Lights Out
Last lights out
Theyre all abed
And somethings in my room
Creeping down towards me on the wall
Daddy said its just some flickering
Headlight through the gloom
Making shapes through trees outside the hall
But what the hell does he know?
He doesnt feel the dread
The cold restricting terror in the dark
Ive seen that silhouette before
Something the newsman said
Something about some monster in the park
Chorus:
Its you, youre the man on the tv screen
Its you front page face of the dead
Locked up in the light of day
At night come out to play
To terrorize me there above my bed
The air is still and heavy now
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song performed by Jethro Tull
Added by Lucian Velea
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Somethings On The Move
She wore a black tiara
Rare gems upon her fingers
And she came from distant waters
Where northern lights explode
To celebrate the dawning
Of the new wastes of winter
Gathering royal momentum
On the icy road.
With chill mists swirling
Like petticoats in motion
Sighted on horizons
For ten thousand years
The lady of the ice sounds
A deathly distant rumble
To titanic-breaking children lost
In melting crystal tears.
Capturing black pieces
In a glass-fronted museum
The white queen rolls
On the chessboard of the dawn
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song performed by Jethro Tull
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Another Christmas Song
Hope everybodys ringing on their own bell, this fine morning.
Hope everyones connected to that long distance phone.
Old man, hes a mountain.
Old man, hes an island.
Old man, hes a-walking says
''Im going to call, call all my children home.
Hope everybodys dancing to their own drum this fine morning ---
The beat of distant africa or a polish factory town.
Old man, hes calling for his supper.
Calling for his whisky.
Calling for his sons and daughters, yeah ---
Calling all his children round.
Sharp ears are tuned in to the drones and chanters warming.
Mist blowing round some headland, somewhere in your memory.
Everyone is from somewhere ---
Even if youve never been there.
So take a minute to remember the part of you
That might be the old man calling me.
How many wars youre fighting out there, this winters morning?
Maybe its always time for another christmas song.
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song performed by Jethro Tull
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Toad In The Hole
I walk along the strand
To catch the late ride home.
Shuttle through the evening gloom
Knowing I forgot to phone.
The back doors open.
Theres a chill blowing in.
Take your warm hands off me.
Let the night begin.
Shush your mouth.
Listen to me.
I wont say nothing ---
Just let me be your
Toad in the hole.
Kicking through the wet leaves lying
All along the station road.
Past tired graffitti wailing,
Raw emotion to unload.
Theres coal in the fireplace
And money in the bank too.
Deep-pile carpets, tinsel wallpaper.
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song performed by Jethro Tull
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Pibroch (Cap In Hand)
In the half-tone light of a young morning
she sighs and shifts on the pillow.
And across her face dancing, the first shadows fly
to kiss the Pussy Willow.
In her fairy-tale world she's a lost soul singing
in a sad voice nobody hears.
She waits in her castle of make-believe
for her white knight to appear.
Pusy Willow down fur-lined avenue
brushing the sleep from her young woman eyes.
Runs for the train, see: eight o'clock's coming
cutting dreams down to size again.
Pussy Willow down fur-lined avenue,
brushing the sleep from her young woman eyes.
Runs from the train. Hear her typewriter humming,
cutting dreams down to size again.
She longs for the East and a pale dress flowing
an apartment in old Mayfair.
Or to fish the Spey, spinning the first run of Spring
or to die for a cause somewhere.
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song performed by Jethro Tull
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European Legacy
She smiles at me
From beyond the eastern sea-shore.
Flashing jewelled eyes,
She hoists her skirts so high.
Nouvelle cuisine or an oyster bar ---
Its really up to her.
Ill write every cheque she brings to me.
I shoot on sight ---
Its my european legacy.
Round the castle walls ---
About the highlands and the islands
The faint reminders stand.
Visitors who took a hand
A thousand years ago, or so ---
Stranded high and dry by tides ---
Washed up a new identity.
The channels wide ---
But its their european legacy.
I strain my eyes
Against the southern light advancing.
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song performed by Jethro Tull
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Look Into The Sun
Took a sad song of one sweet evening
I smiled and quickly turned away.
Its not easy singing sad songs
But still the easiest way I have to say.
So when you look into the sun
And see the things we havent done --
Oh was it better then to run
Than to spend the summer crying.
Now summer cannot come anyway.
I had waited for time to change her.
The only change that came was over me.
She pretended not to want love --
I hope she was only fooling me.
So when you look into the sun
Look for the pleasures nearly won.
Or was it better then to run
Than to spend the summer singing.
And summer could have come in a day.
So if you hear my sad song singing
Remember who and what you nearly had.
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song performed by Jethro Tull
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General Crossing
Its an old profession
Of subtle artillery.
Rough wheels meshing ---
Button out, button in.
The tall general will mine
A few bridges tonight,
Stroking soft machinery.
Fanfare at dawn
Courting green steel
Lined up for world war one
(two, three, four).
Its an old profession
Of subtle artillery.
Rough wheels meshing ---
On a landscape with no trees.
The tall general points
To the distance ---
Disconnects his power supply.
Writes a stiff note to his nearest
And dearest ---
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song performed by Jethro Tull
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Black & White Television
I looked in the mirror then
Saw my face in a dream.
With eyes sharp as diamonds
Blessed with clear vision.
Things were not as they seemed.
Black and white television
Stared back from the wall.
Is that my life?
Am I here at all?
Down in the high road, see
Motor cavalcades glide
Past shopwindow dressers
Desperately covering
All the parts they can hide.
Black and white television
Stares at me again.
Is that their lives?
Even dummies pretend.
The truth is so hard to deny.
The answer is here.
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song performed by Jethro Tull
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Postcard Day
My eyes are white circles above cheekbones on fire:
Pale hand gripping my pen.
Rounding up to the zero, adding infinite fractions,
Letting nine become ten.
Two pink doves strut the shingles
Picking crumbs from the breakfast I saved
For you dear. and I wish you were here
On this postcard day.
Focus on the fine indeterminate line
Where the sky meets the sea.
Desperate midweek words, banal and absurd
Freely flow out of me.
Well, I may be a hostage to summer
But Im a hostage, not a slave.
And Im clear that I wish you were here
On this postcard day.
Precious cargo of flotsam: mixed memories on an ocean tide
Swim madly with spice from the orient
On a mystery watery carpet ride.
But with the sun going down, the wind goes around;
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song performed by Jethro Tull
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