Brandes

THE LION OF JUDAH

I am the Lion of Judah; I’m the Serpent of the Nile;

I am the phantom of your dreams, I’m the number on your dial.

I am the shadow on the wall, I am the Wandering Jew;

I’m the footstep on the staircase and I’m coming home to you.

I’m the traffic on your highway; I’m the message in your mail;

I’m the Oracle at Delphi; I’m the smoke behind the veil.

I’m all the falsehoods you have heard, except the one that’s true;

I’m peeling back the mysteries and I’m coming home to you.

The journey has been hard enough

To wear away the sin.

We need a place to bind our wounds,

Come down and let me in.

I’m master of the revels; I am the king of spades;

I’m the emperor of illusion; I am the great betrayed.

I’m the tyranny of the multitude, I am the precious few;

I’m breaking with convention and I’m coming home to you.

I’m guardian of the secret place; I’m keeper of the key.

I’m the prisoner of conscience; I’m champion of the free.

I am the priest confessor, I know everything you do;

I am because you think I am and I’m coming home to you

I’ve known the blood flow in the street,

I feel it rise again.

I see the horsemen on the hill,

For God’s sake, let us in.

I am the executioner, I am the dangling man;

I’m the victim of injustice; I kill because I can.

I am the ancient sacrifice; I’m everything that’s new;

I’m all you ever wanted and I’m coming home to you.

I am the lonesome loser; I am the gypsy king;

I am the great romancer with a golden violin.

I’m the summoner of tempests; I’m captain of the crew

I am the prophet in the dust and I’m coming home to you.

The journey has been long enough

And still we are not free.

We need a place to call a home,

I need your sanctuary.

I am the great pretender; I’m the master of surprise;

I am the mirror to your soul; I'm unfathomably wise.

I’m alpha and omega, but I’m hungry and I’m blue

So I’m packing up my caravan and I’m heading home to you. 

Be there in your forgiveness; be there in your despair;

Be there in your musk and silk, with a lily in your hair.

Be there with your crucifix, with your rosemary and rue;

Be there with your monstrous love because I’m coming home to you.

LIKE A DAGGER

You know I…you know I…you know I…you know I…

You know I loved you Laura, but I loved you from afar;

I never could uncover just how beautiful you are.

It’s like a dagger to my heart,

Like a dagger to my heart:

I'd take the blow and fall apart,

With a dagger through my heart.

The time was never right for us and I was not that brave

To think that I could satisfy the loving that you craved.

It’s like a dagger to my heart,

Like a dagger to my heart:

I guess I knew it from the start,

There’s a dagger through my heart.

Our eyes would meet and you might smile but then you’d look away.

You loved me as a friend but not in any other way.

It’s like a dagger to my heart,

A naked dagger to my heart,

I'd take the blow and fall apart:

Like a dagger to my heart.

I've thought it through as best I can;

There is no purpose, there's no plan.

It's been the same since love began:

We're just a random woman…and an arbitrary man.  

I know about the lovers that you visit now and then;

It hurts to hear you talk about those legendary men.

It’s like a dagger to my heart,

Like a dagger to my heart,

I take the blow and fall apart:

Like a dagger through my heart.

We talked a while, you kissed my cheek, I heard you close the door.

Whatever little that we had, I knew there was no more.

It’s that dagger in my heart,

Dagger deep within my heart,

I took the blade and fell apart:

With a dagger through my heart.

I lay down on the shingle and I watched the waves crash in.

I felt a cold blue emptiness I've never felt again.

And it pierced me to my heart,

Still stabs me to my heart,

I feel the blow, I break apart:

With a dagger through my heart.

You know I…you know I…you know I…you know I…

You know I loved you Laura, but I loved you from afar;

I never could uncover just how beautiful you are.

FAST FOOD

She’s primed for unarmed combat; she’s ready for the fray,

She’s open to an acrobatic tumble in the hay.

She knows her tags and catches but she’s eager for defeat;

She’s ready to submit her soul to any man she meets.

But every painful victory leaves its history on her face,

And though love has turned its back on her, she longs for its embrace.

Her head is filled with hope but her eyes are full of fear;

Will anybody take her home; does anybody care?

She remembers breakfast in the café on the square,

The two-room flat above the bar, the lovers she took there.

She recalls smooth velvet, how it tantalised her skin,

The terrifying ecstasy when new romance begins.

Now she pulls down her dark glasses and finds shelter in the shade;

She’ll be waiting there till nightfall for the aching day to fade.

Her heart is filled with hope but her eyes are pricked with tears;

There is no-one to take her home; there is nobody here.

And though I long to comfort her, I’m a thousand miles away,

In exile on this hillside in the range above the bay.

Though I recall the boulevard, the scent of her cologne,

The tiny flat above the bar, the nights she took me home,

I guess it had to come to this, that now that we are old,

One of us is passionate, and one of us is cold.

But I can taste the cheap champagne, her scent upon my skin,

And I recall the savage thrill when love affairs begin.

She loved me fierce, she loved me fast; I couldn’t take the pace

I’m just another set of tracks that’s etched across her face.

And though I’d run to comfort her, I’m a thousand miles away,

On this barren hillside in the range above the bay.

And my hopes like hers are fading with the passing of the years:

I have no heart to call my own; there is nobody here.

BRUISED AND SHAKEN

I know that it is over:

You've been telling me so long.

I know it ain't been easy:

You know I'm not that strong.

Now that it has ended,

This thing of you and me,

I will not be offended

If you just let it be,

Let it be.

Now that you are leaving,

You take my breath away.

But though you know I’m grieving,

I'm not begging you to stay.

Now that it has ended,

This thing of you and me,

It’s not as we intended

But now that we are free,

Let’s let it be.

It’s like dreams you’ve lost on waking.

It’s like the love you never had.

And though I'm bruised and shaken,

You know it really ain’t that bad.

Now that it has ended,

This thing of you and me,

We can stop pretending

And we can let it be,

Just let it be.

So you just pack a suitcase,

You make the break, I'll take the blame,

I'll drive you to the station

And we can be alone again.

Now that we ain’t faking,

This thing with you and me,

I’m still bruised and shaken

But we can let it be,

Let it be…Oh let it be….Let’s let it be…Just let it be.

FROM THE HIGHER GROUND

I see a man with tattoos tumbling from his shoulder

Of symbols that he does not understand;

I see a woman raw and bloody from his loving,

But when he calls she's always close at hand -

She's close at hand, she needs her man - ha!

I see a mother who is mourning for her daughter

Who's living on the darker side of town,

And she's offering her body up to strangers

To keep her high and stop her feeling down -

She's feeling down, she's falling down. 

And so it goes, and I suppose

The world will turn again tomorrow.

Each day begins in so much hope,

But comes by dusk to sorrow.

I see fathers who don't recognise their children;

I see children who are crying out for love.

I see them turning from temptation to temptation,

Till they cannot know that they have had enough -

They've had enough, they’ve had too much.

And the money moves around in circles,

Though each time that it passes it gets less. 

And when the music stops the rich get richer

And the poor just shuffle closer to the edge…

Still the prophets promise life could be much better

If we do what it takes to get ahead. 

I wonder then why we're so sad and lonely:

Did we want too much or have we been misled -

We want too much, we are misled. 

I see bad men who are slaughtering the children;

I see children grow to slaughters of their own. 

Each age must feast upon the bitter harvest

That those who went before us all have sown -

We should have known, the dice were thrown.

Well we all know, that’s how it goes:

The wheel will spin tomorrow.

Each day begins in so much hope,

But turns by dusk to sorrow.

From this hill I see the colours round me swirling - 

The blue is so much greater than the green. 

I see the child's hand slip forever from her father's:

Is this the way the end was meant to be -

It's meant to be, it’s meant to be. 

LIKE A WATERFALL

I see soft light kiss the surface of the lake,

Like my caress, like silk upon smooth skin.

I see the water rise in gentle waves,

Like your slow breathing.

I see the ripples froth upon the beach

And fade into the fragrance of your hair,

Your dark brown hair,

Your moist brown hair,

Your hair tumbling

Like a waterfall.

THE BRIDGE

Love disappeared at a quarter to four;

It slipped through the crack where the wall meets the floor.

We thought it was brilliant and lasting and strong;

But now it was jaded and threadbare and gone.

We sat at the table as love drained away.

Nothing was said, there was nothing to say;

I reached for your hand but your fingers were numb;

I wanted to love you but love would not come.

And the city is waking,

The city still sleeps,

And the city betrays

All the secrets it keeps.

This is the time and this is the town,

This is the place where our love must go down.

So we finished our drinks in the night café.

We pulled on our coats and we got up to pay.

And you swept back the hair that fell over your eyes,

And for a moment love flickered, then finally died.

So we walked to the corner where the working girl works.

Making friends in the alley where loneliness lurks.

And a man in the shadows relieves her regrets,

With a cocktail of cocaine and cheap cigarettes.

And her body’s a temple

The faithful profane,

First with desire

And then with disdain.

For this is the time and this is the town,

And here by this lamplight she has to go down.

Now the drunk in the doorway mutters and sways

And he raises his face to the break in the day;

And he prays for a sign that it will all end

In the neck of a bottle and the arms of a friend.

And the statues are pale in the grey of the dawn.

They’re eager for conquest; they're ready for war.

But the hoofs of their horses are frozen in stone,

They cannot set out; they can never come home. 

They’re fixed on the future,

But pinned by the past,

The king and the conquered

Have all come to dust.

Here in this city, here in this town,

The horses rear up and the riders fall down.

Well, I'd read in the headlines our love had to die,

Though I always suspected the newspapers lie.

But the journalists told me the story was true,

And they said that the source of the rumours was you.

So I hired detectives and I made them aware

Of the private details of our public affair. 

They searched all the airports, they boarded the trains,

But then they came home without Lili Marlene.

You dreamed of freedom

And I dreamt of chains.

You longed for deliverance,

I wanted the same.

This is the time, this is the town,

And here is the place where our love will lie down.

Well, a thousand rehearsals prepared us for this:

The distracted embrace, the indifferent kiss.

But we couldn’t have known that our love would go down

At this time in the morning, in this part of town.

So we stand on the bridge in the frost bitten air.

There’s ice on your eyelids and flakes in your hair. 

And I look at you long and you look at me slow,

As we let our love slip to the river below.

Locked arm in arm,

We’d tried to break free.

I broke from you 

And then you broke from me.

But now at this time and here in this town,

In these grey frozen waters our love comes to drown.

And love disappeared at a quarter to four.

IT IS YOU

Between the Sanctus and a fiercer creed,

On Yom Kippur and the days of Eid,

In the bloody wars the priests decreed,

When no-one’s god would intercede.

Between the jagged thorn and its stone-smooth seed,

In the blossom, in the weed,

In the mercy that we plead:

It is always you I need.

In bonds from which we’re never freed,

Where they cut us, where we bleed,

Between the hunger and the greed,

In the ground that we concede

To the greater force of the stronger breed, 

In their vengeance and the speed

Between cold thought and crueller deed:

It is only you I need.

In the appetites I feed,

In the teachings that I heed, 

In the holy books I read,

In this measured life I lead,

Where I fall short, where I exceed,

When I advance and then recede,

In my struggle to succeed:

It is always you I need.

It is only you I need, it is always you I need…

PLEASE DON’T CALL
 

I found you in an autumn mist

And rain hung in the air.

I asked if you could comfort me,

You laughed and shook your hair.

You said:

I’ll live with you, I may be true,

But I never stay for long.

Just when you think I love you,

You’ll wake and find me gone.

And I said:

Don’t tell me when it’s over.

Don’t tell me when we’re through.

I will not want to hear it,

If I’m still in love with you.

Don’t try to cable baby,

The wires have all come down.

Don’t send no so long letter,

I’m moving out of town.

My email’s disconnected,

The phone is off the wall.

If you can’t say you love me,

Please don’t call at all.

I loved you through the winter,

Between the snowflakes and the frost. 

But I could not keep the cold outside:

That’s how our love was lost.

And you said:

I told you I would live with you,

But it would not be for long;

That I would make you love me,

And then I would be gone.

And I said:

Don’t tell me that it’s over.

Please don’t tell me that we’re through. 

You will not want to hear it,

But I’m still in love with you.

No, don’t try to cable baby,

The telegraph's a mess.

Don’t write me goodbye letters,

I don't live at this address.

The internet is broken,

My phone is off the wall.

If you can’t say you love me,

Please don’t call at all.