Goodbye and Hello Songtext
von Tim Buckley

The antique people are down in the dungeons
Run by machines and afraid of the tax
Their heads in the grave and their hands on their eyes
Hauling their hearts around circular tracks
Pretending forever their masquerade towers
Are not really riddled with widening cracks
And I wave goodbye to iron
And smile hello to the air
Oh the new children dance
I am young
All around the balloons
I will live
Swaying by chance
I am strong
To the breeze
From the moon
I can give
Painting the sky
You the strange
With the colors of sun


Seed of day
Freely they fly
Feel the change
As all become one
Know the way
Know the way
The velocity addicts explode on the highway
Ignoring the journey and moving so fast
Their nerves fall apart and they gasp but can′t breathe
They run from the cops of the skeleton past
Petrified by tradition in a nightmare they stagger
Into nowhere at all and then look up aghast
And I wave goodbye to speed
And smile hello to a rose
Oh the new children play
I am young
Under juniper trees
I will live
Sky blue or gray
I am strong
They continue
At ease
I can give
Moving so slow
You the strange
That serenely they can
Seed of day
Gracefully grow
Feel the change
And yes
Still understand
Know the way
Know the way
Know the way
The king and the queen in their castle of billboards
Sleepwalk down the hallways dragging behind
All their possessions and transient treasures
As they go to worship the electronic shrine
On which is playing the late late commercial
In that hollowest house of the opulent rhyme
And I wave goodbye to Mammon
And smile hello to a stream
Oh the new children buy
I am young
All the world for a song
I will live
Without a dime
I am strong
To which
They belong
I can give
Nobody owns
You the strange
Anything
Anywhere
Seed of day
Everyone's grown
Feel the change
Up so big
They can share
Know the way
Know the way
Know the way
The vaudeville generals cavort on the stage
And shatter their audience with submachine guns
And freedom and violence the acrobat clowns
Do a balancing act on the graves of our sons
While the tap dancing emperor sings war is peace
And love the magician disappears in the fun
And I wave goodbye to murder
And smile hello to the rain
Oh the new children can′t
I am young
Tell a foe from a friend
I will live
Quick to enchant
I am strong
And so glad
To extend
I can give
Handfuls of dawn
You the strange
To kaleidoscope man
Seed of day
Come from beyond
Feel the change
And yes
Still understand
Know the way
Know the way
Know the way
The great wall of skin
Know the way, know the way
The bloodless husbands are jesters who listen
Like sheep to the shrieks and commands of their wives
And the men who aren't men leave the women alone
See them all faking love on a bed made of knives
Afraid to discover or trust in their bodies
And in secret divorce they will never survive
And I wave goodbye to ashes
And smile hello to a girl
Oh, the new children kiss
I am young, they are so proud to learn
I will live
Woman-wood-bliss
I am strong and the man-fire that burns, I can give
Knowing no fear
You the strange
They take off their clothes, seed of day
Honest and clear
Feel the change as a river that flows
Know the way, know the way
Know the way
The antique people are fading out slowly
Like newspapers flaming in mind suicide
Godless and sexless, directionless loons
Their sham sandcastles dissolve in the tide
They put on their death mask and compromise daily
The new children will live for the elders have died
And I wave goodbye to America