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 and 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 the channels on TV

Or the dirt that we stand in to gold



When I was young

My father told me just 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 eyes

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 all that 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're fighting

Then I'll join you and gladly 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 just 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 some answers to the questions that I'm asking you

If there's somebody up there, just 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 is exactly how it seems

You're reaching out, you're so close you can touch it

But it all disappears when it's always so near

But one day we will find that we stand in the light

Until then I'll keep a vigil in a wilderness of mirrors

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 ,  it stared back

I found a new religion yesterday

I'd just cleared immigration JFK

A priest got in a cadillac

The shoe shine boy sang gospel

As God and his accountants drove away

You'll see him coast to coast on live TV

In a stadium rocked by Satan just the night before

The collection from the faithful it is tax free

It'll pay for his presidential campaign and his yacht



And we all bow down, we bow down to the big wedge

And we'll buy ourselves some heaven on earth

We sell our souls, sell our souls for big wedge

Are we selling out tomorrow for today?



A surgeon checks your plastic on the phone

A Casio concerto entertains you while you hold

Your credit rating's good for a Madonna or a Bardot

A Dali or a Picasso for his wall.



You're looking good, you're looking good with big wedge

Are you holding back tomorrow for today?

They're driving in, driving in the big wedge

Are we selling out tomorrow for today?



You'll sell the ground beneath your feet

You'll sell your oil, you'll sell your trees

Your ideals and integrity, your culture and your history

Your children into slavery to labour in their factories

Your mother and your family

You'll sell the world eventually

The IMF and CIA; there's just no difference they're all the same

It all depends on what's your point of view



America, America the big wedge

And they're buying your tomorrow up today

With promises the promises of big wedge

And they'll break them like your hearts another day

When you find out that you've left it just too late

And you find that you're the only one to blame

That you sold out your tomorrow yesterday for Big Wedg

I don't trust the government, I don't trust alternatives

It's not that I'm paranoid, it's just thats the way it is

Every day I hear a little scream inside

Every day I find it's getting louder

I just want to reach out and touch someone

'Cause I find I need a friend in this dark hour



We the people are gettin' tired of your lies

We the people now believe that it's time

We're demanding our rights to the answers

We elect a precedent to a state of mind



I trust in conspiracies, in the power of the military

In this wilderness of mirrors here, not even my speech is free

Every day I hear a little scream inside

Everyday I find it's gettin' louder

I just want to reach out and touch someone

'Cause I find I need a friend in this dark hour



We the people want it straight for a change

'Cause we the people are getting tired of your games

If you insult us with cheap propaganda

We'll elect a precedent to a state of mind



Every day I hear a little scream inside

Every day I find it's getting louder

I just want to reach out and touch someone

'Cause I find I need a friend in this dark hour



When we the people have our backs to the wall

Do we the people then assume control?

When it's too late to stop our own execution

When we're faced with the final solution

You can't elect a dream revolution

When you've a bullet in the back of your mind



It's just a state of mind

Where beggars take cheques and children steal credit cards

From the pockets of wrecks that lie in the road

I came to in my future that was just yesterday

Unsure of my past, that's a knot in my gut



You buy me a drink then you think that you've got the right

To crawl in my head and rifle my soul

You tell me I'm free then you want me to compromise

To sell out my dreams you say you'll make it worthwhile



Oh, boys would you drink to me now

Here on the hill, halfway up, halfway down



You tell me I'm drunk then you sit back and smug a while

Convinced that you're right that you're still in command

Of your senses. I laugh at your superior attitude

Your insincere platitudes they make me throw up



The sooner you realise I'm perfectly happy

If I'm left to decide the company I choose



Oh, boys would you drink to me now

Here on the hill, halfway up, halfway down

Oh, boys would you drink to me now

Here on the hill, halfway up, halfway down

Oh for the company born to the company

Live for the company until I die



The sooner you realise I'm perfectly happy

If I'm left to decide the company I choose



The company I choose is solidly singular

Totally trustworthy, straight and sincere

Polished, experienced, witty and charming

So why don't you push off, this company's my own



Oh, boys would you drink to me now

Here on the hill, halfway up, halfway down

Oh, boys would you drink to me now

Here on the hill, halfway up, halfway down

Oh for the company, dream of the company

Live for the company until I die

Oh for the company, dream of the company

Drink to the company until we die

Until we die

Do you still keep paper flowers in the bottom drawer with your Belgian lace

Taking them out every year to watch the colors fade away?

Do you still believe in fairy tales, in battlements of shining castles

Safe from the dragons that lie beneath the hill?

Are you still a Russian princess rescued by a gypsy dancer

To anyone who'll listen is that a story you still tell?

You live a life of fantasy, your diary romantic fiction

Can't you see it's hard for me, can you see what I am trying to say?



It's a gentleman's excuse me so I'll take one step to the side

Can you get it inside your head I'm tired of dancing?

For every one step forward we're taking two steps back

Can you get it inside your head I'm tired of dancing?



I know you still like old fashioned waltzes

Your reflection in the mirror that you flirt with as you glide across the floor

But if I told you the music's over would you want to hear

That your dance card is empty that there's no-one really there?

Do you still believe in Santa Claus, that there's a millionaire

Looking for your front door with a key to a life that you'd never understand?

All I have to offer is the love that I have, it's freely given

You'll see its value when you see what I've tried to say



It's a gentleman's excuse me so I'll take one step to the side

Can you get it inside your head I'm tired of dancing?

For every one step forward I'm taking two steps back

Can you get it inside your head that from this one step forward

There's no turning back?

Can you get it inside your head I'm tired of dancing?

We're finished dancing

Track down a satellite, beam in the action,

Life lies bleeding live in your living room,

Our senses on remote control, overkill on 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 bleating of a bimbo, a back-stabbing 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 slow-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 peak-time

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

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

'Cause daddy don't like people prying, poking in his private affairs

And if anyone asks from the social, well, you 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

'Cause when daddy tucks the kids in, it's taking longer every night

And the heaven that she's waiting for

Through the hell it lasts all night



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



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?

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 'cause the forest is burning

And you say it's the smoke in your eyes that's making you cry



They sold you the view from a hill

They told you that the view from the hill would be

Further than you have ever seen before

They sold you a view from a hill

They sold you a view from a 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 eye 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 too far 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 breathe



They sold you a view from a hill

They told you that the view from the hill

Is 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 they couldn't buy you - that 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 a hill



They sold you the view from a hill

Look it all for a view from a hill

And you find the view's no further than you've seen before



They sold you the view from the hill

And you stood and took it all for the view from a hill

It's simply coming up roses

I've got a reputation of being a man with a gift of words

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 an old cliche



This song's begun so many times but never in a way

That you won't 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 - oh 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

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 'cause you've been through the same

That's why I'm trying to say with my deepest sincerity

That's why I'm finding it comes down to 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