dazed: you know I know how good the time was and how I laughed .. Times have changed, now you're...

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 m...

He's a man of the past and one of the present A man who hides behind a mask behind a mask A clown, a fool, believing it cool to be down Or that the game is all about who laughs the last So he tells all his problems to his friends and relations Exposes hi...

Here be numbers transcendental, On an imaginary axis spun, Decimal places without limit And zero and one. Mathematics, Simply pure beyond belief. E to the power of i times pi plus one is zero E to the power of i times pi plus one is zero E to the power of i...

Welcome to the coils, They're here to set you free From anguish and dull toil. And she says "What you see is what you get from me." You're welcome in her world, It's clear you'll never leave, She's a transparent kind of girl. And she says "What you see is w...

If I'm the mirror and you're the image then what's the secret between the two, these 'me's and 'you's, how many can there be? Oh, I don't mind all that around the place, as long as you keep it well away from me. I've begun to regret that we ever met between t...

Soon as you like, ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. In a moment there'll be a test of your endurance. Stay in your chairs in the event of a dramatic pause Please be aware nothing gets covered by insurance. One final thing: Please take the trouble...

Searching for diamonds in a sulphur mine, Leaning on props which are rotten, Hoping for anything, looking for a sign That I am not forgotten. Lost in a labyrinth of future mystery, Tracing my steps, all mistaken, Trusting to everything, praying it can be That...

Yes I live in the black woods, where you dare not even speak my name. If there is evil in your heart and you will come near to me you will lose your sane. My form is mystic, but my heart is pure, you'd better believe what I say: I am the Necromancer. I...

It might come in a letter, Darkness falls in a telephone call; I await the unexpected With one ear to the party wall. Is it the pricking of the conscience, Is it the itching of hair shirt, Is it the dictionary definition Of a precipice to skirt? It's the nutte...

I want to paint you poems full of fire, you who I do not know. Now my mind is tested with love which twists and wavers from side to side and which some day soon you may see... I want you to cascade through ten thousand rainbows with me and dredge mounta...

If we had all the time in the world We might talk about how it used to be. We could have thrown in our cards When the going got hard But evidently we went on interminably. Right now I want to walk towards the sea, Hoping you're still in step with me. All joki...

Dive in to the Motion of the Avatar, Sign up to the Army of the Phantom. No-one's really who they say they are, They're all imposters on the stand in witness. Welcome to the Power of Self-deception, Head high in the grip of Holy Deadlock. Don't count on the w...

Part I Feel a calling for the sea, I want to walk on the sand dunes I hope you'll forgive me if I say I can't take you And sometimes I've got to get away If just to get a break from the play That we're all involved in All the love I'm living now could...

I feel a calling for the sea, I want to walk on the sand dunes... I hope you'll forgive me if I say I can't take you: at some times I've got to get away, if just to get a break from the play that we're all involved in. All the love I'm living now could have e...

Can't stop for a second: we might see how silly we all are. Can't get out, even for a moment: might be hit by a passing car. Dreams shatter and fall into dust, as long as we're travelling I suppose they must. But, while we're on the road, our days'll be glowin...

there could have been peace, but that eluded me - all I could think of was what was on my mind. You tried to be kind, but I blocked your feelings. Now, senses still reeling, you sit in your quiet room and cry. You tried to make me one, but I always hide when t...

Let's recount our history, Our tale of boom and bust. We could talk a good fight on our day But when we got a hand to play we bit the dust. Now in our threadbare suits we do our duty, Still sold on the pursuit of a common cause. Now let us call to memory such...

Sometimes you feel so far away, Distanced from all the action of the play, Unable to grasp significance, Marking the plot with diffident dismay, Stranded at centre stage, Scrabbling through your diary for a lost page: Unsure of the dream. Kicking a sto...

Left the earth in 1983, fingers groping for the galaxies, reddened eyes stared up into the void, 1000 stars to be exploited Somebody help me I'm falling, somebody help me, I'm falling down Into sky, into earth, into sky, into earth ..... It is so dark ar...

Refugees North was somewhere years ago and cold: Ice locked the people's hearts and made them old. South was birth to pleasant lands, but dry... I walked the waters' depths and played my mind. East was dawn, coming alive in the golden sun: the winds c...

At the edge of the canyon, Looking down upon the haze... Which hides the future of this planet, Home, our earth through all the days Which have been and will come. I hear the running feet of those yet to follow. At the end of such life as I call my own I glim...

Fight within a war within a song: Roland dies, but memory lingers on... Soldier, approaching the Gates of Spain, Treachery waits for you and the baggage train; A rearguard stand, your final war, It's what you've been living for. Soldier, as you sit astride V...

I thought I'd give it up for good, 'cause none of my actions are understood. I thought I'd really leave, and my coming back's something you'd never perceive. I thought I'd make it; Yes, I really thought I'd make it, but then you smiled, you didn't rile m...

Just one crazy moment while the dice are cast, He looks into the future and remembers what is past, Wonders what he's doing on this battlefield, Shrugs to his shadow, impatient, too proud yet to kneel. In his wake he leaves scorched earth and work in vain...

The captain's in a coma, the lieutenant's on a drunk; the owner's in his cabin with his special friend, the monk; the midget's on the bridge, dispensing platitudes and junk - those wild and special places, those strange and dangerous places, those sad, sweet f...

At night, this mindless army, ranks unbroken by dissent, Is moved into action and their pace does not relent. In step, with great precision, these dancers of the night Advance against the darkness - how implacable their might! Eyes undulled by moon, their...

Best be careful, maintain a tight grip, Yes, be careful and keep the mouth zipped. Best be careful, there's no smoke without fire. Clearly you don't know where you're going But the beaten track behind you runs for miles. You've blundered through the jungle Li...

Best of intentions, fresh-faced devotees display, Sat at the feet of the master, Hoping that this is the one true way. Eager awareness, Picking the wood from the trees, Only belief is important, Only obedience can set them free. Here come the paraphern...

Citadel reverberates to a thousand voices, now dumb: what have we become? What have we chosen to be? Now, all history is reduced to the syllables of our name - nothing can ever be the same: now the Immortals are here. At the time, it seemed a reasonable course...

Just one breath, and it's instant death, it's the Aerosol Grey Machine! Just one breath, and it's instant death, it's the Aerosol Grey Machine! You're walking along the road one day, up comes a man dressed all in grey; he blows a little aerosol in your...

(The Emperor) Standing in the space that holds the silent lace of night away from you You think that you can hold the searing, molten gold between your fingers but it slips through, tearing tendons as it goes, exposing the white of a knuckle: flesh-an...

Jack and Gillian, facing their decline, Take to the dance floor for one final time. Who'd deny them this last shot? Taking a twirl, are they in the final reel - or not? Jack and Gillian, walking hand in hand, Disappearing along the shining strand. Who'd deny...

Oh, the Sisters of Blindness from the Convent of the Broken Heart, they want to smother it with kindness, they want to tear it all apart. And there's a rock of sterile virtu' in the centre of the bay.... I'm so sorry he hurt you, but don't throw yoursel...

I read the news in a paper: No flowers, please, donations to charity Like the N.S.P.C.V.d.G.G. - Yeh, send the money To Guy and Hugh and David and me. It's a joke, There is no hope left, Oh, whoever might disagree. Tell me juicy rumours, Dish me the dirt, Go...

Your father has just left your mother, gone off to live with his latest lover: she sits there, just staring. You've got to get back to your own flat because the atmosphere in there is so bad you can't bear it. And the people you were going to America with just...

Letters in pencil, some of them as heavy as lead, as dated as carbon, as black as coal, but burning as red. Clues faintly stencilled: the message, though leeched, is unbled, as secret as marble - as young, as old, as living, as dead. And always that laugh...

I remember what it felt like at seventeen, I was a cat, a snake, a lizard, a mouse; still got an interest in the limousine and a spouse and a brat, country house, London flat. I'm gonna head for the island when the summer's out, I'm gonna do all the stuff tha...

Here at the glass - all the usual problems, all the habitual farce. You ask, in uncertain voice, what you should do, as if there were a choice but to carry on miming the song and hope that it all works out right. Tonight it all seems so strange - my...

I am the suck of air you take that you've had many times before; I am the blow you try to fake, but which still throws you out the door; I am the air that fills your lungs, but leaves you emptier below; I am the void that you can't explain, but which is where...

so potent is the smell of her perfume that you think she's eternal, that you think she is everything... but no-one knows what she is. Repentance for all you should have said; her entrance seems to raise you from the dead and you think she's really with you, a...

In the year 1486 the Malleus first appeared, designed to kill all witchcraft and end the papal fears: prescribing tortures to kill the Black Arts; and the Hammer struck hard. Malleus Maleficarum slaughtered and tortured all those under suspicion, as the Inqui...

I will arise: in the depths, I will open my eyes; as my breath almost fails me, survive. Wait - there's something unclear, there's something I fear now drawing close. Could it be you? Whose is that voice? Is it now time to make a choice? Ah - that irra...

Your time starts now Without a question, Without a clue, Your response will attest To suggestion's power, so strong And growing stronger. With self-belief You've pulled through but you belong here no longer. Fly by night, it's over; day by day it's done. Was...