The Emperor in His War Room [First Version][#][*]

Van der Graaf GeneratorVan der Graaf G… 

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Van der Graaf Generator

Van der Graaf Generator are an English progressive rock band, formed in 1967 in Manchester by singer-songwriter Peter Hammill and Chris Judge Smith and were the first act signed to Charisma Records. They did not experience much commercial success in the UK, but became considerably popular in Italy during the 1970s. In 2005 they embarked on a reunion, which continues to the present day. more »

Year:

1970

8:50

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i. THE EMPEROR
Standing in the space that holds the silent
lace of night
                                         
away from you
You think that you can hold the searing,
moulten gold between
                                      
  your fingers ...
But it slips through, tearing tendons as
it goes,
exposing the white of a knuckle ...
flesh-and-metal forming letters in the mould.
Cradling
you gun, after choosing the ones you think should die-
Lying on the hill ... crawling over the windowsill into
your
                                         
living-room
They stare out, glass-eyed aimless heads,
bodies torn by vultures ..
you are the man whose hands
are rank with the smell of death.
Saviour of the Fallen,
Protector of the Weak,
Friend of the Tall Ones, Keeper of
the Peace ...
       Ah, but it is the only way you know
.....
Looking out to sea, a flattened plane of weeds which
bear no living
You crush life in your fist as your heart is
kissed by the lips
                                        
  of death
Ghosts betray you, ghosts betray you, in the
night they steal your eye
from its socket ...
and the
ball hangs fallen on your cheek.
Complaining tongues are
stilled; a thousand mouths are filled
                     
                   with rusting metal.
Your face a shade of
green; somehow you try to speak through all the
           
                          garbage in your mouth
But it
won't come out, and you cannot frame the words
as your
stepson
throws your fame into the flames and you are
burned.
Saviour of the Fallen, Protector of the Weak,
Friend of the Tall Ones, Keeper of the Peace.
       Ah,
but it is the only way you know ..........
ii. THE ROOM
Live by sword and you shall die so,
All your power shall
come to nought,
every life you take is part of your own,
death, not power, is what you've bought.
Cringing in
your room as the outriders of doom step
                   
              on your threshold;
Begging for your life as
the impartial knife sinks in your
                         
         screaming flesh ...
without malice, merely taking
murder's toll,
you must pay the price of hate, and
that price is
                                  your soul
....
Live in peace or die forever in your war-room

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