Michael Esper - All This Time (Broadway Version) lyrics

[GIDEON FLETCHER] 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 And a pale sun shrinks from the empty streets And the day falls into night All this time the river flowed endlessly to the sea [CAPTAIN, spoken] Wallsend [GIDEON FLETCHER, spoken] Yeah, Wallsend, more like the world's end (sung) Our teachers told us, the Romans built this place They built a wall and a temple At 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, ‘til all that was left Were the stones the workmen found 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, bury him at sea Nothing's ever changed round here Not in ten thousand years I fear Same bend in the river, where the tide slows down And the seagulls circle this dirty old town So I ask myself why the Hell would I stay? Just churches and pubs where ye drink or ye pray And the sky's still the same old battleship grey If only the pubs stayed open all day All this time the river flowed In the falling light of a northern sun Well I had my way, I took a boat from the river Cos men go crazy in congregations They only get better one by one [GIDEON FLETCHER & ENSEMBLE] One by one (all this time, yeah ee-yeah) All this time, yeah ee-yeah One by one by one (all this time, yeah ee-yeah) All this time, yeah ee-yeah One by one (all this time, yeah ee-yeah) I looked out across the river today...