Perfect Pose Songtext
von Peter Hammill

Upon Charles Bridge he′s frozen in a gesture
Looks like he's waiting for a moment to arrive
Some special currency to connect him to the zeitgeist
Snakes alive
Snakes alive

He′s traipsed around the towns, the landmarks of old Europe
Looking to link between the present and the past
And here at last he feels ghosts crowding in around him
For the photograph
For the photograph


All that he wants to be
An image of mystery
A backdrop, a profile, a choice location
Needing his imagination
Instead of memories to hold him in the game
He'd rather wrap time's frame around him
No need for memories, they all feel much the same
He′d rather stay in character
A centre spread in a paper
An unpaged spread in a magazine

He′s lost himself in being here so often
But life's got harder as the book has softened
He′s made his only purpose the pursuit

Of posing for the perfect photograph

Out of shot the light's bleeding
And time comes apart at the seams
He′ll disappear
It's nearly time
The shutter′s opening
And now exposure's come

Chiaroscuro
And he's all transparency
In the aperture
Come to the ghosts
They′ll hold him close
Metamorphosed
In the perfect pose