In Amazonia by Isildurs Bane & Peter Hammill

released September 23, 2021

Lyrics Peter Hammill

Isildurs Bane & Peter Hammill – IN AMAZONIA

Before you know it

Pace your tread out carefully,
before you know it
what will be is written
in the footprints that you leave behind you.

Before you know it the unconscious steps you take define you.

Black-balled at the country club,
tracked down by the security fence,
slack jawed, all the pressure’s heading down on you.

Back down from the mountaintop,
slack rope over Niagara Falls,
hack down all the jungle that’s encroaching on you.

Stacked up possibilities,
smacked down in your prime, random fortune,
pack up, now it’s time, look what’s coming for you.

Black sheep of the family
baksheesh in your hand, greased and ready,
slapped cheek in reply, now it’s coming to you.

Look what’s coming for you now.

You’re learning not to shoot from the hip,
concerned that interlopers might read your lips,
you’re learning there are pages missing from the script.



Under the current


Below, the flow...
untroubled surface,
time’s come adrift.

And so you know
You’re balanced over
tectonic shift.

You sense that something’s gone astray
but you can’t put your finger on it,
you never get to see the picture that’s unfolding,
that’s in your future to be honest,
under the current.

By day, by night
the stars are falling through your head.

The hair is bristling all down your arms,
this fever’s got you something rotten.
You caught the memories that you once expressed as wishes,
you thought they’d been forgotten.

The wind is whistling around your ears
if you could bring yourself to listen.
On those blank pages that you’ve torn out from your diary
your history’s already written
under the current,
the undercurrent
under the current.


Aguirre

And as the river runs
its course down to the sea
the ghosts are all around you
and El Dorado’s etched into your memory,
spun deep into your fevered dreams.
The golden seam
of consciousness agleam.

There’s the story,
caught between the fictional and the fact,
chasing down the glory that you sought in every act.

There’s the mystery,
you thought you were the master of your own fate.
Ancient history synchronises with the current date
and you come to learn too late
the road you’ve chosen.

And in the heavens all the stars are now aligned,
past and present intertwined.

And now the raft’s come adrift,
you feel it shifting like quicksand under your feet,
the unpredictable twist,
you got the gist of the story, or so you think.
In the available light
push all the stops, try to paint yourself whiter than white.
You say you act in good faith
but here you are, face to face with Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

And though the raft’s come adrift
your spirit’s lifted to find that you’re still afloat.
It keeps on giving, the gift,
and in mysterious ways you still hold out hope.
Salvation comes at a price
so you surrender yourself to dramatic device.
Though you don’t quite understanmd
still here you are, hand in hand with Aguirre, the Wrath of God.



This is Where?

Open and shut, action and cut,
story unfolding.
Jungle drum beat, numbers repeat
river is flowing.
You carry your past with you at last
wherever you’re going.

Back in the daylight
making your way in Amazonia
And your friends will protect you now,
nature’s never your enemy.
You’ll be back on familiar ground
with your head in the heights of the canopy.

Count the cost, what you forgot,
what you found, what you lost,
it all adds up,
in the end you’ve made your way through Amazonia.
At the end of the day you made it through the jungle matter of fact,
you never lost your reason, senses intact
you made it through and you’re here to stay,
keeping your chin up and your prospects alive,
keeping your head up while your hopes never died
so you survived and you’re here to stay.
In the end you’ve made sense of your Amazonia.
In Amazonia
the wind is whistling around your ears
the winter landscape all a-glisten
burned, those black pages that you tore out from your diary.
You can’t explain,
the thoughts are swarming through your head
the lessons have all been read,
this chapter’s closing.
Your dreams and memories, hopes and wishes are alive,
all the strands of life combined
as in the heavens all the stars fall into line
past and future intertwine.

This is where we say goodbye.
This is where we say goodbye

This is where?