Forgive the Ghosts is available AT £8.50 PLUS £1.00 P & P from 1 Ford terrace, Broomhaugh, RIDING MILL, Northumberland NE44 6EJ. Forgive the Ghosts . The Lyrics All songs copyright Pete Ryder
1. Borrowed Time (inspiration (???) 6.05 am 3.10.01 whilst making cup of tea in kitchen)

Maybe you've just a little,
Maybe you've quite a lot
It's all you've got to give
cos' Brother it's all you've got
...Borrowed time
Reach out, it's no longer there
Borrowed time it is the only
Commodity that all this world can share

See that little baby,
Got as much as he can hold
See the old man try to buy some more,
Now it's worth more than gold
...Borrowed time
It's slipping and it's sliding by
Borrowed time is all there is
Beamed down from the time bank in the sky

Went up to the counter, saying Mister Cashier please
May I make this one request, I am pleading on my knees
Can we extend this arrangement, have some other deal instead
He smiled, he didn't say a word, he just slowly shook his head

It's Borrowed Time....

Sweet little Lucinda
Wearing that red dress
You've got a skeleton, you've got a soul
Why should I care about the rest?
...Borrowed time
Use it carefully don't get it wrong
Borrowed time
Never really ours all along

Got A Rolex on my wrist, and an hourglass in my hand
One it runs on jewels, the other runs on sand
Both tell the same story, how time just slips away
You can make a million, you still can't persuade the thing to stay

It's Borrowed Time...
Time is like a rolling stream
Never standing still
Not a person in this world
Can make it roll uphill
....Borrowed time
Check the garden see what you have grown
Borrowed time
Maybe pay some interest on that loan

2. Monsieur Norbert Casteret (October 2001, inspired by a trip to his museum)

Monsieur Norbert Casteret, far below the light of day
Creeping, crawling, clambering around in caverns far beneath the ground
Stalagmite and stalactite shimmer in his beam of light
Moles and bats and badgers say 'Bonjour Monsieur Norbert Casteret'


It did not take me much cajoling, when I read your books extolling
All your passion for potholing, it took root that day
So I joined the muddy legions, spending all their time besieging
Mother Nature's nether regions, I joined in the fray
With Norbert Casteret

Monsieur Norbert Casteret....

Scratching scraping with his trowel, writhing through earth's rocky bowel
Never throwing in the towel, See him make his way
Where the icy waters lap, plunging through a flooded trap
Just a candle and three matches in his bathing cap, we all stand amazed
by Norbert Casteret...

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree
Where Alph the sacred river ran through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea...

Measureless to man they say, but not to Norbert Casteret
With tape and compass in his hand, he soon will have the whole place planned
The triumph of speleology resounds across that sunless sea
Once so cold and dark and damp, it now reflects the flickering flame
of his acetylene lamp

Monsieur Norbert Casteret, it's ten years now since you passed away
Modern critics are debunking, all your tales of bold spelunking
Monsieur Norbert Casteret is it true that you had feet of clay
Or is that just a jealous smear, a little mud that will not adhere....

(Spoken) Au revoir mon vieux ami
Vous etes toujours mon ero trogloditique, voyager epique dans la monde souterranean

Monsieur Norbert Casteret...
3. The Morning After the Flood

It was the morning after the flood that washed
the whole wide world away..
I was struggling out from my shelter
I was sinking down in the clay
You came to me so lightly your feet seemed
Six inches off the street
As recognition slowly dawned
My surprise and amazement were complete

It was the morning after the sky came down
I was peering out through a grille
I was waiting a while just to ensure
That the ground was standing still
Then all at once before me
I saw your shining face
You reached out to me I could plainly see
You'd been touched by the hand of grace

I was just another believer
On a regular diet of doubt
Every so often something comes along
to really find you out
I was just an inveterate cynic
Trying hard to maintain my control
Now all I want to do is photograph your smile
Ad hang it on the wall of my soul

It was the morning after the mountain fell
And the graves gave up their dead
I was hanging back in the shadows, trying to hide
When I saw you up ahead
You were arm in arm with Lazarus
He had thrown away his shroud
What I thought was thunder was simply the sound
Of both of you laughing out loud


4. Forgive the Ghosts PFR 15 7 02

Forgive the ones who may trespass against you
If you'd be forgiven the times that you stray
Though they trample your garden and never ask pardon
Ride roughshod across you and claim right of way
Forgive the lovers who once proved inconstant
Forgive forever, it came to an end
The promises broken, harsh words that were spoken
Forgive poor Judas, for he was your friend

Forgive the neighbours who shared in your labours, but trailed far behind you nine tenths of the way
It was they claimed the prize as they slipped past the post
It's then that it's hard, when you must defy gravity
It's that hard to forgive
Forgive the ghosts

Forgive the parents whose passion begot you
Forgive the kids who inherit your pain
Your sisters and brothers and numerous others
Who part with your company yet always remain

Forgive your kith and forgive your kin firstly their virtue then maybe their sin
The nearest and dearest that hurt you the most
It's then that it's hard, where your back is up against the wood and you feel the nails go through
It's that hard to forgive
Forgive the ghosts

Unreconciled at the edges of your memory
Faces growing blurred, lips too cold to kiss
Captive in the dark places of your heart
Can you be as cruel as this? Forgive the ghosts

Forgive the ones who know not what they're doing
And likewise the others who know it full well
Forgive those who sell from the refuge of Heaven
The lies and delusions that take men to Hell
And forgive me Lord, I have ignored your bidding
And hardened my own heart again and again
With the cold and the crystalline pride that would boast
I could never forgive, but I must forgive,
Though it goes against the grain, against all reason
To forgive, yet I forgive
Forgive the ghosts

5. Bless the Labours of the Ploughman PFR 10 08 02

Bless the labours of the ploughman, bless the man who sows the seed
Bless the sun and the rain falling
Down like grace in our hour of need
The slow turning of the season with your mercy now attend
Bless the labours of the ploughman, Lord
Bless the harvest at the end

The farmer he treads slow, his life is one of toil
He cannot see the seed that grows hidden beneath the soil
The farmer's life is hard, he feels the winter's chill
His part is played, he cannot stay or exercise his will

The famer bides his time patience is his gift
He cannot set the snow to melt or make the frost to lift
The farmer feels the pain the farmer does not know
What will root and what will shoot and what will finally grow

The farmer waits to see the outcome he has sought
Disease or blight may waste the crop and bring his work to nought
The farmer knows at last that his task is almost done
When fields are white beneath the moon, the reaping time has come

6. Rich Girl After sundry re-workings 10 1 03

Oh Girl you had it all, but was it all worth the having
If you never had a friend that you could trust?
Just the blinded fortune tellers and hired-hand image sellers
When you add them up, all you get is dust

Were you queen of all our hearts, or just a soap opera actress
Who played a starring role on all our screens
Taking fantasy and fact and weaving them together
In the fabric that we buy to clothe our dreams

Lost and lonely rich girl, did you do the same
The cameras cannot follow now, the images remain

They called you people's princess, did the people's puppet masters
They reach down and pull our strings, see how we dance!
Manipulation is the name of the game where every pawn would be a player
Did you think you had a chance?

The huntress or the hunted, the press they hounded you
The pack were at your heels, you could never be alone
Though it's five years since you died, still you cannot rest in peace
The dogs are out there digging for your bones

Lost and lonely rich girl why were you never taught
The friends that fame and fortune brings are the kind who can be bought

Once England was a garden but now this soil has hardened
And there's nowhere left a rose could ever grow
All I can do is pray that somehow you've found your way
Into the mercy none of us could ever show

8. Beatrix Potter's Gun
(many years ago after seeing what was hanging behind the front door of Beatrix Potter's Cottage in the Lake District, the moment of the death of childhood innocence)

Peter Rabbit went to the cabbage patch, it was a bright sunshiny day
He knew that it was teatime, Mr McGregor was away
Then he heard a noise and turned his little head-
The air was full of flying lead

So its run, run bunny, run, run, run
Run, run bunny, run, run, run
Here comes Beatrix Potter
look out! the lady's got a gun

Today Peter Rabbit is not well he's a rather poorly little bunny
His eyes are blind, he cannot see, his nose is somewhat runny
Please Mr Vet may I have the diagnosis
Has this little rabbit got myxomatosis?

Run...

Well, I thought furry bunnies and friendly mice
Like ponies and puppies and pussies were nice
But as I grew up, the myth evaporated
I've learned that they're vermin and must be exterminated
I was a delicate child,. I was brought up with care
Tales about Rupert were all I could bear
Now I'm having nightmares, Mummy leave the light on
I come from the land that Enid put her blight on

Run...
How shall I introduce my kids to a world so cruel and cold
When the only Peter Rabbit they're ever going to meet is the one in the casserole
The very best toy I have found so far
It's a My Little Pony Dream Abattoir

Run..

It's not just Beatrix, it's you and me
That have such very bad habits
We treat our brothers, we treat our sisters, even worse than we treat our rabbits
So I'm doing one thing for the good of my soul
Running through the fields and shouting down each hole

and I shout, run...

...here comes Beatrix Potter, she really is a rotter
I wonder how she'd feel if a bunny rabbit shot her?
We'd all be so much happier if Beatrix forgot her
Gun.

9. Counterpoint 02 02 2002

You are the perfect stranger with whom I share my day
The faithful friend that I am oh so willing to betray
Closer than my skin and half a universe away
You are the perfect stranger with whom I share my day

Your feet still stand on foreign soil 'though you stand by my side
I never comprehended that the world it was so wide
And in the night whole continents are drifting on this tide
Your feet still stand on foreign soil 'though you stand by my side

Counterpoint, like to unlike, the cold will crave the heat
The north pole bends to seek the south, the sour desires the sweet
And we live in the light of the colours that form when the ends of the spectrum meet

You never have been me, my love, I know I am not you
My eyes look on the world to see a very different view
To try and name the colours there is all that I can do
You never have been me, my love, I know I am not you

Your words are chosen carefully, whereas I speak too much
It's you that waits so patiently, when I reach out to clutch
Then I'm the one who shrinks back even from your gentle touch
Your words are chosen carefully, whereas I speak too much

Counterpoint, like to unlike...

You are the perfect stranger....

10 Cuttlefish PFR 26-7 Nov 01

Oh the cuttle fish is not a subtle fish, it can turn the sea to ink
Pellucid to opaque in the twinkle of an eye it takes place faster than you think
It's all a defensive stratagem, an evolutionary gain
Ending up the winner, not as someone else's dinner
It spares itself quite a lot of pain (Being eaten can give you such a lot of pain)

Oh the rabbit is a beast you find inhabiting an amazing maze of holes
That elusive little bun will always turn and run to save his furry body and his little furry soul
In his subterranean labyrinth he can escape all crime
You think he will, he won't, now you see him- now you don't
With me it takes a bit more time, that's all, with me it takes a bit more time

But still I can raise you a smokescreen
Appear in a guise to deceive human eyes at will
I can change my colour, I can shift my shape
I've a thousand and one means of escape
I just vanish out the door....
Leaving you with nothing but the bill

The chameleon's a cunning and a guileful little reptile for he never nails its colours to the mast
He is only at a loss when it comes to zebra cross-ings and crawls along a little too fast
It is proven to be true he can change from red to blue with more alacrity than Tony Blair
And his parents never dare complain at what he wears or criticise the colour of his hair
(No they don't criticise the colour of his hair)

Mother Nature makes us ponder as she has so many wonders
Stored up for our edification
Stacked up high right to the sky, on the shelves of the cupboard called Creation
But seeking anthropomorphic parallels, it really can be rather tough
For when it comes to the way human beings behave
The beasts are not beastly enough (by half) the beast are just not beastly enough)

12. Wait for You

The sun slips from the sky, the air turns cold
Hands on the clock crawl round as the evening grows old
I walk home down the street, it's not that far
But there seems like a mile or so inside those hundred yards
And near is far and false is true
And I wait for you

I make a cup of coffee, then find that I've poured two
Your's will be cold before you get here, so I drink mine
As I sit here beside the telephone, waiting for your call
Wishing I could reach out down that line
But there is nothing I can do
But to wait for you

Lying with your memory beside me in the bed
Waiting for the sleep that never comes
I stumble to the window, and I throw the curtains wide
But the morning never dawns, its always night outside
And light is dark I can't see through
Still I wait for you

I wait for you...

13. Kaboot (Uncertain revised 11 08 02)

Early morning sun shines down on crowds who make their way
To a great field at the village edge to gather each Sunday
Strangest tribal gathering drawn from all society
All come and all will join in worshipping our deity

Kaboot Kaboot we all bow down
Kaboot Kaboot please understand
Kaboot Kaboot oh grant me now
cut-price bounty flowing from your hand

A thousand lurking entrepreneurs leap out from their closets
And excavate domestic archaeological deposits
Seasoned garage artefacts so suited to your purse
A hamster cage, a hamster city or a hamster universe
Exhumations from the attic, the cobwebs and the rust
That generate nostalgia and an allergy to dust
Old tea chests and grandma's vests they're all laid out to sell
And (if the price is right) maybe grandma herself as well..

A Dansette record player labelled 'classic audio'
The stylus it is missing and the motor will not go
There's no electric here so I'm afraid you cannot try it
If Kaboot smiles you sell the thing - if Kaboot frowns, you buy it
Five-year old computer games, and for a special treat
An exercise bicycle that lacks pedals and a seat
My Little Pony's knackers yard, A Barbie amputee
And teenage mutant ninja turtles thrown in for free

There's wisdom and there's virtue here, you find it before long
In a thousand dog-eared year books all written by Patience Strong
And here's a special bargain waiting for the camping freak
A plastic porta potti that has just sprung one slight leak
The prize is out there somewhere, that's something we all know
The pot of gold at the end of the great carboot rainbow
A blue porcelain gozunder from the Ming dynasty
Or a Hornby Dublo trainset vintage1923

Kaboot Kaboot open my eyes
Kaboot Kaboot I see the plan
Kaboot Kaboot it's all so clear
To rip off and not be ripped off is the highest goal of man

14. Send Down the Rain 04-06 08 02

It's 3 am and hot, my head is full of questions and of answers
Here beside me sleeping, lies my nearest and my dearest enemy
Its not the time of night to initiate a rational conversation
Tomorrow I will sue for peace, if I can find the vocabulary

Been walking in the garden but all the garden's dry, the air is heavy
If you've got ears you cannot help but hear a few suggestions from the snake
Some you recall some you try to forget, then you recall them all the better
It's such a sultry summer night I'm praying that you'll let this weather break

Send down the rain
I want to hear it's gentle sound outside my window
Send down the rain
Clear the sweat that's standing on my brow
Send down the rain
The clouds will clear and we will see the morning
Send down the rain
Wash away this clay that's clinging to me now

This world's all walls and boundaries,
That delineate the privacy we covet
Defended by intentions that are very rarely kind and often cruel
We build and build again the boundaries of these petty little kingdoms
It's still divide and sub-divide; the usual way the devil loves to rule

Send down the rain
I want thunder I want lightning in this the night sky
Send down the rain
As God stoops down to photograph our souls
Send down send the rain
Let the waters rise and flood this landscape
Send down the rain
Wash away the walls and towers and gates, I'm praying, let the river roll

15. The Granite and the Sand 22/23 December 2002

We walked upon the beach and watched
The tide roll in again
The waves that break against the cliff
And yet the rocks remain
For a while the rocks remain

We walked upon the beach and spoke
Our pleasures and our pain
The waves that break against our lives
And yet we do remain
For a while we do remain

Time is a tide that washes down
The granite and the sand
And all that stand upon this earth
Are subject to his hand
Are subject to his hand

But time like hunger in the end
will all be satisfied
Then comes the day he's swept away
Upon a greater tide
Upon a greater tide

And a little later..

The A 68

Well you 've heard about Route 66 and the Trans-Siberia motorway
You know the way it feels when you've road beneath your wheels
And you're heading up a broad highway
Well may I please inform ya you don't need California or anywhere else U.S.A.
Or even to be back in the USSR I'm doing it the English way
Because I'm feeling great - about the A 68

Coming off the A1M at Burtree interchange, gotta see my baby tonight
So I put my foot down to that roundabout, with the Bishop Auckland road on the right
I haven't got an Cadillac, I haven't got a Chevrolet I haven't even got a Buick
I've got an eleven-year old Nissan Sunny; doesn't really go that quick
But I won't be late not on the A68

Rolling down the hill into West Auckland, is my hunger beginning to tell?
Its a choice between a pub and a working mens' club and the Manor House Hotel
But I'm going to be strong I'm driving straight on, heading straight up to Toft Hill
Past a sign that points to Escombe Saxon Church, I find that tempting, still..
I won't hesitate, not on the A 68

Then its uphill and downhill and up again passing Witton-le-Wear on the right
Until a sign that I saw said 'Welcome to Tow Law' -at last I had found the bright lights
Everyone was on their feet, there were crowds in every street I knew I simply had to stop
The scene of the action, the centre of attraction was Young's fish-and-chip shop
That's where I ate, out on the A68

Driving on again I find my temperature is rising my engine running short of water
Stop to fill my radiator up by a signpost that said 'Satley three and a quarter'
Then I heard a sound of music, I heard a sound of singing people really having a ball
It was the Rowley Baptist Chapel Annual Harvest Festival
Yes they celebrate beside the A 68

Well there's Nashville for country or Chicago for the blues but there's a music scene you may not know
Just take a turn right at Castleside bank and Go Johnny Go,Go,Go
There's a town of around fifteen thousand folks and everyone has got the right
The shy and the bold, the young and the old, to be live in Consett tonight
But sad to relate - That's on the A692

Down across the Derwent into Northumberland, running low now on gasoline
I fill up with unleaded so that kiddies won't be deaded by my fumes
you know I'm glad to be green
Past Wallish Walls and Snods Edge to Kiln Pit Hill my engine starts to splutter and cough
But now hip hip hooray it's downhill all the way and I freewheel right into Broomhaugh
I'm so exhilarate(d) by the A68

If you're living in Hexham and have to go to Wrexham without going round by Carlisle
If you find your relaxation in avoiding conurbations well here's a way to travel in style
If your enthusiasm's faded and your nerves are jaded and you feel like you're losing your grip
Here's some advice if you want to feel nice, I'm just recommending a trip
You'll have to take -and that's the A68


Dark Dream is available from 1 Ford Terrace, Broomhauigh, RIDING MILL, Northumberland NE44 6EJ, at £5.00 plus £1.00 p & p Dark Dream Lyrics all songs copyright Pete Ryder

1. Dark Dream 8/9 March 03

I recall one sunny evening, I was just ten years old
I went to walk down into the town, there was one particular road
Not more than a hundred yards, but somehow I could not reach its end
And, crystallised in my memory, it seems like a portent
of this dark dream

With strange and total clarity of the threshold of sleep
The return of a memory I did not choose to keep
The old familiar struggle to open my eyes wide
But it's already far too late, and helplessly I slide
into this dark dream

The moon peers in my window, silhouetted 'gainst her light
I see the coming horsemen, whose world is of the night
And all my brain is fever 'though my blood is running cold
As grace and peace and charity are forever set on hold
in this dark dream

Temptation canters to my side, she rides a dappled mare
She smiles down at me and transfixed I simply stand and stare
She steps down and draws the curtains, to deny my chance of dawn
Her lips are hot against my soul, but her heart I know is full of scorn
in this dark dream

I run at last into a church, and stumble across cracked stone
Past the watching congregation to the altar rail alone
But the holy blood that saves me, transubstantiates to wine
my mouth is furred, my brain is dull I am still in the confines
Of this dark dream

So shake me by my shoulders, shout my name until
I yield you my permission, with the last flicker of my will
Pull the slates from off this roof, break the ceiling and come down
Drag me from this poisoned sleep, lift me or I'll drown
in this dark dream

(Songs 2 and 3 were written at Greenbelt 2003, to titles texted in by listeners to Radio Greenbelt)

2. The Root of the Problem is the Root of the Solution

Run brother run, you can run around the eart
The longest road still leads to your place of birth
Blindfold children of the endless revolution
(they don't know) the root of the problem is the root of the solution

Go on, point the finger everywhere you look
If you do not blame the author you can blame the book
Heavy chains of history, the ancient institution
But the root of the problem is the root of the solution

The trunk, the branch, the flowers, the fruit
Everything springs up from the root
Without the root nothing can stand
The tree, the tribe, the state
The individual, the individual, the individual woman and man

You can soar up like a bird, dig down like a mole
Shiver on a mountain top, sweat inside a hole
Pilgrimage or penance cannot exact restitution
For the root of the problem is the root of the solution

If you're spoiling for a fight there's politics to try
You can be right wing , left wing but you still can't fly
Bend the agenda, refute the constitution
Still the root of the problem is the root of the solution

(Repeat middle 8 then first verse)

3. The Day the Pope became a Catholic
It was the day the snake was smiling, as his labours had borne fruit
As Adam and Eve received degrees from the Eden Institute
They turned the taps on for the Flood, and to thunderous applause
Noah and his ark went down with all hands, feet and paws
Still, a rainbow arched across the sky to say life would come back
But the Pope became a Catholic and the rainbows all turned black

Pharaoh and his army on the Red Sea they did sail
So Moses took his tablets and gave them to the whale
To help it digest Jonah, that was his sorry fate
Captain Ahab and his great harpoon arrived a day too late
The watching pressmen all shed tears in pity at the sight
But the Pope became a Catholic and bought the TV rights

The Philistines were so cultured, their defeat it was postponed
And Goliath turned teetotal leaving David to get stoned
Solomon he got to take just one GCSE
It was in passing time with concubines, he did most excellently
Even wrote a song about it, but it didn't get that far
for the Pope, becoming Catholic, confiscated his guitar

The Good News turned to bad news on the day the stone stayed rolled
And Judas bought a penthouse suite with his thirty bags of gold
The wine turned back to water and the lepers stayed diseased
As the Bible was rewritten by the Scribes and Pharisees
So the Book of Revelation it had nothing to reveal
When the Pope became a Catholic and turned the sky to steel

But time turned round upon itself in a holy quantum shift
Grace rolled like a river and the fog began to lift
Dead men walked wearing white robes, they'd traded in their shrouds
And laughing beggars served out bread and wine to all the crowd
The lion and the lamb walked in, led by a little child
And when the Pope became a Catholic, his wife, she simply smiled...

4. Riches (1993)

I am the riches of the pauper, I am the weakness of the king
I am the strength of the cripple, I share in all his suffering,
I am the anger of the innocent, I am the vengeance of the meek
I am the quarry that no hunter would ever knowing dare to seek
Would ever knowing dare to seek...

I am the song heard by the deaf man, I am the vision of the blind
I am the word on the tongue of the dumb spoken out loud to all mankind,
I am the joy of the mourner, I am the freedom of the slave
I am the life within the dying, I am the laughter from the grave

And I will rattle at your window, and I will hammer at your door
I am the silence that is louder than the words you've chosen to ignore,
Tonight when the earth is shaken, tonight when the sky is turned to flame
In the sudden stillness at the centre of the storm
I am the voice that calls your name, I am the voice that calls your name

I am the truth you dare not entertain, I am the way you will not take
I am the gift that you continually refuse forever offered for your sake,
I am the life forever given, A thousand eyes will watch me die
Here upon the gallows of the human heart
I am the Lord of earth and sky

5. Kevin's got a Turbo (1992)

He started off driving a Metro, soon wanted something far much better O
Tried a Nova then an Astra that was a complete disastra
Still had a problem he couldn't solve -O
would he invest in a Volvo
But to travel fast and to travel far
He needed five little letters on the back of his car

Oh Kevin's got a turbo, Kevin's got a turbo, KKKKKKKKKevin's got a turbo now...

He says it gets him from A to B, but all the neighbours get to see
He's a supercharged personality, Kevin's got a turbo now
Got more force to his horseless carriage, man, machine, the perfect marriage
Shangri La in his own garage, Kevin's got a turbo now

Kevin's got a turbo..

Now he knows the way it feels, To burn the rubber off his wheels
Passing by the girls all squeal Kevin's got a turbo now!
Quadraphonic speakers on his stereo, an in-car fridge keeps his drinks cold
and fluffy dice plated with real gold, Kevin's got a turbo now

O Kevin's got a turbo...

Read the advertisers' blurb, O feel the instincts you can't kerb O
be a hero in your own suburb -o, Just like Kevin in his turbo
But sometimes he must be perturbed O his conscience it must be disturbed O
never mind he feels superb-o, when he's driving in his turbo

Kevin's got a turbo..

Got walnut veneer on the dash, an in-flight computer with lights that flash
A hands-off phone for the motorway, and deep-pile carpet lining in the ash tray
Got central locking and a tinted screen, a catalytic convertor to keep it green
Got electric windows, when they roll down you can call
'Excuse me my man, is this the way to the hall?

Kevin's got as turbo..

6. A Little Lower than the Ceiling (April/July 2003)

I often think how it would have felt
Had I been around when you walked this earth
Following you through dusty Galilean villages
Listening on the fringe of the crowd
When it came to the time you had to walk alone
Yes, I'd have run away like the rest of your friends
Would I have got the chance to meet you in the sequel
And stood there wide-eyed and lost for words?

Some of the people you had around you in those days!
I could have queried your choice in humanity
It's not much different two thousand years on
Just take a look around
At the societies and clubs and organisations
All claiming you as their founder member
Saying they can guarantee me an audience
If I pay my subscription or go on a course

but I say
Just lift me up, a little lower than the ceiling
There's angels up above you say, but this far suits me fine
High enough to take my bearings on the situation
See the endless love that's in you heart and the hunger here in mine

I was born into a quasi-military religious uniformed organisation
Founded in the nineteenth century, and still there fifty years into the next
Offering the world soup and salvation, doing away with alcohol, tobacco and sin
The world in turn looked on and condescended to drop a coin in the tin
Booth with his drum led the marching band, over the bright horizon into glory land
Looking at the skyline I could still see the glow, I guess I recognised you even then
Good people wearing such strange clothes, if they're up there looking down on me now
I'm sorry if I disappointed them by not wearing those particular colours

I've been around this thing they call the church I've seen it all run to extremes
The high camp theatre, the bells and smells, then the prosaic and the plain
The fundamentalists who have no fun at all, the liberals who only believe in belief
The glazed eyes of the holy rollers, I can't help it but I'm in there as well

But what about you, what do you say, what do you think of the show so far?
You got the Spanish Inquisition was it just a crossed line when it was Mother Teresa you called?
Don't ask me to work the whole thing out I've not got that circuitry inside my skull
I can't leave now I've got to follow you although I feel two thousand light years behind

And I still ask...
..I'm still hungry I'm still thirsty
And like Bono says I still haven't found, still haven't found what I'm looking for
And I wonder, yes I wonder, I wonder, have you?