The Wake of Magellan
Album - 1997 - Debaser id 30326

When the night will gather darkness
And black clouds unadorned
Only poets, dreams and madmen
Will sail out into the storm

The lights come on The set is down The curtain's flown away To all you creatures of the night I say it's time we play We'll show you things That in your life You'd never dreamed you'd know So now before the ghosts arrive It's welcome to the show Minstrels, kings, explorers Fantasies on order Ghosts and dreams awakened Stories long forsakened The minstrel and the sorcerer Are switching their disguise The jester drinks and starts to think That he alone is wise The governor and journalist Exchange a judas kiss And now before the song is done The plot begins to twist Ghosts and lost explorers Fate with all her daughters Saints and hopeless sinners Wise men in their winters Know Welcome to the show Welcome to the show Welcome to the show Welcome to the show His life was nearly over As he stood upon the beach Thinking about death and the ocean While still safely out of reach And he held there in his hand A well worn hourglass And though the sand was still inside Soon this too would pass Then he knelt to touch the water Where the waves would gently fall Thinking here I touch the ocean And the ocean touches all For from a line of countless sailors He was the last man of his kind And the world had changed around him He had no mountains left to climb And his last name was Magellan A descendant of the same Or so he said in late night bars Though few believed his claim And so he now talked with the ocean As he had often done before But now the waves spoke back to him As he walked along the shore For eighty years plus seven He had been upon this earth And all of them but eight He'd spent on that ocean since his birth But he was not the only one Who walked along this coast There was a lady old and pale To some nearly a ghost She had once been a great beauty It was rumored in some bars When she'd left here many years before To become a movie star But every wish is not to be Ahh this in time she learned And when her final chance had passed Back here she had returned And everyday at six o'clock She came to a small cafe And had herself a glass of wine And then she'd walk away To others she was gray and old Not the beauty she'd been before But it did not matter what she was What mattered was what he saw And so for near three years now He'd watch her everyday And though they always were so close He felt so far away For he could never quite arrange The words inside his mind That he could say to make her stay And he was running out of time He could not find the words to say To such a work of dreams And so he watched her walk away And always stayed unseen

Stands all alone
Looks in the mirror
And sees what she wanted to be

Safely unknown
To anyone near her
She sees what she wanted to see
And turns to me
And turns to me
And turns to...

She was prophesied
For an early slide
Followed it to the letter

Well kept beauty queen
If there, always seen
Still you thought she'd know better

No erasing
The time you're wasting
But when you're wasting
You don't care

All those pieces
In short term leases
But when you need them
They're not there

For all those moments of yesterday
She's traded every tomorrow
And now all those moments are so far away
Ghosts haunt each word she would say
As she walks among the decay

She had Oscar Wilde's
Timeless sense of style
As had been her intention

Still she was afraid
Time must be repaid
And there'd be no redemption

Youth and time collide
She could not decide
On a certain direction

Time was catching up
Carefully made up
She avoided detection

For all those moments of yesterday
She's traded every tomorrow
And now all those moments are so far away
I saw it too
Closer than you
What else is there left to say

Wait for me now
I will be there for you
This I will vow
If you still want me to

But it won't be
This I have always known
And in the dark
There's no one to pray for me now

I don't understand what I'm feeling tonight
I don't understand but I'm waiting
Searching the shadows that fade in the light
But I'm feeling alive
Trying to survive
Float with the tide
Till you arrive and I....

(Oliva/O'Neill/Caffery)
When you look at the morning sun
Do you see what I see
Or could I be the only one
Seeing just what I need
I envision a different man
Than the one I've become
Pray the ocean will understand
That my time isn't done
Everyone's leading
But nobody's dancing
You stand on the stage
Just to turn all alone
I have waited this way
For a lifetime of days
I can't wait for the morning sun
As I stand with the sea
And the ocean she understands
Just the man I could be
Somewhere else there's a different world
With a sun that will rise
And a moon that will take its place
In another man's eyes
And perhaps it's a better world
Than the one that I see
Or if better for no one else
Perhaps better for me
Here in the dark where the sky shows its graces
Revealing each star while the moon plays the fool
Saying how it must be while the night disagrees
I can't wait for the morning sun
As I stand with the sea
And the ocean she understands
Just the man I could be
No, no, time doesn't wait for you
No, no, leave it alone
No, no, your days are far too few
This thing I have always known
When your time is up it's true
They never give another day to you
When your time is up it's through
No one cares how
Can't keep it
Can't save it
Can't take it away with you
So I say we use it now

Blackjack guillotine
Razor sharp

Always clean
Gotta lie
Very wide
Once inside she knows what to do
She knows what to do

Skin tight

China white
Just another neon life
In the vein
Leaves a stain
All the time you know that it's true
You know that its true

So tell me what you had in store
It doesn't matter anymore
It never did, it never will
But I'll be out there waiting still

You're moving fast but leaving tracks
A compromise to your attacks
There comes a time you want to take it back
Back

Back

Back
But can't think of nothing I
Can't think of nothing I
Can't think of nothing I
Lack

Junkie

Credit card
Gotta vein
Goes for yards
Hypnotised
You decide
Every neuron's changing its view
Changing its view

Gentlemen

Summarize
Every lie
Well disguised
Don't forget

Neuron death
In the mind awaiting its cue
Awaiting its cue

And so we found it very mod
The worshiping of lesser gods
And lie they do
For lie they must
For they know it's the lie we trust

And so we're out there laying tracks
Wherever there's a vein to pack
There comes a time you want to take it back
Back
Back
Back
Back
But I can't think of nothing
I can't think of nothing
I can't think of nothing
I lack

Day

Into night

Into day
Into I don't know you anymore


But I stand
Where you say
Thinking all the time you planned it

You've been gone away too long
Leaving us to carry on
Though in truth you never tried
Just stepped back and watched the slide

Paragons of innocence
Questioning of your intent
Never quite sure what you meant
From the other side

Moments on the carousel
Must admit we ride it well
And the horses never tell
All throughout the ride

That no one leaves
No one leaves
No one leaves...
Alive

Time

On my hands

Slips away
Till I just don't feel it anymore

Thinking back

When I can
To the time when it began with
Bits of dreams all in a line
And somehow we missed the signs
That it all was never real
And in truth a fatal deal

Paragons of innocence
Questioning of your intent
Never quite sure what you meant
From the other side

Moments on the carousel

Must admit we ride it well
And the horses never tell
All throughout the ride

No one leaves

No one leaves
No one leaves...
Alive

There always comes a time
When you do what you want to do
You know you shouldn't do it
But you do it anyway
And when he had that time
When he knew what he wanted to
He quickly placed his order
Though he never thought he'd pay

But the lines turned to lies
And the lies turned to tangles
And you're pale as a cadaver
Though you think it doesn't show
So you live with the lies
And the friends that it gathers
But somewhere in your heart you know you
Got to let it
Got to let it
Go

Paragons of innocence
Questioning of your intent
Never quite sure what you meant
From the other side

Moments on the carousel

Must admit we ride it well
And the horses never tell
All throughout the ride

No one leaves

No one leaves
No one leaves...
Alive

Then the sailor picked a coat up
That had been laying there
And placed it over the body
And then he said a little prayer

And the ocean brought in on a wave

An old waterlogged wreath
And pushed it up along the sand
Till it touched the dead man's feet

And written on that wreath

In letters of gold foil
Was the name veronica guerin
But the letters were bent and soiled

The sailor said I see these flowers
That you so kindly gave
Are obviously from far away
And from another's grave

And I cannot help but to think
The sailor gently said
That it's unwise in god eyes
To steal flowers from the dead

The ocean said please trust me friend
This gift will cause no pain
And the person to whom they once belonged
Would surely say the same

You see this wreath was from the funeral
Of a woman who showed no fear
Of men who lived in mansions
Bought with other people's tears

Of men who lived in mansions
Bought with bits of others lives
Who at night still hugged their children
And brought gifts home to their wives

With money made from heroin
And packets of cocaine
And if a buyer overdosed
They never felt the pain

There were many flowers at her funeral
But none for this boy I fear
So the wind has blown this wreath to me
And I have brought it here

She gave her life to stop the spread
Of drugs among her kind
And if we leave these flowers for this boy

I'm sure she wouldn't mind

As he stood upon the watch deck
Looking out onto the sea
It would offer no solutions
Only silent company

So he took hold of the reasons
As he tried to understand
But they offered just confusion
As they bled into his hands

Dear god
Couldn't you decide
What should happen to a man's assassins

Dear god
Is it suicide
I have never been a man of passions

I believe what the prophets said
That the oceans hold their dead
But at night when the waves are near
They whisper
And I hear

There are wounds that bleed inside us
There are wounds we never see
They are part of our refinements
That allow a man to be

There are wounds that bleed in silence
With aristocratic grace
There are tears we keep beside them
Never seen upon a face

Dear god
Do you think it's wise
To remember everything that's ever happened

Dear god
Could we compromise
Or must the shadows of this night be everlasting

I believe what the prophets said
That the oceans hold their dead
As I contemplate this stand
What I do
Is who I am

I believe what the prophets said
That the oceans hold their dead
But at night when the waves are near
They whisper
And I hear

Don't see the storms are forming
Don't see or heed the warning
Don't hear the sound of tyrants
Surrounded by the silence

Columbus and magellan and de gama
Sailed upon the ocean
In a world of ignorance
With thoughts so primitive
That men were killed
With no more will
Than that they simply had the notion
But in this world of heartless men
This thing they never did

Don't hear it
Don't hear it
Don't hear it
Don't hear it

Got to keep it underground
Pretend you never heard a sound

If they find it kill it blind it
If they find it kill it blind it

Lord tell me what is to be
Lord tell me what is to be

They whisper and I hear

(Oliva/O'Neill)
Don't want to walk upon the water
Don't want to look across the waves
Instead of seeing hills of water
I just see markers on their graves
But in the fading of a season
To look across an empty sky
For a forgotten childhood reason
To once more wish that you could
Close your eyes and just believe again
There's a God does he remember when
We were young and faith was not pretend
Anymore
Anymore
Anymore
Anymore
And in the night he sees the ocean
Carve its thoughts upon the shore
For in the way it was created
It can do this and nothing more
And every message it would leave him
The next wave carefully erased
As the tears that passed between them
Were so real that you could
Close your eyes and just believe again
There's a God does he remember when
We were young and faith was not pretend
Anymore
Anymore
Anymore
Anymore
And all at once the waves were getting higher
And as they crashed I thought I heard them say
There'd be a time when men would all be wiser
When everyone, everyone,
Yes everyone is
Saved

(Instrumental)

Standing alone by the edge of a river
He's traded his life for a glass full of tears
The bargain was quick for one's life is less dearer
When the sand's running out and the ending is near

The ending is near
The ending is near
The ending is...

The man climbed aboard and set sail for the ocean
He put on the mast all the canvas she'd take
Then laid himself down on the deck neath the tiller
The ship was his coffin this moment his wake

Runaway reasons
Runaway seasons
Time is a treason

That I give back to you now
The wind touched the sail and the ship
Moved the ocean
The wind from the storm set the course she would take
From a journey to nowhere towards a soul on the ocean

From the wake of Magellan to Magellan's wake
Runaway reasons
Runaway seasons
Everything in it
Hours and minutes
You take tomorrow

Because it means nothing
To me
To me

To...
In the dark he heard a whisper
Asking him to understand
In the desert look for water
On the ocean look for land

In the dark he heard a whisper
Asking him to understand
In the desert look for water
On the ocean look for land

And there in the waves
Was a man in his grave
That he saw in the night
'Tween the flashes of light
And he

Could not be there
And all he had prayed
Or had given away
He now found to be wrong
In the grip of the storm
And he
Could not be there

Could you keep our lives together
Safely back onto the shore
Could you grant this last illusion
Only this and nothing more

Could you keep our lives together
Safely back onto the shore
Could you grant this last illusion
Only this and nothing more

And all at once the heavens bled their fire
The anchor broke the chains they flew away
And suddenly the waves were reaching higher
And in the dark I thought I heard them say

Could you keep our lives together
Safely back onto the shore
Could you grant this last illusion
Only this and nothing more

But what the sailor did not know
And would never learn
Was on that beach now far away
The young child had returned

And finding the broken hourglass
He reset it upright
Then placed sand from the beach inside
And placed the lid on tight

Then examining his handiwork
He left it in the sand
And then he quickly ran back home
Thinking god would understand

Everything I ever had for one more tomorrow
Everything I ever had for just one more night
And if this is not to be I pray could I borrow
Just another final hour onto my life

Did you ever really want to
Did you ever really want to

Lord, tell me how it will be
Lord, tell me how it will be

Standing once more by a boat on a river
He pushes it off while he stays on the land
And seeing the hourglass now so much clearer

Which someone had refilled by hand
And somewhere that boat's now adrift on the
Ocean

The mast at full sail and there's no one on board
The hourglass no longer sits by the ocean
Only his footprints all alone on the shore
And soon they're no more
No more

No more
Now our story's nearly over
And we've reached the final scene
But we're sure that some have wondered
What had happened in-between

From the moment when the boy was saved
And their boat had reached the shore
Well, they talked about life and death

And perhaps a little more
The boy said he'd been a stowaway
Aboard the "maersk dubai"
When the captain had him thrown to the sea
And left him there to die

At this the old sailor had stood up
His face now filled with rage
And swore that he would never rest
Until that captain had been caged

But the boy implored the sailor
That he not say a word
Because he was an illegal immigrant
And as of recently he'd heard

That going to the authorities
Could often be unwise
When one's paper were illegal
The police just might not sympathize

So when they reached the harbor
With their journey at an end
He left the boy on another ship
Whose captain was a friend

And when he saw it pull to sea
And was once more all alone
He leaned against the tiller
And turned his ship back home

Eventually he reached that beach
He'd left the night before
Then stepped a last time from the boat
And waded to the shore

Then the old man picked the glass up
That he had left behind
And headed for the small cafe
For it was nearly time

And the ocean watched him leaving
To find his lady fair
And as he left he heard her last words
Drifting in the air

That every man
Is born you see
Beneath the sword

Damocles
For young and old
Are all alive
On that next beat

On which we ride
And that beat is such
A fragile thing
In both old men
Or youthful king

And that beat
Stands all alone you see
Between us
And black eternity
And until that time
When death won't wait
Let each man rage

Against his fate