THE STRENGTH TO FLY
 

Lyrics: Ian McLeish
Music: Ian McLeish & Geoff Pinhey
 
 

1.
It's easy closing your eyes -
Doesn't take much to tell yourself lies -
To imagine the world
As a place that is fair and is free.

2.
It's simple - someone else has a plan;
No problem - hide your head in the sand -
'Cause you don't have the power -
To change all the suffering you see.

Bridge 1.
I've lain awake at night, crying for the world -
Tried to point the blame, leaving no stone unturned;
But in the end the truth is clear, it's down to you and me -
If, in the end, we will endure - every last soul's got to see;
That when the smoke has cleared -
With all that we have learned -
We have to start again with love, not greed.

3.
My children, I watch them at play -
Do you remember your younger days?
When you could breathe the air -
And swim at a beach that was clean?

Bridge 2.
Cold the wind will blow, when the rainforest's gone -
Silent be the seas when the last cetacean's song
Is heard from shore to shore, gone forever more -
And the sun beats down all day, no ozone in it's way;
And the acid rain will fall -
On remains of forests tall;
Mother nature, finally beaten, turns away...

4.
The answer is always inside;
The problem will have no place to hide -
If your heart is the key -
Then your soul has the strength to fly.
 

Copyright: 1989 Ian McLeish & Geoff  Pinhey
Published: 1989 McMusic LTD. CAPAC
Renewed 1994 Mousehole Music  SOCAN
 

Chuck:  Drums
Ian:  Bass
John: Electric Guitars
Mary Ellen: Lead & Background Vocals
Geoff:  Piano, Synthesizers
 
 

The Strength To Fly - August 1989, Ottawa & November 1989, London, England.
The first, and so far only, song written by myself on a keyboard. Sitting at a grand piano at my father's house, the opening chords 'just came'. A later session on the guitar firmed up the majority of the music, but I was still having trouble finishing the bridge. Turning to Geoff for help, this was solved, but the song still had no lyrics. I didn't want to do another love song, as I felt the music was really powerful and demanded something different. Known as the "Ecology Song" for a while, some lyrics were sketched out, but the words as we know them now were not finished until four months later in London, England, sitting on the pavement outside a theatre, waiting to get last minute tickets to a performance of The Phantom of the Opera.