Slow motion in the quiet of your room:
So potent is the smell of her perfume
that you think she’s eternal
that you think she’s everything
-but no-one knows what she is…
Repentance for all you should have said-
Her entrance seems to raise you from the dead
and you think she’s really with you
and you think she’ll always stay.
always ready to forgive you,
always ready to grant you her mercy
-but in her own way.
When she comes she’ll be a stranger;
Struck dumb you’ll try to protest
As the drum beats out the danger,
Too late-you should have noticed
That the lady with her skin so white
Like something out of Blake or Burne-Jones
Always blocked out the light
and shadowed all you owned.
Still you think she’s forever,
Yesterday and tomorrow
-but no-one knows where she is.
Still you swear that you can win her
And your prayer is that she’ll want you;
Aware, once a saint, now you’re a sinner
And your sins are going to haunt you
When the lady with her skin so white
Like something out of Edgar Allen Poe
Holds your hand so tight
and you hope that she’ll never let go.
I love the synth break...reminds me of "Dogs" by Pink Floyd...
And being in high school, I connect with it...a bit...at least, how she seems omniscent...
One of my favorite VDGG songs from my favorite LP by them. I remember my shock hearing it for the first time in 1977. Raw, dark, jagged, aggressive and gothic in a literary way. Totally unexpected and new. That was my introduction to the band and the start of an obsession that continues till today. Thanks for posting it!
This song is great. The criticism in it it's so true: "so potent is the smell of her perfume that you think she's eternal, that you think she is everything... but no-one knows what she is."
Oh yess. I have the same feelings at first hearing this. Raw, very aggresive, brutal. Three-four years later with repeated hearings I had tuned myself for it, and I fall in love with this album. This is continues today. Everything needs time... :-)) Excellent lyrics, but very high standard for Hammill. She will never let go again...
I used to absolutely loathe this album. I thought it was such a huge disappointment after Godbluff and Still Life, and sounded plodding, dreary, and laboured. But the passage of time and the 2005 remaster has made me re-evaluate it. Yeah, it's actually not at all bad, but still not a patch on their best work. This track and Wondering are pretty good, though.
Easy targes, easy crosswords, easy life
These key margins keep you balanced on the knife
Bleeding darkly, in the end, it all comes down
To sleazy bargains.