Peter Hammill
A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers
[I. Eyewitness (0:00 - 2:21)]

[Verse 1]
Still waiting for my saviour, storms tear me limb from limb
My fingers feel like seaweed, I'm so far out I'm too far in
I am a lonely man, my solitude is true
My eyes have borne stark witness
And now my knights are numbered too

[Chorus]
I've seen the smiles on dead hands
The stars shine, but they're not for me

[Verse 2]
I prophesy disaster and then I count the cost
I shine but, shining, dying, I know that I am almost lost
On the table lies blank paper but my tower is built on stone
I only have blunt scissors, I only have the bluntest hone

[Chorus]
I've been the witness, and the seal of death
Lingers in the molten wax that is my head

[Segue]
When you see the skeletons of sailing-ship spars sinking low
You'll begin to wonder if the points of all the ancient myths
Are solemnly directed straight at you
[II. Pictures/Lighthouse (2:21 - 5:32)]

[Instrumental]
*Eddies/rocks/ships/collision/remorse*

[III. Eyewitness (5:32 - 6:28)]

[Verse 3]
No time now for contrition, the time for that's long past
The walls are thin as tissue and if I talk I'll crack the glass

[Chorus]
So I only think on how it might have been
Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream

[Segue]
I'm much too tired to speak
And as the waves crash on the bleak
Stones of the tower, I start to freak
And find that I am overcome

[IV. S.H.M (6:28 - 8:26)]

[Verse 4]
"Unreal, unreal!", ghost helmsmen scream
And fall in through the sky
Not breaking through my seagull shrieks
No breaks until I die
The spectres scratch on window slits
Hollowed faces and the mindless grins
Are only intent on destroying what they've lost
[Verse 5]
I claw the wall till steepness ends in the vertical fall
My pail has sailed into the sea: no joking hopes at dawn
White bone shine in the iron-jaw mask
Lost mastheads pierce the freezing dark
And parallel my isolated tower
No paraffin for the flame
No harbour left to gain

[V. The Presence of the Night (8:26 - 12:15)]

[Intro]
"Alone, alone", the ghosts all call
Pinpoint me in the light
The only life I feel at all
Is the presence of the night

[Instrumental Break 9:23 - 10:33]

[Bridge]
Would you cry if I died?
Would you cry if I died?
Would you catch the final words of mine?
Would you catch my words?
I know that there's no time
I know that there's no rhyme (false signs find me)
[Verse 6]
I don't want to hate, I just want to grow
Why can't I let me live and be free?
But I die very slowly alone

[Verse 7]
I know no more ways, I am so afraid
Myself won't let me just be myself
And so I am completely alone

[VI. Kosmos Tours (12:15 - 13:34)]

[Instrumental Break 12:15 - 13:18]

[Verse 8]
The maelstrom of my memory
Is a vampire and it feeds on me
Now, staggering madly, over the brink I fall

[VII. (Custard's) Last Stand (13:34 - 16:22)]

[Verse 9]
Lighthouses might house the key
But can I reach the door?
I want to walk on the sea
So that I may better find a shore
But how can I ever keep my feet dry?
I scan the horizon
I must keep my eyes on all parts of me

[Verse 10]
Looking back on the years
It seems that I have lost my way
Like a dog in the night, I have run to a manger
Now I am the stranger I stay in
Ah, well

[Verse 11]
All of the grief I have seen
Leaves me chasing solitary peace
But I hold experience in my head
I'm too close to the light
I don't think I see right for I blind me

[VIII. The Clot Thickens (16:22 - 19:13)]

[Verse 12]
Where is the God that guides my hand?
How can the hands of others reach me?
When will I find what I grope for?
Who, who, who is going to teach me?
I am me, me are we, we can't see any way out of here now
Crashing sea, atrophied history, chance has lost my Guinevere

[Instrumental Break 16:54 - 17:36]

[Bridge]
I don't want to be one wave in the water
But sea will drag me deep
One more haggard drowned man!
I can see the lemmings coming but I know I'm just a man
Do I join or do I founder? Which can is the best I may?
(That's it, master)

[IX. Land's End (Sineline) (19:13 - 21:14)]

[Verse 13]
Oceans drifting sideways, I am pulled into the spell
I feel you around me, I know you well
Stars slice horizons where the lines stand much too stark
I feel I am drowning, hands stretch in the dark

[Verse 14]
Camps of panoply and majesty, what is Freedom of Choice?
Where do I stand in the pageantry, whose is my voice?
It doesn't feel so very bad now, I think the end is the start
Begin to feel very glad now all things are a part
All things are apart, all things are a part

[X. We Go Now (21:14 - 23:12)]

[Outro]
Ohhh, ohhh, ohhh, ohhh
Ohhh, ohhh
Ohh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ohhh, ohhh, ohhh, ohhh
Ohhh, ohhh
Ohh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ohhh, ohhh, ohhh, ohhh
Ohhh, ohhh
Ohh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ohhh, ohhh, ohhh, ohhh
Ohhh, ohhh
Ohh-ooh-ooh-ooh
Ohhh...