Albion and Arcadia

Lately I've been rather lonesome despite the spell of sunny weather
I've found it hard to stay on track; I cannot get it together
The Irish write the saddest songs and then move on to better things
The singer's loneliness spills out into the quiet songs he sings
Paranoid and on my own I've lived for many years
The silence in the nighttime serves to amplify my fears

I may be lonely now and I was very lonely yesterday
Despite the paranoia I won't have it any other way

Dreaming of dystopian fears that haunt the quiet of my mind
The streets and towers and smoky air of cities I have left behind
Someday I'll watch my feet again on the paving stones of Camden Town
The tower blocks of loneliness will fade away and crumble down
Lately I've been dazed, confused, can't keep my thoughts straight in my head
I thought I saw him on the streets but it can't be him, he's four years dead

I may be lonely now and I was very lonely yesterday
Despite the paranoia I won't have it any other way

Arcadia, the promised land, once haunted sailors' wildest dreams
But in its towns and cities it's not quite so lovely as it seems
The darkness of the hotels where Chelsea Girls would go to die
Is captured here in city streets, a while ago they longed to fly
The Westway into Ladbroke Grove, the grassy slopes on Hampstead Heath
The traintracks over Albion hide battlefields far beneath

I may be lonely now and I was very lonely yesterday
Despite the paranoia I won't have it any other way

-J. Ritchie, 23rd Jan 2006 Not to be reproduced except for educational purposes