Love over gold

A long time ago came a man on a track

Walking thirty miles with a sack on his back

And he put down his load where he thought it was the best

He made a home in the wilderness

He built a cabin and a winter store

And he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore

And the other travellers came riding down the track

And they never went further and they never went back

Then came the churches then came the schools

Then came the lawyers than came the rules

Then came the trains and the trucks with their loads

And the dirty old track was the telegraph road



Then came the mines - then came the ore

Then there was the hard times then there was a war

Telegraph sang a song about the world outside

Telegraph road got so deep and so wide

Like a rolling river...



And my radio says tonight it's gonne freeze

People driving home from the factories

There six's lanes of traffic

Three lanes moving slow...



I used to like to go to work but they shut it down

I've got a right to go to work but there's no work here to be found

Yes and they say we're gonna have to pay what's owed

We're gonna have to reap from some seed that's been sowed

And the birds up on the wires and the telegraph poles

They can always fly away from this rain and this cold

You can hear them singing out their telegraph code

All the way down the telegraph road



You know I'd sooner forget but I remember those nights

When life was just a bet on a race between the lights

You had your head on my shoulder you had your hand in my hair

Now you act a little colder like you don't seem to care...

But believe in me baby and I'll take you away

From out of this darkness and into the day

From these rivers of headlights these rivers of rain

From the anger that lives on the streets with these names

'Cos I've run every red light on memory lane

I've seen desperation explode into flames

And I don't wanna see it again...



From all of these signs saying sorry but we're closed

All the way down the telegraph road

It's a mystery to me - the game commences

for the usual fee - plus expenses

confidential information - it's in a diary

this is my investigation - it's not a public inquiry



I go checking out the reports - digging up the dirt

you get to meet all sorts in this line of work

treachery and treason - there's always an excuse for it

and when I find the reason I still can't get used to it



And what have you got at the end of the day?

what have you got to take away?

a bottle of whisky and a new set of lies

blinds on the window and a pain behind the eyes



Scarred for life - no compensation

private investigations

Warning lights are flashing down the Quality Control

Somebody threw a spanner and they threw him in the hole

There's rumors in the loading bay and anger in the town

Somebody blew the whistle and the walls came down

There's a meeting in the boardroom they're trying to trace the smell

There's leaking in the washroom there's a sneak in personnel

Somewhere in the corridors someone was heard to sneeze

'goodness me could it be Industrial Disease?'



The caretaker was crucified for sleeping at his post

They're refusing to be pacified it's him they blame the most

The watchdog's got rabies the foreman's got the fleas

And everyone's concerned about Industrial Disease

There's panic on the switchboard tongues are ties in knots

Some come out in sympathy some come out in spots

Some blame the management some blame the employees

And everybody knows it's the Industrial Disease



The work force is disgusted downs tools and walks

Innocence is injured experience just talks

Everyone seeks damages and everyone agrees

that these are 'classic symptoms of a monetary squeeze'

On ITV and BBC they talk about the curse

Philosophy is useless theology is worse

History boils over there's an economics freeze

Sociologists invent words that mean 'Industrial Disease'



Doctor Parkinson declared 'I'm not suprised to see you here

You've got smokers cough from smoking Brewer's droop from drinking beer

I don't know how you came to get the Bette Davis knees

But worst of all young man you've got Industrial Disease'

He wrote me a prescription he said 'you are drepressed

But I'm glad you came to see me to get this off your chest

Come back and see me later - next patient please

Send in another victim of Industrial Disease'



I go down to Speaker's Corner I'm thunderstruck

They got free speech, tourists, police in trucks

Two men say they're Jesus one of them must be wrong

There's a protest singer singing a protest song - he says

'they wanna have a war so they can keep us on our knees

They wanna have a war so they can keep their factories

They wanna have a war to stop us buying Japanese

They wanna have a war to stop Industrial Disease

They're pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind

They wanna sap you energy incarcerate your mind

They give you Rule Brittania, gassy beer, page three

Two weeks in Espana and Sunday striptease'

Meanwhile the first Jesus says 'I'd cure it soon

Apolish monday mornings and friday afternoons'

The other's out on hunger strike he's dying be degrees

How come Jesus gets Industrial Disease

You walk out on the high wire

You're a dancer on thin ice

You pay no heed to the danger

And less to advice

Your footsteps are forbidden

But with knowledge of your sin

You throw your love to all the strangers

And caution to the wind



And you go dancing through doorways

Just to see what you will find

Leaving nothing to interfere

With the crazy balance of your mind

And when you finnaly reappear

At the place where you came in

You've thrown your love to all the strangers

And caution to the wind



It takes lover over gold

And mind over matter

To do what you do that you must

When the things that you hold

Can fall and be shattered

Or run through your fingers like dust

I hear the Seven Deadly Sins

And the Terrible Twinds com to call on you

The bigger they are babe

The harder they fall on you

And you you're always the same you persevere

On the same old pleasure ground

Oh and it never rains around here

It just comes pouring down



You had no more volunteers

So you got profiteers for to help you out

With friends like that babe

Good friends you had to do without

And now they've taken the chains and the gears

From off your merry-go-round

Oh and it never rains around here

It just pouring down



And your new Romeo

Was just a gigolo when he let you down

See the faster they are babe

The faster they get out of town

Leaving make up stains and the tears

Of a clown

Yes and it never rains around here

It just comes pouring down



Oh you were just a roller coaster memory

I don't know why I was even passing through

I saw you making a date with Destiny

When he came around here asking after you

In the shadow of the Wheel Of Fortune

You're busy trying to clear your name

You say 'I may be guilty yeah that may be true

But I'd be lying if I said I was to blame

See we could have been major contenders

We never got no money no breaks'

You've got a list of all the major offenders

You got a list of all their major mistakes

And he's just standing in the shadows

Yes and you smile that come-on smile

Oh I can still hear you say as clear as the day

'I'd like to make it worth your while'



Ah but it's a sad reminder

When your organ grinder has to come to you for rent

And all you've got to give him

Is the use of your side-show tent

Yes and that's all that remains of the years

Spent doing the rounds

And it never rains around here

Well it just comes pouring down



Now you know what thay say about beggars

You can't complain about the rules'

You know what they say about beggars

You know who's the first to blame his tools

You never gave a damm about who you pick up

And leave laying bleeding on the ground

You screw people over on the way up

Because you thought that you were never coming down

And he takes you out in Vaudeville Valley

With his hand up smothering your screams

And he screws you down in Tin Pan Alley

In the city of a billion dreams