Empire Of The Clouds
To ride the storm, to an empire of the cloudsTo ride the storm, they climbed aboard their silver ghostTo ride the storm, to a kingdom that will comeTo ride the storm, and damn the rest, oblivion
Royalty and dignitaries, brandy and cigarsRelated giant of the skies, you hold them in your armsThe millionth chance they laughed, to take down his majesty’s craft“To India” they say, “magic carpet float away”, an October fateful day
Mist is in the trees, stone sweats with the dewThe morning sunrise, red before the blueHanging at the mast, waiting for commandHis majesty’s airship, the r101
She’s the biggest vessel built by man, a giant of the skiesFor all you unbelievers, the titanic fits insideDrum rolled tight, a canvas skin, silvered in the sunNever tested with the fury, with a beating yet to come
The fury yet to come….
In the gathering gloom, a storm rising in the westThe coxswain stared into theWe must go now, we must take our chance with fateWe must go now, for politicians we can’t be lateThe airship crew awake for thirty hours at full stretch,But the ship is in their backbone, every sinew, every inch
She never flew at full speed, a trial never doneA fragile outer cover, her Achilles would become
An Achilles yet to come...
Sailors of the sky, a hardened breedLoyal to the king, and an airship creed
The engines drum, the telegraph soundsRelease the cords that bind us to the groundSaid the coxswain,“sir, she’s heavy, she’ll never make the flight.”Said the captain, “damn the cargo! We’ll be on our way tonight.”Groundsmen cheered in wonder, as she backed up from the mastBaptising with her water, from the ballast fore and aft
Now she slips into our past…
Feeling the wind as it blows youFeeling the – as you’re passing alongWatching the channel below youLower and lower, into the night
Lights are passing below youNorthern France, asleep in their bedsStorm is raging around youA million to one, that’s what they say
Reaper standing beside youWind inside cuts to the boneHaving to make a decisionExperienced men, asleep in their graves
The cover is ripped and she’s drowningRain is flooding into the holdBleeding to death and she’s fallingParachute gas is draining away
“We’re down lads!” came the cry, bow plunging from the skyThree thousand horses silent as the ship began to dieThe flares to guide her path ignited at the lastThe empire of the clouds, just ashes in our pastJust ashes at the last…
Here lie the dreams ofOn the ground where they built, and the engines they runTo the moon and the stars, now what have we done?Oh the dreamers may die, but the dreams live on
Dreams live onDreams live on
Now a shadow on a hill, the angel of the eastThe empire of the clouds may rest in peaceAnd in a country churchyard, laid head to the mastEight and forty souls, who came to die in France…