Lyrics to songs on Over There
Words and music by Roger Marshall
Know about you
If you're by yourself tonight I want to know about it
If you're on the shelf tonight I want to know about it
If you've finally found out that there's no-one left to woo
I want to know about it I want to know about it
everything about you
If you've found a cosy niche I want to know about it
if you've found some light relief I want to know about it
if you've found salvation from living with the blues
I want to know about it I want to know about it
I want to know about you
Even if it's a rumour
even if it's a pack of lies
even if it comes from someone
who I once despised
even if it's a legend or
even if it's true
I want to know about it
everything there is to know about you
If you're on the streets tonight I want to know about it
If you voted with your feet tonight I want to know about it
If you've finally found out, there's nothing left to do
I want to know about it I want to know about it
I want to know about you
Even if it's a message
Written in a cryptic code
Even if to tell me
that you've found another road
Even if it's something that I always knew
I want to know about it I want to know about it
everything about you
Million miles from nowhere down by the lake
a certain peace about it, shaking off an ache
clouds drift slow up in the sky
there's nothing to do and nothing to buy
down the back roads
you can almost see gold up in them there the hills
all there is is time and there's enough of it to kill
sunshine on the peaks and shade down in the valley
it might be paradise but it ain't Bali
down the back roads
Dust clouds rising from the wheels that I'm driving
City can be cruel it can drive a knife in
how would it be to be back up in the back blocks
getting up at dawn tending to the flocks
down the back roads
Stopping at a crossroads I don't know the way,
buzzard up above circling for its prey
sparkling water dashing down rocks of the ravine
the morning world is so pristine
down the back roads
When I broke for the border
I knew my journey was done
when I looked for the horizon
but the earth and sky were one
as the train kept on rolling it had a mind of its own
miles of steel lie between your homeland and my home
When I broke for the border
When we said our fond farewells
And I kissed her on the forehead
I wished her happiness I wished her well
but the tracks were never ending, thro' the brown earth and snow
miles of steel lie between your homeland and my home
When I broke for the border
it was barren it was bleak
someone wanted to talk something over
but I didn't wish to speak
I gazed out the window at the rocks and at the stones
miles of steel lie between your homeland and my home
When I broke for the border
I ended up on my front doorstep
I stood in the doorway
I didn't know what to expect
But the place looked no diff'rent it was as if I'd never roamed
miles of steel lie between your homeland and my home
break for the border
This world gets to you
With it's seas of green and it's skies of blue,
With it's earth and rocks and stones and ground,
It may seem flat but in fact it's round.
This world, worn and old
Tropical heat and icy cold,
With it's sunshine boys and stoney faced men
With its you and me and it's us and them.
This world, for what it's worth,
It's just a little old speck in the universe
Painted like a masterpiece,
Being torn in two by wars in the name of peace.
This world, with it's land and sea,
But what it is ? It's a mystery.
This world, for good and for bad,
It's the only one we're ever gonna have
This world, with it's men and beasts
With it's sunset in the west, with it's sunrise in the east,
With it's vanishing trees and fields of green
With it's deserts scorched brown and it's dried up streams,
With it's civilisation, look at the theorems that they've proved!
Look at the shanty towns and it's destitute,
And it's children long dead and it's babies still to come
This world it's home for everyone.
This world with its silvery moon
With its starry starry nights and celestial tunes
With its people in love and its people in hate
those who give and those who take
With its rain and sun and snow and mist
Its creatures of the deep and those we don't even know exist
With its brothers and sisters and lovers and wives
With its imaginary gods and its meaning of Life
This world.
Moonlight dripped into the harbour
waves lapping at the boats
stars too many to number
I'm only just afloat
I came too close for comfort
too far away to see
you so slowly drifting out to sea
Light house lamplight keeps right on turning
I guess the keepers must have fled
and the oceans don't ever stop swirling
and there's a shipwreck in my head
point me in the right direction
scratch a map at my feet
while you were slowly drifting out to sea
Long finger of the headland
pointing to somewhere out in the north
came a long way from the mad lands
theres beauty is here (for what it is worth)
Looking down into the ocean
so blue and so deep
you so slowly drifting out to sea
Pick any street put a pin in the map
there ain't nobody whom my patience wouldn't sap
can't find no-one with whom I do agree
seems like everyone's gone crazy but me
Dazzled by sun, had to escape it
curl up some place in the shade
sometimes I think I'll never make it
sometimes I think I've got it made
it never ceases to amaze me
everything's still as much a mystery
with you so slowly drifting out to sea
When I looked on the northern moors, the wind cut, the rain poured.
I sheltered in my Renault four, the iron sky filled me with awe.
There was a house with a view, a field, a tree, a cow or two.
Some distant crags a rusty hue, against the slates of iron-blue.
People called each other pet
I was a stranger there, and yet
I felt that home was here
in the iron years.
That rusting hulk corroded, differentials were eroded.
We knew the Bombs were loaded, what was gonna happen if they exploded.
We campaigned, we protested, people I knew quite were arrested.
Relationships were tested, family wounds festered.
People called each other names,
no body would take the blame.
For the anger and fears
in the iron years.
There were strikes and flying pickets, couldn't help but get caught up in it
street fights and demonstrations, iron in the soul of the nation
there was a war in the south Atlantic , people became sycophantic
Some left for the South Pacific, they said everything was gonna be terrific
People called each other scabs,
everything was up for grabs.
cut by razors, knives and shears
in the iron years.
I went down in the downland walking
with my father one bright sunny day
watching the men watching their sons,
flying their model aeroplanes
down by the Purley Way
talking about the good old days
down in the downland
I said it's weird being here after all these years
sometimes I feel I'm nothing more than a stranger
this was home where I used to roam
it's more or less the same as I remember
but wasn't that old house derelict?
Is it just my mind playing tricks
down in the downland
walking along these old chalk hills,
in the distance a glimpse of the city
talking about the War, talking about your own Pa,
talking family history
I was almost removed from everything
and the cold eyed crows above me sing
down in the downland
We walked down in the woods where the old oaks stood
before the night of the Great Storm
where the pigeons coo and the paths wind their way through
the brambles and the hawthorns
and the years fell away
I was with you where we used to play
down in the downland
I don't know what I'm feeling, I'm just feeling my way
I don't know what I'm seeing if it's the light of today
I'm a novice I'm a tyro got my L-plates on
I was hoping you might tell me what I've been doing wrong
someone cast a spell on me, it feels like it's voodoo
I'm feeling my way through
Well, I used to know the rules but I'm re-learning how to play
my memory isn't vivid, don't remember yesterday
I gotta a whole lotta loving but I just cant seem to give it
don't worry 'bout me baby you gotta a life you gotta live it
we can always talk it over there ain't nothing that's taboo
I'm feeling my way through
I could build anything made of wood and of nails
You can even talk to me if everything fails
I could sing you any song, drink you under any table
I've been regressing in myself I'm going back into the cradle
I've been watching Bill and Ben feeling like I'm Looby Loo
I'm feeling my way through
I'm forgetting everything that I barely knew
It wasn't very much but it kind of got me through
it ¡®s early in the morning and the mist is in the hollows
you can feel this way and I'll just try to follow
doesn't matter very much I'm happy being Scubeedoo
and feeling my way through
A magpie at my window a cold wind in the street
you were lying in my arms, once I curled up at your feet
you took the bad words from my mouth, evil thoughts from my mind
took everything left nothing much behind
there wasn't much to take away
one cold winter's day
I was lying low listening to your breathless sigh
time don't wait for anyone, least of all for you or i
When I was burning up with fever, and I could barely stand
an icy windy was blowing across the forbidden land
and the sky was leaden grey
one cold winter's day
I wandered thro' the rubble, blindly as you do
you stumbled over me somehow I stumbled over you
a winter sun was shining, sunbeams dancing on the dust
safe and warm inside with a whole day to waste
like children at play
one cold winter's day
I thought that it was written that everything was fate
Too slow to know destiny don't wait
one night the power died and everything stopped
how now wish the lights had stayed off
while the blizzard blew away
one cold winter's day
No breath of wind disturbed the heat.
Could feel it burn through the soles of my feet.
I stepped outside for some air
I saw something moving way over there.
All else was still in the heat and the haze.
Ain't no mistaking your ravaged face.
I screwed my eyes up, I stood there and stared
into the distance, way over there.
I can see you, you can't see me
It might be someone, some one whose lost
Might be just it's an apparition
Like maybe it's a ghost.
There you were walking in a long red frock.
The groom beside you like a man in the dock.
I watched the guests disappear in thin air.
In the distance, way over there.
Just then a breeze cut through the heat.
Cornfields swayed and the thunder beat.
Lightning was striking everything everywhere.
in the distance way, over there.
High over the rooftops , cant see nothing but sky
it ain't gonna rain, clouds don't even try
still, people are drowning, clutching at straws
I'm hanging on to mine don't let go of yours
I'm living above, someone who is living below
we pass on the stairs we just say hello
they say so much can happen behind closed doors
not much happening behind mine maybe it's goin' down behind yours
I've loved you a long time, now we're not even friends
I don't know what happened how things always end
some people keep their loves in their bottom drawer
I've got nothing in mine, maybe I left it all behind in yours
I've been beating my brow, been kicking down walls
I've crept and kowtowed, I've wept and I've bawled
some people still fighting their own private wars
done battle with mine, make peace with yours
Ghost town of a city, people all on the make
the love that they give, they only forsake
Some people are searching, looking for a cause
I've put paid to mine, best of luck with yours
What's outside your window, do you have much of a view?
Are you bored or happy, do you bother with the news?
Is it dead of night, or the middle of the day?
Is a new moon rising, old one melting away?
What's outside of you window, is it land or is it sea?
Are you looking at a heat wave, seeking out the breeze?
Are you staring at a brick wall, someone staring back at you?
Have you pulled down the blind, with nothing to look forward to?
Do you see a better skyline, a field full of flowers?
Living in dream world, whiling away the hours?
What's outside there, is there nothing but mid air?
Seagulls flying all around you, do you ever care?
What's outside of your window, are there people on the move?
Is there nothing more you have to prove
Does life go by too fast or too slow?
Outside your window