The Undercover Man (2005 Digital Remaster)

Song The Undercover Man (2005 Digital Remaster)
Artist Van Der Graaf Generator
Album Godbluff

Lyrics

[00:18.41] Here at the glass
[00:25.35] All the usual problems, all the habitual farce.
[00:34.65] You ask, in uncertain voice,
[00:42.63] What you should do,
[00:46.40] As if there were a choice but to carry on
[00:55.10] Miming the song
[00:58.85] And hope that it all works out right.
[01:03.84] Tonight it all seems so strange
[01:11.45] My spirit feels rigid, my body deranged;
[01:19.80] Still that's only from one point of view
[01:27.25] And we can't have illusion between me and you,
[01:35.86] My constant friend, ever close at hand
[01:43.23] You and the undercover man.
[01:59.80] I reflect:
[02:03.56] 'It's very strange to be going through this change
[02:11.10] With no idea of what it's all been about
[02:15.57] Except in the context of time..
[02:17.95] Oh, but I shirk it, I've half a mind not to work it all out.
[02:31.66] Is this madness just the recurring wave of total emotion,
[02:39.52] Or a hide for the undercover man,
[02:47.37] Or a litany - all the signs are there of fervent devotion
[02:55.27] Or the cracking of the dam?
[03:11.06] It's cracked; smashed and bursting over you,
[03:16.41] There was no reason to expect such disaster.
[03:22.01] Now, panicking, you burst for air,
[03:24.83] Drowning, you know you care
[03:26.89] For nothing and no-one but yourself
[03:30.39] And would deny even this hand
[03:34.29] Which stretches out towards you to help.
[03:42.91] But would I leave you in this moment of your trial?
[03:51.03] Is it my fault that I'm here to see you crying?
[03:59.16] These phantom figures all around you should have told you,
[04:05.05] You should have found out by now,
[04:08.98] If you hadn't gone and tried to do it all by yourself.
[05:08.45] Even now we are not lost:
[05:15.61] If you look out at the night
[05:19.14] You'll see the colours and the lights
[05:22.92] Seem to say people are not far away,
[05:25.69] At least in distance,
[05:28.07] And it's only our own dumb resistance
[05:31.05] That's making us stay.
[05:39.18] When the madness comes
[05:41.73] Let it flood on down and over me sweetly,
[05:47.03] Let it drown the parts of me weak and blessed and damned,
[05:54.55] Let it slake my life, let it take my soul and living completely,
[06:02.55] Let it be who I am.
[06:08.68] There may not be time for us all to run in tandem together
[06:16.70] The horizon calls with its parallel lines.
[06:24.37] It may not be right for you to have and hold in one way forever
[06:32.46] And yet you still have time,
[06:40.86] You still have time.