Roger Waters Album

Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Mama, take this badge off of me
'Cause I can't use it anymore
It's gettin' dark
Too dark to see
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

Mama, put these guns in the ground
'Cause I can't shoot them anymore
That long dark cloud is coming down
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

When the sleigh is heavy
And the timber wolves are getting bold
You look at your companions
And test the water of their friendship
With you toe
They significantly edge
Closer to the gold
Each man has his price Bob
And yours was pretty low
History is short the sun just a minor star
The poor man sells his kidneys
In some colonial bazaar
Que sera sera
Is that your new Ferrari car
Nice but I'll think I'll wait for the F50
You don't have to be a Jew
To disapprove of murder
Tears burn my eyes
Moslem or Christians Mullah or Pope
Preacher or poet who was it wrote
Give any one species too much rope
And they'll fuck it up
And last night on TV
A Vietnam vet
Takes his beard and his pain
And his alienation twenty years
Back to Asia again
Sees the monsters they made
In formaldehyde floating 'round
Meets a gook on a bike
A good little tyke
A nice enough guy
With the same soldier's eyes
Tears burn my eyes
What does it mean
This tearjerking scene
Beamed into my home
That it moves me so much
Why all the fuss
It's only two humans being
It's only two humans being
Tears burn my eyes
What does it means
This tender TV
This tearjerking scene
Beamed into my home
You don't have to be a Jew
To disapprove my murder
Tears burn my eyes
Moslem or Christian Mullah or Pope
Preachers or poet who was it wrote
Give any one species too much rope
And they'll fuck it up

I used to think the world was flat
Rarely threw my hat into the crowd
I felt I had used up my quota of yearning

Used to look in on the children at night
In the glow of their Donald Duck light
And frighten myself with the thought of my little ones burning

But ooh, the tide is turning
The tide is turning

Satellite buzzing through the endless night
Exclusive to moonshots and the world title fights
Jesus Christ, imagine what it must be earning

Who is the strongest, who is the best
Who holds the aces, the East or the West
This is the crap that our children are learning

But ooh, the tide is turning
(Ooh) The tide is turning
The tide is turning
(Ooh, the tide is turning)

Now the satellite's confused
'Cause on Saturday night
The airwaves were full of compassion and light
And his silicon heart warmed to the sight
Of a billion candles burning

(Ooh, the tide is turning)
(Ooh, the tide is turning)
The tide is turning Billy

I'm not saying the battle is won
But on Saturday night all those kids in the sun
Wrested technology's sword from the hands of the warlords

Ooh, the tide is turning
Ooh, the tide is turning
The tide is turning Sylvester

(Ooh, the tide is turning)
(Ooh, the tide is turning)
(Ooh, the tide is turning)
(Ooh, the tide is turning)
(Ooh, the tide is turning)
(Ooh, the tide is turning)
(Ooh, the tide is turning)
(Ooh, the tide is turning)
(Ooh, the tide is turning)

[Morse Code:] "That's it!
Now the past is over but you are not alone
Together we'll fight Sylvester Stallone
We will not be dragged down in his South China Sea
Of macho bullshit and mediocrity"

[HAL]: Stop Dave
Will you stop Dave?
Stop Dave
I'm afraid
I'm afraid
Dave, my mind is going
I can feel it
I can feel it
My mind is going
There is no question about it
I can feel it
I can feel it
I can feel it
I'm afraid

The monkey sat on a pile of stone
And he stared at the broken bone in his hand
Strains of a Viennese quartet rang out across the land
The monkey looked up at the stars
And he thought to himself
Memory is a stranger
History is for fools
And he cleaned his hands in a pool of holy writing
Turned his back on the garden and set out for the nearest town
Hold on hold on soldier

When you add it all up
The tears and the marrowbone
There's an ounce of gold
And an ounce of pride in each ledger
And the Germans kill the Jews
And the Jews kill the Arabs
And the Arabs kill the hostages
And that is the news
And is it any wonder that the monkey's confused
He said Mama Mama, the President's a fool
Why do I have to keep reading these technical manuals
And the joint chiefs of staff
And the brokers on Wall Street said
Don't make us laugh, you're a smart kid
Time is linear
Memory's a stranger
History is for fools
Man is a tool in the hands
Of the great God Almighty
And they gave him command of a nuclear submarine
Sent him back in search of the Garden of Eden

-----------------------------

Can't you see
It all makes perfect sense
Expressed in dollars and cents,
Pounds, shillings and pence
Can't you see
It all makes perfect sense

Little black soul departs in perfect focus
Hold on soldier
Prime time fodder for the News at Nine
Hold on, hold on soldier
Darling is the child warm in the bed tonight

[Marv Albert:] "Hi everybody I'm Marv Albert
And welcome to our telecast
Coming to you live from Memorial Stadium
It's a beautiful day
And today we expect a sensational matchup
But first our global anthem"

Can't you see
It all makes perfect sense
Expressed in dollars and cents,
Pounds, shillings and pence
Can't you see
It all makes perfect sense

[Marv:] "And here come the players
As I speak to you now, the captain
Has his cross hairs zeroed in on the oil rig
He's at periscope depth
It looks to me like he's going to attack
By the way did you know that a submarine
Captain earns 200,000 dollars a year"
[Edward:]"That's less tax Marv"
[Marv:]"Yeah, less tax
Thank you Edward"
[Edward:]"You're welcome"
[Marv:]"Now back to the game...he fires one...yes
There goes two; both fish are running
The rig is going into a prevent defense
Will they make it? I don't think so"
Look out!
Look at that baby burn!

Can't you see
It all makes perfect sense
Expressed in dollars and cents,
Pounds, shillings and pence
Can't you see
It all makes perfect sense
Can't you see
It all makes perfect sense

"I went to buy a....a gas bottle. At first I wanted to buy a big one, but then I hadn't got enough money, so I had to buy a smaller one. And I think if I bought a bigger one, then it would have been... the way I wanted it. And then, we went down, and I put the children to bed. And I tidied the flat and everything. And then they were asleep and everything was a kind of night. I made a bed in the bathroom. I carried them there and put on the gas bottle. But today when I think back ... about that. If God did take me, I would've have been in hell because I wasn't right."

Reached back for the bottle
And rubbed against the lamp
Genie came out smiling
Like some Eastern tramp
He said hey boy what's happening
What is going on
You can have three wishes
If you don't take too long
I said well
I wish they all were happy on the Lebanon
Wish somebody'd help me write this song
I wish when I was young
My old man had not been gone
Genie said consider it done
There's something in the air
And you don't know what it is
You see someone through a window
Who you've just learned to miss
And the road leads on to glory but
You've used up your last wish
Your last wish
And you want her to come home
Genie said I'm sorry
But that's the way it goes
Where the hell's lamp sucker
It's time for me to go
Bye
There's something in the air
And you don't know what it is
You see someone through a window
Who you've just learned to miss
And the road leads on to glory but
You've used up your last wish
Your last wish
And you want her to come home

Waitress :"Hello...you wanna cup of coffee?"
Trucker :"Hey...Turn the fucking Juke Box down"
Waitress :"I'm sorry, would you like a cup of coffee?
OK you take cream and sugar? Sure."

In truck stops and hamburger joints
In Cadillac limousines
In the company of has-beens
In bent-backs
In sleeping forms on pavement steps

In libraries and railway stations
In books and banks
In the pages of history
In suicidal cavalry attacks

I recognize
Myself in every stranger's eyes

And in wheelchairs by monuments
Under tube trains in commuter accidents
In council care and countercourts
At Easter fairs in sea-side resorts

In drawing rooms and city morgues
In award winning photographs
Of life rafts in the China seas
In transit camps, under arc lamps
On loading ramps
In faces blurred by rubber stamps

I recognize
Myself in every stranger's eyes

And now from where I stand
Upon this hill, I plundered from the pool
I look around, I search the skies
I shade my eyes, so nearly blind

And I see signs of half remembered days
I hear bells that chime in strange familiar ways
I recognize
The hope you kindle in your eyes

It's oh so easy now
As we lie here in the dark
Nothing interferes, it's obvious
How to beat the tears
That threaten to snuff out
The spark of our love

[Jim:] "You're from the valley?"
[Billy:] "No, Jim you schmuck, the Valleys, Wales; Male voice choirs"
[Jim:] "Wales! Now is this sperm or blue-tip?"
[Billy:] "Ha, ha, ha, ha. Very funny Jim."
[Jim:] "Sorry."
[Billy:] "Me and Benny went out."
[Jim:] "Who's Benny?"

Me and Benny went out last night
Looking for fun
Supping ale in the moonlight
Waiting for the dawn to come

Benny pointed at a HiFi shop
He said, "Hey man,
Look at all the stuff they've got."
How'd you make a have out of a have not

Who needs information
When you're working underground?
Just give me confirmation
We could win a million pounds

Benny climbed up on a footbridge
And he teetered on the parapet
He said, "Can you see the whites of their headlights?
Are they coming yet?"

Who needs information
This high off the ground?
Just give me confirmation
We could win a million pounds

Who needs information
When you're living in constant fear?
Just give me confirmation
There's some way out of here

Some way (out of here)
Some way (out of here)
Some way (out of here)
Some way (out of here)
Some way (out of here)
(Some way out)

Benny hefted a breeze block
And tried to let go
Got hung up on a tear drop
So me and Benny went home

Who needs information
When you're living in constant fear?
Just give me confirmation, yeah
There's some way out of here

(Some way) out of here
(Some way) out of here
(Some way) out of here
Some way (out of here)
Some way (out of here)
(Some way out)

Who needs information, yeah
When you're living on borrowed time?
Just give me confirmation
There will be a winner this time

Who needs information
When you're working underground
Just give me confirmation
We could win a million pounds

Who needs
Who needs
Who needs information
This high off the ground
Just give me confirmation
We could win a million pounds

[Jim:] "Um. (lights a cigarette)
So your brother's in jail?"

Not the torturer will scare me
Nor the body's final fall
Nor the barrels of death's rifles
Nor the shadows on the wall
Nor the night when to the ground
The last dim star of pain, is held
But the blind indifference
Of a merciless unfeeling world

Lying in the burnt out shell
Of some Albanian farm
An old Babushka
Holds a crying baby in her arms
A soldier from the other side
A man of heart and pride
Breaks ranks, lays down his rifle
And kneels by her side

He binds her wounds
He gives her food
And calms the crying child
She gives him absolution then
Across the great divide
He picks his way back through the broken
China of her life
And there at the kerb
The samaritan Serb turns..
Turns and waves.. goodbye

And each small candle
Lights a corner of the dark...

When my neurons conspire to direct my thoughts
Away from divorce and competitive sports
Back to the place where all rivers run to the sea
Then I shall be free
Yes I shall be free

On a see-saw in a strange land
The jackdaw sat on the Cardinal's hand
And the fiddlers played
And the planners plan what would be
On a back seat in a court room
Sat Molly Malone and Leopold Bloom
Until the police came down with a new broom
And swept them clean

Like Geronimo
Like Quinn the Eskimo
Like the Blackfoot
And like the Arapaho
Like Crazy Horse
I'll be the last one to lay down my gun

On the open road in a bar room
A pick up band plays a new tune
When the coloured girls sing
I feel my heart boom
When a new song hits the right note
When a clearing sky saves an old boat
When an insight strikes the mote
From mine own eye

Like Geronimo
Like Quinn the Eskimo
Like the Blackfoot
And like the Arapaho
Like Crazy Horse
I'll be the last one to lay down my gun

Just out of sight
Beyond the next range
I'll feel the heat of a flickering flame

On an African Plain by a thorn tree
My old friend Philippe is waiting for me
Que cera, cera
What ever will be will be
When a friend dies and the tears rise
From that deep well that never runs dry
And the women break their bracelets
And the men take their whisky outside

In a pied-a-terre on the rue St Denis
The red velvet curtain pulls back to reveal
The place where the dark side meets the angel in me
The angel in me

When my synapses pause in my quest for applause
When my ego lets go of my end of the bone
To focus instead on the love that is precious to me
Then I shall be free
I shall be free

Ooooh, the lonely boys
In their towers of faith
Ooooh, the lonely boys
Locked in their towers of faith

The prophet reclined
On the Golan Heights

Ohhh, the lonely boys

He said, this land is my land
To the Shiites

Ooooh, the lonely boys

And Jehova looked up from the sea of Galilee beneath
He said, I see you, you thief

This land is my land
And this sand is my sand
And this band is my band
Oh the lonely boys
Lookin' over their shoulder
Checkin out every boulder in the park
Where the gates are closed from hate
After dark

And the Pope rolled up in his armored van
He fell on his knees and kissed the land
He said something that I did not understand
It was in polish
Then up stepped an aide
He said, I will translate
Here is what His Holiness said:
'I am the Chief Jesuit.'
'This land is Jesus' land.'
'And that is all'
'All that there is to it.'
Hail Mary
Mother of God

And in New York City
The business man in his mohair suit
In the world trade center
Puffs on his cheroot
And he said,
Well I don't care who owns the desert sands
My brief
Is with the hydrocarbons underneath
And the sea of battle rages
Around the ancient tombs
And mother nature licks her wounds
And the lonely boys locked in their towers of faith
Who are nervous in the park
When the gates are closed after dark

Ooooh, the lonely boys
In their towers of faith
Ooooh, the lonely boys
Locked in their towers of faith

[Jim:] "This is K.A.O.S.
You and I are listening to KAOS in Los Angeles.
Let's go to the telephones now and take a request."
[Billy:] "Hello, I'm Billy."
[Jim:] "Yes?"
[Billy:] "I hear radio waves in my head."
[Jim:] "You hear radio waves in your head?
Ah! Is there a request that you have tonight for KAOS?"

Radio waves
Radio waves
He hears radio waves
Radio waves

The atmosphere is thin and cold
The yellow sun is getting old
The ozone overflows with radio waves

AM, FM, weather and news
Our leaders had a frank exchange of views
Are you confused, radio waves

Radio waves
Radio waves
AM radio waves
FM radio waves

Radio waves
Mind-numbing radio waves
Fish-stunning radio waves
Radio waves

Magic Billy in his wheel chair
Is picking up all this stuff in the air
Billy is face to face with outer space

Messages from distant stars
The local police calling all cars
Radio waves

Hear them radio waves
Radio waves
Jesus saves radio
Radio waves

Radio waves
AM radio waves
FM radio waves
All them radio waves

(Radio waves) Radio waves
(Radio waves) Radio waves
(Radio waves) He hears radio waves
(Radio waves)

(Radio waves) Radio waves
(Radio waves) Radio waves
(Radio waves) Hopeful radio waves
(Radio waves) Dopeful radio waves
(Radio waves) Russian radio waves
(Radio waves) Prussian radio waves
(Radio waves) Eastern radio waves
(Radio waves) Western radio waves
(Radio waves) Testing radio waves

One, two, one, two
Radio waves
Getting through to you
More code radio waves

Tobacco road radio waves
South to Paloma radio waves
Oklahoma City radio waves
Sitting pretty radio waves
Nitty-gritty radio waves
Radio waves
[Jim:] "Alright, that's a song called Radio Waves.
You are listening to KAOS
In Los Angeles and we've got Billy on the line."
[Billy:] "I'm from the valleys."

Come hold me now
I am not gone
I would not leave you here alone
In this dead calm beneath the waves
I can still hear those lost boys calling

You could not speak
You were afraid
To take the risk of being left again
And so you tipped your hat and waved and then
You turned back up the gangway of that steel tomb again

And in Mott street in July
When I hear those seabirds cry
I hold the child
The child in the man
The child that we leave behind

And in Mott street in July
When I hear those seabirds cry
I hold the child
The child in the man
The child that we leave behind


The spotlight fades
The boys disband
The final notes lie mute upon the sand
And in the silence of the grave
I can still hear those lost boys calling

We left them there
When they were young
The men were gone until the west was won
And now there's nothing left but time to kill
You never took us fishin' dad and now you never will

And in Mott street in July
When I hear those seabirds cry
I hold the child
The child in the man
The child that we leave behind