Flight - Intellectual

[Part I: Flying Blind]

[Verse 1]

I always forget how crazy things are

So sometimes it catches me off my guard

When they make sense

The line on the road trail the arrow in the sky

I search for the mote in my brother's eye

Beneath the pence

A time of blunt instruments

Still uncertain when I've woken

Or what constitutes a conscious mind

Though the thought remains unspoken

I know I'm flying blind

[Verse 2]

Breaking into cold sweat on the white-hot coals

The pennies from heaven drop through my soul

It don't relent

At the back end of dreams I'm amazed to awake

I offer my theories but just can't shake

That seventh sense

To which there's no defense

It seemed the time was for action

Yeah, it seemed so cool to be that kind

My tongue writhed to form some retraction

Oh, but I knew I was flying blind

[Instrumental Break]

[Bridge]

I want things to be fast, down to the power-dive

I want the zero-gravity heroes to play dead

But stay alive

We want it to be slow, all the way to stall

We talk about a thousand things that never change at all

No, it never change

[Verse 3]

It was then that I knew I'd been thoughtless

Something had slipped my mind

I'd strapped myself into the Fortress

(And the Fortress) The Fortress was flying blind

We got full clearance

So someone down there ought to know

The truth of our disappearance

(If even) If even that still shows

It accuses and blames me

But nothing was quite what it seemed

Sometimes things work out so strangely

That it might as well all be dreamed

[Part II: The White Cane Fandango]

[Verse 4]

The White Cane Fandango in Morse code

Try to shake through the message, shake the load

Only venial sin, running on the spot

Till the dance begins

[Verse 5]

Where does a man go when the muscles cramp?

Try to write out a postcard on a postage stamp

With a drawing pin punching out the Braille

For the whole within?

[Verse 6]

Upset the contango on your future stock

Paying backwardation, hold onto what you've got

Such a sideways grin!

Some day you may need to trade that in

Trade that in

[Verse 7]

If we ride this right

The future will fall in our hands

If we survive the flight

Then the future will work out

Nothing's that black and white

[Part III: Control]

[Intro]

The colour-coded charts are spread

But we're still gliding deep into the red

The radio is dead

Every valve blown open

The radar screen flicks monochrome

Air traffic controller wants to get on home

He is waiting for a phone call

To release him from responsibility

Nobody goes to see him any more

Except for the man from the ministry

[Verse 8]

He wanted to be, he wanted to be

The man at the helm, in command of the flight path

He's flying a chair, quite beyond control

He's going to have just one more chance

At a barrel roll

[Verse 9]

All in a dream, all as a dream (All as a dream)

The colours too bright, the music too deafening

The black-out world has just begun to show

These cracked-out words I offer

But I still don't know

[Bridge]

Oh, but I still don't know

(All the colours) All the colours, the music deafening

All I have is cracked-out words

[Outro]

Cool blue suffuse the colour gun

Oh, come in, come in number one

Your time's nearly run

Speed-freeze the frame

The present and the past hold fast

It's too fast, the thing don't

The thing won't

The thing don't last

[Part IV: Cockpit]

[Verse 10]

The rolling dice clash together, never make up the score

That old device, the ejector seat, glued to the floor

Everybody waits for everyone to make a show

No-one wants to be the first, admitting that they know

How anythings that's gone down here

Could fit into an analytic groove

Wait for the tactical move

Wait for some action we all can approve

[Verse 11]

Too much to drink, for the cup reaches down to the sea

Too much to think, the barometer pressuring me

Rolling down the weather for an Easter parade

Reeling out the Maydays in the hope of being saved

But the radio ham's out giving blood

No, no, no, he's not listening

[Chorus]

The cricketer knows his "Wisden" (Woh, wo-oh)

The pilot has got his "Jane's" (Wo-oh)

But the sum of this factual wisdom (Wo-oh)

Don't help us to fly the plane (No, and it never will)

Beneath the tartan two-piece

There's something rips undone (There's something rips undone)

Wait for the ladder to run

Wait for the snake that the ladder becomes

[Instrumental Break]

[Chorus]

A passenger hits the cockpit

Willing to chance his game

Pulls out his gun and cocks it

In the hope that it all might change (Oh, but it never will)

A fly-leaf from the library

Shows others have been here before (Shows others have been here before)

Tried, failed and kicked out the door (Failed and they kicked out, they kicked out the door)

Oh, but the aircrew don't care anymore (No, no, the aircrew don't care anymore)

Now they just wait for the beat of the silk-worm wing

Wait for the heat to come down on us

Full force of the law

[Part V: Silk-Worm Wings]

[Verse 12]

Full force of gravity pulls me down

I'll be better off out of there

Aerobatic spin around

I'll take my chances in the open air

[Verse 13]

Sycamore silk-worm wings

Or Roman Candle to the ground

There's only one thing for sure

When the balloon goes up

The aeronaut calm down

[Part VI: Nothing is Nothing]

[Verse 14]

He say nothing is quite what it seems

I say nothing is nothing

[Instrumental Break]

[Part VII: A Black Box]

[Verse 15]

Softly, the angels sing their time and space refrain

There's something in everything if you can only pin down its name

Aerobatic thoughts at the back of my mind

Is it nothing but the looping line we all follow?

Nothing but the spiral twist of DNA?

There'll be no looking back from tomorrow on today

(There'll be no looking back on this)

[Verse 16]

So the wire is tripped

Split-seconds defect to their successors

The umbilical cord is ripped

Here we all are in free fall

Here I stall where I am, as if to see where I've been

Only running down the looping line we all follow

Only chasing down the spiral twist of DNA

There can be no looking on to tomorrow from today

(There'll be no looking on from this)

[Bridge]

Life, death, night, day

Cold breath will surely fly away

Is the empire of sensation locked in a black box deep in me

Encoded there somehow?

It fires the imagination to fly on a wing and a prayer through my life

Is that how it is?

(There'll be no looking back on this)

This is now

(There'll be no looking back on this)

Which will be then?

(There'll be no looking back on this)

Is this the means?

(There'll be no looking back on this)

All I know for sure is

This is the end

[Outro]

No looking back from tomorrow

No, there'll be no looking back on today

Yeah, better be looking on to tomorrow

Yeah, better think on today