Emperor In His War-Room: The Emperor/The Room (Early Take)-Van Der Graaf Generator

[00:20.32]Standing in the space [00:26.14]That holds the silent lace of night away from you [00:36.43]You think that you can hold [00:42.41]The searing, molten gold between your fingers [00:55.19]But it slips through, tearing tendons as it goes [01:04.84]Exposing the white of a knuckle [01:08.60]Flesh and metal forming letters in the mould [01:24.60]Cradling your gun [01:30.16]After choosing the ones you think should die [01:39.91]Lying on the hill [01:45.90]Crawling over the windowsill into your living-room [01:58.06]They stare out, glass-eyed aimless heads [02:06.04]Bodies torn by vultures [02:10.63]You are the man whose hands are rank with the smell of death [02:26.61]Saviour of the Fallen, Protector of the Weak [02:33.96]Friend of the Tall Ones, Keeper of the Peace [02:41.42]Ah, but it is the only way you know [02:55.76]Looking out to sea [03:01.98]A flattened plane of ****s which bears no living [03:12.12]You crush life in your fist [03:18.43]As your heart is kissed by the lips of death [03:30.59]Ghosts betray you, ghosts betray you [03:34.64]In the night they steal your eye from its socket [03:43.73]And the ball hangs fallen on your cheek [04:00.12]Complaining tongues are stilled [04:05.56]A thousand mouths are filled with rusting metal [04:14.92]Your face a shade of green [04:21.99]Somehow you try to speak through all the garbage in your mouth [04:34.45]But it won't come out [04:38.62]And you cannot frame the words as your stepson [04:47.53]Throws your fame into the flames and you are burned [05:03.51]Saviour of the Fallen, Protector of the Weak [05:11.38]Friend of the Tall Ones, Keeper of the Peace [05:19.05]Ah, but it is the only way you know [06:00.66]Live by sword and you shall die so [06:04.56]All your power shall come to nought [06:08.37]Every life you take is part of your own [06:12.10]Death, not power, is what you've bought [07:02.99]Cringing in your room [07:10.21]Now the outriders of doom step on your threshold [07:21.25]Begging for your life [07:28.23]As the impartial knife sinks in your screaming flesh [07:41.43]Without malice, merely taking murder's toll [07:49.17]You must pay the price of hate [07:54.36]And that price is your soul [08:13.60]Live in peace or die forever in your war-room