Artist: Jethro Tull Album: J-Tull Dot Com {1999}

Kilometers from nowhere on a scented avenue
Lined with poppy girls, didn't stop to say, to say hello
Curious vendors waving bric-a-brac
Looked me over - thought it best, best that I should go
But don't wake me, I'm falling
Slow spiral into morning

I waited tables, I was tipped in rubles
Wine to water was the best that I, that I could do
Wild office parties split the silence
Loaves and fishes at an empty table laid for two
But don't wake me, I'm falling
Slow spiral into morning
Who's out there, can't hear you, ears covered, early warning
Alarm bells ringing, time to make my peace with the dreary day
Spiral, spiral, spiral

Down the spiral, spinning madly
Gathering momentum on a disneyesque adventure ride
I fly in colors from richer palettes
Famous artists running scared as worlds, as worlds collide
Don't wake me, I'm falling
Slow spiral into morning
Who's out there, can't hear you, ears covered, early warning
Alarm bells ringing, time to make my peace with the dreary day
Spiral, spiral, spiral, spiral

It's a wide world out there, so much wider than imagined
I can't quite put my finger on the pulse
Of your heart, softly beating just beneath the raw silk sheen
That reflects the tints of autumn from the hills
So, punch my name and in case you wonder
I'll be yours, yours, dot com

Executive accommodation, bland, but nonetheless appealing
Waiters discretely at your beck and call
Place the tall sun-down potion lightly by your velvet elbow
While you compose a message on the wall
So, punch my name and in case you wonder
I'll be yours, yours, dot com
So, punch my name and in case you wonder
I'll be yours, I'll be yours, dot com

With your handmade leather valise packed and ready, ready waiting
Showered and dressed down lightly for the heat
Give a clue, leave a kind word, hint as to a destination
A domain where our cyber-souls might meet
So, punch my name and in case you wonder
I'll be yours, yours, dot com
So, punch my name and in case you wonder
I'll be yours, I'll be yours, dot com

Stormy-eyed on the edge of dawn, nose pressed against the triple glaze
Floor to ceiling, wall to wall, silent traffic streams both ways
Along the fussy freeway drivers dream of Sunday barbecues
All of a sudden seems I can barely face myself, no face to lose
Call the bosses, call supervisors
Won't be in today to work for you

E-mail that girl who's working nights, she can dress down for this wind and rain
Leave her new Korean compact, let some cabbie take the strain
Take a shower, take big espresso, take to the hills and take a view
Little black dress stretching over hard crystal peaks, soft valleys, too
Call the bosses, call for nurses
Unfit today to work for you

No wet excuses, absent without leave
I'll be her dayshift driver, exotic engineer

Stormy-eyed on the edge of night - December, eastern time, late afternoon
Atlantic City tight behind, Trump Casino calls pontoon
Gristle-burger, frazzled fries end this romantic interlude
Tomorrow morning's sweet awakening could hardly prove to be as rude
Make the journey, make amends
Work some hasty overtime in lieu

No wet excuses absent without leave
I was her dayshift driver, exotic engineer

INSTRUMENTAL

I review my past through wicked windows framed in silver
And hung in toughened glass, upon my face, around and over
Now and then - memories of men who loved me
No stolen kiss could match their march on hot coals for me

I have walked a line both faint and narrow, hard to follow
Caught up in circumstance, harsh truth for history to mellow
Through my eyes - loyalties and obligation
Magnified obedience - the better fellow

Better not remember me, don't miss my passing
Fierce winter fails to ruffle my icy sleep
We never quite vanish, no wet soft surrender
Still waiting - bad blood running in close families
I laughed like any child although you might find that strange
And Christmas was my favorite holiday
Christmas was my favorite holiday

I am not alone in seeing the world through wicked windows
While others hide likewise behind this vulnerable squinting
It's in the stare, it's in the silent scrutinizing
Strip you bare, I offer you no more disguising
Better not remember me, don't miss my passing
Fierce winter fails to ruffle my icy sleep
We never quite vanish, no wet soft surrender
Same bad blood running in new families

Hey, little buddies, soft and silky night walkers
Dangerous species, tiptoe menace, long grass stalkers
On my bed no butter melting in your jaws - jaws
Bonding monster, lethal weapon wearing claws
Let's go out to hunt by numbers, yeah

Tabby spotted, black as coal, Serval, Margy, Caracal
Moggie in the moonlight, moonlight listens, whiskered sensory miracle
Felis, befriend us, Egyptian Mau, Freya's familiar - familiar
Long in the future, future, future - cloned disciples, the castle guard
Now, let's go out and hunt by numbers, yeah

Hey, little buddies, soft and silky night walkers
Dangerous species, tiptoe menace, long grass stalkers
On my bed no butter melting in your jaws
Bonding monster, bonding monster, monster, lethal weapon wearing claws
Let's go out to hunt by numbers, yeah

Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush
Ladies with ice cream hair, gyroscopic pink neon beams
Everybody's happy about something
The crowd moves like a flock of starlings, they switch direction as one
Jive on the jukebox - Jack and Joker - split the night air with whoop and holler
Hot mango flush

Faint aroma - wood smoke, old fish, diesel harbor, roadside mongrel
Painted man with buttons barely holding, bursting, belly bulging

Hot mango flush

Doe-eyed ragamuffin mumbling - scolded for some vague infraction
Stole a penny, candy-colored sweetheart kiss down at the market
Down at the market all the world seems to simmer
Hot mango flush, hot mango flush

Ladies with ice cream hair, gyroscopic pink neon beams
Everybody's happy about something
The crowd moves like a flock of starlings, they switch direction as one
Jive on the jukebox - Jack and Joker - split the night air with whoop and holler
Stole a penny, candy-colored sweetheart kiss down at the market
Down at the market all the world seems to simmer
Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush

As one, wet merchants turn their eyes towards the west
Trade winds falter as if in dire consequence
Freezing fish to fry fail to materialize
Christ-child, blood-warm current sends to touch the skies
El Ni�o, El Ni�o

Bathing in uncertainty, another age
Seems to wing from T.V. screens in weather rage
Savage retribution makes for a headline feast
Planet-warming, opinion-forming headless beast
El Ni�o, El Ni�o

Cold thrust, tongue extends its dark and watery touch
Forces gather, martial stand against the rush
Wily child in mischief, here to make his play
Leaves toys for little sister on another day, another day
El Ni�o, El Ni�o
El Ni�o
El Ni�o, El Ni�o

Hand in the snake pit, black mamba chase
Head through the lion's cage, head on a plate
Two feet on the hot coals, last dance at the ball
Blindfold on the tightrope whenever you call
Be my slippery slider, black mamba crawl over me

Dark thoughts of the sleepless hung out to dry
Slip through the bedclothes, unblinking eye
Long tongue flickering, fixed stare grip
Sweet venomous potion held to my lip
Oh, be my slippery slider, black mamba crawl over me

A tropical whisper, oh, a sibilant kiss
Soft strike teasing, dangerous bliss

Hand in the snake pit, black mamba chase
Head through the lion's cage, head on a plate
Two feet on the hot coals, last dance at the ball
Blindfold on the tightrope whenever you call
Ooh, be my slippery slider, black mamba crawl over me

Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush
Hot mango flush

She's catching the wind, the gentlest of breezes
It's a sensitive passage she's sailing
Through stormy straits, navigates my unfathomable failings
She rises before me, reading me clearly
Empty nest left pressed in the pillow
She can shift, she can sway and bend like a willow
She bends like a willow
 
I'm swept in the riptide, caught in a fish trap
Gift-wrapped in my soft self center
Summer sun leaves me as one who can only taste winter
She's a good, a good Godsend - she can bend like a willow
She bends like a willow
Oh, she bends like a willow

With a fully armed angel to cover me quickly
I'm cool under enemy fire
If I fall she can crawl right under the wire
When I'm caustic and cold she might dare to be bold
Ease me round to her warm way of thinking
Fill me up from the cup of love that she's drinking
And I find, given time, I can bend like a willow
She bends like a willow, bends like a willow
Like a willow, a willow

Placing people in their dreamscape with fantasies of foreign fields
Lofty spires all well appointed in off-season special deals
To far Alaska, down to Rio in the Carnival
Norwegian fjords in the ever-light of Solstice call

Part of me might travel with you in a freebie bucket seat for one
Business First - at last, forever hopeless thoughts of flying fun
Now, get me out of here, I cry in air rage psycho doom
I'm only dream-arranging from the safety of my room

Pick a place or stick a pin in any corner of the sphere
Post me cards and tell me nicely, say you wish that I was here
To far Alaska, down to Rio in the Carnival
Norwegian fjords in the ever-light of Solstice call

Rusted and ropy, dog-eared old copy
Vintage and classic or just plain Jurassic
All words to describe me
Relaxed in the knowledge that happily present
Are all things to sustain me, nurture and claim me
Roll back the mileage

Oh, you have settled beside me, to the far and the wide of me
A matter of choosing, of finding and losing
On the rough ride with me
Take whiskey with water, kick stones down the gutter
Think back to long days with stale breath recycled in my face
Rattling through airways, plastic on cold trays
Watching through windows, deep landscapes below another time and space

There must come some time to walk through the night line
Hands tight, heads high, these are the dog-ear years
Don't turn back, don't linger - for God's sake keep moving
Primitive shadows sidle beside

Rusted and ropy, dog-eared old copy
Vintage and classic or just plain Jurassic
All words to describe me
Relaxed in the knowledge that happily present
Are all things to sustain me, nurture and claim me
Roll back the mileage

Take whiskey with water, kick stones down the gutter
Think back to long days with stale breath recycled in my face
Rattling through airways, plastic on cold trays
Watching through windows, deep landscapes below another time and space

The dog-eared years, years
The dog-eared years

I count the hours, you count the days
Together we count the minutes in this Passion Play
Walk dusty miles and I ride that train
On a first class ticket, just to be with you again

Picking up tired feet, back from a far horizon
Cleaned up and brushed down and dressed to look the part
Fresh from God's garden I bring a gift of roses
To stand in sweet spring water and press them to your heart

Like the Kipling cat I walk alone
Never inviting trouble, never casting the stone
But this badge of honor is of tarnished tin
Light your guiding beacon to bring this fisher in

Picking up tired feet, back from a far horizon
Cleaned up and brushed down, dressed to look the part
Fresh from God's garden I bring a gift of roses
To stand in sweet spring water and press them to your heart

I count the hours, you count the days
Together we count the minutes in this Passion Play
Walk dusty miles and I ride that train
On a first class ticket, just to be with you again

Picking up tired feet, back from a far horizon
Cleaned up and brushed down, dressed to look the part
Fresh from God's garden I bring a gift of roses
To stand in sweet spring water and press them to your heart
Picking up tired feet, back from a far horizon
Cleaned up and brushed down, dressed to look the part
Fresh from God's garden I bring a gift of roses
To stand in sweet spring water and press them to your heart

Hello, this is Ian Anderson
Congratualtions, you have happened upon a bonus track on this edition of the new Tull record
It�s a preview of the title track from my solo album, The Secret Language Of Birds
Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet, see you in the morning


This sparkling wine is all but empty
Too late for trains and no taxis
I know the feeling seems all too contrived
There was no master plan but the fact is
You must stay with me and learn the secret language of birds

A tentative dawn about to be breaking 
On a Rousseau garden with monkeys in hiding
And the truth of the matter yet to be spoken 
In words on which everything, everything's riding
Now, stay with me and learn the secret language of birds
Now, stay with me and learn the secret language of birds

Circled by swallows in a world for the weary
Courted by warblers, wicked and eloquent trilling

Lie in the stillness, window cracked open
Extended moments, hours for the taking
Careless hair on the pillow, a bold brushstroke
Painted verse with a chorus, a chorus in waiting
Stay with me and learn the secret language of birds
Yeah, stay with me and learn the secret language of birds

Stay with me, learn the secret language of birds
Now stay with me and learn the secret language of birds
Yeah, stay with me and learn the secret language of birds