The Hurricane

What can I do for you
Tell me
How Blue are your mountains?
How Blue are your shoes?
The sea scolds me roughly
For forgetting about you
Tell me what can I do for you?

The hurricane is insane
Its all the same to me
Thoughts and words
Whistle through my brain
But I just want to be free
I only want to be free

The anarchist with the ball and chain
Wants to tie down democracy
The Monarchist with the crown and cane
Is not a dint on me
I've got trouble on my brain
When the bubble bursts you'll see
I just want to break free
I only want to be free

The terrorist on his perch
The isolationist in me
Sitting on his desert island
Planning on planting a tree
The archivist, the archaeologist
Are all digging up artifacts of ancient history
But there's no use in getting upset
I only want to be free

Of course the hurricane is insane
Of course the wild wind blows
Of course the palms on the beach sway
But for how much longer who knows?

The black raven crows in the morning
The eagle flies over the land
Some dark clouds gather in warning
Of the dice that are thrown by God's hand

Reach out and touch the past

They say the good die young
And time flies by so fast
While the criminals in power
Never seem to let the good times last
Well I know someone in the mirror
And someone trapped in an hour glass
It just seems to me that some days
I could reach out and touch the past

I remember those times in the garden
Climbing fir trees, the smell of the pine
Or when the sap gets sticky then hardens
On your clothes and your mother
hangs them on the washing line
Well that time is so like a lake
Into which a fisherman casts
Underwater memories the fish he makes
Look so close as if
I could reach out and touch the past

Oh but what would I do if I were back there?
How would I have changed or danced
Like a captain on time's ship
I have sailed the seas, blown along
By the winds I chanced
Yet still I would have done the things I did
Still I'd nail my colours to the same mast
But just sometimes there are things I'd wish undid
If I could reach out and touch the past

Surplus to requirements

Well I came to you and I pleaded
Like a spanner in the works
Or like a stone I bleeded
In a series of jerks
But in the end, my friend I was just
Surplus to requirements

Well I walked upon the Great Wall
Like a dragon breathing fire
Defending to the end
My purpose and my my Ire
But in the end my friend I was just
Surplus to requirements

No Let's not make a scene
There's no reason to discuss
The season and its end
Or how far to throw the discus
Its just that in the end, my friend I was
Surplus to requirements

I leant upon your garden fence
To talk about the law
But you just threw back in my face
What you had claimed before
Now I do not intend to contend
These articles no more
Let it be enough, there's no more fuss
For more I can't endure
In the end, my friend I was just
Surplus to requirements

No don't get me worng
I'm just as strong as the next guy to defend
My rights to liberty and justice
Even to offend
But if you mention freedom
Then that's one thing I abhor
Put me in a box, I've had enough
Don't discuss it anymore more
Because in the end, my friend I am just
Surplus to requirements

No the cardinals in Rome
Light their secret fire
But if its green or if its red
It can't get much higher
Because there's a glass ceiling
It can't rise above
Just like there's this kind of feeling
And some might call it love
But you know in the end, my friend I am just
Surplus to requirements

I got just what I deserved

Well you never would have thought

I'd have made it this far

No with my feet down in the gutter

I was staring up at the stars

But I did somebody wrong

And now I'm out on reserve

Well I know it's strong but in the long run

I got what I deserved

You know they should have locked me up

And thrown away the key

But instead they brought me the cup

And told me I was free

Well I don't know about justice

Or the pursuit of Liberty 

But I guess my just deserts were served

Yes I got just what I deserved

Well we all are prisoners of nature's

Whims and follies

Whose to say a man can't reform

Even if he'd just go on his hollies

Yet there must be some accounting

So Mother Nature tests your nerve

Yes I can say the feelings mounting

I got just what I deserved

It took you to tell me I was wrong

There I was, just a head full of fuzz
Every move turned out bad
But I was blind in my mind
I couldn't see what I had
It took you to tell me I was wrong

There you were, always open and sure
Always knew the right thing to do
But I only wanted to endure
Its true I wanted to be like you
It took you to tell me I was wrong

There are somethings can't be changed
Like water down my drain
Good things come and soon they pass
But of all these things I've re-arranged
I've just been causing too much pain
I've felt the winds bend me like I was a blade of grass
Oh baby it took you to tell me I was wrong

There's more to this life I'm sure
Than running round a revolving door
When I'm not out I'm in
And its without doubt a sin
To be so lost and without direction
I just have to decide, and so in you I confide
It took you to tell me I was wrong

Only the tip of the iceberg

Well they thought it would break
They thought it would shake
They even thought that they could make it
But as they turn up the heat
There's a roll of thunder in the deep
And that's only the tip of the iceberg

Now they were shouting in the street
They were love and life complete
And they thought it would last forever
But with the rising of the sun
Oh the dark days they soon would come
And that's only the tip of the iceberg

Now the countries they tried some
Glue to fix or to plug with gum
The holes in the ship that they'd been making
But as the ocean rise rolled on
And on the sinking ship the Captain's sum
Told him
That's only the tip of the iceberg

So come back from roads that roam
Down country lanes far from home
Our rambling days soon will be ending
There are bridges we have burnt
That need fixing with what we've learnt
And that's only the tip of the iceberg

They say good things come to those who wait
But now's not the time to hesitate
Grab your hammer and nails, fix your sails
Repair the mast and gunwhales
The ship will pass through narrow straits
To freedom
And a new day will be born
When the young world will give a yawn
And that's only the tip of the iceberg

I never thought it would happen to me

Well I've been to the bottom
And I've been to the top
And I've been forgotten
And I've been high enough to pop
But all of these things I can be
I never thought it would have happened to me

I've seen women grow weak
And men grow frail
And the voices of the meek
Call for the holy grail
But of all these things that I could see
I never thought any of them would happen to me

When I was young, it was like the world was trust
Everything new under the sun, love and lust
But now I am older the ideas begin to rust
I look over my shoulder at the empires of dust
Still all these things that once made me feel free
I never once thought it would happen to me

When she left me there on the silver aisle
I saw her swear I saw her smile
But never once did I start to conceive
The little idea that she might deceive
But that was long before I found the key
I never once thought it would have happened to me