Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
Peter Hammill
“The Second Hand” deals with the inevitability of the passage of (a wasted) time, through the lens of an hypothetical old character. The final lines resume well the idea that Peter Hammill is writing about:
All men are ruled
By the second hand [of the clock]
The instrumental of the song came out o...
[Verse 1]
I see the old man acting like a fool
He's running from the ambulance
When he was a youngster he broke all the rules –
And now he says that was just accident
Always had the feeling he was going to die young
So now he feels repentant;
But the judge was progressive and the jury was hung
He got a suspended sentence
So he ran from his future, he ran from his past
He ran from the desert of the hour-glass
But the sea of time is a rising flood
And he's swamped by the wave
[Bridge]
His arms go limp by his side
He only came for the ride
He thought he'd hold back the tide
Canute
[Saxophone Solo]
[Verse 2]
One eye on the main chance and one eye on the clock
Oh, when did his brain go?
And when does a veteran get to be a crock...
No gold at the end of this rainbow!
He always boxed clever with his shadowy hopes
But now he's in trouble with his back on the ropes
And the hands of time are bunched into fists:
Yeah, he's out for the Count
[Bridge]
The sword has sunk in the lake
And now he's watching dawn break
And now he waits for the stake
Dracul
[Saxophone Solo]
[Outro]
This boy's a fool
This fool's a man
All men are ruled
By the second hand
The Second Hand was written by Peter Hammill.
The Second Hand was produced by Peter Hammill.