I know we all rate Fish as one of the greatest poetic lyricists. Obviously not biased at all, but the man’s a genius! - So many great songs over the years, but rather than entire sets of lyrics, which are those passages that hold a special significance for you? The memorable lines? The poetic images?..
I want to start the thread with one of my favourite lines from any Fish/Marillion track. One that really does paint such a clear and vivid picture in my mind…
‘Strung out, below a necklace of carnival lights. Cold moan, held on the crest of the night’
…I just love that. Perfect scene-setting right there.
Maybe it was infatuation or the thrill of the chase
Maybe you were always beyond my reach and my heart was playing safe
But was that love in your eye I saw or the reflection of mine?
I’ll never really know for sure, you never really gave me time
From the dreams on the barbed wire at Flanders and Bilston Glen
From the Clydeside that rusts in the tears of its broken men
From the realisation that all we’ve been left behind
Is to stand like our fathers before us in the firing line
She nervously undressed in the dancing beams of the Fidra lighthouse
Giving it all away before it’s too late
She’ll let a lovers tongue move in a warm wet circle
Giving it all away and showing no shame
Are your horses still running when the bookies shops close
Is the band still together, Did you ever get on the road
We chased the same women and drank the same beer
We came as a pair when we ran around here
How are you these days
Now you`re a family man
And if you ever come across us
Dont give us your sympathy You can buy us a drink and just shake our hands Youll recognize by the reflection in our eyes
That deep down inside were all one and the same Were clutching at straws, but still drowning
I see priests, politicians?
Heroes in black plastic body-bags under nations’ flags
I see children pleading with outstretched hands
Drenched in napalm, this is no Vietnam
I heard Sinatra calling me down through the floorboards
Where you pay a quarter for a partnership in rhyme
To the jukebox crying in the corner
While the waitress is counting out the time
She’s playing the actress in this bedroom scene
She’s learning her lines from glossy magazines
Stringing all her pearls from her childhood dreams
Auditioning for the leading role on the silver screen
I heard a wheelchair whisper across a stale, stagnant gymnasium
Trailing an ivy league jacket like a matador
Through the jitterbug steps of the night before
I followed him down to the church parade
Where he makes his peace every armistice day
I watched him fade away, melt in the autumn rain
We had our stage, the scene was set, the passion play, our roles were written,
we had our destiny, our lives were meant to be,
We were going home, we were going home.
The promises, the tender touch, we made our love and kissed with open eyes,
You took me by surprise; you hurt me deep inside, how could you then decide,
That you’re going home. You’re going home.
All this time I wonder why you walked away, just what I’d done,
Before I knew it you had disappeared without a word, you stole my dream,
You stole my dream
I’m going home, alone.
13th Star came when I was going through my divorce with my first wife. I remember very well when Fish sent the lyrics by e-mail before the record was released and I forwarded some of those mails to that woman who was going to be my ex. Very much emotions listening to that.
