Beeldschone hymne van de Britse progrockers aan ‘golden summers gone and the encroaching autumn of life’. ‘Mike and Suzie’verwijst naar Peter Hammil’s vrienden en ex-huisgenoten Mike McClean en Susan Penhaligon.
North was somewhere years ago and cold:
Ice locked the people’s hearts and made them old.
South was birth to pleasant lands, but dry:
I walked the waters’ depths and played my mind.
East was dawn, coming alive in the golden sun:
The winds came, gently, several heads became one
In the summertime, though August people sneered;
We were at peace, and we cheered.
We walked alone, sometimes hand in hand,
Between the thin lines marking sea and sand;
Smiling very peacefully,
We began to notice that we could be free,
And we moved together to the West.
West is where all days will someday end;
Where the colours turn from grey to gold,
And you can be with the friends.
And light flakes the golden clouds above all;
West is Mike and Susie,
West is where I love.
There we shall spend our final days of our lives;
Tell the same old stories: yeah well,
At least we tried.
Into the West, smiles on our faces, we’ll go;
Oh, yes, and our apologies to those
Who’ll never really know the way.
We’re refugees, walking away from the life
That we’ve known and loved;
Nothing to do or say, nowhere to stay;
Now we are alone.
We’re refugees, carrying all we own
In brown bags, tied up with string;
Nothing to think, it doesn’t mean a thing,
But we’ll be happy on our own.
West is Mike and Susie;
West is where I love,
West is refugees’ home.
