Internal exile

Hunched foetal in the corner of my soul

My fingernails are bleeding from climbing up the wall

This time you really hurt me right down to the core

And I'm desperately trying to find a reason to forgive you for it all



I saw your life as a shadowplay

In a trance I was held by the shadowplay

In the spell of the shadowplay

From Celtic illumination

I see the Celtic illumination

The Celtic



I never realized just how far we'd gone

I turned around and all that I saw was distance

Through an anger that burned everytime

That someone mentioned your name

I should have noticed, should have read the signs

We could have talked it out if there was a problem

It wasn't obvious then

But then it isn't really obvious now



I saw your life as a shadowplay

In a trance I was held by the shadowplay

In the spell of the shadowplay

From Celtic illumination

I see the Celtic illumination

The Celtic



I could have changed I could have settled down

I could have been whatever you wanted me to be

If you gave me the chance

But it seems that it's too late for that now

I thought I knew you thought we had it made

I'd thought it out, thought I had the answers

After all is said and done

The only thing I really know is your name



I sit and wait for the shadowplay

Let me in into the world of the shadowplay

I'll follow you to the shadowplay

Through Celtic illumination

Give me the Celtic illumination

Illumination



If I'd only had the patience, if I'd only had the time

If I'd only known the moment when you'd chosen to decide

If I'd only ever listened, if you'd only ever asked

If I'd known it was important, if I'd known it wouldn't last



Run to the magic of, the magic of the shadowplay

Run to the magic of, the magic of the shadowplay

Run to the magic of, the magic of the shadowplay

Run to the magic of, the magic of the shadowplay



Maybe if I'd noticed, maybe if I'd tried

Maybe if I'd worked at it, it never would have died

Maybe I was selfish, maybe I was blind

Maybe I was in the wrong and you were in the right



Run to the magic of, the magic of the shadowplay

Run to the magic of, the magic of the shadowplay

Run to the magic of, the magic of the shadowplay

Run to the magic of, the magic of the shadowplay



Could I have been a better man, was I really all to blame?

Was it me that was the problem, was it me that dealt the pain?

Did you never mean to hurt me, did you only try to show

That you really, truly loved me, that together we're alone?



Run to the magic of, the magic of the shadowplay

Run to the magic of, the magic of the shadowplay

Run to the magic of, the magic of the shadowplay

Run to the magic of, the magic of the shadowplay



I see my life as a shadowplay

All around is the magic of shadowplay

In the world of the shadowplay is where I belong

Where all that I feared is how it is and will be

All that was hidden

Now you will see

All I could dream

You'll find now is real

All I could touch

Now you can feel

And the light that I follow

Is where the madness will end

Illumination, illumination

Shine on

An oily shroud on a coral reef

A black cloud's hanging over me

When I hit on the remote

The programmes stay the same

Credo, Credo, Credo, Credo



An assegai slick with sweat and blood

A shotgun barks at a rabid dog

A shallow grave hugs a highway

Beneath a bleaching sun



Credo, Credo, Credo, Credo

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin'

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin' to me



When cancer sucks a young girl's breast

When a company chains a young man's soul

When the coal dust stole

My grandad's breath away one day



Credo, Credo, Credo, Credo

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin'

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin' to me



A tattered tramp tacks a windy wynd

To close a crowded circle round a brazier's light

A man becomes a mountain in the falling snow

A mother screams and a baby cries

The memory gone before the blood has dried

A needle pricks the conscience

To help it fade away



Credo, Credo, Credo, Credo

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin'

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin' to me



The more you scream, the less you hear

Or that's how it used to be

But I just can't tell the difference

Anymore these days

The open lips of an alter boy

A planet spins in a silent void

The options are ever fewer

On the ground these days



Credo, Credo, Credo, Credo

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin'

It don't mean nothin', it don't mean nothin' to me

There's something I want to ask you

Before it's too late

It's been on my mind since the first time we met

It scares me now more, now there's more at stake

It seems we're so close yet so far away



Could you turn me down gently

Would I be out of order

If I declared my true feelings

Or do I act out the part

Of the father confessor of the shoulder to cry on

We're always so close yet so far away



What would you do if I got down on my knees to you?

Would you hold it against me?

Would you stand in line?

What would you do if I opened my heart to you?

Would I just be another who's wasting his time?

Darling are we just good friends?



Do I really need to ask you

I'm sure that you know by now

Do we just play a game where we try to pretend

That all that's between us is all that's between us

And all we can rely on is being just good friends



What would you do if I got down on my knees to you?

Would you hold it against me?

Would you stand in line?

What would you do if I opened my heart to you?

Would I just be another who's wasting his time?

Darling are we just good friends?



So are we left to chance meetings?

Is that all we can depend on?

Resigned to raise glasses in anonymous cafes

Reciting our failures as if we needed that proof or regret

Over what might have and what should have been

Darling, are we just good friends?



What would you do if I got down on my knees to you?

Would you hold it against me?

Would you stand me in line?

What would you do if I opened up my heart to you?

Would I just be another who's wasting his time?

Are we just good friends,

Tell me, darling are we just good friends?

Some times I feel I lost something

In gaining everything

But I can't put my finger on what it was

It's just one of those nagging feelings

Like sitting with your back to an open door

Waiting on a favourite stranger



I find it hard to talk about, its not easy

As you might expect

Just sitting here waiting, trying to accept

That there's something missing

That there's something not quite there

And that's why you're sitting there

Listening to me as I try to explain that

You're my favourite stranger

But don't read between the lines

I could say that I love you at this moment

In passing time

But I could honestly tell you

I don't know why I'm here

Sharing all my problems with you

When you've already got your own share

From favourite strangers



Maybe it's just I need an audience to

Pretend it's all an act

But all I gain is your confidence

And a number in a filofax

On the terms that it's a first name

That'll run one day in split champagne

And I'll recollect and just accept

That you were one of my favourite strangers



You're my favourite stranger

But don't read between the lines

I could say that I love you at this moment

In passing time

But I could honestly tell you

I don't know why I'm here

Sharing all my problems with you

When you've already got your own share

From favourite strangers



Sometimes I know I lost everything

In gaining something

But I can't put my finger on what it was

Its just one of those nagging feelings

Like sitting with your back to an open door

Expecting favourite strangers

He met the world as a Dalkeith boy

Raised from a shaft at Monktonhall

In a well-oiled cage

That locked away his dreams

An '85 veteran face from the gallery

A ghost from the civil war in the family

He stood his ground on the picket line

'Til all that he was left with

Were his father's cough

And his mother's eyes

That would hold a tear

For the very first time

When the government they took his job away.

Now fist in hand he'll stand in line

Declare his name and mark his time

To some the only proof that they're alive.



He could have been you

He could have been me

He could have been anybody

But he was born lucky



He made his first down payment

On a sharp Italian suit

He sewed razor blades into the lapels.

See him sweating on the dance floor

Coal dust oozing out of every pore

A hard man with a hard life

And that's a story that he'll tell you

Down at Easter Road till his throat is raw

On a Saturday, he knows the score

Till the whistle blows and

The tempers with their colours fade away.



He could have been you

He could have been me

He could have been anybody

But he was born lucky



On the helipads at Aberdeen

Bound for platforms drilling oil-rich seas

Where the trawlers are getting fewer every year

By the furnaces at Ravenscraig

By the padlocks holding John Brown's gates

In the desert, in the fields of South Armagh

Where the poppies grow

Behind the Hampden roar

Behind the drums in Genoa

On the deck that rides a South Atlantic swell

Born to fight out of the tightest corner

You can bet on him with the odds against you

They'll not put him down

No matter how they try



He could have been you

He could have been me

He could have been anybody

But he was born lucky

Dear friend, it's been a long, long while

I've been meaning to write you

But it was never my style

But what is these days now I'm a family man



Do you blow sincere kisses to mistresses

Secrets in afternoons

Do you wear your disguises, feign the surprises

At the questions she asks when she dares to accuse?

Does your past lie under a dustsheet

In the corner of a musty garage?

That's where I keep mine, now I'm a family man



Are your horses still running when

The bookies shop close?

Is the band still together, did you ever

Get on the road?

We chased the same women, we drank

The same beer

We came as a pair when we ran around here

How are you these days, now you're a family man?



Buy a drink for the boy in my place

At the end of the bar

Give my regards to Nina, slam a tequila

I'll write you at Christmas or I'll send you a card

And if you pass by you're welcome to drop in

And see me 'cause it's unlikely

I'll be round your way, 'cos I'm happy to be

Where I am, living life as a family man



Do you still have your leathers

Or did you give them away?

Do you still dream of Joni and sidewalk cafes?

Is your Norton still running, is the old man still alive?

Do you still get to Dalkeith, is your rent still as high?

But I suppose you've a mortgage, now you're a family man



Dear friend, it's been a long, long while

I've been meaning to write you,

But it was never my style.

But what is these days, now I'm a family man

If you really knew how I felt

You wouldn't need to be here asking those questions

Those irritating questions, moving in metaphors

Speaking in tongues



Your gunboat diplomacy

You accuse me of heresy, of being irreverent

My opinions irrelevant, when I smile at your similes

When you're speaking in tongues



As we move to a stalemate

You say a contract's a contract

And this is unnegotiable

I question your morality, you question my reality

You're speaking in tongues



We are speaking in tongues

We are speaking in tongues

Am I deaf because I cannot comprehend?

We're speaking in tongues

We're speaking in tongues

We're speaking in tongues

Though I try I just cannot understand



Your entrenched opinions

On the border of arrogance

Dug in against the compromise

A position indefensible, your actions illogical

You're speaking in tongues



You swear contradictions

Your tedious monologues, wielding authority

Demanding subservience, demanding I make your sense

Demanding speaking in tongues



We are speaking in tongues

We are speaking in tongues

Am I deaf because I cannot comprehend?

We're speaking in tongues

We're speaking in tongues

We're speaking in tongues

Though I try I just cannot understand

I saw a blue umbrella in Princes Street Gardens

Heading out west for the Lothian Road

An Evening News stuffed deep in his pocket

Wrapped up in his problems to keep away the cold

Grierson's spirit haunts the dockyards

Where the only men working are on

Documentary crews

Shooting film as the lines get longer

As the seams run out, as the oil runs dry



Hey there laddie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?

Hey there lassie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?



Starlings wheeling round Georgian spires

And the fires of Grangemouth burn the skies

A lion sleeps in a tenement close

In a country that's tired and deaf to his roar



Hey there laddie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?

Hey there lassie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?



They bury a wasteland deep in the wilderness

Poison the soil and reap the harvest

Of blind indifference, greed and apathy

Sowed way back in our history

The fish are few the harbours empty

The keels now rot on our oil-slicked shores

The sheep are gone, the farms deserted

We're out of sight and we're out of mind



Hey there laddie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?

Hey there lassie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?



Like our fathers before us

We've eyes for America

Dream of a new life on foreign shores

But wherever we go, we'll always know

That the land we stand on, is never our own



Hey there laddie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?

Hey there lassie, Internal Exile

When will you realise we've got to let go?

Call out the instigators because there's something in the air

We got to get together sooner or later because the revolution's here

And you know it's right and you know that it's right

We have got to get it together

We have got to get it together now

We're together now



Knock up the streets and houses because there's something in the air

We got to get together sooner or later 'cus the revolution's here

And you know it's right and you know that it's right

We have got to get it together

We have got to get it together now



Hand out the arms and ammo

We're gonna blast our way through here

We've got to get together sooner or later becaue the revolution's here

And you know it's right and you know that it's right

We have got to get it together

We have got to get it together now

We have got to get it together now

Now, we're together now, the revolution's here

It's here, the revolution's here now