Aura
Album - 2000 - Debaser id 61548

(Adapted from 'The Rubaiyat' of Omar Khayyam)

"The dawning of a brand new day
The waking of the whispers say:
That sleeping heavens will return
In deepest night the secret learned
And from these walls this city lies
The past will be our future
The journey will be over,
Awake!"
I saw the writing on the wall
The story of our birth then fall
Within their tombs of holy stone
The scrolls of life, one man alone
So if we try, we can live and learn
The sands will pull you under
Don't let them pull you under
Awake!

I travelled to a foreign land
Through stormy seas and burning sand
Led by the stars the ancient stream

The call of treasures yet unseen
So if we climb to the rocks of kings
Together we'll discover
The source of all our wonder
Awake!

Someday we're going to go back to the stars
And find the answer, who we really are
A traveller through the lonely mists of time
Creation from the sky

The dawning of a brand new day
The waking of the whispers say:
That sleeping heavens will return
In deepest night the secret learned
From these walls this city lies
The past will be our future
The journey will be over
Awake!

Someday we're going to go back to the stars
And find the answer who we really are
A traveller through the lonely mists of time
Creation from the sky

Someday we're going to back to the stars
And find the answer who we really are
If we try, we can live and learn
Together we'll discover
The source of all our wonder
Awake!

We saw the writing
We read the story
Awake!

Music & Lyrics by: Geoff Downes & John Payne

Whenever your shadow falls on stony ground
And there's not a hand for you to hold
Whenever the dreams you dream come crashing down
Every time you think of home
Remember that you're not alone
And we'll be with you heart and soul
Wherever you are

And if you should lose your path along the way
And find yourself walking in the dark
Whenever the ones you love seem far away

Every time you think of home
Remember that you're not alone
And we'll be with you heart and soul
Wherever you are

Whenever the fears you hide come reaching through

Every time you think of home
Remember that you're not alone
And we'll be with you heart and soul

Every time you think of home
Remember that you're not alone
And we'll be with you heart and soul
We'll be with you heart and soul
Wherever you are

We're with you heart and soul

Music & Lyrics by: Andrew Gold, Graham Gouldman, Geoff Downes & John Payne

Silent wave coming down on me
Washing out the lie
Living inside me
Life's not hard
Now I'm on TV
This sudden twist of Fate

I am direct salvation
Just send in your donation
I can promise that you'll be saved

Forgive me, World
I'm just a man who's lost his way
Forgive me, these two words I pray
It's time to make a change

Yesterday was a different day
Thought I knew the answer
A vision in my mind

Search my soul
And then you will find
A shelter for my pain

The truth is in the open
And now my heart has spoken
Hoping maybe you'll hear my cry

Forgive me, World
I'm just a man who's lost his way
Forgive me, these two words I pray
It's time to make a change

Forgive me, World
I'm just a man who sins today
Forgive me, these two words I pray
My Faith is still the same

Maybe I can't change the past
Maybe love can bring us back
Maybe we can try and start again.

Forgive me, World

Music & Lyrics by: Jimmy Santis/Richard Tancredi/Geoff Downes & John Payne

Look into the distance, you're living in a cage
A fire burns inside you, that fuels all the rage
You're thinking of the outside, and dream of the past
The gates to freedom lie within your grasp


They're changing the system, rewriting the laws
Renaming religion, reshaping your cause
You always be lonely, walking with fools
The shadows in the doorways make the rules
Because you're free, this time
Don't be scared of who you are
Free, to find
There's no hiding in the dark

A new day is dawning, a New Age begun
Nobody told you which way you should run
Wait for the thunder, break from the shell
Is this the gate to freedom from this Hell?

Because you're free, this time
Don't be scared of who you are
Free, to find
There's no hiding in the dark
Free, this time
You can learn to live again
Free, to find
There is shelter from the rain
Free

They're razing the fences in the pastures of doom
The fields of our heroes, the land won by few
The call of a New World, dream to transcend
Now it's time to fight and start again

Because you're free, this time
Don't be scared of who you are
Free, to find
There's no hiding in the dark
Because you're free, this time
You can learn to live again
Free, to find
There is shelter from the rain

Music & Lyrics by: Geoff Downes & John Payne

Don't hang that sign on me
You're the stranger
Don't try to talk to me
You're the stranger
On the seas
They came from far away
From the skies
Their silver birds of prey

In one day
Ten thousand years could change
We are fools
To live your pilgrim ways

Don't hang that sign on me
You're the stranger
Don't try to talk to me
You're the stranger

And we drive
Five hundred miles this time
To the edge
Of crystal-cut blue sky

Silence breathes
South of the border line
Silent trees
Look back and wonder why

Did Father and his Holy Son
Spread the word and point the gun?
And where the eagle used to fly
They carve their concrete in the sky
Tearing at our Mother's skin
Taking all her blood within
Remember how it used to be?

Did Father and his Holy Son
Spread the word and point the gun
And where the eagle used to fly
They carve their concrete in the sky
Tearing at our Mother's skin
Taking all her blood within
Remember how it used to be?
Stand up again and say:

Don't hang that sign on me
You're the stranger
Don't try to talk to me
You're the stranger
Don't hang that sign on me
You're the stranger
Don't try to talk to me
You're the stranger

Music & Lyrics by: Geoff Downes & John Payne

"What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
- Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires."

(Wilfred Owen, 1918)
Now the day has run
When the cover comes
But any fool can see
Ahead

Silence is my friend
But it has to end
Any fool can see
Ahead

It's the longest night
It's the longest night
Cold winds may blow
On the longest night

So we write our letters
To those far away
Any fool can see
Ahead

The distant sound of thunder
A choir of wailing shells
Any fool can see
Ahead

It's the longest night
It's the longest night
Cold winds may blow
On the longest night
I don't want to fight
I don't know who's right
Cold winds they blow
On this longest night

It's the longest night
It's the longest night
Cold winds may blow
On this longest night

Music & Lyrics by: Geoff Downes, John Payne & Ben Woolfenden

As the world is caving in
From the pressures of the day
And you feel that you can't win
But you know you'll have to stay

We have to toe the line
It's so hard to take the pace
You're a better man that I
In the perfect human race

So... we live... Under The Gun...
We live... Under The Gun.

See the writing on the wall
In the city's caves of steel
Hear the echoes of the night
Will the anger ever heal?

So... we live... Under The Gun...
We live... Under The Gun... we live...
Under The Gun... we live...

Your mind control, your gift of lies
You brother, dear we're screaming
You said you cared, we needed you
You mother, now you're leaving

So... we live... Under The Gun...
We live... Under The Gun...
We live... Under The Gun... we live...
Under The Gun...