Touching From a Distance - Дебора Кертис

From a distance seeing friends just washed up on the shore

A picture in my mind of what’s to come before the storm.

In time, we don’t belong in our own lifetime.

I can hear the voices lost in echoes as they build,

New homes to hide the sadness that the search for more had killed,

From a by road seeing friends just washed up on the shore.

Picture in my mind of what’s to come before the storm.

In time, we don’t belong in our own lifetime.

I can feel an emptiness and see heads held in shame,

Trapped inside a legacy of everyone to blame.

In the distance see myself just washed up on the shore,

A picture in my mind of what will come before the storm.

In time, we don’t belong to our own lifetime.

We won’t crawl and never show our faces,

We’ll stand firm and never show the traces,

Of the fear we knew but always could disguise,

Of this sinking feeling hid behind our eyes.

Неозаглавленное

In the back of my mind,

All I feel is mistrust,

In the back of my mind,

All I see is the dirt,

Segregation of thoughts,

Ideals turning to dust

Where some houses once stood,

Stands a man with a gun,

In some neighbourhood,

A father hangs up his son,

In the back of my mind.

Неозаглавленное

Don’t think I’d have stayed just for one more day,

It seems so much like home,

No room to go astray,

Don’t think I could watch — with mindless, empty tasks,

Intake moving in, forced to walk a lonely path.

Pictures all around, of how good a life should be,

A model for the rest,

That bred insecurity,

I walked a jagged line and then came back for more,

It’s always in my mind,

An institution with no law.

Day of the Lords (1978)

We won’t forget you on the day of the lords,

When our hearts stopped,

When we put up the boards,

To relax from all this sickness of words,

To escape from the collapse of our worlds.

We won’t forget you, though in violence you go,

As the wheels turned in the theatres below,

An escape from the ends never met,

In apartments with the lives not formed yet.

You never really understood,

You never tried to change our minds,

As long as you were in control,

As long as we could spare the time,

And ‘cause you needed to win on the day of the lords.

We won’t forget you on the day of the lords,

In a new town, just clutching at straws,

With the door shut, now the running has ended,

And a last thought of the chances surrrendered.

End of Time (1978)

We resist all of times mutations,

And lose our hands for all lost creations,

We left holes in the best laid plans,

And registered every inward glance.

For all mysteries never seen and never revealed,

And the memories, always tired and never too real,

Yeah, the memories, down on paper cease to exist,

To uncover all true feelings inside just too much to risk.

We made out down the roads to nowhere,

And lost all purpose in the rush to get there,

From broken homes built on dust and ashes,

That marked the spots of last years crashes.

For all mysteries never seen and never revealed,

And the memories, always hazy, never too real,

Yeah, the memories of a future everyone shared,

But when the time came, looking over our shoulders, Nobody cared.

Неозаглавленное (1978)

I walked out and I thought for a time I could see

No defence, and I thought for a while you were me,

We were wrong,

In our time,

Always down,

Out of line.

I relaxed from the days filled with blood sport in vain,

And returned with the knowledge that we’re two the same,

Two in Hell,

Two set free,

Too alike,

You to me.

And we watched everything pass us by in due course,

Always tied by a mutual feeling that lost,

We were two,

Two in Hell,

Two set free,

Known too well.

Неозаглавленное (1978)

Searching for some other way,

To bring some small relief,

Never to be satisfied,

And snatch at all beliefs.

Didn’t have the energy,

To make up for my part,

Everything seemed easy but

I didn’t have the heart.

Things that on the surface,

Seemed so very much the same,

But once you’ve made the move,

So long nothing else remains.

So afraid to make a break,

For fear of what I’d do,

It can cause repressive treatment,

When they put the blame on you.

I know now just where I stand,

These thoughts will never cross,

Victim of security,

Hoping to get lost.

Bet you’ve worked the whole machine,

And never missed out much,

Still staring in the mirror,

Trying so hard not to push.

Put you on a wooden cross,

Nailed reasons to your hand,

Covered in self-pity,

Maybe now you’ll understand.

Overcrowding

(Записано на обороте The Only Mistake)

Faces pressed flat against glass windows,

Ten men in a room for two,

Censorship stops here,

No isolation,

Only detoxification.

Abnormal relationships formed,

In comers and on floors,

Breathless, breeding and cramped on all fours

No view, no sense of time.

It was a strange way to go.

Неозаглавленное (1980)

Edging towards, a child you may keep,

Retreading the boards pretty young thing

You’ll get your reward,

Permission to speak

A place to yourself,

A garden with swings,

Handwritten cards do nothing to ease,

The burden

Where is my release,

Face up to them all,

As they sway side to side,

They put me on show,

Disgusts and rewinds,

To take life away

Was life really there,

No sound, no

Неозаглавленное, незаконченное

Avenues all lined with trees,

Edens garden left for thieves,

I looked upon an empty stage,

Where all the young men once had played.

Inroads leading on and on, Filled with strangers every one, The ...  arrived and here to stay,

Look then turn their heads away.

Buildings torn down to the ground,

Replaced by new ones thought more sound,

And as torches glow right thru’ the night,

A sacrifice for all that’s right.

I looked ahead an empty space,

A lifetimes  ...       erased,

и на обороте...

hanging from trees by their necks

typecast forgotten young saviours

lost by their own grace and favours

hinder the paths of

Johnny 23 (1979)

Door slides open,

Johnny laughs

A view from above

Sticks his head

Out of the window and dries his eyes

I remember a winter sometime ago,

Angular patterns formed deep in the ground

Where someone once stood

White on black,

White on white,

Echoed voices bouncing off the buildings around.

A ramp to the trees and trees all around,

I remember a tear, frozen white on white,

I remember nothing.

A grey saloon,

Johnny sighs,

Winds down the window and stares at the road.

Some things never make sense,

A fear of stepping out,

Crouches shivering in the corner, blanket round your shoulder

Hot then cold, cold then warm, pulse is racing, slowly racing — stopped.

I remember nights spent listening to until dawn,

I remember nothing.

Door slowly opens,

Johnny sits on his bed,

Lays down and dies.

Список концертов

29.05.1977 — Electric Circus, Манчестер

31.05.1977 — Rafters, Манчестер

03.06.1977 — The Squat, Манчестер

06.06.1977 — Guild Hall, Ньюкасл

16.06.1977 — The Squat, Манчестер

25.06.1977 — The Squat, Манчестер

30.06.1977 — Rafters, Манчестер

20.07.1977 — Tiffany’s, Лестер

27.08.1977 — Eric’s, Ливерпуль

14.09.1977 — Rock Garden, Мидлсбро

24.09.1977 — Electric Circus, Манчестер

02.10.1977 — Electric Circus, Манчестер

07.10.1977 — Солфордский Технологический колледж

08.10.1977 — Манчестерский Политехнический университет

13.10.1977 — Rafters, Манчестер

19.10.1977 — Pipers, Манчестер

24.11.1977 — Rafters, Манчестер

??.12.1977 — Rafters, Манчестер

31.12.1977 — The Swingin’ Apple, Ливерпуль

25.01.1978 — Pips Disco, Манчестер

28.03.1978 — Rafters, Манчестер