Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors

Listen to me just hear me out, if i could have your attention
Just quieten down for a voice in the crowd.
I get so confused i don't understand
I know you feel the same way you've always wanted to say
But you don't get the chance, just a voice in the crowd.

I don't know the score anymore; it's not clear anymore
I can't tell right from wrong anymore; i just don't understand.
I was sitting here thinking of exchanging a new world for old
Like changing channels on the tv, or the dirt we stand in to gold.

When i was young, my father told me just the bad guys die
At the time just a little white lie
It was one of the first but it hurt me the most
And the truth stung like tears in my eye
That even the good guys must die
There's no reasoning no crimes and i never knew why
Even now it still makes me cry.

If there's somebody up there could they throw me down a line
Just a little helping hand just a little understanding
Just some answers to the questions that surround me now.
If there's somebody up there could they throw me down a line
Just a little guiding light to tell wrong from right
Just some answers to the questions that i'm asking you
I keep a vigil in a wilderness of mirrors
Where nothing here is ever what it seems
You stand so close but you never understand it
For all that we see is not what it seems, am i blind?

And you sit there and talk revolution
But can you tell me just who's in command?
When you tell me the forces we are fighting
Then i'll gladly join and make plans
But for now only our t-shirts cry freedom
And our voices are gagged by our greed
Our minds are harnessed by knowledge
By the hill and the will to succeed
And if that's not what you believe
Would you let me know i'm not standing alone
That i'm not just a voice in the crowd

If there's somebody up there could they throw me down a line
Just a little helping hand just a little understanding
Just a little understanding to the questions that i'm asking you
If there's somebody up there could they throw me down a line
Just a little guiding light to tell wrong from right
Just some answers to the questions that i'm asking you
I'll keep a vigil in a wilderness of mirrors
Where nothing here is ever what it seems
I'm scared to shout in case i draw attention from the powers
That preside over our minds and our lives
When they find what i want is the deadliest weapon, that is truth
Day by day it's getting louder
And day by day it's getting stronger
But when i can't scream no more and i need reassurance,
I listen to the crowd.

(and the boy stood, and stared at the hill. and the hill stared back)

I've got a reputation of being a man with a gift of words
A romantic poetic type or so they say
But i find it hard to express the way i feel about you
Without getting involved with the old cliches.

In the old cliches, it's the old cliches.

This song's begun so many times but never
In a way that you wont consider to be an old cliche.
I want to say that i need you, i miss you when you're away.
And how it seemed like fate - o here we go - the same old cliches.

It's the same old cliches.

It's not that i'm embarrassed or shy, well, you know me too well
But i want to make this song special in a way that you can tell.
That it's solely for you and nobody else
For my best friend, my lover, when i need help - cliche - cliche?
Everything i want to say to you is wrapped up in an old cliche
I'd waited so long to find you, i'd been through the heartbreak and pain,
But of course you already know that cos you've been throught the same.
That's why i'm trying to say with my deepest sincerity
That's why i'm finding it comes down to the basic simplicities
The best way is with an old cliche
It's simply the best way is with an old cliche
Always the best way is with an old cliche
I'll leave it to the best way, it's an old cliche
I love you.

I heard a battle raging on the other side of the wall
I buried my head in a pillow and tried to ignore it all.
Every night when i hear you i dream of breaking down your door
An avenging knight in shining armour, to rescue you from it all.

From this family business, family business
How long does it stay, family business.
It's nobody's business, this family business,
But tell me how long it remains family business.

When i see you at the supermarket, sunglasses in the shade
Averting your eyes from those staring questions, how were those bruises made?
The children clutch tight to your legs, they've got so much they want to say
But daddy's sitting home, drunk again so they bite their lips and pray
Cos daddy don't like people poking in his private affairs
And if anyone asks from the social, well, you tripped and fell down the stairs.

It's family business, keep it in the family business.
Can you tell me how long it remains family business?
It's nobody's business, this family business.
But tell me how long it should stay family business.

She's waiting at the bus stop at the bottom of the hill
She know's she'll never catch it, she knows she never will.
The kids are all she lives for, she's got nothing left to lose,
Nowhere to escape to, but she knows she's got to move.
Cos when daddy tucks the kids in, it's taking longer every night.

It's family business, keep it in the family business.
Can you tell me how long it reamins family business?
It's nobody's business, this family business.
But tell me how long it should stay family business.

So i become an accessory and i don't have an alibi
To the victim on my doorstep the only way i can justify.

It's family business, family business.
How long do we keep it family business?

Track down a satellite, beam in the action, life lies bleeding
Live in your living room, our senses on remote control overkill and overload.
>from lockerbie to lebanon's getting closer every day
Hollywood to hungerford's an impression away.

I like to watch implausible pledges of polite politicians.
I like to watch them even more than my video nasties.
I like to watch.

The bleeding of a bimbo, a backstabbing beauty queen
Titillating tabloids trigger off a wet dream into action
A fatal attraction, private lives are up for auction.
A cupboard full of skeletons are coming out to play.

I like to watch disasters in replay and rerun in slo mo.
I like to watch on the spot interviews kicking in front doors.
I like to watch.

To watch as my face is reflected in blank tv screens
The programmes are over, i like to pretend that that's
Me up there making headlines, camera closeups
Catching my right side i don't care if it's only a moment
As long as it's peaktime, just as long as all of
My friends and family see me, the world
Will know my name - come on down

I like to watch psychologists speculate, analysts analise.
I like to watch my methods and motives, the topic of talk shows.
I like to watch.
Switch off, turn on.

You sit and think that everything is coming up roses
But you can't see the weeds that entangle your feet.
You can't see the wood for the trees cos the forest is burning
And you say it's the smoke in your eyes that's making you cry.

They sold you a view from the hill.
They told you that the view from the hill would be
Further than you'd ever seen before.
They sold you a view from the hill.
They sold you a view from the hill.

You were a dancer and a chancer, a poet and a fool
To the royalty of mayhem you were breaking all the rules.
Your decadence outstanding, your hopes flying high.
One eye looking over your shoulder, one on the hill.
You used to say you were scared of heights - you said you got dizzy.
You said you didn't like your feet being to high off the ground,
But they said that up there you'd find the air would be clearer
Promised you more space to move and more room to breath.

They sold you a view from the hill.
They told you that the view from the hill would be
Further than you'd ever seen before.

You were holding out forever - thought they'd never turn your mind.
Your ideals they were higher than you ever could have climbed.
We thought that they couldn't buy you - the price would be too high
That the riches there on offer they just wouldn't turn your eyes.
But your conscience it was locked up in the prisons of your schemes
Your judgement it was blinded by your visions and your dreams
Praying and hoping that the view from the hill
Is wider than you've ever seen before.
For the view from the hill we held our heads so high (smell the roses)
All the loved ones that you lied to are strangers left behind.
All the ones that really mattered well you stood on as you climbed.
You were holding out forever for your fathers and your peers
Holding out for everyone that ever walked in here.
The edge was inside and you rode it all the way.
You were playing the games that you learned yesterday
Hanging around like a fool with a name
You are holding your place for the view, the view from the hill.

They sold you the view from the hill.
Look it all for a view from the hill
And you find the views no further than you've seen before.

They sold you the view from the hill.
And you stood and took it all from the view from the hill.
It's simply coming up roses.