Eric Andersen - The Fall (Song of Gravity) Lyrics

I came to Amsterdam to the memory of water
A flower chained to the sea
I came to this seafaring town to allow myself to fall
To fall from grace
I needed the protection of the harbors and canals
Dug from beneath the sea
A place where I could mingle with the breathing and the dead
In Amsterdam surrounded by water common wisdom says
You're free to fall - you're not too far above the ground

Please open the window, cher compatriote
The room is getting hot
But not too much - I am still feeling cold
Do you want to hear my tale?
How I need to feel above the chattering race
To find the sea-level of my own disgrace
I am falling through water
I am falling through air
I am now in free fall
Falling from grace

My name is Jean Baptiste Clamence
I come from Paris
Places don't matter much but can be of consequence
I came to the city of fog and rain, betrayed myself with a kiss
Why, you ask?
To save myself and find my cross

I was welcome in Amsterdam
I saw its purgatory of concentric rings of black canals
Filled with bicycles and broken things
Where souls like me are free to face the fact
Escape does not mean free
Pride is a blind stupid god, and my all-seeing companion
I boast to all who will sit and listen before my firmament of shame
Listen to the confessions of a judge-penitent whose words are slippery like wet bridges
The ones I cross in the dark seeking safety to disappear - like the dawn
Dissolves into the light - never to be found or judged
So listen, mon cher, look about

The song of gravity makes no sound
Deafening silence slowly surrounds
The fall feels far til it comes around
When you turn to look it's a far way down
Isn't it a far, far, far way down

Are you still listening, mon cher compatriote?
She fell off the bridge and floated to her doom
Downstream in the Seine
Her drowning screams were drifting away
Ignoring them I walked on
Her distant shouts like torn soaked fabric
Attempting to dress the undressed night
I kept on walking ruined in the rain
Her screams awaited me at the next corner
And the next
An endless scream of eternity
Always leading me back to the same bridge
Where the young woman and I
Were forever connected by currents
Her bright watery world joining my unlighted life
She was far downstream by now sunk to the bottom perhaps
But never far below the surface of my consciousness
Though we never met she was closer than a sister
Closer than a wife
We were linked, doomed together - to be separate
And alone
The moment I was lost was the moment I found her
We became bound forever since the living become custodians of the souls of the dead

Ah, me, precious me
All I had was lost in a single flash
I heard the laughter
Soft at first, then crescendo
Laughing at me
Entire choirs of laughter!
I hid myself away cloaked In society's false gowns of ideals and made-up dignity
I became a concentration camp guard who couldn't concentrate
I sought out new positions and applied for a job at the Occupation of Loss
There's no use waiting for The Last Judgment because it happens every day
Look at me now, mon cher!
The judge-penitent
I know you think most prefer to become lost in each other's shadows
To merely watch and wait for their world of one to become a world of none

Please don't leave me, mon ami
Stay a while longer I beg you
Walk me to my home
Besides who can tolerate the glare of eternal darkness?
Can't you hear them laughing?
Orgies of laughter laughing at my bungling attempts
To hide my crimes
They're laughing, laughing at me
Laughter muffled by fog over the bridges
Know that few of us are equal and fewer seek the beating sun
So let us salute those dreamers who dare to fly and fail
Let the meltdown begin!
Look around and listen

The song of gravity makes no sound
The deafening silence slowly surrounds
The fall feels far til it comes around
When you turn to look it's a far away down
Isn't it a far, far, far way down

I like you, mon compatriote
You stepped into my office
Where I set up shop at the Mexico City bar
A ridiculous name
You listened like a mirror got me talking about myself
A juvenile priest, listening to a wily confessor
Let us sit beneath the empty frame over the bar
Of the missing and lost Just Judges
You are free to take my confession amid the drunks and pimps
And audience of dead candles
Circles, concentric circles surround me, those watery rings of hell!
They lead me to the last circle - the red light ring
Where all windows become spotlights to illuminate my crimes!
If we are all guilty then we are free to confess each others crimes
Now I seek a fresh start to walk free under the radar
To love crime over love
Crimes with no laws crimes of the heart!
So look around, mon compatriote
And listen

The song of gravity makes no sound
Deafening silence slowly surrounds
The fall feels far til it comes around
When you turn to look it's a far way down
Isn't it a far, far, far way down