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Track 8. The Righteous Ghosts

It was in 1964 they finally closed the chapel door
The faithful few they bade their last farewell
Someone sold the organ, someone took the pews
The trustees took an offer it would have been folly to refuse
And God's house became a house for men to dwell
With the righteous ghosts

It was a family from the town who moved in the first time around
Mr Davis was a chemist who worked for the I.C.I.
Science his occupation, science brought his daily bread
Science gave the answers to the questions in his head
So for ten years he always closed his eyes
To the righteous ghosts...

In 1983 when Margaret Thatcher was the queen
A new couple, nouveau riche and self-employed
They had seven years of making good, seven years cash flow
Seven years, and then a heart attack, the doctor came too slow
Though she used his mobile phone, he did not join
The righteous ghosts

Sometimes in the night you suddenly awake
To the final fading echoes of a hymn
Or the sound of children's voices in what was the Sunday school
Or is it just an echo carried by the wind?
The text still painted in the wall in what is now the sitting room
In colours green and gold that almost glow
O Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness
But holiness, that's not a word we know
It's for the righteous ghosts

Jeanie came in 1990, a well-heeled refugee
From the city noises and the carbon monoxide
Brought her own religion, but not the chapel kind
No pain, no guilt, no crosses, just the universal mind
And the god within who always runs to hide
From the righteous ghosts

And the ghosts are waiting for the dawn when they will take on solid form
To leave behind the shadows of the night
The silence tearing like a shroud, once more they lift their voices loud
To praise the one and everlasting light
And we who stand superior in our empty ways these hollow days,
Find all we claim to worship brought down low
As we stumble from our places and fall down on our aces
And finally realise how much we owed
To the righteous ghosts.

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