Driving Through The Desert

This is the place I got punched in the face
By another boy at school about the age of ten
I was a prissy little kid all smug and self-important
And too goody-goody by half
Having failed as a fighter, I tried to be a lover
In my own small way, don’t get me wrong
These are not the days to be screwing around at all
Not if you can help it
Spent six years in an overcrowded manor
For disturbed adolescents, in my fading teens
Haunted by the past and terrified by the future
The old man’s words, I hasten to add
Driving through, driving through the desert
And the sun beats down
Driving through, driving through the desert
Where would we all have been without him
This is the way we used to go to Wenden’s Ambo
To cool off swimming after evensong
The place has hardly changed, only grown a little smaller
And quite a bit smarter since the estate agents came
And over there’s the line of the old branch railway
You wouldn’t even notice now that the cutting’s been filled
I can still hear the railbus shuttle back and forward
But most of all, we miss the river
It was many miles later, just around that corner
That I met the King Pistol, as he used to be then
He said we had to gatecrash down at the Speakeasy
Seeing as neither of us could even stomach the place
Driving through, driving through the desert
And the sun beats down
Driving through, driving through the desert
Driving through, driving through the desert
And the sun beats down
Driving through, driving through the desert
Fucking champagne socialists
Another two hundred kilometers on
And the sun’s getting higher in the sky
I can’t remember when we last ate fresh vegetables
Or tasted cold water from a tap
Mirages shimmer in the distance
But I couldn’t give a toss about that anymore
'Cause we’ve got enough gasoline to keep us going
Well into the next century
Still, this road carries on, carries on
Must end up somewhere, I suppose
And who needs water when we’ve got Castlemain XXXX
And a king-size box of rubbers
Driving through, driving through the desert
And the sun beats down
Driving through, driving through the desert
Who knows when we might
Driving through, driving through the desert
And the sun beats down
Driving through, driving through the desert
Look out for that gully!
I think this is where I get off
Driving, we are driving home…