Album Lyrics: LIVING IN THE PAST
[See THIS WAS]
Going back in the morning time to see if my love has changed her mind, yeah.
Going back in the morning time to see if my love has changed her mind, yeah.
I know what I will find...
that she is wasting time,
she could be picking roses.
Going back in the morning time to see if my love has seen the light, yeah.
Going back in the morning time to see if my love has seen the light, yeah.
Oh, I told her last night
she should improve her sight.
She could be painting the roof.
Going back in the morning time to see if my love has come around, yeah.
Going back in the morning time to see if my love has come around, yeah.
She offered me no sound;
her head is in the ground.
She could be calling for winter.
Once in a royal David's city
stood a lonely cattle shed,
where a mother held her baby.
You'd do well to remember the things He later said.
When you're stuffing yourselves at the Christmas parties,
you'll just laugh when I tell you to take a running jump.
You're missing the point I'm sure does not need making:
that Christmas spirit is not what you drink.
So how can you laugh when your own mother's hungry?
And how can you smile when the reasons for smiling are wrong?
And if I just messed up your thoughtless pleasures,
remember, if you wish, this is just a Christmas song.
Hey! Santa! Pass us that bottle, will you?
Happy and I'm smiling, walk a mile to drink your water.
You know I'd love to love you, and above you there's no other.
We'll go walking out while others shout of war's disaster.
Oh, we won't give in, let's go living in the past.
Once I used to join in, every boy and girl was my friend.
Now there's revolution, but they don't know what they're fighting.
Let us close out eyes; outside their lives go on much faster.
Oh, we won't give in, we'll keep living in the past.
Oh, we won't give in, let's go living in the past.
Oh, no, no, we won't give in, let's go living in the past.
Will they ever stop driving me?
Have they ever taken time to see
that I need some rest if I'm to do my best?
Can I please stop working so hard?
They just tell me gotta close it hard.
Got to think of my health. Can I be by myself?
Oh, they tell me I'll be home someday.
Well, I doubt it if I continue this way,
`cause this hard life I've led is making me dead.
[See STAND UP]
[Instrumental]
You'll hear me calling in your sweet dream,
can't hear your daddy's warning cry.
You're going back to be all the things you want to be,
while in sweet dreams you softly sigh.
You hear my voice is calling to be mine again,
live the rest of your life in a day.
Get out and get what you can
while your mummy's at home a-sleeping.
No time to understand,
`cause they've lost what they thought they were keeping.
No one can see us in your sweet dream.
Don't hear you leave to start the car.
All wrapped up tightly in the coat you borrowed from me.
Your place of resting is not far.
You'll hear my voice is calling to be mine again,
live the rest of your life in a day.
Get out and get what you can
while your mummy's at home a-sleeping.
No time to understand,
`cause they've lost what they thought they were keeping.
Get out and get what you can
while your mummy's at home a-sleeping.
No time to understand,
`cause they've lost what they thought they were keeping.
Singing all day, singing `bout nothing,
Singing all day, singing `bout nothing,
Singing all day, singing `bout nothing,
ooh, my, my, my, ooh, my, my, my.
Went down to the station to look for her there.
Looked through the crowds for a glimpse of her hair.
Nothing to see but the crowds keep a-staring
at me,
my, my, my, ooh, my, my, my.
Down in the street, tryin' to remember.
Shuffling my feet outside a men's wear.
Is that her in the fur coat? No, it's not December,
yet,
my, my, my, ooh, my, my, my.
Singing all day, singing `bout nothing,
Singing all day, singing `bout nothing.
Back to the house, maybe she'll phone me.
Singing my song, feeling so lonely,
I'll sing very softly, so if the phone rings I can hear it,
I can hear it.
Singing all day, singing `bout nothing,
Singing all day, singing `bout nothing,
Singing all day, singing `bout nothing,
ooh, my, my, my, ooh, my, my, my.
[See BENEFIT]
Lend me your ear while I call you a fool.
You were kissed by a witch one night in the wood,
and later insisted your feelings were true.
The witch's promise was coming;
believing he listened, while laughing you flew.
Leaves falling - red, yellow, brown, all look the same.
And the love you have found lay outside in the rain,
washed clean by the water but nursing its pain.
The witch's promise was coming,
and you're looking elsewhere for your own selfish gain.
Keep looking, keep looking for somewhere to be.
Well, you're wasting your time, they're not stupid like he is.
Meanwhile leaves are still falling, you're too blind to see.
You won't find it easy now, it's only fair.
He was willing to give to you, you didn't care.
You're waiting for more but you've already had your share.
The witch's promise is turning, so don't you wait up for him,
he's going to be late.
[See BENEFIT]
Nobody sees her here, her eyes are slowly closing.
If she should want some peace, she sits there, without moving,
and puts a pillow over the phone.
And if she feels like dancing no one will know it.
Giving herself a chance, there's no need to show her how it should be.
She can't remember now when she was all in pieces.
She's quite content to sit there listening to what he says.
How he didn't like to be alone.
And if he feels like crying, she's there to hear him.
No reason to complain and nothing to fear, they always will be...
There was a time that you were so young and walked in their way.
They made you feel they loved you, all-seeing they say.
You're going wrong if their game you don't play,
And that the song I sing will lead you astray.
Unfeeling, feel lonely rejection,
unknowing, know you're going wrong.
And they can't see that we're just trying to be, and not what we seem,
and even now believe that it's not real and only a dream.
(Spoken Introduction) Please, let's have a big welcome for Jethro Tull.
Whoop!
Hello. Hang on, press on. Be back with you in a minute. I'd better not open this
now because it might contain contraband. We'll give it to John to supplement his camels.
He dropped on his head when he was very small. We occasionally cut his fingernails
off and smoke them. This is a... a song about... about everything.
[Instrumental]
(Spoken Introduction) She's really turned on by the television, and vice versa.
Here's a song called...uh, and it still features Clive. Yes, right. Rearranged though,
nevertheless. A new lease on life. In other words, it's just a bit louder. "Dharma For One."
Dharma, seek and you will find truth within your mind, Dharma.
Dharma, each to his own we seek, together we'll end astray, Dharma.
Truth is like freedom, it doesn't believe
Being true to yourself, never think that you're free.
Dharma will come eventually.
Dharma, Dharma, Dharma.
Dharma, seek and you will find truth within your mind, Dharma.
Truth is like freedom, it doesn't believe
Being true to yourself, never think that you're free.
Dharma will come eventually.
Dharma, Dharma, Dharma.
(Spoken) Thank you... Clive Bunker.
There's the stillness of death on a deathly unliving sea
and the motor car magical world long since ceased to be,
when the Eve-bitten apple returned to destroy the tree.
Incestuous ancestry's charabanc ride,
spawning new millions throws the world on its side.
Supporting their far-flung illusion, the national curse,
and those with no sandwiches please get off the bus.
The excrement bubbles, the century's slime decays,
and the brainwashing government lackeys would have us say
it's under control and we'll soon be on our way
to a grand year for babies and quiz panel games
of the hot hungry millions you'll be sure to remain.
The natural resources are dwindling and no one grows old,
and those with no homes to go to, please pick yourself holes.
We wandered through quiet lands, felt the first breath of snow,
Searched for the last pigeon, slate gray I've been told.
Stumbled on a daffodil which she crushed in the rush,
heard it sigh and left it to die.
At once felt remorse and were touched by the loss of our own,
held its poor broken head in her hands, dropped soft tears in the snow.
And it's only the taking that makes you what you are.
Wond'ring aloud will a son one day be born
to share in our infancy, in the child's path we've worn.
In the aging seclusion of this earth that our birth, did surprise.
We'll open his eyes.
[See AQUALUNG]
[See AQUALUNG]
When you're falling awake and you take stock of the new day,
and you hear your voice croak as you choke on what you need to say,
well, don't you fret, don't you fear, I will give you good cheer.
Life's a long song,
Life's a long song,
Life's a long song,
If you wait then your plate I will fill.
As the verses unfold and your soul suffers the long day,
and the twelve o'clock gloom spins the room, you struggle on your way.
Well, don't you sigh, don't you cry, lick the dust from your eye.
Life's a long song,
Life's a long song,
Life's a long song,
We'll meet in the sweet light of dawn.
As the Baker Street train spills your pain all over your new dress,
and the symphony sounds underground put you under duress,
well, don't you squeal as the heel grinds you under the wheels.
Life's a long song,
Life's a long song,
Life's a long song,
but the tune ends too soon for us all.
But the tune ends too soon for us all.
I'm going up the 'Pool from down the smoke below
to taste me mum's jam sarnies and see our Aunty Flo.
The candyfloss salesman watches ladies in the sand,
down for a freaky weekend in the hope that they'll be meeting Mr. Universe.
The iron tower smiles down upon the silver sea,
and along the Golden Mile they'll be swigging mugs of tea.
The politicians there, who've come to take the air,
while posing for the daily press
will look around and blame the mess on Edward Bear.
There'll be buckets, spades and bingo, cockles, mussels, rainy days,
seaweed and sand castles, icy waves,
deck chairs, rubber dinghies, old vests, braces dangling down,
a sun-tanned stranded starfish in a daze.
We're going up the 'Pool from down the smoke below
to taste me mum's jam sarnies and see our Aunty Flo.
The candy floss salesman watches ladies in the sand,
down for a freaky weekend in the hope that they'll be meeting Mr. Universe.
There'll be buckets, spades and bingo, cockles, mussels, rainy days,
seaweed and sand castles, icy waves,
deck chairs, rubber dinghies, old vests, braces dangling down,
a sun-tanned stranded starfish in a daze.
Oh, Blackpool,
Oh, Blackpool.
I have one foot in the graveyard and the other on the bus.
And the passengers do trample each other in the rush.
And the chicken-hearted lawman is throwing up his fill
to see the kindly doctor to pass the super pill.
Well, I'm going down, to revisit Doctor Bogenbroom.
Well, I'm on my way, three cheers for Doctor Bogenbroom.
Well I've tried my best to love you all,
all you hypocrites and whores,
with your eyes on each other and the locks upon your doors.
Well, you drowned me in the fountain of life and I hated you
for living while I was dying, we were all just passing through.
Well, I'm going down, three cheers for Doctor Bogenbroom.
Well, I'm on my way, three cheers for Doctor Bogenbroom.
[Instrumental]
Tip-toes in silence, 'round my bed,
and quiets the raindrops overhead.
With her everlasting smile,
She stills my fever for a while.
Oh, nursie dear, I'm glad you're here
to brush away my pain.
All lyrics © 1970, 1971, 1972 Chrysalis Records, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
The Emporium | Jethro Tull Page | Tull Discography