Tony Banks Album

They're kissing babies and telling me lies
They're taking over my television
They're making noises that sound so wise
Trying to influence my decision
Rituals old fashioned
With speeches so proud and passionate
Hope reigns, fears rule
I may be crazy but I'm not such a fool
No such fool

Red day on blue street
And this world promises everything
Old shoes on new feet again
Nothing changes
Red day on blue street

Here comes a man with a face so sincere
Here comes another with power on his mind
Both with a want for a word in my ear
Both with a message of hope for my kind
Heads of this nation
Fight lies with misinformation and
This gives, that takes
One or the other for the difference it makes
None at all

Red day on blue street
And this world promises everything
Old shoes on new feet again
Nothing changes
Red day on blue street

We are the chosen ones
You have asked us to serve you
We deserve you
It's going the way that we said it would
We say that you never had it so good
No one's a loser who plays our game
The difference is clear, we just changed our name
Nobody knows that it's just the same
Red day on blue street
Or how about
Blue day on red street
It doesn't matter, it really doesn't
It doesn't matter, it really doesn't

Somebody showing me the magical way
Somebody waving the key to my chains
They must believe I was born yesterday
They must believe I've got sand for my brains
Members historical
Woo me with words rhetorical
Blood runs, mud flies
Can't see a thing for the wool in my eyes
In my eyes

Red day on blue street
And this world promises everything
Old shoes on new feet again
Nothing changes
Red day on blue street
This world promises everything
Old shoes on new feet again
Nothing changes
Red day on blue street...

Are you ready for the rest of your life
Does your comforter provide
Are you ready to remain evermore in your world of ice
All your feelings all locked inside

Are you a woman or just a mannequin
Does your heart beat like the rest
Do you ever feel like joining in with the human race
Or are you happier outside?

But now you're gone you've broke the spell
I've got no memories just a photograph
I've got the best there is of you
You're just a devil with a pretty angel face

You've made your choice and that's ok
It never would have worked out anyway
I've got the best there is of you
You're just a devil with a pretty angel face


Will you be ready in your later life
When your looks are on the wane
And you're thinking of the ones and the scores
That you left behind
As they come to haunt your mind
And when the twilight moment comes at last
And you have to face that nobody's there to care

But now you're gone you've broke the spell
I've got no memories just a photograph
I've got the best there is of you
You're just a devil with a pretty angel face

You've made your choice and that's ok
It never would have worked out anyway
I've got the best there is of you
You're just a devil with a pretty angel face

Pretty angel face...

The door is opening there's a glimmer of light
Keep on pushing it will give tonight
And I don't care if it takes me long
It really doesn't matter if it's right or wrong

The fires are burning and it's warm inside my soul
As we wander down the road
The gift is mine tonight

Don't care if the mood won't last
And I don't care if it goes slow or fast
The stage is set, the timing's right
Let me lead you to the light
A chance is all there's ever gonna be
It's here let's take a hold
The gift is mine tonight - tonight

The magic look is in your eye
The power to move and satisfy
And the promise that you bring to me
Lifts me up and sets me free.

I've thought of how it could be in the future everyday
I've thought of all the good things in the past
Everyday, everynight.
I shouted at the sky but the sky was deaf


I looked into the ashes but the heat had all left
I never dreamed that it could be this way again

The magic look is in your eye
The power to move and satisfy
And the promise that you bring to me
Lifts me up and sets me free.

And I don't care if the cost is great
Stop and think about it, it's too late
The sails are set, the tide has turned
Time to go explore the world
The winds are blowing but it's warm inside my soul
As we turn and leave the shore
The gift is mine tonight

The magic look is in your eye
The power to move and satisfy
And the promise that you bring to me
Lifts me up and sets me free.

The magic look is in your eye
The power to move and satisfy
And the promise that you bring to me
Lifts me up and sets me free...

It can be strange
In the world we live in
So many things are not how they appear
We sit and talk
Of what it doesn't matter
The meaning of the words we use
hides behind the sound

Yet still it takes me by surprise
How the feeling overtakes me and fills my mind
With thoughts which even now I can't control
How simple words and gestures
make the world seem right
No matter what they say
No matter what they say

It's hard to believe
That once we met as strangers
Not knowing of the life that we would share
You lead me on
Through new ways unfamiliar
Or down a road we travelled many times before

Yet still it takes me by surprise
How the feeling overtakes me and fills my mind
With thoughts which even now I can't control
How simple words and gestures
make the world seem right
No matter what they say
No matter what they say

The years go by
Older yet no wiser
Our hearts and minds remain as they once were
And after all the time
That we have been together
So many times we must have been this way before

Yet still it takes me by surprise
How the feeling overtakes me and fills my mind
With thoughts which even now I can't control
How simple words and gestures
Make the world seem right
No matter what they say
No matter what they say

I was walking along at the end of the day
I was walking along when it began to rain
And by the edge of the path was a suitable tree
I decided to wait there patiently

Then a scream cut through the air
And a voice spoke much too near
"little girl you're on your own
You're so scared and far from home"
I knew what I was meant to do
I should go to the young girl's aid
Act like a man be a hero strong and brave

I pictured myself front page news
Headline story hero for an hour
But my natural nature got the better of me
I took to my heels and I fled so fast
That only when I was miles away
Did I catch my breath and slow down
To a walk and then to rest

Front page news headline story
Front page news headline story

Well I was walking along when it came to me


That maybe I'd acted to hastily
And that the thing to do was to go on back
To be of help yes be the hero of the the hour
So I retraced my steps in the gathering gloom
Till I thought I was back where I started from
I searched and looked but I couldn't find
I was very relieved if you know what I mean

And then I heard a voice behind
I was rooted to the spot
"little man you're on your own
You're so scared and far from home"
You take me for a fool I know
To return to the lion's den
I felt lost and confused and about to be misused
I felt the time had come to do what I do best
Time to do the thing that I do better than the rest
I let my natural nature get the better of me
I took to my heels and I fled so fast
That only when I was miles away
Did I catch my breath and slow down
To a walk and then to rest

Front page news headline story
Front page news headline story...

I wanna be in another place
Some other body and someone else's face
Don't wanna be in here
I need a space I can disappear
I wanna play me a different part
Another feeling in someone else's heart
Don't wanna cry out loud
Don't wanna show you I'm too damn proud.

You can change the words you say
Stop the things you do
Throw away your yesterdays
You'll still be stuck with you
But don't be sad
Get a hold upon yourself before you get too far
No matter what you have to learn to live with who you are.

I wanna live in a different time
Another reason in someone else's mind
I wanna change the score
I don't wanna be me no more
I wanna play in a different game
Another player in someone else's name
Don't wanna be the fool
Don't wanna show you I can lose my cool

You can stop the world you're on

Change the song you sing
Choose defection, wrong direction
That won't change a thing
But that's so good
No time to wish your life away, follow your star
Be glad of what you have my friend, be glad of who you are.

I wanna be like a different man
I wanna set me free if I can.

I wanna be in another place
Some other body and someone else's face
Don't wanna be in here
I need a space I can disappear
I wanna play me a different part (different part)
Another feeling in someone else's heart
Don't wanna cry out loud
Don't wanna show you I'm too damn proud.

I wanna live in a different time (different time)
Another reason in someone else's mind
I wanna change the score
I don't wanna be me no more
I wanna play in a different game
Another player in someone else's name
Don't wanna be the fool
Don't wanna show you I can lose my cool

In the dark it seems so easy now
If you could just remember how the problem can be solved
The sun comes up lightening the sky
But everyday is the same
Doubts return and the answers desert you

Fragments fall around you
All shot down in flames
Suddenly now you know that it can never be the same
All of the hopes and dreams and promises
You made have upped and gone
Bringing boredom out of wonder, water out of wine, oh

By the fire cheered up by the flames
Watching people on the tv
Thinking I can do the same
The sun goes down darkening the sky
Leave things undecided
Lest the thinking cause you pain
So everyday is the same
You know what to do, just how eludes you


Fragments fall around you
All shot down in flames
Suddenly now you know that it can never be the same
All of the hopes and dreams and promises
You made have upped and gone
Bringing boredom out of wonder, water out of wine, oh

Look into the glass
Can you still recall
That bundle of potential
That you were when you were young
The sun comes up brightening the sky
The sun goes down darkening the sky
So everyday is the same
Till the day when the dreaming is over

Fragments fall around you
All shot down in flames
Suddenly now you know that it can never be the same
All of the hopes and dreams and promises
You made have upped and gone
Bringing boredom out of wonder, water out of wine, oh

She dreams china white behind her eyes of china blue
Her future wrapped in velvet and her memories wrapped in warm cotton
Wool

And the coffee grounds
Are burying the hours that she killed
In another murder of a day

Her patience starts to crumble
Like a rock that turns to sand
And time breaks down to seconds
When you're waiting, waiting on a man, waiting on a man

She's checking out the doorway while she's checking out the guy
Whose drunk imagination is climbing up the ladder of her silk clad thigh

And the cigarettes
Are burning up the hours that she killed
In another murder of a day

Her patience starts to crumble
Like a rock that turns to sand
And time breaks down to seconds
When you're waiting, waiting on a man, waiting on a man, waiting on a
Man

It seems so long since yesterday
The time goes by so slow
When you're waiting on a man, waiting on a man to show

She shivers in a cold sweat that she's trying to ignore,
As she wraps her shaking fingers round the loose change by the phone,
She needs him more than she'll admit and more than others need to know,
She hopes the knots that tie her stomach are only butterflies,
The time goes by so slow
When you're waiting on a man, waiting on a man to show.

She prays that no one pays attention
As she punches out the call,
As she fumbles with the number
That the panic still doesn't show,
She prays the lights stay green all night
She prays the traffic doesn't slow,
And that the knots that tie her stomach are only butterflies,

Only butterflies, fly by every day
While you're waiting on a man, waiting on a man to show

There he stands behind the door,
She reaches for her coat to go,
And she wanders away in a dream
She wanders away to a dream

She threads her way home through the neon washed alleyways
She flirts with the shadows and skirts round the victims
Of a night that'll sleep through the day
That casts out it's refugees and throws out it's debris,

She turns the key in a lock to a fairytale world
That she guards with her ghosts of faithful familiars
Who attend to her shrine in the patchwork cathedral
Observing the ritual with silent compassion and prayers

On the candlelit edges of a tightening circle
She arranges the photographs faded and yellowing
The memories left of her friends and her family
Respectfully turned to the wall

She turns up the sound on a second hand radio
And drowns out the noise of the world that she lives in
Her conscience her witness her life is her courtroom
And the man she left waiting is waiting to murder a day

He's not the only one
To think that things are going wrong
And all around is only second best.
Time was when all was fair
And we built solid castles in the air
He said that back to back in time's the way to go

Better in my day
I hear everybody say
But then they'll still be saying it tomorrow

It's so hard to take it
When your time is over
Yes it's hard to take it
When you try to remember

Better in my day, in my way, can't you see
Better in my way, here to-day, don't you see

I remember well he said,
When great men led the way instead
Of manicure and media-hugging style
But I don't know what to do
From now on we'll always lose

He said that back to back in time's the way to go

Better in my day
I hear everybody say
But then they'll still be saying it tomorrow

It's so hard to take it
When your time is over
Yes it's hard to take it
When you try to remember

Better in my day, in my way, can't you see
Better in my way, here to-day, don't you see

He's not the only one
To think that things are going wrong
And all around is only second best
But I don't know what to do
From now on we'll always lose
He said that back to back in time's the way to go

The only way to go
Try to remember
Oh better in my day, better in my way...

It's been fun but the time has come
To bring down the final curtain move along
Time to face what you know in your heart
That the world keeps on turning you've lost your part
It is never ending
Take a look if you're not sure at the millions gone before

It's been hard when the going is rough
Or you're many thousand miles away from home
To believe that it's all worthwhile
That it makes the slightest difference in the end
And it gets harder

Will you stay until you're pushed
Or will the day dawn when you're on your own
You look around
There's only empty rows of chairs
Where once your fairweather friends

Hung on every word that you said

Its been fun but the moment is near
To write down the final chapter turn the page
To be free from the power and the lure
That has pushed from behind and led you on
It is never ending
Take a look if you're not sure at the millions gone before

It's been fun but the time has come
To bring down the final curtain move along
Time to face what you know in your heart
That the world keeps on turning you've lost your part

It's been hard when the going is rough
Or you're many thousand miles away from home
To believe that it's all worthwhile
That it makes the slightest difference in the end