Masks Lyrics - Van Der Graaf Generator

(Hammill) 

He's a man of the past and one of the present, 

a man who hides behind a mask behind a mask; 

a clown, a fool, believing it cool to be down 

or that the game is all about who laughs the last. 

So he tells all his problems to his friends and relations, 

exposes his neuroses to their view. 

They accept as fact every masochistic mumble of his act-- 

how could they know what was false and what was true? 

Sometimes when he wakes 

he feels he's walked into a dream 

but all it takes 

to remind him things are what they seem 

is the belief that the man behind the mask can really dance 

Pirouetting smile 

he sees himself cavorting, 

Pierrot for a while 

before aborting 

to find relief in the shelter of the dark, most telling mask. 

After all the pantomimes are ended 

he peels all the make-up off his face 

to reveal, beneath, the tears running all down his cheeks: 

alone, he opens to the world...but it's much too late. 

He's been left, in the end, without a face.