Album: The Soul Cages (1991)

Charted: 22 5

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• I looked out across the river today
  Saw a city in the fog
  And an old church tower where the seagulls play
  Saw the sad shire horses walking home
  In the sodium light
  Two priests on a ferry
  October geese on a cold winter's night
  
  All this time
  The river flowed
  Endlessly to the sea
  
  Two priests came 'round our house tonight
  One young, one old
  To offer prayers for the dying, to serve the final rites
  One to learn, one to teach
  Which way the cold wind blows
  And fussing and flapping
  In priestly black like a murder of crows
  
  All this time
  The river flowed
  Endlessly to the sea
  
  If I had my way
  I'd take a boat from the river
  And I'd bury the old man
  I'd bury him at sea
  
  Blessed are the poor
  For they shall inherit the earth
  Better to be poor
  Than be a fat man in the eye of a needle
  As these words were spoken, I swear
  I hear the old man laughing
  What good is a used up world
  And how could it be worth having?
  
  All this time
  The river flowed
  Endlessly like a silent tear
  
  All this time
  The river flowed
  Father, if Jesus exists
  Then how come He never lives here?
  
  Teachers told us the Romans built this place
  They built a wall and a temple
  And an edge of the empire garrison town
  They lived and they died
  They prayed to their gods
  But the stone gods did not make a sound
  And their empire crumbled till all that was left
  Were the stones the workmen found
  
  All this time
  The river flowed
  In the falling light
  Of a northern sun
  
  If I had my way
  I'd take a boat from the river
  Men go crazy in congregations
  They only get better one by one (all this time)
  One by one
  One by one, by one
  One by one
  
  I looked out across the river today
  I saw a city in the fog
  And an old church tower where the seagulls play
  Saw the sad shire horses walking home
  In the sodium light
  Two priests on the ferry
  October geese on a cold winter's night Writer/s: Gordon Sumner
  Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 9

• Dennis from Point Pleasant, Nj, UsaI love this song, but Sting can be pretty stupid, and it detracts from the song. Even a child knows that Christ said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." NOT blessed are the poor.
• MoMy favorite line, "Men go crazy in congregations, they only get better one by one" comes from a quote by Charles MacKay in his always relevant 1841 book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds; “Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”
• Waldo from NyIn this line: "Saw a city in the fog and an old church town where the seagulls play."
  
  "town" should be "tower"
  
  Which makes sense: the church is in the city and the church tower is visible in the fog.
  
  
• Wallville from Wash, DcIn Amsterdam, this song danced with me... where the seagulls play.
• Phiilp from Beer Town, Wiwhat a great bass pattern!!!
  
  this tune reminds me of miami beach in the early nineties. much less crowded, no gawdy high rises and lots of fun loving topless german girls at the pool.
• Stephen from Philadelphia, PaI won a $20 bet on this song. A friend swore Sting was singing about the river Thames... but he was wrong and it's the Tyne River in Newcastle, the "edge of the (roman) empire garrison town" where Sting grew up.
• Justin from Roseville, Ca "Men go crazy in congregations, they only get better one by one." One of my favorite lyrics ever. I'd love to hear the cello suite this song is based on.
• Arka from Calcutta, ArDeceptive Manu Kache!!!): I grew up listening to this album: right from when I was 15, and it is still my favourite..well...all of them are favourites, really... Sting album. "Father if Jesus exists,/Then how come He never lives here..?"
• Shelli from Madison, WiSting asked Paul Simon for general songwriting advice during the writing of this song.

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