oon inflation soon will make you pay
Riggers rig and diggers dig their shallow grave
But we'll be saved and what we crave...

Is north sea
Is north sea oil

Prices boom in Aberdeen and London Town
Ten more years to lay the fears, erase the frown
Before we are all nuclear, the better way
Oh, let us pray, we want to stay...

In north sea
In north sea
In north sea oil



Orion

(Anderson)

Orion, won't you give me your star sign?
Orion, get up on the skyline
I'm high on my hill and I feel fine
Orion, let's sip the heaven's heady wine

Orion, light your lights, come guard the open spaces
From the black horizon to the pillow where I lie
Your faithful dog shines brighter than its lord and master
Your jewelled sword twinkles as the world rolls by

So come up singing above the cloudy cover
Stare through at people who toss fitful in their sleep
I know you're watching as the old gent by the station
Scuffs his toes on old fag packets lying in the street

Orion, won't you give me your star sign?
Orion, get up on the skyline
I'm high on my hill and I feel fine
Orion, let's sip the heaven's heady wine

And silver shadows flick across the closing bistro
Sweet waiters link their arms and patter down the street
Their words lost blowing on cold winds in darkest Chelsea
Prime years fly fading with each young heart's beat

Orion, won't you make me a star sign?
Orion, get up on the skyline
I'm high on your love and I feel fine
Orion, let's sip the heaven's heady wine

And young girls shiver as they wait by lonely bus stops
After sad parties, no one to take them home
To greasy bed sitters and make a late night play
For lost virginity, a thousand miles away

Orion, won't you make me a star sign?
Orion, get up on the skyline
I'm high on your love and I feel fine
Orion, let's sip the heaven's heady wine



Home

(Anderson)

As the dawn sun breaks over sleepy gardens
I'll be here to do all things to comfort you
And though I've been away, left you alone this way
Why don't you come awake and let your first smile take me home?

The shadows in the park were longer yesterday
And Lady Luck stood still, waiting for the kill
And on a jumbo ride over seas, grey, deep and wide
I flew for heaven's sake and let the angels take me home

Down steep and narrow lanes, I see the chimneys smoking
Above the golden fields, know what the robin feels
In his summer jamboree all elements agree
In sweet and stormy blend midwife to winds that send me home



Dark ages

(Anderson)

Darlings, are you ready?
For the long winter's fall
Said the lady in her parlor
Said the butler in the hall

Is there time for another?
Cried the drunkard in his sleep
Not likely said the little child
What's done the Lord can keep

And the vicar stands a praying
And the television dies
As the white dot flickers and is gone
And no one stops to cry

Dark ages, shaking the dead
Closed pages, better not read
Cold rages, they burn in your head

The big jet rumbles over runway miles
That scar the patchwork green
Where slick tycoons and rich buffoons
Have opened up the seam

Of golden nights and champagne flights
And man overkill
And in the haze consumer crazed
We take the sugar pill

Dark ages, shaking the dead
Closed pages, better not read
Cold rages, they burn in your head

And jagged fires mark the picket lines
The politicians weep
And mealy mouthed down corridors
Of power on tip toe creep

Come and see bureaucracy
Make its final heave
And let the new disorder through
While senses take their leave

Dark ages, shaking the dead
Closed pages, better not read
Cold rages, they burn in your head

Families screaming, line the streets
And put the windows through
In corner shops where keepers kept
The country's life blood blue

Take their pick and try the trick
With loaves and fishes shared
And the vicar shouts as the lights go out
And no one really cares

Dark ages, shaking the dead
Closed pages, better not read
Cold rages, they burn in your head

Darlings, are you ready?
For the long winter's fall
Said the lady in her parlor
Said the butler in the hall

Dark ages, shaking the dead
Closed pages, better not read
Cold rages, they burn in your head



Warm sporran

(Anderson)

Instrumental track



Something's on the move

(Anderson)

She wore a black tiara
Rare gems upon her fingers
She came from distant waters
Where northern lights explode

To celebrate the dawning
Of the new wastes of winter
Gathering royal momentum
On the icy road

With chill mists swirling
Like petticoats in motion
Sighted on horizons
For ten thousand years

The lady of the ice sounds
A deathly distant rumble
To Titanic breaking children lost
In melting crystal tears

Oh, sunshine! Take me now away from here
I'm a needle on a spiral in a groove
And the turntable spins as the last waltz begins
And the weather man says something's on the move

Capturing black pieces
In a glass fronted museum
The white queen rolls
On the chessboard of the dawn

Squeezing through the valleys
Pausing briefly in the corries
The Ice Mother mates
And a new age is born

Oh, sunshine! Take me now away from here
I'm a needle on a spiral in a groove
And the turntable spins as the last waltz begins
And the weather man says something's on the move

Driving all before her
Unstoppable, unstraining
Her cold creaking mass
Follows reindeer down

Thin spreading fingers seek
To embrace the sill warm bundles
That huddle on the doorsteps
Of a white London Town

Oh, sunshine! Take me now away from here
I'm a needle on a spiral in a groove
And the turntable spins as the last waltz begins
And the weather man says something's on the move

She wore a black tiara
Rare gems upon her fingers
She came from distant waters
Where northern lights explode

To celebrate the dawning
Of the new wastes of winter
Gathering royal momentum
On the icy road

Oh, sunshine! Take me now away from here
I'm a needle on a spiral in a groove
And the turntable spins as the last waltz begins
And the weather man says something's on the move



Old ghosts

(Anderson)

Hair stands high on the cat's back
Like a ridge of threatening hills
Sheepdogs howl, make tracks and growl
Their tails hanging low

And young children falter in their games
At the altar of life's hide and seek
Between tall pillars where sunday night killers
In grey raincoats peek

I'll be coming again like an old dog in pain
Blown through the eye of the hurricane
Down to the stones where old ghosts play

Misty colours unfold a backcloth cold
Fine tapestry of silk
I draw around me like a cloak
And soundless glide a drifting

On eddies whirled in beech leaves furled
Brown and gold, they fly
In the warm mesh of sunlight
Sifting now from a cloudless sky

I'll be coming again like an old dog in pain
Blown through the eye of the hurricane
Down to the stones where old ghosts play

Yes, I'll be coming again like an old dog in pain
Blown through the eye of the hurricane
Down to the stones where old ghosts play



Dun Ringill

(Anderson)

"Lines join in faint discord and the stormwatch brews
A concert of kings as the white sea snaps
At the heels of a soft prayer whispered..."

Clear light on a slick palm
As I misdeal the day
Slip the night from a shaved pack
Make a marked card play

Call twilight hours down
From a heaven home
High above the highest bidder
For the good Lord's throne

In the wee hours I'll meet you
Down by Dun Ringill
Oh and we'll watch the old gods play
By Dun Ringill

By Dun Ringill

We'll wait in stone circles
'Till the force comes through
Lines join in faint discord
And the stormwatch brews

A concert of kings
As the white sea snaps
At the heels of a soft prayer
Whispered...

In the wee hours I'll meet you
Down by Dun Ringill
Oh and I'll take you quickly
By Dun Ringill

By Dun Ringill
By Dun Ringill



Flying dutchman

(Anderson)

Old lady with a barrow
Life near ending
Standing by the harbour wall
Warm wishes sending

Children on the cold sea swell
Not fishers of men
Gone to chase away the last herring
Come empty home again

So come all you lovers of the good life
On your supermarket run
And set a sail of your own devising
And be there when the dutchman comes

You'd better be there when the dutchman comes

Wee girl in a straw hat
From far east warring
Sad cargo of an old ship
Young bodies whoring

Slow ocean hobo
Ports closed to her crew
No hope of immigration
Keep on passing through

So come all you lovers of the good life
Your children playing in the sun
And set a sympathetic flag a flying
And be there when the dutchman comes

You'd better be there when the dutchman comes

Death grinning like a scarecrow
Flying dutchman
Seagull pilots flown from nowhere
Try and touch one

As she slips in on the full tide
And the harbour master yells
All hands vanished with the captain
No one left, the tale to tell

So come all you lovers of the good life
Look around you, can you see?
Staring ghostly from the mirror
It's the dutchman you will be

Floating slowly out to sea
In a misty misery



Elegy

(Anderson)

Instrumental track