Artist: Sting Album: The Soul Cages {1991}

Billy was born within sight of the shipyard
First son of a riveter's son
Billy was raised as the ship grew a shadow
Her great hull would blot out the light of the sun

And six days a week he would watch his poor father
A working man live like a slave
He'd drink every night and he'd dream of a future
Of money he never would save
Billy would cry when he thought of the future

Soon came a day when the bottle was broken
They launched a great ship out to sea
He felt he'd been left on a desolate shore
To a future he desperately wanted to flee
What else was there for a shipbuilder's son
A new ship to be built, new work to be done

One day he dreamed of the ship in the world
It would carry his father and he
To a place they would never be found
To a place far away from this town

Trapped in the cage of the skeleton ship
All the workmen suspended like flies
Caught in the flare of acetylene light
A working man works till the industry dies
Billy would cry when he thought of the future

Then what they call an industrial accident
Crushed those it couldn't forgive
They brought Billy's father back home in an ambulance
Brass watch, a check, maybe three weeks to live
What else was there for a riveter's son
A new ship to be built, new work to be done

That night he dreamed of the ship in the world
It would carry his father and he
To a place they could never be found
To a place far away from this town
A Newcastle ship without coals
They would sail to the island of souls

I looked out across the river today
Saw a city in the fog and an old church tower where the seagulls play
Saw the sad shire horses walking home in the sodium light
Two priests on the ferry, October geese on a cold winter's night
All this time the river flowed endlessly to the sea

Two priests came round our house tonight
One young, one old, to offer prayers for the dying, to serve the final rite
One to learn, one to teach which way the cold wind blows
Fussing and flapping in priestly black like a murder of crows

All this time the river flowed endlessly to the sea
If I had my way I'd take a boat from the river
And I'd bury the old man, I'd bury him at sea

Blessed are the poor for they shall inherit the earth
Better to be poor than be a fat man in the eye of a needle
As these words were spoken I swear I hear the old man laughing
What good is a used up world, and how could it be worth having

All this time the river flowed endlessly like a silent tear
All this time the river flowed
Father, if Jesus exists, then how come he never lived here
Yeah, yeah - yeah, yeah - yeah, yeah

Teachers told us the Romans built this place
They built a wall and a temple and a edge-of-the-empire garrison town
They lived and they died, they prayed to their gods
But the stone gods did not make a sound
And their empire crumbled till all that was left
Were the stones the workmen found

All this time the river flowed in the falling light of a northern sun
If I had my way I'd take a boat from the river
Men go crazy in congregations, they only get better one by one
One by one, one by one, one by one

I looked out across the river today
Saw a city in the fog and an old church tower where the seagulls play
Saw the sad shire horses walking home in the sodium light

A stone's throw from Jerusalem
I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight
And though a million stars were shining
My heart was lost on a distant planet
That whirls around the April moon
Whirling in an arc of sadness
I'm lost without you, I'm lost without you
Though all my kingdoms turn to sand and fall into the sea
I'm mad about you, I'm mad about you

From the dark secluded valleys
I heard the ancient songs of sadness
With every step I thought of you
Every footstep only you
Every star a grain of sand
The leavings of a dried up ocean
Tell me, how much longer, how much longer

They say a city in the desert lies
The vanity of an ancient king
But the city lies in broken pieces
Where the wind howls and the vultures sing
These are the works of man
This is the sum of our ambition
It would make a prison of my life
If you became another's wife
With every prison blown to dust my enemies walk free
I'm mad about you, I'm mad about you

And I have never in my life
Felt more alone than I do now
Although I claim dominions over all I see
It means nothing to me
There are no victories
In all our histories without love

A stone's throw from Jerusalem
I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight
And though a million stars were shining
My heart was lost on a distant planet
That whirls around the April moon
Whirling in an arc of sadness
I'm lost without you, I'm lost without you

And though you hold the keys to ruin of everything I see
With every prison blown to dust my enemies walk free
Though all my kingdoms turn to sand and fall into the sea
I'm mad about you, I'm mad about you

It was midnight, midnight at noon
Everyone talked in rhyme
Everyone saw the big clock ticking
Nobody knew, nobody knew the time

Elegant debutantes smiled
Everyone fought for dimes
Newspapers screamed for blood
It was the best of times

Every place around the world it seems the same
Can't hear the rhythm for the drums
Everybody wants to look the other way
When something wicked this way comes

Sometimes they tie a thief to the tree
Sometimes I stare, sometimes it's me

Everyone told the truth
All that we heard were lies
A pope claimed that he'd been wrong in the past
This was a big surprise

Everyone fell in love
A cardinal's wife was jailed
The government saved a dying planet
When popular icons failed

Every place around the world it seems the same
Can't hear the rhythm for the drums
Everybody wants to look the other way
When something wicked this way comes

Sometimes they tie a thief to the tree
Sometimes I stare, sometimes it's me
Sometimes I stare, sometimes it's me

Under the dog star sail
Over the reefs of moonshine
Under the skies of fall
North, northwest, the stones of Pharoh

Under the Arctic fire
Over the seas of silence
Hauling on frozen ropes
For all my days remaining

Would north be true

All colors bleed to red
Asleep on the ocean's bed
Drifting in empty seas
For all my days remaining

Would north be true
Why should I, why should I cry for you

Dark angels follow me
Over a godless sea
Mountains of endless falling
For all my days remaining

What would be true
Sometimes I see your face
The stars seem to lose their place
Why must I think of you
Why must I, why should I
Why should I cry for you
Why would you want me to
What would it mean to say
I loved you in my fashion

What would be true
Why should I, why should I cry
Why should I cry

INSTRUMENTAL

I saw it again this evening
Black sail in a pale yellow sky
And just as before in a moment
It was gone where the grey gulls fly

If it happens again I shall worry
That only a strange ship could fly
And my sanity scans the horizon
In the light of a darkening sky

That night as I walked in my slumber
I waded into the sea strand
And I swam with the moon and her lover
Until I lost sight of the land

I swam till the night became morning
Black sail in a reddening sky
Found myself on the deck of a rolling ship
So far where no grey gulls fly

All around me was silence
As if mocking my frail human hopes
And a question mark hung in the canvas
For the wind that had died in the ropes

I may have slept for an hour
I may have slept for a day
For I woke in a bed of white linen
And the sky was the color of clay

At first just a rustle of canvas
And the gentlest breath on my face
But a galloping line of white horses
Said that soon we were in for a race

The gentle sigh turned to a howling
And the grey sky, she angered to black
And my anxious eyes searched the horizon
With the gathering sea at my back

Did I see the shade of a sailor
On the bridge through the wheelhouse pane
Held fast to the wheel of the rocking ship
As I squinted my eyes in the rain

For the ship had turned into the wind
Against the storm to brace
And underneath the sailor's hat
I saw my father's face

If a prayer today is spoken
Please offer it for me
When the bridge to heaven is broken
And you're lost on the wild, wild sea
And you're lost on the wild, wild sea
And you're lost on the wild, wild sea
And you're lost on the wild, wild sea

Boy child is locked in the fisherman's yard
A bloodless moon where the oceans die
The shoal of nightstars hang fire in the nets
And the chaos of cages where the crayfish lie

Where is the fisherman, where is the goat
Where is the keeper in his carrion coat
Eclipse on the moon when the dark bird flies
Where is the child with his father's eyes

He's the king of the ninth world
Twisted son of the fog bell's toll
In each and every lobster cage
A tortured human soul

These are the souls of the broken factories
Subject slaves of the broken crown
Dead accounting of old guilty promises
These are the souls of the broken town

These are the soul cages, these are the soul cages
These are the soul cages, these are the soul cages

"I have a wager," the brave child spoke
The fisherman laughed, though disturbed at the joke
"You will drink what I drink but you must equal me
If the drink leaves me standing a soul shall go free

I have here a cask of most magical wine
A vintage that blessed every ship in the line
It's wrung from the blood of the sailors who died
Young white bodies adrift in the tide."

"What's in it for me, my pretty young thing
Why should I whistle, when the caged bird sings
If you lose a wager with the king of the sea
You'll spend the rest of forever in the cage with me."

These are the soul cages, these are the soul cages
These are the soul cages, these are the soul cages

A body lies open in the fisherman's yard
Like the side of a ship where the iceberg rips
One less soul in the soul cages
One last curse on the fisherman's lips

These are the soul cages, these are the soul cages
These are the soul cages, these are the soul cages
These are the soul cages, these are the soul cages

Had a dream of the ship on the sea
It would carry his father and he
To a place they could never be found
To a place far away from this town
A Newcastle ship without coals
They would sail to the island of souls

These are the soul cages - these are the soul cages
These are the soul cages - these are the soul cages
These are the soul cages - these are the soul cages
These are the soul cages - these are the soul cages

So high above the world tonight
The angels watch us sleeping
And underneath a bridge of stars
We dream in safety's keeping

But perhaps the dream is dreaming us
Soaring with the seagulls
But perhaps the dream is dreaming us
Astride the backs of eagles

When the angels fall
Shadows on the wall
In the thunder's call
Something haunts us all
When the angels fall
When the angels fall

Take your father's cross
Gently from the wall
The shadow still remaining
See the churches fall
In mighty arcs of sound
And all that they're containing

Yet all the ragged souls
Of all the ragged men
Looking for their lost homes
Shuffle to the ruins
From the levelled plain
To search among the tombstones

When the angels fall
Shadows on the wall
In the thunder's call
Something haunts us all
When the angels fall
When the angels fall
When the angels fall

These are my feet
These are my hands
These are my children
This is my demand
Bring down the angels
Cast them from my sight
Never want to see
Million suns at midnight

Your hands are empty
The streets are empty
You can't control us
You can't control us anymore

When the angels fall, when the angels fall
When the angels fall, when the angels fall - peace on earth
When the angels fall - joy to mankind
When the angels fall, when the angels fall
When the angels fall, when the angels fall
When the angels fall, when the angels fall
When the angels fall, when the angels fall