This is a song I have been in awe of & deeply admired ever since it came out and just for fun,I decided to try & cover it.
To just enjoy listening to this song on cd is one thing,but to actually learn the compostion in great detail to cover it,is quite another experience-which really made me appreciate this song all the more....the jazzy bass lines,the various key changes and the wonderful backing vocals really make this an extraordinary piece of music and it's one of my most favorite arrangements of all time.
I spent 3 days on this song-which is more time than I have ever spent on any cover song I've ever done & I bungled it,but it certainly was fun messing it up.
By the way,I am equally amazed at Gordon Sumner's metaphorical & narrative lyrics...so here they are;
Under the ruins of a walled city,crumbling towers & beams of yellow light
No flags of truce,no cries of pity
The siege guns had been pounding all through the night
It took a day to build this city,we walked through the streets in the afternoon
As I crossed the fields that I had known,I recognized the walls that I once made
Had to stop in my tracks for fear,of walking on the mines I laid
And if I built this fortress,around your heart
Encircled you in trenches & barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge,for I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire
Then I went off to fight some battle,that I'd invented inside my head
Away so long for years & years-you'd probably thought or even wished that I was dead
While the armies are all sleeping,beneath the tattered flag we'd made
Had to stop in my tracks for fear,of walking on the mines I'd laid
{Repeat Chorus}
This has now become you're home,a sentence you seem prepared to pay
It took a day to build this city,we walked through the streets in the afternoon
As I returned across the lands I'd known,I recognized the fields where I once played
Had to stop in my tracks for fear,of walking on the mines I'd laid
{Repeat Chorus}
