Wickerman
(专辑: We Love Life - 2001)
Just behind the
station, before you reach the
traffic island, a
river runs thru' a
concrete channel. I
took you there once; I
think it was after the
Leadmill. The
water was dirty & smelt of industrialisation Little mesters coughing their lungs up & globules the
colour of tomato ketchup. But it flows. Yeah, it flows. Underneath the
city thru' dirty brickwork conduits Connecting white witches on the
Moor with pre-raphaelites down in Broomhall. Beneath the
old Trebor factory that burnt down in the
early seventies. Leaving an antiquated sweet-shop smell & caverns of nougat & caramel. Nougat. Yeah, nougat & caramel. And the
river flows on. Yeah, the
river flows on beneath pudgy fifteen-year olds addicted to coffee whitener And it finally comes above ground again at Forge Dam: the
place where we first met. I
went there again for old time's sake Hoping to find the
child's toy horse ride that played such a
ridiculously tragic tune. It was still there but none of the
kids seemed interested in riding on it. And the
cafe was still there too The
same press-in plastic letters on the
price list & scuffed formica-top tables. I
sat as close as possible to the
seat where I'd met you that autumn afternoon. And then, after what seemed like hours of thinking about it I
finally took your face in my hands & I
kissed you for the
first time And a
feeling like electricity flowed thru' my whole body. And I
immediately knew that I'd entered a
completely different world. And all the
time, in the
background, the
sound of that ridiculously heartbreaking child's ride outside. At the
other end of town the
river flows underneath an old railway viaduct I
went there with you once except you were somebody else And we gazed down at the
sludgy brown surface of the
water together. Then a
passer-by told us that it used to be a
local custom to jump off the
viaduct into the
river When coming home from the
pub on a
Saturday night. But that this custom had died out when someone jumped Landed too near to the
riverbank Had sunk in the
mud there & drowned before anyone could reach them. I
don't know if he'd just made the
whole story up, but there's no way you'd get me to jump off that bridge. No chance. Never in a
million years. Yeah, a
river flows underneath this city I'd like to go there with you now my pretty & follow it on for miles & miles, below other people's ordinary lives. Occasionally catching a
glimpse of the
moon, thru' man-hole covers along the
route. Yeah, it's dark sometimes but if you hold my hand, I
think I
know the
way. Oh, this is as far as we got last time But if we go just another mile we will surface surrounded by grass & trees & the
fly-over that takes the
cars to cities. Buds that explode at the
slightest touch, nettles that sting but not too much. I've never been past this point, what lies ahead I
really could not say. I
used to live just by the
river, in a
dis-used factory just off the
Wicker The
river flowed by day after day "One day" I
thought, "One day I
will follow it" but that day never came I
moved away & lost track but tonight I
am thinking about making my way back. I
may find you there & float on wherever the
river may take me. Wherever the
river may take me. Wherever the
river may take us. Wherever it wants us to go. Wherever it wants us to go.