Flight

Lyrics

[Part I: Flying Blind] [Verse 1] I always forget how crazy things are So sometimes it catches me off my guard When they make sense The line on the road trail the arrow in the sky I search for the mote in my brother's eye Beneath the pence A time of blunt instruments Still uncertain when I've woken Or what constitutes a conscious mind Though the thought remains unspoken I know I'm flying blind [Verse 2] Breaking into cold sweat on the white-hot coals The pennies from heaven drop through my soul It don't relent At the back end of dreams I'm amazed to awake I offer my theories but just can't shake That seventh sense To which there's no defense It seemed the time was for action Yeah, it seemed so cool to be that kind My tongue writhed to form some retraction Oh, but I knew I was flying blind [Instrumental Break] [Bridge] I want things to be fast, down to the power-dive I want the zero-gravity heroes to play dead But stay alive We want it to be slow, all the way to stall We talk about a thousand things that never change at all No, it never change No, it never change No, it never change No, it never change [Verse 3] It was then that I knew I'd been thoughtless Something had slipped my mind I'd strapped myself into the Fortress (And the Fortress) The Fortress was flying blind We got full clearance So someone down there ought to know The truth of our disappearance (If even) If even that still shows It accuses and blames me But nothing was quite what it seemed Sometimes things work out so strangely That it might as well all be dreamed [Part II: The White Cane Fandango] [Verse 4] The White Cane Fandango in Morse code Try to shake through the message, shake the load Only venial sin, running on the spot Till the dance begins [Verse 5] Where does a man go when the muscles cramp? Try to write out a postcard on a postage stamp With a drawing pin punching out the Braille For the whole within? [Verse 6] Upset the contango on your future stock Paying backwardation, hold onto what you've got Such a sideways grin! Some day you may need to trade that in Trade that in Trade that in Trade that in [Verse 7] If we ride this right The future will fall in our hands If we survive the flight Then the future will work out Nothing's that black and white Nothing's that black and white Nothing's that black and white Nothing's that black and white Nothing's that black and white Nothing's that black and white [Part III: Control] [Intro] The colour-coded charts are spread But we're still gliding deep into the red The radio is dead Every valve blown open The radar screen flicks monochrome Air traffic controller wants to get on home He is waiting for a phone call To release him from responsibility Nobody goes to see him any more Except for the man from the ministry [Verse 8] He wanted to be, he wanted to be The man at the helm, in command of the flight path He's flying a chair, quite beyond control He's going to have just one more chance At a barrel roll [Verse 9] All in a dream, all as a dream (All as a dream) The colours too bright, the music too deafening The black-out world has just begun to show These cracked-out words I offer But I still don't know [Bridge] Oh, but I still don't know Oh, but I still don't know (All the colours) All the colours, the music deafening All I have is cracked-out words [Outro] Cool blue suffuse the colour gun Oh, come in, come in number one Your time's nearly run Speed-freeze the frame The present and the past hold fast It's too fast, the thing don't The thing won't The thing don't last [Part IV: Cockpit] [Verse 10] The rolling dice clash together, never make up the score That old device, the ejector seat, glued to the floor Everybody waits for everyone to make a show No-one wants to be the first, admitting that they know How anythings that's gone down here Could fit into an analytic groove Wait for the tactical move Wait for some action we all can approve [Verse 11] Too much to drink, for the cup reaches down to the sea Too much to think, the barometer pressuring me Rolling down the weather for an Easter parade Reeling out the Maydays in the hope of being saved But the radio ham's out giving blood No, no, no, he's not listening [Chorus] The cricketer knows his "Wisden" (Woh, wo-oh) The pilot has got his "Jane's" (Wo-oh) But the sum of this factual wisdom (Wo-oh) Don't help us to fly the plane (No, and it never will) Beneath the tartan two-piece There's something rips undone (There's something rips undone) Wait for the ladder to run Wait for the snake that the ladder becomes [Instrumental Break] [Chorus] A passenger hits the cockpit Willing to chance his game Pulls out his gun and cocks it In the hope that it all might change (Oh, but it never will) A fly-leaf from the library Shows others have been here before (Shows others have been here before) Tried, failed and kicked out the door (Failed and they kicked out, they kicked out the door) Oh, but the aircrew don't care anymore (No, no, the aircrew don't care anymore) Now they just wait for the beat of the silk-worm wing Wait for the heat to come down on us Full force of the law [Part V: Silk-Worm Wings] [Verse 12] Full force of gravity pulls me down I'll be better off out of there Aerobatic spin around I'll take my chances in the open air [Verse 13] Sycamore silk-worm wings Or Roman Candle to the ground There's only one thing for sure When the balloon goes up The aeronaut calm down [Part VI: Nothing is Nothing] [Verse 14] He say nothing is quite what it seems He say nothing is quite what it seems I say nothing is nothing I say nothing is nothing [Instrumental Break] [Part VII: A Black Box] [Verse 15] Softly, the angels sing their time and space refrain There's something in everything if you can only pin down its name Aerobatic thoughts at the back of my mind Is it nothing but the looping line we all follow? Nothing but the spiral twist of DNA? There'll be no looking back from tomorrow on today (There'll be no looking back on this) [Verse 16] So the wire is tripped Split-seconds defect to their successors The umbilical cord is ripped Here we all are in free fall Here I stall where I am, as if to see where I've been Only running down the looping line we all follow Only chasing down the spiral twist of DNA There can be no looking on to tomorrow from today (There'll be no looking on from this) [Bridge] Life, death, night, day Cold breath will surely fly away Is the empire of sensation locked in a black box deep in me Encoded there somehow? It fires the imagination to fly on a wing and a prayer through my life Is that how it is? (There'll be no looking back on this) This is now (There'll be no looking back on this) Which will be then? (There'll be no looking back on this) Is this the means? (There'll be no looking back on this) All I know for sure is This is the end [Outro] No looking back from tomorrow No, there'll be no looking back on today Yeah, better be looking on to tomorrow Yeah, better think on today