I was looking at a photograph,
Taken in a garden long before the war,
And out on the lawn,
There were old men and dogs and little children,
All of them gone forever;
And there were people by the waterside,
Standing in the same place where I am today,
Nothing has changed - but you know,
That time is moving like a river,
It can only be love forever;
We shine on, brighter than the sun,
Live for every moment, before the moment's gone,
We shine on, you and me tonight,
Way across the universe,
Burning like a fire in the night;
There are those who can never cross,
The space between a father and a son,
When they are young,
We must say all the words that should be spoken,
Before they are lost forever;
And I was looking at a photograph,
Taken from a window way above the world,
And we've got to learn,
We must leave here a garden for our children,
When we are gone forever;
We shine on, brighter than the sun,
Live for every moment, before the moment's gone,
We shine on, you and me tonight,
Way across the universe,
Burning like a fire in the night;
Leave here a garden for the children,
Leave here a new world,
In the night, in the night,
Burning like a fire in the night.
"Again, this is one of the first songs I had for the album. Originally, it was called We Shine On - as some of you might remember. I would say that this is another personal favourite because in the four verses, there are four different ideas explored. The first verse is about a man looking at a photograph taken, say, 100 years before. It's a Victorian photograph of a family group; children playing in the garden, dogs, old men sitting there in their hats, people playing tennis. As he looks at the picture, he realises that he's standing in exactly the same place as the photographer stood 100 years before. Of course, all the people in the picture have passed on, and he's thinking about his own family and himself - there's threads going through this song, see? - and realising that it's not his house that he's standing looking at, he's simply the current occupier. The point being, we must be caretakers for our own property; when you take on a property, you must do your best to preserve it for future generations. That's the basic idea of the first two verses, and the fourth verse ties in with that. The chorus is really about the human race recreating itself and surviving. The idea of the song is a very simple one, but it does actually go from a little photograph in the first verse, literally to outside of the planet by the last verse - certainly in my mind, anyway. So... the third verse is about fathers and sons and how, frequently, they can just never communicate - and about how sad it is that, quite often, the things that sons are meant to say to their fathers are said too late. Perhaps after they've gone. So we must say all the words that should be spoken now. The fourth verse refers to the garden again, except that this time it's seen from outside of the world. It's another photograph that the man is looking at - probably of that astronaut hanging in space. You know that incredible picture? Where the spaceman hangs in there, and behind him is the blue of the world. Anyway, he's looking at this photograph thinking 'This is our garden for the human race. We must preserve it for our own children, and leave here a garden for them.' For me, it's a very emotional song - and it's done in a very inspirational way. It's a medium tempo strong ballad."
