- 1
Peter Hammill - Again
- 2
Peter Hammill - Magog (In Bromine Chambers)
- 3
Peter Hammill - Sharply Unclear
- 4
Peter Hammill - The Lie (Bernini's St. Theresa)
- 5
Peter Hammill - A Headlong Stretch: ii. Continental Drift
- 6
Peter Hammill - A Headlong Stretch: iv. Long Light
- 7
Peter Hammill - A Louse Is Not A Home
- 8
Peter Hammill - Been Alone So Long
- 9
Peter Hammill - Mr. X (Gets Tense)
- 10
Peter Hammill - Shingle Song
- 11
Peter Hammill - Solitude
- 12
Peter Hammill - The Comet, The Course, The Tail
- 13
Peter Hammill - Vision
- 14
Peter Hammill - (No More) The Submariner
- 15
Peter Hammill - A Better Time
- 16
Peter Hammill - A Headlong Stretch: iii. The Twelve
- 17
Peter Hammill - A Headlong Stretch: v. Backwards Man
- 18
Peter Hammill - A Headlong Stretch: vii. Or So I Said
- 19
Peter Hammill - Faint-Heart and the Sermon
- 20
Peter Hammill - Fight
- 21
Peter Hammill - Gog
- 22
Peter Hammill - Happy
- 23
Peter Hammill - Man-Erg
- 24
Peter Hammill - Material Possession
- 25
Peter Hammill - Mirror Images
- 26
Peter Hammill - Modern
- 27
Peter Hammill - My Experience
- 28
Peter Hammill - My Favourite
- 29
Peter Hammill - Nadir's Big Chance
- 30
Peter Hammill - Nightman
- 31
Peter Hammill - No Moon In The Water
- 32
Peter Hammill - Not For Keith
- 33
Peter Hammill - Nothing Comes
- 34
Peter Hammill - Now Lover
- 35
Peter Hammill - Oasis
- 36
Peter Hammill - On The Surface
- 37
Peter Hammill - Open your Eyes (The Locarno Song)
- 38
Peter Hammill - Other Old Clichés
- 39
Peter Hammill - Painting By Numbers
- 40
Peter Hammill - Palinurus (Castaway)
- 41
Peter Hammill - Paradox Drive
- 42
Peter Hammill - Patient
- 43
Peter Hammill - Personality
- 44
Peter Hammill - Planet Coventry
- 45
Peter Hammill - Pompeii
- 46
Peter Hammill - Porton Down
- 47
Peter Hammill - Primo on the Parapet
- 48
Peter Hammill - Re-Awakening
- 49
Peter Hammill - Reprise
- 50
Peter Hammill - Sci-Finance
- 51
Peter Hammill - Seven Wonders
- 52
Peter Hammill - Shell
- 53
Peter Hammill - Since The Kids
- 54
Peter Hammill - Smile
- 55
Peter Hammill - Still In The Dark
- 56
Peter Hammill - Stupid
- 57
Peter Hammill - Summer Song (In the Autumn)
- 58
Peter Hammill - Sun City Nightlife
- 59
Peter Hammill - Tenderness
- 60
Peter Hammill - The Cut
- 61
Peter Hammill - The Future Now
- 62
Peter Hammill - The Great European Department Store
- 63
Peter Hammill - The Jargon King
- 64
Peter Hammill - The Moebius Loop
- 65
Peter Hammill - The Second Hand
- 66
Peter Hammill - The Spirit
- 67
Peter Hammill - This Book
- 68
Peter Hammill - Time Heals
- 69
Peter Hammill - Time To Burn
- 70
Peter Hammill - Trappings
- 71
Peter Hammill - Under Cover Names
- 72
Peter Hammill - Unrehearshed
- 73
Peter Hammill - When Language Corrodes
- 74
Peter Hammill - Wilhelmina
- 75
Peter Hammill - You Can't Want What You Always Get...
- 76
Peter Hammill - (On Tuesday She Used To Do) Yoga
- 77
Peter Hammill - A Forest Of Pronouns
- 78
Peter Hammill - A Headlong Stretch: i. Up Ahead
- 79
Peter Hammill - A Headlong Stretch: vi. As You Were
- 80
Peter Hammill - Candle
- 81
Peter Hammill - Child
- 82
Peter Hammill - Comfortable
- 83
Peter Hammill - Crying Wolf
- 84
Peter Hammill - Ferret And Featherbird
- 85
Peter Hammill - Forsaken Gardens
- 86
Peter Hammill - Four Pails
- 87
Peter Hammill - I Once Wrote Some Poems
- 88
Peter Hammill - Imperial Zeppelin
- 89
Peter Hammill - Just Good Friends
- 90
Peter Hammill - Lost And Found
- 91
Peter Hammill - Mediaevil
- 92
Peter Hammill - Narcissus (Bar & Grill)
- 93
Peter Hammill - Nobody's Business
- 94
Peter Hammill - None Of The Above
- 95
Peter Hammill - Not The Man
- 96
Peter Hammill - Now More Than Ever
- 97
Peter Hammill - Ophelia
- 98
Peter Hammill - Our Oyster
- 99
Peter Hammill - People You Were Going To
- 100
Peter Hammill - Phosphorescence
- 101
Peter Hammill - Power Of Speech
- 102
Peter Hammill - Pushing Thirty
- 103
Peter Hammill - Rain, 3 a.m.
- 104
Peter Hammill - Ram Origami
- 105
Peter Hammill - Red Shift
- 106
Peter Hammill - Rock and Rôle
- 107
Peter Hammill - Rubicon
- 108
Peter Hammill - She Wraps It Up
- 109
Peter Hammill - Sign
- 110
Peter Hammill - Silver
- 111
Peter Hammill - Sitting Targets
- 112
Peter Hammill - Skin
- 113
Peter Hammill - Sleep Now
- 114
Peter Hammill - Slender Threads
- 115
Peter Hammill - Something About Ysabel's Dance
- 116
Peter Hammill - Still Life
- 117
Peter Hammill - Stranger Still
- 118
Peter Hammill - Sunshine
- 119
Peter Hammill - Tapeworm
- 120
Peter Hammill - The Birds
- 121
Peter Hammill - The Gift of Fire (Talk Turkey)
- 122
Peter Hammill - The Great Experiment
- 123
Peter Hammill - The Institute Of Mental Health, Burning
- 124
Peter Hammill - The Light Continent
- 125
Peter Hammill - The Meanings Changed
- 126
Peter Hammill - The Mousetrap (Caught In)
- 127
Peter Hammill - The Noise
- 128
Peter Hammill - The Old School Tie
- 129
Peter Hammill - The Play's The Thing
- 130
Peter Hammill - The Polaroid
- 131
Peter Hammill - The Tower
- 132
Peter Hammill - The Unconscious Life
- 133
Peter Hammill - This Side Of The Looking Glass
- 134
Peter Hammill - Time For A Change
- 135
Peter Hammill - Too Many Of My Yesterdays
- 136
Peter Hammill - Traintime
- 137
Peter Hammill - Two Or Three Spectres
- 138
Peter Hammill - Viking
- 139
Peter Hammill - Vote Brand X
- 140
Peter Hammill - What I Did
- 141
Peter Hammill - What's it Worth?
- 142
Peter Hammill - Where The Mouth Is
- 143
Peter Hammill - You Hit Me Where I Live
- 144
Peter Hammill - Your Word
The Gift of Fire (Talk Turkey)
Peter Hammill
like a swell on the ocean
would the spell be unbroken if it was never phrased?
She was always the precious child,
she was always a strange one,
a derangement runs deep down through her innocent gaze.....
The gift of fire and the gift of tongues,
the gift to see what Goddess Fortune held in store -
pretty soon there were whisperings of witchcraft
from the couple next door.
She had the gift of talk turkey,
the gift of talk turkey.
She had no message for the marketplace,
she was inflamed by each moment,
she had the silver spoon of soothsay for destiny.
She was always coming on with
the gift of fire and the gift of tongues;
family affair, it was a fortune that they'd got -
pretty soon they were cooking up a story
for the communal pot;
on the prime time slot
they shot the gift of talk turkey.
Oh now she can't stop talking about the way she sees is
and she can't stop talking about her prescience.
She can't stop talking, how dangerous that is
and she can't stop talking, no, she can't stop talking..
It's the curse of the fire and she's burning up before us
in the talk of tongues, flames that lick around the dross;
the gift of fire, if she's burning up before us
it's our communal loss, the inevitable cost
of the gift of talk turkey.
What a windfall of wickedness
when truth gets warped to perversion;
in the official version
they'll always make it quite plain
what we're really not meant to see.
The gift of fire consumes all those who touch it
and the gift of tongues is always double-edged;
they grew aware that she would take them to the ledge
so pretty soon they were working up a story
about the bets they could hedge.
The gift of fire and the gift of tongues...
they take her name and they grind it in the dust;
all at once they've got alibis to cover any possible bust
and she's gagged, bound and trussed
by the gift of talk turkey.
But she can't stop talking, though her audience disappears
and she can't stop talking about her prescience.
She can't stop talking, though she knows that no-one hears
She can't stop talking, she can't stop talking,
She can't stop talking - how miraculous this is!
She can't stop talking, just like Bernadette.
She can't stop talking, how dangerous that is,
and she can't stop talking, she can't stop talking,
no, she can't stop talking about the way she sees it is,
she can't stop talking, just like Joan of Arc.
She can't stop talking - Man, how dangerous she is,
she can't stop talking,
she can't stop the gift of talk turkey,
the gift of talk turkey.
No, she can't stop talking.