The Emperor in His War-Room [The Peel Sessions]

Lyrics

[I. The Emperor] [Verse 1] Standing in the space that holds the silent lace of night away from you You think that you can hold the searing, molten gold between your fingers But it slips through, tearing tendons as it goes, exposing the white of a knuckle: Flesh and metal forming letters in the mould [Verse 2] Cradling your gun, after choosing the ones you think should die; Lying on the hill, crawling over the windowsill into your living room They stare out, glass-eyed aimless heads, bodies torn by vultures You are the man whose hands are rank with the smell of death [Verse 3] Complaining tongues are stilled; A thousand mouths are filled with rusting metal Your face a shade of green, somehow you try to speak through all the garbage in your mouth But it won't come out and you cannot frame the words as your stepson throws your fame into the flames and you are burned [Bridge] Saviour of the Fallen Protector of the Weak Friend of the Tall Ones Keeper of the Peace Ah, but it is the only way you know [II. The Room] [Intro] Live by sword and you shall die so All your power shall come to naught Every life you take is part of your own: Death, not power, is what you've bought [Verse 5] Cringing in your room as the outriders of doom step on your threshold; Begging for your life as the impartial knife sinks in your screaming flesh Without malice, merely taking murder's toll You must pay the price of hate and that price is your soul [Outro] Live in peace or die forever in your war-room