Van Der Graaf Generator Lyrics

Album: Godbluff

The Sleepwalkers Lyrics

(Hammill)

At night, this mindless army, ranks unbroken by dissent, 

is moved into action and their pace does not relent. 

In step, with great precision, these dancers of the night 

advance against the darkness - how implacable their might! 

Eyes undulled by moon, their arms and legs akimbo, 

they walk and live, hoping soon to surface from this limbo. 

Their minds, anticipating the dawn of the day, 

shall never know what's waiting mere insight away 

- too far, too soon.

Senses dimmed in semi-sentience, only wheeling through this plane, 

only seeing fragmented images prematurely curtailed by the brain, 

but breathing, living, knowing in some measure at least 

the soul which roots the matter of both Beauty and the Beast. 

From what tooth or claw does murder spring, 

from what flesh and blood does passion? 

Both cut through the air with the pendulum's swing 

in deadly but delicate fashion. 

And every range of feeling is there in the dream 

and every logic's reeling in the force of the scream 

the senses sting. 

And though I may be dreaming and reality stalls 

I only know the meaning of sight and that's all 

and that's nothing. 

The columns of the night advance, 

infectiously, their cryptic dance 

gathers converts to the fold - 

in time the whole raw world will pace these same steps 

on into the same bitter end. 

Somnolent muster now the dancing dead 

forsake the shelter of their secure beds, 

awaken to a slumber whose depths they dread, 

as if the ground they tread would give way 

beneath the solemn weight of their conception. 

I'd search the hidden corners of all this world, 

make reason of the sensory whorl 

if I only had time, 

but soon the dream is ended. 

Tonight, before you lay down to the sweetness of your sleep 

do you question your surrender to the drop from Lover's Leap 

or does the anaesthetic darkness take hold on its very own? 

Does your body rise in service with not one dissenting groan? 

These waking dreams of life and death 

in the mirror are twisted and buckled, 

lashes flicker, a catch of breath, 

skin whitening at the knuckles. 

The army of sleepwalkers shake their limbs and are loose 

and though I am a talker, I can phrase no excuse 

not to rise again. 

In the chorus of the night-time I belong 

and I, like you, must dance to that moonlight song 

and in the end I too must pay the cost of this life. 

If all is lost none is known 

and how could we lose what we've never owned? 

Oh, I'd search out every knowledge that I could find, 

unravel all the mysteries of mind, 

if I only had time, 

if I only had time, 

but soon my time is ended.