The Sphinx In The Face lyrics

Song information

Artist: Van Der Graaf Generator
Album: The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome

Lyrics

(Hammill)

I remember what it felt like at
Seventeen:
I was a cat, a snake, a lizard, a mouse
Still got an interest in the limousine
And a spouse and a brat
Country house, london flat

I'm gonna head for the island when
The summer's out
I'm gonna do all the stuff that I can
Drink like a fish in a waterspout -
I'm a fan of the flow
It began long ago
I'm a man who should know
It doesn't stop

There's so much to remember
So much to forget:
We're all in the possession of the
Future tense, but don't know it yet
The flesh comes through the spirit
The spirit through the flesh..
We look the sphinx in the face
For answers and of course we're
Really not impressed
We're caught between age and beauty
Experience and youth
So we feel the need acutely
For any kind of truth

Oh but we get copped some days
Caught between options we've failed
To play, such wasted chance
So I join the wastrel's dance:
It has slow as well as fast movement
And any change must be an
Improvement on simply fossilising
Standing still

I got a steady vocation for
The quiet zone
I just can't wait for the song to be sung
I'm still possessed by the promise
Of the pleasure dome

You're so young
So oldd
Such a drag
To be told

You're so here, so gone
So near, so wrong
So queer, so strong

Such a drag to be told...

[from http://lyrics.doheth.co.uk]

"The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome" album track list