Novella

Novella Cover
© 1977 Sire Records, Inc.
Original UK Novella Cover
Original UK Release Cover
© 1977 Sire Records, Inc.
Original Novella Cover
Original US Release Cover
© 1977 Sire Records, Inc.

Lyrics

© 1977 Novella Music Inc.
Lyrics Transcription Corrections by: Russell W. Elliot
Last Update: 22 September 1996

  1. Can You Hear Me? (Camp-Dunford-Thatcher)
  2. The Sisters (Dunford-Thatcher-Tout)
  3. Midas Man (Dunford-Thatcher)
  4. The Captive Heart (Camp-Dunford)
  5. Touching Once (Is So Hard To Keep) (Camp-Dunford)

CAN YOU HEAR ME?

Morning people take the news
A paper window on a world
They live on undisturbed
Thoughts may fly like the lonely birds
And lost behind the silent words
Voices are unheard
Put it down to city life
Oh if I understood
Passing by so easily
I'd reach you if I could
Can you hear me
Can you hear me

Fly like a song, fly while you're singing
A song without you, is a bird without winging
Some city flights leave in the morning
Some city nights end without warning
Can you hear me call

Evening people see the day
A silhouette on every face
A shadow on their eyes
I take my place within the crowd
We walk the dusty streets around
Encompassing our lives

Put it down to city times
Oh if I understood
Passing by so casually
I'd reach you if I could
Can you hear me
Can you hear me

Fly like a song, fly while you're singing
A song without you, is a bird without winging
Some city flights leave in the morning
Some city nights end without warning
Can you hear me call
Can you hear me call
Can you hear me call

Instrumental

Calling to the sky
The thunder drowns my voice within the rain
And I know you're near me
And I call throughout the storm
I know that you don't hear me
I call your name
I call your name
I call your name

Can you hear me call your name
Can you hear me call
Hear me call your name
I call your name
I call your name
Can you hear me call your name

Instrumental

Night time people find it hard
To hear themselves above the noise
The music holds its own
I recognised a place I'd known
I turned to find it carved in stone
A mirrored smile alone

Put it down to city nights
Oh if I understood
Passing by so far from me
I'd reach you if I could
Can you hear me
Can you hear me

Fly like a song, fly while you're singing
A song without you, is a bird without winging
Some city flights leave in the morning
Some city nights end without warning
Can you hear me call
Can you hear me call
Can you hear me call

THE SISTERS

The sisters worked for the people round them
Their Spanish lace wove some bread for the poor
And they cared and tried but were worn with
Their fears and the years of heartbreak

Dust and wine stained the men who knew them
The sweat of days in the angry sun
And the men were weak, and they cried
And they asked, "Sisters, make us holy."

The sisters prayed, "Give us hope for something."
The men asked, "Where is your God today?"
And the empty eyes as the sisters prayed held
Their thoughts unspoken

There was nothing they could do
Earth was dust for miles around
Nothing new survived
Everything was barren on the land
And the truth they tried to understand just died

Everything was barren on the land
And the truth they tried to understand just died

MIDAS MAN

Gold - said the man to the many
I want money and I'll make it grow
I will count my worth in gold - wealth untold
I'll sell my soul - Midas Man

Sold - said the man to the many
Work for me, I'll only steal your time
I will count my money out, there's no doubt
I'll sell my soul - Midas Man - Midas Man

Chorus:

I'll take from the blind and I'll get up ahead
I'll sneak up behind and I'll steal
I'll take all that you have
And then all that you've concealed
I'll take anything I can get - I'll make you
I'll break you and I'll make you sweat
Nothing is worth nothing unless it's
Made for Midas Man

Gold - said the man to the many
Pots of gold are all I want from you
Quarter time for treble days the only way
To sell your soul - Midas Man - Midas Man

Chorus

Midas - Midas - Midas Man

THE CAPTIVE HEART

I made my dreams then lost them
They left and I went away
There's no romance in the memory
That's part of yesterday
But feelings linger stronger sometimes
So hard to disappear
When what holds you is a treasure
You've stored throughout the years
Finding out the hard way

The captive heart has lost and won a thousand lovers
That place each moment close to living in each other
Reaching out for treasures
Scattered in their dreams
Trying takes a life of loving so it seems

So carry on don't stop your feelings
Try and make them flow
Somewhere there's a vision waiting
You'll find it when you know
Taking the final curtain
That's coming down on you
Leaving the play of fools
Move onto life you knew
Fiding out the hard way

No easy path to conquer
Trying to compromise
Climbing through my anguish
I see your fading eyes

The captive heart has lost and won a thousand lovers
That place each moment close to living in each other
Reaching out for treasures
Scattered in their dreams
Loving takes a life of trying so it seems

TOUCHING ONCE (IS SO HARD TO KEEP)

Leaving all their thoughts behind
Passing over timeless wastes of ecstasy
Freedom strangled at the source
Takes the only charted course
That leads them home
Their bodies move towards the dawn
The light in which a nation born
Can only hope, and only weep
Their passion may be growing weak

How was alone, recall me if you can
I feel I am lost within you
Many times within the sound of emptiness
A light has shown deep in each others soul
Keeps them apart, a love now makes them whole
Fractured memories tearing at all their dreams
Made life and living a faded scene

To give a name locked in despair
Makes chances of a lifetime course across your eyes
To give and get, and yet return
Emotion smoulders, starts to burn in harmony
They lay within a ruined shell
Searching for the time to tell
That he who followed endlessly
Does not exist, can never be

How was alone, recall me if you can
I feel I have lost within you
A part of what is held inside a deep regret
Taking over all that a hearts request
Answered by cries from a wilderness
Found forgotten lying in deeper sleep
Touching once is so hard to keep

In emptiness, a light has shown deep in each others soul
Keeps them apart, a love now makes them whole
Fractured memories tearing at all their dreams
Made life and living a faded scene
Taking over all that a hearts request
Answered by cries from a wilderness
Found forgotten lying in deeper sleep
Touching once is so hard to keep