From the recording Fool and the Genius
I wrote this song in my van in Tintagel, Cornwall UK. The island mentioned is where King Arthur is supposed to have been born and it is one of the most visited places in the country. It is a wonderful place to live but there are many tourists in summer, and being such a solitary person I have to decamp to get peace to write in my van in the field above the sea between Tintagel and Boscastle. I wrote this to encapsulate my thoughts about how truth is belief is truth: how if a lie is repeated often enough it seems to become the truth. The lie that the climate emergency is a hoax was in my thoughts among other things and that is a thread through the song. In the end, the animals get it all back. Good for them!
Lyrics
The moon is low tonight
Over the island the ghosts arise
To question all that's come after,
The tide pulls back -
Leaves more than a trace.
The richness, the richness that sings in the veins.
A poverty of thought, it drives the rain
Washing the truth away
Til every idea weighs the same.
The fool and the genius
The saint and the crook
Both to blame
The fool and the genius
The saint and the crook:
When every idea weighs the same
We lose the game.
The sun is high today
Over the island the people come
To wonder at all that came before
And though it's day
We're hardly awake
The richness, the richness that sings in the veins,
A poverty of thought, it drives the rain
Washing the truth away
Til every idea weighs the same.
The fool and the genius
The saint and the crook
Both to blame
The fool and the genius
The saint and the crook:
When every idea weighs the same
We lose the game.
The difference is easily missed
Among the clicks
The difference is easily missed.
The rain it falls tonight
Over the island the seagulls rise
Reclaiming the sky at evening time:
More creatures will come
And take it all home!
The richness, the richness that sings in the veins,
A poverty of thought, it drives the rain
Washing the truth away
Til every idea weighs the same.
The fool and the genius
The saint and the crook
Both to blame
The fool and the genius
The saint and the crook:
When every idea weighs the same
We lose the game.
The difference is easily missed
The difference is easily missed
Among the clicks.