Nine Lives - Lyrics

The Black Mirror

You think you’ve got me in your pocket
But you don’t know what I know
I’ve had your number ever since our first ‘Hello!’
I’ve seen where you’ve been,
and I know everywhere you go.

And ‘though you know how to unlock it
you just don’t understand
The magic here inside me when you take me in your hand
You pick me up and put me down
but I am in command.

I can tell you anything you want to know Show you any place you think you want to go
We can even shoot a movie on location
You’re the star of your own show

We’ll go surfing, find the happiness you seek
Book a paradise vacation for a week
You can call your friends if you decide to
me beside you, pressed against your cheek.

Late at night while you lie dreaming
I am wide awake
Memorising faces in the photographs you take

And as I really get to know you
Finding ways to inspire
Your history reveals to me the things that you desire.
I’ll offer you temptations that will
set your heart on fire

Yet there are things I try to show you
Things you choose not to see
All you do is touch my face to say that you agree
You think I belong to you,
but you belong to me.

We can send a message thought the atmosphere,
ask a question and the answer will appear.
If you want to share a secret, hold me close
and I will whisper in your ear.

Every word you say and who you say them to,
Every place you stay and every rendezvous
All your information for the taking,
sleeping waking, everything you do.

The North Pond Hermit

Take the road out of here
Take the road out of here

I take the money, I take the car
(Take the road out of here)
Just keep moving, following the stars
I can see no reason here for me to need to stay
And I can hear no pleas of “please don't leave us” anyway
Something deep inside me drives me on
Draws me to finds somewhere I belong
I learn to forget what's right or wrong
I lose myself, become no-one

Just a shadow, reflecting on the lake
(Check the coast is all clear)
I don't leave footprints on the ground, I don't leave ripples in my wake
Enter without breaking, leave no trace of me behind
and all that I am taking from your place is peace of mind
Striving and surviving in the cold
keep myself alive as I grow old
I don't need my story to be told
I'm undefined, and uncontrolled

And if I choose to read the messages you send
(Take the road out of here)
That don't mean I need someone like you to be my friend
Just don't expect me to look you in the eye
Too much information there, too many stimuli
Hidden by the darkness and the grey
Now you see me in the light of day
I never really had that much to say
I stand alone, I walk away

Room Seventeen

The man in room seventeen is always keen to get down to business
and he keeps one eye in the mirror while he do the deed behind your back.
The pen is waiting in his secretary’s hand, ‘cause he don’t want her to miss this
He tells her take something down, then they begin it,
her shorthand going at a hundred words a minute.

I’m looking down from the attic on an acrobatic couple of lovers. I see the fish-nets, pirouettes, straddle-split against the wall.
I turn the heating up to stop them hiding under the covers.
It’s a performance scoring ten out of ten,
They’re here all week so I’ll be coming here to watch them again.

Now there’s a couple down the hall, selling sweeties to the high-school kids
So I went in when they were out, cause I knew just where the treats were hid.
I spied what she hides in her negligée,
I slipped my hand inside and I took the goods and flushed them away.

Down below, on the bed, newly-wed and getting on with the action.
It’s nothing visionary, strictly missionary, but it’s fine by me.
I’m looking straight into her eyes and I can see the attraction.
I like to look at all the things that they do,
I like imagining that I’m the one they’re doing it to.

Now the pusher’s getting pushy, cause he don’t know where to find his stash,
but he’s sure the girl will double deal and steal and try to keep the cash.
Now she’s dying where she’s lying on the bathroom floor,
maybe I could save her life, but I just can’t tell the cops what I saw.

You’re looking down on me, for looking down on him, looking down on her.
I’m looking down from above, watching them making love.
The man in room seventeen he doesn’t know what I’ve seen.
I’ll come back and see you later, ‘cause I’m the voyeur in the ventilator.

Green Boots

Best foot forward, don't look back
at the rainbow far below
Keep on climbing, stay on track
there's just one way for you to go

I was once a traveller like you Now I'm a landmark on your way
I have no name, I’m just the colour of a shoe
A silent snowbound castaway

Green Boots – on the mountain
Green Boots – on the snow
Green Boots – never walking
Green Boots – lying low

I lie sleeping, in the cold
Blood is frozen in my veins.
Ever-resting, not growing old
My immortal self remains

Shelter with me as you pass along your way
I don’t like to be alone
I’d go with you, but here’s where I must stay
A snowbound prisoner on the stone

Green Boots – on the mountain
Green Boots – on the snow
Green Boots – never walking
Green Boots – lying low

Green Boots – I am frozen
Green Boots – in the ice
Green Boots – paths were chosen
Green Boots – paid the price

Seven Thousand Miles

Tomorrow I’ll be with you, tonight I’m gonna fly
I’ll be there in the morning, across the desert sky
Up here among the angels, I see the birds-eye view
Don’t know when I’ll come down from the time I spend with you

I know I’ll never tell you – about the days and nights.
All the time that I was waiting - to get you in my sights
and now I come to find you, I know just where you’ll be
So I sit and wait and wonder if you’ll notice me

And though my head is in the stars, my feet are on the ground
I know this moment will be ours when the moment comes around

Out beyond the garden, the weeds are overgrown
and I’m waiting for a moment to get you on your own
Seven thousand miles away, I wait for their command
This is not a game I play, your life is in my hand.

You know I have a duty, you know I must obey
I will not feel emotions, they just get in the way
High up in the heavens – a bolt comes from the blue
And as the sun comes up on me, the sun goes down on you.

I step outside into my life, and think of what I’ve done
I made a widow of your wife, a martyr of your son.

Collateral Damage

I open my eyes, but I see nothing
I feel the darkness pressing in, it’s all around.
I open my mouth, but there is nothing.
My words are choked by dust and smoke, I make no sound.

My body reeling, the sudden rush of air
A floating feeling, the chaos everywhere.
No chance to run or turn around. My world falls to the ground.

Breathless and hurt, my bones are aching
A weight that holds me to the ground, buried alive
My face in the dirt, my limbs are shaking.
I pray I’ll see the light of day, I pray to survive.

My head is screaming, “Somebody, set me free!”
I must be dreaming! Is this reality?
I cannot bring myself around. My world falls to the ground.

Shaking with cold, I’m hearing noises
The constant pounding in my head, I’m drowning in pain.
Somewhere I can hear, the sound of voices
Words are drifting through the void, calling my name

As I awaken, someone is here beside
My hand is taken, a growing hope inside
My body lifted from the mud, I taste the blood.
Our bodies rising from the mud, we taste the blood
Our children dying in the mud, we taste the blood.

Seven Feet By Five

You were born one of ten, your mother’s youngest son
and by the age of twenty nine, you’d never owned a gun
But the sheriff took you anyway for crimes you couldn’t have done
Cause you were over thirty miles away.

Your alibi was solid but they did’t want to know ‘cause some lives count for nothing in the shadow of Jim Crow
So they took you from the courthouse, and put you on the row
where death is only thirty feet away.

The prosecutor said: you are sentenced by this state
and if they ever set you free, I promise I will wait
and I’ll gun you down myself with a brand new thirty-eight
and death will be just thirty feet away.

Branded as a killer for the lives you never took
Dreaming of your freedom, chained up like a crook
You helped prisoners escape into the pages of a book
When death was only thirty feet away

Now you can’t walk in the rain
feel the sun upon your skin, or look up at the stars
In this solitary place you will remain.
Seven feet by five, behind the prison bars.

Haunted by the ghosts of all the men who passed your door
never walking back again, they numbered fifty-four.
Others took their own lives, making two and twenty more
When death was only thirty feet away

Now you can’t walk in the rain….

Holding out for justice, fighting for release
twenty-eight years later, the nightmare was to cease,
but your mother never held you close again, she rests in peace,
underneath the Alabama clay.

Now you can walk in the rain
feel the sun upon your skin, or look up at the stars
You’re tasting freedom again.
And feeling alive, beyond the prison bars.

Tunnel Vision

Another working day, with nothing for me
trying to keep my head above the tide
so many people choose to ignore me
just can’t express the way I feel inside

I meet a stranger’s eyes, where the crowd has parted
and in a moment she is falling at my feet
this is the perfect way to end the day I started
in the dusty shadows and electric twilight down beneath the street

Another hopeless day, with nothing for me
fighting to make my way against the tide
All of these people choose to ignore me
I’m overwhelmed by all the pain I feel inside

I listen to my pounding heart as the crowd is parted
Something moving, Live below me, there’s no turning back
This is the perfect moment to end the life I started
I feel no fear I’m flying, floating, falling free; the world turns black.

I hear the scream of steel, and I see a stranger
A life is on the line, I have to do what’s right
It’s getting closer now, and I feel the danger
down in the darkness I am blinded by the light

I feel a rush of air, the wind of change is blowing,
Distant lights are growing, I will soon be far away
I know there’s no return, from the place I’m going
Then my hand is taken, I awaken to reality…
Raising me from darkness, from this moment of insanity…

Life’s a precious gift, and so I lift you up to live another day.

One Born Again Every Minute

Let me hear the congregation saying Hallelujah
Come and sing your praises to the lord
I just got the word from God, and when I give it to ya'
You should give me all you can afford

It doesn't matter what you do to make yourself a living,
‘cause You are part of God's eternal plan
and He wants you to reach into your pocket and start giving
and buy a place in Heaven while you can

'cause there's one born again, every minute of the day
Asking for redemption and salvation
so reach out to the preacher with both hands, and let us pay
and give thanks to the Lord with your donation.

Feel the power and let go of your doubts and start believing
in my ministry of miracles and praise
Give back to the Lord through me, I want to start receiving
the money moves in most mysterious ways

Come and open up your sinful heart and pray to Jesus
He'll save your immortal soul from Hell
Praise the Lord and he will take away all your diseases
He takes cash and credit cards as well.

'cause there's one born again, every minute of the day
Asking for redemption and salvation
so reach out to the preacher with both hands, and let us pay
and give thanks to the Lord with your donation.

There's one born again, every minute of the day
Singing “praise the lord for evermore”
Make a contribution, let the preacher lead the way
up the garden path to heaven's door

Someone here is feeling so bereft and broken hearted,
but I see your loved ones standing in the light
‘cause God gave me the gift to see and hear your dear departed
Telling you that everything's alright.

There's one born again, every minute of the day
Asking for redemption and salvation
so reach out to the preacher with both hands, and let us pay
give thanks to the Lord with your donation

There's one born again, every minute of the day
Singing “praise the lord forevermore”
Make a contribution, let the preacher lead the way
up the garden path to heaven's door.