SKYCLAD LYRICS

1. A Clown Of Thorns

[time: 01:36]
[Lyrics: Martin Walkyier]
[Music: Steve Ramsey & Georgina Biddle]

Walking my personal Calvary mile to a do-it-yourself crucifixion,
It's a kingdom of clowns wearing martyrdom's frown -
I must fight for my hammer and nails,
We're an endless procession of lost, dispossessed unbelievers -
Whose prayers go unheard and unanswered,
(unheard and unanswered like junk mail for Jesus).

2. Building A Ruin

[time: 03:55]
[Lyrics: Martin Walkyier]
[Music: Steve Ramsey]

My life is a sentence that carries no pardon,
I can't put you out of my misery now,
So stunned by beauty of this madhouse garden -
I've taken my chances (then lost them somehow).

This body's a temple - a shoddy construction,
I'm digging my grave - while boring the well,
I'm paving a path to my own self destruction,
I won't be content 'til I see me in Hell.

No I won't be content 'til I see me in Hell.

I've looked back on my time - the names and the faces,
A child long ago that I nearly forgot,
And felt like someone who'd just stepped on the place
where the last stair should have been - (then found it was not).

Life's just a process of delamination,
Stripping your hopes - dissecting them gently.
I've opened my heart - and to my consternation
when I peered inside it was small, dark and empty.

[Chorus]
My friends turn to me - wonder what I am doing,
drinking and smoking like somebody died.
I said "Leave me alone I'm just building a ruin,
The spirits are sunken - so the wreckage must rise."

I'm building a ruin - I ruin a building,
My bridges are burned out - my tunnels are filled in.

It's all a game I believe - the longer you play it the harder it gets.
The most I can hope to achieve now's my breakfast,
a priest with a blindfold and last cigarette...

My friends turn to me - wonder what I am doing,
drinking and smoking like somebody died.
I said "Leave me alone I'm just building a ruin,
The spirits are sunken - so the wreckage must rise."

My friends turn to me - wonder what I am doing,
drinking and smoking like somebody died.
I said "Leave me alone I'm just building a ruin,
The spirits are sunken - so the wreckage must rise."

I won't be content 'til I see me in Hell.

3. Worn Out Sole To Heel

[time: 03:59]
[Lyrics: Martin Walkyier]
[Music: Graeme English]

It's a mountain that we all must climb,
In giant leaps or one step at a time.

I saw a fat, old money lender - shoes of silk and ermine,
Laughing as they stambled on blistered feet rough shod.
He never helped the poor and weak - viewed them all as vermin,
So when he fell they passed him by and struggled up to god.

Each of us must walk a different track -
No sign to guide us and no turning back.

[Chorus:]
Humanity in motion - it's the pilgrimage eternal.
Most are blind - But i suspect what rare few know is real.
"You carry me, i'll carry you" this simple childish notion.
A cable car to Shangrai-La,
Your worn up soul to heal.

The soldier boy is marching proud (with military precision)
Kicking others from the path - so keen to reach the peak.
Never will he get there with this tactical decision -
He spends so much time fighting that each footstep takes a week.

Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero,
Persta et obdura - omnia vincit amor!

My money's on the holy man - just clad in sack and sandals
Heard a small child crying there - so turned around and stopped.
Like a beacon now he shines (bright as a million candles)
Alone upon the summit when the selfish have all dropped.

It's no contest - but we still race there
Like the saintly tortoise and the godless hare.

Humanity in motion - it's the pilgrimage eternal.
Most are blind - But i suspect what rare few know is real.
"You carry me, i'll carry you" this simple childish notion.
A cable car to Shangrai - La,
Your worn up soul to heal.

You're worn up sole to heal,
Your worn up soul too ...
Heal your worn up soul.

4. Single Phial

[time: 06:07]
[Lyrics: Martin Walkyier]
[Music: Steve Ramsey]

I have walked the earth so many times before your birth,
Today is only yesterday's tomorrow.
And as a Gardner in Eden it was i who sowed the seed then
I've come to reclaim this life you borrow.

Singing 'ring a ring o' rosies' for your final lullabye,
Have you any prayers to make before you wave your last goodbye ?
I bring 'a pocket full o' posies' - lay a wreath to ease my guilt,
As the light's go out forever not one drop of blood was spilt.

[Chorus:]
As yet unwritten history -
Once more i stride the lightning road
Identity a mystery -
My burden is Pandora's load.
Traversing endless centuries -
Disguised behind Death's lipless smile,
I hide that my intention is to pour this single phial.

I'd have rather seen your face almost any other place
Still here we meet - always the way in this profession
And as i gaze into your eyes - i see the glimer within dies,
From ther moment i first make my dark confession.

How could i swear i would be there for you, until your dying day,
Certain in the knowledge that it's not that far away?
So you leave me sitting here bewildered as a new dead ghost,
While i try to justify destroying that which i love most.

As yet unwritten history -
Once more i stride the lightning road
Identity a mystery -
My burden is Pandora's load.
Traversing endless centuries -
Disguised behind Death's lipless smile,
I hide that my intention is to pour this single phial.

The dark millenium is ending - final daze of the decayed
And a reign of tears is falling - it's the judgement eve parade.
Though I wash my hands a thousand times - still the guilt remains,
She stole my heart - I took her life ...
(And yet i never knew her name).

As yet unwritten history -
Once more i stride the lightning road
Identity a mystery -
My burden is Pandora's load.
Traversing endless centuries -
Disguised behind Death's lipless smile,
I hide that my intention is to pour this single phial.

Out with a whimper - not with a bang.
And they all gathered round while the church bell rang.
Singing 'bring out your dead' they 'll stretch for miles,
To be bourne to their graves in single files.

[Chorus:]
As yet unwritten history -
Once more i stride the lightning road
Identity a mystery -
My burden is Pandora's load.
Traversing endless centuries -
Disguised behind Death's lipless smile,
I hide that my intention is to pour this single phial.

5. Helium

[time: 04:24]
[Lyrics: Martin Walkyier]
[Music: Graeme English]

Pray for my poor melancholy soul,
I've cried so many tears inside -
My head's a goldfish bowl.
A mood so deep - so far above you all,
With no one there to catch me if i fall.

This is your man in the street reporting,
And so far all we've got is that a regular guy is on a ledge up high -
He's had enough of the irregular lot.
And in the World exclusive live tonight
Brought to you via satelilite -
The last sane man heard frankly speaking
'bout the 'ups and downs' of leaping
He says...

[Chorus:]
I'm lighter than air - i haven't a care,
Still gravity poulls me under,
Credibility gaps - gullability fills -
They were bringing me down (no wonder)
Square pegs, round holes, last dregs, own goals
Monkey puzzle my fist won't fot inside
Every day nothing new, black and white deja-vu,
Makes me feel i wanna spread my wings and glide.

Should i look - should i leap from this unfairy story?
My life and my filofax flashing before me
Fly like a rock from the roof to the basement,
The last thing to go through my mind was the pavement!

(Falling out of love with life.)

Here's the latest news flash update
on the wall street situation
Seems he wants to have his song played live upon our T.V station
It's a lyric he just wrote
The bleatings of a social scapegoat,
Thirty years under the weather - at the end of a SHORT TETHER
it goes...

I'm lighter than air - i haven't a care,
Still gravity poulls me under,
Credibility gaps - gullability fills -
They were bringing me down (no wonder)
Square pegs, round holes, last dregs, own goals
Monkey puzzle my fist won't fit inside
Every day nothing new, black and white deja-vu,
Makes me feel i wanna spread my wings and glide.

6. The Thread Of Evermore

[time: 06:55]
[Lyrics: Martin Walkyier]
[Music: Steve Ramsey]

Harbringer of death and slaughter -
(next time round you'll be the slain)
Refuse the dying man your water -
(thirst when you come back again).
Don't spare the rod don't spoil the child -
(I hope you like to take a beating)
Feed your face while others starve -
(you'd better learn to not miss eating.)

Shining beaty - fair and wise,
Has served it's time as dim an sallow
An honest judge seeks truth through eyes
Which once gazed lifeless from the gallows.
Hands that heal the sick and lame,
Long since held tools of inquisition.
Tongues which speak words true and sane
Have chanted sermons on perdition.

[Chorus:]
Cross the bridge that spans forever
Living thread of evermore.
Without begining ending never,
Living thread of evermore
See the footprints in the sand
Countless lifetimes gone before,
Point our path with unseen hands
The living thread of evermore.

From egg and sperm 'neath sticky sheet,
To ash and bone or maggot meat,
The way looks neither pleasant or too long
So have you stopped to wonder whether
If when weighted against a feather,
All your deeds appear so big and strong?

Cross the bridge that spans forever
Living thread of evermore.
Without begining ending never,
Living thread of evermore
See the footprints in the sand
Countless lifetimes gone before,
Point our path with unseen hands
The living thread of evermore.

Light and dark complete the circle
Find the yang to fit the Yin
Barren desert - lush green myrtle
Chase the wind to lift your wing

From egg and sperm 'neath sticky sheet,
To ash and bone or maggot meat,
The way looks neither pleasant or too long
So have you stopped to wonder whether
If when weighted against a feather,
All your deeds appear so big and strong?

Cross the bridge that spans forever
Living thread of evermore.
Without begining ending never,
Living thread of evermore

7. Eirenarch

[time: 04:00]
[Lyrics: Martin Walkyier]
[Music: Steve Ramsey]

You say i'm a free man,
But what does that mean to a social security number?
A grey suit as sharp as a new guillotine,
Bought and paid for while drugging us under

Tell me what use is a citizens charter -
When blood is the ink for the new Magna Carta?
Sci-fi style weapons in feudal societies
Fingers on buttons that twich with anxiety

[Chorus:]
Brought to our knees by the powers that maybe,
Don't care if humanity lives or it dies.
You're alright Jack - so you pulled up the ladder
And hook, line and sinker you swallowed their lies.

Now it seems that the truth is not easy to say
Mouth stuffed with the goodies they sample.
Stripped by their mistresses - tied up and flayed
Like pye-dogs that would lead by example

Not enough answers - and cash payed for questions
Waste paper baskets - filled with good suggestions
Show me a promise they made that has lasted
Successes have fathers - but failure's a bastard

[Chorus:]
Brought to our knees by the powers that maybe,
Don't care if humanity lives or it dies.
You 're alright Jack - so you pulled up the ladder
And hook, line and sinker you swallowed their lies.

Your Motto was 'in god we trust - all others pay by cash'
You hide beneath oak tables when the windows start to smash
The natives are revolving open season on the scum
Sit back and wait forever for the Eirenarch to come
Rich and poor divide the classes, instigate two types of law
Making ninteen nineties Heaven feel like 1984
Your finger on the trigger of a 12-bore in the dark
When justice knocks upon your door send for the Eirenarch.

8. Troublesometimes

[time: 04:22]
[Lyrics: Martin Walkyier]
[Music: Graeme English]

High above the sleeping city streets where we've all grown
A silent evil Slithers through the dawn.
Blissful in our ignorance - God how could we have known
Today would be the day we learn to mourn?

The Shades of old dictators rise,
Impassive eyes - cold hearted.
Watch their 'wunderkinder' try to finish what they started.

The morning sky had barely yielded to the sun's caress,
When from the hills came 'Yellow Wasps' in swarm.
Zvornik wakes - discovers what a devil of a mess,
A fragile peace can look when it's been torn.

Now we stand like broken statues 'midst the wreckage of our homes,
Try to recognize our children by the ragsupon their bones.
Out of the 'Cold War' into the ceasefire flame!

[Chorus:]
Opened wounds - unsettled scores,
An ancient hate - new icons.
The front line starts at our back doors
'Cause bygones won't be bygones.
Cleanse the bloodline - start the cull,
Nazi roulette - six chambers full
Fail to read the warning signs,
Find yourself in Troublesometimes

While common sense had turned it's back
A shadow crossed our nation,
Can mourning mothers veiled in black sing songs of liberation?
Out of the 'Cold War' into the ceasefire flame!

[Chorus:]
Opened wounds - unsettled scores,
An ancient hate - new icons.
The front line starts at our back doors
'Cause bygones won't be bygones.
Through a mask of tears and cinder -
Watch your cornfields burn like tinder.
Fail to read the warning signs,
Find yourself in Troublesometimes

9. Isle Of Jura

[time: 03:59]
[Lyrics: Martin Walkyier]
[Music: Steve Ramsey]

All around me strangers scurry -
In a crowd but all alone.
Got to hurry - pack my worries,
Feel the arms that I call home.

I am lonely - I am lost,
Inside my private holocaust.

[Chorus:]
O' steel angel please carry me -
Fly me to my love,
From cold Earth far beneath me
To the Heavens high above.

All aboard but fly so-low
(Chocks away) The engines start.
Crossing oceans of emotion that circumnavigate my heart.

Have you ever talked to someone,
Not recalled a single word?
The gentle rhythm of the humdrum,
It was the only sound i heard.

Why was I not so astute to stow
My dreams a parachute?

O' steel angel please carry me -
Fly me to my love,
From cold Earth far beneath me
To the Heavens high above.

It seems they never sensed how time was passing,
Deep in the silence and the cold.
Sat living, breathing, drinking, laughing -
While Death lay sleeping in the hold.

Then my eyes beheld a vision,
A beaty Brighter than the Stars
One singe spark - and then ignition,
Bathe my flesh and heal the scars.

The hand that dared to touch God's knife,
But 'Isle Of Jura' - I love life.

O' steel angel please carry me -
Fly me to my love,
From cold Earth far beneath me
To the Heavens high above.

10. Fainting By Numbers

[time: 03:43]
[Lyrics: Martin Walkyier]
[Music: Steve Ramsey & Georgina Biddle]

Number One - the only number I can really trust,
Dual faceted - these people that I talk to when I must.
In triplicate my body hangs - left drying in the sun,
Four horses at the starting gate - their riders waiting on my gun.

Misused just like the pentagram - distrusted as the Pentagon,
Six sided is this box I've made - you'll dance on it when I am gone.
Seven times I've wondered whether Heaven's truly waiting there,
I smoke another eight ball to convince myself I couldn't care.

The bulb's blown in the neon nine that once shone from my cloud,
Down the street at Number Ten they're talking long and loud.
Life's a game of two halves - I'm not on the team of winners,
Each time I set the table - seems that Judas comes to dinner.

Thirteen black cats cross my path - ignoring all the others,
There is no bride waiting for me - I'm not one of seven brothers.
Fate serves an ace (fifteen-love) - I'm set to take a bruising,
'cause at sixteen I graduated from the school of losing.

[Chorus]
Count me out,
Why don't you count me out?
Said you can count me out,
Go find another easy number.

First catch me in your internet - unload me down your modem,
Then brand me with a barcode, 'cause the fax of life you know them.

Count me out!

Oh what fun at twenty one - you stole the key to my front door,
You don't need me - you won't feed me (I'm not even sixty-four).
Fifty two - how it suits you to fool me with your magic tricks,
What's this birthmark on my head? - Bet it's the number six, six, six.

[Chorus]
Count me out,
Why don't you count me out?
Said you can count me out,
Go find another easy number.

11. My Naked I

[time: 03:46]
[Lyrics: Martin Walkyier]
[Music: Steve Ramsey]

I wish that you could know one day the secrets I've been keeping,
Of the demons I have locked away - they prowl a one track mind.
If you had thought this tongue in cheek was just reserved for speaking
one hour at my sweet mercy would be sure to send you blind.

Speeding through the darkness of this endless Friday night,
In a body with one drunk and careless owner.
There is nobody home - but all the light are shining brightly,
How I'd love to wake beside you when it's over.

[Chorus]
Yearning serpent - sharp foretooth,
I ache to taste of nacked youth.
The fleeting glance I can't forget,
Could make of me an agapet.
The reins that bridle my desire -
grow flimsier than your attire.
Feeling brave? - then come and try to stare into my naked I.

Like a spider with a fly upon her web -
come wrap those legs around me.
Deflower me - devour me,
My veins aglow with blood like liquid fire.
I'm a willing victim - gagged and bound down on your altar of seduction,
Awaiting my destruction in the all consuming flames of raw desire.

I fear I should be boiled in oil just for these thoughts I'm thinking,
If you'd be my new hobby I could give up DIY.
I've just one vice in life - but how its jaws long to be sinking,
In the flesh of Eden's apple with some subtle succubi.

I'd say without a doubt you're the best sex I never had,
Cause in my dreams you wear a necklace white and pearly.
Make mine a triple bromide on the rocks please - (stirred and shaken),
Should I wait 'til it's too late - or come too early?

Yearning serpent - sharp foretooth,
I ache to taste of naked youth.
The feeling glance I can't forget,
Could make of me an agapet.
The reins that bridle my desire -
grow flimsier than your attire.
Feeling brave? - then come and try to stare at my naked I.

12. Catherine At The Wheel

[time: 03:44]
[Lyrics: Martin Walkyier]
[Music: Graeme English]

Her face caught in the headlamp glare,
There waiting for a ride.
Stood all alone - so far from home,
He beckons her inside.
A smile that has two meanings -
slips his fat hand to her knee,
But swiftly learns how quick to turn this woman scorned can be.

Her flesh was all he wanted -
But his blood was what she got,
And did he dream of scenes x-rated
when she showed him Salem's lot?
Now the hunted is the hunter
with a heart as cold as steel,
See the empty rear view mirror showing
Catherine at the wheel.

Down in the park - just after dark,
Girl crying 'neath a tree.
Begs "Can you help please mister? - mummy left and forgot me."
"My, you're out late my dear" exclaims the shabby, strange old man,
Who hidden in the bushes finds a lion in his lamb.

She's a killer with a conscience -
and a bite too sharp to feel,
This child sat on the roundabout is Catherine at the wheel.

And if you could you'd kill them twice -
How sweet revenge can be,
'Gainst those you've sent to that place with no fury next to thee.

Her flesh was all they wanted -
but their blood was what she got,
And did they dream of scenes x-rated
when she showed them Salem's lot?
She's a killer with a conscience -
and a heart as cold as steel,
She's the hunter not the hunted -
with a bite too sharp to feel.
Her flesh was all they wanted -
but their blood was what she got,
And did they dream of scenes x-rated
when she showed them Salem's lot?

Catherine's at the wheel.

13. Dead Angels On Ice

[time: 03:12]
[Lyrics: Martin Walkyier]
[Music: Graeme English]

Mother I'm so sorry for this thing I've gone and done,
But surely you'll forgive me - after all I am your son.
Live to race - thrill of the chase to me was all that mattered,
As we crash I hit the dash - my baby face is shattered.

We are dead angels - dead angels on ice.

Once upon a Tyne we stood in line -
Minds so numb and bored.
Now we're lying still (always will),
Just chillin' in the morgue.
Kicking cans, little clans, windy streets, grey estates,
We earn our wings and pluck harp strings -
Ramraiding through the Pearly Gates.







SKYCLAD LYRICS