I was ready to be humbled
by the words that you had written
by the syllables you mumbled
Yeah, I was ready in my heart
to have my heart invaded
by the fervor of your passion
yes, I came to be persuaded
But when I heard your ragged voice
something switched in my perception
and I knew I was the victim
of a beautiful deception
All my once exact beliefs
like tangled threads unraveled
I walked out stunned and liberated
and so began my travels
Keep the river on your right
and the highway at your shoulder
and the front line in your sights, Pioneer
keep your eye on the road
remember what you told her
this is all in code, my dear
"You better get yourself a coat"
said the handsome taxi driver
and he sighed like seven bridges
like a natural-born survivor
As we drove into the night
I could feel the forest jangling
all the choices laid before me
and their consequences dangling
We came upon a stricken ship
that must have once been splendid
the captain as he died said
"Boys, our revels now have ended"
I heard a wild holy band
playing jazz that was outrageous
that recalled the days of rapture
when our love was still young and contagious
Keep the river on your right
and the highway at your shoulder
and the front line in your sights, Pioneer
keep your eye on the road
remember what you told her
this is all in code, my dear
In a dim-lit motel room
two sad lovers were discoursing
on the dignity of exile
and the merits of divorcing
She said "All certainty is gone"
but he leapt up, still denying
cried, "I won't believe the flame I lit
is dead or even dying"
She left him drooling in the dust
and with rucksack packed begun her
bitter journey to the border
which is where I wooed and won her
She was Aphrodite, Helen, Thetis
Eve among the satyrs
she was Venus in a v-neck sweater
she was all that ever mattered
Keep the river on your right
and the highway at your shoulder
and the front line in your sights, Pioneer
keep your eye on the road
remember what you told her
this is all in code, my dear
Like Dean Moriarty's ghost
I came in quest of secret knowledge
in the winter of my journey
to a crumbling Druid college
There I read the books of lore
and contemplated in seclusion
but I took my leave embittered
still in love with my illusions
In the drizzling Irish rain
as a tender dawn was breaking
in a doorway I stood spellbound by
the ancient music they were making
I took my breakfast with the gods
on a blushing summer morning
to a wind blew them all away
I had misread every warning...
Keep the river on your right
and the highway at your shoulder
and the front line in your sights, Pioneer
keep your eye on the road
remember what you told her
this is all in code, my dear
Under cold electric light
I watched the scenes mutating
like an old-time frontier ballad
or a carousel rotating
As if in a moment from a film
with astonishing precision
the camera zooms in closer
and a figure comes into vision
I'm in Tokyo; it's dawn
and it's raining hallelujahs
down the bright-lit neon canyons
along the sidewalks of Shibuya
I'm trying to take a stance
and rise above my contradictions
but I'm just a bunch of words in pants
most of those are fiction
Keep the river on your right
and the highway at your shoulder
and the front line in your sights, Pioneer
keep your eye on the road
remember what you told her
this is all in code, my dear
Keep the river on your right
and the highway at your shoulder
and the front line in your sights, Pioneer
keep your eye on the road
remember what you told her
this is all in code, my dear
The Waterboys are a British folk rock band formed in London in 1983 by Scottish musician and songwriter Mike Scott. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England. Mike Scott has remained the only constant member throughout the band's career. They have explored a number of different styles, but their music is mainly a mix of folk music with rock and roll. They dissolved in 1993 when Scott departed to pursue a solo career. The group reformed in 2000, and continue to release albums and to tour worldwide. Scott emphasises a continuity between the Waterboys and his solo work, saying that "To me there's no difference between Mike Scott and the Waterboys; they both mean the same thing. They mean myself and whoever are my current travelling musical companions."
The early Waterboys sound became known as "The Big Music" after a song on their second album, A Pagan Place. This style was described by Scott as "a metaphor for seeing God's signature in the world." Waterboys chronicler Ian Abrahams elaborated on this by defining "The Big Music" as "...a mystical celebration of paganism. It's extolling the basic and primitive divinity that exists in everything ('the oceans and the sand'), religious and spiritual all encompassing. Here is something that can't be owned or built upon, something that has its existence in the concept of Mother Earth and has an ancestral approach to religion. And it takes in and embraces the feminine side of divinity, pluralistic in its acceptance of the wider pantheon of paganism."
"The Big Music" either influenced or was used to describe a number of other bands specializing in an anthemic sound, including U2, Simple Minds, In Tua Nua, Big Country and Hothouse Flowers.
In the late 1980s, the band became significantly more folk-influenced. The Waterboys eventually returned to rock and roll, and have released both rock and folk albums since reforming.
