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Chapter One

from THE CLIMBER by JUDGE SMITH

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lyrics

CHOIR:
Morning. It’s morning! Morning. It’s morning!
The last stars are extinguished,
the dawn’s here but the town is still in shadow.
As lights come on in windows, the valley slowly fills with violet mist.
Then the sun sets each of the mountain summits
burning like flames, volcanoes in the sky.
Morning. It’s morning! Morning. It’s morning!
This show comes on each daybreak,
and sometimes you can take the thing for granted,
But we are lucky fellows to drink our morning coffee as we watch
A whole ring of mighty peaks silently explode into fire.
Gold floods the valley, the town is struck by sunlight,
another day begins.
It’s morning! It’s morning!

Just an ordinary day, just another working day.
We have no more time to dream, no more time to waste.
Just another routine day going by, the same old way;
Small catastrophes, small victories, and small truths to be faced.

THE CLIMBER:
It was a cold life, I can see that now.
Other people always seemed too near,
Their skin too close, their breath becoming part of mine.
I was happier alone,
and happiest of all when I could climb high above the world,
Where the rock could be understood,
where the snow was pure and white and clean.
The other mountaineers used to say I was the anti-Social Climber.
I didn’t understand the joke. I never understood the jokes.

CHOIR:
Just an ordinary day, just another working day,
Moments that will make us frown, moments when we smile.
Trying not to be machines, cherishing, behind the scenes,
Our humanity, our sanity, a life that’s still worthwhile.

THE CLIMBER:
I came here for the climbing, many years ago.
Just an amateur, no great achievements,
Collecting mountains like a boy collecting stamps.
But the high places were my passion,
each new mountain like a love affair.
I liked the routes that others didn’t climb,
so I could be alone where no one else had been.
The other mountaineers used to say
I went where no human hand had set foot.
I didn’t understand that joke either. I never understood the jokes.

CHOIR:
Our humanity, our sanity, a life that’s still worthwhile.

credits

from THE CLIMBER, released May 8, 2020

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JUDGE SMITH image

JUDGE SMITH Glastonbury, UK

Judge Smith co-founded the band Van der Graaf Generator in 1967 with Peter Hammill, & has since been involved in many music projects as writer, composer or performer. He has written stage musicals, classical & rock libretti, songs for television & a book on Life after Death; directed a prize-winning short film, & released fourteen CDs & two DVDs. He was born in 1948 & lives near Glastonbury, UK. ... more

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