Sting - The Bridge Album Lyrics

How many times have I had this dream
That breaks me from my slumber?
How will I ever get to sleep again
Counting sheep in a book of numbers?

How many times have I had this dream
With you walking towards me from the river?
And when will I ever get to rest again
Wondering if I can deliver?

This is the sound of rushing water
Flooding through my brain
This is the sound of God's own daughter
Calling out your name

This is the sound of atmospheres
Three metric tonnes of pressure
This is the sum of all my fears
Something I just can't measure

I remember the story of Jonah
He was trapped in the belly of a whale
How many times must he succeed?
How many times must he fail?

This is the sound of rushing water (rushing water)
Flooding through my brain (flooding through my brain)
This is the sound of God's own daughter (own daughter)
Calling out your name

I'll see my shrink on an analyst's couch
Hit me with a hammer and I'll say, ouch
What we have here is so easy to solve
Just takes a firm purpose and some resolve

This is the sound of rushing water (rushing water)
Flooding through my brain (flooding through my brain)
This is the sound of God's own daughter (own daughter)
Calling out your name

This is the sound of rushing water (rushing water)
Flooding through my brain (flooding through my brain)
This is the sound of God's own daughter (own daughter)
Calling out your name

Your name, your name
Your name, your name
Your name, your name, your name, your

Ease into the water
Flooding through your brain
Ease into the water
Calling out your name

Ease into the water
Flooding through your brain
Ease into the water

Jumped out of bed this morning
With a smile upon my face
It's still there while I shave my chin
But the reason's hard for me to trace
Cook myself some breakfast
Have some coffee while I muse
Where could this smile have come from?
It's a muscle that I rarely use

Call the doctor with my symptoms
Should I spend all day in bed?
Can you explain what's ailing me?
And this is what my doctor said

If it's love, it has no season
If it's love, there is no cure
If it's love, it won't see reason
And of this you can be sure
If it's love, you must surrender (you must surrender)
If it's love that's turned you 'round (that's turned you 'round)
If it's love, the odds are slender (the odds are)
If it's love, you're sunk without a trace
One case can bring you down

You smile and your heart skips a beat
You hear a church bell chiming
A sound that's ringing in your ears
Will set your heartbeat climbing

And my doctor's diagnosis?
His opinion, and I quote, "I'll write you a prescription"
And this is what my doctor wrote

If it's love, it has no season
If it's love, there is no cure
If it's love, it won't see reason
And of this you can be sure
If it's love, you must surrender (you must surrender)
If it's love then you must yield
If it's love, the odds are slender (the odds are)
If it's love, the trap's already laid
And I'm afraid your fate is all but sealed

Bring me a glass of water
To wash the dirt from my throat
I've been wandering my whole life out there
Help me out of my coat

This water's as clear as crystal
We should thank the lord for that
Sit you down and hear my story
Find somewhere for my hat

A barkeep takes a stranger's hat
And finds a vacant hook
Turns back towards the traveller
His right hand on an old black book

The holy book of numbers
I take it's something that you've read?
The long search in the wilderness
For a place to lay my head

So many parables in the scriptures
But this one I'm doomed to tell
For I stormed the gates of heaven
And find myself in hell

Is this my lonely mission?
To wake the world up to its fate
To dismantle my own invention
For the hour is getting late

This holy book of numbers
As we walk through the shadow of death
Tell me, are you listening, boy
Or am I just wasting my breath?

There are fools in the courts of power
While I've walked through this vale of bitter tears
At the mercy of recording angels
Three score and twenty-five years

The barkeep gets up from the table
To fill up another glass
He turns around to find an empty chair
All that's left is the name in his hat

You say that I don't listen
That I don't give you no respect
You took your love to some other place
Now, what did you expect?

We made vows inside the church
To forgive each other's sins
But there are things I have to endure
Like the smell of another man's skin

If that's not loving you, I don't know what is (I don't know what)
If that's not loving you, then tell me what it is
If that's not loving you, I don't know what is (I don't know what)
If that's not loving you, then tell me what it is

You say you wanted children
And you would grow into a mother
But in my mind's eye, I would see you
In the arms of another

I am given to jealousy
I've been given to violence
But I could never raise a hand in my defence
So I suffer here in silence

If that's not loving you, I don't know what is (I don't know what)
If that's not loving you, then tell me what it is
If that's not loving you, I don't know what is (I don't know what)
If that's not loving you, then tell me what it is

I pray the waters of forgiveness
Will rain down on you and me
Just like newborn babies
In the cradle of a tree

And we will walk in righteousness
We will walk in rain and thunder
And what God has joined together here
Let no man put asunder

If that's not loving you, I don't know what is (I don't know what)
If that's not loving you, then tell me what it is
If that's not loving you, I don't know what is (I don't know what)
If that's not loving you, then tell me what it is

If that's not loving you, I don't know what is (I don't know what)
If that's not loving you, then tell me what it is
If that's not loving you, I don't know what is (I don't know what)
If that's not loving you, then tell me what it is

The street where we live
Is commonly known as being the wrong side of town
They look down their noses at you
Like they're entitled to keep you down
Our street has its social issues
And violent crime by the bucket load
They laughed when they named it Harmony Road

They say where you're born
Will have an effect on how you turn out in life
So how can you make a living
When all you have is a pocket knife?
You don't have the choice to run
From another violent episode
Welcome to life here on Harmony Road

One day, we'll make a break
Get out of here, make no mistake
We'll steal a car
Find a happy song on the radio
And never come back to Harmony Road

You walk down the hill
And past the old factory shuttered for twenty years
There used to be work
But you wonder how you'll ever get out of here
If I had a song in me
I would pay off all of the debts I owed
I'm all out of tune on Harmony Road

I'll find us some money
And I will take you with me, I promise you
I'll buy you some fancy clothes
And we'll do all the things we wanted to
And no one will know
That we're any different, we're just a la mode
The king and the queen of Harmony Road

One day, we'll make a break from here
We'll make it big and have no fear
Won't carry the social stigma
Of being judged by our postal code
And we will be done with Harmony Road

But then in our dreams
Are we to be haunted by what we left behind?
That road has a way of
Pulling you back if ever you give it mind
No matter the riches
And all the palaces where we may have strode
We'll always belong to Harmony Road
We'll always belong to Harmony Road

What would a man not do?
What would a man not say?
What would a man not agree to?
What would he not betray?

Where would a man fear to trespass?
Where would a man not stray?
What crime would a man not admit to?
What price would a man not pay?

(For her love)
He's got no money but his head's up in the stars
(For her love)
He'll spray her name across a streetcar
(For her love)
If he can't read between the lines up there on Mars
(For her love)
He'll find some meaning in a street light

What would a man not consent to?
What would a man not face?
What would a man not agree to?
What lies would a man not embrace?

(For her love)
He'll find a job, he'll work his fingers to the bone
(For her love)
She's safely sleeping in the moonlight
(For her love)
He'll save his money, buy a place to call their own
(For her love)
And he will be the one she loves

By the stretch of my fingers (For her love)
By the strength in my hands (For her love)
By the blood that flows in my veins (For her love)
By the pulse of my beating heart (For her love)
By the sun up in heaven, by the moon and the stars (for her love)
By the circling planets
And the lines on the surface, the surface of Mars

What would a man not do
What would a man not say
For her love?

Oh, the hills on the border
'Bout this time of the year
When the mists seem to gather
In the valley of your fears

And you walk through that valley
As day turns to night
Is there something in the shadows
Or the failing of the light?

I was walking home last evening
When perhaps I should have ran
From a darkening of shadows
In the shape of a man

It said, "Talk to me, stranger
Or may I call you brother?
Let us make our way together
From this place to another

I don't carry any weapon
I don't carry any staff
But I'll carry half your burden
'Til your journey's cut in half

Let me share of your burden
The lifetime you will carve
And the gravestone that you carry
Will be a burden halved"

He sat down by the roadside
As the mists they gathered 'round
Takes some cards from his pocket
That he spreads upon the ground

He said, "this card is a woman
You will love but not possess
And this card's a man you'll murder
But you'll never confess

I don't carry any weapon
I don't carry any staff
But I'll carry half your burden
'Til your journey's cut in half

Let me share of your burden
This lifetime you will carve
And the gravestone that you carry
Will be a burden halved"

I said, "Why should I trust you?
Are the cards that you have thrown?
I don't know you from the Devil
And this burden is my own"

He said, "I have the gift of secrets
From our Father, little brother
Let us make our way together
From this world to another"

Oh, the hills on the border
'Bout this time of the year
When the mists seem to gather
In the valley of your fears

And you walk through that valley
Your coat around your ears
As you walk to the borders
From the valley of your fears

As you walk to the borders
From the valley of your fears
As you walk to the borders
From the valley of your fears

Lord Bateman was a noble lord
A noble lord of high degree
Imprisoned in some foreign country
To spend his life in captivity

He is a captain in the King's own Navy
He spent his life upon the cold grey sea
What would he give now for a plate of meat and gravy
Or for an angel to appear and set him free

For seven years, he lives on bread and dirty water
A single candle in his prison room for light
Into the cell will walk the pretty jailer's daughter
The cloak she's wearing is as black as any night

She is a creature of captivating beauty
As this bold captain's hungry eyes would ever see
She looks upon him with the eye of love's desire
And so he begs her, "lady, will ye set me free?"

"What can you offer if you gain your freedom?
I'll lose my heart if I should ever set you free
I have the keys if you'll deliver me a promise
Should I release you, then you'll vow to marry me"

"You are a creature of captivating beauty
We could run and make a life beyond the sea"
He takes her hand in his and makes a solemn promise
"Unchain me now and I will vow to marry thee"

Beneath the city walls and down into the harbour
She'll throw his chains into the wine-dark sea
They'll find a ship, but now his hand is forced to stay her
"In truth, I never could have married thee"

She was a creature of captivating beauty
He still has many miles of ocean to traverse
His broken promises will move the gods to anger
All broken promises will render matters worse

She sees the black storm clouds on the horizon
His solemn promises lie broken
And whispered on the wind, as if it's spoken
He'll hear a maiden's curse

I wake up in Antwerp
In some rich woman's bed
There's a man with a hammer
Inside of my head

She says, "I couldn't wake you
I thought you were dead
But you talked in your sleep
I don't know what you said"

I look in the mirror
My eyes bleeding red
There's a taste in my mouth
Of stale brandy and lead

Don't know how I got here
Or if I was led
But I know it's a Sunday
For the bells in my head

As they call to the faithful
The quick and the dead
The last days of judgement upon us
And the bells on the roof of St. Thomas
Are calling

She says, "are you hungry?
You look underfed"
"No, I'd better be going
I'll have coffee instead"

"Let me give you some money"
I say, "There's no need
You don't owe me nothing
It's what we agreed"

But the room's like a palace
In a book I once read
And the words that I'm thinking
Would be better unsaid

I search for my clothes
Then she asks if I'll stay
"There's a room for you here
My husband's away"

The bells of St. Thomas
Are aching with doubt
They're cracked and they're broken
Like the earth in a drought

I've searched for their meaning
I just never found out
Whatever they're expecting from us
Or why the bells on the roof of St. Thomas
Are crying

I walk to the church, though it's empty by now
The roof like an overturned ship, and a prow
For a pulpit, and there it is up on the wall
St. Thomas inspecting the wounds for us all

It's a painting by Rubens
Painted from life
And it's flanked by a rich man
And his elegant wife

The wounds we all share
And yet still need the proof
You can feign your indifference
Pretend you're aloof

But the wounds we're denying are there all the same
And the bells of St. Thomas are ringing again

The saint I was named for
The sceptical brother
The rich man's wife
In the arms of another

And the exit wounds
Of a love that's gone wrong
She said she was leaving
But she'd already gone

And the last days of judgement are finally upon on us
And the bells on the roof of St. Thomas
Are calling

They say there's a bridge out there
Out there in the mist
Some will deny it's there
Others will tell you it don't even exist
It's not made of iron or steel, nor stone
Yet it spans the rising waters
We are but bags of blood and bone
Yet we carry the weight of our sons and our daughters
And now the fields are all but drowned
And we climb up to the ridge
Some will seek the higher ground
Some of us the bridge

If all is behind us now
Beneath that swollen river
The bridge we will find somehow
Only then will we be delivered
Though some will claim to be inclined
It's a figment or a ghost
But the bridge is deep inside the mind
Invisible to most
And now the city's all but drowned
And here up on the ridge
Some will seek the higher ground
Some of us, the bridge

Open the gates that we may follow
Open the bridge to all of us
Open the floodgates to the river
Open the bridge that we may cross