Wickerman

Just behind the station, before you reach the traffic island, a river runs through' a concrete channel

I took you there once; I think it was after the Leadmill

The water was dirty

And it smelt of industrialisation

Little mesters coughing their lungs up

And globules the colour of tomato ketchup

But it flows. Yeah, it flows

Underneath the city through' dirty brickwork conduits

Connecting white witches on the Moor with pre-raphaelites down in Broomhall

Beneath the old Trebor factory that burnt down in the early seventies

Leaving an antiquated sweet-shop smell

And caverns of nougat and caramel

Nougat

Yeah, nougat and caramel

And the river flows on

Yeah, the river flows on beneath pudgy fifteen-year olds addicted to coffee whitener

Courting couples,naked on Northern Upholstery

And pensioners gathering dust like bowls of plastic tulips

And it finally comes above ground again at Forge Dam the place where we first met

I went there again for old time's sake

Hoping to find the child's toy horse ride that played such a ridiculously tragic tune

It was still there - but none of the kids seemed interested in riding on it

And the cafe was still there too

The same press-in plastic letters on the price list and scuffed formica-top tables

I sat as close as possible to the seat where I'd met you that autumn afternoon

And then, after what seemed like hours of thinking about it

I finally took your face in my hands and I kissed you for the first time

And a feeling like electricity flowed through' my whole body

And all the time, in the background, the sound of that ridiculously heartbreaking child's ride outside

At the other end of town the river flows underneath an old railway viaduct

I went there with you once - except you were somebody else -

And we gazed down at the sludgy brown surface of the water together

Then a passer-by told us that it used to be a local custom to jump off the viaduct into the river

When coming home from the pub on a Saturday night

But that this custom had died out when someone jumped and landed too near to the riverbank and had sunk in the mud there and drowned before anyone could reach them

Maybe he'd just made the whole story up

You never get me to jump off that bridge

No chance. Never in a million years

Yeah, a river flows underneath this city

I'd like to go there with you now my pretty

And follow it on for miles and miles,

Below other people's ordinary lives

Occasionally catching a glimpse of the moon, through' man-hole covers along the route

Yeah, it's dark sometimes but if you hold my hand, I think I know the way

Oh, this is as far as we got last time

But if we go just another mile we will surface surrounded by grass and trees

And the fly-over that takes the cars to cities

Buds that explode at the slightest touch, nettles that sting - but not too much

I've never been past this point, what lies ahead I really could not say

I used to live just by the river, in a dis-used factory just off the Wicker

The river flowed by day after day

"On one day" I thought, "One day I will follow it" but that day never came

I moved away and lost track

But tonight I am thinking about making my way back

I may find you there and float on wherever the river may take me

Wherever the river may take me

Wherever the river may take us

Wherever it wants us to go

Wherever it wants us to go