Pulp - Wickerman lyrics

Just behind the station, before you
Reach the traffic island
A river runs through' a concrete channel
I took you there once I think
It was after the Leadmill
The water was dirty
And it smelt of industrialisation
Little mesters coughing their lungs up
And globules the colour of tomato ketchup
But it flows yeah, it flows
Underneath the city through'
Dirty brickwork conduit's
Connecting white witches on the Moor with
Pre raphaelites down in Broomhall
Beneath the old Trebor factory that burnt
Down in the early seventies
Leaving an antiquated sweet-shop smell
And caverns of nougat and caramel nougat
Yeah, nougat and caramel
And the river flows on
Yeah, the river flows on beneath pudgy


Fifteen-year olds addicted to coffee whitener
Courting couples naked on Northern
Upholstery and pensioners
Gathering dust like bowls of plastic tulips
And it finally comes above ground
Again at Forge Dam
The place where we first met
I went there again for old time's sake
Hoping to find the child's toy horse ride
That played such a ridiculously tragic tune
It was still there - but none of the
Kids seemed interested in riding on it
And the cafe was still there too
The same press-in plastic letters on the
Price list and scuffed formica-top tables
I sat as close as possible to the seat
Where I'd met you that autumn afternoon
And then, after what seemed like hours
Of thinking about it
I finally took your face in my hands and
I kissed you for the first time
And a feeling like electricity flowed
Through' my whole body
And all the time, in the background
The sound of that ridiculously
Heartbreaking child's ride outside

At the other end of town the river
Flows underneath an old railway viaduct
I went there with you once -
Except you were somebody else -
And we gazed down at the sludgy
Brown surface of the water together
Then a passer-by told us that it used to be a
Local custom to jump off the
Viaduct into the river
When coming home from the pub
On a Saturday night but that this custom had
Died out when someone
Jumped and landed too near to the
Riverbank and had sunk in the mud there
And drowned before anyone could reach them
I don't know if he'd just
Made the whole story up
But there's no way you'd get me
To jump off that bridge
No chance never in a million years

Yeah, a river flows underneath this city
I'd like to go there with you now my pretty
And follow it on for miles and miles
Below other people's ordinary lives
Occasionally catching a glimpse of the moon
Through' man-hole covers along the route
Yeah, it's dark sometimes but if
You hold my hand, i think I know the way
Oh, this is as far as we got last time
But if we go just another mile
We will surface surrounded by grass
And trees and the fly-over that
Takes the cars to cities
Buds that explode at the slightest touch
Nettles that sting - but not too much
I've never been past this point
What lies ahead I really could not say
And I used to live just by the river
In a dis-used factory just off the Wicker
And the river flowed by day after day
And "One day" I thought
"One day I will follow it"
But that day never came
I moved away and lost track but tonight I
Am thinking about making my way back
I may find you there and float on
Wherever the river may take me
Wherever the river may take me
Wherever the river may take us
Wherever it wants us to go
Wherever it wants us to go