The Emperor in His War-Room

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! [Chorus] 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 [Verse 3] Looking out to sea A flattened plane of weed which bears no living You crush life in your fist As your heart is kissed by the lips of death! Ghosts betray you, ghosts betray you In the night, they steal your eye from its socket And the ball hangs fallen on your cheek [Verse 4] Complaining tongues are stilled A thousand mouths are filled with rusted 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! [Chorus] 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] [Guitar Solo: Robert Fripp] [Bridge] 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 [Guitar Solo: Robert Fripp] [Verse 5] Cringing in your room Now 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