Just one crazy moment while the dice are cast,
he looks into the future and remembers
what is past,
wonders what he's doing on this battlefield,
shrugs to his shadow, impatient,
too proud yet to kneel.

In his wake he leaves scorched earth
and work in vain;
smoke drifts up behind him - he is free again,
free to run before the onslaught of a deadly foe,
leaving nothing fit for pillage,
hardly leaving home.
It's far too late to turn, unless it's to stone.
Charging madly forward, tracks across the snow,
wind screams madness to him, ever on he goes
leaving spoor to mark his passage,
trace his weary climb.
Cross the moor and make the headland -
stumbling, wayward, blind.
In the end his footprints extend as one single line.

This latest exponent of heresy is goaded
into an attack,
persuaded to charge at his enemy.
Too late, he knows it is, too late now
to turn back,
too soon by far to falter.
The past sits uneasily at his rear,

Sing with the song of Van Der Graaf Generator, Scorched Earth lyrics!

he's walking right into the trap,
surrounded, but striving through will and fear.
Ahead of him he knows there waits an ambuscade
but the dice slip through his fingers
and he's living from day to day,
carrying his world around upon his back,
leaving nothing behind but the tell-tale
of his track.

He will not be hostage, he will not be slave,
no snare of past can trap him,
though the future may.
Still he runs and burns behind him
in advanced retreat;
still his life remains unfettered -
he denies defeat.
It's far too late to turn, unless it's to stone.
Leave the past to burn - at least
that's been his own.

Scorched earth, that's all that's
left when he's done;
holding nothing but beholden to no-one,
claiming nothing, out of no false pride,
he survives.
Snow tracks are all that's left to be seen
of a man who entered the course of a dream,
claiming nothing but the life he's known
- this, at least, has been his own.

van der graaf generator

Artist Information

Profile:	Formed in the UK, 1967 by Peter Hammill, Chris Judge-Smith and (now deceased) Nick Pearne. After a period of activity during the 1970s, the band broke up (although not for the first time) in 1978, seemingly for good. The "classic" line-up of Hammill, Guy Evans, Hugh Banton and David Jackson, reformed the band again in 2004 and have since released a new studio album "Present".
Albums / OSTs:	an introduction (from the least to the q godbluff h to he who am the only one pawn hearts still life the aerosol grey machine the least we can do is wave to each othe vital (live) world record Click here to view All Albums and Song Lyrics of Van Der Graaf Generator!