It all began with the bright light
The bright light and the noise
The chaos of the senses and the scream of desire
Touching and being touched
A million loose ends to tie up
Ticking of the clock and the cradle rock
The colours stand still
And then they move around
Comin' in and out of focus upside down
Empty winter trees
How space feels
Love of the soft ... the flowers and the sky.

One fine day
The chaos subsides
Bleeds into awareness
And a lifetime of surprise
The beauty of your mothers eyes
The pain when you fall
You drink it in and marvel at it all
But you never really figure it out
You get used to it
The babble of the family
And the dumb TV
Roar of the traffic and the thunder of jets
Chemicals in the water
Drugs in the food
The heat of the kitchen and the beat of the system
The attitude of authority
The laws and the rules
Hit me square in the face, first morning at school
The heroes and the zeroes
The first love of my life
When to kiss and to kick
and to keep your head down
When they're choosing the sides
I was never any good at it
I was terrified most of the time
I never got over it
I got used to it
Alone in the city at seventeen.

With the hollow and the lonely
The drowning and the drowned
I was made to feel worthless
The wretched and the mean
Beat me up like a weapon I can't run away
from or find a way round
Holdin' on, holdin' on.

The greed and the missiles
Exploding somewhere every day
Hideous dark secrets under the sea
and in holes in the ground.

The cold war's gone
But those bastards'll find us another one
They're here to protect you, don't you know?
So get used to it
Get used to it!

The clash of religions
And the loaded prayers
Information
The face of starvation and the state of the nation.

The sense that it's useless
And the fear to try
Not believing the leaders, the media that feed us.

Living with the big lie
You get used to it
Get used to it!
It's okay, I got used to it.
 

Did you cry when they dragged you home
Put a lock on the door and the telephone
Was a runaway girl all they could see
Have the nights and the days that you've come through
Made the right seem wrong and the false seem true
Was a runaway girl all they could see
A teenage extra from the satellite TV
Runaway girl
Too bad, too bad
Runaway girl
Too wild, too wild
Were they deaf to the prayer behind your lies
Maybe they didn't dare to ask you why
Was a runaway girl all they chose to see
All they were prepared to admit to
Runaway girl
Too bad, too bad
Runaway girl
A real wild child
So you cower in the towns forgotten places
And you make your bed with unfamiliar faces
And at last you've got your freedom
but that's all you've got
You're tryin' to make your mind up
if you're better off
You pretend to wait for washing in some laundromat
But you're damned if you'll give them
the satisfaction of you going back
You'd freeze to death before
you'd share a roof with them
And you'd starve before you'd let him get
his hands on you again
Did you cry when they dragged you home
Did you cry when they dragged you home
Poor little runaway, poor little runaway.
  

They try to trace her in the town
Appeal for information on the local news
Someone must have missed her by now
A mother or a father or a friendly face to talk her down
She's heading for the great escape
Heading for the rave
Heading for the permanent holiday...
  

Tell me I'm mad
How should I know
Tell me I'm mad
I have been here for so long
Help me paint a picture
They say it's a lie
Tell me I'm mad
You're a fine one to decide
Burn me in the fires of wild heaven
Like it never never never would stop
Tell me I'm mad
Tell me I imagined that
Was it something I didn't say?
Or was it something I said
Leave that stuff alone
Use me instead
I know I'm always falling off the edge of the world
I got space in my bed
You've got Egypt in your head
I've got a headful of Troy
Chandeliers and Charlemagne
Fireworks and toys.
 

"Hold your breath till you feel it begin
Here it comes
Get used to it"
But you sleep like a ghost with me
It's as simple as that
So tell me I'm mad
Roll me up and breathe me in
Come to my madness
My opium den
Come to my madness
Make sense of it again.
  

Make a drug of my senses
I'll get you out of your head
I'm sick for you
Love wastes us together
Love holds us together
Love folds us together
Flowers
  

Well I hear that you were looking out to hunt me down
And I guess you're used
to having everything you want
But you know that love can be as hard
as sticks and stones
I tell you nothing else can be as hard
as love can.

Well I hear you got my number
and you want my name
I'm a stream of noughts and crosses in your R-A-M
But you know that love can be
as hard as algebra
Baby nothing else has ever been as hard as love
Hard as love
Well I hear that you were lookin' out to take me home
And I hear that you can handle it and you're not scared
Have you heard about the pictures
on my bedroom wall?
Baby nothing else has ever been as hard as love
Hard as love.

Well it makes you hungry and it makes you high
It makes you suffer and it makes you cry
But it's all worthwhile
It makes you humble and it makes you crawl
It makes you tremble and it makes you fall
But it's all worthwhile
It makes you desperate and it makes you dream
It makes you dangerous and it makes you scream
But it's all worthwhile
Just lie back and smile
"We will continue to love you
even though the rest of the world hates you."

It makes you hungry and it makes you high
It makes you suffer and it makes you cry
It makes you panic and it makes you vain
It makes you primitive and sick inside
It makes you angry and it makes you blind
It makes you guilty and it makes you lie
Tied up and beaten
Spat out and eaten
Suicidal
Nothing's ever been as hard
Well I hear that were lookin' out to change my faith
You can bash me with your book of words,
hammer me down
But you know that love can be as hard
as six inch nails
Baby nothing else has ever been as hard as love
Hard as love.
 

I think I have become one of the hollow men
As I shine on the outside more these days
I can feel the outside feeding on my inside
Leaves a growing darkness in it's place
I think I have become one of the hollow men
I think I have become one of the lonely
Now that everybody talks to me
I feel I have become one of the empty.

Hollow men can stop you with the twinkling of an eye
Hollow men can take you without even reaching out
Hollow men have got you long before you realise
The poison paralyses.

I think I have become one of a pair of men
It's a feeling I've been having for some time
I look down upon myself and watch my movements
A blind eye sees the fragile vandalised.

Watch this cold world dishing up
these endless hollow men
Find us anywhere you look
Come and meet our friends
Stand us in our silly clothes
Put our batteries in
Line us up like fairground ducks.

Watch us grin and grin
See the lies behind our eyes
See the will to win
We'll buy you and we'll sell you
But perhaps we'll save your skin.

Sit quietly and listen to the breeze
The hollow and the lonely listen too
Sniff the air for something we can use
We're tin-hard and we rattle when we're shaken.
  

See those people there? They look after me
This is a photograph of who I might be
Man in a uniform, bride on his arm
Mum always was a fool for money and charm.

He's been talkin' in his sleep again
Sayin' he's sorry, callin' my name
Sayin' how he's so ashamed
Alone again in the lap of luxury
Since it happened I had nothin' to say
It used to bother them but now it's okay
Mother cleans his dreadful house every day
Scrubbing at the stains that won't go away
They sent me away to the school in the park
They said it would be good for me
I still hear the other kids cry in the dark.

Alone again in the lap of luxury
Is there no escape from the lap of luxury.

I don't remember the last time I cried
I don't remember much except lies
See the little girl spirallin' down
This is a photograph of who she is now
"One day this will all be yours" he said
Tidy your room and straight to bed
Tidy up those thoughts in your head
Alone again in the lap of luxury
I could be anywhere right now
If I only had the nerve to leave this house
Maybe somewhere by the sea
Take me somewhere, anywhere please!

We could make a pillow of sand and sleep
We could roll
We could make
We could see
We could scream
Far, Father, Farthest
Oh daddy, you do not do anymore
For God's sake don't pretend to be concerned
Turn into nightmares in the end
Throw a party for all my friends.
  

Good morning!
When you look into the mirror
Do you see a face you hardly recognise
If you look into the sun too long
Do the things you see begin to burn your eyes
Paper lies
Just to express what he's thinking
Must a man take all the mail will bring
Are we living only for today
It's a sign of the times
We believe anything and nothing
Paper lies

When you kill the truth
You can make a killing
You might just make losing look like winning
You came to tell the people what's goin' on
But nobody knows whose side you're on
Seems like you're sailin' pretty close to the wind again
Paper lies

You have already won a prize!
I know something that you don't know
Something that you ought to know
It's burning a hole in my pocket book
Listen ... do you want to know a secret?
We can print our own money here
If you let us do a piece on you
We can take you to pieces

When you look into the money
Do you see a face you hardly recognise?
When you get behind the news of the world
Do the things you find begin to bend your mind?
Paper lies
Why don't you let us take a piece out of you?
 

What a brave, brave girl
Never lied before
Such a plain deceit
Everyone would eventually know
What a brave, brave girl
Never loved before
Placed herself in reach
So he tried
In his own way
To find the heart
Of the tight-packed rose
She's gone now
But oh, she aches
She aches
He will search until he's found
A way to take the days
See her sadness in your face
She's inside you
And she's crying.
  

Heading for the great escape
Heading for the rave
Heading for the permanent holiday
Heading for the winter trip
Heading for the slide
Heading for the dignified walk away
Heading for the open road
Goodbye to all that
Heading for the automatic overload

Standing in the open boat
Standing in the swing
Waiting for the ringing and the bright light
Waiting to be recognised
Quiet applause will do
They shower you with flowers when they bury you
You're holding on, you're holding on...
  

Don't ask me why I'm doing this
You wouldn't understand
You're asking the wrong questions
You couldn't understand

A bridge is not a high place
The fifty-second floor
Icarus would know
A mountain isn't far to fall
When you've fallen
When you've fallen from the moon.

There's murder on the street
I'm ashes on the water now, somewhere far away
I have fallen, fallen from the moon.
 

I have been here many times before
In a life I used to live
But I have never seen these streets so fresh
Washed with morning rain
I have seen this face a thousand times
Every morning of my life
But I never saw these eyes so clear
Free of doubt and pain
Like the whole world has been made again.

I have been here many times before
In a life I used to live...
And it's all because you made me see
What is false and what is true
Like the inside and the outside of me
Is being made again by you.

And it's all because you made me see
What is false and what is true
Like the inside and the outside of me
Has been made again by you
Like a bright new morning
Like a bright new day
I woke up from a deep sleep
I woke up from a bad dream
To a brand new morning
To a brand new day
Like the whole world has been made again.