ministers meet -- work on the movement of goods also work on the movement of capital also work on the movement of human beings as if we were so many cattle grim travellers in dawn skies see the beauty -- makes you cry inside makes you angry and you don't know why grim travellers in dawn skies 12 mercenaries got weapons primed gonna take that African nation in record time you wonder why they bother, why not leave it alone they say "every man wants to retire to a place he can call his own" those grim travellers in dawn skies see the beauty -- makes them cry inside makes them angry and they don't know why grim travellers in dawn skies redness, richer than a rose blooms against the backdrop of somebody's white clothes bitter little girls and boys from the Red Army Underground they'd blow away Karl Marx if he had the nerve to come around they're just travellers in dawn skies see the beauty -- makes them cry inside makes them angry and they don't know why they're grim travellers in dawn skies down on the plain of 10,000 smoke stacks trucks butt each other to establish dominance the newspaper next to me leans over and says matter-of-factly "sacred mountains towers above meadows" uh huh and above us grim travellers in dawn skies i see the beauty -- makes me cry inside it makes me angry and i don't know why we're grim travellers in dawn skies (Ottawa, October 20/79)
above the dark town after the sun's gone down 2 vapour trails cross the sky catching the day's last slow goodbye black skyline looks rich as velvet something is shining like gold but better rumours of glory smiles mixed with curses the crowd disperses about whom no details are known each one alone yet not alone behind the pain/fear etched on the faces something is shining like gold but better rumours of glory (repeat) you see the extremes of what humans can be? in that distance some tension's born energy surging like a storm you plunge your hand in and draw it back scorched beneath it's shining like gold but better rumours of glory (Burritts Rapids December 31/79)
i don't mean to cling to you my friends it's just i hate the day to have to end never enough time to spend i haven't done enough for this to be the end there must be more... more... more songs more warmth more love more life not more fear not more fame not more money not more games there -- you -- coming through the crowd blue light silhouettes your head i want to shout your name out loud but i shout inside instead there must be more... more... more current more spark more touch deep in the heart not more thoughtless cruelty not more being this lonely... don't i hear them talking? don't i know what they say? i'm a fool for thinking things could be better than they were today there must be more... more... more growth more truth more chains more loose not more pain not more walls not more living human voodoo dolls (Toronto, February 14th, 1980)
so i find out what the luxury of hate is as exciting maybe as doing the dishes face toward window -- light received you walk away to see a film see some people see a man stab in throat twist in gut all too clear not too new -- all been done before planet breathes exhaustion staggers on enemy anger impotent gun grease too many thoughts too dogshit tired one small step for freedom from foregone conclusion you get bigger as you go no one told me -- i just know bales of memory like boats in tow you get bigger as you go you get bigger as you go spent all day afraid to talk redneck children laugh out loud i being target live and walk you get bigger as you go telephone snarls "don't touch me" you move in waves like the midnight blues you vector of this weird dis-ease you get bigger as you go news reruns -- dawn comes rainbow pain takes shape of grimy window you get bigger as you go (Ottawa, March 23rd/80)
disharmony gives way to mute helplessness not enough communication too much not expressed it's all to easy to let go of hope to think there's nothing worth saving and let it all go up in smoke what about the the bond (Chorus:) what about the mystical unity what about the bond sealed in the loving presence of the Father dysfunction of the institutions that should give a frame to work in got to find our own solutions confusion pressure from all sides got to head right down the centre in the love that will abide what about the bond (repeat chorus) man and woman made to be one flesh nobody said it would be easy but can we let go now and fail the test? now you could say life is full of moving on but do you want the pain that's already been spent to all be wasted -- c'mon what about the bond (repeat chorus) (Ottawa, March 28th, 1980)
sun went down looking like the eye of God behind icy mist and stark bare trees inside the dim empty cinema 2 guys in leather jackets glance at each other and shiver "they never built these places with winter in mind" out the window down the gray road you can see old walled monastery now become a barracks for the paramilitary police i saw an old lady's face once on a Japanese train half lit, rich and soft luminosity she was dozing straight upright head bobbing almost imperceptibly wheels were playing fast in 9/8 time her husband's friendly face suddenly folded up in a sneeze across the straight a volcano flew a white smoke flag of surrender in a Roman street on a full moon night i was sick and there was a young cop in a circle of yellow light as we drew near he snapped the safety off his machine pistol and slid a trembling finger to the trigger i wanted to say something calming but couldn't catch his eye he didn't want contact -- he was trained to see movement "well don't shoot me man i'm a graceful slow dancer i'm just a dream to you not real at all" i wonder if i'll end up like Bernie in his dream a displaced person in some foreign border town waiting for a train part hope part myth while the station changes hands or just sitting at home growing tenser with the times or like that guy in "The Seventh Seal" watching the newly dead dance across the hills or wearing this leather jacket shivering with a friend while the eye of God blazes at us like the sun... (Autumn '79 Pavia, Hokkaido, Paris)
ships moving into this cave of cloud out of the white light up river at a certain point you can only die high contrast resolution of wet rock and new snow these bodies remind me of tire marks frozen in the mud we thought we could change something we helped them win we changed the slogans we get hunted again when you're the fighter you're the politicians tool when you're the fighter you're everybody's fool they move like bears through city streets they've got a flag flying over every factory i'd like to put a bullet through the world wagon full of logs with one flat tire armed me moving down through the bush up river at a certain point you can... ships... white light... only (Gorizia-Milan, November 25/79)
They're getting prepared to haul a car out of the river Noise and smoke and concrete seem to be going on forever Grinding gears and drivers getting high on exhaust i'm thinking about the water down below and what got lost Pachinko jingle and space torpedo beams Comic book violence and escaping steam Grey suited business men pissing against the wall -- Cut to crumbling guardrail, slow motions car fall Oh Tokyo -- I never can sleep in your arms Mind keeps on ringing like a fire alarm Me and all the other dice bouncing around in the cup Did you have to show me that accident scene Didn't I get enough shaking up? Still I'm gonna miss you... Dragon of good fortune struggles with trickster fox Energy and patience and the power of the buck Tonight I'm flying headlong to meet the dark red edge of dawn I know somebody will be crying and somebody will be gone Oh Tokyo -- (repeat chorus) (Tokyo September 15/79)
fascist architecture of my own design too long been keeping my love confined you tore me out of myself alive those fingers drawing out blood like sweat while the magnificent facades crumble and burn the billion facets of brilliant love the billion facets of freedom turning in the light bloody nose and burning eyes raised in laughter to the skies i've been in trouble but i'm ok been through the wringer but i'm ok walls are falling and i'm ok under the mercy and i'm ok gonna tell my old lady gonna tell my little girl there isn't anything in the world that can lock up my love again (Denver, May 5th, 80)
something jewelled slips away
round the next bend with a splash
laughing at the hands i hold out
only air within their grasp
all you can do is praise the razor
for the fineness of the slash
i see the Rose above the sky
opens
and the light behind the sun
takes all
gutless arrogance and rage
burn apart the best of tries
you carry the weight of inherited sorrow
from your first day till you die
toward that hilltop where the road
forever becomes one with the sky
i see the Rose above the sky
opens
and the light behind the sun
takes all
ozone on the midnight wind
got me thinking of the sea
and the mercies of the currents that brought
me to you and you to me
and in the silence at the heart of things
where all true meetings come to be
i see the Rose above the sky
opens
and the light behind the sun
takes all
(Ottawa August/79)