Strictly Inc

(Banks)

I could be a tiger
A loser or a fighter
A man or mouse
You don’t see me

I could be a wonder
An alien among you
But you won’t know
Can’t you see, can’t you see

I stand in open sunlight
I scream and shout
I warn you don’t turn your back on me
You look right through me
Like I’m some chameleon
Don’t turn your back on me

I could be the thin man
Maybe a sumo wrestler
For all you know
For all you care

I could be a genius
Normal or just curious
Why don’t you care
Hear me cry, hear me cry

I stand in open sunlight
I scream and shout
I warn you don’t turn your back on me
You look right through me
Like I’m some chameleon
Don’t turn your back on me

(Banks)

To be here with you alone beside me
Is to leave the world behind
To desire and to hold
To have longed for and be told

I see you, I see no one else at all
In my life, in my heart for evermore
Words of comfort, walls of sound
Unseen and secret, all around, all around

I never saw myself as one to stir or warm
Or believed this could ever be
But you are here you are real
You are all that I could wish

I see you, I see no one else at all
In my life, in my heart for evermore
Words of comfort, walls of sound
Unseen and secret, all around, all around

The stars are out in our world tonight
We can reach and touch them
Forever in their light

In the glare of cold and truthful morning
And not just in candlelight
You remain as the one
That I build my world upon

I see you, I see no one else at all
In my life, in my heart for evermore
Words of comfort, walls of sound
Unseen and secret, all around, walls of sound

(Banks)

She was an only child
With her body and mind she had to much attention
Too much of everything
She was an angel child
But the devil within her would test her on the way

Into the dark filled places underground
She entered in forbidden rooms
Only seventeen

All alone so alone
All alone so alone

Into the tunnel and back toward the light
That shines between the fingers of dark
The light that shines showing the way to the start

She was an only child
She had so far to fall then so far to climb
To get to the light again
She was a special child
She know what was coming but she know she could not turn

Back in the dark filled rooms
One of a crowd but more than on her own

All alone so alone
All alone so alone

Into the tunnel and back toward the light
That shines between the fingers of dark
The light that shines showing the way to the start

Only seventeen somewhere in between

The race is almost over now
The dance is almost done
Remember how it was when it was fun?

All alone so alone
All alone so alone

Into the tunnel and back toward the light
That shines between the fingers of dark
The light that shines showing the way to the start

(Banks)

In the silence of the night, a serpent shape
Moves its way across the stony floor
In the comfort of your life, the serpent said,
You know that you could have still more,
Picture where you want to be
The door is open wide
Don’t you really want to know?

Don’t you want to know how it feels
To see if it’s all worth trying?
You want to know how it feels

Don’t you want to rule the world a little bit,
Who to help and who to leave to swim?
You could better everything, the serpent said,
In your own peculiar way,
History would honour you
No matter what you did
Don’t you really want to try?

You want to know how it feels
And see if it’s all worth trying
You want to know how it could feel,

In the silence of the night, you lie awake,
Turning over in your mind the words:
If at first you lack the nerve, the serpent said,
You could always try again.
And now left upon your own
Has nothing changed at all
Do you really want to know?

You want to know how it feels
And see if it’s all worth trying
You want to know how it could feel,
To be the one.

(Banks)

The key is in the front door
The clock is on the wall
The coals are in the fireplace
Nothing has moved at all
But as you look around you
Still nothings quite the same

The windows are cracked the curtains are torn
Your life disappoints if you want to be free
Hold me never let me know

Do you stand upon the station
Or are you on the train
Do you want to vanish
Or could we begin again
Do I just imagine
Or is it really true?

You want to be free to be on your own
To start a new life you want to leave me
Hold me never let me know

Never let me know
Never let the world we share together
Tumble, be destroyed
Never let me know
Always keep our dreams and memories
Cherished in your heart

On the road we travel
Sometimes I feel I know
You’d rather walk without me
Please say it isn’t so
Just put your arms around me
And never let me go

Without you the world would be cruel and cold
It cannot be true that you want to be free
Hold me never let me go

Put your arms around me never let me go

(Banks)

You think you’re safe from all that’s gone before
No one can touch you now for evermore
It’s out of sight but not out of your mind
You cannot lose it you can only pretend
This is the end my friend this is the end

You’re a great example to us all
A pillar of society, that’s for sure
But I hear those bones shake behind the cupboard door
And I know the combination to free them once more
This is the end my friend this is the end.

I don’t need no one to spy
Telescope or private eye
Cos I know, yes I’ve know it all the while

You go to goodwill functions, charity balls
You walk with royalty in presidential halls
But in your soul a voice is screaming to be heard
No matter how you try it cannot be deterred
This is the end my friend this is the end

I don’t need no one to spy
Telescope or private eye
Cos I know, yes I’ve know it all the while

I hear your modest tones upon the radio
And I see you public face an all-convincing show
You know who you are and where you’re coming from
You know what the future hold you cannot always run
This is the end my friend this is the end

I don’t need no one to spy
Telescope or private eye
Cos I know, yes I’ve know it all the while

You think you’re safe from all that’s gone before
No one can touch you now for evermore
It may be hid but in spite of it all
It’s there in neon letters ten feet tall
This is the end my friend this is the end

(Banks)

And when in times like these so much is secondhand
But somehow passed off as the new
You need to believe some things are worthwhile

Too weak to break out from the hold that pins you down
To loose the voluntary chains
Too strong to concede and leave the field

Never let them get you down
Never let them get you down
Tell them all that you don’t care
Tell them all that this, it’s what you live for
You’d die for
Something to live for
Die for
Shut your eyes then you won’t see
Close your ears then you won’t hear
You won’t care

With honeyed words and oiled smiles the wheels turn
But still we’re running out of steam
Too much to contain prepare for breakdown
The land beside the road is littered with the wrecks
Of those who tried to make it round
But to make it through it’s what you must do

Never let them get you down
Never let them get you down
Tell them all that you don’t care
Tell them all that this, it’s what you live for
You’d die for
Something to live for
Die for
Shut your eyes then you won’t see
Close your ears then you won’t hear
You won’t care

(Banks/Hues)

A street in Paris in the rain
I shoot in black and white a hundred frames
I watch your make-up
Begin to run

You show a strange unease
But you’re my subject and it’s me you please
I feel your spirit freeze
As the shutter clicks down

We are in heaven now
As if we broke the bonds of earth somehow
Here for eternity
A piece of you is part of me

I know you’ll never leave
Cos like a primitive I do believe
I have you spirit seized
As the shutter clicks down

We are in heaven now
As if we broke the bonds of earth somehow
Here for eternity
A piece of you is part of me

We are in heaven now
As if we broke the bonds of earth somehow
You’re under my control
Because I’ve captured your immortal soul
Don’t look for signs
Your spirit shines
Here till the end of our days

And now in Paris in the rain
I put the camera in its case again
And in those hundred frames
Another moth to the candle flame

We are in heaven now
As if we broke the bonds of earth somehow
Here for eternity
A piece of you is part of me

(Banks/Hues)

I want to tell you all about a young man
He’ll be known as Dan
Then he was living down in San Diego
Drove an ice-cream van
One night he met a girl in Club Alamo
But she was strictly incognito

They had a drink and when he asked her name
She told him Jennifer
But what he didn’t realize as he was
Dancing close to her
He held the body of a waitress called Kaye
Who used to live in Sacramento
They danced right through the night and into the day
Remaining strictly incognito

He drove her home in the sunlight of morning
He held her close in the car
But fourteen year old Sara Lee was watching
She knew he’d gone much too far

Poor Dan a simple man he just failed to see
It wasn’t Jennifer who kissed him
Cos when Dan took her hand he held Sara Lee
She knew that she could convict him

So Dan got ten years to dream in state detention
And lost the use of his car
And all because his waitress Kaye forgot to mention
It’s not always clear who we are

Now she’s waiting tables in Paloma
Near the Four-O-Five
And there’s another twenty-eight personas
Keeping her alive
Next time your waitress looks you right in the eye
You’d better exercise your veto
And keep your mind right on that blueberry pie
Remaining strictly incognito

(Banks)

Like a fuse to the end will burn
Like a wave when the tide has turned
You keep on coming regardless
You won’t accept defeat

And in the light of a cold grey dawn
When all seemed lost and you felt so forlorn
You sensed a warmth surround you
And now you find you’re
No longer on your own

It’s impossible unbelievable news
It’s impossible but it’s true

You never thought you would ever be here
You never even dared to hope you would ever be here
In a world you used to dream of
And watch from afar

After all of the time gone by
Searching fruitlessly asking why
It’s hard to stop the trying
To truly realize

That all the pain all that’s gone before
Lies behind and you can close the door
In the past forever
No need to worry
No need to fear at all

It’s impossible unbelievable news
It’s impossible but it’s true

You never thought you would ever be here
You never even dared to hope you would ever be here
In a world you used to dream of
And watch from afar


In every minute of every hour so many dreams die
Do you believe it will be any different this time
This dream will last forever
This day will never end

Now the fog surrounds you
Swirling all around you
Confusing all your senses
All you see are phantoms
Always just out of reach
They tantalize and beckon
Seduce but without promise
You don’t want to be here anymore
You don’t want to be here to take it anymore
Now the water rises
It takes you where it will
You cannot choose direction
Or control the motion
And in the end you’re thrown up
On an island in the darkness
Nothing is familiar
Tell me are you frightened on your own
Do you have the will to carry on?