I'm chasing a shadow, I can't see a thing,
It's dipping and diving like a bird on the wing,
And every time I get near it just seems to slip away;
There's a fighter inside who will never give up,
We are what we are and it's never enough,
Write the words in the sand that this man will come again;
You may run from the sea, and the words disappear,
Oh you may fall to your knees,
But the power is here, to survive;
It's shining again,
It's shining again - the spirit of man,
It's shining again - the spirit of man;
Ah remember the first day of man on the moon,
The whole world was watching, a whole world in tune,
It was hard to believe he was the same as me and you;
Oh look back to the future and look down the years,
It wasn't all battles and bad news and tears,
We have brought to this place a desire to have a dream;
We may reach for the stars, and fall from the sky,
Oh in the darkest hour the spirit of man comes to life;
It's shining again - the spirit of man,
It's shining again - the spirit of man,
It's shining again - the spirit of man;
And we work - aha - for the good things that we can have,
Yea we work - aha - for the family and home,
Yea we work - aha - for the D-Mark and the dollar,
Yea we work - aha - for the woman on the phone,
Yea we work - aha - for that moment of elation,
Yea we work - aha - for a chance to get away,
And we work - aha - just to let imagination,
Come inside and take me away;
We may reach for the stars, and fall from the sky,
Ooh in the darkest hour the spirit of man comes to life;
It's shining again - the spirit of man,
It's shining again - the spirit of man,
It's shining again - the spirit of man.
"I wanted to write an up-lifting song, a song that made us feel that we're not all bad. I mean, I try to tape the times - and everybody is pretty bloody gloomy, and there's the threat of war all the time.
I began to think 'Well, we're not all that terrible after all - we're a pretty amazing species, when you think about it.' So this is really a celebration of the fact that mankind isn't all that bad. When I was writing the lyrics of this song, it was during the period that the space shuttle exploded. I make a reference to that with 'We may reach for the stars and fall from the sky - but in the darkest hour the spirit of man comes to life', because everybody said 'Alright we've lost these people - but we must fight back, we must go up again'. It's that spirit I'm celebrating. You see, one thing we humans have brought to this planet is the desire to have a dream, it's the one thing we have above all other species. We can dream and carry out our dreams if we really work hard. I hope people will find that very elevating."
The Getaway Gazette, May 1986
Albums
"The Spirit Of Man" appears on the following albums:
