Thousand Yard Stare Lyrics

I was singing here when the hangman came

He coloured his eyes sloe-black

Arranged a lasso from a web of tangled chains

Poured a drink in the recess of the bar

And took aim

And in the midst of all this chaos she idles in

Like some divine show

And everything explodes in me

I'm a loony bin

I'm a bumbling drunk on a carousel

But then something stirs, something jars the scene

I wasn't looking for Death but Death found me

He was hanging out from a cypress tree

Heaving scorn down upon me like some hazing ceremony

Testimony of a thin man

I'm a helmsman plotting out a course through a raging cyclone in a dreamland

I'm a nomad rambling in a wasteland

A conman singing from a bandstand

A programme of temperamental plans neatly wrapped in my pocket

And the Tin Man's living in a world of pain

So, my lover took a blade to the doctrinaire

The phony saint with his heart ensnared in the haze inside a thousand yard stare

It was the final act of a love affair

She wasn't looking for Death but Death still came

It was a sorry show

It's a crying shame that she lost her mind

But she found her faith in some safe sanctuary

Wild and free

Testimony of a thin man

I'm a helmsman plotting out a course through a raging cyclone in a dreamland

I'm a nomad rambling in a wasteland

A conman singing from a bandstand

A programme of temperamental plans neatly wrapped in my pocket

And the Tin Man's living in a world of pain

Well, they told me to sell my rack and woe

Sell it down the river

Sold to the meddling crowd in the bordello

Sold down the river

And they told me to sell my dearest friends

Sell them down the river

To a coterie

See, now and then

Sell it down the river

I will sell my heart and I'll sell my soul

Sell them down the river

I'll sell my will, I'll sell my home

Sold down the river

But I'm not selling the part where I keep her whole

Sold down the river

That's my own sanctuary

It harbours me