Impurity
Album - 24 settembre 1990 - Debaser id 29926

You walk the thinnest of the ice, so easy to hurt
We drove through the dark in the pouring rain and barely said a word
So dress your wounds as best you can and close your tired eyes
Try to climb away from here towards the empty skies
And I'll meet you there, high above it all
In the kiss of air, the lover's breath
Visions rise from each little death

As Moses stands and turns his gaze away from the feuding tribes
Walks towards the mountains and through the rocks he climbs
God, he orders Moses - 'Bring the people to my will'
'Leave me be' cries Moses, keeps on walking up the hill
And I'll meet you there, high above it all
In the kiss of air, the lover's breath
Visions rise from each little death
And should the Devil come and should he say -
'All of this will I give to you, if you just bow down and worship me'
I'm on my knees.

"The white twisted clouds and the endless shades of blue in the ocean
make the hum of the spacecraft systems, the radio chatter, even your
own breathing disappear. There is no cold or wind or smell to tell you
that you are connected to Earth.

You have an almost dispassionate platform - remote,

Olympian and yet so moving that you can hardly believe how
emotionally attached you are to those rough patterns shifting steadily below."
(quotation from Thomas Stafford, astronaut)

Chorus: We scream, you run - fall out You scream and we're gone - falling out There must have been times in the smoke and the beat on the dance-floor When all of the doors, they were opening for you There must have been times when you thought you were kings of the whole world With the chemicals eating away at your reason But now you're shut down, closed in We build our own little jails I've had to watch this thing so many times Another little death of innocence Chorus: Now, we scream, you run - fall out You scream and we're gone - falling out None of us saw the clever image you hold of yourselves The things that you thought were so cool were just a joke to everyone else Didn't they tell you when you pulled a stupid expression That when the wind changed you'd be stuck with it forever? And now you're shut down, closed in, with all the money you owe I've had to watch this thing so many times Another little death of innocence Chorus: We scream, you run - fall out You scream and we're gone - falling out

The rains move in eastwards, in waves of succession
Drawing lines of grey across the sky
With history just as close as a hand on the shoulder
In hunger and impatience we cry
The battle against corruption rages in each corner
There must be something better, something pure
And the call it is answered from the caves to the cities
Come the dealers of Salvation on Earth
We've seen the restless children at the head of the columns
Come to purify the future with the arrogance of youth
Nothing is as cruel as the righteousness of innocents
With automatic weapons and a gospel of the truth

Chorus:
Revolution for ever, succession of the seasons
Within the blood of Nature, all raised to rot and die
This purity is a lie

Now immaculate conception in sterilised laboratories
How the vanity goes on
Or in the message of the preacher with his morals and obsessions
The wars that we wage upon ourselves
Purity is a virtue, purity is an angel
Purity is for madmen to make fools of us all
So forgive yourself my friend, all this will soon be over
What happened here tonight is nothing at all

Chorus:
Revolution for ever . . .

I will always see Brendan at that broken down piano
His fingers thick and red, shaking on the keys
Battered by the years of alcohol and working
Still playing with the faith that never leaves
So sit us down, buy us a drink, tell us a good story
Sing us a song we know to be true
I don't give a damn that I never will be worthy
Fear is the only enemy that I still know

I felt a shiver in the heat-haze and the waiting time is over
Strange tongues on the airwaves as the voices call from distant lands
I saw which was the winning side but still I joined the other
And I'm in love with every strange unfolding day
As the storm begins to break cover
So let the whirlwind blow
- through the ice, the melting snows
- across the freezing skies and the tiny lights below

And so we shutter up the doorways as the ripples move towards us
For a moment stop breathing - She wakes and stirs beneath our feet
The Order try to stand their ground, while every battlefront is shifting
They still believe that they can hold the reins
But then they've got no sense of history
So let the whirlwind blow
- through the ice, the melting snows
- across the freezing skies and the tiny lights below
- the waters seething, bubbling out of control
- come on take my hand and we'll dive

A television blares in an empty room
The poisoned waters glisten
Goliath staggers round in a punch-drunk daze
Doesn't understand what hit him
I saw which was the winning side but still I joined the other
And I'm in love with every strange unfolding day
As the storm begins to break cover
Let the whirlwind blow
- through the ice, the melting snows
- across the freezing skies and the tiny lights below
- the waters seething, out of control
- we watch the oceans rise and the governments start to fall
- across the freezing skies until the lights go out below

They found us in the courtyard at our table in the shade
We toasted our last few moments and then the end came
They took us back to the airstrip in that beaten up old car
And we rattled across the African scrubland in silence
Our hands locked together with cold steel cuffs
Sometimes I wish it was still that way
Now a whole world has died since then, so many faithless days
I was born alone and lucky and I'm just used to it that way
My dice still roll in sixes and yours still turn up ones
And I have taken my good fortune and I've run and run
But I always swore I'd come back for you
Is it too late now to come back for you ?

Now beneath this lonely junction on the northbound M6
We spray our words of signature on the concrete bridge
And between the words of wisdom and the slogans of despair
Someone's just gone and written 'I'm sorry' there
Well I always swore I'd come back for you
Is it too late now to come back for you?
You're the only one I'll ever love

Stevie said now don't look round they're watching us
Two girls in the corner of that dodgy club
And the grey eyes, the storm that I've come to know and wish for
Before I caught a breath, well, she was standing there.
We walked the streets of our town just talking
And the dawn broke grey and freezing through the deserted blocks
Just when your life is stale and there's reason there for everything
Something comes to kick you up inside
Eleven sweet years and no nearer home
A hundred thousands miles through this battle zone
Still high on the wire above the hollow darkness
Trying not to look down

No Rest for the wicked is still how it goes
Twisted up and turning in my bed alone
And separation pains like a blunted amputation
Pushing endless coins in the telephone
Eleven sweet years and no nearer home
A hundred thousands miles through this battle zone
Still high on the wire above the hollow darkness
Trying not to look down

So rest in these open arms and lie until they come for you
And tell me everything you've ever felt, tell me everything you want to see . . .

Forever running even when we are standing still
Driven on and fired up as the whirlwinds blow
And shouting out inside "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of you"
Ten thousand footsteps echo down the Brixton Road
Eleven sweet years and no nearer home
A hundred thousands miles through this battle zone
Still high on the wire above the hollow darkness
Trying not to look down

One swallow never made a spring You can buy a crown - it doesn't make you king Beware the trinkets that we bring When the visionary dreams set hard and grey as flesh made into stone You tore the statues to the ground crying - let my people go And now they're gone, all is gone But these changing winds can turn cold and hostile The freedom passion and the two faced call They dance together upon the wall With nothing left to break the fall Now twenty-five miles north in the great dark woods The college buildings stand And the ghosts of hope walk silent halls at the death of the Promised Land All is gone, all is gone But these changing winds can turn cold and hostile And in the shadows of the crowded square, a thousand paper deals go down And hungry sharks from everywhere smell the blood and head for town Innocence starts to peel away - How money changes everything The past it eats the future up and this blind desire eats everything Now the rats they leave one stricken ship for another sailing past Your world was going nowhere slow while ours goes nowhere fast And now it's gone, all is gone

I'll teach you everything that I know now, Eddie If you really want to take the time But don't expect to get answers to anything, Eddie There is just one thing I've learned Through everything that I've done and tried Everything I have justified It's all vanity, all vanity - we try to have control It's all vanity, all vanity 'cause Chaos rules it all I always drive like a madman, Eddie But you'll soon get used to that I believe if you're moving fast enough, Eddie You don't ever have to watch your back I choose solid ground to make my stands I stay off the streets at closing time It's all vanity, all vanity - we try to have control It's all vanity, all vanity 'cause Chaos rules it all Remember how it was out at Bunglass We climbed up to the peak and stood against the rocks The photographs came - you couldn't see us We were lost against the mountains like specks of dust And the mirror never lies, it's just these foolish eyes And we all see what we want to see What we need to see, what we have to see And so will you do just the same one day, Eddie I've been to that place a thousand times Looked over the edge so many times Wanted to jump a thousand times Well we talk about saving the world now, Eddie It's our vanity gone mad She'll survive us all perfectly well When we're all long buried and dead Clever monkeys with technology Barely out of the caves and the trees It's all vanity, all vanity - we try to have control It's all vanity, all vanity 'cause Chaos rules it all Eddie now let it go . . . I turn my head away from here Down towards the rolling seas again I kneel and worship where I can The ground comes swirling up and through these veins . . .