The Empty City

[Intro]
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
Hello, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi, hi

[Verse 1]
The outline of the city
The sheerness of its height
I thought that I was kidding
When I said—I love this sight (I love this sight)
I love this skyline
Towers rising from the trees
White bars on a blue graph
Not exactly, uh, flapping in the breeze

[Verse 2]
Cast upon a great white plaza
Filtered down through architects' maps
A stand of glassy super-structures
Rising from the sprawling city flats
Streaming to the blue sea—I mean sky
Gleaming like beluga, beluga
Reduced to teeming atoms
And shimmering in the heat

[Chorus]
Hope you have your camera
Hope you have some paper
'Cause if no one gets this down
Then it's gone forever
Gone forever

[Verse 3]
This is the elevator
I press all the buttons
Every floor is different
Well, a different number anyways
The marble in the lobby
The silent corridors
Is this the new church
Out of which, uh, no one pours?

[Verse 4]
I feel I'm rising higher
I must be in the clouds by now
I knew it when I saw it
I picked the right office tower
I feel I heard it lift off
Break away from all the rest
It's lifting its great heaviness

[Chorus]
Hope you have your camera
Hope you have some paper
'Cause if no one gets this down
Then it's gone

[Verse 5]
Strange when I think about it
Well, that I should write of birds and flying things
I, I always tried to avoid it
Reminds me of dumb girls and bad poetry
Well—I'm not perfect
I don't know why it moves me
Maybe I'm gonna die soon
A secret known only to
Known only to not even me

[Verse 6]
I want to live forever
I fear maybe you don't
I fear that I will lose you
Leave me here to carry on alone
That's why I'm not that surprised
That one has broken away
Has lifted from the silent earth
And carried me away

[Chorus]
Hope you have your camera
Hope you have some paper
'Cause if no one gets this down
Then it's gone, gone

[Bridge]
Why? Why? Why? Why?
Hi, hi, me, it's me
It's me, hi, hi, hi
Why? Why? Why?

[Verse 7]
A crystalline set of dominoes
Except not really crystalline
And sort of domino-like
But, but not really
Life is a tall white building
Lifting from the silent earth
It's, it's carrying a message
Carrying it away

[Outro]
I am only...
I am only...