Note that there are several differences: some song titles have no corresponding chapter titles (Never Ending Night, Bitter Harvest and Riding The Tide) and vice versa (A New Land, Pursuit and Argument). Also, the running order of the tracks differs from the order of the chapters, with the EP tracks inserted in a different place. This does not change the story however and probably has more to do with musical considerations (balance between the tracks and the segues) than lyrical ones. Now let’s take a look at the new lyrics.

On The Edge Of Despair

Lying there – With spiders in your hair
No one seems to care if you survive
Blood on your face – All over the place
No one seems to care if you live or die

We’re the same you now
Putting up walls and dodging the stones
We’re the same you know
Walking in the crowd, but living alone
Don’t let this life decay to misery and hate
Don’t throw it away – don’t leave it too late

Lying there – On the edge if despair
This is where I should have been
Black and blue – All battered and bruised
This is where I should have been

Lying there – With death in the air
Too young and unprepared for such distress
Hanging on – But not for too long
Too young and unprepared for such distress

We’re the same you now
Putting up walls and dodging the stones
We’re the same you know
Walking in the crowd, but living alone
Don’t let this life decay to misery and hate
Don’t throw it away – don’t leave it too late

There will be a time and place
You’ll be sure to find me there
Praying that I won’t be too late
To take you from the edge of despair

We’re the same you now
Putting up walls and dodging the stones
We’re the same you know
Walking in the crowd, but living alone
Don’t let this life decay to misery and hate
Don’t throw it away – don’t leave it too late

Noah has found the badly wounded girl Una and thinks he may have come too late to save her. This lyric continues a theme from the preceding track Painted Man: ‘We’re the same you know’ draws back to ‘We’re painted the same’. Noah adresses Una’s pursuers who want her dead: we’re all humans and we should be tolerant to each other instead of despising someone because he or she is different (in this case the horseshoe birthmark makes Una different). There is more that binds us than separates us. 

Every individual is alone, but we should stand together (‘We are joined till the universe fades into darkness again’ and ‘We can’t survive alone, on our own!’ in Cutting The Cards). Noah had gone into exile, insulating himself from the world (Skin Game), but we all shut ourselves off from others, even if we don’t literally go into exile (‘We’re the same you know/Putting up walls and dodging the stones/We’re the same you know/Walking in the crowd but living alone’). Is the modern individualistic society being criticized?

March Of Time

Am I invisible? Far away from the safety line
And the petty little lives of all Mankind
With my eyes closed – and my aching head inclined
Can you see me now?
Keeping in step with the March of Time

I write the verse and I find the rhyme
I listen to the rhythm but the heartbeat’s mine
I’m singing along – to ‘One for the Vine’
Can you see me now?
Keeping in step with the March of Time

Am I invisible? Far away from the screaming minds
Waiting for a taste of the blood red vine
Don’t look close – you won’t like what you find
Can you see me now? Keeping in step with the March of Time

Playing all the parts – It hurts when they laugh
But keep that smile spread wide across your face
Till your head splits in half
Just try to keep the wolves at bay

Let them joke about you
– They don’t know you well
Never let them see inside your mind
– They’d go spinning down to hell
Just try to keep the wolves at bay
– Don’t fight against what they say
‘Cos you’re under attack night and day
One moment of trust could leave you lost and betrayed

Far away from the safety line
And the petty little lives of all Mankind
Keeping in step with the March of Time
I write the verse and I find the rhyme
I listen to the rhythm but the heartbeat’s mine
Keeping in touch with the March of Time

Let the days and years erase me
Let life go by, decay the signs, and fade me
Let the days and years erase me
Let life go by, decay the signs, and fade me
Let the days and years erase me
Let life go by, decay the signs
And fade me from this world 

Like the preceding track Skin Game, March Of Time is about Noah’s self-imposed exile (whereas in the short story it refers to the passing of the ten years it takes Noah to find Una). People think he’s mad and ridicule him, because they don’t understand his powers, so he prefers to be alone and avoid people. He seeks solitude to protect himself and to find peace. But real peace will only come when he dies. He longs for this, wants to be erased, to fade away. He’s no longer in touch with humans, just with the passing of time, his own heartbeat striking the rhythm.

An interesting line is ‘I’m singing along – to ‘One for the Vine’. Clive is fond of Genesis, their live album Seconds Out inspired him to make prog and One For The Vine is from that period (Wind And Wuthering, 1976). But also, the lyric of this Genesis track has several connections with Noah’s story: 

‘Though many there were who believed in him, still more were sure he lied’ (people think Noah’s a charlatan);

‘Then one whose faith had died’ and ‘He observed one without hope’ (Noah’s fate is shaken because of the events that occur and he experiences several moments of desperation);

‘This unexpected vision made them stand and shake with fear (…) Terror filled their minds with awe’ (Noah tells on TV about his vision of the salamander virus and thus unleashes it to all who are watching, the virus causes a frenzy of fear);

‘And by the way he stood up/And vanished into air’ (Noah’s ascension to the City of Lanterns). 

Did this Genesis track inspire Clive for the Contagion story, or is it one of his codes he likes to put in the lyrics for fun?

The Genesis track also refers to being chosen and higher powers designing someone’s fate: ‘This is he – God’s chosen one’ and ‘A misplaced footfall made him stray/From the path prepared for him’. This brings me to some final thoughts around the theme of predestination versus free will and choice. Is our future predetermined and do our actions and the choices we make (think we make?) lead us inevitably to the already determined outcome, or are their several possible futures and can we shape the outcome by our actions and choices? (a theme that’s also explored in the movie trilogy The Matrix).

Noah’s fate was predestined, he was meant to be the carrier of the virus and causing it’s spread, but also to be mankind’s saviour by saving the antidote Una. Noah chose to break from his exile to tell the world about his vision of the virus, as a warning, to prevent the outbreak from occurring. He wants to do good and make the world a better place, because he believes in the City of Lanterns. 

But the result is that he actually unleashes the virus. Could it have been different? What if he had just remained in exile? Or had committed suicide because the voices and visions in his head drive him insane?

However, the final result is that the world has become a better place, there’s been a purge, a cleansing, from the effects of the virus, but also from what the world had become before the virus was unleashed. Now mankind has a new start. So Noah’s good intentions did achieve a good result, but not at all the way he had thought it would go. Now the new future lies ahead – for us to shape?


By: Erik Beers