Lit up with anticipation
We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline
Circling choppers slash the night
With roving searchlight beams
This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams
Floodlit in the hazy distance
The star of this unearthly show
Venting vapours, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon
Crackling speakers, voices tense
Resume the final count
All systems check, T minus nine
As the sun and the drama start to mount
The air is charged -- a humid, motionless mass
The crowds and the cameras,
The cars full of spectators pass
Excitement so thick -- you could cut it with a knife
Technology -- high, on the leading edge of life
The earth beneath us starts to tremble
With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding
Scorching blast of golden fire
As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the loss of sound
Like a pillar of cloud, the smoke lingers
High in the air
In fascination -- with the eyes of the world
We stare...
We arrive at the launching site
The sky is still dark, nearing dawn
On the Florida coastline
With roving searchlight beams
This magic day when super-science
Mingles with the bright stuff of dreams
The star of this unearthly show
Venting vapours, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon
Resume the final count
All systems check, T minus nine
As the sun and the drama start to mount
The crowds and the cameras,
The cars full of spectators pass
Excitement so thick -- you could cut it with a knife
Technology -- high, on the leading edge of life
With the spreading of a low black cloud
A thunderous roar shakes the air
Like the whole world exploding
As it slowly leaves the ground
Tears away with a mighty force
The air is shattered by the loss of sound
High in the air
In fascination -- with the eyes of the world
We stare...
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I first heard this song as a young teenager and it gave me goosebumbs. it was so loud and energetic. It really painted a picture. twenty years later, when the Columbia re-entry disaster occured I must have listened to it five times straight at full volume in my living room singing it out loud with tears running down my face. Though the song is still conceptually hopeful and inspiring, it has for me become also a memorial to epic feats and their occassional consequence. It is difficult for me ever since to not listen to this song and not see the twenty years between those two moments in my life as the bookends of a transitive period. From the immortality and limitlessness of youth to the known boundaries and realities of adulthood. Both happy and sad.
i was there that day in `81..on holiday from the uk..we got as close as we could get.."the sky is dark,nearing dawn,on the florida coastline"...to this day its still the most awe inspiring thing i have ever seen...
'Bout the impressive magnitude of a shuttle launch...Duh. It's an awsome song to be the last track on the album.
great song from a great cd ! i always like to put in my dvd player the first episode of 'lost in space'...and watch the jupiter 2 blast off while i'm playing this song. 'scorching blast of golden fire, as it slowly leaves the ground, tears away with a mighty force, the air is shattered by the awesome sound.'
This song is not simply about the Shuttle launch - but about the band's special invitation from NASA to view the first launch of SST-1 Columbia (RIP) and the feelings generated by the experience. An amazing song, that literally makes the listener feel as if they too were there at Kennedy Space Center with them (and I wish I was...) The video produced for this song has some amazing footage provided by NASA of the shuttle and of mission control. These are no actors - it's the real thing.
sorry..it was
82 not 81.....my old brain is too tired to give me the right date.i love this song! its soo nerdy but great! its my second favorite from sigals
Instead of 'The air is shattered by the awesome sound' I believe it is 'the air is shattered by the loss of sound'.
Sorry, but IS awesome sound. And that is the perfect description ... it literally is all encompassing and all-powerful. Nothing in a THX IMAX theater even comes close to the wall of sound being close to a shuttle (or god forbid a Saturn-V rocket) launch. There are no words ... Neil did his best though.
Sorry, but IS awesome sound. And that is the perfect description ... it literally is all encompassing and all-powerful. Nothing in a THX IMAX theater even comes close to the wall of sound being close to a shuttle (or god forbid a Saturn-V rocket) launch. There are no words ... Neil did his best though.