In Babelsberg - Van Der Graaf Generator

The city’s spread beneath my feet

But not the one that I was after

While I’ve been pounding out this beat

The length of the Kudamm

Street legends on the tourist map

A fading script in Gothic

Out in the studio they’re

Rehearsing in drag for a lark

Come on, let’s get lost in the dark

Tale another step, another move, another pace

What isn’t written in the manuscript is a note to play with grace

And if I exit from this story in a way I might retrace

It will have fallen through the cracks when I come back

In any case

Another time’s another place

The city’s spread beneath my feet

From the top of the Mercedes tower

And I can see the darkness closing in

Hour by hour

But I can’t take another step, no filling in, no cut and paste

A bankrupt process for the memory, this terrain is laid to waste

No, nothing’s written in the history books

That doesn’t leave a nasty taste;

So should I start to tell the story

Will you put me in my place?

'Cause it’ll all be crash and burn

When I return… in any case

Another time’s another place

Just when did this get broken?

I don’t know where to begin —

I got a Ubahn ticket and a Flohmarkt token…

I’m in trouble in the rubble of Berlin

The light is getting dimmer

The walls of history close in

In Babelsberg they’re hunting

For a different Stimmung

That predates the war

That was before

That was before

That was a different Berlin

That was another Berlin

That was before in Berlin