Artist: Ian Anderson Album: Walk Into Light {1983}

It's hard to say I'm sorry, may we just forget about today
You see, I fly by night, I fly by night
I laid my love beside the door and left you sleeping on the floor
So long, I fly by night, I fly by night

Though you might think it's too bad of me 
I have to leave you with used memories

I have no stomach for the dawn, I feel I should be moving on 
And so I fly by night, I fly by night

I fly by night, I fly by night
I fly by night, I fly by night

Now lady luck's deserted me, the ghosts of love stand clear to see
They also fly by night, they fly by night
Strange figures in the dark, did Cupid strike and leave his mark 
It seems his arrows fly by night, they fly by night - let's fly
Fly

Let�s fly by night, let�s fly by night, let�s fly by night

Somewhere in a town in England
Lay a babe with a curious smile
He was of your father's children
Born each side of a dry-stone mile
He grew up through the schools and factories
Brunel's tunnels and bridges bold
Grey towers built high on that Kingdom 
With apartments still unsold

Somewhere in a town in England
Could be Newcastle, Leeds or Birmingham
And were you made in England's green and pleasant land

He accepts no unemployment
And is to indeterminate, station bred
Is possessed of skills and reason
Flies the flag upon his head

Somewhere in a town in England
Could be Newcastle, Leeds or Birmingham
And were you made in England's green and pleasant land

Watches the democratic process
Grind it's way through the Commons, cold
Filled with fiery infiltrators
Who would pave the streets with England's gold

Somewhere in a town in England
Could be Newcastle, Leeds or Birmingham
And were you made in England's green and pleasant land
Somewhere in a town in England
Oh, England

Somewhere in a town in England
Oh, England, England

Close in, move out to where you want to go
There's a crowd out there handclapping slow
We're all powered up, switched on, the rig is tight
Step into joy, walk into light
Never mind what some people say
They're going to love you anyway

Shake off that nervous twitch and feel your strength
Stand astride the width and walk the length
Those super-troopers fired and burning bright
Step into joy, walk into light
Stand tall and be yourself
You can do it for your health

Never mind what some people say
They're going to love you anyway

Maybe a circus ring, a disco floor
Do like we do and do some more
A crowded office or a party night
Step into joy, walk into light

Here I am at the end of the day
With a cup of cold coffee from the station buffet
On trains, on trains - I seem to spend my life on trains
See the blue suit banker in the ticket line
Got an Evening Standard with Playboy hidden behind
On trains, on trains - he seems to spend his life on trains

Time after time
Was I just dreaming 
Did I help you aboard 
Full passenger service
Let me help with the door

Sit down take the weight off your feet
Got a train full of people I'd like you to meet
On trains, on trains - we love to spend our lives on trains

Join the secret world of trains
Feel the pleasure, touch the pain
Drift into yesterday 

Once and again
I was just thinking we could meet sometime 
On the seventeen-thirty, where I usually find my friends at the end of the day
May we pay your fare, lady, we should like you to stay 
In our train, on trains - you'll have to spend your life on trains

I hear there's an office party on the eighteen-oh-five
You'll be home for Christmas if they take you alive
From the train, those trains - we have to spend our lives on trains

Once and again
I was just thinking we could meet any time 
On number two platform where I usually find my friends at the end of the day
On trains, on trains, on trains, on trains, trains, trains, trains
Trains

I'm slipping into grey
And I was, in my way, good to you
And you were good for me - bye, bye, my love
Going to play the end game
End game, end game, end game

It's growing kind of still
You know there always will be a dream 
Waiting for you when sleep comes around
Had to play the end game
End game, end game

Bless us all, I must say it was good, you know
Keep me in mind for a rematch in warm snow, warm snow
End game, end game, end game, end game

The faces at the door 
Couldn't have looked more lost to see me
Waving as I brush away a tear
Gone to play the end game
End game, end game

Bless us all, I must say it was good, you know
Keep me in mind for a rematch in warm snow, warm snow
End game, end game, end game, end game
End game, end game, end game, end game, end game, end game

End game, end game

I looked in the mirror then saw my face in a dream
With eyes sharp as diamonds, blessed with clear vision
Things were not as they seemed
Black and white television stared back from the wall
Is that my life, am I here at all

Down in the High Road, see motor cavalcades glide
Past shopwindow dressers desperately covering
All the parts they can hide
Black and white television stares at me again
Is that their lives, even dummies pretend

The truth is so hard to deny
The answer is here, the screen never lies
Black and white television, black and white television
Black and white television, it's the right television
Show me it's all a dream tonight

The boys on the corner sulk in their Suzuki haze
In primary colors, each year more startling
But they still fade to grey
On black and white television, it's sweeping the land
Is that your life, do you understand 

The truth is so hard to deny
The answer is here, the screen never lies
Black and white television, back the right television
Black and white television, hard to fight television
Show me it's all a dream tonight
Black and white television

The back door�s open

I walk along the Strand to catch the late ride home
Shuttle through the evening gloom knowing I forgot to phone
The back door's open, there's a chill blowing in
Take your warm hands off me, let the night begin
Shu-shush your mouth, listen to me
I won't say nothing, just let me be your
Toad in the hole, toad in the hole, toad in the hole

Kicking through the wet leaves lying all along the Station Road
Past tired graffiti wailing, raw emotion to unload
There's coal in the fireplace and money in the bank, too
Deep-pile carpets, tinsel wallpaper - still got the back room to do
Du-don't be late, got a day's work behind me
Feel a little devastated but my nights are assigned to you
Toad in the hole, toad in the hole

Toad in the hole, toad in the hole

No tom-cat creeping, now, could ever be so bold
To hang around our place tonight when I come in from the cold
There's a straight-six in the garage and some fine wine to cool
Labor-savers in the kitchen, room in the garden for a pool
Shu-shush your mouth, let imagination run
Here in bed-sit heaven where all the best wishing's done to warm
Toad in the hole, toad in the hole
Toad in the hole, toad in the hole

As I drove down the road to look for Eden
Saw two young girls but left them standing there
They were too late to get home on the underground
And probably too drunk, too drunk to care

Can anyone tell me the way to Eden
I'll ask them there, have they a job for me
I'm not a fussy man, I can weed and hoe
I'll be her Adam, she can be my Eve

And where on earth are all those songs of Eden
The fairy tales, the shepherds and wise men
Just one old dosser lurching down Oxford Street
To spend his Christmas lying in the rain

Don't anybody know the way to Eden
I'm tired of living my life in free-fall
They say it's somewhere out on the edge of town
Perhaps it isn't really there at all

And where on earth are all those songs of Eden
The fairy tales, the shepherds and wise men
Just one old dosser lurching down Oxford Street
To spend his Christmas lying in the rain, lying in the rain
Looking for Eden, looking for Eden, looking for Eden

Do we inhabit some micro-space and interface through wires
Dance on a printed circuit board, throw the software to the fires
My memory is slim, so volatile, but I'm learning
Plug yourself in, stay for awhile, undiscerning

And on dusty terminals finger me lightly do, ooh
And QWERTY is the name of love printed on the VDU
Cut yourself free, we're all alone, communicating
Don't bother me with arithmetic, I'm waiting

User-friendly - that's what I am to you
User-friendly - that's what I am to you, to you

I have to break out of here, trapped in my hardware cell
And come to you as you sleep tonight, take you back into my hell
Binary joys and digital sighs, so appealing
I'm one of the boys and it's only your mind that I'm stealing

User-friendly - that's all I am to you
User-friendly - that's all I am to you, to you

User-friendly - that's all I am to you
User-friendly - that's all I am to you, to you

User, user-friendly, user-friendly

The lights are down in Germany
And Germany is closed to me, different somehow this time
The airport's stiff, cold corridors
Ring empty beats through hollow feet that I find to be mine

Different Germany, history repeats somehow
Different Germany, afraid to know you now

And past my eyes with leathered gaze
Stare clean-cut boys all dressed as men in sharpened uniform
Who turned the clock, moved on or back
And what dark chill is gathering still before the storm

Different Germany, history repeats somehow
Different Germany, afraid to know you now

Out in the street a tableau double-glazed
With laughing girls whose fastened smiles are clearly not meant for me

Different Germany, history repeats somehow
Different Germany, afraid to know you now

The lights are down in Germany
And Germany is closed to me, different somehow this time