The Sphinx In The Face

I remember what it felt like at seventeen
I was a cat, a snake, a lizard, a mouse
Still got an interest in the limousine
And a spouse and a brat
Country house, London flat.

I'm gonna head for the island when the summer's out
I'm gonna do all the stuff that I can
Drink like a fish in a waterspout
I'm a fan of the flow
It began long ago
I'm a man who should know it doesn't stop.

There's so much to remember
So much to forget
We're all in the possession of the future tense
But don't know it yet
The flesh comes through the spirit
The spirit through the flesh...
We look the Sphinx in the face for answers
And, of course, we're really not impressed
We're caught between age and beauty
Experience and youth
So we feel the need acutely
For any kind of Truth.

Oh, but we get copped some days
Caught between options we've failed
To play, such wasted chance
So I join the wastrel's dance
It has slow as well as fast movement
And any change must be an improvement
On simply fossilising, standing still.

I got a steady vocation for the Quiet Zone
I just can't wait for the song to be sung
I'm still possessed by the promise
Of the Pleasure Dome.

You're so young, you're so here,so gone
So old, so near,so wrong
Such a drag so queer,so strong,so...
To be told
Such a drag to be told...